CHAPTER 1
Spoilt brat Sophia Rhodes chewed a lock of golden hair as she talked to the caller at the lunch table, disrupting conversation.
"Raymond, how wonderful that you are back home from France. Yes, I can come now. Bye."
Sophia's mother looked guiltily at their guest Grady, guilty because she'd allowed her younger daughter to develop into a wild child. "Sophia darling, Grady is your date for that cookout this evening."
"Huh? Oh of course – sorry Grady but my old date is back in town and needs me to be with him. Must dash."
As she rose from the table, blonde, beautiful and possessing not much else, particularly within the head, she prepared to flee but was forced to halt because of her father's barked "Sophia!"
She turned and stared at Stephen. "Try to stop me at your peril daddy."
"I...um...apologize properly to Grady who is your guest."
"Sure, of course. Sorry to bypass you Grady but you know how it is. Try Gloria Reynolds to fill in – she goes with anyone. Bye."
Grady gritted and visualized placing Sophia over his knee and belting her ass but frowned, knowing she'd think that was him being sexy and would wet all over his trousers. What a bitch.
Mrs Rhodes reached across the table and gripped Grady's arm said she was so sorry. It was a disgraceful exhibition of manners.
Grady had not lifted his hand to take hers but he acknowledged her words with a smile.
"And a few other things beside," grunted the father. "Go with Grady to the cookout Andrea."
"I beg your pardon?"
Stephen wasn't having two rebellions in two minutes, not from his daughters. "You have your orders."
"Father, you're not lording it over your workers. This is home where freedom and equality rule."
Grady swept his black fringe back and cleared his throat so noisily that the other three at the table looked at him wondering if a fishbone was giving him problems. The 28-year-old – same age as Sophia – looked uneasily at the unattached psychologist who reputedly could find no man to please her. He swallowed and said, "Andrea, I'm in deep crap. Please partner me to my father's fiftieth birthday cookout. Mom had told her sisters I've bringing the Rhodes girl."
"That's Sophia not me. Why didn't you put up a fight to stop my sister walking out on you?"
"Because I'm spineless."
"Oh yeah? A muscular guy like you can't handle a rebellious hothead who thinks only of her pussy? You could take out our entire family including absentee brother Paul in one charge."
Pam Rhodes listened to her daughter with great interest. It was unbelievable to hear Andrea express herself in this manner. Usually she was so disinterested she barely opened her mouth when guests visited. She certainly hadn't on this occasion until now and she'd never seen her daughter speaking up like this – and use of that foul word pussy.
Grady turned to Andrea: "Put your indifference or is it pride in you pocket and come with me."
"Oh I say, our guest does have balls."
Stephen chipped in. "Andrea, what on earth has gotten into you?"
"Sophia has finally brought home someone who perhaps interests me."
"Darling, how many glasses of wine have you had?"
"Two mother. Even you have to drink three before you begin to lose it."
"Look, let's cut to the bone," Grady said. "Get off your ass and go and get ready. You have an hour."
"Yes master," Andrea said leaving the table and telling Grady to help her mother clear away.
Pam obviously in a bit of a spin said, "You are having an unusual affect on our daughter."
"Do you think so? Sophia has probably told Andrea about our art collection and our pool and she wants to see them."
"Son, I rather think it's you she's interested in," said Stephen, coughing. "Something is going on here I don't understand."
"Sir isn't that part of the mystery that surrounds women?"
Stephen laughed and invited Grady to call him Stephen. Pam poured herself another wine, shaking her head.
Stephen went off to make some calls. When Pam said leave clearing up, Grady ask if he could go to Andrea's room.
"Why?"
"She's accepted my offer to date her; I don't want her running cold."
"That's the only answer I would find compelling. Off you go."
The bedroom door wasn't closed so Grady walked in, hands in pockets.
"What are you doing here?"
"To see as much of you as possible. I was hoping you'd be still in the shower."
She grinned and said he was taking far too much for granted. "Usually I have little interest in guys and don't be tempted to make a foul comment about that."
"I have no problem being the exception."
"As I said, you are taking far too much for granted."
"Sit down and I'll dry your hair."
"I'm managing very well thank you."
"Sit!"
Andrea lowered the towel and looked defiant and Grady jumped in before she could berate him.
"It's the perfect way to start you getting used to me touching you?"
She eyed him with a thin smile and said exactly why did he wish to touch her.
"Two people together usually can't avoid light contact," he said airily. "It will also ease the way for handling you if you get romantic notions."
Laughing, she sat on the chair at the make-up table and handed Grady the towel. "It was instinct I suppose but I knew you were unlikely to disappoint me totally."
Grady didn't answer because he had no answer.
