Texas Curves Read online

  He caressed my cheek before his hand moved down to the gear box. "You act like you never snuck out before."

  "I haven't," I confessed, embarrassment gurgling in my throat. "The time or two…"

  I trailed off, realizing I'd been on the verge of exposing just how inexperienced I was.

  "Time or two?" His voice gripped each word and then he graced me with that grunty little purr of his.

  "Can we not talk about this?" My voice sounded as pink to my ears as I knew my cheeks were.

  "Sweet tea," he purred at me, his hand moving off the stick shift to stroke my leg. "If we don't talk about it, how will I know if I'm moving too fast?"

  I snorted at that. "Hawk McKinley, you'll always move too fast for a girl like me."

  That was the God's truth. Even when he took it slow, it was still too fast and I was left sorting everything out in my head afterwards.

  Hawk gave my thigh a hard squeeze then upshifted. Ten minutes later, the Mustang pulled into his garage. We entered the house through the side door, out of sight of any neighbors still awake. I had hoped we could sit on the couch and talk for a bit, but he scooped me up -- every last shocked and delighted ounce of me -- and carried me straight to the bedroom.

  There was no hiding in the dark, either. Hawk placed me center of the bed, lights blazing above and around us. He draped his body over mine, our clothes still on, and started kissing me and running his hands along my arms, neck and face until I forgot how exposed I was and how much more exposed I would soon be.

  Once he had me squirming, he lifted off my body, balancing on one elbow while his free hand undid the buttons on my blouse. I had, of course, changed to the prettiest bra and underwear I had, the lace a pale rose that cast a pink blush on the surrounding skin. The bra hooked at the front. He released the clasp but left my breasts covered. Still kissing me, Hawk eased his hand under the fabric of the bra to massage my nipple.

  Feeling me tug at his t-shirt, he helped me get him out of it. Free to gawk at him, I soaked the beautiful sight in, noticing more details, like the tight, dark nipples. I licked my lips as my gaze traced the perimeter of one. His head dipped toward my mouth, his tongue stroking against mine as he palmed my breast.

  "I want to see you, all of you." I ran one hand against his muscled back, my fingers stroking the thick, curving contours.

  "You can look, but I want to see, too." He rose up onto his knees, his torso leaning slightly back as he gazed down on me. One finger trailed along my breast, pushing the lace from it. "Take this off, sweet tea."

  Feeling all elbows, I stripped the rest of my blouse away, followed by the bra. Staring at my breasts, Hawk placed one hand beneath my neck, forcing it to arch as the other bunched my skirt up around my hips so he could palm my mound.

  "Hold them for me, Ginny." His thumb hooked my mouth, dragging my head to the side. "Play with those lovely pink nipples for me."

  His words had me soaking through my panties. I only got wetter once I started pinching at the tips, pulling them taut as his thumb tapped slowly against the fabric covering my clit. My hips started to dance. I wanted to close my eyes from the sheer pleasure of it, but didn't want to stop looking at Hawk. My gaze jumped from the broad, sculpted chest up to the intense beauty of his eyes, down to the rippled abdomen then a quick cut to the side where veins bulged in the forearm, its dusting of hair leading down to the hand that gripped my pussy.

  Hawk's thumb still hooking my mouth, I nibbled and sucked at it in an attempt to control the need plucking at every nerve cell in my body. His head rolled back against his shoulders, his eyes fluttering shut. He bit at his lip while his stomach muscles pulled tight at the same time.

  The head of his erection poked from beneath the waistband of his jeans. Seeing the tip, so big and with a translucent bead pearling at the slit, I bit at Hawk's thumb. He looked down and I licked the pad of his thumb as I stared up at him with eyes I hoped were as innocent and pleading as they were green.

  He descended on me, hands stripping my skirt and underwear away as he planted hard kisses on my neck and mouth before fastening on one nipple. His hands gripped my hips, the hold loose so I could push my dripping mound against his hard, flat stomach. He coaxed me into riding him like that until I came, jerking and moaning softly.

