Texas Hellcat Read online

  “I found this in your shorts,” he offered. “It buzzed--I think you might have some missed calls.” He placed it on the settee, along with a long white velour robe. He then reached over and slid my ankle out of the bucket and placed it gently on the side of the tub. “I’ll give you some privacy,” he called over his shoulder as he left the bathroom.

  I rose, dried myself off with one of the towels, and then wrapped the second around me as I stepped onto the large, soft mat. Sliding the towel off, I donned the robe. After I’d tied the belt, I turned and contemplated my image in the large floor-to-ceiling gilded mirror. My waterproof mascara and liner had held up well through my run and the thunderstorm, but my hair looked a little worse for the wear. I pulled it free of the rubber band, and then ran my fingers through it and spritzed it with something I found on the counter. It fell around my shoulders in dark brown waves. I sighed, not happy with my appearance, but it would have to do for now. I hurriedly rinsed my mouth with his mouthwash. Oh, yes, the wintergreen. I smiled as I used his deodorant. It seemed like such an intimate thing to do.

  When I finally got the courage to pull the door open, Liam was standing just outside, about to grab the handle.

  “Oh! There you are. I was about to come in after you. I have dinner for us, and some drinks,” he offered, motioning to the dining table.

  Who needed food? He looked delicious in his torn faded jeans unbuttoned at the waist, bare feet and muscles rippling down his chest into his narrow waist. I tried to ignore how gorgeous his torso was, but realized I was mentally counting the ridges in his abs.

  I managed to mutter, “You shouldn’t have gone to that much trouble.”

  He moved beside me, placing his arm around my waist to help me hobble over to a chair he’d already pulled out for me.

  “It was no trouble, I just called room service.” He took the chair beside me.

  I drank some water and then picked up a wine glass and sipped. It was cool and slightly sweet with a hint of sparkle to it.

  “It’s good,” I remarked. He seemed to wait for a reaction from me. He picked up a strawberry, dipped it in cream, and then offered it up close to my lips. I opened them hesitantly, and he placed it gently on my tongue. I chewed slowly, and then swallowed, all the while watching his eyes.

  “Are you trying to seduce me, Mr. Covington?”

  As my cell phone rang in the bathroom, he rose and grinned back at me. “I think you’re cell is ringing again. I’ll get it for you.”

  Did I just seriously ask him ... “Are you trying to seduce me, Mr. Covington?” What a joke! It sounded like a cheesy line in a “b” movie. I wanted to crawl in a hole.

  He returned quickly and handed my phone to me as he returned to his seat. Still blushing, I touched the screen, and saw two missed calls from my baby sister.

  “I’m sorry; I probably need to call her back. Do you mind?”

  “Not at all. Go ahead,” he said as I dialed. He proceeded to fill both our plates with the breads and cheeses room service had brought. Dana answered on the second ring.

  “Kelly-cat! Where have you been, I’ve been calling…” Dana sounded either drunk or high, her words were slurred, and she was really loud talking into the phone. I could tell by the look in Liam’s eyes he could hear her.

  “Dana, what’s going on? Is something wrong?” I asked, trying to calm her down.

  “I need some more money. Rick’s taken all my money to buy dr…he’s taken all of it. He’s been wasted for days, and I can’t leave the house. Masen’s hungry, Kel. I need to buy him formula,” she cried into the phone. I panicked. I had just enough money left in my checking account to buy a dress and some shoes to wear to the gala.

  “Dana Rae, where’s the baby? Where’s Masen? Dana, you have to take better care of him. Please, just…”

  “Can you send me any money?”

  “Yes,” I sighed. “I’ll send it in the morning. Promise me, you’ll use it for the baby.”

  “I promise, Kelly-cat. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  I turned the phone off and glanced over at Liam. He was eating, trying to act as if he hadn’t been listening. I took a couple of bites of bread and cheese, but my appetite had fled with the phone call. I played with the glass of wine a couple of minutes, twirling it between my thumb and index finger and then picked it up as I sat back in my chair.

