by Lynsay Sands
“I left a message and he didn’t call back so he must be,” Justin said mildly. He didn’t admit though that he’d shut off his phone after making the call.
“Hmmm,” Tomasso grunted. “I wonder.”
Justin raised his eyebrows and then followed the man’s gaze to the plane. The door was open, the stairs down and—Justin straightened abruptly when he saw who was coming down the steps out of it.
“Crap,” he muttered, fighting the sudden instinct to jump in the SUV and drive off.
“Si. It could mean merda,” Dante said thoughtfully.
“For you,” Tomasso added.
They all fell silent as Lucian approached. Stopping in front of them, he skimmed them with a gaze before focusing on Dante and Tomasso. “Go ahead. And I’m sure Justin thanks you for your assistance,” he added as the two giants headed toward the plane.
“I thanked them before we left the house,” Justin said tensely.
Lucian gave an abrupt nod and then raised an eyebrow. “Where is your bag?”
Crap, Justin thought, but said, “At the house. I’m staying.”
Lucian nodded and then asked. “Where?”
He blinked in surprise. “Well, at—”
“Jackie and Vincent gave us permission to use their home for Holly’s training. That’s done. Did you call and ask them if you could stay longer?” he asked mildly. “Or do you plan to stay at your parents’ for the next year or so? You and Mortimer did sell your condo, did you not?”
Justin cursed under his breath. He’d planned to stay at Jackie and Vincent’s, but . . . “The next year or so?” he asked, his frown deepening.
Lucian shrugged. “I am just guessing how long this could take. Holly could change her mind and come around in a couple weeks or months, or she might never. I’m guessing you won’t give up for a good year though.”
Justin scowled at the thought of her not coming around at all. She had to. She was his life mate.
“So how do you plan to fill your time while you’re waiting?” Lucian asked. “Helping out your parents with the dogs?”
He so wasn’t living at his parents’. He loved them, they were great and everything, but they would drive him mad in no time.
“And did you write up a resignation for me to give to Mortimer?” Lucian added pleasantly.
Justin gave a start at that. “A resignation? I’m not resigning.”
Lucian raised his eyebrows, nodded, and then barked, “Then get your ass on the plane.”
“But—” But how would Holly find him if she did change her mind? he wanted to ask. He couldn’t get the words out though.
“Gia gave Holly both her number and yours. If she comes around, she will undoubtedly call one of you. In the meantime, you do nobody any good pacing around Vincent’s house, or your mother’s, eating cheese puffs and refusing to bathe.”
“How do you—”
“You smell,” Lucian interrupted succinctly. “And you have orange powder on your cheek and—” He reached out and plucked something from his hair above his right ear and then held it up in front of Justin’s face. It was the broken end of a cheese puff. Justin had been eating them in bed last night. One must have rolled down his cheek into his hair, he realized. Lucian turned to flick away the remnant of food, then turned back and eyed him solemnly. “It is hard. I know. You are hurting. I know. But if she does change her mind and come for you, do you really want her to find you sitting around here feeling sorry for yourself?” He let that sink in and then added, “You would do better to get back to work, take out your frustration on some rogues, and hold on to your self-respect. Mortimer needs you.”
Justin stared at him blankly for a minute and then shook his head, murmuring, “Wow.”
Lucian narrowed his eyes. “Wow, what?”
“It’s like Leigh is making you almost human,” Justin said, a crooked smile twisting his lips. “You even speak in whole sentences now and everything.”
Lucian scowled. “Get your ass on the plane.”
Justin shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking toward the plane, a little cockiness in his walk. “You need me. You said so.”
“I said Mortimer needs you,” Lucian growled, following.
“Yeah, but you missed me. I can tell,” he said, his smile becoming more natural.
“I missed you like a pain in the ass,” Lucian snapped.
“That’s still missing me,” Justin said on a laugh as he jogged up the plane steps. He was still smiling as he entered the plane and threw himself into one of the four empty seats Dante and Tomasso had left. He watched silently as Lucian pulled the plane door closed and the engine fired up. When the plane began to taxi, Justin turned to peer out the window at the sun-splashed tarmac, his smile fading. He was leaving Holly behind in sunny California, and didn’t know if or when he’d see her again . . . It felt like a part of him was dying.
“Are we supposed to go in, or are Bill and Elaine meeting us out here?” Holly asked James as he steered her car into the restaurant parking lot.
“Inside,” James answered, parking. “Whoever gets here first gets a booth.” Undoubtedly that’ll be them since we’re late as usual.
Holly bit her lip and tried to ignore that thought when it hit her. It hadn’t been directed at her, and hadn’t even been a complaint about her really. It was just a generally unhappy thought, and it was true. They were usually late. Between work and classes, Holly always seemed to be scrambling.
James was always ready on time; he only had work to contend with and after sleeping all day, he’d got up, showered, dressed, and was ready to go when she’d got home. It was she who had rushed in the door after spending all morning in classes and all afternoon at work and then had to rush to get ready. It hadn’t helped that her boss at the present temp job she was working had stopped her on the way out to ask a question. Holly had spent fifteen minutes explaining something she’d already explained to him earlier that day before she could get away. It had put her behind the gun before she’d even walked in the door. They would have had to leave right then to get here on time, but she’d needed to change.