  That's when he moved down to capture my swollen and tender clit between his teeth. His fingertips smoothed along my thighs, lightly raked the red hairs covering my mound as his face nestled more fully between my labia. His eyes were closed at first, like a calf happily sucking at a teat. When he did open them and stared past the red halo of my hair to focus on my face, it was like an electric shock zipping through my body. Pleasure began to cascade from my core, crashing and grinding against my bones.

  I called out to Hawk, cooing his name as my hands abandoned my breasts and I knotted my fingers in his hair. He didn't let my climax stop or ease. His fingers pushed into me, three thick, wiggling, stroking digits that brought me to a new crescendo and another until I melted into a puddle of wet, twitchy nerves.

  My eyes glued shut and heavy, I heard him strip his jeans away and the rip of foil. Prying my eyes open, I watched him roll the condom over the gloriously fat head of his cock and down the thick shaft. His testicles, each big enough to fill one of my palms, were half concealed inside a nest of silky black hair. I wanted to run my fingers through that hair before I wrapped my hands around his shaft and stroked it.

  Hawk had something else in mind. He was in me quickly, buried deep. His hands pushed beneath my back then curled around my shoulders so that our bodies were cinched tightly together. His forehead rested lightly against mine, forcing me to close my eyes or go blind. He kissed me, slow and sensual, controlling my mouth the same way his cock commanded my pussy. Long thrusts, a swivel, our breath mingling, body heat penetrating one another until fire blazed through my limbs once more.

  My cunt knotted around him, the muscles whipping like cords to secure him inside me.

  "Hold me tight, beautiful Ginny." He kissed my neck, my mouth, my eyes. "Don't let me go, stay with me, sweet tea, stay with me…"

  One last conquering thrust from Hawk and we melded together, hours passing before our bodies parted and he took me home.

  **********************

  Was I in love with Hawk before I first spread my legs for him? I'm not sure, but I was certain over the course of the next few weeks that I had fallen hard for my billionaire boss. His overextended visit showed no sign of ending. He spent more time in the office and less of it on the phone.

  We kept tiptoeing around -- my choice, not his. Even Red seemed clueless, and few things escaped his attention. Beau and momma were certain I had started seeing someone, but they didn't push me to identifying my lover. The way Beau acted around Hawk, I knew my big brother didn't even consider my billionaire boss a likely candidate for the role.

  Stolen as they were, my moments with Hawk were sweeter and stronger than anything I had ever felt. Better than that first bud of spring or the first hot day of summer or that cool September breeze that finds its way into August. That's what a girl's first real love is like -- at least it was for me.

  It had to end, of course. Good times always do.

  Arriving early to the worksite the last Monday in August, Hawk called me into his office. We hadn't seen each other over the weekend and need hummed through my body when he told me to lock the door. I did, and then I let him pull me onto his lap. His hand cradled my face as he greeted me with a long, sensuous kiss that had me sighing into him, my body floating in his embrace.

  "Invite me to dinner, sweet tea." He brushed his nose alongside mine, his gaze and the set of his mouth tense as he studied my expression. He'd made the same request on Friday, refusing to see me again until Monday after I demurred.

  "Invite me, Ginny. I won't ask again."

  I didn't want to think about what he meant by saying that. A man like Hawk isn't used to being denied, particularly by the sweet little hick who was
all too happy to let him have his way with her in all other things. I didn't want to lose him. I wanted him to keep on touching me forever, his hands turning the lumpy clay of my body into something beautiful and alluring that only he could sculpt.

  The magic would end the second I introduced him to the world as my lover. I felt it all the way down to the marrow in my bones. People like Cherry Thompson and Bobby Jackson would want to know what a man like Hawk saw in a girl like me. Cow bells would mysteriously line the lawn of his leased home, the glare off their thin copper twisting his vision of me until he saw me just like Cherry and Bobby did. Even momma and daddy and Beau, as much as they loved me and thought I was perfect just as I am, would wonder why a man who could have any woman he desired -- a woman who was beautiful, educated, worldly and successful -- would choose Virginia Kelly from Tupperville, Texas.

  They'd tell me to be careful. They'd tell me Hawk was only using me for my body, that I needed to get over my crush and find a local boy, one who wouldn't eventually hurt and abandon me. Every last thought that had run through my head those last few weeks would come spilling out of their mouths.

