Hot Like Fire

Six Weeks Later

Garcelle pushed her shades on top of her hair as she leaned against the wooden fence and looked out at Kadina astride a horse, being led around a paddock. In truth, a small girl riding a horse made her nervous, and she didn’t have the same enthusiasm Kade had for Kadina learning to ride. Just over two months ago, he’d bruised his own ribs from a hard tumble off a horse, which could’ve ended much worse. She was learning that the Strongs considered riding a horse as normal as breathing air or walking upright.

“Look, Garcelle, look,” Kadina called out to her.

Garcelle clapped her hands as the ranch hand took the horse from a trot to a gallop. “I’m looking,” she called back. And praying, she added silently.

Unlike other members of her family, Garcelle had never ridden a horse, and she wasn’t looking to change that fact anytime soon. She just felt good lounging outside in the sun as she watched Kadina closely to make sure she was safe.

Garcelle’s butt began to vibrate, and she reached into her back pocket for her new cell phone. Kade had insisted she get one, especially when he discovered just how much time her uncles spent on the house phone at night. A couple of nights of not being able to reach her, and he presented her with the gift of the phone.

“Hello,” she said into the phone as she dropped her shades back down onto her face.

“I was riding by and saw this sexy Latina. I just had to ask her name.”

Garcelle frowned. She recognized Kade’s voice, but she was willing to play along. “It’s Garcelle. Garcelle Santos. And you are?” she asked as she twirled around to look for him.

“A secret admirer.”

She smiled. “Oh, well, I thank you for that, but I only recognize a man who can stand up like a man and let a woman know how he feels.”

“I wanted to see if you had a man in your life first.”

“Oh.” Her eyes darted everywhere, but she didn’t see him, and he had to be around. “I don’t know if I like a man who worries about the next man before he worries about his interest in me.”

“So you do have a man?”

Garcelle turned and leaned her back against the fence. “Oh yes, but he’s like an old man,” she said very tongue in cheek. “He already has silver hair, and soon he’ll need Viagra to keep up with me—”

“Garcelle!”

“Yes, Kade,” she answered in a simple tone.

She heard the hooves pounding against the ground before she saw him racing toward her from the top of the hill. She closed her phone as he galloped around the paddock and approached her.

“Viagra,” he stressed as he looked down at her, with a scowl.

Garcelle smiled up at him, with flashing eyes filled with laughter. “Ooh, poor baby,” she cooed as she reached up to pat his thigh. “He likes to play on the phone but can’t take someone playing with him.”

His eyes dropped down to her hand high on his thigh. “Oh, I can take you playing with me,” he told her thickly.

Garcelle saw his rod stir to life in his pants, and she felt her entire body warm over as she shifted her gaze up to meet his. “See. You are a dirty old man,” she teased, with a husky voice.

“If I’m so dirty, then I need to clean off.” He licked his lip a little before he smiled like a rogue. “Know something wet I can get into?”

Garcelle’s mouth formed a circle. “Oooh, you are so bad.”

“Come ride with me, Daddy,” Kadina called out to him from the paddock.

With a lot of reluctance, they broke their hot stare at one another.

Garcelle frowned as Kade held his hand out to her. Kade laughed. “Come on. Ride with me.”

She shook her head. “Who me? Oh no. Garcelle don’t do horses.”

The ranch hand brought Kadina’s horse to a stop behind them. “Garcelle doesn’t ride, Daddy,” Kadina offered, with a giggle.

Kade’s hand remained outstretched. “Come on. I’ll teach you.”

“Please, Garcelle,” Kadina whined behind her.

Garcelle looked at Kadina quickly over her shoulder before she turned back to look up at Kade. A blind man could see she was hesitant.

“Trust me. No horse racing,” he joked.

“That’s good to know,” Garcelle muttered before she took a deep breath and put her hand in his.

As soon as she was settled in the saddle, in front of Kade, he wrapped his arm lightly around her waist. “Kade, nice and slow, okay?” she warned him as he steered the horse around and entered the paddock.

He chuckled. “Oh, I know you like it nice and slow, Garcelle,” he reminded her warmly in her ear.

“You’re acting like a horny little boy,” she scolded him playfully.

“First a dirty old man and now a horny little boy?”

Garcelle bit back a smile. “Sí.”

