The Hot Spot Read online

  A dozen or so numbers pushed into her hand throughout the night. She had to laugh because none of those young hardbodies knew about the finesse of handing a lady his business card—that was, if they even had the kinds of professions that called for them. Oh no, instead, lying between her open legs on the bed were bits and pieces of paper, napkins, gum wrappers, the torn corner of a club flyer, and even a receipt. All with the names and numbers of men who wanted to get to know her better.

  But nothing about the men stood out to her, and she knew she would never call them as she scooped up all the confetti and leaned over to drop them into the top drawer of her nightstand atop the rest of her “souvenirs.” As if it wasn’t full enough.

  The drawer was her trophy, her misplaced selfesteem during the first year after her divorce. Who gives a damn if Ned didn’t want me? I have the names and numbers of plenty of men who do. Men to be called at my whim—well, if I had planned on calling them.

  Climbing from the bed, she stretched her limbs in her blue lace bikini and matching tank before using her knee to close the drawer. Her stomach grumbled loudly, but she stopped to brush her teeth and wash last night’s makeup from her face before finally leaving her bedroom on bare feet to head downstairs to the kitchen.

  She moved at a snail’s pace about the kitchen until she had fixed and enjoyed a full cup of strong coffee, extra sweet with lots of cream. Her twins liked to tease that she liked a splash of coffee in her cup of milk.

  Zaria leaned back against the counter, her eyes shifting to the round table in the center of the breakfast nook. She felt a little melancholy as she was filled with memories of her girls when they were just eight years old, with their heads buried in their books as they did their homework at that table every day after school. Now they were finishing up their sophomore year at Denmark Tech with their own apartment down the block from the campus.

  She wished they could have come home, with her having a rare weekend off from work, but her girls were deep into studying for their finals. So, Zaria was alone in the big house. All weekend.

  She bit her bottom lip and furrowed her brow.

  Her house was clean. There were no chores to be done. No big meals to be cooked. No yard to be raked or tended.

  So many things about Zaria’s life had changed. Many, many things.

  Many things had to change.

  “Thank God,” she muttered, quickly fixing herself another cup of coffee before she made her way back upstairs to her bedroom.

  Her cell phone was vibrating like a sex toy, and she nearly tripped over a three-inch-heeled bootie lying on the floor, having to steady her cup to keep from spilling her coffee as she rushed across the room to grab the phone. “Hello,” she said breathlessly.

  “Ummm . . . Zaria?”

  She smiled as she set her coffee cup on the nightstand. “Nigel.” She sighed in pleasure, thinking of the tall and slender West Indian she met a few months ago at a Caribbean festival in Charleston. The College of Charleston grad student was handsome and smart and funny . . . and just shy of twenty-five.

  He laughed. “I thought I dialed the wrong number,” he said.

  At the thought of spending the rest of her long weekend alone around her house, Zaria was glad for a little friendly diversion. “No, you got me.”

  “You’re not busy?” he asked, surprised.

  “Nope.” She stood up and sucked in her stomach, turning her head to eye her side profile in the mirror.

  “Must be my lucky day.”

  Zaria walked over to her closet. “Or mine,” she said.

  Beep.

  “Then let’s spend the day together,” he offered.

  Zaria reached for an oversized straw hat, plopping it onto her head. “A nice day at the beach sounds like a plan,” she suggested, knowing her wish was his command.

  It always was.

  Beep.

  Zaria frowned at the steady beep signaling another call coming in.

  “When and where should I pick you up?” he asked.

  She looked at her phone. It was her supervisor from the restaurant bar where she worked. “Hold on one sec,” she said, putting Nigel on hold as she answered the other line.

  “Zaria, I hate to do this. I know this is your weekend off—”

  “You need me to work,” she said, cutting to the chase and skipping the BS.

  “We need you in an hour.”

  She shook her head as she took the hat off her head and set it back on the shelf . . . along with her plans for a fun day with a sexy young man willing to please.

  CHAPTER 2

  Kaleb Strong leaned his broad and muscular back against the porch railing and pretended to look off into the distance at the vast lands of the Strong Ranch. Having spent all of his childhood and a good part of his adult years on the ranch, he knew it like the back of his hand—every bit of the hundreds of acres. But he preferred to look out at the barn and paddocks and beyond to pretend like he didn’t feel like a fifth wheel.