Sighing, she undid her seat belt as James turned off the engine, then slid out of the car when he did and walked around to meet him in front of the vehicle. When he held his hand out, she automatically slid hers into it, and they crossed the parking lot hand in hand. It was the first affectionate gesture she’d felt comfortable with in the two weeks since she’d been home.
Things had been weird since her return, Holly acknowledged, but knew it was all her fault. She was the one who kept reading his thoughts. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t, but had broken that promise repeatedly. She just couldn’t help it, and it was making her crazy.
“There they are.”
Holly tore herself from her thoughts and peered around the restaurant, smiling when she spotted Bill standing up to wave at them. James started forward at once, pulling her along with him and they made their way quickly to the table.
“Oh, baby! Someone’s turned into hot sauce,” Bill said on a surprised laugh as he took Holly into his arms for a bear hug and bussed both her cheeks. He stepped back then, but kept his hold on her arms to look her over, adding, “What the hell have you done to yourself? I mean I can see you’ve lost weight, but it’s like you’ve taken a sexy drug or something.”
Holly blushed furiously at the compliment. It was the weirdest damned thing. Ever since getting home, people were acting like she’d turned into Angelina Jolie while she was gone. Not just the men, but the women. It was like the nanos were some sort of chick magnet that attracted members of both sexes. It was bizarre, and discomfiting for Holly, who wasn’t at all comfortable in social situations to begin with. Although, she’d never felt anxious around Justin, Gia, Dante, and Tomasso, she recalled.
“You do look
good,” Elaine agreed, nudging her husband out of the way to hug Holly as well. She then looked her over as she released her and shook her head. “What is it? Some amazing and weird New York diet?”
Holly shook her head on a strained laugh and quickly slid into the booth to hide behind the table as she said, “Just lots of fresh air I guess.”
“Yeah, right, fresh air. In New York?” Bill snorted as they all settled in the booth, he and Elaine taking the opposite bench seat and James sliding in beside her. “That would be the pollution diet then?”
“If that’s what pollution does for you, I’m in,” Elaine said with a grin.
Holly smiled faintly and picked up the menu lying on the table in front of her, hoping they’d change the subject.
“You must be happy to see her, James my boy,” Bill said and then teased, “I bet the house hasn’t stopped rocking for the last two weeks.”
James gave a weak laugh and muttered, “You know it.”
Holly bit her lip and glanced sideways at her husband behind the protection of the menu. She was just in time to see him open and raise his own in front of his face. The action blocked him from Bill and Elaine’s view, but she could see it and his expression was pinched. Sighing, she turned her attention back to her menu. The house hadn’t rocked at all the last two weeks. They hadn’t even had sex on Sunday night as they usually did . . . and that was her fault too.
Holly closed her eyes briefly as she recalled the first time James had tried to make advances in that area. It was the night she’d got home. Bill and Elaine hadn’t been able to join them on such short notice and they’d gone to dinner alone. It was when they got home that James had tried to start something. Holly had been surprised when he’d suddenly started to kiss her in the hallway inside the front door. It wasn’t Sunday after all, but she’d gone along with it.
Unfortunately, James had had a couple beers with supper and garlic Alfredo for his meal. The smell and taste of that combination as he’d kissed her had been overpowering to her new and heightened senses. Equally unfortunate was the fact that rather than offend him and gently suggest they both brush their teeth, she’d tried to suffer through it . . . and that hadn’t worked out so well. After several minutes while he’d been kissing her, one hand squeezing her breast and the other fumbling at the zipper of the jeans she’d changed into, she’d had to push him away and make a run for the bathroom to toss up her own meal.
Afterward, Holly had lied and claimed that her tummy was upset and that her own meal must have been off. James had been sweet and bundled her off to bed to recover, but she’d read the disappointment in his thoughts. And what disappointment there had been. Here he’d been really interested for the first time in a long time and she wasn’t up to it. It seemed that prior to her leaving on her “internship,” he’d been bored to tears with their routine sex. That he only bothered on Sundays as a rule because he hadn’t wanted to hurt her feelings or make her feel unwanted. Besides, he’d felt that for their marriage to work they should have sex at least once a week even if he had to imagine it was Elaine to get it up since Holly had gained those extra twenty pounds.
That last bit had left her gasping and in tears. Fortunately, James had put that down to her feeling unwell and had been even sweeter to her. But come Sunday, when he’d made the usual overtures, she hadn’t been able to forget his words and despite reading his mind and knowing he wasn’t imagining Elaine then, and that it was her new figure that interested him, Holly just hadn’t been able to get past her hurt and work up any interest herself.
She’d tried to fake it and pretend interest, hoping that some small response might follow as they proceeded, but had felt nothing but disappointment. She’d inhaled the citrusy tang of James’s aftershave, and found herself thinking she preferred Justin’s more woodsy scent. And why couldn’t he kiss her like Justin had? With passion and desperation instead of the wimpy nibbles he used. She wasn’t even sure James knew his tongue was good for more than pushing food around inside his mouth.
