Naughty Temptations

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

DELANIE

Planting the toes of my shoes in the dirt, I push backward halfheartedly then let momentum take over and slowly glide the swing back and forth. I wish Daddy was here, pushing me as high as the swing can go.

“Oh, Daddy. How did everything get so screwed up?”

I sigh then give another push and tug the hoodie tighter around me. The sun went down some time ago and the temperatures dropped with it. I really should go home but the thought of being there alone is depressing. I’ll just swing and talk to Daddy for a little while longer.

“I know Mom never wanted to run the company. I’ve witnessed her resentment over having to devote so much time to it, the personal sacrifices she’s made. But why couldn’t she have hung in there, for me, until I’m ready to start taking over some of the management. Boyd Logistics is too important. I can’t risk making mistakes with it because I’m inexperienced.”

My thoughts turn back to Ky as they have so often over the past few hours. He loves me. I’ve seen it in the way his expression softens and his eyes sparkle when he looks at me.

“What would his motivation be in taking ownership of the company? Did he do it for himself or in some way for me?”

Swinging a bit faster, I let the idea play through my mind. I may be naïve but I can’t see Ky setting out to intentionally screw me out of Boyd Logistics. What did he give my mom for the company? And why? “He has to have a plan, one I just haven’t figured out yet.” Because my heart won’t accept the idea he acted against me.

KYLER

I am driving around aimlessly, going out of my mind with worry. Already considered and tossed out the idea of calling hospitals and police stations.

Camille said Delanie would go off and sulk for a while then go back home. The problem is I have no idea where she’d go. The only places we’ve ever been together are work, my place and the lake. I checked my place a half hour ago and I doubt she’d go all the way to the lake.

Hell, if I wanted to go somewhere and think it would be the park down the street from my parents’ old house. The one Mom would take me to before the depression got the better of her. Her suicide still has the power to piss me the f**k off. She took the coward’s way out and left a teenage son to figure things out for himself.

How I’d love to talk to her now and get her advice on women. She’d know exactly what I should do.

The park isn’t far away and I head there on autopilot, park the car, and walk over to the picnic table under a ficus tree that had grown ginormous since the last time I was here. Since it’s after dark the park’s empty with no one around to hear me talking to my dead mother. Cause that’s the kind of s**t that can get a guy locked up on a seventy-two-hour psych hold.

“Mom. I need your help. My girl thinks I betrayed her and I can’t find her to explain. I’ve driven around the city for hours and have no idea where to look. I have to find her, set things right. Because, Mom. She’s the one.”

A chilly breeze ruffles my hair and I can’t help smiling, remembering how Mom loved messing with my hair.

“Okay, think dumb ass. I’d come here. Where would Delanie go?”

She wasn’t at her place or mine. Her mom’s place is empty. Not that she’d turn to that viperous b***h. Her Dad was her everything.

I remember she said something about Camille being jealous of their close bond. He shared his love of books and movies with her. I shoot to my feet and try to catch the thought flirting around at the edge of my mind. There’s something there. What is it? Something to do with movies.

“That’s it!”

I run across the playground, dive into the car, and drop the pedal, smoking the tires as I take off. Delanie told me about going to the drive-in with her Dad. Even after it closed they snuck in.

“f**k!” I slam my palm against the dashboard. There had to have been half a dozen drive-ins back in the day. Some are still open. “I need a closed drive-in that didn’t get torn down.”

Only one comes to mind. I remember driving past and thinking how sad it looked. I’d even wondered why no one had done anything with the property but it wasn’t on prime real estate and there’s not much else around it.

“Please be there, D.”

The drive seems to take forever and I’m once again cussing out every other car on the road. Why are they all driving so f*****g slow? I’ve lost track of how many times my middle finger has made an appearance out the window.

The closer I get the more traffic thins until mine is the only car on the road. I head down the entrance drive until reaching the closed gate. Hopping out, I rush over to notice the chains hanging from the two halves aren’t connected and instead dangle down uselessly. I swing one side open and don’t bother to stop and close it again after I drive through. If Delanie isn’t here, I won’t be staying long.

The ticket booth is nothing more than a dilapidated old green shack with no window panes and a sagging roof that won’t be covering it for much longer. The sign is barely readable, most of the paint having worn off, but it only cost $2.50 per carload to watch a double feature at this particular drive-in.