“Why not just a grown-ass man who finds a grown-ass woman sexy as hell?”

At the sound of his low and erotic tone, Garcelle shivered and had to force herself not to turn around and see if it was possible to ride him in the saddle.

“People are watching, Kade, so stop being fresh.”

He just laughed as he kicked the horse’s flanks to trot around the paddock.

“You okay?” he asked.

Garcelle’s buttocks were pressed against the top of Kade’s thighs, giving her a rather intimate feel of his hardness. “The horse is fine. It’s you that’s making me nervous. Kade, you’re hard.”

“Now who’s being fresh?” he teased.

Each jostle of the horse brought her buttocks slightly up and then against his steely hardness. That, plus the natural heat of his body, made her forget the damn horse.

“In one of my first dreams of making love to you, we were in the big field, on horseback,” he whispered near her ear.

Garcelle’s eyes widened as she turned slightly to look at him over her shoulder. “No,” she said in shock.

“Yeah.”

“I dreamt the same thing.”

Now it was Kade’s turn to fill with surprise. “No.”

“Yes,” she told him, with emphasis.

They both looked away, a bit pensive, before their eyes shifted back to each other. “We couldn’t,” they said in unison.

Garcelle turned back around as Kade steered their horse up beside Kadina’s horse.

“See, Garcelle. It’s fun, right?” asked Kadina.

Garcelle forced a smile. “Yes, I’m having a ball,” she told her. And the bat, she thought, with a chuckle, as her bottom again rose and fell against his hardness.

It had been a little over a week since they’d had any time alone, and this impromptu horseback ride was really making that hit home for Garcelle. She missed him. During the day, she watched over Kadina, and he worked. At night he watched over Kadina, and she was home.

Kade motioned for the ranch hand to pass him the reins to Kadina’s horse.

“Where we going, Daddy?” Kadina asked as Kade led her horse out of the paddock.

“You’re going to the house to sit with Grandma while Garcelle and I ride for a little,” replied Kade.

Garcelle looked over her shoulder at him in surprise. “We are?” she asked, with a lift of her brow.

“I wanna go, Daddy,” Kadina said.

“Next time, baby girl. I want to show Garcelle the ranch,” he said, his voice stern.

Garcelle was surprised when Kadina offered no further argument. She had her father wrapped around her finger and knew it. Garcelle did not doubt that Kadina could get Kade to do whatever she wanted. Luckily, she used her powers over her father for good. She’s a good kid.

They rode together across the ranch, toward the big house. They moved across the couple hundred yards pretty slowly, and Garcelle was sure Kade took his time as a way to appease Kadina after not allowing her to go along for their ride. He’s a good father.

Garcelle actually felt herself relax in the saddle.

“What’s black and white and red all over?” Kadina asked them as she braided her horse’s jet-black hair.

“What’s black and white and red all over?” Kade said slowly as if pondering the question. “Let’s see. . . .”

“Daddy, this is so easy.” Kadina rolled her eyes playfully.

“A zebra with ketchup poured all over it?” asked Kade.

“Nope.”

“A panda bear soaked in cherry Kool-Aid?”

“ No . . . no . . . no.”

“A cow that fell in tomato soup?”

“Dad-dy.”

Garcelle smiled at their lighthearted exchange as they trotted up a small incline. The rays of the sun suddenly intensified, and she dropped her shades back down over her eyes.

“It’s a newspaper, Daddy,” Kadina drawled.

Kade snapped his finger. “Damn, I was just about to say that.”

“Do you believe that, Garcelle?” Kadina asked her.

“I plead the fifth,” said Garcelle.

Kadina scrunched up her face. “Huh?”

Kade and Garcelle laughed.

They reached the house, and Garcelle’s eyes widened when Kade pressed the reins into her hands before he got down off the horse. “You’re not leaving me up here by myself,” she screeched as he did just that.

He laughed.

“Kade . . . Kade . . . Kade!” cried Garcelle.

He tied the reins to Kadina’s horse to the long rail running across the left side of the house.

Garcelle cursed him under her breath in Spanish, and he laughed some more as he put his hands on Kadina’s waist to help her down off the horse. She prayed her horse didn’t decide to go for a run, because she’d be screwed.

