Double Feature

Erika
Almond

Steamy Love Scenes, Book Three

Josie’s sexy ex Riley is back, this time with his heart (and
other body parts) set on winning the only woman who could match his skill and
desires in the bedroom. But when he discovers that even he, Wily Riley, isn’t
immune to heartbreak he has to figure out how to pick up the pieces again.

Hot movie star Miles wants to convince Josie to be his
leading lady with an elaborate claiming ritual guaranteed to get a triple-X
rating. Secrets playing out behind the scenes could have Josie strutting the
red carpet to true love—or falling back into the arms of the man who first
rocked her world.

A
Romantica®
contemporary erotic romance
from Ellora’s Cave

Dedication

For my one and only leading man, H.

Acknowledgments

My editor Beverly Horne gets star billing here, and the
award for Best Publisher always goes to Ellora’s Cave.

Riley

“Are you trying to fuck me up the butt here?”

My buddy Virgil from the appliance store gave me the same
aching look as when I’d beaten him at cards the other night. “Jeez, Riley,
course I’m not. But this here’s a top-of-the-line air conditioner. I’m giving
you a deep discount at two hundred bucks as it is.”

“You’re giving me a deep ass-fucking is what. I didn’t win
that kind of money at your poker-and-porn party. And besides,” I added, “who
taught you what a clitoris was and where to find it? And how to treat it once
you did?”

Virgil looked chagrined. “You did, Riley.”

“And wasn’t your wife so grateful for this newfound
knowledge that she’s been twanging your wang every day since?”

Virgil blushed as he scuffed his foot by the appliance-store
loading dock. “Ayuh. She has.”

“Mmm,” I said, nodding. “Probably blowing you harder than
when she wanted you to marry her too.”

“Now look here, Riley,” Virgil said with a tone. My pug mix
Roscoe growled from his copilot spot in the passenger seat of my old but sexy
red Mustang.

I held up my hands. “No offense, Virge. I’m just saying that
you two are acting like honeymooners again after how many years and even more
kids on account of me letting you in on Riley Wanamaker’s School for Studs.
Don’t you think that’s worth an air conditioner?” I knew I’d won when Virgil
sighed and leaned down to help me lift the box into my trunk.

“I heard Josie McCabe showed your ass the door on account of
you playing Wily Riley with the real estate lady,” Virgil said as he wiped his
brow, the summer morning turning hot already. “You don’t have a place of your
own. So which of your women is the AC for?”

I’d have answered him if we hadn’t both jumped at the sound
of buckshot being fired. Then someone hollered, “Riley Wanamaker, you son of a
bitch!”

At the top of the hill stood Old Man Bishop, sweet Paige’s
daddy. Apparently I hadn’t been quite as stealthy as I’d thought when I slipped
out her bedroom window this morning. Roscoe gave me a worried look before
sounding a bark that said we’d best hoof it.

I quickly pumped Virgil’s hand. “Much obliged,” I said. The
sound of the bird rifle being fired into the air again made me move my ass a
tad faster.

My trusty Mustang quickly outran Bishop’s pick ’em up truck.
I laughed as I sped away, but hellfire, instead of trying to kill me Bishop
should’ve been thanking me. If he only knew his poor daughter had been crying
something awful about her boyfriend saying she didn’t know anything about sex.
I’d just happened on Paige as she was coming home from beauty school and she
told me all about it. I started suggesting a few things she could do. And then
she asked me if we could try those things out.

What was I to do? I make it a habit never to say no to a
lady.

We went back to Paige’s house and lit each other up for a
while. She was more than halfway to pretty once I took off her big eyeglasses.
And she was all the way to beautiful when I made her come. If she didn’t have
the creamiest skin… So smooth and sweet-tasting. I got the shivers just
thinking about how there was always something hot to discover about women.

After I did some nice things to Paige to make her feel good
I showed her what to do with her boyfriend. I taught her how to suck him off so
he’d never forget the way her bottom lip caressed his crown. And then how to
fuck his brains out as if it were the end of the freakin’ Earth. And I told her
that right after she did these things she should kick his ass to the curb.
That’d teach him not to be such a shit-talking dick to a woman. And with
Paige’s new flirting skills courtesy of yours truly, she’d be able get any guy
she wanted.

And now her daddy was trying to fill my butt full of buckshot?
Hellfire. I tried to help people out but I never got any respect in this
ass-backward county.

