Loving True (9 page)

Hayward
sighed. “See, you’re wrong I asked her out.”

“
Hayward
, are you sure you’re okay?”
Clinton
questioned. “Do I need to come for a visit? Maybe she knows you’re rich.”

Hayward
loved that
Clinton
was worried about him, but he was old enough to look after himself. “No, she isn’t after my money. She doesn’t have a clue how much I’m worth. Do you think I would ask her out, without having her background checked first?”

Hayward
glanced at the purple file by the side of his bed.
 
“I got all the paperwork back from Joe two hours after I knew her name. You know how thorough he is. He never leaves a stone unturned,” he muttered. “There was something in her past about a bad relationship with a guy. I asked her about her past tonight but she didn’t say anything.”

“See,
Hayward
, maybe she’s up to something.”
Clinton
tossed back.

“Clint, I didn’t tell her about Brooke and Tyler. She asked me have I ever been married and I said no.” He was astonished at the sense of regret he felt for being dishonest with her. “See, I haven’t been completely honest with her either.”

“Well, tell me how she looks blonde, redhead, and brunette?”

“True is about five feet two, shoulder length black hair, with delicious mahogany skin.”

“She’s black!”
Clinton
choked out.

“Yes,”
Hayward
said. His dropped his voice another octave. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“No, I don’t have a problem. So, when do I get to meet her?”

“I don’t know,”
Hayward
confessed, “Whatever this guy did to her it made her leery of commitment.”

“Are you saying after one date you want a committed relationship with her?”

“Her personality drew me to her,”
Hayward
sighed. “I tried to fight it the first time I saw her, but the pull was so strong.
 
Then tonight, at dinner, I almost kissed her to death in the kitchen.”
 

“What did she do?”

“She was going to leave, but I got her to stay. We ended up having a fantastic dinner. I even invited her back over tomorrow night.”
 
Hayward
smiled at the memory. “Clint, I want to know more about her. She’s searching for something and I want to know what it is.” He traced the square pattern on the sheet with the tip of his index finger. “Who knows maybe we both are searching for the same thing.”

“Do you think it right to start this relationship on two lies?”

“What lies are you talking about?”

“You didn’t tell her at dinner about the private investigator or being married,”
Clinton
replied. “What if she finds out later on?
 
How will you handle it?”

“Right now I don’t even know how far this will go,”
Hayward
confessed. “If it goes into a real commitment I’ll tell her everything. Until then there’s no way she will find out, before I tell her.”
 

“I hope you’re right,”
Clinton
sighed, and then hung up.

Hayward
glanced at the phone in his hand. He wanted to hear
True’s
voice one last time before he went to bed. He dialed her number and was stunned to get a busy signal.
 
Who was she taking to?
Placing his cell phone back on the nightstand, he turned off the light. “I’ll try not to move too quickly with her.” He promised himself before going to sleep.

* * * *

Sitting on her bed, True arranged two pillows behind her back. She needed to get more comfortable, because Stephen wasn’t going to believe her when she told him about tonight. Picking up the phone, she dialed Stephen’s number and waited.

“Speak.”

“Stephen, I went out on a date tonight.”

“What!” Stephen yelled.
 
“True you aren’t making any sense. Have you been drinking? I know how you can’t handle liquor. ”

“Stephen you know I don’t drink alcohol. Honestly, I got back about forty-five minutes ago and guess who it was with.”

“Please don’t tell me it was your neighbor.”

“Yes,” True whispered into the phone.

“Tell me how this happened, because I tried to set you up on three blind dates after
Dalton
and you told me no.”

She didn’t want to hurt Stephen’s feeling, but none of his single friends were good dating material. “I thought maybe it was about time for me to go out on a date. Plus when he volunteered to cook dinner how could I say no?”

“You only accepted his invitation because he could cook a decent meal. Are you sure his good looks didn’t help you say yes?”
 
Stephen inquired.

“No his looks didn’t factor in my decision.”
 
True denied.

