Licorice Whips (6 page)

For a split moment, she imagined what it would be like to fuck him. This stranger would be a perfect rebound sex subject with his large hands, muscular thighs, and those kissable lips. She could use a sex-only type of relationship. Deana would be proud of her for that decision. Too bad this guy hated her guts. 

“You again.” He shook his head. “I heard a scream. Can I help you?”

If he only knew.

Chapter Three

Sweet hadn’t expected two things when he heard a scream that he didn’t help produce: he didn’t expect to see the lone protester standing alone doing the shouting, and he didn’t expect to be hit with that familiar tingling feeling in his fingers that itched to grab his whip and use it on her.

In his vision of disciplining her, he would be doing it out of pleasure, not to cause her pain like she wanted to inflict on him and his brother with all of her protesting.

As much as Sweet hated to admit it, for as many times as he had gone to The Dollhouse, like Masaun had said, he hadn’t played with anyone since Melinda. Until he could get back to his normal self, he couldn’t think about anyone in that way right now. 

“I’m fine.” She ran her hand back over her hair in front of her ponytail. “No, I’m not actually.” She looked at him like she wanted to unload her life story. Then she clamped her mouth shut.

Sweet scanned her body. Her tightly-wrapped sweater, her clingy black pants, and flip flops showed off her fit body. She hadn’t changed from the outfit he saw her wearing a few hours ago.

Out of curiosity, he glanced over at the vehicle next to his truck to see if a small dog existed inside. Although he didn’t see or hear a dog in her car, he still held onto the idea that she spent her life doing the bidding of some rich man.

He didn’t mind the catering part. The idea of her being attached to someone sent a strange tickle over the back of his neck.

What the hell was he doing? He didn’t know this woman to feel jealousy or any kind of attachment. Being the object of her hatred didn’t garner her any sort of connection.

The more he stared at her, the more he realized his quick assessment didn’t hold water. Although pretty—hell, gorgeous—Sweet noticed she didn’t have a stitch of makeup covering her flawless caramel-colored face.

A trophy wife, girlfriend, or mistress wouldn’t leave the house without her face firmly in place for the world to admire. How brave of this woman to not only wear body-conscious clothing but to let her natural beauty shine. The sight had him giving her kudos in his head.

“People who scream like that normally don’t do it without reason.” He stepped into her pacing path to stop her movements.

When she halted in front of him, Sweet caught a strange aroma, a mixture of jasmine and oranges. To him, she smelled refreshing.

She peered up at him, her brown eyes looking so innocent and full of wonder. “I had a reason. I just don’t need to tell it to you.”

Sweet glared at her, hoping to intimidate her from the location. “You’re right about that. I’m certainly no Dr. Phil.” He cocked his head as he stared at her. “You didn’t accept my gift.”

She wrinkled her nose. “What?”

“The box of chocolates.”

She tilted her head. “You weren’t serious with that. And you really didn’t think I could accept that.”

“You’re right. I didn’t. But I did expect you to come into the store and throw them back into my face.”

She shook her head. “So that you could sue me for assault or something? Not on your life.” A look of realization crossed her face and she squared off in front of him. “Are you following me around now? I hand out a few fliers in front of your job and now you’re tailing me?”

Sweet shook his head. “I have better things to do with my time than to follow around some lunatic.”

“Lunatic?” She glared at him as she reached into her cavernous brown purse and pulled out her phone.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t see her retrieve a gun or Mace.

“Your assessment of people is unbelievable.” She punched in numbers on her phone with her thumb.

“What can I say? You bring out the worst in me and this is only my second encounter with you.”

He would leave out the fact that after their initial meeting, she sparked a deep desire in his body that he hadn’t felt since Melinda. Although he’d dated African-American women before, one who came off as a kept woman usually didn’t appeal to him. 

The way she stood her ground and kept her stare on his eyes drew him into her. Her body also captured his attention. Considering she made it clear that she didn’t appreciate him or what he did, he had no business thinking of anything else besides getting this woman away from himself and his store.

