All the Wright Moves (6 page)

What is wrong?
He almost asked if her leg was bothering her but managed to keep it behind clenched teeth. The pinched lines didn’t strike him as a physical pain. How he knew that he wasn’t entirely sure, but he’d wager something in his house had set her off.

“You have a beautiful home, Warwick.”

“Thank you.” He strode around her, prior to pausing before her tempting figure.
To hell with it.
“Everything okay?”

“Of course. Except for the fact I have to get going.”

Words he hated to hear. He lifted her chin with one hand. Those hazel eyes met his unflinchingly.

“Have supper with me?”

Regret leeched into her gaze. “Sorry, I’ve got plans for this evening.” Her hands settled upon his chest and drew abstract patterns. “But thank you for today.”

His other hand cradled her face. “It wasn’t nearly long enough.” He kissed her lightly, not sure how much control he retained.

Who are your plans with that make your eyes light up like that? Did they light up when you thought of me this morning before you arrived?

He forced his jaw to unclench and gave her a smile, even though he didn’t want to let her go. “Let’s get you home.”

In the truck, she passed the time by staring out of the window while he alternated between watching the road and staring at her. Katiya—in his opinion—was much more pleasurable to observe. Her loose hair blew around her face with the lowered window. He longed to reach out and touch it. Allow it to slide through his fingers.

At her place, he opened the door for her only to box her in against the side of the still-running truck after she got out. His hands on either side of her head, he lowered his face until they were touching foreheads.

“I want to see you tomorrow.”

“I’m working all day,” she whispered.

He fought a frown. “I know. We’re there too. That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

She drew her lower lip in her mouth briefly and he fought off a groan. He was slammed with the need to lean forward and draw that enticing lip into his own mouth, sucking on it. Then the top one. And then…

He snapped off that line of thought.

I can hardly focus on the conversation. All I see when I look at her is her naked body, beneath, on top of, and near mine. Her sprawled naked on sheets, flushed from making love, and those damn hazel eyes begging for more. Those dark brown tresses with auburn highlights spread across my thighs as those perfectly pouty, full lips slowly engulf my hard cock.

The wave of desire nearly took him to his knees and he swallowed hard, forcing himself to think about something else. Anything that would calm his hardened body down to a point where he could think of Katiya without being half a millisecond from stripping her bare and slamming home until he could sink no farther within her.

“Sorry. I have work to catch up on from my last trip.”

That snapped his attention back to her in totality.
She’s running.
It didn’t make him happy. If she could just give them a chance…

He barely cracked a smile. “Seems like Rhia is one hell of a second in command.”

“She is.” Flames flickered in her hazel gaze, deepening the hue. “Doesn’t mean I should add my work to hers.”

The reprimand wasn’t subtle. He backed off, not willing to get into an argument over that.
Time for a new tactic.
“Okay. When can you spare some time for me?”

“I—”

He read it in her gaze. “I know what you’re doing, Katiya. You’re rationalising what’s growing between us. And you’re scared. I’m not giving up so easily.”
Just like I told you that first night, beautiful. I get what I want. And I want
you.

She ducked and scooted around him. He rotated and followed her swaying hips as she headed for the door. She stopped and glanced back at him.

“I’m a lot of things, Warwick Taylor. Scared isn’t one of them. What I
am
is busy.” The smile was short and tense. “Thank you for today.”

Then she was gone.

He chuckled nervously and went to the driver’s door. Staring at her place, he sighed.

“You can call it what you want, Katiya. I know what it is.”

He drove away and wondered about the change in her demeanour from last night to today. It wasn’t glaringly obvious but he’d noticed and picked up on it.

She had still been wonderful company but there had been times when she’d looked…well…uncomfortable at his place.

So many secrets, Katiya. I wonder when you’ll let me all the way in.

Katiya sighed and rested against the door. She ran a frustrated hand over her face while she toed off her shoes.

Warwick Taylor
.

Just the name alone was enough to send rolling waves of desire through her.

Warwick. Giga. Mr Taylor.