I kept speeding along the back roads of Hawthorne even
though I hadn’t seen Bishop in my rearview for a while now. All around me was a
deep-green blur from the trees being full with late summer leaves. Now and
again the green was interrupted by a burst of orange or purple from
wildflowers. Mayfield County sure could be pretty, though starting out my day
with the sound of buckshot reminded me that this place had been feeling a tad
small for me of late.

I blasted the radio when I heard my favorite song,
Royals
.
I sang along with Lorde saying she wasn’t proud of her address in a torn-up
town. Me neither, baby.

The air rushing through the car felt good in my hair and
Roscoe loved looking out the window with his little tongue hanging out. I swear
he was smiling as big as I was. Shitfire but life was fine. Another beautiful
morning and I had nowhere to be but wherever I wanted to go. And I had a new
air conditioner for my best girl Josie. That might go a ways in her forgiving
me for fucking the real estate lady. I still wasn’t quite clear on why Josie
had broken up with me. After all, I’d been fucking the real estate lady to get
a break on Josie’s dream house for us to move into.

All that was over now, probably for the better. Josie was
the person I was closest to in this world and my only true friend. I needed at
least one woman in my life who I wasn’t fucking. Anymore.

So Roscoe and I both had our heads out the window to enjoy
the breeze and I had a gift for my best friend and I’d evaded a butt full of
buckshot. I was still grinning away as I whizzed past another car until five
seconds later when I saw flashing lights and heard sirens.

Aw fuck me. Now what?

Roscoe whimpered as I pulled over. Pugs always look worried
on account of their wrinkly foreheads but Josie swears the dog’s right to be
concerned about me. But no need to fret this time, I thought as the officer
sauntered up to my window. “Hey, Calvin,” I said with a grin. “What’s up?”

“Your speedometer. And it’s Sheriff Clodfelter. We’re not at
Virgil’s poker table.”

His stern look sobered me some. So did his harsh lecture
about speeding and questions about what was in my trunk. I was more than a tad
perplexed. Why was Calvin being such a hard-ass when I hadn’t even beaten him
at poker that badly?

“Where you headed, Riley?” he demanded.

“A friend’s house.”

“Which friend? And what for?”

I frowned. “Have I done something wrong?”

Calvin leaned a hand against my car door and stared down at
me. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out, Riley. Everyone around here knows
you aren’t what we call gainfully employed. You got a brand-new air conditioner
in your trunk and you’re speeding down the back roads of Hawthorne. Why aren’t you
in Knickersonville where you Wanamakers belong?”

I put my eyes on the road ahead and bit my lips to keep from
talking back. My hometown and my last name were never far from the word
trash
around Mayfield County. Women loved me and I had a few male buddies but I
knew nobody besides Josie thought too highly of me and my family or the town I
came from. The tone of Calvin’s voice said as much and then some. The heat
breaking out on my skin had little to do with the rising temperature outside. I
heard Roscoe whimper and knew his brow was all knotted up.

“That dog have a license?” Calvin prodded.

I never was too book-smart but I wasn’t a stupid boy either.
I could tell I was one cuss word away from a baloney sandwich lunch at the
county jail. I knew that’d taste worse than swallowing my pride.

“My dog does have a license, Sheriff Clodfelter. The air
conditioner was given to me by Virgil for a favor I did him. I’m bringing it to
my friend Josie McCabe.” I ground my teeth before I could say, “And I’m sorry I
was speeding. It won’t happen again.”

The situation was ended by a call squawking through Calvin’s
police radio about someone firing buckshot into the air near the appliance
store. Calvin told me I’d best watch myself as he took off.

Well, what the fuck? I thought back to poker-and-porn night
to see if I could figure out what I’d done to shit in Calvin’s oatmeal. All I
could remember was putting in my two cents about how porn movies weren’t the
way to learn how to treat a woman right. Okay, maybe I bragged a bit about what
I knew and what my lady friends said they liked. I mean, hellfire, knowing how
to make love and get women happy was my best and only skill.

I didn’t think I mentioned being with anyone Calvin might
have been dating. Which didn’t mean someone else hadn’t been whispering about
what Wanamaker Happy was up to. I always tried to keep my mouth shut but that
didn’t mean the ladies were as discreet.

Roscoe gave a whine as I frowned. “Dang Calvin anyway,” I
said as I petted his worried brow. The interrogation was bad enough. What he
implied about my family was something I tried not to think about.

