Mark: BWWM Romance (Members From Money Book 11)

by Katie Dowe

  Latoya waited until their salads had been served before she spoke. “I met Mark when I did not have anything and he was struggling to become a songwriter. I had students loan to pay back and my mother’s medical bills and I was a wreck.” Latoya shook her head as she dug into her salad. “I saw him in that café and I fell in love with him. It was new for me, that feeling of utter and complete absorption in a person I did not even know. I have been asked many times by reporters to tell my story and them wanting to know what Mark sees in me.”

  “Those idiots,” Leesa muttered.

  “I don’t mind.” Latoya waved it away. “The point is: I love him more than I can ever explain to anyone and I know exactly what you are talking about. I have read about what you guys do for children all over the world and I strongly respect that and hope to be a part of it someday.”

  “You are already a part of it, darling,” Leesa said approvingly. “Now, I told Kelly and the rest that I am going to take a discreet look at your figure and figure out what would suit you best.”

  “I am not the fussy type. I have received so many offers that I am inundated!”

  “Leave it to us,” Leesa told her as she sipped her flavored water delicately, her eyes bright at the prospect of planning another wedding. “Now let’s discuss themes.”

  Chapter 11

  “Kelsey and Nicholas are the latest of us to get married. They just got back from their anniversary two weeks ago,” Leesa was telling her as she made the introductions. The event was being held outdoors with tents erected for those who did not want to face the still fierce August sun even though it was almost seven-thirty. The press was here as well as several well know celebrities and singers who wanted to persuade Mark to write songs for them.

  “I am an admirer of yours,” Latoya told the beautiful woman with a smile.

  “Thank you. I read about your history with your parents and you should know that I went through physical and emotional abuse by my father, so I understand what you went through,” Kelsey told her.

  “We are not going to talk about that now,” Kelly told them firmly, shepherding them towards the large banquet table. “We are here to have fun and celebrate yet another member finding love and getting married.”

  “Hear! Hear!” another of the wives exclaimed.

  Latoya’s eyes sought and found Mark who was talking to his agent and some others. He looked up as if he felt her eyes on him and sent her an intimate smile. They had been photographed together just as they had arrived and several times after. She had met all the wives and had marveled at how beautiful and confident they looked. They had welcomed her into the fold immediately and she felt as if she knew them a long time ago.

  “That’s Lorenzo Romano,” Kelly said pointing a brooding looking black haired man with olive skin as he lounged against a tree with a can of beer in his hand. “Heir to the Romano clothing and perfume line.”

  “They produce some amazing and exclusive wedding dresses,” Latoya exclaimed, looking towards the man in his simple denims and white T-shirt.

  “Leesa is in dialogue with them concerning your wedding dress.”

  “I told her nothing fussy.” Latoya could not believe she was in the company of such well-known and wealthy people.

  “Simple, elegant, and very expensive,” Kelly told her with a grin. “The press will be out in full and they are going to record every stitch of that dress, so you need to play the part.”

  “I am starting to feel overwhelmed,” Latoya said as soon as Mark came over to her. Leesa and Kelly and the others had gone to the table to get something to eat. She had seen the embrace Bradley exchanged with his wife and was happy that she had found something like that.

  “Why?” Mark asked her anxiously. He had stood over by the tennis area admiring the way she looked. Even amidst all the women in their discreetly expensive clothes, she managed to stand out in her floral romper.

  “Look around you! I have not seen so many famous faces outside of a magazine.”

  “They are just people.” He wrapped his hands around her waist. His mother and sister were around somewhere as well as Luke. He was in discussion with several other major singers and the producer for the movie that had just premiered was asking him to do another soundtrack for a movie he was responsible for. More than that, he was marrying the woman he loved and he knew that he would have given up all that for her. She settled her head back against him and savored the strength of him and the fact that he loved her.

  “Thank you,” she murmured, looking up at him.

  “What for?”

  “For everything, especially for loving me.”

  “You are more than welcome.” He bent his head and captured her lips with his.

  “Come on, break it up, you two,” Leesa called out. “It is time to cut the cake.”

  *****

  “‘International singing sensation Diana Rowe involved in a terrible car accident with her love interest, up and coming actor Lawrence Hill!” the headlines screamed. It had been two weeks since the engagement party and the society newspapers had outlined every detail of the function including who was wearing what. The report went on to say the actor had died on the spot and Diana was in a critical condition in a hospital that had not been disclosed. It also went on to detail the singer’s collaboration with songwriter Mark Seville who was engaged to be married to Latoya Cross.

  Latoya read the report in horror and went to switch on the television out in the foyer where it was being reported live. She made a call to Mark.

  “You heard?”

  “I am watching it right now on the news. Where are you?” she asked him urgently.

  “She is in a hospital in New York. I am flying over there in a matter of minutes.” He paused. “I might not be back home until tomorrow.”

  For a moment, she felt the tug of jealousy and then shook it off. “I will be fine. Please get back to me in one piece.”

  “You know I will. You have no need to feel insecure,” he told her quietly.

