Forces of Nature (10 page)

“Mr. Wellington,” the security chief, Rex Harris, said. “How can I help you, sir?”

“I don't want anyone to be allowed up on my floor unless it's myself, Amy, or Waylon Terrell. Change the security code on the elevator to eight-three-nine-seven,” he ordered.

“Yes, sir,” he said. “Is there a problem I should be aware of ?”

“Not yet, but we're trying to avert that. If anyone gives you shit about the new rule, make sure you inform me.”

“Yes, sir, but are you—”

“Are you questioning my orders?”

“No, sir,” Harris said nervously. “I just want to be—”

“Do as I say and there won't be any problems.” Douglas hung up the phone and wondered if Harris was part of the problem. He called Amy into his office and motioned for her to sit in the leather chair across from his desk.

“Yes, sir,” she said.

“There's a file missing from my office that could have impact on the business park.”

“I did—”

Douglas held up his hand. “I'm not accusing you of anything, right now. But we have to find that file and I need to know how that file got out of this office. You need to get me the video surveillance and have it sent to this address by an outside messenger company,” he said as he wrote down the address to Hughes Farm. As he slid the paper over to Amy, he watched her face for a reaction. She should've known the address and she should've asked him a question about why he was staying there. But she said nothing. Douglas felt as if he had found the leak.

“You can go now,” he said to the frazzled assistant. As soon as Amy left, Douglas called his head of security back.

“Yes, sir?” Harris asked.

“I need the security video from midnight Thursday through ten p.m. today,” he said. “And when my assistant calls Monday morning to ask for a copy of this same video, give it to her and don't tell her that I already have a copy of it.”

“All right. I can have this downloaded and sent to you in the next half an hour,” Harris said. “Sir, are you sure there isn't more that I need to know about what's going on?”

“If you needed to know more, I'd tell you. This week I need you to keep an eye out on my office.”

“No problem. Do you want me to add another camera to your office?” he asked.

“Yes, and I want it to be undetectable,” Douglas said. “If you can install it tonight before my assistant gets in on Monday that would be great.”

“All right. I'll be up there after the download is complete,” Harris said.

“Thanks,” Douglas said. After hanging up the phone, he started to call Crystal, but decided against it. She probably didn't even know he'd left.

Crystal wanted to slap herself. Was she really waiting on her front porch to see when and if Douglas would return to Hughes Farm? Really? First of all, it wasn't as if he was her man, and secondly, he wasn't obligated to stay at the farm simply because she'd invited him.

Still, where in the hell did he go? And why did she care so much? Who cared if he had a hot date with some airhead, stick-thin girl with breast implants and long fake hair?
Good for him
, she thought evilly. “Douglas needs a brainless woman who thinks everything he does is right and that is not me,” she muttered. Taking a sip of her iced tea, Crystal decided that she would sit outside for another five minutes and then she would go inside and fold her laundry. She told herself that she wasn't going to worry about where Douglas was or who he was with. It wasn't her business and she had no need to rack her brain over it. As she rose to her feet, she saw the headlights of Douglas's truck pull into the long driveway. She sat down and tried to pretend that she hadn't been waiting for him. When the truck stopped, Crystal fully expected to see Douglas get out of it with another woman. But the sight of him walking toward her porch alone allowed her to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Good evening,” he said when he noticed her sitting in the dark.

“Evening. Back from a hot date?” she asked, then immediately grimaced. “Never mind. That isn't my business and I don't want you to think that you being here . . .”

Douglas held his hand up, silencing her as he stepped up on the porch and stood in front of her. He smiled at the white tank top and spandex shorts she wore. “I had some work to do at the office and since you made it clear that we weren't going to be together tonight, I had to find something to do with my time.”

“‘Be together'?”

“You know what I mean,” he said with a slick smile. “But, here we are.”

“Yes, here we are. Would you like some tea?” she asked.

“Sure,” he said as he took a seat in one of the two rocking chairs on the porch.

“I'll be right back,” she said, then dashed into the house. Once she was alone in the kitchen, Crystal told herself that all she and Douglas were going to do on that dark porch was sip tea and talk.
I can ask him more about his father and see if I can find some clues that will help me form questions to ask my mom when I talk to her on Monday.

She fixed the tea, grabbed a few freshly baked oatmeal-apple cookies, and headed outside. Stepping out on the porch, she noticed that Douglas was napping in the rocking chair. He looked so handsome when he was sleeping, she thought as she watched the rise and fall of his chest. As he ran his tongue across his bottom lip, she longed to taste him. Why did he have to be her rival, the man who wanted to take her land, instead of her lover? The man she could walk over to and wake with a hot, wet kiss?