Sweet, seeing her concentrating on her call, saw the move as a sign that she wanted the conversation to end. He turned his attention back to the two empty suites. In his mind, he could see the larger space being used for the candy store, and the relatively smaller space next door to be the fetish store. He turned around and took notice of the abundant traffic.

He could see his plan working and making him and Masaun a ton of money. Masaun had been an unexpected obstacle.

“Hello?”

Sweet heard the woman on her phone, but kept his attention on the suites.

“Yes, I’m calling about leasing a space here at the downtown building, the one on Center Main Street.”

When she said that, she snagged Sweet’s attention. First Masaun and now this unknown woman tried halting his dreams not once, but twice that day. Of course she didn’t know what obtaining this spot would mean for him. So he had to let her know where he stood.

“You can’t have this space.” Sweet spoke to her as he shook his head.

She furrowed her eyebrows as she glared at him. “Excuse me?” She covered the mouthpiece. “I’m on a call.” She turned her back on him. “Yes, I can hold.”

Sweet nodded back toward the building. “I want this space. That’s why I’m here.”

“How would I know that? I thought you were following me.” She scanned him from his eyes down to his feet. “There are two suites. You can have one and I can have the other, if they’re still available.”

Sweet shook his head again. “No. I want both.”

“What? Did you mark them as your territory or something?” She punctuated her query by looking at the ground around him and the sidewalk in front of the two storefronts as though he had actually pissed on the doors to claim his spots.

Sweet blinked. “Did you just compare me to a dog?”

She shrugged. “That would be the only way to explain why you would think you can have these spots.” She turned her back on him and continued her phone conversation. “Yes, I’m still here.” She paused for a moment before saying, “Yes, I can meet at your business office next Monday. May I have the address?”

She reached into her purse again and pulled out a pen and a scrap of paper she managed to find.

Sweet had to hand it to her. The woman, whoever she was, knew what she wanted and was hell bent to achieve her goal. Too bad he would have to put a stop to her dream.

“My name?” She shoved the items back into her purse but continued to keep her back to Sweet. “Nikla Dearwood. N-I-K-L-A.”

Sweet let the unique name roll around in his head. He thought his name was unusual. He would have to remember hers as one of possibly many adversaries.

“By the way, do you have any other appointments for someone asking for both units? Someone by the name of–” She stared pointedly at Sweet.

If he wanted to mess with her, Sweet would have left her on the hook, dangling, waiting for him to tell her his name. He like the game they played with each other.

Sweet took a step closer to her. At this point, it didn’t shock him that she remained in her spot.

“I’m Sweet.” He watched Nikla swallow hard. “Sweet Hawkes.”

Nikla’s mouth hung open as she stared at him. As much as he didn’t want it to happen, Sweet felt his heart pounding, a feeling he hadn’t felt since he first played with Melinda. It looked as though Nikla’s breathing increased. She licked her bottom lip.

Just the sight of her delicate, pink tongue almost made Sweet growl. What the hell was happening to him? Just a second before, he wanted this woman to disappear and give up trying to get
his
space. Now his mind wandered over thoughts of having her use that tongue on various parts of his body.

Damn. Masaun had been right. It had been a long time since Sweet had been with anyone if he thought this woman had potential.

Someone on her phone must have snapped her out of her concentration. “Yes, do you have an appointment for someone named Sweet Hawkes?” She remained silent before directing her attention back on him. “You don’t?” Nikla shook her head. “I’m not surprised. Thank you. I look forward to meeting you.” She disconnected the call. “I thought you really wanted it.”

Sweet put his hands to his hips. “I do
really
want it.”

Nikla cleared her throat. “If Sweet Hawkes is really your name, it was interesting meeting you...again.” Nikla headed to a gray sedan that sat next to his truck.

“I am Sweet.” He had to say something to her to keep her there longer. As soon as Sweet spied her firm ass, he forgot about reason.

She turned to him. “Every man thinks he’s nice...including my soon-to-be ex-boyfriend.”