Despite her pretended interest, there had been no spark at all. In truth, there had never been much spark to begin with in her marriage bed, but Holly hadn’t known then what she was missing. Now that she had experienced the fireworks and passion Justin had produced in her with just a kiss, then in their shared dreams, she hadn’t been able to stand the lack of it with James.
Of course, he had picked up on her lack of enthusiasm and had backed off. While she’d lain awake, feeling guilty for wanting a man other than her husband, he’d gone down to play video games through the night.
After a week of reading his thoughts and finding out other little things she really wished she didn’t know, last Sunday had been a repeat of the previous. And this past week had been just more of the same. It wasn’t that James’s thoughts were deliberately cruel or unkind. It was stupid little things, like he suspected she was OCD because she was determined to keep the house clean. And he hated her meat loaf, which she’d always thought he liked . . . and her eggs were too runny, and her cookies were hard as rock . . .
Then there were bigger things, like while he appreciated that she’d worked while he finished his courses, James wished she’d hurry up and finish hers so that he wasn’t carrying the lion’s share of the burden when it came to supporting them. And why couldn’t she have waited until he was making better money to switch from full-time work to part-time and start back to her classes? He felt guilty for these thoughts. After all, they had agreed to do it this way when they’d decided to marry, but he was tired of living hand to mouth. James felt her having to wait a couple years to go back to school wouldn’t have been that big a deal, and they could live so much better now if she was still working full time.
Another big issue she’d discovered reading her husband’s mind was that her discomfort in social situations embarrassed him and made him feel put upon. He felt he couldn’t leave her alone at parties or she’d sit in a corner like a wallflower looking miserable. That had stung her and all Holly could think was that she hadn’t been socially awkward at the nightclub with Justin, Gia and the boys. But then they hadn’t spent the night giving her reproving looks, or censoring everything she said.
Holly had spent a lot of time the past two weeks thinking of her time with Justin and the others. Despite the situation, she’d laughed more and been more relaxed around them than she’d ever been in her life. She’d enjoyed her budding friendship with Gia, and had often found herself laughing at the twins’ teasing as they trained her. She’d even enjoyed Justin’s attempts to woo her. More than that she’d missed talking to the man. She kept recalling their chat on the way back from visiting his parents, and the others they’d had on their shared dream dates. They’d laughed a lot while bowling and then at the fair, at least they had before passion had overtaken them. She missed that laughter. She missed a lot of things. But mostly, she missed Justin . . . which made her feel guilty as hell and didn’t help anything.
It seemed clear to Holly that unless she wanted to lose her marriage, she needed to stop thinking about Justin, banish him from her mind. She also needed to get past letting James’s thoughts affect her. But it was hard. She knew she wasn’t perfect and shouldn’t think James would believe she was. She even had complaints of her own about him, but she still loved him, and she was quite sure he loved her despite the mild criticisms and complaints she’d read from his mind. But knowing he probably had complaints, that all husbands did, and actually knowing what those complaints were . . . well, it was two different things entirely. And Holly didn’t have a clue what to do about it.
At this rate, it was looking like Gia, Justin, and the others were right and she was going to lose her marriage and her childhood sweetheart and then what would she do?
An image of Justin’s laughing face came to mind and Holly forced it away. She couldn’t let him affect her decision. She would not leave James for Justin. That could not be t
he reason. And she couldn’t give up on her marriage this easily. Marriages took work. She needed to work at it. She would get past her memories of him, or find a way to block them. She had to.
“So?” Elaine said as Holly finally settled on what she would order and lowered her menu. “Tell us about New York.”
Seventeen
“Bill was really weird tonight.”
Holly watched the lights flickering past the car and shrugged with disinterest at James’s comment. In her opinion, everyone had been acting weird tonight: Bill, Elaine, the waiter. Dear God, they’d all acted like she was Marilyn Monroe or something, fawning and sucking up to her, and hugging her too long as they’d left. Someone should have warned her about that side effect of being an immortal. She supposed it was handy when it came to feeding, but she had bagged blood to work with. Having everyone practically drooling on her was just embarrassing really when she knew she was the same person she’d been just a couple weeks ago. It had been bad enough when Bill had flirted with her lightly, but then Elaine had started jokingly suggesting that they have an orgy . . . well, Holly had been glad when they’d finished eating and could leave. Fortunately, James had seemed just as eager to go home as her.
“Elaine was kind of acting strange too. I think she was actually hitting on you,” James said now.
“Jealous?” Holly muttered, glaring out the window now.
“What?” He laughed, but it didn’t sound like a natural laugh. “Did you just ask me if I was jealous? Why the hell would I be jealous of Elaine?”
Holly opened her mouth, and then closed it and shrugged. “She’s an attractive woman.”
“Maybe. I’ve never noticed,” he lied and Holly turned sharply to peer at him with disbelief.
“Really?” she asked dryly.
James shrugged, his attention firmly on the road ahead. “She’s not my type.”
“Oh, right, so you’ve never imagined it was her you were making love to on a Sunday night?”
