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“All right,” he said, punctuating the words with a nod. “You can start tomorrow morning. Unless you have a job I don’t know about?”
“I don’t. I’ll be here bright and early.”
His suspicious nature came out swinging. “How do you pay rent? For that matter, where do you rent?”
A flash of panic, quickly gone. “Look. It’s late. I’m exhausted.” She peered longingly at the exit. “I need to leave. Okay?”
Not okay. Alarm bells clanged inside his head. “Where are you living, Harlow?”
“Well, you see, when I said I didn’t have a job, I meant I didn’t have a job I was proud of.” She laughed almost manically. “I’m, uh, well... I’m a stripper. Yep, that’s right. I take off my clothes and dance on a pole for a living, and I make lots of money. Tons of money. So much. I have the most amazing apartment. In the city. Right by the strip club. Where I work.”
“What’s the name of the strip club?”
“Boobie Bungalow,” she offered without missing a beat, more confident in her story now.
He nearly choked on his tongue. Liar, Liar.
“What?” She glowered at him. “It’s very exclusive.”
“I should know. I’m a very exclusive man, and I’ve been there.”
“You have?” she squeaked.
“I have.” Clients sometimes preferred to do business while doling out singles. “I don’t remember seeing you, and you’re not the kind of woman I’d forget.”
“Well, uh, I just started.”
He offered his most innocent grin before going in for the kill. “I have an idea. Why don’t we work off your debt another way? You come over tomorrow, as planned, but rather than gardening, you’ll give me a lap dance.”
The color drained from her cheeks as she pulled at the collar of her shirt. “No. I’ve got my heart set on gardening.”
“You’re sure? I can score you afterward, give you pointers on how to do a better job next time.”
“Very sure.”
He released an exaggerated sigh. “All right. But if you change your mind—”
“I won’t.”
“But if you do, my answer is yes.” He escorted her to the front door. “Until tomorrow, Harlow Glass.”
She gulped. “Until tomorrow, Beck Ockley.”
As she raced onto the porch, he noticed there were no cars in the driveway and called, “How are you getting home, honey?”
She stopped, but kept her back to him. “Just because you can’t see an adorable little Camaro down the street doesn’t mean it’s not there, does it?” She raced off then, as quick as her feet would carry her.
Something was off. He had to curb the urge to go after her as he shut the door. Holding a woman against her will would only cause problems, and not just the moral variety. He and his friends could not afford another run-in with the law.
Jase had paid dearly for the last one.
Ten years ago, West’s girlfriend had been assaulted at a frat party. Tessa’s tearful confession had sparked an unstoppable rage in all three of them. Jase and Beck had loved her like a sister.
Together, they’d hunted down the bastard responsible and beat him into blood and pulp. They should have walked away, let him heal and the system punish him for his crime, but they hadn’t been the most emotionally stable guys at the best of times and they’d continued whaling.
Thoughts that seemed to have no bearing on the situation had bombarded Beck. Thoughts of the foster mom who’d introduced him to sex at the age of fourteen. He’d remembered how every illicit touch had filled him with guilt and shame, but had also made him feel good, even special. How he’d told himself time and time again that pleasing her would earn her love; she would keep him, and they would be a family. And later, when she’d let him move on to the next house with a smile and a wave goodbye, how he’d cried. As he’d punched and kicked Tessa’s assailant, he’d poured his frustration, betrayal and anger with his own past into every blow.
The rapist—Pax Gillis—had died on the blood-soaked ground.
Beck had never forgotten his name, had never quite shaken the tide of remorse.
He should have paid a terrible price for helping end someone’s life—even if the life belonged to scum. But he and West had been spared, Jase taking the fall on his own, wanting his friends to have a chance to pursue their dreams, demanding they stay quiet. Because they operated by a single rule—what one demands, the others do, no questions asked—they’d acquiesced, but over the years their guilt and remorse had only deepened.
Beck should have come forward at some point, if only to try to reduce Jase’s sentence. A dime to a nickel, maybe. Finally doing something good with his life. Under his watch, Tessa had ended up dying in a car crash after a fight with West, and West had ended up high on coke, losing his scholarship to MIT.
