Texas Stranger (8 page)

“Good, then could I use your phone?” he asked January while Tonya edged her way to the door to leave the office.

“Sure take as long as you like,” January said, closing the door behind her.

“Are you sure?” Tonya asked, turning to her outside the door.

“Yes, I’m sure, now go, don’t keep him waiting.”

“Your super!” Tonya said, racing for the locker room to change her clothes.

It was nearly four-thirty, and she was getting tired as she realized she hadn’t really gotten any sleep the night before, not to mention no lunch today. A good hot shower and the sauna sounded so good. She decided to work-out on some of the machines until time to close the club.

Her muscles seemed stiff since it had been awhile sine she’d worked out. She knew the sauna would help her relax the soreness, that she would surely get from the exercise. Two hours later she was letting the last person out the door.

Sliding out of her tights she stepped into the shower. The needle sharp spray felt good on her tired body. After
a few minutes of the warm shower, she rapped a towel around herself and headed for the sauna. Opening the door, the hot moist air felt good on her already warm body. She laid on the hard red wooded seat and let the towel lay softly over her. Totally relaxing her muscles, she fell softly asleep.

She could faintly hear a phone ringing, as she tried to open her eyes, to find out where the sound was coming from. Her body felt so weak she could hardly lift her arms.

“My GOD!” she heard Mary’s voice gasp from far away. “What are you doing here by yourself?” She cursed. “Carl come quick I need your help.” January in the mean time was trying to sit up, but the strain was too much for her, and she fell back into the hard wood. Someone was holding her, she could smell the faintly familiar cologne.

“January wake up, wake up.” She heard Carl plead. “You’ve got to try.”

“Try what?” January said, softly trying to get control of her self.

“She’s probably dehydrated, I can’t imagine how long she’d been in there. I think she’s coming around. Sit up girl, and open your eyes.”

January felt his hands on her bare back, the feel of him touching her like that she relaxed even more.

“January sit up you’ve been in the sauna too long again. Now come out of it.” Carl ordered her.

Realizing she was totally undressed when she went in caused her to try to cover herself. “Please cover me,” she pleaded weakly.

“You are covered,” Mary assured her. “You have a towel around you, now, how do you feel?” Mary asked, concerned.

“I need a drink, please, my mouth.” She tried to sit up without help. Her head was buzzing, and she had trouble holding it up. Feeling herself being lifted off the floor by two strong arms, she could feel the towel slipping from her but had no control to stopping it. Softly Carl laid her on the sofa in her office, draping his jacket over her. She was too embarrassed to look at him as she continued to keep her eyes closed tightly.

“Carl, BJ is on the line, he wants to talk to you.” Mary said. “You can take it there.” Indicating to the phone on the desk.

January heard his voice talking, but was unable to make much sense out of the conversation. Her head was spinning so fast she was surely going to be sick.

“Mary, get the blanket out of the trunk of my car.” Carl ordered her. “I’m taking her home. Then you can take my car to pick BJ up.”

“That’s OK, January’s car is here I’ll take it, can you manage?” Mary asked.

“Yes, I can,” he said leaning over January. “Here sit up and drink this.” he said helping her lift her head. As he tipped the glass of water to let her taste the cool liquid. Mary disappeared through the door.

“Not too much now,” he warned her, as he took the glass from her lips. “You just rest and let me take care of you.” He whispered.

January leaned back into the soft cushion. Drifting off to sleep, to exhausted to argue with him.

Through her semi-conscious state, she was aware of Carl’s strong arms lifting her up. Her head resting against his massive shoulders, the smell of the cologne he wore. If only she had control, she would put her arms around his neck, maybe even kiss those beautiful demanding lips, run her fingers through his dark wavy hair.

“January your home, I’m carrying you up the stairs, so just relax and don’t fight me or your blanket will come off.” he warned her.

“Oh, I’m so embarrassed,” she mumbled lowering her head to his shoulders.

“Just do as I say,” he said, lifting her out of the car. She held his neck with her arms, burying her face in his chest, as he carried her with little effort up the stairs to her apartment.