“Bye, Daddy. Bye, Garcelle,” Kadina hollered to them as she raced up the stairs. She reached the top and turned to look down at them as she cocked her head to the side. “Now don’t y’all do anything I wouldn’t do.”

With that said, she turned and walked into the house before they could even respond. “What am I going to do with her?” Kade asked as he climbed back into the saddle, behind Garcelle, and took the reins from her.

“I have no idea.”

“I know what I’m going to do with you,” he whispered in her ear.

Garcelle moaned, with an exaggerated shiver.

Kade laughed as he steered the horse back across the ranch. “There’s about a thousand acres of this property,” he told her as he settled his arm around her waist. “Growing up, I felt the world began and ended on this ranch. If it wasn’t for school, we probably would have never left it. Everything was right here.”

Garcelle listened to him as she let her hands rest lightly on top of his thighs.

“Ah man, there’s nothing better than skinny-dipping in a cool pond on a hot summer day or playing hardball in a big, open field where trees can be your bases.”

“Sounds like you had a wonderful childhood, Kade,” Garcelle told him softly.

“I remember one time my brothers and I went on strike from working the ranch, and uh . . . we ran away. We stayed right here, on the property. Just as stupid.” He laughed at the memory.

“With a thousand acres, I guess it took your father a long while to find his little boys.”

Kade snorted. “My father? Shoot, he left our asses right out there. We lasted about six hours, until that sun went down and that cold starting nipping at us. Kaeden caught a cold just that quick. We were hungry ’cause I ate all the snacks we brought. Wasn’t nothing to do but admit defeat and stupidity while we walked back home. Then, when we did get back, he had the door locked, talking ’bout how once we move out, there’s no moving back in.”

“Aww, poor babies,” Garcelle teased.

“Oh, my father was definitely in a Bill Cosby type of fathering mode.”

“Did any of you run away again?”

“Six hours in the woods and two hours on the porch before Mama made Daddy let us back in? Shit. Trust me, that was the first and the last time.”

Garcelle laughed as she relaxed against Kade’s strong chest. “I would run away with you anytime, Kade Strong.”

Kade steered the horse past the busy ranch hands, whose eyes drifted to them in open curiosity. “Where would you go with me? Jamaica? Back to the Dominican Republic?” he asked warmly as they rode until they were surrounded by nothing but long stretches of cleared, flat land, which was obviously used for grazing.

Garcelle bit her bottom lip as she shook her head slowly. “If I could close my eyes and make a wish to go anywhere with you in the world, I would find that cool pond you all used to skinny-dip in,” she told him, with honesty.

“Hold on.”

Garcelle shrieked as the horse suddenly tore off at a full run across the open plain. “Kade . . . Kade . . . Kade!”

“Just hold on, baby. Hold on.”

She shut her eyes and opened her mouth as he steered the horse near a wide road between two groves of trees.

She didn’t open her eyes again or stop praying until he brought the horse to a complete stop. Her body relaxed against him, and she let out a very deep and very shaky breath.

“You okay?” he asked.

She nodded.

“So open your eyes.”

Garcelle did, and she gasped at the lush green grass and flowers surrounding a small, circular pond.

“Your wish is my command,” Kade told her as he slid one of his hands under her T-shirt. She gasped as his hand massaged the full globe before his warm and deliciously calloused fingers teased and tweaked her nipple. “So you want to get naked with me?” he asked her thickly as his hardening length pressed against the plush softness of her buttocks.

Garcelle leaned slightly to the left and tilted her head back to look up into his eyes. “I always hate having clothes on around you,” she whispered against his lips before she gave him a coy smile.

“I can’t get enough of you.” Kade moaned in the back of his throat as he pressed his lips against her open and waiting mouth.

She felt a shiver race across his body as she suckled his tongue gently in her mouth before she lightly flicked the tip of her tongue against his own.

“Nice trick,” he told her, with a smile.

“You like?” she asked saucily.

“I like. I like.”

Garcelle lifted her leg up and sat sidesaddle, and then she brought her other leg around to straddle the saddle, facing Kade. She smiled, with a slight tilt of her head, as she lightly grabbed the lapels of his uniform shirt. “This isn’t that comfortable, but looking up into that gorgeous face of yours makes the pain in my ass and thighs worthwhile.”

