Free Hot Like Fire by Niobia Bryant Page A

physical attraction to Kade
Strong was growing. The man was gorgeous. Temptingly delicious. Devilishly handsome. Devastatingly
sexy. Disarmingly charming. Distractingly appealing.
    She was a healthy, red-blooded woman, with a
healthy libido, when she allowed that door to be
opened ... but she didn't want to be attracted to
Kade Strong. She didn't want to keep dreaming of
making wild and kinky love to him astride a horse.
She didn't want to go to sleep and dream of his hands and mouth and tongue ... and other things
pleasing to her. She didn't want to wake up to find
that just a dream of that man had the bud between
her legs visibly pulsating. A wet dream!

    Garcelle released a heavy breath.
    "Something you want to talk about?" Carlos
asked as he rose to pour the rest of his beer down
the drain.
    She shook her head and took another sip of her
beer. His words of undying and unending love for
his wife were proof positive that Kade Strong, the
handsome and oh so sexy grieving widower, was not
a man to even consider catching feelings about.
During the last few weeks, they had settled into a
platonic friendship that she enjoyed.
    He was her friend, and that was all they would be.
That was all she wanted them to be. Period.
    Carlos tugged on Garcelle's ponytail as he walked
out of the kitchen. "Go to bed," he told her, with
a yawn.
    She drained the last of her beer and then tossed
the can into the trash. "Papi, anyone ever tell you
that you look like Oscar de La Hoya?" she asked.
    Carlos laughed richly and fully as he reached his
bedroom door. "That's the beer talking. Good night,
Garcelle."
    She walked into her bedroom and closed the
door behind her before she climbed into bed. Perhaps the beer would put her to sleep so deeply that
she wouldn't even dream of Kade Strong.
    Kadina climbed out of her bed and made her
way across the cool hardwood floor to the pastelcolored curio cabinet in the corner of her room. Her father had said that before she was born, her
mother had picked out each and every one of the
glass and crystal figurines in the cabinet. Kadina
carefully opened the glass door and stood up on
her toes to flick a switch in the cabinet. A small
light popped on, and a sweet lullaby, like in a music
box, began to play.

    She closed the cabinet door, with a small click,
and stepped back to enjoy the way the figurines
seemed to sparkle in the darkness as the music
played. She smiled before she climbed back in bed
and got under the covers. She turned on her side
so that she could look at the curio cabinet from
where she lay.
    She hadn't told a soul that one night last week,
she'd dreamt that she was just a baby in her mother's
arms in front of the lit curio cabinet as her mother
sung her that same lullaby. It had seemed so real. For
the first time in a long time, she'd felt a connection
to her mother.
    Whenever she couldn't sleep or her new room
was just too much for her, she would turn on the
curio cabinet and feel her mother's presence there
in the room, watching over her.
    It wasn't long at all before her eyes drifted closed
and she felt the wind coming through the window
touch her cheek like a kiss.
    Hank kissed the top of Mimi's head, which rested
on his chest. It felt good to have her warm body
snuggled close to his. Damn good.
    Who knew that his daughter's eccentric friend
would turn out to be just what he needed when he
needed it. A dance at Bianca and Kahron's wedding had turned into nearly six months of phone conversations. Bianca didn't even know that he'd
been down to Atlanta twice to spend the weekend
with Mimi.

    She was good for him. He could tell her anything. Ask her anything. And it wasn't Mimi in her
"I'm wild, and I'll say anything to get attention"
mode. She was calm, laid back, rational, logical,
and smart. This was Beulah.
    He chuckled to think he was probably the only
person alive who knew that was her real name. She
swore she'd gut him with a