“Get a grip,” Teri said aloud as she fought to compose herself. Wiping her face, she realized they were headed for the Bremerton airport; Bobby must have hired a private jet. This man wasn’t only a chess champion, he had more money than the United States treasury. He flew all over the world. A hop between London, England, and Bremerton, Washington, was nothing to him.
As soon as James turned the car into the small airport, Teri saw the Learjet parked on the runway. Her heart began to pound and all her efforts to dry her tears were pointless. A new deluge was coming and she couldn’t hold it back. By the time James had driven up to the jet and the door was opened for her, Teri was a blubbering mess all over again.
Bobby was waiting for her inside the jet, and once she appeared, he dismissed everyone from the plane. He stood in the doorway with his hands locked behind his back.
Sobbing so hard her shoulders shook, Teri climbed the steps and the second she reached the top, she jerked the huge diamond ring from her finger and gave it to Bobby.
Bobby dropped it carefully inside his pocket, then hit a button just inside the aircraft. The staircase refolded and the door slid shut.
“I’m not staying and I’m not marrying you.” There, she’d said it. She’d made her stand.
Bobby ignored that. “Sit.” He gestured to a swivel chair covered in soft white leather. He handed Teri a tissue, which she gladly accepted. She blew her nose and thought it sounded like a trumpet call. She wasn’t one of those women who could weep elegantly.
“Why won’t you marry me?” he asked. He looked puzzled again, as if he’d done something wrong.
“Don’t you see?” she cried. “I don’t want to love you, but I do.”
“I know.”
“It’s your fault,” she cried.
“Maybe,” he said. “I worked hard so you’d love me. You’re funny and wise and beautiful.”
“You don’t think I’m fat?” she asked him.
“Well…a little. It doesn’t matter, though. I like you the way you are. Can we get married now?”
“Bobby,” she said, recovering quickly. “No. I’m sorry, no.”
He frowned, then got down on one knee in front of her. “I told you I’m not good with emotion. I think too much, but when I’m with you I don’t want to think, I want to feel and I like that. That’s never happened before. When I’m with you, I want to do…things that don’t involve chess.”
“What sort of things?” she asked, growing suspicious.
His eyes were so honest and full of love that she couldn’t have looked away for anything. He kissed her. She enjoyed Bobby’s kisses because they were different from those she generally received. With other men, there was a hot urgency. But Bobby’s kisses were gentle and lingering, as if he savored her. She craved his touch. His kisses were unselfish and they made her feel as if she’d never been kissed before. Ironically, she was the one with the sexual experience, not Bobby.
She needed every ounce of strength she possessed to break off his kiss.
“Will you marry me now?” he asked. With childlike innocence, his eyes implored her.
Teri swallowed back tears and shook her head. The things he hadn’t heard about her yet—and there were a lot—would change his mind fast enough, and sooner or later he’d find it all out. “You don’t know me.”
Instead of arguing, he kissed the side of her neck. Teri thought she’d dissolve into a puddle at his feet. The only sure way to end this was to enlighten him with the truth. “I’ve…there’ve been lots of other men.”
“Yes, I know. From now on there will be only me.”
She gripped his shoulders and pushed him away. “You know?”
He nodded.
She swallowed and in a small voice asked, “Everything?”
He nodded again.
The thought of Bobby learning about the litany of stupid, lethal relationships she’d stumbled into and out of mortified her.
“How?” Her eyes narrowed.
“Can I kiss you again?”
“No. Answer the question.”
“If I answer the question, can I kiss you?”
She sighed and nodded. She didn’t have the strength of will to refuse him.
She’d meant he could kiss her after he’d answered, but he didn’t wait. He gave her a long, loving kiss that made her go weak inside.
“All right,” she said, her eyes still closed as he ended the kiss. “What do you know about me?”
