Scarlet Woman

“You might as well cooperate with me. It will be done to my satisfaction or there’ll be no foundation and no inheritance.”

She swore under her breath. “A person with a flea brain could see through what you’re doing. I refuse to fail, because that would make you happy.”

She imagined that one of his mesmerizing grins had taken possession of his face when he said, “You don’t want me to be happy?”

“Does the sun rise in the north?” she asked him. “This isn’t getting me anywhere. See you.” She hung up and immediately wished she hadn’t. Jostling with him had been fun, and while they were at it, she’d had a warm, cozy sensation, far from the forsaken feeling she had now.

An hour later, his belly full of calories, Blake lay flat on his back on his living-room floor listening to Ledbetter sing the blues. He wasn’t contented, but he felt a lot better than he did before she called to chew him out. If only he had a firm handle on whatever was going on between them.

He voiced his frustration with a satisfying expletive. She could raise hell and threaten all she pleased, but she’d fulfill the terms of that will or she’d be just another widow. She married Prescott for money, and if she wanted to get it, she’d have to earn it. She could heat him to boiling point; it wouldn’t make an iota of difference.

Melinda decided to tackle Judd Folson first and get that over with. Too bad that he’d misunderstood the scene with Blake and her when he’d walked into Blake’s office.

“Good morning, Mr. Folson. This is Melinda Rodgers. I’m calling to—”

“Oh, you needn’t worry, Melinda. Blake explained that he had to catch you when he opened the door. I didn’t—”

The nerve of him. She told herself not to react. “Mr. Folson, my late husband’s will requires that I establish a foundation to support remedial reading here in Ellicott City, and I’m inquiring as to your willingness to serve on the board. I’m canvassing twelve of the town’s leading citizens. It’s a charity foundation, so there’s no honorarium for this.” She heard a sound like someone clearing his throat and waited for the verdict.

“The leading citizens, eh? Well, now, that’s right decent of you. You can put my name down.”

Martha Greene agreed to serve, but not before she let Melinda know what she thought of the Reverend Booker Jones. “That man thinks everybody’s headed straight for hell, everybody but him, that is. It’s a wonder you turned out as well as you did.”

Melinda closed her eyes tight. Ten more to go, and she could shake Ellicott City dust from her feet, except for Christmas and Mother’s Day. Turned out as well as you did! Grin and bear it, girl, she admonished herself. It’ll soon be in the past.

“Then you’ll serve, Mrs. Greene? Thank you so much. My husband would be pleased.”

“You think I’m doing it for him?” the woman shot back. “I’m signing on because of all the people around here who can barely read a street sign. Prescott Rodgers stayed as far away from the citizens of this town as he could get. Anybody would have thought he was scared we’d absorb some of his money.”

Just a sweet, loving human being. “Whatever your reason, Mrs. Greene, I do appreciate your help.”

She hung up. “Whew.” That was as much as she could take for one evening. She went over the lesson plans for her classes in American literature and contemporary fiction writing, got ready for bed, and put on a Billie Holiday CD. Jazz, Mozart, and Brian McKnight ballads could lull her into contentment every time. She sat on the floor with her back against her bed and closed her eyes to let the sound of Billie singing “Why Not Take All of Me?” wash over her. Within seconds, Blake Hunter filled her thoughts, and then she could feel his fingers gently loving her neck, face, arms, her belly, thighs, all of her. She gripped the coverlet on her bed as he hovered above her, and when he wiped tears from her eyes, she felt the dampness on her face and knew that she cried.

Melinda got to school the next morning, but she’d tossed in bed all night begging for the sleep that never came, and every muscle in her body ached. When questioned about her obvious fatigue, she explained to Rachel that working on the foundation had worn her out.

“I thought maybe you’d been out with that fine brother who’s handling Prescott’s will.”

“You saw him the last time I did.”

Rachel lowered her gaze, and Melinda couldn’t help noticing the look of embarrassment on the woman’s face. “Are you suggesting that I’m seeing Blake socially?” she asked Rachel.

“Well…uh…no, but you know how people talk.”

Melinda didn’t press Rachel, but the woman’s words failed to placate her. She’d noticed her fascination with Blake, and Melinda didn’t blame her. Who would? Blake Hunter wasn’t just handsome; his tough, masculine personality and riveting presence jumped out at you, and you had to pay attention to him. Any female between the ages of eight and eighty with warm blood running through her veins would give the man a second look.