“Douglas,” she said quietly as she crossed over to him.

“Mmm,” he said, stirring from his catnap.

“Your tea,” Crystal said as she held the glass out to him.

Taking the glass from her hand, he smiled his thanks. “It's so peaceful out here,” he said, setting the tea on the wrought-iron table beside his chair. “And private.” In one quick swoop, he pulled Crystal on his lap.

“Hey,” she exclaimed, but made no effort to move.

“Comfortable?” he asked, his lips against her ear. Crystal shivered and kept silent, even wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning her head on his shoulder. Why did being in his arms feel so comfortable?

Five seconds and then I'm letting him go. This isn't why I sat outside waiting for him. Wait, I really wasn't waiting for him. I was just sitting outside,
she thought. Douglas stroked her thigh as they sat and Crystal felt her desire pooling in her panties every time his hand danced across her flesh.

Get up and go back to your corner!
Crystal's voice of reason screamed as she fell deeper into Douglas's embrace.

“Your tea is getting hot,” she said.

“So am I,” he whispered, then captured her mouth. Douglas was an amazing kisser and as he sucked her bottom lip while licking the inside of her mouth, Crystal was brought close to an orgasm. Her legs quivered, her folds of flesh between her thighs grew wet like a river, and she moaned—loud, deep, and unabashedly.

Douglas deepened his kiss, moved his hands around her waist and pulled her closer. Oh, how he wished she was straddling his throbbing erection with the fullness of her bosom pressed against his chest. He wanted nothing more than to be buried deep inside her as she rode him while the chair rocked back and forth in the stillness of the night.

“Stop,” she moaned as their lips parted and he flicked his tongue across her bottom lip.

“If you really wanted that, then you would unhand me,” he said in a low voice that made her inner thigh throb.

Crystal dropped her arms from Douglas's neck and rose to her feet. “You're right,” she said. “Enjoy your tea.” She started for the front door and Douglas leapt from his chair and blocked her path.

“Okay,” he said, placing his hands on her shoulders. “I'll behave.”

She raised her right eyebrow at him and sucked her teeth. “I had some cookies, but you made me drop them. And they were freshly baked too.”

“My apologies, but somehow I think the taste of your tongue was all the treat I needed tonight.”

“Date didn't go as planned?”

Douglas tilted his head to the side and smirked. “I guess it would help your irrational dislike of me if you thought I'd gone on a date instead of to my office—like I said. Then all of those nasty thoughts you have about me in the back of your mind would be validated, huh?”

“Actually, the fact that you want to take all of this from me pretty much validates any nasty thoughts I have about you.”

“Give me a sample of just how nasty those thoughts are.”

Crystal slapped her hand against her hip. “I thought you said you were going to behave?”

He shrugged. “What did I do? You said you have nasty thoughts.”

Crystal stared into his eyes so deeply that he shuddered. “Tell me something,” she said in a low voice. “And don't give me the politically correct answer, but why this land? Why do you want my farm so bad?”

He wished he had an answer, something he could say that would make her understand this was about his father's dream. “Well,” he began, “this isn't about turning Reeseville into Welcoville as you said before. Let me tell you something about me and my family. We wanted to help this county and this town become economically independent. My dad was born here and loved this place. He always felt that outsiders didn't understand what this place could be. We're between Charlotte and Greensboro, we have a rarely used rail system that can help in exporting goods throughout the country. That's why we're trying to build this business park. It was the last thing that my father was working on before he died.”

“And you still haven't answered my question,” she said. “Why this farm?”

“Because,” he sighed, “it was important to my father.”

His honesty was both refreshing and frightening. Had the Wellington family had a long-standing grudge against the Hugheses? Was this the Hatfields and McCoys?

“Why was it so important to your father?”

Fearing he'd already said too much, Douglas simply shook his head. “You know what,” he said. “I'm still researching it, and when I find out, I'll let you know.”

“That's bull,” Crystal spat. “I'll get my own answers because you're not telling me everything and I will not let a few kisses and sweet words make me forget the truth—next month you want to level everything on this property. Goodnight.” She slammed into the house leaving him standing on the dark porch with a puzzled look on his face.

Construction on the business park was scheduled to start in thirty days. He'd even talked to a few county commissioners and city council members to see if they could force eminent domain on the farm, since that had been part of his father's plan. Now, Crystal had him questioning why his father wanted this land so badly. It had to be more than business. He wondered if his godfather would come clean about it. He reached for his cell phone, then remembered he had no signal.
Shit.

