SIX
God. She hated remembering she was a virgin. She’d had none, zero, experience in the sex department and had never worried about learning too much when it came to that. Yet now, she couldn’t stop thinking of sex with Ker. Ker.
A man she’d never met in person. It was insane. And that's how she knew she needed to get her mind out of the gutter finally. Maybe staying in his room wasn't a good idea. No, no it was not, but she was going to do it anyway. Fuck the rules.
After a quick shower, she went to check the other rooms in the cabin. There were four bedrooms, not counting Ker's. She found some great family photos through the hallways. Him and his brothers and some of some adorable babies. Seeing the children had reminded her of what she didn't have. A family.
There was no other way to look at it. Though, she was still young, she'd yearned for a husband, children, a home. It was years since she'd started feeling the urge grow within her. Like a fire had been lit, and as the years passed instead of tamping down, it grew more and more.
The kitchen had to be her favorite part of the house. It had a huge window that overlooked the woods. Big appliances, like the ones Shae had in her home, took center stage. She wondered if Ker liked to cook. She couldn't cook if her life depended on it. Hell, sometimes, it did.
But thankfully, Shae had been sweet. She liked to say her southern upbringing made it impossible for her not to know how to cook. She loved food too much. Tiana did too, but apparently not enough to learn how to keep herself alive. Thankfully, Shae brought over food all the time for her.
There was a big Tupperware container on the kitchen island. It had a sticky note that read Lasagna. There was a second with fresh baked rolls. A third note said there was salad in the fridge.
She'd died and gone to food heaven. Lasagna was her favorite. Well, all food was her favorite. That's why she had so many curves to begin with. Roberta used to say that she was a lot like her mother, big boned and with an even bigger heart. She didn't know about that.
The Tupperware holding the lasagna was still warm, so no need to heat it. She cut out a piece and put it on a plate with some rolls. Then she headed for the living room. Her favorite show was about to start. She turned the TV on and watched Family Feud. It was hard for her to understand why people on that show suddenly forgot commonsense answers.
She ate her food while yelling at the correct top five or six answers on the board. Then she washed her dishes and came across a pie. A fucking fresh baked pie. She was such a sucker for those. Thank god nobody could see her sniffing it and groaning. She looked like a damn lunatic.
The pie could wait for later. She went up to her room and called it an early night. Before going to bed, she did something she'd been thinking about and dialed Ker.
“Hi, Tiana. Is everything okay?”
She had to stop herself from groaning at the sound of his voice. God. He had such a deep tone and it was husky. It gave her goose bumps.
“Hi, Ker. I- everything is fine. I just wanted to thank you again for everything.” She walked over to his closet and ran her fingers over the shirts hanging there.
“Anything you need, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart? That was new. She didn't want to let herself get excited over him calling her that, but damn! she couldn't. A swift smile spread over her lips. She padded over to his dresser, opened a drawer and glanced down at comic themed T-shirts.
“Er...Ker?”
“Yes?”
“I heard you like comic books,” she said nonchalantly at the same time grabbing a Bane T-shirt large enough to fit her as a night dress.
“I see Jason and Ava were talking to you.”
She took the shirt with her and lay on the bed, the phone still by her ear. “Maybe.”
“Is there a problem with comic books?”
She grinned. “No. I just didn't take you as a comic book guy.”
“I'm more of a gamer. But I am also a DC fan.”
She rubbed the material of the shirt on her cheek and then pressed her nose to it. Something about it made her insides warm. It was insane. This man made her feel things she hoped would be real when they finally met.
“I think it's cute,” she said without thinking.
The was a short silence before a bark of laughter sounded from him. “Cute? Baby, I'm a lot of things, but cute is not one of them.”
She'd bet. He had a lot of alpha traits in him. She wondered about that. Would she be okay with a man that might be possessive—in a good way? Hell, yes! There was a wild side she'd recently come across inside her. It apparently liked men who were alpha. Who knew?
“Anyway,” she started to say, but the sound of her car alarm stopped her. She frowned and sat up in bed in a rush. “Ker?”
“What's wrong?”
“Should there be anyone here at this time of night?”
“No. Why?” There was a steely edge to his words. “What's going on?”
“My car alarm just went off.” She glanced around the room, looking for a weapon. There was a poker sitting next to the fireplace across from the bed. She grabbed it with one hand and kept the phone firmly by her ear.
“I'm sending the sheriff,” Ker said. “Stay put. I'm coming over.”
She gulped. “How long is that going to take?”
“I'm calling a helicopter now. I'll be there in no time. But it might be too long. Don't do anything heroic.”
She snorted. She was so not the heroic type. “I wasn't planning on throwing myself at a thief over my car keys or wallet.”