Beck wasn’t even the one who’d helped West get clean. The guy had done it all on his own, going on to create a computer program Beck, a born salesman, was able to unload for millions, allowing them to split the shares three ways, investing Jase’s portion for him to enjoy upon his release from prison.
And damn, Beck needed a beer. No, he needed a distraction from his troubles. Thankfully one waited in his bedroom.
He stalked down the hall, opened the door. Feminine clothing littered his floor, leading to the bed...where Tawny reclined, naked and ready.
“I’ve missed you.” She ran a fingertip between the heavy weight of her breasts. “Tell me you got rid of the wicked witch of the Southwest, and I’ll do bad, bad things to you.”
“She isn’t a witch, and we’re not going to talk about her.” He kicked the door shut. “But you are still going to do those bad, bad things.”
CHAPTER THREE
HARLOW LOOKED FROM her bleeding hands to the mangled remains of the bush she’d just “pruned” and whimpered. For three hours she’d worked harder than she’d ever worked in her life, baking under the death glare of an angry summer sun, and this was the result?
Hardly seemed fair.
“Thirsty?”
The woman’s voice cut through Harlow’s pity party, and she glanced up to find the blonde and very beautiful Brook Lynn Dillon standing before her, so happy with life she actually glowed. Envy clawed at Harlow, but she paid it no heed. Brook Lynn was worthy of her happiness.
For years she and her big, golden heart had chased after her party-girl sister, Jessie Kay, while working two full-time jobs just to pay rent—and she’d done it all while dealing with an inner ear disorder. Harlow wasn’t sure what the disorder was called; she only knew the devices in the girl’s ears prevented her from hearing whispers as loudly as screams.
While Harlow had never turned her evil sights on Brook Lynn—even a bully of her magnitude had lines she wouldn’t cross—Jessie Kay and Kenna Starr, the sisters’ best friend, had not been so lucky.
“Are you offering arsenic or bleach?” Harlow quipped.
“I didn’t ask if you wanted what everyone in town would like to serve you,” Brook Lynn said staunchly, making Harlow flinch. “I asked if you were thirsty.”
“I am,” she said, standing. “Thank you.”
As an old, ugly dog playfully nipped at Brook Lynn’s heels, she held out a glass of ice-cold water.
Harlow tried for ladylike, taking a dainty sip, but the taste of heaven snapped the tether to her control and she chugged the rest, draining every drop. No liquid had ever been cooler or more soothing, wetting her tongue and moistening her dry-as-the-desert throat.
“Thank you,” she repeated, feeling human again.
Brook Lynn confiscated the glass. “Actually, you shouldn’t thank me. You should thank Beck.”
His name alone caused her heartbeat to pick up speed and knock against her ribs. She’d stared at the back door for hours, willing him to come outside and check on her. Surely she’d built up the intoxicating effects he’d had on her.
“Is he here?” Was he still in bed with Tawny? Her hands curled into tight little fists.
“No,” Brook Lynn said. “He was called in for a meeting, but he told me to take care of you while he was gone.”
A contented thrill—followed by an irritating realization. He hadn’t cared enough to see her? Wow. Well, screw him. He disturbed her, rendering her breathless and shaky with a simple glance, but so what? Physical attraction never lasted. And neither did he! One and done, the king of the one-night stand.
Harlow had no interest in being used and tossed aside, nothing but an afterthought to the man she’d welcomed into her body. She wanted affection and love, the kind she’d read about in books and seen in movies. The kind where couples fought to stay together, even during the worst of times. The kind that protected. Defended. Cherished.
A pang of longing razed her. There’d be no name-calling. No shaming. No being made to feel worthless.
Before dropping out of high school in favor of being homeschooled, she’d had boyfriends. A lot of boyfriends. She’d dated and dumped them at Beck-speed, searching for someone, anyone, to fill the void inside her. A void somehow made bigger when a machine exploded at Dairyland, the milk plant just south of town, killing half the workforce—including her dad.
As horrible as he’d been, she should have rejoiced, right? All of her problems should have vanished in a puff of smoke. But that couldn’t have been further from reality.
Brook Lynn turned and, without uttering another word, walked away, the dog prancing behind her.
“Brook Lynn,” she called, and the girl stopped without spinning around. “I’m sorry for the way I acted. In the past, I mean...and recently.” RIP, blueberry pie.
