All Roads Lead Home ✓

8 | RAGING CRAVINGS

An hour later, he left  again, and after cleaning the kitchen, securing the cats, she walked  through the woods to Mariana's house. Twilight winked through the trees,  and as she drew closer to the workshop, a pleasant odor drifted to her. 

Soap molds covered the  table where Mariana and Lemon were busy at work, removing and stacking  the bars. When the door opened, Mariana looked up.

"How do you like this scent?"

Zoya inhaled and smiled. "I like it. It's new isn't it?"

"Yeah. The idea came in  the middle of the night. I'm adding a men's line with aphrodisiac  fragrances. Sandalwood and vanilla. Cedar and honey. And here's the  biggie... cinnamon. Supposedly, it was used by the Queen of Sheba in  her seduction of King Solomon. I'm calling the selection, Stud Suds.  What do you think?"

Before she could answer,  Lemon chimed in. "I love it! The name conjures all sorts of results  without any advertising. I mean, if a guy's already a stud, will it make  him more of one? If he's a nerd, will the soap turn him into a stud  hammer?" She flapped her hands in the air as if directing the scent to  her nose. "Holy hell. Even if it doesn't, he'll smell good enough to  eat, or at least, lick."

Mariana rolled her eyes,  a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, and picked up a sheet of  paper. "I'm thinking it might be good to categorize the soaps instead of  just individual selections. I'll still have those but I'll also do Baby  Bubbles, with light, airy fragrances and maybe Sexy Scents for  females."

Lemon stacked empty  molds and carried them to a nearby rack. "If you come up with a bar that  smells like cash and a Corvette, you'll have women going wild!"

"Roman got a new truck," Zoya said.

Lemon blinked. "That  makes me think - since this is Louisiana, I may need to change my  suggestion to cash and truck. And don't leave the younger kids out. You  can do a line called Teenage Temptations. I bet that'd be a big seller." 

"That or Raging Cravings."

Mariana and Lemon stared at Zoya, then laughed.

"Holy hell! Did you make a joke?"

Zoya shrugged. "I don't know. Did I?"

Mariana grinned. "I think you did, and it was a good one. Speaking of Roman, how's it going with him?"

"He brought a girl home."

"Really? I didn't think he'd been in town long enough to meet anybody, but after what you told me, I guess he found one."

Lemon cocked her head. "Told you what?"

"Roman tried to scare Zoya into leaving by telling her he was horny." Mariana giggled. "I told her to bake him a pie."

"And I did. He ate almost all of it. He's been looking around in my room. Should I say something?"

"Is anything missing?"

"No."

"Then maybe you  shouldn't bring it up. You're hanging by a thread getting to stay there.  He may have done it to start an argument. Then it'd be easier for him  to kick you out." Mariana wiped the countertop, raking soap shavings  into the trash can. "Remember, he just got out of prison and probably  doesn't trust anyone, and since you were a big surprise, you're at the  top of that list. He's not.." Mariana turned around to look her in the  eye. "He's not a bad guy. I was friends with his sister. He  raised her, would do anything for her. He's always taken care of people  he cared about. He's been burned, and he's putting up this asshole front  of his, and he does it well."