Protect and Serve by Gwyneth Bolton Page A

she was just a girl and she saw him for the first time?
    After all she’d been through, the rough life she’d had, how could she be responding to him like a young girl in love?
    Better yet, how did she turn it off and do what she needed to do, when the older man was so much bigger, stronger and finer than the young man had been. And the older man still looked at her with that same sparkle in his eyes.
    He smiled at her and stepped aside for her to walk in.
    And why the heck was he smiling at her when she’d tried to get him locked up last night? He wasn’t making it easy for her to do what she needed to do at all, not at all .
    The small room had a twin bed, a tiny chest of drawers with a hot plate on top and a corner table with a wooden chair in front of it. There wasn’t much in the way of decorations, unless you counted the brown blanket and the odd-shaped yellow crocheted doilies on the table.
    “Hey, girl. This is a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t expecting you here, after the way you acted last night.” He smiled, and his whole face lit up.
    She loved the way his face brightened when he looked at her. Nobody had ever been able to look at her and make her feel more special.
    Nope, this wouldn’t be easy.
    “That’s why I’m here, Gerald. You can’t come back over there. Just stay away, please. I’ll tell her where you live and she can come see you here or whatever. But I can’t have you showing up at my place. Okay?” Carla rushed her words out and quickly did a U-turn toward the door.
    Yep, coming here was a bad idea. But at least she’d said her piece. Now she had to get the hell out of Dodge.
    Gerald’s hand reached out and grabbed her shoulder before she could make her great escape. He spun her around, and he had that same glimmer in his eyes, that same way of looking at her that made her heart go all out of whack.
    “Baby, what’s wrong? What has you all scared? When I first got out and we met up, you seemed open to me getting to know our daughter. And I even thought—”
    “There’s nothing wrong with me, Gerald. And I ain’t scared of anything. I just don’t need you sniffing around my place, that’s all. The past is the past. If Brat wants to have a relationship with you, then that’s her business. But I don’t. So stay away.”
    “I can’t do that.” He bent his head down and covered her mouth in a hard, soul-penetrating kiss, a kiss that wouldn’t yield. One that offered no outs…only ins….
    Carla couldn’t help it. She opened her mouth and gave everything she felt, everything he made her feel. And feeling again, after so many years, had an amazing effect, took her higher than any drug ever had or ever could.
    It wasn’t a rush her addictive personality could easily pass up. And as she allowed him to lead her to the bed, she knew she would have to figure out a way to control the situation, and her desire, to get Gerald to stay away. But when his strong hand cupped her breast and his demanding mouth claimed her nipple, she found it harder and harder to remember why she had to let him go.
    And after an hour in Gerald’s bed and a half hour trying to talk him into staying away, Carla rushed home trying to think of better ways to get Penny to let her come to California. She decided she would show Penny she’d changed by cooking a nice Sunday meal, or at least fixing up some of the many leftovers from all the food people brought over after Mama’s funeral so she could have a nice meal after church.
    The last thing she expected as she walked up to the house was to find Clyde standing there, with that mean and ugly glare on his face. Something about the way he looked at her told her he knew exactly where she’d just come from.
    He walked up to her, grabbed her by the hair and pulled her toward the house. “You have got to be one stupid, hardheaded little slut!”

Chapter 6

    B eing in the kitchen with Mrs. Hightower again felt surreal and just right, all at the same