Rachel snickered. “Uh, I dunno? Maybe because he’s the man most likely to stick his foot in his mouth?”
Lucy snorted and batted at Rachel good-naturedly. “No he isn’t. He’s my sweet honey pie.”
Rachel gaped. “Then why were you calling him an obnoxious jackass this morning when I called you?”
“It was a misunderstanding. He didn’t mean to take all the hot water before I had my shower. And he helped me warm up afterward,” Lucy added with a wink.
Grace waggled a finger and said, “People better not be hating on my sweet Beck. He can’t help it if he’s such a guy, bless his heart. And he doesn’t deserve the hell he catches from Tabitha any more than the rest of us do. Poor baby.”
Grandma Kate got a look at Tabitha finally and said, “I met her in Divine Drip when Seth and I took a ride on his Harley. She and I had a chat.”
All the girls went silent and looked at Kate. Grandma Kate chuckled and said, “There’s not a lot I could say that would change her mind, so I shared my thoughts on her campaign to ‘Keep Divine Pure.’ She gives nice, God-fearing Christians a bad name.”
They heard a giggle from behind them and Presley Ann’s petite sister, Leah, popped her head out from behind a rack and smiled at Grandma Kate. “So you’re the one she was ranting about on her blog the other day.”
Rachel growled. “She’s blogging? Another one is up to that bullshit?”
Leah nodded and smiled in commiseration. “Don’t worry. Her articles are so poorly written, and her rants are so repetitive, she doesn’t have much of a following. And if you look through her archives, she has as many negative comments about her blog as she does positive ones, or at least until she deletes them. She’s a very unhappy lady, I think.”
Presley Ann’s sister seemed like a patient and understanding person and Veronica took an instant liking to her.
Tabitha eventually caught sight of the group and gave them all dirty looks before imperiously asking for a dressing room.
Presley Ann helped her and came out of the dressing rooms a moment later grimacing and mimicking one of Tabitha’s diatribes. “
Meh-meh-meh-meh-meh
.” Veronica had to stifle her giggle.
The girls had been more than happy to avoid contact with Tabitha and wound up at Rudy’s for a late lunch before she’d headed back to Hank’s place with all of her purchases.
Pulling her back to the present, Hank and his deputy, Wyatt, greeted the group and began their instruction. Veronica did her best to pay attention but found herself continually distracted by the way Hank’s heather-gray sweats fit his hips and the way his black Divine County Sheriff’s Department T-shirt stretched across his chest and biceps. The two men gave them demonstrations in self-defense using the red floor mats and then asked them to line up to practice the moves and learn the steps to defending themselves.
At one point, they paired up into teams, one playing the aggressor and one playing the defender, to practice the steps but not to actually tussling, before switching places. The group happened to be an odd number of women and Veronica wound up with Wyatt as her partner.
He’d put his arms around her from behind, demonstrating a typical aggression tactic. He was a big, strong man, and although it gave her sweaty palms, she was listening to his instruction and asking a question as Hank strode over to them. “I’ll take over with her, Wyatt.”
Wyatt frowned and didn’t seem inclined to release her. “That’s okay, Hank, I think I’ve got it under control. I was explaining how she can easily break out of—”
Hank bristled and said, “I’m going to ask once more, nicely, Wyatt. Let my woman go.”
Wyatt’s released her instantly. “Sorry, Hank. I didn’t know. Wow, I didn’t realize you were dating. Wait. Is this—” He pointed at her and grinned, “I heard you and Travis—”
By this point, they’d drawn the attention of the rest of the class. Grace and Grandma Kate looked amused, Charity and Rachel were gigglesnorting their asses off, and several other women they didn’t know were all watching with great interest. Wyatt clued into that next and whispered, “Shit, boss. Sorry. My big mouth.”
“What do I keep telling ya, Wyatt?”
“Discretion, sir. Sorry, ma’am.” He backed away and tried to distract the class by explaining another maneuver to them.
Veronica turned to Hank and whispered, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause a scene.”
Hank smiled at her and shook his head. “You didn’t. The big lummox did, and I suppose I sort of helped by going all caveman on him.” When Wyatt called for volunteers, Hank said, “Why don’t you come with me and we’ll demonstrate for the class.”
Veronica didn’t like being the center of attention but this was a fairly friendly group and it’d always been Veronica’s tendency to learn best by doing.
After a few minutes as his combat partner, she felt like she’d learned something. Plus, she got to get close to a sweaty, sexy man she was extremely interested in so it was all good.
At one point, he got her into a hold and challenged her to get out of it. None of the others were around, he had his arms around her, and she put up a mock struggle as she looked up at him behind her and whispered, “This is kind of turning me on. Just so you know.”
Hank released her and said, “I think you’ve had enough instruction for one night.”
Looking innocent, she smiled up at him. “What? You don’t want to tussle with me anymore?”
Hank bent close and with a chuckle, replied, “If you keep talking like that I’m going to have to explain the tent pole in my sweat pants. You just earned yourself a spanking tonight when we get home.”
She grinned and laughed. “Yes, sir, Hank. Any way you want it, sir.”
Chapter Fifteen
Hank walked into his house the following Tuesday night, and the first thing he heard was the sound of Veronica weeping. He found her curled up in his desk chair, her headphones on, crying her eyes out in front of her computer. Worry filled him as he took off his hat and rushed over to her, putting his hand on her shoulder.
Jumping as though she’d been electrocuted, she let out a terrified scream guaranteed to wake the dead. The desk chair rolled suddenly and she lost her balance and would’ve toppled out of it if he hadn’t caught her. She looked up at him with wild eyes and her bawling immediately turned to laughter as she reached for him.
“I’m sorry, Nika,” he said, chuckling, hoping his heart settled back to a normal rhythm soon.