They chatted and after toweling Andrea' hair and fluffing it with the comb and hair-dryer as he sometimes did for his mother (and sister before she left home and married) Grady said, "Care to stand and show me what's under that gown?"
Looking at him in the mirror while applying cream to her face, Andrea said evenly, looking for reaction, "You wish to see me nude?"
"Oh God, sorry. I thought you'd be wearing a bra and panties. I'm out of here."
"Stop," she laughed. "I don't mind you seeing all of me."
But he was gone.
Andrea went to her dresser and dug out her sexiest lingerie, humming and smiling. It was one of the few times in her adult life the 30-year-old felt she was wanted.
She'd heard about Grady on Thursday evening watching TV with her sister when Sophia said as if awe, "I can't believe this, I'm going to date Grady Wright Saturday for the third time. That's almost going steady, something I haven't done since high school."
"Unusual yes," Andrea said dryly. "You usually use them, abuse them and dump them."
"Cow," Sophia had said, pretending to claw her conservative sister's face.
They remained quiet watching two young women shaping up for a catfight and when the hero walked in and defused it, Andrea said: "Bring him to Saturday lunch and let mom form an opinion."
"Why?"
"She believes you cohabit with scum."
"I'd be more impressed hearing your opinion."
Andrea smiled and said she only gave opinions to fee-paying clients and that response earned a horse-bite on the thigh.
Well, now that Andrea had seen him and decided it had been worth Sophia bringing him to lunch she had surprised herself by agreeing to be his fill-in date. Besides being unusually polite for a guy Grady had shown a little aggression toward her and Andrea was not used to that. Guys usually acted uneasily around her. Well, she did tend to dress conservatively and act a little like a recluse. She went to Sophia's bedroom to borrow something.
Pam almost dropped the dishes Grady had just handed her as she watched Andrea walk into the room on her only pair of high-heel shoes. Her hair was down, her lipstick was the brightest Pam had even seen on her and she was wearing one of her sister's cocktail dresses – a black lacy designer piece of material. The little black dress revealed Andrea did indeed have breasts and being abbreviated showed an incredible length of leg. Well, Andrea did have the best legs of the Rhodes women. Knowing her elder daughter would be nervous about breaking out of her conservative shroud Pam simply said, "You look lovely dear. You make my heart sing."
Stephen entered the room from the opposite direction and just gawked.
"Say what you've thinking daddy."
"I thought, oh God, she's going out in her underwear. I had no intention of putting you down Andrea."
"It's okay daddy. This is far too radical for me. I'm off to tone down."
Grady sprang to her side and said, "Are you coming or are you going to fight me? I gave you sixty minutes to get ready and you've taken almost ninety. Let's not spoil a perfect picture. Although my father is a surgeon and is turning fifty he's modern and surrounds himself with likeminded people. You will be a perfect fit; that I promise you. Are we off?"
Andrea hesitated and walked to her mother, hugged her and said, "Bye mom." She then patted her father on the cheek. "Bye dad, try to be kind to mother tonight. You guys should go out to a nightclub."
As the couple walked to Grady's car Andrea asked Grady had he noticed the difference in her?
"You almost always wear your hair up and this little number is your sister's dress and that's probably her lipstick. Am I correct?"
In a small voice Andrea said yes.
"Don't be embarrassed, I'm thrilled you are on a roll. I'm pleased you are making the effort I guess to please me."
"Yes."
"May I kiss you?"
"Yes."
It was soft and gentle and Andrea wondered was that her suppressed hormones stirring. She looked up and saw her mother at the window and gave a small wave, apparently undetected by her partner. Her mother waved back, excitedly.
As they continued walking to the vehicle she thought although she occasionally had sex she usually had been disappointed, feeling it had taken her nowhere and left her tired, sweaty and messy, thinking sex was not was it was cracked up to be. Except other people expressed it differently, including authors. She expected she was about to learn something new about sex; that is when she permitted Grady to advance in that direction. Tonight? Perhaps if they became that way inclined.
"Is this your car, it's lovely."
"No it belongs to my employer."
"What do you do?"
"I'm director of marketing for a company distributing food spices throughout the country."
"You are young for such a responsible position."
"Do you think so? Dad's brother Moss who's the major shareholder in the company does not share that opinion. I began working for him while at college at his request. He is grooming me to be his successor and says I have excelled at every task he's given me."
"I didn't mean..."
"I know, you didn't express anything but surprise at my elevation and now you know the reasons. I bet you are great at your vocation and you probably need a conservative demeanor in working as a psychologist."
"Yes, and to be warm and friendly as I specialize in working with small children. There is some opinion that I perform well."
"Parents?"
"Yes, you think with maturity."
Grady checked for oncoming traffic, was in the clear and drove off. "I think and act too conservatively for some people. Ask Sophia."