“You’re a liar True Monica Williams,” Stephen teased. “You know dark haired men are your weakness. Don’t you dare try to deny
it!
”

“Okay I do have a fondness for dark hair and blue eyes,” she admitted. “But that isn’t the reason I said yes to him. I really wanted to have dinner with him.” True took a breath and rushed on. “I’m scared Stephen.
Hayward
brings all these feelings out in me I thought had died after
Dalton
.”

“Sweetheart, it good you’re feeling things for someone.”

“No, you don’t understand. I don’t want to feel this away about him or anyone else.” She wasn’t strong enough to risk her emotions again.

“Do you think he could be the one to repair the damage
Dalton
did to you?”
 

“I don’t know Stephen, but I did enjoy it when he kissed me tonight.” True placed a hand over her swollen lips. She still could taste him there.

“Shit, you didn’t tell me he kissed you!” Stephen shouted. “I want details.”

“If kissing was a crime Hayward Campbell would get a life sentence.”
 
True confessed.

“Sounds like he might want to further the relationship with you, what will you do if he does?”

“Stephen I don’t know. Let’s not talk about it okay? How’s Michael?
 
Is he still modeling overseas?” She hated asking Stephen about Michael. Stephen gave way more to the relationship than Michael did.

“He’s over there now.
 
I don’t think he’ll even make it back in time for my birthday. Are you coming to the party?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Well, I’ll send you an invitation
anyway,
maybe you’ll change your mind.”

“Okay, but I’m not making any promises,” True sighed, “I better go it’s getting late.”

“Call me again next week and sleep tight.” Stephen said.

“I’ll see what I can do.” True answered, and then ended the call.

Chapter Five

He rang her doorbell early the next morning. His finger pushed the raised button for the fourth time in a five-minute span. “God woman come to the door before the food gets cold,”
Hayward
said to the closed front door. He needed to see True this morning. Feel the hot caress of her sweet breath against his lip. Hear the tiny giggle in her laughter. He raised his fist to the knob on the oak door, when it suddenly swung open and his eyes quickly swept the delicious vision poised in the doorway.

He swallowed hard. The purple silk fabric barely covered
True’s
firm breasts. Her long black hair tumbled over her shoulder and the heated scent of her skin made him very aware of her, his lower body tightened in response.

“
Hayward
, what are you doing here so early?” True yawned and then rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand.

Forgetting his promise to move slowly,
Hayward
hauled her softness into his arms. He maneuvered her back into the house and kicked the door closed with the heel of his shoe. Backing True against the door, he devoured her luscious lips with his. The white sack slipped from his fingers and landed on the carpet with a low thud. Moaning, he jerked her hips closer to his aroused body
. I shouldn’t be doing this, but I can’t help it. Why does she have to taste so delectable?
 

His mouth drank in the beauty of her mouth. Its richness flowed through his veins.
Hayward
yanked his mouth away. He nibbled on her neck, and his tongue worked its way down the side of her neck between soul-searching kisses.

Her low purrs reached his ears, the sound pounded in his head pushing him on. Sliding his fingers up her side, he cupped one perfect breast in the palm of his hand testing its firmness. “Baby you feel so good,”
Hayward
moaned. She was perfect like she was made only for him.

True rubbed her body against him. She moaned. It shot out from the back of her throat teasing him. Smiling, he rubbed his nose over her cheek. “Kitten, do you realize what you’re doing?”
Hayward
brushed his thumb across a hard nipple and waited. Slowly, True raised desire filled eyes. He watched the sleep slip from their brown depths.

“Oh my god, what are we doing?” Her eyes widened from shock, True placed her small hands on his chest and shoved him away. He watched her chest heave from the deep breaths raking her body as she moved away from him.

Hayward
was having a hard enough time getting his own desire under control. He fought down his need to yank
True’s
sexy body back to him. The fact that her damn nightgown barely covering her
body,
wasn’t helping his good intentions either.

“Kitten, if you don’t leave right now. I swear I’ll carry you upstairs and make love to you.” He let his gaze wander over her figure. “Are you ready for that?” Light smoldered in her dark eyes, as she looked at him from across the room. He knew she wasn’t ready to act on the desire she felt for him.