“What are they saying about me and Blake Hunter? What can they say?”

Rachel patted Melinda’s shoulder and looked as if she wanted to deny her statement. “Girl, our folks love to gossip. You know that.”

She stared down at Rachel, who stood little more than five feet five inches in her three-inch heels. “It isn’t just ‘our folks’ who gossip. All small-town people gossip—they don’t have much else to do.” Seeing the relief on Rachel’s face, she knew the woman had been saved from embarrassment. Or maybe from lying.

Later that afternoon, the school’s superintendent called Melinda to his office. “Mrs. Rodgers, I understand your late husband’s will contains provisions that aren’t favorable to you. I was—”

“Who told you that? As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing bad in that will.”

“But I heard you’d been disinherited, and I thought you might ask Mr. Hunter to settle some money on the school.”

She propped her hands on her hips and glared at him. It wasn’t easy to ring her bell, but he’d just managed to do it. “Is that all, Dr. Hicks?” Without waiting for his answer, she spun around and left.

On an impulse, she stopped by Blake’s office on the way home. If he couldn’t do something to arrest the awful gossip, she’d chuck the whole thing.

“Melinda. What a surprise,” he said and stood when she entered his office. “What can I do for you?”

She explained the reasons for being there. “It started yesterday with Judd Folson. Even Rachel’s repeating these stupidities. I’m fed up.”

The tips of his fingers warmed her elbow. “Come on in.” He didn’t go to his desk as she would have expected, but led her to the leather sofa that rested beneath a collection of paintings by African-American artists and sat there beside her.

“Tell me about it.” His voice conveyed an unfamiliar softness, a tenderness, maybe even an intimacy. At least she thought so.

“It’s…I know a lot of people don’t like my father, and I understand that. I even accept it, because he’s a big dose for me sometimes, but what did Prescott ever do to anybody?”

“Ordinary people envy the rich, Melinda. He didn’t have to do anything to anybody.”

Her eyes widened, and her pocketbook slipped from her lap to the floor. She caught herself, but not quickly enough to hide her shock. He picked up her pocketbook and put it on the sofa beside her.

“Why are you surprised? The poor have hated the rich since the beginning of time.”

She couldn’t help staring at him. “Rich? What do you mean rich? I know Prescott was well off, but rich?”

Now, she had obviously surprised him. “Prescott Rodgers was worth millions, and his estate will earn royalties probably for as long as people wear glasses and use cameras.”

She slumped against the back of the sofa and slowly closed her mouth. “I never dreamed…Prescott never talked about his finances, and I didn’t question him about them. I knew we were well off. We had what we needed, but if he hadn’t given me anything more than the first real peace I’d had in my life, I would have been contented.”

He stared at her for so long that she decided she’d lost his sympathy, that she’d better leave. But he restrained her with a hand on her shoulder, a hand whose warmth she felt to the marrow of her being.

“Don’t go. Please. This takes some getting used to.”

“Why? What did you think? That I—”

He cut her off. “Don’t say it. Right now, I don’t know what to think. Prescott talked freely to me about his affairs, or at least I think he did, so it didn’t occur to me that he didn’t share them with his wife.”

She didn’t like the chill that settled in her chest. “There was no reason why he should have.” She stood and walked to the door, giving him no choice but to follow her.

“If you want to take over the matter of that foundation, it’s all right with me,” Blake said.

“You know I can’t do that. I’ve sworn to do as he wished, and I can’t sidestep my integrity and live with myself.”

His voice behind her, so close to her ear, sent shock waves throughout her body, and she had to will herself not to turn around.

“I…I’ll help you with it. Maybe…” His breath seemed to shorten, and his words became rasping sounds. “We’ll…Like I said, I’ll help you.”

And then it hit her. His opinion of her didn’t differ from what the rest of Ellicott City thought about her. “You don’t believe me, do you? You think I knew and that I can’t wait to get my hands on Prescott’s money, don’t you? Isn’t that right?”

The sudden coolness of her body told her he’d stepped away from her back. She saw his hand on the doorknob and remembered that moment two weeks earlier when it had rested on her waist. Protective. Possessive. He turned the knob, and when she risked a glance at him, she bit back the gasp that nearly sprang from her throat. Desire, fierce and primitive, shone in his eyes.

