Changing Hearts (12 page)

With a fierce grin, he grabbed the edge of the vending machine to give it a good yank. When the door popped open, he snagged a handful of condoms and stuffed them in his pockets. Next time, by God, he’d be ready. Not tonight, though. Tonight he wanted something hard and fast. Tonight he wanted to fight.

Slade went back into the main room of the bar and picked up his glass. The tableful of drunks still eyed him, so he faced them with an insolent grin. Sooner or later one of them would approach him again and then the fight would be on.

The faint smell of cheap perfume reached him just as the outside door opened again. Every man in the room looked toward the door as the woman entered. Blonde hair pulled up on top of her head, a sleeveless tank top over a pair of cutoff shorts and long but skinny legs. She walked in, accepting the stares as her due, then took a seat at the nearly empty bar.

The bartender put a glass of whiskey in front of her before she had a chance to ask for it. She reached into her oversized bag and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. The bartender lit her smoke then turned away from her. Slade grimaced. He hated the way smokers smelled.

He watched her for a moment, watched as she took a sip of the straight whiskey then set the glass down and gazed around the bar. She looked at him then away, and then let her eyes come back to him for a second, longer look.

Slade knew how he compared to the rest of the men in the bar. That wasn’t vanity. It was fact. He oozed sexual need at the moment and a woman like her, human though she was, could probably smell it, or at least recognize it. Sure enough, she smiled faintly as she picked her glass up again.

Keeping her eyes on him, she took a sip of the drink then let her gaze roam over his body, pausing at his crotch, as she set the glass down. She licked her lips then took a long drag on the cigarette, her eyes still focused on his crotch. The message she sent couldn’t have been much clearer.

Slade finished his beer then pushed away from the bar. With one last, somewhat regretful look at the drunks behind him, he started toward the blonde. She looked up with bleary eyes as he stopped in front of her. She was older than she’d looked. Slade reached out and took the cigarette out of her hand. He stubbed it out in the ashtray at her elbow then motioned for the bartender to bring her another drink. He pushed moss-green eyes filled with tears from his mind. He couldn’t go back to Joie like this. He had to do something to take the edge off. He ignored the nagging voice of doubt that gripped his heart.

“What’s your name, honey?” Roughened by cigarettes and booze, her voice grated on his ears.

“Slade. Yours?”

“You can call me whatever you want, honey.”

“Why not Honey, then?” Slade forced a grin as the bartender set a glass on the counter. Before she could pick it up, Slade wrapped his fingers around her hand. “My turn.”

He took a sip from the glass, tilting his head back slightly as the fiery liquid slipped down his throat. She reached out and ran her hand down his chest.

“What are you, Slade? Some kind of weightlifter?”

He laughed as he handed her glass back to her. “Honey” took the glass from him then put it up to her mouth. He watched her take a drink then took the glass out of her hand and set it on the bar. Leaning forward, he nipped at her earlobe. She tasted like sweat. He swallowed the revulsion that threatened to come up from his stomach.

She shivered as she wrapped her arms around his waist. “You move fast, Slade, honey.”

“Fast isn’t necessarily a bad thing.” He let his eyes glow again slightly, watching her eyes widen. She started to breathe a bit harder as she ran her hands over his chest again. Her nails dug into him. He grimaced as he plucked her away from him.

Three men who’d been occupying a table in the back of the bar got up to leave. Slade grabbed the woman’s hand and she grabbed her drink. They moved to the table and he sat down, pulling her into his lap. She immediately wrapped her arms around his neck and started playing with his hair, stroking his neck.

Slade closed his eyes and tried to banish Joie from his mind again. The woman in his lap was bony where Joie’s form ran to lush. She had nothing on her chest to compare to Joie. Her over-dyed hair smelled like an ashtray, a boozy ashtray. Slade opened his eyes to stare at her. He made himself slide one hand up her leg, letting his fingers brush over the denim that covered her.

She moaned, then stuck her tongue in his ear. Slade controlled his urge to throw up or dump her out of his lap, and forced himself to nuzzle her neck. Stale perfume overwhelmed him. He longed for Joie’s lilac-scented skin and her full, lush figure. The woman moaned again. The pitch of the sound hurt his ears.

