Red Collar (16 page)

His confidence staggered slightly when it refused to open. Perhaps, they didn’t like any visitors at this hour. Or maybe, they went out
? What if Kate had simply shifted them to another place, a relative’s for the week? He was beginning to feel like a dud.

“No, they simply haven’t heard,” he convinced himself. “One more time.”

He knocked again and it still would not open.

“A third time, Lorenzo. And then you’re out of here.”

He knocked thrice more and yet no one answered. His feet refused to move away, his heart clenched from the pending reciprocity of his knock. He raised his fist to hammer it hard against the door in the hopes that the younger kids had the television blaring as loud as they did when he had first met them and as a result hadn’t heard his knocks.

At last
the door opened slightly.  Enough for him to notice that Johnny had answered it. He inevitably overheard the angry screams of the older occupants in the room. His teeth clenched, expecting the worst, such as an intruder getting into the apartment.

He
pushed the door open roughly, bracing himself to attack.

A startled Rudy looked up at him as he held onto the waist of an older woman in a football tackle, a leg in the air like a ballet dancer, keeping Libby away from gorging the eyes out of the older woman. He watched them with interest until Rudy broke his spell.

“Lorenzo! Help, would you?!” Rudy screamed.

Lorenzo grinned and marched over to a raging Libby. Holding her waist from behind her, he tugged her up and away from the scene, her legs flailing in ire as she now tried to fight him off
instead. He carried her to the closest bedroom and threw her on the bed.

“How dare you!” she screamed and rushed towards him to hit him.

He caught her hands and held her tight against him.

“Let me go!” she ordered.

“As long as you promise not to attack me,” he said, smoothly. “That’s one hell of a claw you got there. And I do want to get back to work tomorrow instead of taking a ride to the hospital.”

“I don’t care where you go,” she minced. “But if you don’t let me go, you will regret it.”

“I don’t think I will,” he smirked, gazing down at her blue eyes.

She squirmed in his arms and he threw her back.

“You have quite a temper,” he smiled. “Were you born that way?”

She flared, taking aim to hit him again.

He shook his head. “You don’t want to do that. Unless it’s deliberate and you like being in my arms again.”

She hesitated. “I have to talk to
Rudy.” 

She tried to swing past him but he shoved her back again.

“Not yet,” he said. “I want to know what’s going on before you throttle your female guest.”

“Who told you to come here?” she dared. “You don’t even live here. You’re not part of this family and it
’s none of your business what we do in here.”

He shrugged. “I really don’t care two bits how you feel right now. But when I say stay, you stay. Or I’ll carry you out of this house. And trust me, with the way you just behaved, not one person in that room will stop me.”

“You won’t dare,” she glared.

He turned around towards the doorway. “Cool that temper of yours. And until you do, you don’t come out.”

He shut the door behind him. He heard something thump against the door, rattling it. He grinned. It probably was a pillow but at least she had listened. He was half-afraid she would call him out on his threat to carry her out.

He entered the living room again. The woman had settled onto the couch, combing her hair with her fingers in an attempt to calm herself. Rudy had slumped into another, heaving from their
tussle.

“Hi,” he said to the woman. “I’m Lorenzo.”

She gave him a weak smile. “Bridget. Kate’s friend.”

“Kate’s neighbor. From the first floor,” he explained.

She nodded. “Thanks for that,” she indicated at her row with Libby. “Libby and I… well, our differences go a long way.”

He smiled. “And yet you’re here. You must be really close to come out here despite how Libby feels about you.”

She sighed. “Trust me when I say I’d rather be somewhere else. But Kate needs all the help she can get. It’s not fair on her with all the crap she’s been putting up with these past years. And Libby doesn’t quite make it easy on her too.”

Lorenzo frowned.
He himself had seen the extent to which Kate had struggled to keep her family afloat.

“Have you had your dinner yet?” he asked Rudy, diverting from the subject. The least he wanted was stressing out the younger kids in the room.
Their stunned faces told him they were still getting over the little altercation between Libby and Bridget.

Ru
dy shook his head in answer to his question. He didn’t bother to respond as he leant back into the settee, panting.

“Well, then,” Lorenzo said, mentally assessing the situation. “Let me whip up something real qu
ick. In the meanwhile Rudy, why don’t you check in on your mother? Just in case she’s been disturbed by this little havoc.”

“I’ll do that,” Bridget said, rising out of her chair. “Since I am partly to blame for the so-called havoc.”

She crawled out of the room, her body limp and tired.

Lorenzo ran a hand through his dark hair in frustration and then made his way to the kitchen. He rummaged through the cupboard and the fridge, looking for incentives to spark a recipe.

“We’ve got some frozen meals,” Rudy said, watching him curiously. “Kate got us a large stock of that. I was just going to heat some up for dinner.”

“Yeah?” Lorenzo replied,
as he studied the contents of a can of dried cashew nuts. “You probably could use them when I’m not around.”

He grinned as he showed off his find. “How about some chicken and cashew nuts with pilaf rice?”

“Sounds fancy,” Rudy shrugged. “You sure you got all you need to pull it off?”

“Yep,” said Lorenzo. “I checked. Now, are you gonna stand there and play the critic or are you gonna give me a hand?”

Rudy chuckled. “Yeah sure, why not? After that rumble, I’m hungry as a lion.”

“By the way
, are any of you allergic to anything? Cashew nuts?”

