Friends & Lovers Trilogy (29 page)

When she woke up this morning, she’d called
Kent and told him the truth about her marriage. He’d been angry and
appalled, but agreed to come and help her leave Hank, just like
she’d known he would.

Kent was the one man she could always count
on.

The surprise came when Hank had come home
early and found her packing her things. She’d said she was leaving
when her brother arrived and tried to walk out of the trailer
quickly, but Hank had caught up to her in the kitchen.

Her thoughts seemed muddled in her mind and
she crawled as quickly as she could. She felt like she’d been
crawling forever, but had only made it a few inches, before she
felt Hanks boot on her ass. Roni sprawled on the floor, then
quickly tried to curl back into the fetal position and protect as
much of her body from him as she could.

She felt his hot breath on her cheek as he
leaned down and whispered, “I will never allow you to leave
me.”

Roni braced herself for the next blow, then
opened her eyes when she heard scuffling and the cold, hard tone of
her brother’s voice.

“
I should kill you right
now,” Kent said in a low dangerous voice as he pulled Hank from her
and flung him back towards the wall.

Roni scrambled up off of the floor and ran
to the bedroom to grab her bags. When she got back, Kent was
pummeling his fists into Hanks face.

She ran over to him and put her hand softly
on Kent’s shoulder. “Stop. He’s not worth it. Let’s just get out of
here.”

She heard Kent breath in deeply. He pulled
back and Hank slid slowly down the wall. He landed on the floor
with a thud.

“
You
will
never
see my
sister again,” Kent explained to his brother-in-law, then he
turned, put his arm around Roni, and led her out of the
trailer.

When they walked outside, Roni winced at the
bright sunlight. Kent stopped and turned her towards him.

She was ashamed to look him in the eye, so
she kept her head down. He put his finger under her chin and
brought her face up so he could examine it, his grey eyes filled
with worry.

“
It’s just my nose,” Roni
said softly. “Hank doesn’t like to mark up my face.”

Kent swore under his breath and pulled her
gently into his arms. “Why didn’t you call me sooner, Roni? I
could’ve helped.”

Roni felt her eyes fill and her throat get
hot and scratchy. “I was ashamed. You always protected me from Dad,
then I go and marry someone just like him. I was afraid you’d be
disappointed.”

“
I could never be
disappointed in you,” Kent replied as he kissed her softly on the
top of the head. “I’m taking you back to Texas with me; we’ll
figure everything out once we get there, okay?”

“
Okay,” Roni said with a
small smile. She let her brother walk her to the rental car and
settle her into the passenger seat. While he shut the door and
walked around the car, she settled back in to the seat and closed
her eyes.

Roni felt Kent get into the car and heard
him start the engine. As they drove away from the tiny trailer
she’d called home, she finally felt safe.

Six Months Later…

Chapter One

“
Where are you going?” The
tiny brunette next to him asked with a pout. Rich smiled down at
her and gave her a kiss on the forehead as he moved one hand under
the covers to search for his underwear.

“
I gotta go finish packing
up. I’m heading home tonight.”

The brunette sat up quickly, not bothering
to grab the sheet that fell from her naked body. Confusion crossed
her features as she asked, “Are you going home early for
break?”

Rich paused his search and took a moment to
appreciate her perky breasts, then looked into her deep brown eyes.
“No, doll, I’m going home for good. I finished my last class
yesterday, that’s why I was at the bar last night. We were having a
going away party of sorts.”

Her mouth formed a small O, then turned down
into a pretty little frown.

“
So, you mean I won’t ever
see you again?”

Rich finally found his boxer briefs and
swung his legs over the side of her queen sized bed to put them on.
He stood up to pull the underwear over his slender hips, and
reached down to grab the jeans that were peeking out from under her
bed. He pulled them up, but didn’t bother with the zipper; instead
he crawled back onto the bed and kissed her full lips.

“
Probably not, doll. I
don’t have any plans to come up here again anytime
soon.”

She kissed him back, then watched him scoot
back off of the bed and grab his shirt from the top of her dresser
in the corner. He felt her eyes on him as he pulled the dark gray
shirt over his head. Rich brushed his hands through his shaggy
brown hair in an effort to tame it a bit. He slipped on his shoes,
then went back to the bed to give her a final kiss goodbye.

She grabbed his face in her hands to
intensify the kiss. She trailed her lips across his jaw, pausing to
pay homage to the cleft in his chin.

“
Bye, doll.”

“
Do you keep calling me
‘doll’ because you don’t remember my name?” she asked.

“
No, I call you doll
because you are as sweet and delicate as a doll,” Rich said with a
wink. “I never forget the name of a woman I’ve spent time with,
Sam. I promise you that.”

When he left her room, she was still sitting
in the middle of her bed. Bare from the waist up, her dark hair
flowing around her shoulders, and a beautiful smile on her
face.

God, he sure did love women!

Rich walked to his car with a grin on his
lips and a hop in his step. He couldn’t wait to load up his car and
leave campus, Sam already a fond memory. He opened the door of his
rusty old Charger and paused to rub his hand along the dashboard
the way he always did when he entered his car.

He’d bought the car recently out of
necessity. She wasn’t new by any stretch of the imagination, but
she was reliable. He couldn’t afford to buy a new car right now,
since all of his hard-saved money was going towards his dream of
opening a Rec Center for the kids in his hometown. One day he’d be
able to get the car of his dreams, but for now, he wanted to make
sure his car knew that he appreciated her every time he started her
up.

He kept the windows down as he cruised
toward the house he’d shared with some buddies over the last couple
years. He was sure he’d miss hanging out with the guys, but he was
excited about going back home and seeing his family and friends
full-time.