Slade angled his head to kiss her when the door opened again. He glanced up, then froze. Here he sat with this aging bar whore in his lap, his hand inches away from her crotch and the woman he really wanted just walked in the door. “Honey” moaned again then reached for his hand, bringing it up to cup her tiny breast.

Slade saw fire in Joie’s eyes as she marched into the bar. Joie reached out, grabbing “Honey” by the hair. The woman screeched as Joie dragged her off Slade’s lap. She came up swinging and Slade leaned forward, blocking her hand from striking Joie.

While the other woman distracted him, Joie straddled his lap, grabbed his head and kissed him hard. The shock caused him to let go of “Honey” to wrap his arms around Joie. She kissed him again then got to her feet.

“Don’t be a jerk, Malcolm. And as for you, Missy!” Joie turned on “Honey” who backed up with a grin.

“Joie Sue Landry, I ain’t never seen you get pissy over a man. You picked you a good one, honey. Hard body and a face like that. Mmmm.” The woman laughed, along with most of the other people in the bar.

Joie held her hand out to him. Slade shook his head in disbelief, but put his hand in hers. She tugged on him until he stood beside her then the bar erupted in laughter again when he leaned over, picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder. Joie’s breasts hit the small of his back with a satisfying thump as he walked swiftly out of the bar.

If he turned his head, he could fulfill that earlier fantasy by taking a quick nibble of her butt. She stirred him in a way no woman had ever done.

“You miserable, sorry
cochon
! Let me down!” Joie beat on his back as he moved through the parking lot and into the woods.

“Just wait. You better not put me down ‘cause when you do, you’re gonna be howling three octaves higher and even Missy won’t want you.”

Her nails dug into his back as she continued to list the ways she would unman him with whatever she could get her hands on.

“Okay, that’s enough, Joie.” Slade yanked her back down off his shoulder, setting her on her feet none too gently. He gripped her arms hard enough to hold her in place but not hard enough to hurt her. When she tried to kick him, he swept his own foot out, taking her to the ground and following her down.

Straddling her body, his knees at her hips, his hands holding hers at her shoulders, he spoke sharply. “Stop it. What are you trying to prove, Joie? That I heel? Forget it, baby. I don’t heel and I don’t fetch.”

“I cannot
believe
you were about to have sex with Missy Tarbeaux!” Her voice rose dramatically as she bucked under him. He couldn’t stop the grin that stole across his face.

“Jealous?”

“Let me up, you-you-you jerk!” She bucked under him again and just like that, he was hard as a brick.

“Dammit, Joie!” Slade slid down until he lay full length on top of her. He knew when she stilled under him that she could feel him, hot, hard and ready at the juncture of her thighs. She stared up at him.

“It’s too close to the fucking full moon for you to be pulling this on me. I’m in control for now but I can’t promise I’ll stay that way. You’d have done better to let me leave with her and fuck her senseless. At least that way I’d know I hadn’t hurt you!”

She stared at him in shock. “You don’t think knowing you’d had sex with her would hurt me?”

“No! Damn you, that’s not what I meant.” He shook her hands, staring straight into her eyes. “I’m talking about physically hurting you, Joie. I’m bigger than you are, stronger than you are, and I want to fuck you so bad I’m almost crazy with it. Moonlust isn’t something I can fight when I want you this badly.”

“I won’t let you fuck me, Malcolm.”

He stared at her. She dragged him out of a bar, chewed him out and then said she wouldn’t let him touch her? He shook his head to clear it.

“I will let you make love with me. But not if you have sex with Missy first!” Joie’s voice came out low, colored with anger.

He admitted to himself that she had a right to be angry. He’d stirred her sexually then walked out on her. Had their positions been reversed… No, he’d never have let her leave him. Or maybe she might have insisted on easing his frustration. At the thought of her mouth on him, Slade groaned and dropped his head to the curve of her neck.

Joie pulled one hand out of his loosened grip then cupped the back of his head as she spoke softly right next to his ear. “I want to make love with you, Malcolm. I want you to touch me and I want to touch you. That’s what I want. I went to the store while you were gone and bought some condoms. They’re in my nightstand at home, just waiting for us. Let’s go back to the cabin.
Tante
won’t be home for at least another hour.”