  "Ginny." Hawk kissed me, putting all the mastery at his command into the way his tongue curled inside my mouth and his teeth gnawed gently at my bottom lip, his thumb stroking my cheek until it was wet with tears. "Baby, I'm not losing you. All this hiding needs to stop."

  I pressed my face against his chest, nodding and sniffling. He was asking me to take a chance, to trust him. I loved him, so I had to. "Just let me figure out how I'm going to break it to momma and daddy."

  He laughed softly. "Love, it's not bad news."

  "No," I whispered, my body awash with the same sweet thrill I got each time he called me love. "But it is big news."

  "Okay." Relenting, he turned me until my face pointed up at his and he could kiss me again. "But you need to do it soon."

  I nodded again. Hearing the rumble of Red's truck, I got up, wiped the evidence of my tears away and went back to my desk. Actually doing any work at my desk proved impossible that morning. Lucky for me, I'd eliminated all the little inefficiencies in the office that had always buried Red's earlier clerks under week-old logs. Nothing piled up anymore.

  When Hawk and Red left a little before lunch to check on several rigs, I started rehearsing what I was going to tell momma and daddy. I even practiced the words out loud so I wouldn't trip over my own tongue when the time came. I needed to project confidence, leaving no question as to what Hawk saw in their daughter. He saw what they saw -- perfection.

  The big, stupid grin on my face faltered the second the office door opened and I recognized the man standing in the doorway as Harrison McKinley. I forced a fresh smile and started reaching for the radio. "I'll let Hawk know you're here, Mr. McKinley. Would you like to go into his--"

  "I'm not here to see my son, Miss Kelly. I'm here to see you."

  Cheese and crackers!

  That did not sound good. All the air left the room and my vision started to narrow. "About what, Mr. McKinley?"

  I winced at the mousey squeak of my voice and fretted over my grammar. Father and son were Harvard men. I don't think Hawk noticed or cared when I slipped, he was too busy watching my lips and thinking about all the things I could do with them.

  Not appropriate, Virginia Kelly, not now!

  Right. I blushed, felt the blood heating and coloring my skin from my scalp all the way down to my toes. Every last drop of that blood retreated when Harrison McKinley reached into his pocket and withdrew a small object that he placed on my desk.

  A novelty-sized cow bell.

  My eyes threatened to spring leaks, but I met his glare with one of my own.

  "You may remember John Dietrich. My son fired him a few weeks back."

  I didn't answer, just stared straight through him.

  "Well, he had quite a story to tell me about a certain woman my son appears to be bedding." Reaching out a bony finger, he caressed the cow bell. "And that woman's friends had their own stories to tell, confirming my suspicions."

  "What suspicions?" I shouldn't have taken the bait. Maybe I could have salvaged something with Hawk, if there was anything left to save. But I took Harrison's lure and held it close to my chest so I could hear every nuanced syllable the vile man spoke.

  "Hawk wants to be CEO. Wants to change the very nature of the company…"

  I nodded. Hawk didn't act like he wanted just my body. He wanted my brain and heart and had used me as a sounding board these last few weeks for many of his ideas. He didn't want to run a company that took and sold, but never gave. He planned cheaper and cleaner energy, with less gobbling up of smaller companies and more collaboration so that the project owners were on the ground and in the communities their decisions affected. That was not the McKinley way as far as Harrison was concerned.

  The old man's eyes narrowed as he studied the impact his words were having on me.

  "He knows he's not getting the company until he's married. I keep control over his dead mother's shares until then. So his solution…" He stopped and made a broad gesture at me, his lip curling into a sneer before he continued. "Is to find the most unsuitable woman this godforsaken state has to offer. A hick, a redneck, a breeding sow."

  He stopped and gave the bell a little ring for malicious emphasis. "He's trying to beat me at a game where I set all the rules, but I can see straight through his little gambit. You're nothing like the women he's maintained relationships with. No doubt you've shown him a good time in bed, what girl in your situation wouldn't?"