  He watched me pick at my food. After a few minutes he cleared his throat.

  “Family trouble?”

  “Um, yes. You could say that,” I replied.

  “Sorry, I could hear her end of the conversation. Do you really have the funds to be helping someone else out?”

  “That’s none of your business!” My voice rose in anger.

  “I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, Kelly. But I think the fact I’m your friend gives me freedom to offer my opinion. It’s never a good idea to loan money to friends or family.”

  “Well, you don’t have to worry. It’s not a loan. I’m fully aware she will never pay it back.”

  “Then why are you helping her?”

  The frustration overwhelmed me. I’d worked so hard on this gala. It seemed everything I’d been working on the past six months was peaking in this very project. I was desperate to make it financially--and now this. Once I sent the money, I would have nothing left to purchase my own clothes for the gala. My only hope was to ask for help from some friends in the UT theater arts department and hope they had some flapper costumes or something which could be altered. I had no choice. I had to suck it up one more time.

  I looked up at him, and the anger I felt at the situation bubbled up inside and exploded on him.

  “She’s the only family I have, Liam! She’s my sister, and I have to help her,” I almost screamed at his smug, wealthy, finely chiseled face.

  His jaw hardened in anger. I’d finally wiped his “I’m going to nail that” smirk off his face. Good, one less problem. He placed his fork down and reached for his wine. After he drank about half of it down, he refilled his glass and mine.

  “Why can’t your parents help her?”

  My head was beginning to get fuzzy from the wine I’d already consumed. With no food to speak of in my stomach, the alcohol was having more of an affect than usual. My better judgment had left sometime before he’d found me on the bike path in the rain, and I found myself more forthcoming about my personal life.

  “Because, you pompous ass, my father left us when I was four years old and I don’t even remember him. My mother died of an overdose when I was fourteen. Since I was about seven, when my mother started screwing men for money to buy drugs, I became the parent for Dana Rae. I’m the only mother she’s ever known.” I stopped my tirade and gulped in some air. Tears of frustration and grief formed at the corners of my eyes, which only made me angrier. I never cried, and most certainly not in front of someone like Liam Covington.

  He rose, and grasped my shoulder as he rounded my chair. He pulled me up into his arms, taking me by surprise. I looked into his blue eyes, burning with anger. I’d yelled at him, and I was afraid it was a mistake. I didn’t know him, after all. He could have a temper like some of the guys I remembered from my mother’s past.

  “Don’t yell at me, Kelly,” he warned, his voice barely a whisper. “And don’t make assumptions about me. You don’t know me, either.”

  I held my breath, waiting for his next move. When he didn’t say anything I whispered, “Let me go. I need to go home.”

  “You’re not leaving. Not yet,” he whispered back. Suddenly, his lips were on mine. I pushed against him, my effort useless against his vice-like grip. When he still wouldn’t release me, I bit his lip.

  He grabbed my hair with his right hand, fisting his fingers around it as he tugged my head back.

  “I know you want me. I can see it in your eyes. You’ve been flirting back. You’re here, in my bathrobe, in my hotel room. I…”

  His mouth came back down on mine. His tongue forced my mouth open, an
d as he flicked it in and out, his kiss hot and needy, I melted against him. I felt open, aching in places I didn’t know existed. I’d never felt this way with anyone else. I moaned, and both of us went over the edge.

  Six

  Liam picked me up in his arms, and the next thing I knew, he was laying me back gently on the bed, his body coming to rest on mine. My robe slid up my body as I wound my legs around him. His muscles were like ropes of iron under my touch. I was amazed at his size alone. It suddenly dawned on me Liam was a man, not a college boy. He grasped my knee, hitching my leg up around his buttocks as his other hand worked inside the tie on my robe. It fell open, and as he cupped my breast in his hand, I moaned.

  I pushed his jeans down with my heel as he reached toward the nightstand. I heard the tear of the packet, and my eyes flew open with the realization of what we were about to do.

  I tried to push up, but he held me pinned against the bed.

  “Liam, no. This is too soon, I don’t think,” I began.