The gravel drive curves around an old fence that’s missing most of the slats. In the center of the dusty dirt lot sits a squat cinderblock concession stand that randomly makes me crave a corndog. The rows are grown over with weeds and no longer well defined. But the metal poles holding the speakers still stick up out of the ground, although most of the old gray metal speakers are long gone.

There are no cars in sight and my hope quickly dwindles. How the hell am I going to find Delanie?

Still, I keep driving past the back rows and the concession stand, finally spotting the dark shape of a car in the front row. I don’t let myself get excited, not yet. It could be an old junker, although the shape more closely resembles a modern sedan.

The closer I get the more my headlights reveal. It’s a newer car with shiny black paint. When I get close enough to recognize it as a Camry my heartrate goes through the roof. I found her.

No sooner has the shifter hit park then I’m out of the car only to find the Camry’s empty. I place a hand on the hood. Cold. The car has been here for a while. But where the hell is Delanie.

Motion to the right side of the screen draws my attention to an old swing set. There, on the only swing still hanging from the poles a dark shape glides slowly back and forth.

I sprint across the distance screaming her name. When I’m one-hundred feet away her head finally pops up. She drops her feet and the swing stops moving.

“Ky? Is that you?”

I slow to a walk.

God, her voice had never sounded so sweet. Rough and broken but sweet all the same. The tight fist that has been wrapped around my heart finally eases up.

“Yeah, gorgeous. It’s me.”

“Go away.”

I let out a harsh bark of laughter. “Not a chance. I’ve been searching for you for the past six hours.”

She snorts. “Well you found me. Now you can leave. I’m not done thinking.”

Cautiously moving around the swing, I position myself behind her and start pushing. At first, she drags her feet in the well-worn groove in the dirt. But after a minute she stops fighting it.

“I know about the deal with…” She pauses as if she lost the train of thought. “With that backstabbing witch.”

“Camille is a piece of work,” I agree. “I’ve never raised a hand to woman before but I gotta tell you, it was a close thing when I saw her this afternoon. She’s made herself real comfortable at my Dad’s house.”

We’re both silent for a while. Delanie is the first to speak.

“You should go. Really. If I had the energy to get up off this swing I’d kick you in the nuts.”

One hand automatically drops to cup my junk protectively. We both get quiet again for a few minutes.

“Look, I know she gave you the company. I give up. I’m not going to fight it. I just have one question. What did she get in return for my birthright?”

This is the part I don’t want to tell her but if I’m going to fix things, I have to come clean.

“I signed over my interest in Harrington International.”

Her feet slam down hard into the dirt causing dust to rise around us. Delanie coughs and turns to face me with the swing between us, maintaining distance.

“You did what?”

The shock on her face makes it clear she didn’t consider that I’d give up my family company to save hers. For her.

“I don’t own Boyd Logistics.”

The laughter abruptly stops and her face goes white as a sheet.

“W-what? Oh God!” She wraps her arms around herself and holds on tight. “W-who owns my company?”

Stepping around the swing, I grasp her shoulders and turn Delanie to face me then trail my hands down her arms and take her hands in mine. I stoop down a little until we are face to face and I have her full attention.

“You do.”

She just stares blankly.

“I traded my interest in Harrington for ownership of Boyd, which I then had put in your name. The papers will be filed tomorrow. It’s ironclad and irrevocable. The company is yours to do with as you will.”

“B-but…”

She seems to be having a hard time tracking and I’m worried about how cold her hands are. I start rubbing them between mine in an attempt to warm them up.

“You’re freezing. Let’s get you in the car where it’s warm. Come on, gorgeous.”

Wrapping an arm around her, I guide an unresisting Delanie to my car, settle her in the passenger seat and run around to the other side. Turning in my seat, I urge her to do the same and spell everything out for her.

“I came up with the idea Sunday morning and called Camille. She agreed to the transfer and we arranged to have the papers drawn up. We met with the lawyers first thing this morning.”

I pause, remembering my father storming into the room, screaming at both of us.

“Somehow, my dad found out. He pitched a fit but it was too late. I’d already signed over Harrington and Camille was in the process of signing over Boyd.”