It didn’t matter what he was referred to as, her response didn’t change. Lust. Hot and fast. Electrifying. Bone rattling with its intensity.

“I shouldn’t have gone,” she bemoaned, striding to her bathroom where she stripped and stepped into the shower. His collection of trucks had been very impressive. So had his house—his massive, sprawling home with its gated entry. But each second she spent there, the more obvious it became how different their worlds were. Warwick Taylor existed in a world she didn’t feel she belonged.

“I can’t go through it again,” she admitted to the steamy bathroom. “I just…can’t.”

Despite the number of years since Darren Sharp had been in her life and had passed on to the afterlife, the pain of rejection from his family still burned strong and fresh.

Her pensiveness remained as she stepped naked from the shower stall. She grabbed a large yellow towel and dried off. Once finished, she gathered up her dirty clothes, tossing them in the wicker hamper, and striding to her adjoined bedroom—her sanctuary, done in her favourite colours, like her office.

While she dressed, her mind—that traitorous thing—meandered its way back to rest upon the one and only handsome Warwick Taylor.

He’d worn a pair of khakis and a white polo shirt with loafers. Both items had intensified his muscular physique, daring her to reach out and touch the man beneath. All the attraction came flooding back. Hard. Intense.

“And that kiss,” she muttered, as she applied lotion to her legs and feet. “That kiss.”

It had robbed her of all common sense and honestly she wouldn’t have cared one whit if he
had
taken her against a vintage truck. But he hadn’t.

More’s the pity,
she thought. Her hypersensitive body agreed.

It didn’t matter. No matter how much he wanted her. She’d seen the look on his face. Almost like he’d wondered if he’d betrayed someone. She knew he’d lost his wife—maybe he hadn’t got over her. She may be horny as hell. She may be attracted like hell to him, but one thing she wouldn’t do was be a second to anyone. If he still pined for her then that was fine—not her business, but she wouldn’t get involved with him.

“Should have stuck to my no dating rule,” she said with a self-deprecating sigh.

There was no denying the sparks between them indicated one fiery joining. She groaned and stomped out to the kitchen. Her body responded to the mere thought of experiencing the thrill of Warwick’s hands and touch on her body. Maybe he’d just not wanted to move so fast and it’d had nothing to do with his wife.

Dropping her head to the cool counter, she moaned. “I just need to get laid.”

“Wow.” Feminine laughter filled the room.

Jerking up, she expelled a sharp breath when she spied her youngest sibling, Delicia, sitting on the other counter.
I didn’t even see or hear her.
She muttered a curse.

Bad thing about being in town with one’s entire family…they tended to come and go as they pleased.

“Lis, what are you doing here?”

“My big sis complains about needing to get laid and wonders why I’m here? Don’t you think I would be the one with questions?”

She glared at her sibling.

Delicia’s bone straight, honey-hued hair was gathered in a high ponytail. She wore a silver camisole edged in black and a pair of black shorts. With each kick of her legs, her black high tops swung into Katiya’s view. The eyes were a giveaway—the brown orbs told of her exhaustion.

Immediately concern overtook annoyance. “Everything okay, Lis?”

Her sister smiled, it was also tired. “I’m good. Sorry to just drop by but you asked me to drop off some pics for The Oasis. I put them in your living room. Whatever you don’t want just set aside and I’ll get them later.”

She sighed, not for one second believing her claim of being fine and sent her sister a grateful smile.
I totally forgot.
“I’m sorry, Lis. Totally skipped my mind. Thank you.”

“Anytime.” She slid off the counter. “I have to go, start shift soon.”

They hugged briefly and Lis headed to the door. She paused and glanced over her shoulder. “You know, seems to me that Taylor would do great in taking care of that problem you were bemoaning.” A devilish twinkle filled her dark eyes, eliminating the exhaustion she had been portraying. “At least, so Leo said based on the reports he received on you two up at Capri’s.” She waggled her fingers and slipped out. Moments later the rumble of her Jeep could be heard pulling away.

“Did I say how much it
sucks
at times to have your whole family in the same town?”

