Forever in Love by W. Lynn Chantale

parents really name you Buck?”
    “Ah no.”
    “So what’s your real name?”
    “It’s awful.”
    Intrigued, she pushed to her knees and waited.
    “Bartholomew Ulysses Kane.”
    She shook her head. “That’s just so not nice.”
    He nodded. “As soon as I could I made everybody call me Buck.”
    “Bartholomew? We could call you Bart?” She squealed and fended off his hands as he tickled her. “Or B.K.”
    “You’ve got jokes?”
    No matter how much she tried to evade his torturing fingers, he managed to find her sensitive spots and laughed. “Okay. Okay. I much prefer Buck.” She panted. “It suits you.” The word ‘suit’ resonated and a flash of a man in a jogging suit caught her mind’s eye. She went still beneath him.
    “What is it?”
    He released her and she sat up. As if sensing what she needed he remained quiet, a gentle hand rested on her thigh. She held the vague memory close, grasping at the tattered emotion it evoked.
    “He stood over me, laughing. Some sort of dark two piece sweatsuit and he wanted to know...” She closed her eyes. This was important. What the man wanted to know was crucial and she wouldn’t tell him. “It’s right. Gad. It’s right there and-and..” she huffed, the memory gone.
    Buck drew her into his arms. “Don’t force it. Just let it happen.”
     “But it was important. He wanted something from me and I wouldn’t give it to him.”
    “What did he want? Money? Your car?”
    She shook her head. “I think-I think he wanted you.”

Chapter Four
     
    Buck stared at the sleeping woman sprawled in the middle of his bed. Her curly hair haloed her head like a toffee afro. The sooty fringe of her lashes rested against her cheeks while her lips parted on a soft snore. The pajama top she borrowed from him hinted at her lush curves. Even in sleep she was a vision waiting to be explored.
    Taking what she offered the night before would’ve been easy, but he wanted much more than her body. That had been the hardest thing he’d done, telling her no. Even now in the faint light of morning, he remember the exotic scent of her arousal and all he wanted to do was bury his nose in her lushness and imbibe of her feminine goodness.
    She shifted in the bed kicking a shapely leg from beneath the covers. He could just imagine her legs wrapped around his waist while he watched her climax over and over. Stifling a groan he shifted his erection. He needed to stop thinking about her like that, she needed time and his patience. Not just for a relationship, but she seemed a little skittish about getting close to him. And he didn’t blame her.
    The attack left her with a hole in her memory. After the orchid from the office and the tidbit she dropped in his lap last night, there was no doubt left in his mind that he was the reason she’d been hurt. Why her and why now?
    He wasn’t in the game anymore. Sure he still kept in contact with a few people from the old neighborhood, but they’d done time with him, moved away and gone legit. Last he heard Red had built his crew into a serious empire, but Buck was done with that life. He didn’t need the aggravation or the constant looking over his shoulder for traitors or on the look out for cops waiting to take him down. His five year stint was enough to convince him, that being a career criminal was the fast track to a short life and if he wanted to be with a woman like Bonnie, well he needed to reform his ways.
     So he’d taken the cash he amassed, made sure it was clean and squirreled it away. Once he was free he bought his first truck and started hauling freight. He had plenty of money to see him through the rest of his life, but without a job, a constant supply of capital would’ve made too many people ask questions. He didn’t need that.
    Now someone from his past—their past had attacked her and sent a very clear message. Buck dragged restless fingers through his hair. Now all he had to do was figure out what this person really