Delanie’s staring at me as if she doesn’t recognize me.

“Harrington International… It used to be everything to me. But I couldn’t let you get screwed out of your dream.”

She blinks rapidly and locks her pretty brown eyes on my green ones.

“Why? Why would you do that? Give up your birthright for mine?”

This was the risky part. I’m pretty sure Delanie loves me. Neither of us has said it. Not really. Hell, someone has to take the leap of faith and go first, right? Time to man up and tell her how I feel.

“The company was everything. But not anymore. You, D. You mean the world to me. I love you and I want you to have what your father promised you.”

She stares into my eyes for several breathless moments.

“You gave up Harrington?”

I nod. That one’s still hard to say out loud.

“And made me owner of Boyd?”

“Sole owner. Yes.”

“You did that…for me?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“W-what if I’m not ready? If I mess up?”

Ah. I had wondered why she came to intern at Harrington instead of taking over Boyd after graduation.

“I still mess up from time to time.” I shrug. “It’s called being human. But you’re ready, D. You have a solid educational base, and you have me.”

“Say it again,” she demands.

“What?”

She throws a wicked right cross and punches my shoulder.

“The reason you did all that. Say it again!” This time she growls the command.

The goofy ass grin stretches across my lips flashing way too much teeth but hey, she has to take me as I am, goofy grin and all. I happily tell her what she wants to hear.

“You’re my everything. I love you!”

Once again Delanie is launching herself at me, although this time we are hampered by the center console and steering wheel. Still she manages to wiggle her way into my lap, straddling my hips, fingers threading through my hair and pulling my face to hers.

She pauses with her lips a breath away from mine, stares at me for a long moment and says, “I love you, too.”

Our lips meet in a searing kiss I feel all the way down to my soul. The ache in my chest is replaced by a surge of euphoria. Delanie loves me. She’s in my arms and all is right in my world.

We make out for what seems like forever and mere seconds at the same time. I reach down and slide the seat back as far as it will go but there’s still not enough room to maneuver.

Delanie breaks the kiss and flashes me a devilish grin. “You know, I have this fantasy.”

She has my undivided attention. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. And you can help me make it a reality.”

Leaning in she presses her lips to my ear and describes a s*x-on-the-hood-at-the-drive-in scene that has me hard as a rock and putty in her hands.

“Hey, but first,” I interrupt.

She pulls back and scowls at me. “Yeah?”

“There’s one more thing?”

Her brow quirks up. “What?”

Reaching into the console, I pull out a square velvet box and rest it in the palm of my hand. “I was struggling to figure out some over-the-top romantic way to propose instead of just dropping to a knee. But hey, what’s more romantic than a car with fogged up windows at the drive-in?”

Delanie giggles and my heart melts at the carefree sound.

“I have this image stuck in my head.” And I pray this doesn’t freak her out.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. You and me. A little girl with reddish-brown hair and green eyes. A scrappy boy with black hair and honey brown eyes.”

She gasps and swallows hard.

“So I went and got my mother’s ring from the safety deposit box hoping you’d like that image enough to say yes and marry me.”

“Yeah?” She kisses the end of my nose.

“Yeah.” I kiss the corner of her lips.

“So what do you say, D? We’ll get a house and a dog, have a couple of kids. I’ll be yours and you’ll be mine.”

“But wait. You don’t have a company to run anymore so you’re unemployed.”

My belly laugh shakes her body in my lap.

“You have a company to run. I’ll help and raise the kids.”

“Oh, yeah!

“Yeah. So what do you say?”

“I love the way you think…”

She trails off and I swear my heart has stopped beating. I hear a but in the dangling end of that sentence.

“But I need your help with the company. I’m not ready to take it on alone. I need a partner.” Love, passion and promise sparkle in her eyes. “We’ll run Boyd Logistics together, as equal partners. Agreed?”

A lot of the tension eased out of my body but the most important issue had yet to be resolved.

“Nope, you have to answer my question first. Delanie Boyd, will you marry me and be my partner for life?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I will.”

Thump, thump.

My heart kick-started, beating double time.

We act out her fantasy, making love on the hood of my car and start a life together that’s even better than our wildest dream. The ice queen and the bad boy turn it all around to become a happy suburban family.

Never saw that coming but damn, it’s a sweet life.