  "You just stop right there, you vile, disgusting--"

  The outer door opened before I could finish telling Harrison McKinley just what kind of despicable creature he was. Hawk stood at the threshold, his expression drawing tight as he recognized the man sitting across my desk.

  My gaze dropped to the small bell, my fingers twitching with the need to hide it.

  Hawk swallowed and I could see the guilt written across his handsome features as he glanced from his father to me. I looked at Harrison. He had a much older version of the same face, the nose a little broader, the eyes a little smaller and closer, but similar enough that I had to wonder how much the two men were alike deeper down.

  "Father." Hawk stepped the rest of the way inside. Seeing my face, he must have guessed at what had passed during my time alone with Harrison. "Sweet tea, whatever he's said, it's all lies. That's all he's good for anymore."

  A smirk lit the old man's face. Leaning closer to my desk, he lifted a knowing brow. "To convince me, he has to convince you. Don't feel bad about being taken in. Hawk is very good at this game, young lady."

  Young lady!

  He hadn't been treating me like a young lady before his son walked in. I swiped at my cheek, ashamed of myself for letting a decaying bastard like Harrison McKinley get to me. I didn't give a possum's ass what the old man thought about me.

  Lifting my chin, I stared straight into Hawk's eyes. "He said you won't be CEO of McKinley Oil until you're married."

  A faint nod from Hawk, one I don't think he intended to make. I continued on. "And that I'm nothing like the women you've…you've had relationships with in the past."

  A little shake, his eyes so sorrowful from the truth that I felt like he'd just ripped my heart from my chest and thrown it on the floor for his father to stomp on. "You're nothing like them, Ginny," he admitted.

  "So it's all been a lie." My words were ice, cold enough to freeze Hawk. No shake, no nod, just his hands reaching uselessly towards me from his hips, like they were handcuffed to his belt.

  I got up, grabbed my purse and wrenched the office key off the ring.

  "Ginny…" He reached toward me again, his legs not moving to close the distance between us. He couldn't care much if all he could do was stand there, hands flexing. "You can't leave--"

  "Oh, I can. I am!" I walked past Hawk, pushing him out of my path. Before the door swung shut behind me, I looked at father and son one last t
ime. "You can both go to hell!"

  **********************

  I thought long and hard about whether I should start the classes at Midland that Hawk had paid for. Mostly, I thought about how I'd earned them -- on my back -- and what it said about me if I used the tuition money. I couldn't come to a good answer, so I registered anyway, my chest tight and cheeks blazing every minute of every lecture. I got another job, too, one that was part-time and in Midland. Red helped me get it. He knew something was wrong, just didn't know what.

  For several weeks, there were only three people who had any idea of what had happened -- me and the two McKinley men, neither of whom I ever wanted to lay eyes on again. By the third week of September, however, things started to come out. The local paper picked up coverage of how Hawk had ousted his father as CEO, getting enough of the non-family shareholders in McKinley to back him. That article led to Cherry Thompson opening her big mouth about how some private investigator from New York had been at Roy's asking about me. She took the opportunity to revive the story of how she and Bobby Jackson had humiliated me so many years ago. Then June Johnson, who runs Tupperville's only knick-knack store, put two-and-two together about how a man looking like Harrison McKinley had come into her place and purchased a little cow bell.

  That just poured kerosene on the fire. Everyone knew then that I'd been Hawk's plaything on the side. Beau quit McKinley, even though Red and I begged him not to. The only good thing during that time was daddy. He was up and on his feet, not for long spells, but he was his own man again. He also got everything coming to him from his worker's comp claim.

  I tried to focus on that bright spot. I avoided town, bought my gas in Midland and divided my time solely between school and work in Midland or being locked up tight at home with my parents. All the gossip would die down eventually. I just had to survive until it did.

  Good plan, bad execution.

  I came home from work on a crisp day in early October to find a beat-up truck parked in the drive. I didn't think much of it. People around Tupperville are always getting a new-to-them junker. With daddy able to work a bit, they had started bringing the vehicles to him for little things that needed fixing. Sometimes they stayed to gab, which daddy welcomed so long as they didn't try to gab about me.