She mumbled the last part of her statement but Sweet had heard every word. So this mysterious woman planned on dumping her boyfriend. Sweet’s accelerating heart propelled his feet to move in closer.

“No. My name really is Sweet.” He extended his hand.

She peered at his hand then up at him. “Are you serious? Your mother named you Sweet?”

He continued holding his hand up to her. “No. It’s a nickname. I’ve been called Sweet since I was a baby. Just stuck.”

“And what’s your real name?” She crossed her arms over her chest, still wary of accepting his gentlemanly gesture.

“I only reveal that to special people, Miss Dearwood.”

She blinked, looking taken aback when he used her real name. Never accepting his hand, she said, “Thank you for letting me know you are my competition. You know I’m not the only one checking this place out. You’ll have other people to compete with for this spot. You just need to be ready to fight for what you want.”

“I’m ready to divide and conquer.” Sweet stared at her pointedly so that she understood his true underlying meaning.

Images flashed through his mind of him pressing her firm ass against the glass of one storefront, spreading her long legs, and fucking her hard enough to imprint his name in her mind forever.

“I hope you have a good day.”

As soon as his gaze connected to her sultry brown eyes, his body came alive. Sweet normally got that tingly feeling before playing with someone new.

As much as he wanted to invite her to The Dollhouse, Sweet didn’t want to play with someone he couldn’t be with romantically. Masaun would have hated his need to connect the two lives. Sweet knew what he wanted. 

“So are you going to tell me about the scream?” Sweet turned to the empty storefront. “And why here?”

When Sweet stood too close to the beauty, he noticed her toned arms and tapered-in waist. She could probably withstand a vigorous play session. The thought of that had his cock throbbing. Shit, he would have to leave soon if continued talking to her.

“I can’t reveal that to someone I really don’t know.” She gave him a sweet smile.

She must have felt clever referring to his previous statement in her response.

Nikla turned to leave him again. When he glanced down, this time at her slender legs, his mind went directly to his Dominant side. Sweet wanted to see if her darker skin tone would show red streaks from heavy play. Hell, would she be even interested in playing? Would she let him cane her?

Sweet wanted to kick himself for even thinking about playing with her. Nikla would probably be so disgusted knowing that he imagined strapping her down to a St. Andrew’s cross and whipping her to submission. His brother would be disappointed to know that Sweet would want to fuck her afterward, even though Masaun probably did the same thing with Kindle.

“So will you be at Decadent Treats tomorrow?” Sweet followed her to her car and leaned against the passenger side door of his truck as he stared at her.

Nikla turned to him. She opened her mouth like she wanted to say something. Then she blinked, cleared her throat, and turned to her car door again.

“Why do you want to know? Want to have the police there ready for me just in case?” She stared at him pointedly.

“You think I need someone to help me handle you?” He wanted so much to run his fingers through her hair that she had in a ponytail.

“I don’t know what you need.” Nikla stared at him for a bit. When the electricity between them must have been too much for her, she broke the connection and hit a button on her key fob that set out a chirping sound, then she opened her car door.

“I’m always there. If you show up again, I promise to be out on that sidewalk with you.” Sweet snapped out of his haze to bring his full attention to her. “You won’t win.”

Nikla used the car door as a barrier between their two bodies. “I wouldn’t make that bet if I were you.”

“I’m not a betting man.” Sweet pushed himself away from his truck. The longer he stared at her the more his heart pounded. “When I know what I want, I go after it. Hard.”

Nikla cocked her head making her wavy, chocolate brown ponytail sway to the side. “Mr. Hawkes–”

“Sweet,” he quickly corrected.

“Mr. Hawkes, I appreciate your concern when you heard me releasing a bit of steam.” Her smile tightened as though he had pushed her to the edge. “I don’t know what your end game is, but trust me. I’m not interested.”

“Good. I’m glad you’re okay. And trust me. You are definitely interested.”

Nikla ran her hand over her stomach, but remained silent like she didn’t know how to respond. Or maybe she didn’t want to admit what he said had been right. 

“So what do you do to fill your time?” Sweet lowered his voice.