“What do you want me to say?”

The words seemed to rush out of him. Perhaps he’d found some kind of reprieve, had grabbed the opportunity to reply logically, but without saying anything meaningful. She didn’t answer. But she hurt. Oh, the pain of it, shooting through her like a spray of bullets tearing up her insides. The ache of unappeased desire, and the anguish of knowing he thought so little of her. With her hand covering his, she pulled open the door and rushed down the corridor to the elevator. He didn’t think well of her, but he wanted her. She didn’t know if she could stand it.

He watched her rush away from him, her hips swaying almost as if in defiance above the most perfect pair of props a man ever looked at. Seconds earlier, he’d come close to doing what he’d sworn never to do. As she reached the elevator, he closed his door and leaned against it. It wouldn’t do for her to look back and find him watching her. She needed his help; without it, the good people of Ellicott City would laugh at her, and he couldn’t bear to see her ridiculed.

A man confided things to his lawyer, but to keep his wife in the dark about his wealth…He ran his hand over the hair at the back of his head. He didn’t believe she was lying, but something didn’t jell. A woman who’d been married for almost five years ought to know how to finesse a man’s revved-up libido. Any man’s. But she didn’t make small talk, didn’t joke, didn’t say anything that would have cooled him off. That level of naiveté in a twenty-nine-year-old widow was incomprehensible. He should keep his distance, but he didn’t see an alternative to sitting with her while she contacted the people on her list.

She’d had time to drive home, so he called her. “Melinda, this is Blake. Suppose you stop by after school, and we’ll go through your list till we get twelve people to agree to serve. The sooner we do this, the better.”

Her long silence annoyed him until he let himself remember that she was probably as shaken by their near-encounter as he. “All right,” she said at last in a voice that suggested disinterest. “I want to finish it as soon as possible.”

He believed that, but not her feigned disinterest. “Till tomorrow then.”

She hung up, obviously discombobulated, and he was certainly at the root of her discomfort. While he tried to think of a way to smooth their relationship without indicting himself, the phone rang.

“Reverend Jones on one,” Irene said.

“Hunter. What may I do for you, sir?”

“I just talked with that daughter of mine. She doesn’t seem to understand my position in Ellicott City. If anybody should be on that board, it’s me. You’re her advisor, so I’m depending on you to set her straight.”

Here we go! He sat down and, to make certain he stayed calm, he picked up a red-ink pen and began doodling. “Reverend Jones, my job is to advise my client, not to dictate to her, but I’ve warned her that it’s best not to give either a political or a religious flavor to the board. Further, I’ve suggested that she exclude from consideration members of her family and of Prescott’s family.” He hadn’t, but the words might convince Jones not to ride hard on Melinda.

“That’s bunkum. Rodgers didn’t have any family. At least not that anybody around here ever heard about, and they can’t come in now and start demanding the man’s money when it belongs to Melinda.”

“You needn’t worry about that, sir. Have a good day.”

He hung up and considered the pleasure he’d get out of pitching something—anything—across the room. Booker Jones planned to aggravate him to distraction, and he’d probably do it from the hallowed perch of his pulpit.

His anticipation of Booker’s tirade proved prophetic. Melinda forced herself to go to the Third Evangelical House of Prayer—her father’s small church—the following Sunday morning and hadn’t been seated for ten minutes when she realized that her personal affairs would be the text of her father’s sermon.

“Children, obey your parents. That’s a commandment. But does my own daughter obey it? I say to you, parents, don’t be discouraged, as I am not discouraged. They will perish, every last one of them. But our reward will come, and oh, how beautiful it will be. Let them know that money is the root of all evil. Let them know that they will burn in hell. And brothers and sisters, it won’t be a little blister, and there won’t be any salve to put on it….”

Tuning him out, all she heard was the drone of his voice. Getting up and leaving wasn’t an option, so she sat there and let herself think of pleasant things. Her life with Prescott and the peace and contentment she’d known with him. But as she reminisced, it came to her forcefully that Prescott had treated her as if she were a child, taking care of her material needs, giving her an allowance, never broaching the subject of sex—not that she’d have welcomed it. She’d gone from one father to another one, and neither had prepared her for her encounters with Blake Hunter. A tough man with a soft core, she surmised, and a masculine persona that fired her up and awakened the womanliness in her. She hadn’t known the meaning of the word lust until she first looked into his eyes and he stared at her until her nipples tightened and her blood raced as if she were in a marathon.