“That’s great, I’m glad” was the response, “but actions mean more than words, and so far you’ve proved nothing.”
“I know. But I’m still here, subjecting myself to this, so that I can prove I’ve changed.”
“Please. This, as you call it, is payment.” Brook Lynn glanced over her shoulder, looking very much like an avenging angel. “But I wonder. Are you ruining the garden on purpose? A way to strike at Beck for...what? What supposed crime did he commit against you? The same crime as the rest of us? Simply existing?”
Her chin fell and her shoulders drew inward. I deserve this. I really do. “He didn’t do anything wrong. He’s wonderful.” And he was. As a boss, or whatever he happened to be to her—debt holder?—he totally rocked. He wasn’t hovering but allowing her to do her own thing, and knowing he wouldn’t be here, he’d taken steps to ensure she had everything she needed.
But Beck, the guy? Him, she wasn’t so sure about. There was the one-and-done thing, of course, but also the fact that he’d bought Harlow’s ancestral home even though she hadn’t sold it. The bank had forced her off the property, voiding her claim to it, all because her mother had taken out a small loan a few years before, using the house as collateral. When her mother died, Harlow had tried to get a job.
She’d visited every business in town and asked to paint murals on store windows, or to do portraits of family members. Even to paint houses. When those requests were denied, she’d applied for basically any position available—trash collector, bird-poop cleaner, bunion scraper—but everyone had turned her away. Most had laughed. Moving to the city would have been wise. No one knew the old Harlow, and someone, surely, would hire her somewhere to do something. But her heart beat for Strawberry Valley. Her mother had grown up here. She’d grown up here. She trusted the townsfolk not to hurt her, despite their hatred of her, which was far more than she could say for a city full of strangers.
Plus, she had a five-step plan. Up first? Proving she wasn’t the incarnation of evil. So far no luck, but as she’d learned, circumstances could change in a blink.
“I don’t know how to garden,” she admitted, “but I’m trying.”
One of the blonde’s brows winged up, her expression total disbelief. “Well, then, I guess you should try harder.”
“Angel?” A husky male voice drifted across the daylight, followed by squeaking hinges as the back door opened.
Brook Lynn skipped over to greet her fiancé, Jase. He nodded at Harlow, his green eyes shrewd and curious, before he focused on Brook Lynn.
“I missed you,” he said, uncaring that Harlow could hear. He brushed his fingers through the girl’s pale hair.
“I was only gone a few minutes,” Brook Lynn replied with an adoring smile.
“A second is too long. Maybe it’s time to have that surgery we talked about and finally get you attached to my side.”
Brook Lynn chuckled. “Adding an extra two hundred and fifty pounds to this body will make it harder for me to kick zombie butt.”
“I’ll protect you.”
“Actually, I’m pretty sure you’ll be one of the first to be bitten.”
He nipped her lips. “Fine. Let me show you what I’ll do to you when I’m turned into a zombie.”
The two lovebirds reminded Harlow of Beauty and the Beast. Romance at its best. Jase was a big man, tall and muscled, his dark hair styled in bad-boy spikes. Rumors claimed Brook Lynn had mentioned liking the style, and boom, the next day he’d changed his. He had tattoos running from the base of his neck to the waist of his pants. Maybe other places, too. Harlow had only glimpsed him shirtless as he worked on the outside of the house; she’d marveled that a man like him actually existed.
Brook Lynn, on the other hand, appeared fragile and as useless as a doll, though everyone knew she was as far from a child’s toy as possible. Not only had she tamed the town’s new dragon—a feat in and of itself—but she’d started her own flourishing catering business.
Their love had inspired Harlow’s dream of happily-ever-after, and if canvas and paints hadn’t been out of her zero-dollar budget, she would have immortalized them in a portrait.
As they disappeared inside, she dusted the dirt from her hands. No more of this, she decided. Not today, at least. Not until she’d done a little gardening research. Which meant heading into town...facing ridicule...
She rarely ventured far from her property—even before she’d been ousted from her home, but especially since. Her job search had led her into town on a few occasions, but she’d quickly learned she had to pay a hefty price for daring to go where she wasn’t wanted.
Suck it up. Take your medicine like a good girl.