The last time he’d been home had been for
Halloween, and he’d had a great time hanging out with everyone.
Bree and Colin had come home for the party, and he’d been thrilled
to see how happy they were. Shoot, it seemed like all of his
friends were hooking up. Kara and Pete were still going strong, and
since he talked to Kent quite often, he knew that his friends’
relationship with Nicole was moving along pretty rapidly.

His parents wanted him to move back in with
them until he got settled, but Rich was ready to be on his own.
He’d had the contractors renovate the back part of the warehouse
that would be the Rec Center so that he could live on site. He
figured it would work for a few years while he got the center up
and running, then, if things went according to plan, he would rent
it out to employees once he was ready to invest in a house of his
own.

For now, he was ready to be a
“grown-up”.

And, if he was being honest with himself, he
was looking forward to seeing a certain tall blonde again. Sure,
Roni acted like he was a pain in the ass every time she saw him,
but he couldn’t help but like that about her. Most of the women he
encountered enjoyed his company, even went out of their way to get
it. It was kind of nice to meet someone who didn’t drop her panties
when he turned on the charm.

He didn’t believe that she found him as
repulsive as she pretended to, but she sure didn’t make anything
easy, he thought with a chuckle. That was one of his favorite
things about her, and there was a lot about her that he liked.

Getting Roni to give him a chance was a
challenge that he was really looking forward to accepting.

Chapter Two

Roni felt the sweat trickle down her back
and she moved with the music. Her head was clear as she let the
beat guide her. She felt freer than she had in years.

She danced for over an hour before she felt
like she needed to stop and get some water. She stood and looked
out the window as she drank. She couldn’t keep the smile from
stretching across her face.

She felt happy here. Not only happy, but
content and safe. She loved being close to her brother, and was
thrilled that he had found someone like Nicole. The two of them
were so cute together, it bordered on nauseating, but it was
wonderful to see Kent so in-tune with another person.

Roni loved the apartment she shared with
Nicole. It was basically her apartment now, since Nicole spent most
of her waking hours at work or with Kent.

Roni enjoyed the time alone.

She’d gone straight from her parents’ home,
to the one she’d shared with Hank. When she’d first arrived here,
she’d bunked with her brother, and now she was living with Nicole.
This was the closest she’d come to having a place of her own, and
she found that she really liked having the time to herself.

She looked at the clock and realized that
she’d have to shower and get ready for work at the Bar & Grill
soon. She’d been hostessing for a few months now, and she liked the
job and the people she worked with, but it wasn’t what she wanted
to do long term. She really wanted to start dancing full time
again.

Roni understood that she would never become
a professional dancer at this point, she’d been away from it for
too long, and wasn’t getting any younger, but all she’d ever wanted
to do with her life, was dance.

There weren’t any dance studios in town,
which she thought was not only sad on a personal level, but for the
kids in town who didn’t have the opportunity to take classes.

Dance had helped her get through her
childhood.

She’d been thinking a lot recently about
what Rich was doing with the warehouse downtown. As much as he
annoyed her, she had to admit that he was producing something
wonderful for the community, and the children in it.

A Rec Center that would offer classes and a
place for the kids to go to was a wonderful idea, and she couldn’t
help but want to be a part of it. Her brother told her he thought
it would be great for her to teach dance lessons there, but she had
another idea. She just had to bite the bullet and talk to Rich
about it.

Roni knew that this center was his baby, but
she really wanted to own something of her own, now she just needed
to find Rich and see if he would buy in on it.

She’d heard that he was back in town and
staying on the construction site. She thought if she got ready now,
she’d have time to talk to him before her shift started.

After she was ready, she
drove to 5
^th
street and stood nervously outside the warehouse. It was so
much bigger than she’d imagined, and looked like the unused
warehouse that it was, but she could see the potential in it. She
felt a flutter of excitement in her belly.

She made her way through the warehouse,
careful to avoid the areas that were currently being worked on,
towards the back of the building. That’s where Kent said Rich’s
rooms were.

When she came upon a white door slightly
ajar, and heard the music streaming out of the room beyond it, she
figured she’d found the right place.

She pushed the door open and peered inside.
Her jaw dropped and her eyes seemed to freeze open at the site
before her.

There was a makeshift bed in the corner,
boxes strewn about the room, and a door that led into a small
bathroom. In the center of the room Rich stood in nothing but
basketball shorts. His very toned and naturally tanned body
glistened with sweat as he worked the speed bag before him, his
fist moving rapidly as they punched.

The quick curl of lust in her belly shocked
Roni. She’d never had such an intense and immediate reaction to a
man before. Even more shocking was the fact that it was Rich that
caused her body to suddenly feel infused with liquid heat.

He hadn’t heard her enter. The music was too
loud, and he was totally focused on pounding the bag.

Roni couldn’t look away. She felt a visceral
need to touch. As the muscles rippled under his skin with each
movement, her hands itched to feel.

Roni shook her head briefly. What was she
thinking? This was Rich. A player. A Flirt. The exact opposite of
the kind of guy she needed in her life.

Someone needed to explain that to her legs,
she thought. They were about to give out.

Suddenly she realized that the movement
before her had stopped. She shouted out, “Hey,” to get Rich’s
attention, before he turned and caught her staring at him. The last
thing she needed was for Rich to think she thought he was hot!

Rich wiped at his brow and turned, a grin
spreading across his face when he saw her in the doorway. He held
up a finger, to tell her to give him a second. He crossed the room
towards the docking station and bent to turn down his iPod.

Roni stifled a grown at the sight of his ass
as he bent over. Who knew a man’s ass could be so freakin’ tight?
And his back… Good Lord!

Roni composed herself as he turned back
towards her, but couldn’t help the jitters of happiness in her
stomach when he didn’t reach for a shirt.