“Dwight Connell.” The jerk who’d emptied her bank account. “Ray Hawkins.” The guy she’d had to throw out of her apartment with the sheriff’s help. “Carl Jackson.” Her first boyfriend, now in jail. “Randy—”
“All right, all right. How did you learn all that?”
“It wasn’t hard.” He paused. “My job is to play chess and yours is to cut hair. There are people whose job it is to find things out, and I asked one of them.”
“Oh.” She didn’t have the energy to feel offended. She would’ve told him all of that, anyway.
He pulled the ring out of his pocket and took her hand. The diamond glided onto her finger as if that was where it belonged.
She couldn’t stop staring as Bobby pushed the same button he had earlier. The door opened and the stairs descended. Two uniformed men boarded the plane, followed by James, and walked past Teri into the cockpit, each murmuring a polite “Hello.”
Within minutes, the plane was at the end of the runway. “Where are we going?” she asked Bobby.
He seemed surprised by the question. “Las Vegas.”
Teri was speechless. How had this happened? Thirty minutes ago, she’d categorically refused to see this man again. Ten minutes ago, she’d still felt that way—and now all of a sudden she was flying to Vegas to marry Bobby Polgar, a man she’d seen a grand total of three times in her life. She hadn’t even slept with him, and she was about to marry him.
“Did I agree to this?” she asked tentatively.
“You want to marry me and I want to marry you.” Apparently that seemed an unquestionable fact to him, so he’d taken the next logical step—they were on their way to Vegas.
“I…I didn’t bring any clothes with me.”
Bobby smiled. “You won’t need clothes.”
Teri giggled, suddenly so happy she wanted to sing—and she had a terrible voice. Whenever she broke into song, the dogs in the neighborhood joined in. Using a special phone Bobby handed her, she called Rachel and asked if she’d cover for her the next few days and promised to keep in touch.
As she hung up the receiver, she thought of something else. “I don’t have any form of birth control, either.”
His smile faded and an adoring look stole over his face. “I’d like to get you pregnant,” he said softly. “With your wide hips, you should have an easy birth.”
The man said the most outrageous things! “Fine. Then, you can go through labor.”
“I would if it was possible. I don’t think I could stand to see you suffer.”
Was it any wonder she loved him? “Okay, but there’s one little fact you should know. No child of mine’s going to have the smarts to be a chess champion.”
He accepted that without argument. “Good. I want my child to live a more normal life than I have.”
When they landed in Vegas nearly three hours later, they were ushered into another limo and driven down the Strip. Teri opened the sunroof and stood with her head and arms out, yelling to the crowds at the top of her lungs. “I’m getting married!” she screeched, waving madly and flashing her diamond.
A minister was waiting for them in the penthouse suite of a posh casino hotel. The room was filled with flowers, all white. Everything was ready. All Teri had to do was sign the paperwork and show her identification.
Then she and Bobby exchanged vows. James was the witness. Two minutes after the ceremony, they were alone. Bobby kissed her again. “Can I make love to you now?” he asked.
He was so sincere, so sweet. She
nodded. “Please.”
Bobby led her into the bedroom, looking a bit self-conscious. He turned off the light.
All at once, Teri was nervous. She was no novice to bedroom antics. As one of her loser boyfriends had said, she’d been around the block more often than the mailman. While she wasn’t happy about her past, she wasn’t ashamed, either. But just then, she would’ve given everything she had in this world to have come to her husband a virgin.
Whatever fears and regrets she had faded the instant Bobby took her in his arms.
He was gentle, as she knew he would be, and generous and tender. For her, it might as well have been the first time because that was how he made her feel. Lying in his arms, she wept silently. He kissed her tears away and explored her body with his hands and lips, between the sweetest and most exquisite of kisses.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“Do you think I gave you a baby?” he asked.
“Hmm.” Teri considered his question. “I’m not sure. Maybe we should try again.”
Bobby laughed and she thought she’d never heard him sound this happy. That thrilled her, knowing she was capable of pleasing him.