Not that there was much there. Her wallet wasn't bare, but she used her credit cards for everything. If she had twenty dollars, it was a lot.
Taking the stairs slowly and quietly in her socks, she glanced at the front door. So far there was no other noise.
“Could there be some kind of animal that hit my car?”
“Maybe. A bear. A deer. We have foxes, too. Think that's what you heard?”
She worried her bottom lip and tightened her grip on the poker. “I don't know. There's been no more noise. I guess it's possible.”
Now that it was nighttime, she wasn't sure she liked the large number of windows facing the darkened woods. Though there was a nice river right outside, she hated not knowing what could be in the dark. She fumbled around and found the hidden buttons to turn off the lights for the entire lower level. Right by the front door.
Her eyes adjust a lot better than most people. Shae always complained she couldn't see anything in the dark, but for Tiana, she could make everything out like it was daytime. There was movement by her car. She peeked from a window corner and saw two figures trying to pull the doors open. The alarm didn't go off a second time. She wondered what they wanted.
“Someone's trying to break into my car,” she whispered. “Do you get thieves this way a lot?”
“No. Stay put, Tiana. I'll be there soon. The sheriff is already on the way.”
She watched one of the figures go around the cabin, trying to look inside. He pressed his hands to the sides of his face, but scrunched his nose as if having a hard time seeing. “One of them is trying to look inside.”
A soft growl sounded from Ker. “Where are you? Can he see you?”
“No. I'm behind a sofa. He's heading down to the other end of the cabin, by the kitchen.”
“Are all the doors locked?”
She cleared her throat. “Are you kidding? After what happened at my house today? Hell, yes!”
“What happened at your house today?”
She cursed herself and sighed. “We'll discuss it later. Let me see what they're doing now, hang on.”
With her poker still in hand, she crawled on the floor, military style, and then hid behind the island. Then she continued moving to the back door. She glanced up in the corner of the glass and saw the men again. They appeared to be arguing. One of them was trying to open what looked like a workshop door.
“I think they're here to steal. Do you have anything valuable in your barn?”
“That's a game space. It's got the latest technology and games as well as a massive TV and system. It's got top of the line security. They won't get in,” he answered.
“Okay, that's good to know.”
One of the men glanced at the kitchen door and marched toward it.
“Fuck!”
“I'm in the helicopter. The sheriff is three minutes away. Hang on, baby.”
She ducked, waiting for the guy to break the door or something. There was a sudden rattle, a loud set of screams and she hopped up to look out the back door glass. They weren't there. Jumping to her feet, she ran back to the front of the house, no longer caring if they saw her. Another muffled scream sounded. Did they get into a fight? A physical one now?
Something hit the side of the cabin, right beside where she was looking out the window. She jumped and another scream sounded in the distance. What the fuck was going on?
She rushed to the front of the house, threw the door open, and glanced around waiting to see if either of the men came at her. Nothing.
Wailing sirens sounded in the distance. She flipped the light switch and all the lights came on for the bottom floor as well as the front porch. The sheriff's SUV stopped at the front of the house.
A man in his thirties rushed over to her, his gun drawn. “Where are they?”
She pointed to the side of the house and explained what she saw and heard. The sheriff grabbed his flashlight and turned it on. She followed behind him as he went to where the screams and the thud had come from. He flashed the lights at the roof of the cabin but all they saw was a trail of blood all the way down. She didn't believe for a second that those two men had fought to the point blood got on the damn roof. That was insane.
The flashlight followed the blood trail down the wall until shining on a giant splatter on the side of the cabin. That had to be where she felt the thud happen. One of those guys really hurt the other.
The sheriff turned his flashlight toward the trees.
Another set of wailing sirens came closer and closer. She heard doors open and close and finally four more guys showed up.
“Go scout the area,” the sheriff told the men. “I saw their car up the road. They have to still be around here. Looks like they got into an argument.”
“Money, probably,” one of the men said and flashed her a smile. “Hi, I'm Angel.”
She grinned. He was definitely no angel, but she kept that to herself. “Tiana.”
“Get your ass out there, Romeo,” the sheriff ordered. “I want to make sure this place is secure.” He then turned to Tiana. “It's best if you wait inside. Ker should be here shortly.”
She nodded. “Can I get you some coffee or something to drink?”
His frown softened and a smile spread over his face. “That would be very nice. We've never had this kind of issue up here, so it's difficult to say what's going on right now. Most people in the area love Ker. He's done so much for our community.” He shook his head. “It makes no sense.”
“If it's drugs, it won't make sense,” she told him and headed inside to make coffee. She sure as hell needed a cup or ten.