She laughed again as she blotted her eyes and said, “No,
I’m sorry
. I become oblivious when I put my headphones on. Look!”
She pointed at the computer screen and then put her arms up in the air like a referee calling a touchdown.
He looked at the two words typed there. “‘The End.’ Hey! Congratulations, Nika. You had me worried. I thought we were going to have to go kick someone’s ass when I heard you crying as I walked in.”
“I didn’t mean to worry you.”
She worked the oddest hours of anyone he knew. The time at which most people started to peter out, she was just revving up for the creative part of her day. She fit other activities in around it but if anyone came around his house in the middle of the night, they’d be greeted by the sound of her fingers clicking away on her keyboard.
“I have other news for you,” she murmured as she turned to him and nuzzled his lips.
“What’s that?”
“In light of what happened last week, I made an announcement on my blog, and contacted all of the websites and blogs where I had live chats and talks planned and cancelled them, with the exception of one that is coming up late tomorrow night. I felt like that was not enough notice to give them so I plan to do that one but then that is it for a while. I explained in the article what happened last week and told everyone that I would still be on the other forms of social media but I wouldn’t be doing any more live online events for a while. All of the organizers understood after seeing the article and made other arrangements. I think I need to take a little personal time off anyway before I get my plans underway for next year.”
“I’m glad to hear it, Nika.”
“Any word from Duke?”
“He’s working on several leads and multiple projects and will be letting me know as soon as he has details. I’ll call him and let him know about your chat tomorrow night so he can be there, too. Maybe he can draw this BookAddictedWhore person out a little.”
Duke had found multiple threats on her computer that had gone unattended and had fixed several issues for her and set up all the backups and protections that she’d needed all along.
“He has a hypothesis that BookAddictedWhore may be a man. That username has a pretty misogynistic tone,” Hank said.
Veronica said, “I’ve wondered at times, too. In the past I told myself it didn’t matter if I interacted with women or men but yeah…could be a man, which could explain the aggression. Some men really hate romance novels.”
Hank stroked her shoulder as he squatted down in front of her, noticing that her bare skin was cool to his touch. “I got something I think you might like.” He held up the fancy boutique bag in his hand.
The weather had grown a colder and several times he’d caught her shivering in her chair without even being aware of it. They kept the heat turned up for her, but his ranch house was still chilly at times for someone walking around in the nude. He’d told her she could put on his robe, but she’d shook her head and told him that she liked writing in the nude. Said it freed her imagination somehow. It also freed his hands to roam when she took breaks to be with him and Travis. Their original purpose behind having her work in the nude had been fulfilled, as she now seemed much more comfortable with her body. It also seemed to have brought out a little of the sass in her, plus, it was just damned nice to be greeted by her, cuddly and naked, at the end of a long day.
Veronica smiled and said, “Hank, you didn’t have to do that.”
“I think you’re going to like this. Open it.”
He placed the bag from Discretion on the table and turned it so she could see the label and smiled at the way she squealed when she saw the name.
She dumped the contents onto the desk and her eyes got big and shiny as she unwrapped the scented tissue paper, revealing the gown. She lifted the bundle and unfolded it so she could run a fingertip over the fine stitches in the pattern of the crocheted gown.
“This cost a fortune. How did you know?” She looked up at him and her big brown eyes were misty. She leaned forward and kissed him.
“Grace added it to your wish list after she noticed your reaction when you saw it on your shopping trip.”
She stood from the chair and went right into his arms. A warm, sweet bundle of woman. “Thank you. I love it.”
“This way, you’re still a little nekkid, since you say you like that now. But it’ll give you a little warmth since it’s made of cotton. I want to see it on you.”
Dancing a happy little jig, she unfolded it and carefully slid her hands through the sleeves and her head through the deep V-neck opening and tied the laces under the bust into a bow. Hank thought she looked like a goddess in it. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. “Thank you, Hank. I love it.” Her warm gaze mesmerized him as she stroked his cheek. “Thank you for everything you’ve done.”
“You’re welcome, Nika,” he murmured before he kissed her lips, a gentle merging with his mouth. He loved heading home, knowing she’d be there when he arrived. He loved walking into the house with all the lights blazing, music on, and the fireplace crackling merrily. He loved coming home to her. She was the one he’d been waiting for. He was sure of that now.
She spun for him as he held her hand up and said, “I wonder what Travis will think of it.” Travis had been gone for five days on his business trip, since the previous Thursday morning, and Hank knew she missed him something fierce. Knowing that made his earlier thought, about her being the one, resurface. He wanted the best for his friend but he was beginning to hope that what was best for him was staying in Divine, with him and Veronica. But he’d let Travis make his own decisions.
“Maybe he’ll call soon and tell us he’s on his way home.” Hank felt for Travis. His flights had been delayed twice because of weather and Hank knew how much he detested living out of a suitcase.
To distract her from missing Travis, he said, “Why don’t you go see how pretty you look in the mirror.”
He followed her as she trotted down the hall and watched as she surveyed herself in the full-length mirror on the closet door. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered. Hank noted that her eyes told a different story and stopped her when she turned from the mirror.
He tilted her chin so she’d look at herself again. “
You’re
beautiful in it.”
When she didn’t agree, he kissed her throat, holding her in position from behind, and wrapped one arm under her breasts and the other across her hips. “I think you look absolutely gorgeous. What are you seeing that is different from what I’m seeing?”
“The horizontal pattern across my hips. I look so wide.”
“No, Nika. Voluptuous and sexy. The pattern teases my eyes with little hints of the dark red curls at your pussy. I love it. And I get little teasing glimpses of your nipples, too. You’re stunning and I wish you’d believe me.”