In the wee hours, she woke to find Bobby leaning on one elbow staring down at her. With his index finger, he outlined the shape of her eyebrow. Teri smiled up at him.
“Can we…again?” he asked shyly.
Her smile widened, and she threw her arms around his neck, and let him know she had absolutely no objections.
They slept late, only to be awakened by James pounding on the door, announcing that Bobby was needed downstairs.
At the noise, Bobby leaped out of bed, glanced at the clock and searched frantically for his pants. “I’m late.”
“You have a match this morning?” For modesty’s sake, Teri pulled up the sheet to cover her naked breasts. She dropped it. There was no reason to be shy with Bobby. Her husband had spent plenty of time holding, touching and kissing her breasts the night before.
“I have a tournament here.” He jerked up his pants and scrabbled around for his socks and shoes.
“This morning?”
“Yes. At nine.” He found his shirt and buttoned it crookedly. She crawled across the bed and refastened it for him. “I don’t want to go. I’m sorry,” he told her.
“Me, too. My favorite time to make love is in the morning.”
His eyes widened. “Stay here,” he said, his voice husky. He cleared his throat and spoke again. “I’ll be back. Soon.”
“But…”
He pointed at her and at the bed, and stammered, “Please. Order breakfast, have a…have a shower, but…don’t leave this room.”
“I won’t,” she promised. “Is the match televised?”
“Yes.” He dragged in a deep breath.
“Come here,” she said, kneeling at the foot of the bed.
James knocked again but Bobby moved toward Teri. Wrapping her arms around her husband’s neck, she kissed him in a way that guaranteed his return. “That was for luck.”
Bobby’s breathing went shallow, and he backed out of the room.
Teri ordered coffee, which arrived when she’d finished her shower. She uncovered the television remote, and after flipping through various channels, found the station broadcasting the live chess match. The commentator was talking about Bobby, and Teri sat up in bed, sipping coffee, listening as the highlights of her husband’s illustrious career were described. Husband—oh, that word had a wonderful sound.
She watched as Bobby faced his opponent, a well-known Russian player, according to the commentator. Teri had never heard of him but that wasn’t saying much.
Twenty moves later, the game was over. The audience was stunned. When Bobby stood up to leave, the man who’d been commenting on the game tried to interview him. Shaking his head, Bobby walked directly past him. He simply marched out of the room. Five minutes later, Teri heard the door to their suite open.
Bobby already had his shirt off by the time he made it into the bedroom. He stood at the end of the bed, and his eyes glowed with warmth as he smiled at her.
She repeated what the television commentator had announced. “Bobby Polgar just made chess history.”
“I hurried.”
Teri held her arms open. “How long before the next game?”
“An hour,” he said, frowning.
“That’s enough time,” she assured him.
His smile was back.
Bobby Polgar, husband of Teri Miller Polgar, continued to make chess history for the rest of that week. Without explanation, he disappeared after each match and arrived late for several of them. Refusing all interviews, he was less social and more reclusive than he’d been since entering the international chess arena. Speculation ran rampant.
Teri didn’t leave the suite for five days. She had everything she could want or need at her fingertips. In fact, she had more than she’d ever dreamed possible.
Thirty-Two
“I’d like to talk to you a moment,” Seth said after a silent dinner on Wednesday evening. They hadn’t mentioned the subject of the restaurant since last Friday, although it loomed between them. He hadn’t said any more about her idea for a tearoom, and Justine hadn’t brought it up. She was so bitterly disappointed in her husband that she could barely look at him. He’d acted as though her ideas and suggestions meant nothing. What hurt even more was that Seth hadn’t told her about his ideas, either. He’d just moved forward without her.
“All right,” she murmured, turning away from the sink. They’d spoken very little for the past five days, exchanging only mundane remarks about Leif’s needs. They still slept in the same bed, but as far from each other as possible, and they never went upstairs at the same time.