  “Please, Kelly. Don’t over think this. Let me love you. You’re all I’ve thought about since the first day I walked into your office. Please. Let me make love to you, baby.”

  My heart turned over with the phrase, “Let me love you.” Love was a word I’d only heard a few times in my life, from my aunt and Dana. I’d never heard it from a man. I knew he wasn’t saying he loved me, but that he wanted to make love to me. That’s all it took. I broke all my own rules. I fell for him, hard.

  Reaching up, I pulled his head back down to mine, kissing him with a passion I didn’t know I possessed. His hand worked between us, and as his fingers explored, I pushed against him with need.

  “You’re so beautiful. What do you want? I’d do anything for you. Tell me,” he urged as he whispered in my ear.

  What did he mean, “What do you want?” My eyes flew open.

  “What…are…I don’t understand,” I stammered against his lips.

  He pulled away and looked down at me. “I don’t want to do anything you aren’t ready for, but I can think of at least a dozen things I’d like to do to you right now. Is there anything you don’t like?”

  “I…I don’t know.” I felt foolish; I suspected he was asking about positions or toys, maybe. I knew nothing about either.

  “Kelly, are you a virgin?” His eyes were wide.

  “No! No, of course not. I…just don’t know much,” I murmured as I looked back into his eyes. He visibly relaxed, his shoulders releasing as he kissed the end of my nose.

  “Well, we’ll just take this slow and easy,” he whispered, grasping my hips. I could feel the tip of his erection against me, and I tried to slow the beating of my heart. His lips found mine again, softly blending with mine as he entered slowly.

  The fullness took me by surprise. The only other boy I’d ever been with willingly was a college boyfriend, and he’d been small and quick. It felt nothing like this. But the first time…flashes of images of one of my mother’s boyfriends hovering over me threatened my mood as if a cold bucket of water had been thrown over us. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut and turned my head to block the memories out.

  “Baby, look at me,” he whispered. I opened my eyes and looked up. He was beautiful, his blue eyes round with wonder, and something else I couldn’t comprehend. I’d never seen him like this…so open, so beautiful. The smug self-assurance was gone.

  “Are you okay? Because we can stop,” he offered as he stroked a long finger down the curve of my jaw.

  I shook my head. I wanted him to erase the memories. Staring into his eyes, I decided I wanted him to be the one to do it.

  “No, please…I want this. I want you,” I whispered back. He slid his hands up under my arms, and drew me up as he bucked into me. I was lost. Waves of pleasure consumed me with every stroke, every intimate inch of him. I could feel him growing inside me. I knew my mouth was open in awe as he watched me. I didn’t care.

  “Let go, Kel.” he commanded. “Relax, and let it happen,” he whispered. I had no idea what he was talking about. I rose against him, trying to draw him in deeper. The feeling was exquisite. I pushed on, needing and wanting, working for something I didn’t know existed.

  “Liam, I…oh,” I gasped out as intense, warm spasms consumed me. My insides drew, and waves of pure pleasure seemed to pulse around him as he drove inside me and stilled, his release immediate. Our breathing was heavy, a fine sheen of perspiration covering both our bodies. He laid his head on my chest, and as I weaved my fingers in the soft, wavy brown curls, he tightened his arms around my waist.

  “Do you have any idea how beautiful you are? You have the most perfect body,” he breathed as he kissed my stomach, trailing kisses down to my navel, and then he proceeded to swirl his tongue in my belly-button.

  I giggled. I never giggled, and I surprised myself. “You’re just saying that because you want in again,” I mocked, tightening my grip in his hair and drawing him up so our faces touched.

  “I could stay in there all night, baby. That thought is tempting…will you stay?” he asked, suddenly sounding like a fifteen year-old boy. When I hesitated, he caught my lips in another scorching kiss.

  “Say yes…say you’ll stay the night with me,” he urged.

  “I don’t have any clothes. I have to be to work early in the morning,” I argued as he shook his head and grinned at me. “And my roommates will worry about me. I need to call them,” I said as I tried to push against his muscular chest. It was like trying to move a granite slab.

