Lawked Flame (7 page)

“Miss?”

Alayna turned back to the man standing next
to her. “Yes?” She couldn't remember what he'd said before; her
thoughts were preoccupied with the sad vibes wafting from Lorenzo.
She glanced at him again. He stared at the ground, while the large
man continued to talk. The dark male standing next to her looked
toward Lorenzo and groaned. Her head swung to him.”What? You know
him?”

“Who?”

Watching him closely, she asked, “Those two
men?”

He turned and looked at the men again. “Yes
I know them. Why?”

“Lorenzo has been kind to me all day and now
seems sad. That guy with him, who is he?”

“He is Benicke.”

She waited for him to say more. Impatient,
she glared. “And? Who is he to Lorenzo? Why is he sad?”

The dark man looked down at her a moment
longer and smiled. She blinked at his dark-complected Asian
features, perfectly even white teeth, and beautiful dazzling smile.
His long braid slapped his back as he tipped his head in their
direction. “You will need to ask them those questions, Mistress
Kee.”

“Mistress Kee? That's not my name.”
Mumbling, she marched toward Lorenzo and took the spot next to him.
“You ready to go?” She looked him in the eye, trying to read the
cause for his distress.

“Have you picked up the things you needed?”
He appeared confused. Maybe she had misread the situation. Beneath
her brow, she threw the red giant a warning glare.

“Not yet.”Embarrassed, she turned toward the
women's section and looked at the clothing while keeping Lorenzo
and the red-headed man in sight.

It hadn't taken her long to discern
Lorenzo's sexual orientation. He was a man's man in the truest
sense of the word. Quite a few of her friends were gay, and she'd
spent more time than she would have liked running interference
against brutish dominant men.

After watching a few minutes longer, she
realized things remained the same, except now both men seemed sad.
Deciding her friend wasn't in trouble, her attention returned to
finding deals.

Alayna had just walked out the dressing room
after trying on a pair of jean shorts that'd been marked down
seventy percent. She knew they weren’t her size when she went to
try them on, but if they were close to snapping at the waist, she
planned to take them home on general principle.

Stopping at her cart, she tossed in the
shorts and rubbed her arm. The air in the store seemed different,
statically charged. The piped music continued to play, but the
notes seemed sharper. Goosebumps exploded over her skin, sending a
shiver down her spine. It felt like a cold wind blew through the
building. Pulling her overcoat tighter for added warmth, she tossed
a pair of jeans into her heavily loaded basket and blew out a sharp
breath. “So many deals, so little time,” she murmured, looking at
the sales rack a few aisles over.

Inching the basket in the direction of the
shoe section, she froze when Lorenzo called her name. An inner
battle ensued. Some people drank alcohol. Others did drugs. Her
weakness wasn't shopping as much as it was finding deals. In her
profession, her compulsion served her well and had made her a
wealthy woman at a young age. Although this wasn’t the same thing,
she had to fight hard to force the grip her inner shopper had on
her into abeyance.

“Alayna,” Lorenzo called, closer this time.
She turned, looked at him, and started sneezing. Next to him, stood
a man who made her mouth water and her jaw drop. She blinked,
thinking the tall, tanned confection was a mirage and sneezed
again. Not the polite kind of sneeze you make with a weekend cold,
but the deep, long-winded, kind that empties everything from inside
your chest. Each glance in his direction sent her into a sneezing
frenzy. Eyes watering, she backed away to catch a breath. What the
hell did he have on? A look of concern etched Lorenzo's face as he
walked toward her. The male stayed put in the lingerie section as
she wheezed.

“Are you okay?” Lorenzo asked in a low voice
while examining her with a critical eye.

Embarrassed, she wiped the moisture from her
eyes and tried to smile. “Yeah.” Sniff. “I'm good.” She wiped her
nose with a tissue he handed her. “Thanks,” she said, and placed
the balled wad in her pocket. “I don't know what happened,” she
lied.