Kade laughed, and his face was transformed: his eyes brightened, and his white, straight teeth flashed against the smooth bronze of his skin. He used his hands to lift her legs so that they were settled on top of his. “Better?” he asked.

“Much,” she said, with emphasis. “Have you ridden with a lady in your saddle before, cowboy?”

Kade shook his head as he looked down into her eyes.

She playfully wiggled her brows as she brought her hands down to the front of his shirt. “You have about a million of these shirts, right?” she asked coyly.

“I wouldn’t say a million, but I have a lot—”

“So you won’t mind me doing this?” Garcelle tore the shirt open, and the buttons flew, exposing his chiseled chest, lightly covered with soft and flat silver hairs. She lowered her head and circled one of his nipples with her very clever tongue.

Kade swallowed a lump in his throat. “Nope. I . . . uh . . . I don’t mind at all.”

Garcelle gave his nipple one last rollover with her tongue before she sat up straight, pulled her T-shirt over her head, and flung it over her head. Her bra followed next. She enjoyed the warmth of Kade’s eyes on her as she gave her free breasts a little shimmy and shake. “Last one in sucks big time,” she told him playfully.

She lifted her leg back over to sit sidesaddle before she jumped down to the ground to continue stripping off her clothes.

“Depending on what I have to suck, I might like to lose this one.”

Garcelle flung her lace panties up to him with a flick of her foot. “That’s the same thing I was thinking.”

Kade pressed her lingerie closer to his face to inhale deeply of her scent before he dismounted the horse and tied its reins to a bush. He stared at her as he removed his clothes and boots.

Garcelle bit the side of her index finger as she watched Kade stride around in the buff like he knew just how damn good his body looked to her. Defined muscles other men dreamed of and most women wanted flexed as he reached into the saddlebag for a blanket. Wide shoulders. Strong back. Square buttocks. Toned thighs. Killer calves.

And then he turned and stepped toward her. She swallowed hard as her eyes went back to work. Solid chest. Defined, rock-hard abs. Impressive . . . lengthy . . . solid . . . pleasuring . . . hard.

“Don’t stare. It might drop off,” Kade teased.

Her eyes jumped up from his crotch to his face before she stepped forward, pressed the length of her body against his, and snaked her arms around his neck.

Kade brought his hands up to cup her buttocks as Garcelle planted smooth kisses along his collarbone. “I thought you wanted to cool off?” he said.

“Later. Right now I like being hot,” Garcelle whispered.

Kade kissed her deeply as they lowered their bodies to the plush blades of grass. Garcelle opened her legs wide for him as he settled his muscled frame atop her body. Soon their mingled cries of fiery passion drifted high up to the skies.

Kade massaged Garcelle’s lower back as she lay atop his body. He felt her heart beating against his rib cage. He enjoyed the steady in and out of her breathing. He cherished the feeling of her body against his. “To think we . . . uh . . . thought this watering hole was only good for swimming,” he mused as he placed one arm under his head on the blanket.

Garcelle lifted her head from his chest to look up at him, with a soft smile. “Which memory will you treasure more? Making love here or swimming here?”

Kade caressed her face with his eyes. “Why not make a whole new memory?”

“What’s that?”

“Make love while swimming.”

Garcelle looked contemplative before she suddenly jumped to her feet. “The bet is still on, you know,” she told him as she nudged his foot with her own.

Kade looked up at her body, framed by sunlight, and he swore he’d never seen a more beautiful sight than her caramel skin, softly rounded shoulders, small but plump breasts, and deeply curved hips, with the most divine set of legs God ever blessed a woman with. She playfully stuck out her tongue at him before she tossed her hair from her face and turned to run and jump headfirst into the water.

He loved her spirit. Her spunk. Her fire. Her passion. She wore her emotions on her sleeve. Be it anger, pleasure, happiness, sadness, or desire, there was no mistaking what Garcelle felt. Nothing was hidden. Nothing at all.

Kade jumped to his feet and dived into the water behind her. It felt like cool silk wrapped around his body, from his head to his toes. He opened his eyes under the water and caught the image of Garcelle’s nude body as she swam to the top. He doubted there was a more magical sight than that.