There was very little hope that her parents hadn’t heard about her necking episode. Caught. With fogged windows and everything. Like a pair of randy teens.

“Crap!”

Desperate for something else to occupy her mind, she went to the stack of photos and moved them from the coffee table to the dining room. With one hand she spread them out on the large table.

They were amazing. Lis was an amateur photographer and had dropped off some of the black and white shots she’d taken of places and people around New Mexico. They were all wonderful.

“Bless you, Lis.”

She lost track of time as she continued to stream through the large matte photographs. So attuned was she to the items before her that when the doorbell pealed, she jumped. She glanced at her watch and muttered another curse.
I’m late.

She moved to the door then opened it and smiled warmly at the women standing there. Women she’d gone through school with, a mixture of married and single, they had remained fast friends through the years. Anita, Connie, Bethany and Yurandol.

“Hey! I know I got a bit sidetracked and let time slip away, but why are all you here? Weren’t we meeting at the restaurant?”

Yurandol pushed by her into the house, her long braids swaying with each confident step she took. “We picked up pizza, wine coolers, and came here.”

Baffled and bemused, she watched in silence as they all paraded in.

“Why here?” she asked again, closing the door on the warm spring night.

“Figured there’d be less prying eyes and eavesdropping ears here when you tell us about you. And about you fogging up the windows at Capri’s,” Connie said, her hair in its usual spiky style.

“Not to mention who it was with.” Bethany chortled, making herself right at home pulling down plates and cups before taking them to the table.

“Warwick Taylor,” they all said at once, their voices a collection of dreamy sighs.

She groaned, knowing full well there was no escape. For a moment she wished Lis was there instead. Of all her family, Lis tended to be the least to pry. Sure, she’d tease but she wouldn’t be like this group.

“Heffas,” she groaned, grabbing a plate and helping herself to some of the piping hot, cheesy pizza. “All ya…heffas.”

Anita took a big bite and said without bothering to swallow first, “Maybe, but we’re your heffas. Now dish.”

How true.

“So…what gives?” Connie asked, removing the top on her wine cooler and taking a healthy swallow.

“We went out and…got a bit carried away.”

Laughter exploded around the table. “A bit?” Anita questioned. “Please, you know those impressionable teens that work there will be talking about this for days to come. Usually it’s the folks up at Lovers’ Peak who get fogged windows and the cops rappin’ on them, but…not you. You do it in Capri’s parking lot.”

“Who cares, Anita?” Bethany interjected. “I want to know how it was. How
he
was. I mean, this happened to our calm and collected Katiya.”

Katiya’s body pulsed with liquid heat at the mere
thought
of the feel of Warwick’s touch upon her. So hot. So passionate. The large evidence of his arousal against her needy core. She shifted on the cushion trying to alleviate the rapidly building pressure between her legs.

It didn’t work.

A low whistle cut through her haze of mounting desire. She blinked quickly a few times.

“Damn, girl, was it that good?”

“Must have been, Connie. Look at her, she’s flushed. Probably about to mess up her nice chair.”

She glared at Yurandol and reached for her drink. The cool sweet liquid ran down her throat, barely tamping her increased core temperature.
I have got to get myself under control.
There was no point in arguing with them. They’d only increase their ribbing. So she settled in, ate her pizza and took it good-naturedly.

After the meal, they chatted about everything. Family. Kids. Work. Nothing was off limits. Each with one of the five choices of ice cream in bowls, they all sat around Lis’ photos and helped her decide on some for the walls at The Oasis.

“What’s he like?” Connie asked around the spoon in her mouth.

“What’s who like?” Katiya countered, even though she had an idea of who Connie meant.

“Kokopelli,” she retorted with an eye roll. “Who do you think?”

I knew who you meant. I was hoping I would have been wrong.

“Yeah, is he like a lot of recluses? Hiding out for good reason?” Anita queried.

She shook her head, picked up a photo of the Taos skyline at night and smiled. “No. Not at all. He’s very thoughtful.” She filled them in on what he’d so graciously done for her centre. “And there is this gentleness about him that…that…” She trailed off.