ROMANCING HER PROTECTOR (3 page)

toward the bathroom door as if an alien creature was ready to run out and get her.

“And close the door while you try to find it so it won’t come out of there!” she yelled

as Matty went into the bathroom. He closed the door and had a quiet laugh before he got

down to business.

Shay lay on her back in bed and tried to calm herself down. She felt like a chump, like

one of those helpless females who always needed the big, strong man to come to the rescue,

but she couldn’t help it. She hated spiders. Hated them! And when she saw one crawling

across that bathroom floor she nearly broke her neck getting out of that room. When she saw

Matty standing there, all naked and fine, and when he took her into his arms, she knew she

would be all right. It was an odd feeling for her, since she never relied on anybody for

anything, but that was how she felt.

Matty’s feelings weren’t as cut and dry as Shay’s as he peeled around that small

bathroom looking for some elusive spider. When he saw her naked body come toward him,

despite her hysteria, his loins throbbed at just the sight of her. Her nice little breasts were

bouncing, her narrow hips and slender thighs were bobbling, and her dark skin had him

salivating for her. She had that same dark chocolate skin Alex had, and she reminded him of

the Alex he once knew of nearly a decade ago. Back in the day Alex had that wonderfully

unique, independent spirit too. Now she just had independence.

Shay’s clothes were still all over the floor where she left them and Matty, ever the clean

freak, picked them up and hung them over the shower stall. Hopefully they would be dry by

morning as it was appearing to him highly likely, given the way the rain and the wind continued

outside, that they would be spending the night in that tiny motel room. Which, he also had to

acknowledge, after seeing that ripe little body of Shay’s in the flesh, wasn’t an altogether

unpleasant prospect for him.

“There you are,” he said when the spider finally came into view, lumbering out from

behind the commode. And Shay wasn’t joking. That thing was big as a Buick. But not so big

that he couldn’t grab a glob of tissue and smash it. And then flush the remains down the toilet.

When Shay heard the toilet flush and then saw Matty come out of the bathroom, she

sat straight up in bed, her bedspread falling around her waist, so caught up in the moment that

she didn’t realize how exposed she was. “Did you kill it?” she asked ever so anxiously.

Her big, sincere eyes softened Matty. And a wave of protectiveness suddenly washed

over him. “Yes,” he found himself saying, “it’s out to sea now.”

Shay fell back down, her head hitting the pillow hard, her ripe little juicy melons, Matty

couldn’t help but notice, bouncing on the hit. She looked so relieved, yet still so disturbed, that

it disturbed him. He walked over to the bed and stood over her, unable to restrain himself

from laying his hand on her soft, smooth face.

“What’s the matter now?” he asked her, disturbed that she always looked so worried.

“That spider will never travel your way again.”

Shay looked at him, with her eyes almost by reflex going to his long, thick penis first.

When she realized her error, she looked up into his eyes. His hand felt so good on her face,

and his scent felt so masculine and strong, she didn’t quite know how to respond. There was a

reaction within her, deep within her, that was almost foreign to her.

Not that she didn’t understand about men and women and all that they did together, she

did understand. But it was just that
she’d
never done any of those things before. Besides, it

was all so confusing to her. Here she went from near hysteria over a spider in the bathroom,

to lust over some man at her bed. And not just any man, but a big, strapping, beautiful man

like Matty. And she suddenly felt overwhelmed.

He seemed to notice her apprehension because he just stood there and studied her, as if

he was attempting to make a decision about her, too. And then he moved his hand from her

face to her arm. “Scoot over,” he said in a kind of quiet voice that made clear, it seemed to

her, that sleep wasn’t the main reason he wanted to get in bed with her.

She moved over. And they lay there, both on their backs deep under the bedspread,

staring at the water-stained ceiling above them.

“This isn’t exactly the Ritz-Carlton, is it?” he said and Shay smiled.

“It’s shelter from the storm. No more, no less.”

Matty looked at her. “Still cold?”

She nodded.

“Okay, come here,” he said, turning on his side and opening his arms to her. It was

risky, he knew it was risky, but she needed his body heat to keep her warm.

Shay moved into him with no reluctance. She knew she needed his body heat and

welcomed it. And when his big arms encircled her, and pulled her against his rock-solid body,

she felt as if she was getting so much more.

“You okay?” he asked her. “I’m not holding you too tightly, am I?”

“No, not at all. Thanks.”

Human affection had always been difficult for Shay. Ever since she excitedly went up

to the man who owned the corner drugstore, the man her mother had claimed was her father,

and he told her to her face that she was no kid of his and he’d better never hear her tell a living

soul such a lie, she’d been leery of ever exposing her true feelings so blatantly. And whether it

was he who was telling the big lie, or her mother, it didn’t matter to her after that day. She left

that little depressing town of Monticello, Florida, and never saw either one of them again.

“So ShayShay is afraid of spiders,” Matty said, smiling.

Shay could smile this time, because she felt completely protected. “I can’t help it. I

just hate those things.”

He ran his hand through her hair. “What else are you afraid of, Shanita?”

She shrugged her small shoulders. “Lots of things.”

Matty stared at her hair. “Including men?” He said this and then looked at her. She

looked up at him. She wasn’t an old, experienced hand at this, but she knew what he meant.

“Depends on the man,” she said.

Matty smiled weakly. “Good answer,” he said. Then he stared at her. “I’ve always

found you attractive, Shay, you know that?”