Head down, shoulders in, she made her way to the side of an unpaved and narrow road. It wasn’t long before a car slowed down, allowing the driver to rubberneck.
The attention unnerved her, and she found herself rubbing the scars on her stomach. Sometimes she thought she could still feel the flames licking all the way from her navel to her collarbone, using her shirt as kindling.
But she wasn’t going to think about the worst day of her life. Distraction wasn’t her friend any more than the next driver who passed her, rolling down his window and leaning out to snicker at her. She quickened her step, breathing a sigh of relief when the vehicle finally disappeared beyond the hill.
The third car to come along actually pulled up alongside her, keeping pace.
“Harlow Glass,” the driver said with a sneer.
She suppressed a moan. Scott Cameron. In high school, he’d been Popular Jock Boy and one of the first to receive the infamous “Glass Pass.” Her special brand of cruel dismissal postdating. It had been especially cruel in Scott’s case because he’d dropped his longtime girlfriend to be with her, yet Harlow had dumped him the day after their first date.
Yes, she’d been that girl.
Someone must have called and told him she’d been spotted in the wild. “Gotta say, Glass. You’re not looking so good.”
Truer words had never been spoken. She was sunburned, sweaty and wearing as much dirt as clothing. “Well, I can’t say the same to you.” Under the brim of his hat, his golden hair looked perfectly coiffed. His white shirt was crisp, without wrinkles, and his skin tanned to a glimmering bronze. “You look great.”
His eyes narrowed, making her think he’d heard sarcasm in her voice even though there’d been none.
She sighed. “And yes, I’ve been better.”
“You headed to town?”
She nodded as she kept trudging forward. “I am.”
“That’s about four miles away.”
“Yes.”
“About an hour’s walk in the intense summer heat.”
“Yes,” she said again. The reminders were unnecessary.
“Bet you’d like a ride.”
As a matter of fact—
“Good luck finding one.” Laughing with glee, he put the pedal to the metal and blazed forward, flinging dirt and gravel at her.
Coughing, she waved a hand in front of her face. Can’t complain. Just another dose of medicine.
She hit Fragaria Street by late afternoon, fatigue threatening to turn her limbs into jelly. This time of year, the scent of strawberries always coated the air, wafting from hundreds of acres of wild patches.
A handful of cars motored by, and multiple people meandered along the sidewalks. The buildings around her were different colors, from blue to yellow to red, and different sizes. Some were tall, some short. Some were wide, some thin. Some were made of brick and others of wood. A true hodgepodge of design, and she loved every inch of it.
Virgil Porter and Anthony Rodriguez each sat in a rocker, playing checkers in front of Style Me Tender, Mr. Rodriguez’s salon. Harlow stuck to the shadows and most people never noticed her, which she preferred, but as usual, those two managed to spot her right away.
“How you doing, Miss Glass?” Mr. Porter called. He owned Swat Team 8—“We assassinate fleas, ticks, silverfish, cockroaches, bees, ants, mice and rats”—and he was one of the few people who actually seemed to care about her well-being, but she had to be mistaken. Back in her heyday, she’d called his son terrible names.
“I’m well, thank you,” she muttered, discouraging further questions. Lying always made her feel guilty, but the truth was never palatable. Well, you see, Mr. Porter, I’m homeless, I’ve been found out as a thief on my own property, and I’m currently unemployed. How about you? Still having trouble with your liver spots?
“I’m willing to listen if you’d like to rephrase your answer, Miss Glass. We can talk over a nice glass of sweet tea.” He shook the one in his hand, ice rattling. “Maybe we can even eat the strawberry scones Brook Lynn brought me.”
Her mouth watered, her stomach twisting with painful hunger, but she forced herself to say, “No, thank you.” The sooner she got out of the town square, the sooner her spirits would rally.
“Harlow?”
The familiar male voice came from across the street. As she turned, her nervous system nearly blew a gasket—there he was, Beck Ockley. And, oh, it so wasn’t fair. He looked good enough to eat. The gold streaks in his hair gleamed brighter in the sunlight, and his flawless sunkissed skin somehow appeared painted on by a master artist. Did he even have pores? He’d rolled up the sleeves of his white button-up, revealing muscled forearms with a slight dusting of hair.
“Uh, hi,” she said, offering the lamest wave.