He managed to unlock the door with the key while still holding her in his arms. Laying her on the bed, she felt strangely alone, for she needed his touch.

“You need to get under the covers,” he told her. Pulling back the covers for her and fluffing her pillow.

Suddenly aware of her naked state, she protested. “No, I can do it, please.” she pushed his hands away from her.

“Okay, but you shouldn’t be that modest.”

“Really Carl, I’m okay now, please you can leave.”

“I’m going to fix you something to eat, you just lay there and rest.”

“But...,” she tried to object.

“No buts just lay there,” he warned, and closed the door to her room. Her mind now taking some shape, she wondered how it was he and Mary came to be at the club in the first place.

With her head light, she strolled carefully to the closet to get her robe. Passing the mirror on the way, she was shocked to see her dark hair in such a disarray. Slipping on a robe and a pair of slippers, she ran the brush through her tangled hair. Her arm felt heavy as she sat down heavily on the side of the bed. Letting her head drop down, for it seemed to heavy for her to hold up.

“You don’t take orders very well I can see. Now you’ll either get in bed and relax or I’ll put you there.” Carl warned her as he came toward her.

“Okay, okay,” she put her hand up to stop him. “Just give me a minute.” She said as she took as much energy as she could master. She then got under the covers. He propped the pillows up behind her, and she felt strangely uneasy with him treating her this way.

“There is that comfortable?”

“Yes, fine thank you, now you can go, I’ll be fine,” she said avoiding his eyes.

“Good, I’ll bring your soup and sandwich with some juice.” He said ignoring her.

“Oh, please I couldn’t, please....,” she said, pleading to him to just leave her alone.

“You wouldn’t want me to force feed you now would you?”

“No, but you see, I’m not hungry, as a matter of fact, I don’t think I could eat anything right now.” She said playing with the fold of the sheet.

“Is that so? Well you will either eat now or do it in the hospital. So I suggest you follow my instructions. I would hate to see you with a tube running through your arm.”

“You’re a hard man, Mr. Richards.” January sighed.

He brought her food back on a tray, orange juice, Beef stew, peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk.

“Here drink the orange juice first, we need to get our strength back up.” He said, handing her the small glass. “Tell me something January, don’t you eat anything but soup? There’s not one piece of meat in that refrigerator.”

“No, at least not at home. I don’t have time for big meals, besides, too much red meat isn’t good for you.”

“Know wonder you passed out, you can’t possibly be healthy living on soup, you of all people should realize that.” He grunted.

“What give’s you the right to tell me what I can and cannot do?” She said just as angry.

“Someone needs to take care of you because you certainly can’t seem to on your own. Now eat that soup, at least it has all the vitamins your body needs.”

“Maybe I don’t feel like eating,” she challenged him.

“At this point it doesn’t matter what you want,” he warned her “Besides if you don’t eat, I’ll see to it your fed through your veins, its up to you.”

January realized he was having trouble holding his temper, she shouldn’t have provoked him. She reached over to pick up the tray and sit it on her lap. Then she heard Mary and BJ’s voice coming from the living room. Carl went in to greet them and within a few minutes Mary knocked softly on her door.

“Come in,” January said, putting the spoon back down on the tray and moving the tray to the night stand.

“Hi, how are you feeling?” Mary said, strolling toward her and straightening the covers on her bed.

“Better thank you. Tell me Mary, what were you and Carl doing at the club?”

“Oh, we were out at the Ranch and BJ’s truck broke down so we went in town to pick him up when we drove by the club your car was still there. Carl was the one who wanted to stop. It was a good thing we did, or you would probably be dead by now. Carl pulled you right out, you were lucky. I can’t believe you went in there again after what happened just a few short weeks ago.”

“Please do me a favor no lectures, I really didn’t stay in there that long. What time did you two get there?”

“Oh, around seven I think,” Mary answered.

“Well I guess I’d been there a little longer than I thought, but I was tired, and the sauna relaxed me a bit too much is all, I’ll be fine as you don’t have to worry about me.”