  “I’ll get you up in plenty of time in the morning to go by your place and get ready. And I already called Tana. She gave me her number when I went to your apartment, and wanted me to call her whenever I found you. I called her while you were bathing. She knows you’re with me,” he finished.

  “Well, you’ve thought of everything.” I sighed, thinking for the hundredth time this was all a bad idea.

  “Come on, say yes. Say it,” he murmured, sliding lower. As his mouth came in contact below my hipbones, I conceded.

  “Yes, okay…YES!” I cried out as he laughed under the covers. He continued to torture me and I began to giggle again.

  “Yes to what I’m doing, or yes to spending the night with me?” he demanded.

  “Yes, I’ll spend the night with you! Stop,” I pleaded as he resurfaced.

  “Good. I’ll get you to say ‘yes’ to the other thing later,” he whispered, covering my mouth with his. His tongue flicked in and out, stirring fires up all over again. My mind reeled. I had absolutely no control over my will. I just wanted him again…all of him. Surprised at my over-eager response to his touch, I tried to pull away, but to no avail. He held my face in his steel grip as his body covered mine again. As he moved over me, I opened myself to him once again. I could only think of him inside me. I was drunk on Liam Covington as the exquisite sensations washing over both of us again.

  I stretched lazily.

  “Satisfied?” he asked cockily, pulling me back into the pillows and holding me against his broad chest.

  Was I satisfied? That had to be the most intense physical experience ever. I realized I’d just had my first orgasm. This was what all the fuss was about. When Tana had talked about what Tom could do, I’d thought she was exaggerating. My boyfriend in college was never concerned about what I felt, he was never in long enough to find out. I had no idea I’d feel this way.

  “Should I be worried?” He frowned as he tucked his chin and glanced down at me. He was wondering at my lack of response.

  “No, of course not. I’m…that was amazing. I didn’t know it could be like that. I’ve never,”

  “Never what, baby?” He frowned as he considered my reaction. “You’ve never had an orgasm,” he guessed as I nodded.

  “Wow. You really haven’t done this much, have you?” he asked, tipping my chin up with his finger.

  “That’s really too personal, don’t you think?” I shot back, a little too defensively.

  “What’s t
oo personal, when we’re laying here with our naked legs wrapped around each other, and I’ve seen more of you up close than you have? Come on. How many guys have you dated intimately?”

  “One. In college,” I quantified.

  “Wow. And this dumb-ass, whoever he was, obviously didn’t care about you enough. It’s a shame you lost your virginity to a guy who didn’t know what he was doing,” he said.

  “I wasn’t a virgin the first time I slept with him,” I shot back, and then regretted it.

  “What do you mean?” He asked as he pulled me up even with him. He looked into my eyes, back and forth, studying me. When I didn’t answer immediately, he sucked a breath in as the light dawned. “You didn’t lose it voluntarily, did you?” he asked.

  I shook my head. He let his breath out slowly. “In college?”

  “No, before. I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” I whispered as I grabbed my robe from the top of the covers, and shrugged into it hurriedly.

  Liam grabbed me and pulled me back into his chest.

  “I’m sorry, baby. You don’t have to talk about it. I’m so sorry I pushed. Don’t go,” he pleaded as I relaxed against him. The images had started pouring in. I couldn’t shut my eyes tight enough against them. It was a face hovering over mine in the dark, his breath hot on my neck as he whispered in my ear, “Stay quiet, little girl, or I’ll do the same thing to little sister. You don’t want that, do you?”

  I shook my head to clear it, and then opened my eyes. He was watching me intently. I’d never talked about what had happened to me when I was fourteen. No one knew, not even Dana. I wasn’t about to talk about it with someone I’d only known a few weeks.

  “Do you want something to drink?” Liam finally broke the awkward silence.

  “Sure, but no more wine. Water, please,” I replied as he nodded. He stopped to pull his jeans back on, and then padded across the room and opened the door.

  “Oh, and could I bother you for something to sleep in? I don’t do the nude thing.”