He grinned at her, both wicked and virtuous, stealing her breath.
Lincoln West stood beside him, slightly taller but just as well muscled—just as gorgeous—with the smoldering intensity of a man on death row, whose last meal would be the females he trapped in his sights. Not that he’d ever made good on the silent promise. Unlike Beck, he practiced restraint, not going on a single date since coming to town.
The two were with an unfamliar man and woman dressed in business-formal clothes. Both were attractive, and though the male looked to be in his late thirties, the woman, an elegant redhead, looked to be in her late twenties. Roughly the same age as Harlow and yet a thousand times more successful.
Talk about a knife through the heart.
Was Lady Successful a new conquest of Beck’s? Or a soon-to-be conquest? Did she know he’d move on in the morning?
Beck muttered something to the group, and Harlow took off. No reason to stick around, and every reason not to. But he shocked her by racing across the street and keeping pace beside her.
“I’m surprised to see you out and about,” he said.
Oh, his voice! She’d forgotten how deep and husky it could get, every word he uttered a promise.
Gaze drawn to him by a force she couldn’t control, she looked up. He was peering at her, too, and between one moment and the next, the air charged with electricity. Whispers of sensation brushed over her skin, leaving goose bumps behind.
“Expected me to still be slaving away in your garden?” she managed.
“Something like that.” Heavy-lidded eyes swept over her, powerful, sensual...almost possessive. “Are you headed into the city for your shift at the Boobie Bungalow?”
Her cheeks burned as she remembered the story she’d told him. It wasn’t a lie if she believed it, right? As a lover of romance novels, she’d often fantasized about being a woman down on her luck—could be a stripper, why not—rescued by the prince of some distant land.
“Maybe I’ve got the week off. Maybe the other girls lose money when I’m there, and I thought I’d give them a chance to make rent.”
“How kind of you.” The corners of his mouth curled up, his amusement as seductive as the rest of him. “Where are you headed, sweetheart?”
Sweetheart. Her heart skipped a treacherous beat, her blood heating dangerously, making her sweat, and dang it, she hated herself for reacting so strongly to something that meant absolutely nothing to him. He called every woman he met by an endearment. Which irritated her because... Just because.
He needed a spoonful of his own medicine, the way she was often forced to taste hers.
“I’m going to the library, sugar tush. Why?”
“That’s my question.” He flattened his palm between her shoulder blades, sliding it down the ridges of her spine, stopping just above the curve of her bottom. The touch was innocent, nothing overtly sexual to it, and yet it frazzled her nerves. “Why are you going to the library?”
As she opened her mouth to respond—what she would say, she didn’t know—Tim Whatson sidled up to Beck’s other side.
“Hey, man. Can we talk?”
Beck stiffened before fisting the hem of Harlow’s shirt, forcing her to stop with him. The backs of his knuckles brushed against her, skin to heated skin, and tendrils of something hot and dark shot through her.
Need more. Now.
“Hey,” he said to Tim, whom he obviously knew. Was he oblivious to the cravings he’d just stirred inside her? “How’s it going?”
“Not so good. I need your help. My girlfriend is tee-icked. I forgot our three-month anniversary, and she’s threatening to leave me. What should I do?”
Beck, the new Dear Abby? “You should give her a thoughtful, personal gift. There’s nothing more thoughtful or personal than a portrait, and I happen to have an opening in my schedule. I could—”
“What do you think, Beck?” Tim said, interrupting her.
“Give her a thoughtful, personal gift,” Beck replied. “There’s nothing more thoughtful or personal than a portrait.”
Tim nodded as if he’d just received the answer to every prayer, and Beck released her to gently push her forward.
“Now,” he said. “Where were we?”
Your skin against mine... “Uh, I was telling you how I ruined your rosebushes this morning—by accident!—and how I’m headed to the library to learn how to fix them. You were in the process of forgiving me.”
“Hold up a sec.” He darted in front of her.
Unprepared, she slammed into his powerful chest and ricocheted backward. His arms wrapped around her to cage her and hold her steady.
“Whoa. I’ve got you.”
Her every pulse point suddenly leaped, and as she peered up at him, the rest of the world vanished, every second revolving around Beck alone. Her chest pressed against his, her breath coming faster and shallower, as if the air between them had somehow thickened.