“I’ll go and change.” True spun away from him and raced up the stairs. Two minutes later, he heard a door slam shut upstairs. Chuckling,
Hayward
grabbed the sack off the floor and turned in the direction of the kitchen.

* * * *

Walking back down the steps towards her living room, True still couldn’t get over finding
Hayward
on her doorstep this morning. She barely had time to get over the shock before his talented mouth was on hers.
Hayward
’s kisses had a way of making her forget who she was. Pausing at the bottom step, she stalled for more time by tucking her white button down man’s shirt into her jeans. She couldn’t let
Hayward
know how excited she was to see him.

Hearing a sound coming from the kitchen, she squared her shoulders and headed in that direction. Her footsteps were drowned out by the deep sounding country lyrics of Lee Ann Womack’s
I Hope You Dance
pouring from the kitchen. Pausing in the doorway, she folded her arms across her chest and watched
Hayward
change the radio station. She couldn’t get over how perfect he looked in her home. She let her eyes linger on the snug fit of his blue jeans, and then over the dark blue t-shirt stretched across his wide back.

“
Hayward
, what are you doing in my kitchen?” She questioned, moving away from the door into the room.

Hayward
turned. Leaning against the counter, he smiled at her. “I like your outfit.

“T
hank
s, but you still didn’t answer my question.”
  

Walking over to her, he brushed his thumb across her swollen bottom lip. A light tremor shot through her body at his touch. “I need to bribe you into doing something with me.”

Her eyes narrowed, “What is it?”
 

“I’ll tell you after you eat breakfast.”
Hayward
wrapped an arm around her waist, and then walked her over to the kitchen table. She glanced down at the plate, then back up at him.

“Who made these?” She questioned pointing at the blueberry muffins sitting in the middle of the plate. She couldn’t remember the last time she tasted hot blueberries in her mouth. She shivered again at the touch of
Hayward
’s hand pressed in the middle of her back.

“Sit down and eat before the food gets cold,” he breathed by her ear.

Pulling out the wicker chair, True sat down in the chair and placed a muffin on her plate. “Aren’t you going to join me?”
 
She noticing his plate was empty.

Hayward
straddled the chair across from her. “No, I’ve already eaten, but I wanted to spend this morning with you, so I brought you some muffins.”

Surprised by his confession, True sneaked a quick peek at him and the tenderness in his expression amazed her. As their eyes meet, she felt mini shocks run through her body. She stared at him, while her heart pounded wildly in her chest. God, why did he have to say something like that to her so early in the morning? He was slowly breaking down all the walls she built around her heart. She couldn’t let him seduce her with those eyes. No matter how many times she dreamed about them at night.
 

“All right, I guess I can eat with you watching me,” she muttered reaching from a muffin.

After she finished off the muffin a few minutes later,
True
wiped her mouth with a napkin and tossed it down on the plate. “Okay. I’ve finished. Now tell me real reason you came over this morning and don’t lie to me.”

“I want you go to Brown’s with me and pretend to be my girlfriend,”
Hayward
said.

“What?”
 
True choked out.
Hayward
wasn’t making any sense. Why did he need her to pretend she was his girlfriend?

She jumped when
Hayward
reached across the table and grabbed her hand. “Don’t look at me like that,” he pleaded. “I haven’t lost my mind if that what you’re thinking. Just sit still and hear me out.”

“Sure I’ll listen to you.” True eased her hand away and placed it on her lap. She couldn’t wait to hear what
Hayward
had to say. He was an ever-changing mystery. She never knew what would come out of his mouth at any given moment.

Hayward
ruffled his hair. “You know that Brown’s Grocery is a family owned business right?”

“Yes, I heard that.”
 
True uttered.

Hayward
drummed his fingers on the top of the glass table. “
Thomas Brown
, the owner of the store has three attractive single daughters: Stephanie, Brooke, and Nicole. Stephanie and Brooke don’t pay much attention to me, but Nikki wants me. She doesn’t know how to take no for an answer. If you pretend to be my girlfriend, she might get the hint and leave me alone.” he muttered. “Can I count on you to help me out?”

“Are you kidding?” True gasped.
 
She brought her hand up to her mouth to suppress her giggles.

“What’s so funny?”

