Sizzling Seduction Read online

  He continued to clutch her arm. But she loosened his fingers and left the closet to try to talk some sense into Bil .

  Aisha stepped outside the door and put on as brave a face as she could. The fear from that afternoon hadn’t left her, but she knew she had to be strong.

  She took a deep, gulping breath and then another. “Bil , our son is sleeping and I would appreciate it if you would keep it down out here. I don’t want you to wake him up.”

  Bil appeared more crazed than she had ever seen him.

  Before she could think better of her approach, he slapped her, knocking her to the floor.

  “You don’t get to tel me what to do, you stupid, pathetic little bitch. Do you think you’re suddenly cal ing the shots because you’re spreading your legs for a fireman?” He kicked her and she tried to scoot away and block his kicks by flailing her own legs out and trying to kick him.

  He just kept kicking and hitting her and screaming foul names. She drowned out his hateful voice and the pain by thinking of Patrick.

  Patrick, who was nothing like Bil ; Patrick, whom she’d almost lost because she had let her fear control her.

  Final y Bil stopped hitting her and started back toward Dil on’s room. Her heart stopped. Her child. Not her child!

  She jumped up and grabbed his shirt to pul him back.

  Tears were fal ing down her face so hard she could barely see. But she couldn’t let him get to Dil on. She just couldn’t.

  Even if she couldn’t protect herself, she would protect her child.

  “I’m not leaving my son in this whorehouse.” He made his move for Dil on’s door again.

  “You’l have to go through me. You’l have to kil me to take my son out of here!”

  The sick, evil expression that crossed his face let her know that he would gladly do it.

  “Are you okay, little man? Talk to me, Dil on.” Patrick had never felt so much fear in his life and he never wanted to feel like this again.

  “Yes. I’m fine. I’m just worried about my mom. He’s loud.

  And he’s hitting. I can tel by the sounds he’s making. I want to go out and stop him.” Dil on’s voice sounded scared but brave.

  Patrick knew the young boy would probably run out there to help. And he just didn’t know if Bil would end up hurting both the mother and the child. Any man who would put his hands on a woman in anger was capable of anything, in Patrick’s opinion.

  “You stay put, Dil on. I’m on the way and my brothers, the police officers, are on their way, as wel . Your mom would be real y sad if something happened to you. You don’t want to see her sad, do you?”

  “No, I don’t want her to be sad,” Dil on whimpered. “But he’s hurting her….”

  Patrick broke every speed limit in the city and state, trying to make it to Aisha and Dil on. The guilt he felt for leaving them alone and vulnerable threatened to overwhelm him.

  She lived only a few blocks away from him, but it seemed like hundreds as he raced to get there. He knew both of his police detective brothers were also on their way, along with other police officers. But he also knew that these kinds of domestic violence situations, where the abused spouse had left and moved on, often ended up with the woman dead because the abuser refused to leave the woman alone to be free and happy.

  Even though Patrick was trying to keep a calm and soothing voice and tone for the scared little boy he had come to think of as his own son, he couldn’t help but worry that he and his brothers might get there too late.

  Aisha knew the last thing she could do was let Bil go into Dil on’s room.

  What would a sick abuser like Bil do, once he realized he could no longer control her with her fear for her own wel -

  being? He would try to hurt her child. She knew he would, because he knew she cared more for her child than for anything else.

  She grabbed hold of his arm and refused to let him go.

  She had no idea she could grip anything so tightly. She tried her best to pul him away, but she managed only baby steps.

  Bil laughed his ugly, harsh, hateful laugh and gave her one of his leering gazes. “What are you wil ing to do to save your little brat? You wil ing to spread them for me like you spread them for that fireman?”

  Her grip loosened slightly and he snatched his arm away.

  The thought of having Bil ever touch her in that way again sickened her to her core.

  After knowing what real love and caring felt like in Patrick’s arms, she knew she would rather die than let Bil get close to her intimately again.

  Just as his disgusting, creepy hand reached out and cupped her breast, he was snatched back and placed in handcuffs. Lawrence Hightower threw Bil against the wal and Jason read him his Miranda rights. Two uniformed police officers were also with the Hightower detectives.

  When Patrick appeared seconds later, it took al four of the other men to keep him off Bil . Even with them holding him, he got off two solid punches to Bil ’s jaw.

  “Dammit, Patrick, chil . You don’t want this fool to get off on a technicality,” Jason said and he pul ed his brother away.

  “And we don’t want to have to take you in for assault.

  This lowlife isn’t worth it. Go see about your woman and her child,” Lawrence stated.

  Aisha felt numb and weary, but at least she had kept that monster away from her child.

  The uniformed officers took Bil away, and Jason and Lawrence took her statement while Patrick comforted Dil on.

  The bruises and blood on Aisha horrified Patrick. It took everything in him, every single nurturing instinct that he didn’t even know he had, to remain calm while he rocked the scared Dil on to sleep.

  “Thank you, God, for keeping him safe.” Patrick threw his head to the sky and whispered a prayer.

  He only wished that he could have just a few minutes alone with the bastard. Once he put Dil on to sleep, he went back into the living room to check on Aisha.