  His mom had cooked a big meal in honor of his dad’s birthday. They had enjoyed their feast of barbecued ribs, collard greens and rice, and macaroni and cheese. Now they lounged on his parents’ sizable front porch, enjoying the mild heat of late spring—his eldest brother, Kade, and his wife, Garcelle; his brother Kahron and his wife, Bianca; and his brother Kaeden and his fiancée, Jade. All were sitting beside their loves in that comfortable and easy way of people who adored each other. Even his parents, Lisha and Kael, were sitting side by side in their oversized black rockers like two peas in a pod.

  And that left him sitting alone and looking like Only the Lonely.

  Their baby sister, Kaitlyn, was away for the week on a cruise to Brazil with her friends and wasn’t there to break up the feeling of a huge group date. Even his niece, Kadina, and his nephews, KJ and Karlos, were all napping inside the house and unable to serve as buffers to the love fest surrounding him.

  All of his brothers had found the loves of their lives. They were clearly on the path to that longlasting relationship that their parents had. Even Kaeden.

  Kaleb looked back over his broad shoulder at his brother, who was warily eyeing a bee flying about the porch. Kaeden was allergic to any and everything outdoors. He was the only one in the family who didn’t work on a ranch. Instead he was a successful accountant who handled all of the paperwork for their various ranches, plus he did the accounting for many businesses and corporations in the surrounding areas.

  And unlike his brothers, Kaeden had never shown that cocky bravado when it came to women. Between Kahron, Kade, and himself, they had enjoyed their share of beautiful women, but Kaeden had always been reserved and cautious around women. At times even clumsy.

  Kaleb shifted his deep-set eyes over to his brother’s fiancée, Jade. She was the epitome of a beautiful woman. All curves and prettiness and sex appeal. The temptation of her honey had made him one of the many men of Holtsville buzzing around her skirts. While she swatted him away along with the rest, Jade had handed over the entire pot to his brother.

  And she was completely in love with Kaeden.

  Smiling, he shook his head as he looked away from them. There was a time when he would have given his right hand to spend a hot night in the woods with Jade, but those feelings vanished the moment she made her choice. Now, one year later, he looked at her with the same fondness as Garcelle and Bianca—and wished to have a woman just like them in his own life.

  The quantity of women was not his problem—he was more of a connoisseur of fine females than any of his brothers. His mother always admonished him the hardest for being a playboy—or man-whore as she liked to say. Kaleb’s problem was the quality of women who filled his mental black book—or rather the quality of his relationships with them. He should start trying dinner and a movie rather than staying in the bedroom and using a six-pack of Magnums. Or at least have the dinner and a movie first.

  The sudden wail of the baby from the monitor caused everyone to jump in surprise.r />
  Garcelle rose from her spot next to Kade on the top step of the porch. “Our bebé is awake from his nap,” she said, her Spanish accent prominent.

  “Bebé? Karlos just turned one a few months ago and he’s almost as big as KJ,” Kahron joked, the laughter in his eyes hidden behind his shades.

  Everyone on the porch laughed, including Kade and Garcelle before she excused herself to walk into the house.

  “Kade was big and sturdy like that too,” Kael said, flipping the pages of the Press and Standard newspaper. “He looked like a six-month-old when he was born.”

  Lisha nodded and comically winced as she rocked in her chair. “Thank the heavens the rest of my children got smaller and not bigger,” she said, looking over at Kade’s six-foot-nine frame and winking at him.

  Kael snorted in derision. “Thank the heavens everything snapped back into place.”

  “Oh, man, come on, Daddy, man,” Kaleb moaned, frowning deeply as everyone else on the porch groaned.

  He lowered the newspaper with an innocent expression on his square and handsome face. “What?”

  Lisha just chuckled softly as she reached over to lightly pat and squeeze his upper thigh. They exchanged a long look.

  It was a look he had seen them share many times over the years. Kaleb wanted to feel everything that was layered in that look: the love, the desire, the trust, and the commitment. He had been raised in a home filled with loving parents. How could he help but want the same for himself?