Something about the man Lorenzo had been
standing beside attracted and repelled her at the same time. An
allergic reaction perhaps? She couldn’t figure out her reaction to
the stranger, so she threw it in the odd things she’d seen today
bucket and glanced in the general direction of the hottie. Lorenzo
blocked her line of vision and her heart lurched.

“If you are okay, we can check out and
leave, the store will be closing soon.” He moved around to the
front of the cart, watching her closely. Scared of her earlier
response, she turned to block the stranger from view and breathed
easier.
Was it an out of sight type thing?
She wondered. As
she followed Lorenzo to the check-out area, the space between her
shoulder blades itched. She knew the hottie watched her, but for
her peace of mind, she refused to look back.

On the other side of the cash register, she
noticed the dark male with the eyeglasses from before. He stood
talking to the man named Benicke. Both men sobered when she reached
the register. For a brief second she wondered if they were store
security, they'd certainly watched her hard enough. A few moments
later, they exited the building. For some reason, she felt a pang
of loss and couldn't explain it.

She looked at Lorenzo. He stared at the
glass doors, his face sad as well. Perplexed, she looked toward the
door and her eyes clashed with the man who had caused her sneezing
fit. For a moment the air stopped circulating and simply froze in
her throat. Her heart skipped a beat and then raced. Paralyzed by
something she couldn't name, she stared, unable to look away as she
took in his features—square face, high cheekbones, sharp nose, and
what appeared to be blue-green eyes.

He inhaled, nodded, and walked out the door,
releasing her from his web. How apt a description. For a moment,
she had felt as though she were his prey, a fly caught in a web,
waiting to be devoured at his leisure.

Chapter 6

Alayna and Lorenzo made good time back to the
boarding house from the department store. The cool bite in the air
encouraged her to move at a fast clip. She pulled her jacket
tighter around her chest, trying to ward off the chill. Searching
the dimly lit street, she noticed she was the only person wearing a
jacket. Even her companion appeared unaffected by the cooler
temperature.

Staring straight ahead at the white clapboard
building, she bit her lower lip and forced her arms to remain at
her side. “Cold?”

“
Hmm?”

She clenched her teeth as he pulled open the heavy
entrance door. “I asked if you were cold?”

“
No.” He closed the door behind
him as she wiped her sneakers on the welcome mat. “Are
you?”

She grinned while searching the foyer. “Not anymore.
Where is Ms. Olga or Ms. Alma? I need to get my key.”

“
They are around. I hear someone
coming this way.”

“
Hello dearie,” Olga said as she
entered the foyer. “How was your shopping? Did you get the things
you needed?”She spoke slowly and succinctly, her smile firmly in
place.

Lifting her bags for the other woman’s quick
perusal, Alayna smiled, thinking of all the deals she’d purchased.
“Yes, I did. They had a lot of things on sale, which made it even
better.”

Olga smiled indulgently as she opened a drawer and
pulled out a key. “Well, I guess you are ready to bathe and relax.
I believe you know where everything is already, but if you need
anything, please ask. I am so glad to have you staying with us.”
The older woman slid the heavy key across the desk and then placed
it in Alayna’s outstretched hand. The heat of the metal warmed her
palm.

“
Thanks. I need to get out of
these dirty clothes.” Turning, she nodded to Lorenzo who held her
other bags. “Let’s go.”He followed as she trudged up the staircase
to the second floor. The lovely three-storied old house had been
turned into a bed and breakfast, and oozed character. If it could
talk, it would probably tell some fascinating stories of people who
had lived beneath its roof in times past. The hall boasted four
doors. Hers was near the end, close to the bathroom.

After unlocking her door, she all
but threw the heavy bags on the floor and heard a thunk against the
hardwood floors. She watched Lorenzo as he placed her shopping bags
on the floor next to the others and then sat in the large
wing-backed chair near the door. She glanced at her phone on the
small table near the bed where it charged. “Tomorrow, I need to
contact my brother about his car. How far do you think I need to go
to get a signal?”