  “Thank you so much, Lawrence and Jason, for getting here when you did. I don’t know what I would have done without my cop brothers. No more firemen-are-better-than-cop jokes for a month at least.”

  “It’s al good, Patrick. Just take care of her and Dil on We’l catch you later.” Jason gave him a hug.

  “Love you, man. Keep them safe.” Lawrence hugged him, too, and they both left.

  Aisha went to the bathroom to wash her face and check out her bruises.

  Patrick fol owed her to the bathroom. “Maybe we should take you to the hospital and have a doctor check you out.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “We need to take photographs of the bruises. We’l need them to build a case against him. Documenting what he did, along with the police report, should help get a restraining order and get his visitation rights revoked.”

  He would have felt better if she had gone to the hospital, but he didn’t push it. He could tel she was trying to put on a brave face, and that made him love her al the more.

  “I have a camera in the hal closet.”

  He got the camera, then proceeded to take pictures of each and every bruise. As they stood in the bathroom and he photographed the bruises on her face, back and arms, his anger boiled and his heart ached with each one. He had never felt so helpless in his life. What he wanted to do he knew he couldn’t, or else he’d be in jail and useless to Aisha and Dil on.

  He knew there was no way he could go on the way they had been going. The courtship was taking too long. He had found his family and he wanted them—his future wife and son—now.

  Wrapping his arm around Aisha, he led her to the living room and they sat for a while in silence. Al he did was hold her.

  She began to cry and he let her get it out. Each tear she shed made him want to cry himself, or, preferably, kil Bil Mil er.

  When she had spent al her tears, Patrick pul ed her tightly to him. “Look at me, love.”

  Her red, blurry eyes were swol en and one seemed as if it was getting the beginnings of a
black eye, but she stil looked like the picture of beauty to him.

  “I love you. I don’t want to spend one more moment without you. Please, love, take a chance on love just one more time and be my wife.” He rocked her slowly in his arms and felt the tears fal ing down his cheeks.

  She couldn’t believe that he had actual y asked her to marry him. She knew without a doubt that she loved him.

  But marriage seemed like something a long way away.

  Something for when they had been dating a long enough time…

  “I love you, too, Patrick. But maybe we should just take it slow—”

  “Love, that’s not an option. Believe me when I say I don’t want to pressure you, especial y not now after what you’ve just been through. But I have plans for you, me, Dil on and the little brothers and sisters we’re going to give him.” He brushed his lips softly across her swol en ones. “I’m not leaving tonight. I’m not leaving the two of you unprotected ever again. Marry me, love. Marry me.”

  Aisha exhaled and let everything he said swirl around in her head. She looked him in the eye and saw the love he had for her flowing. Just that sweet, tender look from him let her know that he was serious.

  She thought about her feelings, the ones she’d been trying to hold back from the moment she first saw him and he came barreling into her life, refusing to take no for an answer and talking about just wanting to get to know her.

  She exhaled. “I’m so glad that one of us was brave enough to believe in magic and go after what we could be together. Thank you, Patrick, for loving me enough to make me see it, for waiting for me to catch up. I love you.” She caressed his face, savoring his mahogany-brown handsomeness.

  “Wil you marry me?”

  “I’l marry you, Patrick. I’d be honored to be your wife.”

  He leaned forward and gently brushed her lips. She might have been a little bruised by Bil ’s beating, but she wasn’t broken or bowed.

  She was loved and she was final y brave enough to reach out and grab al the love her heart could carry. Al the love the sexy fire captain was waiting to give her….

  After spending the night being held by Patrick in his strong, loving arms, Aisha felt rejuvenated. She didn’t let the black-and-blue marks on her face and body sway her.

  Her heart was ful of love for her son and her man, and that give her strength. She felt good and she felt like making breakfast for the two amazing men in her life.

  Gently unraveling herself from Patrick’s arms, she went into the kitchen and turned the CD player to Mary J. Blige’s

  “Just Fine.” She practiced her dance moves as she mixed and poured the pancake batter.

  She didn’t even have to go back and wake the two of them. First Patrick came out in his jeans and no shirt. She let her eyes linger on his chiseled form and thanked the Almighty that she hadn’t succeeded in turning this gift of a man away. If she hadn’t been so busy with the pancakes, she might have given in to the urge to rub her hands down those ripples, to give those muscular arms a squeeze. As she started to consider doing just that, Dil on came out in his super ninja spider pajamas.

  “Hey, guys, I made some pancakes. So I hope you’re hungry.” She smiled at them.

  “Wel , that depends, Mom. Are these the regular pancakes from the box, or are they a recipe you got off the TV?” Dil on asked after clearing his throat.

  “They smel heavenly, love. But I’m with Dil on…Regular or concoction?” Patrick gave her one of his devilish grins.

  She put her hand on her hip and gave them the most menacing look she could, especial y since she wanted to burst out laughing at their antics.

  “They’re just plain ol’ pancakes, guys. I fol owed the directions on the box to the letter and didn’t add a thing. I didn’t get the idea or half of the recipe from watching any TV cooking show, so help me God.” She put her hand up in the scout’s-honor pose. “So if you guys don’t want these to get cold, then you need to sit down.”