“Your plan to get rid of Nikki,” she giggled.
 

“I guess that means you aren’t going to help me,”
Hayward
sighed frustrated.
 

Wiping the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand, True regained her composure. “No, I’m not going to do that. Why don’t you tell Nikki you aren’t interested?”
 
She didn’t understand why he would ask her to do something so stupid. She would never understand how a man’s mind worked sometimes and honestly she didn’t want to.

“Don’t you think I haven’t already done that,” he growled frustrated. “She doesn’t want to hear it.”
Hayward
leaned across the table and stared into her eyes. “Please help me out with this.”

The hot sun beamed down through the open breakfast nook window. The warm rays heated her cool skin.
 
Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she swung her eyes out the open kitchen door. She watched a hummingbird pecking at a bird feeder, hanging in a shade tree a few feet from her backdoor. The hummingbird hovered over the food like a small helicopter; its beak nipped at the colorful seeds.

Why should I help him
? I’m not his bodyguard. He didn’t really need her help to get rid of Nikki, so what was the real reason he asked her to do this?

Looking back down at the tablecloth, True traced the small sunflower pattern in the middle. She ran
Hayward
’s idea through her mind a couple of times and she smiled to herself. Why shouldn’t she help him? It might be fun to give Nikki something to be jealous of. Nikki always made sure she gave her a hard time every time she walked into the grocery store. Always asking to see her driver’s license three or four times before she would accept her check. Maybe it was time she experienced some of her own medicine. With a slow, secret smile, she raised her head and looked at into a pair of killer blue eyes. “Okay I’ll help you.”

Hayward
jumped out of his chair and yanked her into his arms. “T
hank
you.”
 

* * * *

An hour later,
Hayward
stood in the center of the movie aisle between the deli and bakery. “I don’t know which one to get.” He muttered holding a romantic comedy in one hand and an action adventure in the other. He didn’t think True would enjoy either, so he placed them back on the stand. He reached for another movie when he felt a smooth hand brush the hair off his collar.

“True, I thought you had gotten lost.” He grinned turning around and the smile slipped from his face. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Now is that the way to greet an old friend,” Nikki pouted her fingers played with the top button of his blue shirt.

He brushed her hand off his shirt. “What do you want Nicole?”

“You,” she purred running her tongue across her bottom lip.

He took a step back from her. “Well, that isn’t going to happen anytime soon. How many times do I’ve to tell you that?” He didn’t want to be rude, but if that were the only way to get rid of her unwanted attention, then he would do it. He admitted Nikki wasn’t an unattractive woman, but she wasn’t what he wanted.
 

Nikki’s breasts poured out of her white v-neck t-shirt. Her long shapely legs shot out from underneath the miniskirt. A mass of red hair tumbled over her shoulders highlighting her best feature-a pair of dark forest green eyes. No, she wasn’t bad looking at all he thought when he looked at her flawless face. Yet, he didn’t feel a thing because Nicole was a carbon copy of Brooke. Dollar signs shined in her eyes every time she stared at him.

“You shouldn’t be so mean to me or I might start to get offended. Do you know how much fun we could have together?” Nikki asked touching his arm again.

He brushed her hand off for a second time and took a quick glance over his shoulder.
Where in the hell was True when he needed her?

* * * *

Positioned further down the grocery aisle True watched Nikki flirt outrageously with
Hayward
, “I better go save him before Nikki sinks her nails any deeper into his arm.” She placed the box of popcorn back on the shelf. Hurrying down the aisle she stopped next to
Hayward
and wrapped her arm around his waist, “
Hayward
I’m sorry I took so long.”

“It’s all right kitten.” He pressed a light kiss against her temple.

Nikki’s head twisted in her direction, and then she looked back at
Hayward
“How do you know her?” She hissed.

“True is my girlfriend,”
Hayward
replied.
 

“How could you date someone like her?” Nikki snapped, waving her hand in front of her face.

True saw the look that came in
Hayward
’s eyes at Nikki’s insult. She tried to grab his arm, but she wasn’t quick enough. She had to give Nikki credit though. She didn’t even flinch when
Hayward
grabbed her arm and shoved her away from them.