She wanted to close her eyes and think about him, but didn’t dare for fear her father would think she slept during his sermon. At last the choir sang the closing hymn, and she rushed out of the church.

“Didn’t Reverend Jones really preach today? Bless the Lord,” one of the sisters said to her.

No way was that woman going to make her concur with her father’s accusations. “My father speaks his mind,” she told the startled woman and brushed past her.

With her heart lodged in her throat, she knocked on Blake’s office door the next afternoon at three-thirty. He opened the door, smiled, and her pulse kicked into overdrive.

“Hi.”

Not hello, but hi. She looked up at him and tried to smile back, but she suspected she hadn’t succeeded. What had caused this about-face?

“Hello. Uh…hi.”

If he noticed her lack of composure, he didn’t let on. “I wish you’d brought some fries or something. I didn’t get any lunch. Been preparing for a trial tomorrow morning.”

“I could go get some,” she said, wondering at his turn of mind.

His fingers touched her elbow, and he walked with her to his desk. “No need for that. I’ll order something by phone. What would you like? I’m having French fries and ginger ale.”

“You haven’t eaten since breakfast, and you’re ordering French fries?”

A sheepish expression flashed across his face. “Come to think of it, all I had for breakfast was a glass of V-8 juice.”

She shook her head in wonder. “How can you look the way you do if you don’t eat properly?”

His eyebrows went up, and she knew she’d said the wrong thing.

“How do I…Never mind. Most days I eat bran flakes and a banana. That better?”

“Decidedly,” she said and put forth a lot of effort to prevent his seeing how relieved she was that he hadn’t finished that sentence. When he’d eaten the French fries, he opened both bottles of ginger ale, wrapped a napkin around one, and handed it to her.

“Ready?”

She nodded. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

A grin converted his whole face into a thing of beauty. She’d better concentrate on that board of directors, or anything other than him that would occupy her mind. The man was safer in a less jovial mood.

“Let’s try Alice Pride first,” Blake suggested. “She craves social status, so she ought to be a shoe-in.”

And indeed she was. “I’m just so glad to do some good for my town,” Alice said. “Just let me know when you’re calling the first meeting. I’ll be there.”

And so it went for the first two calls. Then Melinda dialed Luther Williams and told him the purpose of her call.

“What?” she asked, and her face must have mirrored her horror at Luther Williams’s indictment of her, because Blake snatched the phone.

“This is Blake Hunter. We’re working on setting up this foundation according to Rodgers’s will. What’s the problem, Luther?”

“Well…I…You know what everybody says. I mean, you don’t expect me to join in with a kept woman to—”

“What the hell are you talking about, man? This foundation was Prescott Rodgers’s bequest. And what do you mean by trashing a woman’s reputation on the basis of gossip? That’s slander.”

Melinda put the list on the desk, picked up her pocketbook that she’d placed on the floor, and started for the door.

“Oh, no, you don’t,” he called after her and slammed the receiver into its cradle. “Is that all it takes to make you tuck your tail in and run? Is it?”

She whirled around and slammed into him. “You don’t know what it’s…like,” she whispered, as the fire began to blaze in his eyes. The belt on his trousers touched her belly. So close. Lord, he was there, and she could have him. She closed her eyes to hide the temptation before her.

“You’re not a coward, are you? You won’t let them beat you down. I won’t let you run. Do you hear me? Stand up to them. Show the bastards you don’t care what they say.”

“Bu…bu…but I…I do care. I do.”

Shivers coursed through her as he locked her to him. Startled, she looked into his fierce eyes, then dropped her gaze to his mouth and parted her lips. For a brief, poignant moment, he stared down at her. Open. Pliable. Susceptible to her. His tremors shook her, and her nerves tingled with exhilaration when she heard his hoarse groan of capitulation. Then his mouth was on her, and his tongue stabbed at her lips until she opened and, at last, had him inside of her. His big hand gripped her buttocks and she undulated wildly against him as his velvet tongue promised her ecstasy, plunging in and out of her and testing every crevice of her mouth. Strong and commanding like the man himself. He held her head while he plied her mouth with sweet loving, stroked her back, her shoulders, and her buttocks until she sucked his tongue deep into her mouth and feasted. When his hand went to her breast, she pressed it to her while his fingers twirled her turgid nipple. Hungry for all of him, she spread her legs and he rose hard and strong against her. She slumped into him and might have fallen if he hadn’t lifted her, carried her to the sofa, and sat down with her in his lap.

