Green Broke Woman (10 page)

The sweet smell of blooms floated on the
warm, humid breeze mingled with the mild stench of horse manure. When dry, the
little horse pies made the perfect accompaniment to the floral fragrances of
spring. She wasn't sure why, but the combination had always been one of her
favorite smells of the season.

She removed her glasses to wipe away a thin
sheen of sweat from the bridge of her nose. She'd forgotten about the damned
humidity. The warm temperature was calming, but the moisture in the air made
her clammy. She put her glasses back on, hoping she didn't look like a complete
mess when she saw the three Langley brothers.

The blacktop basked her bare feet in pleasant
warmth. It had been forever since she'd walked down the road without shoes on—a
childhood habit that was strangely summoned from its jaded sleep upon walking
back into this bluegrass region of innocence.

Her thoughts shifted to the tape she'd turned
into the police in another city in California. Beck Hammond would never hurt
her again. She wouldn't let him. Slade and the others sure as hell weren't
coming near her again either.

But would they be arrested without sufficient
evidence? She'd had no marks on her body, and the tape hadn't been the
nightmarish rape Beck had filmed. It was a dull recording of Beck, Slade, and possibly
Bruce all playing Scrabble together. The date on the tape had been the same as
the hellish video she'd been after. The police had watched the tape in its
entirety and then given it back to her when the recording was deemed useless
and the contents contrary to her claims.

The cops in Beverly Hills had been contacted
and said they'd investigate the Hammond estate once they got a warrant. Hopefully
they caught Beck and Slade red-handed and broke into that vault of horrible
secrets. It nauseated her to think of anyone seeing the contents of those
tapes.

Kayla tried not to think about the fact that
her water bottle was empty. She'd lose too much water from sweating if she
didn't drink some soon. That couldn't be good. Would her immune system suffer
from dehydration? Fortunately, there were no sick people around, just lazy-ass,
happy horses grazing contentedly all over the plane of food they trampled.

Kayla's heart caught in her throat, and her
pulse roared to life. The Langley ranch was getting close, so very close. She
hoped the cowboys weren't married. Would she be able to keep herself from
bawling her eyes out in front of them if they were?

What about her daddy? Was he still mad at her
for leaving home and moving to a state he considered saturated with deviance?
She would go visit him, but first she'd stop by the
Langleys
’
ranch since it was coming up.

****

Travis Langley drove the tractor into the
barn and parked it before shutting the engine off.
Time for a
break.
He wiped his forehead with his arm and climbed down, taking a
cool swig from his water bottle. Leaving the lid off as he held the bottle, he
moseyed out of the barn, allowing the water a moment to settle in his gut.

A small, curvaceous woman coming up the road
almost made his neck snap when his head jerked to look at her. Man, she looked
like Kayla Sanders. Yeah, right. His sweet little Kayla just happened to decide
to come home to him today, wearing—
Oh
lord, what a
dress. The sleazy black number looked more like a slip.
Probably
just some random woman.

He watched her closely, finding his body
moving almost involuntarily toward her. His mouth hung open when he got a
better look at her. It was Kayla. His baby cricket had come home to him. The
plastic water bottle landed on the ground with a muted
thunk
and an erratic gurgle of
spewing liquid when he dropped it. He quickened his pace, wondering what the
hell he would say to her after being apart for so long.

Kayla stopped at the split rail fence and
just stared at him with her lips parted. She looked like an adorable, hot
librarian or a sexy nerd with her big black glasses, but they didn't overpower
her face. Rather they seemed to flatter her like she'd been born with them.

She had more tattoos than before. One on each
thigh, a portrait of Marilyn Monroe on the inside of her right forearm, and
some word scrawled all fancy-like on her collarbone, though she was too far
away for him to read it clearly. She had a few colorful tattoos on her left
arm, but not enough to qualify as a sleeve.

The bitty black dress hugged her hourglass
figure, and the cleavage pretty much screamed “Here are my
titties
”,
but he didn't mind one bit.

She had big, chunky bracelets on her right
wrist, one black and the other a turquoise kind of color. He would have called
it blue, but she'd always corrected him when he grouped all shades as one
color. He must learn the different shades she'd insisted. Turquoise was about
the only one he remembered her beating into his head.

Her long, wavy curls of sleek ginger fell
soft and free over her shoulders, flirting with her beyond distracting breasts.
Her plump limbs were tan, and he had to smile at the way she stood barefoot with
her high heels in one hand. She'd always loved running barefoot in the spring
and summer.

He waited for her to speak first, but she
just stood there gaping at him, looking as if she might cry.

“You came back,” he breathed in disbelief.

“I did,” she said, seeming stuck in a state
of shock. “Did you ... are you married?” She twiddled her fingers and averted
her eyes, but her voice cracked with the threat of tears. “I … I know you
always talked about getting married and having kids someday.”

“I'm not married, Kayla. I never married.”

The organ in his chest swelled with joy. He
wanted to give
noogies
to his brilliant, knucklehead
brothers for talking him out of marrying Veronica years ago. He'd just been
straight with her and told her he couldn't promise forever when he'd always
love someone else. She'd been understanding and informed him of a job offer
she'd accepted in Chicago. They'd parted ways on good terms and said they'd
keep in touch, but he knew like she probably had that they wouldn't.

Now Kayla had come back to him, and it was
his turn to be happy again.

She stared at him, blinking rapidly like she
wrestled with an army of tears.

“Jake and Keith never married either.” Travis
felt the nurturer in him stir when he saw the tear dribble down her cheek. He
heard the break in his already softened tone. “We waited for you, cricket.”