Wasn’t my fault I’d been born in the poor part of Mayfield
County. Or that I’d been one of seven kids my daddy could barely keep track of
after Momma died. Hellfire, I don’t know what would’ve happened to me if I
hadn’t gotten good-looking when I turned sixteen.

Women started loving on me then and hadn’t let up since.
They said I had pretty eyes. They liked my smile and the way my hair wouldn’t
behave. And they liked my tall, muscular body. A lot. As I’d been blessed with
a big cock and what Josie called a pathological love for females, I considered
it my mission to make women happy. And hell if I didn’t.

Damn generous I was with my knowledge of women too. Didn’t I
try to educate the men of Mayfield about how to make love so everybody could
smile a little bigger?

Try to be a nice guy and in one morning I’d been shot at and
given shit. I was getting right tired of Mayfield. I’d always felt I was
destined for bigger anyway. That’s what Josie and me always talked about up in
my treehouse—her becoming an artist and me getting rich and famous. How exactly
I’d do that we hadn’t quite figured out. About the only career I could see
myself fit for was porn star. Josie was trying to keep that as a last resort
though I didn’t see much wrong with it myself.

The thought made me smile.
Mmm-mmm
women—the cure for
what ailed me. I put the Mustang back in drive and felt my cock already in that
gear. I knew someone who could help me get my good mood back on.

Trouble was I never knew what kind of welcome I’d get from
Lucille. Sometimes she gave me a look that said
come on inside
and we’d
fuck for hours with nary a word between us beyond
yeah
. Other times the
look said
not now
, especially if she had company—meaning one of her
other men got there before I did. Lucille was the female version of me. She was
what people around here called a “free spirit” when they were being polite.

But Lucille didn’t care for the kind of talk that could go
around Hawthorne and people in this town sure did love to talk. Whispers about
a twenty-six-year-old man and a woman about fifteen years his senior might get
around. Most definitely would if that man was good ol’ Wandering Wanamaker.

Trying to keep Lucille happy by minimizing chances of
gossip, I left my car down the hill a ways, even though it wasn’t likely anyone
would see me since her wood-framed home was nestled alone in a grove of trees.
Parking there also gave me a chance to gather up a bouquet of tiger lilies for
her as I walked up the path to her place. Roscoe snuffled along beside me, his
brow now smooth with contentment.

Luck was smiling down on me. Lucille was on her porch in her
bathrobe, letting her long black hair dry in the breeze that ruffled through
the cedars. I never could get over how beautiful she was. Her skin had been
kissed by the sun to the color of a caramel. I could see the bright blue of her
eyes all the way from the path leading up to her ranch house. I felt my cock
start to get hard just from thinking about what was beneath her red silk robe,
knowing from the freshly showered look of her that she was naked under there.

“Morning, Lucille.” I gave her my most charming smile and
held out my flowers.

A sparkle came to her eyes when she looked at me but she
only took a sip of an iced coffee from a sweating glass. Then she said, “What’s
this I hear about you cheating on Josie with some real estate lady?”

Shit.
“That little misunderstanding? Hellfire, that
was nothing but a business deal. Me and Josie are square.”

Lucille’s half-smile was mischievous. “I know. I spoke with
her yesterday.”

I let out a relieved breath. “Well, the real estate lady
shouldn’t be an issue between us either,” I reasoned. “It’s not as though we’re
true to each other alone, Lucille. Though I’d entertain the notion if you
would.”

Warm as it was out, I still shivered over the beauty of
Lucille’s smile as she laughed. “Riley Wanamaker, you could never be true to
anyone. We’re two of a kind that way.” With the most casual move of her head
she beckoned me closer. I held myself back from running.

She descended a few of her porch steps to put me on eye
level with her breasts. Her nipples perked through her robe. I wanted to suck
them more than I wanted to breathe. She brought her hands to my face and
stroked her fingertips through my hair. The shivers I got all over came out in
a sigh. “I missed this, Lucille,” I murmured. “I missed you.”

“I couldn’t very well play with you while you were dating
Josie,” she said. “What kind of aunt would that make me?”

I looked up at her. “I’m free now.”

Her fingers trailed down my chest and my abs and on to my
belt buckle. “Tell your buddy Roscoe to find a patch of sun on the porch,” she
said. With the lightest hint of a pull on my belt she led me inside.

The first kiss was like a glass of iced sweet tea on a hot
day. A dizzying combination of relief and excitement surged through me as I
sought Lucille’s mouth. I couldn’t wait to make love with this woman who
matched me in skill and passion.