  She took out the pancakes she was keeping warm in the oven and added the new batch to the platter. She also took the syrup out of the microwave and set everything on the table.

  Patrick and Dil on started fil ing up their plates with gusto and soon Dil on was covering his pancakes with the warm syrup. Seeing him pour so much on his pancakes gave her a moment of pause.

  “Um…I did get this idea from Paula’s show about the syrup where you put some—”

  “Oh, brother…M-o-m…What did you do to the syrup?

  What’s wrong with plain old Mrs. Butterworth’s?”

  “I just wanted to try something new. You might actual y like it, you know. She said to use fresh cinnamon and a little fresh lemon and orange zest, but I didn’t have any fresh cinnamon or oranges or lemons so I improvised. But I’m sure it wil be good.”

  Patrick shook his head and chuckled. He switched his unsyrup-covered pancakes for Dil on’s plate, went over to the counter and got the regular syrup bottle for Dil on. He sat down in front of the syrup-covered pancakes and winked at her before saying a quick prayer and digging in.

  “I’l eat your concoctions, love. You know this means you have to stay with me for the rest of your life.”

  She giggled. “It means you love me and I love you.” She leaned over and placed a soft kiss on his lips.

  “And don’t you ever doubt it, love,” Patrick said as he caressed her bruised face.

  She might have looked frightening, with al the black-and-blue marks. But she was the most beautiful woman in the world in Patrick’s eyes.

  “Oh, brother…” Dil on said in between bites of his pancakes. “You two are really sappy.”

  She mussed her son’s curly hair and made the sappiest face she could. “Don’t worry, we love you to pieces, too, my little sweetie.”

  “M-o-m…” Dil on gave Patrick a pleading glance and Patrick put on his best sappy-faced expression.

  “Your mom is right, Dil on. We love you very, very much.”

  Both she and Dil on burst out laughing when they looked at Patrick, and soon they were al cracking up and enjoying one another.

  That happy family feeling came over her again and this time she relished it. She let it wash away al the pain and hurt because she knew that it was going to last.

  Epilogue

  Two years later

  “Come here, son. Let me help you fix your tie.”

  Patrick straightened Dil on’s tie with a look of love and pride on his face,

  The twelve-year-old young man stood stil , al the while shaking his head. “Dad, I don’t know who’s worse—you or Mom.”

  Patrick chuckled. “Oh, that’s easy. Your mom is worse.”

  “What did you say?” Aisha final y finished getting their daughter, Chloe, out of the car seat and walked over to them with the baby in her arms.

  They had been married a little under two years and had welcomed the newest addition to their family a year ago today.

  Chloe Elizabeth Hightower’s christening was today and Patrick was happier than he had ever known he could be.

  “What am I supposedly worse about this time?” Aisha asked their son.

  That was another thing he would never get tired of saying. Their son. Ever since Bil had decided to give up his rights to Dil on, fol owing a last-ditch effort to try to hurt Aisha, Patrick had hurried to make legal what he had always felt in his heart. Dil on was completely his now. He was a Hightower.

  “Babying me. I’m twelve now, you guys. I’m a preteen. Y’

  al are going to have to stop with the babying.” Dil on grinned through his mock-serious expression.

  “You’l always be my baby,” Aisha said with a smile as she handed Chloe to Patrick.

  Patrick took his daughter as he drank in his wife, son and beautiful baby girl with his eyes.

  “Love…”

  His wife turned and gazed at him with her beautiful brown-sugar eyes.

  “Yes?”

  “Thank you for giving me the most
amazing family a man could ever hope for. I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  They walked into the church, surrounded by family and friends, and it felt amazing. Everyone was there. Al his brothers, their wives and children, his parents. His aunt Sophie had even made her amends and was slowly making her way back into the family. She’d said she wouldn’t miss her grandniece’s christening for anything in the world. Even Carla and Gerald had showed up.

  “Everyone’s here…except my mom….” Aisha’s happy face took on a slight sadness. She had cut her father out of her life and didn’t expect that to ever change.

  Patrick couldn’t believe that her father stil took Bil ’s side after what he’d done to her, and that he’d even represented Bil in the criminal case. But he knew she stil held out hope that one day her mom would come around.

  “Of course everyone is here, love. This was what it was al about at the end of the day. Family, honor, loyalty, but most important of al , love.”

  Aisha gazed at her husband and their children. She loved the way he had stepped in and become the father that her son needed. She loved that he fought to make it legal and binding so that Dil on would never have to worry about being wanted or loved again. She just loved the man because he had been patient enough to wait for her to realize that they could be magic together. And she felt the sudden urge to give him the gift she’d been keeping secret for the past two days.

  “Patrick,” she said softly, “I’m pregnant.”

  “Yes!” Dil on pumped his fist. “This time it has to be a boy!”

  “Boy or girl is fine with me. I’m just happy you final y said yes,” Patrick offered in his most heartfelt voice. He covered Aisha’s mouth with a deep kiss and al she could do was agree with him.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-4117-0

  SIZZLING SEDUCTION

  Copyright © 2009 by Gwendolyn Pough.

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