For a long while, he sat there, rocking her and stroking her, soothing her with a tenderness she’d never known.

“It wasn’t any use, was it?” he said at last.

She knew what he meant and didn’t pretend otherwise. “Looks that way. But it shouldn’t have happened. I have enough problems as it is.”

“I won’t argue with you about that. We have to work together on this foundation, and don’t forget, there’s one more clause.”

“How could I forget that?” she asked, getting to her feet. “I think I’d better go now.”

“Do you want me to…Can I drive you home? I mean…do you need me for…something?” He gasped it, as if releasing the words pained him all the way to his gut.

She shook her head. “I drove, but thanks.”

He walked with her to the door and stood looking down at her. Nobody had to tell her what he was thinking or what he wanted. Suddenly, his right shoulder lifted in a quick shrug, and she knew he’d won over temptation. A least one of them had sense. If he’d kissed her again, she wouldn’t have left the way she entered. That much strength she doubted she had. But what about tomorrow and the next day and the next?

He winked at her and grinned. “Don’t worry, Melinda. There isn’t much I set myself to do that I can’t manage. See you tomorrow.”

By the time she reached her car, her breath came in short gasps, but that didn’t explain her inability to steady her fingers enough to get the key in the ignition and start the vehicle. After a few minutes, she gave up. Why had everything become so difficult? She wanted to lay her head on the steering wheel and wake up in Italy, Switzerland, Kenya, or anywhere but Ellicott City.

The people had the same character as the town: museum pieces, all show and little substance. If she got involved with Blake, the busybodies would assume they’d been right all along, and if she stayed in Ellicott City, she didn’t see how she could avoid it. He might have the mental toughness of a samurai warrior, but she’d been in his arms, and she knew how badly he wanted her. The next time…For five years, she’d hungered for him, locked him in the privacy of her heart and the recesses of her mind, never revealing to anyone what she felt and how it pained her. And now, he’d transformed her into a hot and passionate woman, a willing lover. She didn’t believe in lying to herself, so she didn’t promise herself she’d resist him.

Blake stood at the window in his office and looked down on Old Columbia Pike where he could see the top of Melinda’s green Mercury Sable. Why didn’t she drive off? He didn’t want to become involved with her, but he’d had her in his arms, felt her tremors, smelled her heat and tasted her sweetness, and he wouldn’t bet five cents that he wouldn’t touch her again. When a woman wanted him as badly as she did…He swallowed hard. His hands had roamed her body and she’d relished it, had opened herself to him, as uninhibited as a tigress in heat. And he was starved for her.

“Blake, I’ve been buzzing you,” Irene said, and he turned to see her standing in the doorway between their offices.

“Oh, thanks. What is it?”

“Lacy Morgan’s on line one.”

He swore. “Tell her I emigrated to Alaska.”

“What? I beg your pardon.”

What a great idea. “You heard me. Tell her exactly that.”

“Bu…but…How do I phrase it? I can’t just lie.”

“Tell her I told you I moved to Alaska.” He snapped his finger. “Oh, yes, and I didn’t leave a forwarding address, a phone number, fax number, or an e-mail address.”

She stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. “That is an order, Irene.”

“Yes, sir…I mean, Blake.”

His laughter followed her rapidly retreating figure, a cleansing release that he’d needed and needed badly. With luck, Lacy Morgan would consider herself insulted. Now, if he could just straighten out the rest of his life that easily. Not a chance. He grabbed his briefcase, got in his car, and drove to the Patapsco River where the swiftly moving water never failed to soothe him. He looked at the late-day sun, slowly dying, its rays filtering through the leaves of the oak and beech trees that towered in the distance. A light, fresh breeze frolicked against his body, cooling and refreshing it. Pretty soon it would be night and, as on every other night, he’d be all by himself. He took his cell phone out of his briefcase, pulled air through his front teeth, shrugged, and put the phone away. He didn’t want to hear any voice but hers.