Seth had been avoiding her. He put in long hours at work. At least she assumed that was where he spent his time. For all she knew, he could’ve been in meetings with a builder and broken ground. Sad to say, she wasn’t privy to her husband’s plans.
Drying her hands on a dish towel, she glanced into the living room and saw that Leif was putting together a puzzle, Penny curled up beside him. He’d be content for a few more minutes. Pulling out a kitchen chair, she sat down while Seth poured himself a cup of coffee.
Instead of joining her at the table, he remained standing, leaning against the counter. Justine felt at a disadvantage, sitting while he stood, but didn’t have the energy to get up.
“I owe you an apology,” Seth admitted, surprising her. “I didn’t take this tearoom idea of yours seriously. I should’ve given it more consideration and I didn’t. Instead, I went ahead with my plans to rebuild—without discussing them with you first.”
Justine kept her eyes lowered. “I didn’t even know you’d made any plans, Seth. It was a shock.”
“No more of a shock than you seeing Warren behind my back,” he retaliated.
She opened her mouth to defend herself and swallowed a retort. Arguing wouldn’t help, and she didn’t want to say anything in front of their son. Leif had heard far too many of their disagreements already.
“Forget I said that,” Seth murmured, brushing his blond hair away from his face. Despite his words, his mouth was pinched, his expression disapproving.
“All right, I will.”
Her husband exhaled, as though he had difficulty controlling his frustration. “I want you to know I’ve done some serious thinking about what we should do.”
She dared to raise her eyes, almost afraid to hope Seth would be willing to hear her ideas.
“I love you, Justine,” he said, his eyes meeting hers. “You and Leif mean more to me than anything. I can’t risk losing you.”
Justine felt a lump form in her throat.
“I won’t destroy our marriage because I’m too stubborn to let go of an idea.”
Justine blinked rapidly to hold back tears. “I love you, too,” she said.
“More than Warren Saget?”
“Yes,” she cried. “A thousand time
s more!”
Seth pulled out another chair and sat across from her. He reached for her hand. Justine struggled not to cry; she hadn’t slept well in days, and she doubted Seth had, either. Lack of sleep had made her emotions more volatile than they already were.
“I think the best thing to do, since we can’t agree, is to sell the property. I’ve contacted a real estate agent and I’ve decided—” he hesitated “—if you concur, that is, we’ll put the property on the market.”
Justine was sure she hadn’t heard him correctly. “You’re willing to sell the land?” That wasn’t what she wanted, although at one time she’d thought perhaps she did.
He shrugged. “With the way property values have gone up in the last five years,” he continued, “plus what we’ll collect from the insurance company, we should be able to walk away debt-free.”
They could pay off everything they owed, but…“In other words, we won’t have anything to show for all the work we put into The Lighthouse?” She realized she was stating the very argument he’d made earlier. She saw the discouragement in his eyes and in the tight set of his mouth. She and Seth had taken a risk when they’d opened the restaurant. From the first day they’d opened for business, Seth had been determined to succeed.
He’d worked hard. So had Justine. And yet, after five long years, they had nothing. The fire had wiped them out.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“But…” Sell the property? Even now, he didn’t want to listen to her ideas. She wouldn’t force them on him. “Can I sleep on it?”
He bowed his head. “Of course.” He leaned forward, not looking at her. “It’s just…I’ve put so much into this.”
What about me? she thought resentfully. The restaurant had been their dream, the project they’d worked on together. Justine felt cast aside, unimportant. Once again, Seth had made her feel as though her contribution and her concerns were of little value.
Her reaction last Friday had been childish, and she regretted seeing Warren. Her willingness to have lunch with him that day had only encouraged him. Every day since, he’d made an excuse to visit the bank. She’d declined his invitations for meals and drinks, but nothing she said seemed to convince him. As he told her repeatedly, he’d achieved the success he had by persisting, and her polite rejections had only made him redouble his efforts. In fact, he’d sent flowers to the bank twice. His attention had become conspicuous—and embarrassing.
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