Mary Baxter - Sultry

Like mother, like daughter?

Suddenly her eyes drifted toward her mother’s cedar chest, positioned at the foot of her bed. Every so often she opened it and fingered Emily’s personal items. The only item she hadn’t touched was the stack of letters from her mother’s best friend, who was also deceased.

Someday she planned to read them, hoping to better understand the woman she had called Mother.

Feeling her dissatisfaction and restlessness reach a dangerous level, Lindsay jumped up, changed into her workout clothes and bounded downstairs.

“I’m going to run,” she told Dolly, who was in the kitchen making a peach cobbler.

Dolly sniffed. “When you finish, I expect you back for a bowl of cobbler and ice cream.”

“I just might do that.”

“Huh!” Dolly snorted. “You best stop telling stories, child. The Lord’s gonna get you for sure.”

Lindsay’s only response was to plant a kiss on Dolly’s chubby cheek.

“It’s still too hot for you to be out there.”

“Love you,” Lindsay called over her shoulder.

Dolly’s satisfied grunt followed her out the door, where she instantly froze. Dear Lord, not again. Mitch Rawlins, along with his crew, was working the huge flower beds next to the porch.

When he saw her, his eyes locked on her, and for a long moment, blue met brown. Lindsay swallowed, but it was hard. The saliva inside her mouth seemed to have dried up, leaving it feeling like she’d been munching on cotton.

“Afternoon,” he said in his low, gravelly drawl. “We’re gonna have to stop meeting like this, you know.”

Lindsay stood transfixed, unable to take her eyes off his sweat-glistened chest. “Uh, right,” she finally managed to get out, mortified by her obvious confusion.

But he shouldn’t be so enticing, sweat and all. Every time she saw him, her body responded, becoming more pliant with a need that was threatening to careen out of control. On top of that, she felt torn by her mind’s resolve not to get involved at any cost.

“Going for another run?”

“It’s good for the old mind,” she said inanely.

He almost grinned. “Don’t you think it’s a bit hot?”

“You sound like Dolly.”

He frowned.

“Our housekeeper.”

“Oh, yeah.”

Their eyes met again for another long awkward moment in the ensuing silence. “Do you ever exercise?”

“All day, every day.”

She flushed. “I don’t mean that. I mean jog, like me.”

“Nope.”

“You ought to try it some time.”

She had no idea what made those idiotic words pop out of her mouth. But when she was around him, she seemed to become someone else, someone totally out of character.

“Is that an invitation?”

Her heart drummed in her ears while she licked her lower lip. She saw his gaze settle there and linger. “What if it is?” she finally said, her voice coming out on a husky note.

Suddenly his features changed, turning hard, almost brutal.

“Count me out. As you can see, I don’t have the time or inclination to entertain a bored rich girl who has nothing worthwhile to do.”

Lindsay sucked in her breath against his frontal attack and held it, her mind reeling. Just who did he think he was?

“You go to hell,” she said through clenched teeth, then swung her back to him and, as before, took off running.

Still, no matter how fast her legs moved, she couldn’t outrun the tears that rolled down her face. She wished she could say it was sweat, but she couldn’t.

First Mary Jane, now Mitch. Within the same day, two people had made comments about her easy, stress-free life. Mary Jane knew better, of course.

Damn him. Damn her for caring what he thought, how he perceived her. And damn her more for finding him attractive.

But what cut even deeper was how her apparent idleness appeared to other people outside her rich circle of friends.

Well, that was about to change. Lindsay straightened her shoulders. She wouldn’t fail this time.

She wouldn’t.

“Sara, what are you doing here?”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Peter,” she responded in a bored tone, “give it a rest. You can get your shorts in a wad quicker than anyone I know.”

Peter’s mouth formed a cruel line as he grabbed his current mistress by the arm and all but shoved her into a deserted corner of the bank. Once there, he loomed over her and spat, “You listen to me, you little bitch. You’ll do what I tell you.”

Sara Risinger jerked her arm free, then stuck out her lower lip. “Ah, honey, don’t be like that. It’s just that I wanted to see you, and I needed some cash.”

“People in hell need ice water, too, and they don’t get it.”

Her overly made-up face turned ugly. “Now, you see here, I—”

“No, you see here,” Peter interrupted. “I’m calling the shots. When I want to see you, I’ll come to you.”

“You’re a real bastard, Peter.”

He felt himself shaking on the inside and sweating on the outside. He glanced around to see if anyone was aware of them. He didn’t want to be seen with this woman who could give the best blow jobs he’d ever had but who looked like an honest-to-God streetwalker one day and a businesswoman the next.

Today she looked like the streetwalker.

He had met her at a party, and when she’d immediately pushed him into the nearest room and unzipped his pants, he’d known he had to have her for his latest plaything, at least until he got tired or married, whichever came first.

Thinking of getting married heightened Peter’s anger and made him sweat that much more. He turned and scrutinized the lobby. If Cooper were to come in and see him with this woman, the old man would croak on the spot. Then where would that leave him?

Out on his ass.

Well, he wasn’t going to allow that to happen. Nothing was going to stop him from marrying Lindsay Newman—certainly not any stupid moves on his own part.

“Am I going to see you tonight?” Sara cooed, her clear blue eyes steady on him.

“Depends,” he said absently.

“On what?” she pressed.

“None of your business.”

She gave him a coy smile. “Aw, we both know that’s not true. Why, it’d be a shame for your good family name to get ruined.”

She might be overly made-up and overdressed, but she was no dummy, nor was she shy, Peter reminded himself. And she wasn’t afraid of him, either, which was something he didn’t understand.

“Are you threatening me?”

“Of course not, darling. There you go again, getting yourself all worked up for nothing.”

Peter shoved his hand into a pocket and pulled out several bills. With flashing eyes, he slapped them in her hand. “You got what you came for. Now get out of here.”

Despite his obvious revulsion, she leaned over and pecked him on the cheek.

He jerked back. “You know better than that.”

She grinned. “Ta-ta, darling.”

From that moment on, the rest of the day was downhill. Shortly after Sara’s stunt, he was called into the president’s office, where he was chewed out because of a bad loan he’d made.

Later, his mother, Harriet, called and wanted him to run some unnecessary errands for her. If only he still had money, he wouldn’t have to be indebted to anyone.

Part of the problem was that at one time he had had money. His entire family had had money—until his father squandered it. Once the attorney had delivered the bad news to him and his mother, he had never been the same. His life had never been the same. Even though his old man was long dead, he still damned him to hell.

Only after he met Lindsay and, subsequently, her father did he start to climb out of the toilet. Even so, it took a while before he realized the doctor had something else on his mind—finding a suitable husband for his daughter.