  “I am not…” she began and then sighed. “I know.”

  “See you in the morning.”

  For the entire day while she was working, the unreasonable fear kept haunting her. What if the plane crashed with him? What if he did not come back to her? She shook off the cloud of doom and called Leesa. “I heard about Diana. Such an awful thing.”

  “Is it wrong for me to be thinking about him and wondering if something is going to go wrong?”

  “Not at all,” Leesa said dismissively. “Brad was involved in an accident when he was seeing to the construction of one of his buildings and I almost went crazy! Kelly suffered something like that too when Kane had a car accident. It comes with the territory and in the midst of the amazing love and passion there is the fear of losing our loved ones.”

  “My mother loved my dad to the exclusion of everyone including me. I don’t want to do that, but the way I feel about Mark makes me wonder if I am going to turn out like her,” she admitted.

  “I love Brad more than anything in the entire world but that does not stop me from loving my three children. Brad and I are one and our children complete us. As long as we remember that then we are okay. He is going to come back to you safe and sound, darling. Don’t worry. By the way, they are sending several of Romano’s dresses for you to try. I have seen the samples and I must tell you that you are going to have a very hard time choosing one. They are all exquisite.”

  “Thanks, Leesa, and I really appreciate all that you and the others are doing,” Latoya said sincerely.

  “We are family and that is what families do,” she said dismissively. “Call me as soon as you try on those dresses. I wish I could fly over, but Brad and I are taking the children to the museum.”

  “I will call you.”

  Latoya hung up the phone and felt a lot better as she went to finish her work.

  ******

  The apartment felt empty and desolate without him. She had deliberately stayed at the
office after everyone had left because she did not want to go to empty apartment. She went into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed looking around. He had left a light blue shirt on the bed as if he had not decided what to wear. She picked it up and sniffed it, closing her eyes as the scent of it assailed her nostrils. She pressed the shirt against her and found the loneliness grabbing hold of her. She had always been able to entertain herself when she was a little girl because her parents had been so wrapped up in each other that she had had no choice. But the time she had spent with Mark showed her that she had grown so attached to him that she could not bear to be without him. She reached for the phone and dialed his number wondering if he was at the hospital. “Hey.” Her heart slammed in her chest at the sound of his deep voice. “I was just about to call you.”

  “Are you just saying that?” she teased him.

  “Not at all.” He sounded tired. “You just got in?”

  “I stayed at the office to get some things done. How is she?”

  “She is still unconscious and it does not look good, baby.” He sighed wearily. “Broken bones and internal bleeding. Her parents are here with her and her sisters. They are all crying and the press has camped out in the lobby. Somehow they discovered where she is and you know them, they will do anything for a story.”

  “Where are you?”

  “At the hotel. I told them to call me if there were any changes.”

  “I love you,” she burst out suddenly.

  “I love to hear you say it,” he told her softly.

  Latoya felt the tears starting and she blinked them away. “I miss you.” She laughed shakily. “I have no idea how I am going to sleep without you.”

  He was silent for a while and then he said hoarsely, “I have been writing to keep my mind off things. So far I have come up with this: ‘Loving you might not be easy but easy is not what I am after/I love the way you walk and talk and the wonderful way you have of looking at me/Take my hand in yours and feel the love I have for you/Take my heart because it is already yours/Take me as I am because I will always be true to you/Girl you are my life and every fiber of my being belongs to you/never doubt what I feel for you is true.’” He stopped and she did not say anything, too worked up to respond. “What do you think?”

  “I think that I am the luckiest woman alive,” she whispered. “You left one of your shirts on the bed and I am going to use it as a substitute.”

  “A very poor one. I always carry something that belongs to you with me. That scarf you love to wear.”

  “The floral one. I have been looking all over for it!”

  “It’s in my laptop case.” A smile was in his voice.

  “I feel so awful for her. Was she in love with him?”

  “She did not say. It’s hard to know what is celebrity pairing or what is real in this business.”

  “It does not matter. He was a person and he meant something to her. I thought about losing you and I almost lost it,” she confessed.

  “We are going to live a long life and have kids together.”

  “How many?” she asked him tearfully.

  “Maybe three or four.”

  “I think four,” she told him huskily.

  They talked some more and then hung up from each other. Latoya went into the bathroom to take a shower, and leaning her head against the tiles, she sent up a prayer for Diana.

  *****

  Hundreds of miles away in his opulent hotel room, Mark stared at the words he had written. He had started writing the minute he had left the hospital and was determined that Diana would be the one to sing it. He had grown very close to her during the time they had been getting together to do the collaboration and he realized that she was down to earth and not at all standoffish. He had told him once that she would get out of the business early before it started to corrupt her. She wanted to settle down and get married and raise a family. He leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes wearily. Speeding had been involved and it was such a damn waste! His mood lightened as he gazed at the profile picture of the woman he loved displayed on his laptop. It was taken at the premiere and she had been staring right into the camera with a wide smile on her exquisite face. He felt the force of missing her hitting him sharply, and he wished that she was with him! With a sigh, he got up and decided to go and get some sleep.