“
I do not know. Do you wish me to
inquire?” Although his lips asked the question, his eyes said
something entirely different. He didn’t want her to leave. Like
her, Lorenzo seemed lonely; perhaps that’s why she had taken to him
so quickly. It hadn’t taken long for her to pick up that he was an
anomaly here.

Bending forward, she took his hand and squeezed.
“Please do that. I have to let my family know where I am. I don’t
want them to worry about me and I won’t be able to sleep in this
big bed tonight if I can’t reach them.” She pointed to the large
four poster bed in the middle of the room, wanting him to know she
wasn’t going to leave immediately.

His face lit up like a child who had been granted
the wish of their heart. “I will.” He stood and left the room.

Shaking her head at how easy it was to appease him,
she wished life’s problems could be handled with the same
simplicity. A smudge of dirt on her pant leg caught her attention.
A bath and clean clothes were in order.

She looked in one of the bags and
removed the undies and oversized tee-shirt she had purchased in
lieu of pajamas. Grabbing her favorite vanilla-scented soap and
lotion, she left her room for the bathroom down the hall. When
she’d checked in earlier today, Olga had informed her there were no
other guests, so she wasn’t surprised to find the bathroom empty.
It wasn’t overly modernized and boasted large claw-footed tub in
the middle of the room.

As she filled the tub, the hottie
from the store flashed through her mind, sending heat in unexpected
places. On one level she was pleased by the confirmation that she
could still get excited. It had been over a year and a half since
anything remotely tingly had tingled her. On the other, she shunned
the idea that the same man who literally took her breath away
through sneezing fits, could be a romantic interest. No, make that
a sexual interest. Sex was necessary, romance or anything involving
that fickle organ called her heart, was not.

On the shelf beneath the window
sat a bottle labeled bath salts. Opening it released rich, spicy
aromas. After spending a few seconds trying to identify the
individual scents, she gave up and decided she wanted the fragrance
in her bath. She poured in a liberal amount, fascinated by the
alka-seltzer fizzle that swirled in through the water. The combined
bouquet of flowers and spices teased and soothed her nose. She
stuck her hand in the swirling eddy and gasped at the tickling
sensation. The next second, she would swear the water penetrated
her skin and reached her nerve endings. The soothing and calming
water throbbed and ebbed like a distant shore, with each wave
relaxing her tired body further.

Refusing to wait a moment longer, she peeled off the
rest of her clothes and slid into the tub, immersing everything but
her head under the water.

“
Ahhh,” she murmured as the bubbly
waters massaged her tired body and soothed away her tension. “I
need to book this room once a month just for this.” She closed her
eyes. Layer by layer, cares and concerns slid away in surrender to
the soothing bath. The odd events of today took a backseat to the
peace that stole over her mind. For the first time in months she
was untouchable. It felt great.

Only God knew how long she
remained in the tub. Each time the water cooled, she’d let out a
little of it and replace it with hot water so she could stay just a
little longer. Best of all, no one bothered her. She was definitely
going to book a room for next weekend once her brother and nephew
returned home. Perhaps she would bring them with her. The moment
that thought popped in her mind, she squelched it. This would be
her secret sanctuary.

After drying off, she dressed in
the long tee and looked in the mirror. Pushing her hair back from
her face, she stared through lowered lids at her flushed skin. It
glowed. A few swipes with her brush formed her hair into a ponytail
and she was done. Another glance in mirror showed a confident woman
pleased with herself.

After bundling her clothes, she left the bathroom
and almost howled in delight at the scents wafting through the
hall. Someone was baking something with chocolate and vanilla. Her
stomach growled in recognition as she headed for her room.
Depositing her clothes in a bag, she put on a pair of socks and
followed her nose to the dining area.

As Alayna turned the corner she saw Lorenzo and Olga
sitting at the table, sipping some sort of tea. “Something smells
good.”

“
I have made some baked goods.
Thought you might like a snack a ‘fore you went to bed.” Olga
pushed a tray of muffins toward her.

Alayna reached for the small pot on the table and
poured the rest out in a cup.“Thanks, I appreciate it.”