  Kade’s teenaged daughter, Kadina, stepped out onto the porch, holding a fidgety Karlos in her arms. Garcelle held the screen door open as little KJ, Bianca and Kahron’s toddler, stepped down onto the porch.

  Kaleb instantly felt his heart surge at the sight of his niece and nephews. He couldn’t help but wonder if any of the three would inherit the Strong trait of their hair prematurely turning gray. Even his sister had a thick streak of silver in the front of her hair that she dyed jet black.

  “Bring me Bam-Bam,” Kaleb requested, using his nickname for the baby, his strong and muscled arms already lifting as KJ waddled his threeyear-old body to his mother, Bianca.

  “Gladly,” Kadina said wryly, her sleek ponytail swinging in the air as she whirled to walk her little brother over to him. “He is so heavy that it’s not even funny.”

  “He’s going to be big and strong like his uncle Kaleb,” he said, taking the smiling baby to stand up on his thigh as he bounced him on his knee. “Ain’t that right, man.”

  Karlos cooed and giggled, releasing a small spit bubble that popped and lightly wet his cheeks. He could already see the Strong features in his nephew’s face. He knew the rounded cheeks would become lean with high cheekbones and his jaw would square, just like all the other Strong men. Will my son look like him? Kaleb wondered.

  His eyes narrowed as he shifted his gaze back out to the vast acres of the farm. He was a grown-ass man ready for some grown-man changes . . . with the right woman.

  Kaleb focused his deep-set eyes on his nephew as small and pudgy hands began to pat against his cheeks.

  “You look real good with a baby, Kaleb.”

  He looked up to find Jade, Garcelle, Bianca, and his mom standing in a semicircle around him. Kaleb leaned back a bit from them.

  “Uh-oh,” one of the men said from behind the curtain the women’s bodies made.

  Kaleb’s brows furrowed as he locked eyes with each one.

  “You know my friend Lizbeth would be perfect for you,” Bianca said with a wink that twinkled brighter than the diamond hoop earrings dangling from her ears.

  “Or,” Garcelle added as she motioned with her finger and eyed the other women, “Amanda from my pediatrician’s office is a-doh-rable.”

  Jade frowned and shook her head. “No, no, no. I know her and the Amanda at work is totally different from the Amanda after hours. DRAMA.”

  “Scratch her, then,” Lisha said emphatically.

  Bianca shifted KJ up higher on her hip. “What about Yolanda, the new choir director at church—”

  “Okay, ladies,” Kaleb said, rising to his feet and handing the baby to Garcelle. “Thank you for your concern, but I’m straight. Trust me. I don’t need help with my love life—”

  “Maybe not your sex life but you need some help with your love life,” Garcelle drawled.

  “Sex and love are two different things, son,” Lisha said, reaching out to pat the side of his strong face. “One involves the heart and the other involves your—”

  Kaleb pretended to gag. “Okay, I’m not discussing sex with my moms,” he said, easing between Bianca and Jade to free himself. His brothers and father all cast amused glances at him, and Kaleb glared at them as if they were buzzards circling his dying body.

  They all chuckled.

  Their mother was infamous for pinning one or all of them down with questions, commentary, and opinions. Now that she had backup from her sons’ wives and fiancée, she was really unstoppable.

  Brrrrnnnggg.

  Kaleb grabbed his cell phone from the clip on his belt, more than glad for the diversion. “Yeah,” he said, turning his broad back on his entire family.

  “Where you at?”

  Kaleb frowned at the male voice, pulling the phone away from his ear to look at the number on the caller ID. He didn’t recognize it. “Who is this?”

  “Orion. I’m on my brother’s phone.”

  He nodded in clarity. “Oh. Whassup?”

  “Yo, my little brother done messed up and got engaged and I’m taking him out tonight. You down?”

  Kaleb immediately had a vision of red lights, bare breasts, gyrating hips, and dollar bills. He began to shake his head before the words even left his lips. “Nah, man. I have some work to do on my farm early in the morning. No T and A for me tonight.”