Rudy shook his head. “None that I know of.”

“You better ask Bridget before I throw in the nuts.”

Rudy arched an eyebrow. “I saw her once down a pack of cashews all by herself. Does that help?”

Lorenzo chuckled. “Yes, it does. I will just have to trust you on your observations then.”

Rudy laughed. “I’d rather not face the women yet.”

The two boys grinned at each other as Lorenzo popped a frozen chicken fillet into the microwave to defrost it.

*****

Kate took a quick shower, praying not to be caught in the midst of it by Clayton. She wanted to be dressed and under the covers of her bed before he returned.

But when she opened the door of the bathroom, there he was standing in the middle of the room, in the process of removing his shirt. He had unbuttoned it, exposing the
taut muscles of his chest. The belt of his trouser was undone and left dangling at each end. His pants had slipped down to reveal his pelvis.

She swallowed nervously, unsure of what to do next. Her body ached to hold him, to feel herself be tormented and tortured by his touch. Her pride pushed her away
, keeping him at a safe distance as she skirted the sides of the room to reach for her bag.

“The shower’s free
, if you need it,” she uttered without even as glancing at him.

She deliberately had her back turned as she dug into her bag, her mind all the time calculating
on where she could get decent without exposing herself to him.

Her heart lurched on
suddenly finding that her feet were being dragged off the floor. A small cry escaped her throat as she realized she was being carried into his arms. She writhed within it, slapping at his chest, shaking her legs violently to free herself from him.

“What are you doing? Let me down!”

He threw her onto the bed and she clutched desperately at her towel from slipping away.

“Are you mad?” she screamed at him.

“Only when I see you,” he grinned devilishly.

“You’ve lost your mind, Clayton,” she growled. “Let me get dressed.”

“I much prefer you like this,” he said in a low husky voice, etching closer, his eyes darkening with his pent up desire.

“I will scream,” she whispered.

And he bent down to kiss the soft flesh at the base of her neck, drinking in the pearls of water adorning it. She moaned.

“Go ahead. Everyone would just think you’re having the time of your life,” he muttered against her skin. “After all, we’re engaged. You’re my fiancée.”

Her fingers delved into his hair, tugging his head closer to her bosom. Just hearing she was anything as close as that to him, aroused her even more. Maybe for one night, she could dream of being his real fiancée. To believe she was his lover, his soon-to-be-wife, sharing the pleasures of their intimacy, having a right to his body- every part of it.

He peeled her towel away from her fingers, leaving her bare to his delight. He ran his hands down her body, feeling her contours. He cupped her breasts and she arched towards him, grounding herself against his arousal, needing to feel him.

She reached for his shoulders as he moved to kiss the valley between her breasts. And when he rubbed the flat pad of his thumbs against her taut nipples, she cried and dug her fingers into his back. He suckled her nipples and she arched further into him, wounding her legs around him.

“Clayton, touch me,” she pled.

But he was slow and deliberate, tormenting her more, making her aware that he alone was the master of her body.

He kissed slowly
down her quivering stomach until he reached the dark curls covering her sex. He gently parted the lips of her swollen, heated sex and caressed it with his thumbs as he kissed the inner flesh of her thigh. She gasped, thinking she would not be able to take any more. But when he suckled it with his mouth, she cried out in agonizing ecstasy begging him to take her.

Finally when he felt that he was at his own breaking point, he threw away his clothes and thrust into her wetness, driving deeper and deeper into her as she met
him stride for stride.

In one furth
er act of a plunge, she felt his arms tighten around her, an orgasmic relief surging through her body as she felt him pour his seed into her.

*****

Clayton awoke in the morning to find Kate nestled against his torso, their naked bodies entwined within each other.

She stirred in her sleep and a simple movement of her buttocks against his groin, hardened him again.

He kissed her shoulders, trailing them down her sides and she moaned without waking. He turned her gently on her back to watch her face. It was those lips he wanted to possess, that which she had denied him for so long.

He looked desirously at it, bringing himself to caress it with his. He entered her slowly and she l
et out a soft cry, as she tenderly nipped at his lower lip in her ecstasy.

The mere touch of her
lips against his own throbbed him achingly in his groin, wishing for her to taste him.

She opened her eyes, widening
them in surprise when she realized he was going to kiss her. She stiffened and he felt it immediately.

He pulled back and
instead plunged savagely into her, releasing his anger into a long, pleasurable orgasmic relief.

*****

Kate had fallen asleep again, her head on his chest and her hand on his arm as if she were wishing to entrap him.

And in many ways she had. Despite his will, he wanted to keep her at his side forever and despite his raging common sense, he had introduced her to his family as his fiancée, hoping that they woul
d win her over with their heart, knowing he had little chance of doing so himself. Perhaps then, she would consider his offer and stay.

But the
n he had seen her recoil when he attempted to claim her mouth. He knew instantly that he was far from what she desired. They were sexually compatible, he was aware of that. He could illicit a response from her just by a mere touch of her skin and she would burn in a fervent, heated desire for him to possess her like no man could. But it was her heart he wanted and which she still held back from him.

These were early days, he resolved. An
d this was just the first of her six days with him. By the end of their visit, she would be begging to stay with him forever.

*****

Kate awoke to a now empty bed. It was well past eight o’clock. Clayton had by now left the room, leaving it all to her.