That little dollhouse Crystal had stuck him in didn't have a phone, either. He could try a smoke signal, or he could knock on the door and ask her if he could use the phone. Like she would allow that. Still, he didn't feel like driving into the town limits for a signal. Knocking on the door, he waited for what seemed like an eternity for Crystal to open the door.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“To use your phone if you don't mind,” he replied, offering her a half smile.

“Sure,” she replied, stepping aside so that he could enter the house. “When you're done, you know your way out.” Crystal tore off down the hall and Douglas watched the tempting sway of hips, then headed into the kitchen when he heard what he assumed was her bedroom door slam.

Grabbing the phone, he dialed Waylon's number.

“Hello?” the older man said when he answered.

“Godfather,” Douglas said.

“Something's wrong, huh, Trey?”

Douglas nodded as if Waylon could see him, and said, “Someone broke into my office and took the Hughes Farm file.”

“What Hughes Farm file?”

Peeking around the corner, Douglas made sure Crystal wasn't creeping up on him before he said, “The one you and my father kept for years.”

“Douglas, please tell me that wasn't the sole basis for your decision to go after Hughes Farm.”

“So what if it was?” Douglas said in a near whisper. “Was the information in the file wrong?”

“It wasn't a sound business plan,” Waylon said. “I think you should leave that place and you need to forget that file and go to the board with an alternative.”

“And you already know that they don't want alternatives,” Douglas said. “But why should I forget the file?”

“It was . . . Douglas, you have to clean this up.”

“Did you take the file?”

“Now you're accusing me of being a thief? What's wrong with you, boy? You're the one who called me and got me involved in this without doing more than reading over an old file from your father. Don't call me this late with your accusations!”

Douglas removed the phone from his ear and looked at it. “Boy”? Who in the hell did Waylon think he was talking to? “Listen,” he said, “I'm going to find that file and I'm going to find out what you're trying to hide from me.”
And find out what's in my father's diary,
he added silently. Douglas wanted to kick himself for being so sentimental about this business deal and for not reading his father's diary. Who would want it? What was hidden on those pages?

Before his godfather could respond, Douglas forcefully hung up the phone and cursed as quietly as he could. When he started for the front door, he saw Crystal standing in the hallway.

“Is my phone okay?” she asked.

“Yes. Sorry about that.”

She raised her eyebrow at him, but didn't say a word. Seconds ticked away as they stood there staring at each other.

Finally, Crystal asked, “Want a drink?”

“Do you have something stronger than tea?”

“Of course,” she said. “Whiskey strong enough?”

Douglas chuckled. “You drink whiskey?”

She smirked as she moved toward the kitchen. “It's the drink of choice when a huge corporation tries to take your land.”

“Ouch.”

“Sorry, kind of,” she said as they entered the kitchen and she turned the light on. Crystal reached under the counter and pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey. Douglas picked up the bottle before she could pour.

“This is girly whiskey,” he said with a laugh.

“Now you're complaining about my offerings? Ain't that a—”

“I'm just saying, I expected a farm girl like yourself to pull out some whiskey you made in your tub.”

“That's moonshine, and I'm sorry, I'm fresh out,” she quipped.

“Funny,” he said as he opened the bottle and Crystal grabbed two glasses from the cabinet.

They drank the first two glasses in silence. She wanted to know why his conversation had gotten so heated and what this file was that he was talking about. Their eyes met as they started on the second glass. “This is smooth,” he said.

“Umm-hmm,” she said. “Not girly at all.”

Douglas poured himself a third glass and when he downed it, he was beginning to feel the effects of the whiskey. Crystal poured a half glass for herself, because she was feeling the alcohol lowering her inhibitions and she wanted nothing more than to kiss him. Get naked and explore his body with her tongue. She took a sip, then pushed her glass aside. Douglas boldly poured himself another glass. “Can't hang, huh?” he asked with a sloppy smile.

“I see no need to get drunk,” she said, her words a bit slurred.

Douglas tweaked her nose. “You're already there, sweetheart.” He closed the space between them and Crystal's heartbeat filled her ears.
Please don't let him kiss me,
she thought mere seconds before his lips captured hers. Powerless to resist him, Crystal fell into his strong arms, savoring his taste, enjoying the feather light touches on her bare arms and the bulging erection pressing against her thighs. As he coaxed her tongue deeper into his mouth, she could taste the sweet whiskey, the minty aftertaste of the tea, and the all-male desire.