“I know that. Just like you find Jessica attractive, and Lola, and Bridget, and every

half-decent looking waitress in Stop Gap, attractive.”

Matty laughed. “Ouch. Are you always this brutally honest?”

“With other people? Yes. With myself? Not so much.”

This surprised Matty. “Why wouldn’t you be honest with yourself?”

“Nobody really is, are they? It’s too raw, too real, nobody can deal with the

unvarnished truth when it comes to themselves. Or maybe some people can, I don’t know.

But I know I can’t. I don’t even try anymore.”

“Are you dating right now, Shay?”

Right now
, Shay wanted to say. What about never? Guys found her too odd, too

quick to cut through their bullshit, for them to bother. “No,” she said.

Matty believed her. “I understand why.”

This offended Shay. Did he think her odd, too? “What do you mean?”

“I mean you’re your own person. You don’t play the games, you don’t go along with

the dating rituals, you’ll make a young man work for the privilege to get to know you better.”

This interested Shay. “And because of that they don’t want to know me better?”

“They don’t want to put in the work.”

Shay smiled. “Yeah, I guess I am a piece of work.” She and Matty both laughed.

“What about you?” she asked when the laughter died back down. “Are you seeing somebody

right now?”

Matty hesitated. His separation from Alex was still raw. “No,” he said truthfully.

“Although I had been in a long-term relationship.”

“It recently ended?”

“A month ago, yes.”

“A clean break, hun?”

Matty didn’t respond. He was no liar, and wasn’t about to become one now. He had

just seen Alex earlier that day, after she insisted she had some problem she needed his help

with. And when he saw that gorgeous dark chocolate face of hers he had come to adore, and

she ran to him and threw her arms around him, he thought for sure he would forgive her

everything, including her fling with lover boy football coach, and take her back.

But it was all bullshit in the end, he quickly discovered, when she immediately launched

into the real reason she needed him. And it, of course, had less to do with him, and everything

to do with his wallet: the annual, elites only campus ball-slash-retreat was coming up the end of

next month and she had seen this necklace in Tiffany’s that she wanted him to purchase for

her. List price: $61,989.00.

It was Matty’s fault, and he knew it. He had spoiled her that way. When they first

met, she was smart and self-sufficient and exactly the kind of woman he wanted. And he

wanted her desperately. She was in college, completing all of her degrees in the world of

academia, and he had foregone college to stake his claim in the world of business. And as

soon as he made it big, he wanted her to share in his newfound wealth. He lavished her, not

with what she needed, but with whatever her eye found pleasing. With jewels and furs and

designer everything clothing, because he knew she loved those things.

Now she seemed to love those things more than she loved him, which was

heartbreaking for Matty. Almost as heartbreaking for him as that day, a month ago, when he

found out she was sleeping around with the football coach.

She wanted Matty still today, she insisted, but only if he was willing to have that open

relationship she wanted. In other words, as long as he was cool with her banging the football

coach. Matty was a one-woman kind of man, and wasn’t about to share his woman with

anybody else. He said no. End of story.

But, of course, his history with Alex went far too deep, and was far too involved, for

the story to ever truly end.

“What if it’s not a clean break?” he finally asked Shay, in answer to her question.

“Would that be a disqualifier?”

Shay thought about this. She knew where this conversation was heading. She knew by

night’s end something was going to happen between them. What she wasn’t sure about was

what. “For sex, no,” she finally said. “For more than that, yes.”

Matty loved her honesty. He wrapped her tighter into his arms and raised her chin so

that they were eyeball to eyeball. “And if it’s only sex, can you handle a one-night stand?”

He asked this with a little brutal honesty of his own, making clear in his question that

what they were about to do, if they agreed to do it, would lead to nothing else. He still had too

much of Alex on his brain to launch into another heavy duty affair.

Shay felt her entire body clench at just the thought of it. What on earth was she about

to get herself into? But looking now, into Matty’s caring eyes, made her know she wanted to

get into it. She wanted it, maybe even needed it, desperately. “Yes, I can handle it,” she

finally said.

Matty wasn’t sure if she could or couldn’t. He’d yet to meet a woman who could.

They’d say so upfront, insist they wanted it to be a no strings affair just as much as he did, but

then later insist on those very strings.

But Shay was different. For one thing, he always viewed her as a woman who danced

to the beat of her own tune and wouldn’t allow herself to let any man define her. His strange

concern, in fact, wasn’t so much that Shay would want strings attached, but that he might,

which, given his emotional state, was crazy.

But the circumstances, tonight, were too ripe. It was raining outside, the thunder and

lightning were unrelenting, and Shay was lying her very desirable naked little body against him.

And just thinking about it, and feeling her breasts prick his chest, her flat belly push against his

ever-expanding penis, made his desire for her rise to a level that was beginning to become

essential. He pulled her closer still. “Feel better?” he asked her.

She smiled, because she actually did. “Yes. Thanks. Those chills are gone. But it still

sounds awful outside.”

“Yes, it does,” Matty said, as he continued to hold her, to brush her hair out of her

face, to feel her body against his.

His nearness was also affecting Shay in a profound way. And that was why she loved

when he touched her face. Only Matty didn’t’ stop with a touch. He began to rub her cheeks,

and then to caress her back, her buttocks, unable to stop drinking up the fresh, sweet scent of

her, the feel of her supple body, the pure, wonderful innocence in her eyes.