He swam toward her and wrapped his arms around her as they broke the surface of the water together. The water plastered their hair against their heads. They took deep breaths and looked at each other. His heart surged as he kissed her, and they moved their bodies backward. The water intensified the already smooth feel of her body as she wrapped her legs around his waist. He pressed her against the bank, and her hands came up to rest lightly on his shoulders.

“Garcelle,” he moaned against her lips and then her cheeks.

“Yes,” Garcelle whispered, with a small gasp, which let him know that everything he did was just right.

Her shoulders . . . from the left to the right.

He deepened the kiss as the temperature of the water seemed to change from the heat of their bodies. “Garcelle, we used the condoms I had. I’m all out.”

She dropped her head on his shoulder . . . several times.

He chuckled as he pressed the side of his face against hers. “Come on. I have to get back, anyway,” he said, with obvious regret.

Garcelle lifted her body up onto the edge of the bank. She bent her legs in front of him. Kade’s eyes smoldered as he moved forward in the water. At the water’s edge, he kissed Garcelle, blazing a trail from her knee to her core. Garcelle stood up quickly and then pressed her foot to his forehead and sent him flying backwards into the water. “We have to go, remember?” she teased as she raced around the small pond to their pile of discarded clothing.

She was bending over, drying her legs off with the blanket, when Kade walked up to her. He slapped her bottom soundly with his palm before he reached into the saddlebag for another rolled-up blanket. They eyed each other mischievously as they finished getting dressed.

“So swimming or making love?” she asked him in a breathy voice as she dropped down to the ground to pull on her socks and sneakers.

Kade wiped his hands over his mouth before he stepped forward to help her to her feet. He immediately pulled her body against his and bent his head to nuzzle her neck. “Definitely making love.”

Garcelle laughed.

He helped her climb onto the saddle before he untied the horse and climbed on behind her. “Ready to head back to the real world?” he asked as he turned the horse around.

Garcelle turned and gave the pond one last look before she glanced up at Kade. She nodded. With one final kiss, she turned back around in the saddle. “I wish we could have a picnic right here.”

“We can come back another day.”

“Promise?” she asked.

Kade settled his hand lightly around her waist. “I promise.”

In just another week, her position as Kadina’s nanny would end for the summer as Kadina returned to school and Garcelle resumed her university classes. Of course, the end of the summer position didn’t mean the end of their relationship, but he felt saddened by it, anyway. He was going to miss her presence around the house.

They rode in comfortable silence through the emerald green lands and towering trees to the uncluttered and open plains before the noises of the ranch began to reach them.

Kade allowed himself one last sniff of her hair as he trotted through the ranch to the main house. He dismounted, then helped Garcelle down off the horse, with regret. Even after three hours of being with her, he already missed her. So quickly, she had become so important to his life. He wished for the comfort and ease of being able to offer his woman a kiss as they parted, but he just stepped back from her

Kadina raced out onto the porch to meet them. His mother and sister followed at a slower pace. “I thought y’all wasn’t ever coming back,” Kadina said, moving down the steps to throw her arm around Garcelle’s waist.

“I was showing Garcelle the ranch,” Kade said, climbing back into the saddle.

Kaitlyn and his mother shared a brief look before they both murmured, “Uh-huh,” with obvious disbelief.

“Kadina, let’s get ready to go,” Garcelle said, ignoring the women’s teasing smiles. “We still have to go by Uncle Kahron’s, remember?”

“Bye, Nana. Bye, Auntie,” Kadina hollered over her shoulder before she climbed into the back of Garcelle’s convertible.

“Bye, everyone,” said Garcelle. She gave Kade one last look and a half smile before she climbed into the driver’s seat and reversed in a semicircle, then accelerated down the driveway.

Kade waved as Kadina turned in her seat. “Don’t be late, Daddy,” she called to him.

“Big brother, there’s nothing that interesting around this ranch that takes three hours to show anybody,” Kaitlyn said, very tongue in cheek. “What on earth were you two doing?”

“Yes, son,” Lisha added. “Your father called looking for you. He said one of the calves is about to foal—”

Kade tipped his baseball cap to them. “Then, ladies, I better get back to work.” He smiled as soon as his back was turned to them.

“I been dreaming about fish, Kade,” his mother called behind him.

“It’s not me, Ma,” he called back over his shoulder as he trotted away.