“Well maybe so, but Carl is worried, and he went to the store to buy you some meat that you can fix when your tired, that doesn’t take much time to fix. Or at least that is what he said he was going to do. He and BJ left a minute ago.”

“He’s doing what?” January jerked the covers off of herself.

“Now you just relax,” Mary calmed her. “We were going to go out to dinner and Carl said he wasn’t leaving you alone until he felt you were better. They hadn’t eaten all day, so I told them they could go to the store and get something to fix here, or pick up fast food and bring it back. I hope I didn’t speak out of turn.?” Mary apologized.

“I guess that is the least I can do after all the trouble I’ve caused.” January said, laying back on the pillows.

“Look, this stuff is cold, you just relax and they’ll be back soon, then we can fix something different.” Mary said taking the tray from the stand. “Personally I hope they pick up some steaks, I’ve been wanting one all day.” She laughed.

“Steak, hum... that sounds good,” January sighed. “Maybe I should get up and take a quick shower, you know clean up a little.”

“Oh no you don’t, Carl would have my head, he told me to keep you in bed and I for one intend to do just that. I’d hate to cross him, I’ve seen his temper.” Mary said shaking her head. “I’ll tell you what if you’d like to put on your Caftan I’ll get it out for you. You can wipe off your face and put on a little blush, you look a little pale.”

“Sounds like a plan,” January said throwing the covers to the side again. Although her head felt light she leaned on the counter in the bathroom as she splashed water on her face and brushed her teeth. She dabbed a little cologne on and finished dressing. Mary had gone back into the living room, and January could hear the men talking as she made her way slowly back toward the bed. She was just about to put her slippers on when Carl came pushing through the door. He stood looking at her, his eyes gleaming and a slight smile across his face, as he edged his way closer.

“You look lovely,” He stated in a soft low tone.

“Thank you,” January said, slightly embarrassed.

“You didn’t eat your soup!”

“I know, but it was cold, and I don’t like cold soup.”

“It’s a good thing I bought you a steak then, or you would be on your way to the hospital. You will eat a small steak won’t you?” He eyed her with a warning look in his eyes.

“Yes, that sounds, heavenly, could I help you in some way?” she asked.

“No, Mary can help, but Ill take you up on it some other time.” He said, backing his way out the door.

January felt lonely laying there on the bed while the three of them were making themselves at home in her kitchen. So sitting up on the side of the bed deciding whether to join them she could hear Mary laugh at something funny Carl had said.

Wanting to be included in the fun, she decided that sitting on the sofa would be just as comfortable. When she reached the door, Carl opened it running into her nearly knocking her over. Reaching out to catch her he wrapped his arms around her waist pressing her to him. The moment seemed to stretch itself out until January wasn’t sure how long they stood there looking at each other. His arms felt somehow safe and warm, his chest felt hard against her soft breast. The seductive way their hips melted together as if they were made for each other. She wanted to kiss him. She longed for it as he gently pulled her even closer touching her lips softly.

“Hum...,” he groaned. “You smell nice,” he whispered, still holding her close. He lowered his head again, putting his cheek against hers. Kissing her ear lobe, she took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of him, his hot breath on her neck caused
her breathing to take on a different tempo. She couldn’t bring herself to pull away. She wanted him to kiss her to hold her... to even make love to her.

“Carl, ask January if she...Oh!”

Carl jerked away letting his hand drop to his side, still not turning around. January still breathing unevenly, starred at Mary, embarrassed at having been caught in such an intimate embrace.

“Excuse me,” she said, turning quickly and returning to the kitchen.

Carl stood looking at January, his eyes staring into hers, still unable to move.

“I’m sorry January, I guess I got carried away again.” Carl apologized.

“Please,” she whispered, putting her hand on his chest. “Don’t, it was just as much my fault as yours, lets join our friends.”

Carl followed January into the dinning room the food smelled good and she decided she was really hungry after all. BJ and Mary were standing in the kitchen both preparing the meal, pretending as though nothing had happened. January was glad, for it was embarrassing enough. Her knees were still shaky as she slowly made her way to sit down at the dinning room table.

“Shall I make a fire?” Carl offered, smiling at her.