  ******

  He came back the next morning but had to leave again the day after because Diana had woken up and was asking for him.

  “I won’t go if you don’t want me to,” he said softly, correctly reading the expression on Latoya’s face as they got ready for bed that night. He had told her parents to call him if things changed because he was concerned.

  “And that would make me a monster.” She rubbed the cream into her skin and avoided his eyes. He came around to face her. They had already showered together and he was still damp from the shower. He had spent a great deal of time in the shower showing her how much he had missed her.

  “That would make you human,” he corrected her. He tilted her chin to meet her gaze. “I have assured you that you have nothing to worry about and I mean it. She is a friend who needs me right now and I would like to be there for her. I will never do anything contrary to the way you feel. I hope you know that.”

  She felt lower than an eel at his words. “I am sorry,” she murmured. “This is new for me and I find myself wondering if I am going to lose you.”

  “Funny, I find myself wondering that as well,” he said with a slight smile.

  “You are the big shot song writer and I am the ordinary girl you fell in love with.”

  “Far from that.” He leaned over and kissed her lips softly. “There is nothing ordinary about you.” He took the cream from her and capped the bottle pushing her back onto the bed and climbing over her. He had not put on any clothes and neither had she. No matter how much he had her he still wanted her! “You are the most extraordinary woman I have ever met!”

  ******

  “Good to have you back,” Mark told her softly as he took a chair next to her bed. Her face looked bruised and swollen and her lips were parched. He reached for the glass of water with the straw and gave her some. He had been told that he had ten minutes. They had been able to stop the bleedings and had seen to the broken bones, but she was still in a lot of pain and a far way from being well.

  “Thanks,” she whispered gratefully. “I am sorry to put you out of your way.”

  “Nonsense,” he dismissed the remark. “We are friends and that’s what we are supposed to do.”

  “Lawrence is dead.” Her voice was flat and emotionless. “We had an argument just before…” She blinked and cleared her throat and Mark squeezed her hand gently. “He had asked me to marry him and I told him I needed more time.” She paused as she remembered the anger and the argument. “I was not sure I loved him enough to do that. I did not want it to be one of those celebrity marriages that end up in divorce. I want something like you have with Latoya. He accused me of being fickle and said I still have feelings for you.”

  Mark stared at her sharply. “We have always been friends. Didn’t you explain that to him?”

  “I made the mistake of telling him that you were the ideal man and he never let me forget it,” she said disconsolately. “I feel responsible.”

  “Were you in love with him?”

  Diana looked away from him for a minute and then looked back at him. “I liked him a lot, but I was not ready to commit to him.”

  “I am sorry, Diana,” he murmured.

  “Latoya is one lucky woman,” she said longingly.

  “I am the lucky one.”

  *****

  “She blames herself for the accident,” Mark told her that night when she got home. He was still in New York and would be flying with her to the cabin in Texas that belonged to Lance so she could recuperate without the press hounding her. Latoya was still not sure how she felt about him being away for so long but kept quiet about it.

 
; “Why?”

  Mark told her about the argument they had had before the accident.

  “She has feelings for you?”

  “No,” he said swiftly. “She just needs me right now, baby. I am going to get her settled in the cabin and I will be home.”

  “What about her sisters and her mother?” Latoya hated herself for sounding like a jealous shrew but she could not help it.

  “They were never really close. Look, baby, I have told you several times that we are just friends. You are going to have to trust me.”

  “I do,” she said quietly. “I hope she gets well soon.”

  “So do I. She is in a slump right now and is going to need therapy.”

  “Hurry up and come home.”

  “I will.”

  Latoya hung up the phone realizing that neither of them had told the other about the words they usually ended a phone call with: ‘I love you.’ She shrugged it off and went into the bedroom to look at the wheeled hanger that had about six white dresses hanging from it. Leesa was right. She was going to have a hard time choosing which one to wear. She looked through for a moment and her eyes lighted on one made of pure white lace. She took it out and stared at the dazzlingly light dress turning it around. It was sleeveless and with a long train that stretched a foot away. It was closefitting with a demure neckline but the innocence ended there! There was a deep plunge around the back which meant she would not be wearing underwear! It was elegant in its simplicity and Latoya fell in love with it immediately! She quickly took off her work clothes and tried it on. Thankfully, it did not carry the many buttons that some wedding dresses were known for but a zipper was hidden at the side of it. It molded to her figure like a second skin but was still flexible enough for her to walk comfortably. She stood in front of the full length mirror and stared at herself in amazement! It had been made for her, she thought dazedly. She turned around and craned her neck to see the back. It was provocatively sexy as it revealed her flawless skin. She turned back around and almost called out to Mark to come and see but remembered he was miles away – with her! For a moment, the joy of seeing herself in the dress dimmed a little, but she caught a glimpse in the mirror and put on a determined smile on her face. She went for her phone to snap a picture and sent it to Leesa.