  “T and A?” someone muttered, before all of the women behind him either hummed in disapproval or sucked air between their teeth. Again the men chuckled.

  “It’s a bunch of us headed right to a sports bar in Charleston to grab a few drinks and something to eat. Nothing major.”

  “I can call Suzi over right now. Poor thing is always sitting at home alone. I’m sure they’ll hit it off.”

  Kaleb stiffened and his mouth froze as the whisper from behind his back reached his ear. “Actually, I just need to go home and change,” he said, immediately deciding that of his options of a lonely night at home mulling over just how lonely his home was, staying at his parents’ for a matchmaking session that smelled like it could go horribly wrong in an instant, or heading out to a sports bar, he was choosing the latter.

  “We’ll pick you up at your place on the way to Charleston . . . in an hour.”

  “A’ight.” Kaleb closed his phone and slid it back into its clip before adjusting his shoulders and expanding his broad chest in the charcoal gray Dickies uniform shirt he wore.

  “You going, Kaleb?” Lisha asked, with a lengthy sidelong glance as KJ came up to stand before her with a smile.

  Kaleb scratched at his chin, feeling the bristly beginnings of a shadow. He had to shave daily to keep away his shadow and could have grown a full beard in less than a week. His brothers used to tease him as a teenager that he was a werewolf. “In a little bit,” he finally said.

  “Got plans?” she asked, not at all good at being subtle.

  He chuckled before turning to lean against the railing and look over at her. “Orion’s little brother just got engaged, and a bunch of the fellas are going to a sports bar to have a few drinks and celebrate with him.”

  “Tevon?” Kaeden asked. “He’s marrying . . . Melissa?”

  The men all exchanged long looks and Kaleb just shrugged. He knew exactly what they were thinking. To most men, there were two types of women: the kind you bed and the kind you wed. With her history and fondness for men, Melissa was far from the latter, but to each his own. Maybe Tevon knew something they didn’t. Maybe not. Kaleb wasn’t about to judge.

  “Don’t worry, U
ncle Kaleb. I understand,” Kadina said, nearly as tall as his shoulder. “You can’t look for love. You have to wait for it to find you.”

  “Really?” he asked, looking down as she wrapped her slender arm around his waist. He was ever and always amazed that she was sprouting up so fast. What happened to the cute, pudgy kid with those fuzzy ponytails? “Just as long as love isn’t looking for you, kid.”

  Kadina playfully rolled her eyes heavenward. “Oh, Uncle Kaleb, you sound like Daddy . . . and Uncle Kahron . . . and Uncle Kaeden . . . and Grandpa.”

  Kaleb nodded like there wasn’t anything wrong with that. “We’re men. We know what little boys are thinking . . . and wanting . . . and plotting,” he warned her, reaching up to pull her ponytail.

  “I know, I know.”

  With one quick kiss to her forehead, Kaleb raised his hand to the rest of his family on the porch. “Gotta go. See y’all tomorrow,” he said over his broad shoulder, already jogging down the stairs in his well-worn Timberlands. The Strong men were ranchers, but it was all about Dickies uniforms and Timberland boots instead of Wrangler jeans, spurs, and Stetsons. A new breed of cowboy for sure.

  “You don’t want to take a plate?” his mother called out as he climbed into his rusted red work truck.

  “No, ma’am,” he called back in his deep voice before turning the key that he’d left in the ignition.

  With one blast of the horn, Kaleb headed down the long road that would take him home to prepare for a rare night out with the fellas. But the closer he got to home and the more he thought about how early he had to rise in the morning to work his farm, Kaleb followed his gut and called Orion to cancel his plans.

  A night home alone was no biggie.

  CHAPTER 3

  Two weeks later

  Kaleb inhaled deeply of the steam swirling around his nude form as he leaned forward against the tiled shower wall and let the spray beat down against his back. The streams flowed across his hard, square buttocks and farther down to the backs of his muscled legs. He rested his head against the forearm he pressed to the slick, wet wall. He had already washed off every bit of the sweat and grime from a hard day’s work, helping his farmhands herd his seventy head of cattle to graze in one of the ten paddocks on the thirty acres of his land he’d sectioned off just for grazing.