She broke down and cried right there in front
of him. He breached the confounded feet between them and threw his arms around
her so tight he heard the air being squeezed from her in a breathless gasp. She
hugged him back and sobbed onto his shirt.

“I missed you so much, girl.”

Kayla squeezed him hard and cried harder. “I
missed you, too, all the time. I thought I was never going to see you again.”

He kissed the top of her head and lifted his
eyes to heaven, mouthing a soundless thank you. “I always prayed you'd come
back to us, but seven years eats away at a man's morale. Why'd you stay away so
long?”

“Because I was stupid,” she wailed. “I'm so
stupid.”

“
Shh
. No.
You're back now. That's all that matters.”

He cupped her cheeks and laid one on her. Her
enamored whimper drove him crazy as he rubbed his lips against the smooth
softness of hers, feeling his sex drive roar to life when her lips parted for
his questing tongue.

He should have kissed her years ago and told
her how he felt. Instead he'd tried to do the right thing even though his
smitten heart had told him it was wrong. And she thought she was the stupid
one?

Their tongues twined slowly in a hot, silky
caress of saliva and heart. His possessive side wanted to pin her up against a
tree and show her just how much he'd missed her, but he didn't want to scare
her off. The dirty fun would come later. Right now he just wanted to hold her
and taste her sweet mouth.

She moaned softly and pressed into the
erection straining against his jeans. He deepened the kiss, getting even more
excited that she rubbed her hands up and down his chest through his shirt. When
her thumbs grazed his nipples, electric pulses shot off in every part of his body.

He broke the kiss, grinning from ear to ear.
“You don't know how long I've waited for that,
darlin
'.
I tried so damned hard to get over you, but you've gotten under my skin. I'm
incurable.”

She gave him a beautiful smile, but then her
eyes got big and she staggered back away from him. “Oh no, you kissed me!”

He snickered, scanning her lush body head to
toe with a blatant disregard for discretion. “You just got that one figured,
huh?”

“Oh God, spit!”

He smirked. “What?”

“Spit my saliva out.”

“What for?”

“I … I have...” Her eyes squeezed shut, and
her chest heaved. The way her angelic face contorted with misery made him think
she was about to tell him somebody had died. “I have mono.”

He shrugged. “Well, I probably got it now,
too, so come here, girl.”

“Don't!” She stepped backward suddenly and
put her hand in front of her. “Please. I need you to live.”

Her plea startled him. “Live?”

She shook her head, putting on a weak partial
smile. “I mean be okay. I just need to go to the doctor and get some medicine.
Will you take me, please? I'd drive myself, but I don't have my driver's
license with me.”

“Sure. Let me clean up a bit and then I'll
drive you. Call ahead, but you might have to wait until tomorrow to go on such
short notice.” He waved her over. “Come on inside and I'll get you something to
drink.”

“Thanks. Do you mind if I use your shower?”

“Not at all.
Go ahead and take one first. I'll fix you
something to eat.”

****

Kayla refrained from doing a double take when
Travis held open the screen door of the rambling brick farmhouse for her. He'd
always held the door open for her, but it had been a while since anyone treated
her like a lady. It struck her funny for a second, and she wasn't sure how to
react aside from thanking him.

Cozy warmth had her feeling small and dainty
in a good way. He made her feel feminine—something she hadn't felt like in a
long time. Being viewed as a lady again touched her deeply.

“Just make yourself at home while I fix you
something to eat.”

“Thank you.”

She pulled one of the chairs out from the
table and then sat, feeling timid. She wasn't a shy person by nature, but the
long duration of their separation rendered a slight awkwardness despite her
jubilee over their reunion.

He got a water bottle from the fridge and then
handed it to her.

“Thanks.”

She readily gulped the water, pausing only to
adjust to the cold surge streaming down her esophagus. She hoped the chilly
water didn't upset her stomach.

She tried not to beam like an overzealous
idiot as she watched Travis move around the kitchen. The five foot ten stud
walked like a man, and he filled out those boot-cut jeans nicely. The white
T-shirt clung slightly to the sweat dampening his back. His straight brown hair
had gotten longer. He wasn't as lean as he used to be. He was stocky, but not
overly so.

The slight
twang in his
nasally drawl
gave her stomach a satisfying rising sensation that felt a
lot like flying. He made small talk with her, but she barely heard a word he
said. She was too busy getting wet at the knowledge that she was really here
with him again. Her body trembled with hot need at the way his sapphire blue
eyes kept sweeping over her low-cut neckline and her exposed legs.

She'd been embarrassed to look like a tart
before, but now she was glad to be dressed so trampy in front of the cowboy
she'd always wanted to seduce.

He grinned, stealing her heart all over
again. “This is crazy. You're really here. Tell me this isn't a dream.”

“You're not dreaming.” Kayla smiled,
wondering why her throat felt parched again when she'd just quenched her
thirst. She might be oversexed, but she was starved for lovemaking.

Travis had a brown Fu Manchu and chinstrap
that only added to his country-boy manliness. “You want something to eat?”

“Do you have any oranges?”

“Oranges? Girl, you need something that will
stick to your ribs.”

“Do you have plain oatmeal?”

He smiled. “I was thinking something more
along the lines of steak.”

Steak sounded wonderful, but she must be
strict as hell with her eating. “I'm kind of on a diet.”

He frowned.
“What for?
You look great.”

Her heart moved with joy. “Thank you, but
it's not to lose weight. I'm just trying to be healthy.”

I'm just trying to survive.