He choked on his laughter. While he’d been out trying to pick a fight, or find someone to satisfy his lust, she’d gone shopping for condoms. Slade grinned as he propped himself up. He gently brushed her hair away from her face, another first for him, then reached into his front pocket.

Pulling a condom out, he held it up where she could see it. “I did some shopping of my own, baby.”

Her moss-green eyes turned tornado green. “Is that for me or for Missy?”

“Want the truth?” He cocked his head to one side, keeping his eyes on hers.

“Always.” The definite tone in her voice convinced him of her sincerity.

“Right now, even with you pissed off at me, I’m hard. With her sitting in my lap and her tongue in my ear, nothing. Not even the slightest rise out of me, baby. You walked in the door, kissed me and I got hard. I could take you right here and still be hard for you an hour from now.” He felt her shiver as he moved slightly.

Joie sighed then slipped both arms around his neck. “Let’s go back to the cabin, Malcolm.”

Slade got to his feet then pulled her up. She wrapped her arm around his waist and smiled up at him. “Missy was right about one thing, you’re quite a man.”

“And you’re quite a handful, Miss Joie.” He cupped her buttocks and kissed her soundly. When she smacked at his chest, he laughed and pulled her closer.

Slade put his arm around her shoulders as they started back toward the cabin. He didn’t realize how fast he moved until she started to pant beside him. He forced himself to slow down but kept her close by wrapping his arm tighter around her.

He could feel her nervousness through her taut muscles. Hoping to distract her a little, he asked about some tree they passed. That opened the floodgates. Joie pointed out things he’d noticed but not paid much attention to. The white egret standing at the edge of the bayou, the ducks paddling noisily along the shore, the squirrels chasing one another in the treetops.

“You really love it here, don’t you?” He could feel her relax beneath his arm. And he had enjoyed hearing her talk about her home. He looked up to see they weren’t that far from the cabin, from her bed.

“It’s home. No matter where I go or what I do, this is my home.” Joie smiled up at him. The silence between them now was more comfortable, the urgency had faded somewhat but he knew of only one way to slake his thirst for her.

They reached the cabin and he felt her step falter slightly. Turning her to face him, Slade cupped her face in his hands, tilting her head back so that she met his eyes.

“Joie?”

“I’m just a little nervous. You’re the most intense man I’ve ever been with.”

“I won’t hurt you.” Slade let her step up onto the porch, then pulled her around to face him again. “If I do something you don’t like, tell me to stop.”

Her face turned that delicate shade of rose again. “Will you kiss me?”

“Everywhere.” He moved closer to her, still holding her hands.

“Will you let me touch you?” She met his eyes with a steady gaze. He couldn’t stop his body’s reaction to her question. He pulled her against him so she could feel it too.

“Oh baby, you’d better believe it.” Slade swept her up into his arms again, grinning when she laughed. He carried her into the cabin and straight into her bedroom. She kicked her shoes off as soon as they crossed the threshold of her room.

Late afternoon sunlight filled the room as Slade put her in the center of her bed. She sat up then got to her knees in the middle of the bed. Slade swallowed hard as she removed her skirt and t-shirt. He kept his eyes on hers as she removed her bra and her heavy breasts fell free. He waited until she’d removed her panties before letting his gaze go completely over her naked body.

Joie blushed furiously even as she reached out to tug on the hem of his t-shirt. Slade yanked it off quickly then toed off his shoes as he unfastened and removed his jeans. He tossed two of the condoms from his pocket onto the bed.

Joie ran one hand down the center of his body then wrapped her cool soft fingers around his shaft. He nearly came in her hand, groaning hard and pushing his hips forward slightly. She smiled as she released him to put both hands on his chest and run them down to his hips.

Joie leaned forward and kissed him, right in the center of his chest and he lost it. Pushing her back on the bed, he leaned over and captured one of her nipples in his mouth. He wasted no time, suckling her strongly. Her hands clenched in his hair as she gasped.

Slade laved her breast, licking all the way around it even as he held onto the other one. When he took her nipple back into his mouth, biting her gently, he pinched the other one lightly between his thumb and finger.