Athena's Daughter

by Juli Page Morgan

  The van slowed, and he lifted his head to peer out the windshield. Ahead of them he could see someone in uniform speaking to the driver of the first van, and after a moment they began moving toward the terminal instead of their jet waiting on the runway.

  “Looks like we won’t be flying right away, after all,” he observed.

  Athena sat up and smoothed her hair. The warmth where she’d rested against him grew cold, and he bit down on his lower lip. Was that disappointment on her face or just wishful thinking on his part?

  “I’m glad to hear that,” she said in a voice that quivered the slightest bit.

  Now that he wasn’t holding her, his brain cleared, and he firmed his jaw, brassed off at himself for losing control. “See?” he told her. “I told you we’d be all right.”

  Her wide grey eyes looked right into his, her expression unfathomable. “I hope you’re right.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Severe thunderstorms coming up from the Gulf of Mexico caused their flight from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to be delayed again and again, leaving the entire entourage roaming the airport lounge like caged beasts. When they were finally allowed to take off, the flight was so bumpy and rough that everyone found religion and prayed their way south until they finally landed in New Orleans.

  Athena stumbled off the plane, white faced and clutching Ian for support. That little excursion had been her worst nightmare, and she wondered how the hell she’d ever talk herself into getting back into that deathtrap.

  Adding to the fun was being stuck in rush-hour traffic on the way to the hotel, and by the time they arrived they were all starving, irritable, and hissing at each other like strange cats. In an attempt to calm frayed nerves, Simon suggested they all go out as a group to Bourbon Street where they could gorge themselves on oysters, listen to good music, and even take in some raunchy sex shows.

  None of that sounded good to Athena. She hated oysters, was tired of music, and it had been so long since she’d had sex she was afraid seeing it played out in front of her would be more sad than titillating. Besides, if everyone was out of the way, it would give her the perfect opportunity to finally have it out with Derek who, whether he knew it or not, would be staying at the hotel so they could talk.

  Those few moments in the van when he held her and tried to reassure her about the storm gave her the courage she needed to tell him about Elizabeth. It was the first time he spoke to her with any kind of tenderness since that day in the record store, and she hoped it portended a change in their relationship. He had even called her “angel.”

  That had been the straw that almost did her in. Being held in his arms again drove her fright of the storm out of her mind, and replaced it with a longing that was almost painful. She allowed herself to lean against him, breathing in that hint of sandalwood in his cologne, and listening to the beat of his heart against her ear. For a moment she gave in to the fantasy that things hadn’t changed between them, that they were still the couple they were in England seven years ago. But when he called her “angel,” it zapped through her like an electric shock. It was all she could do not to thread her fingers through his hair and kiss him with all the pent-up desire in her soul.

  Of course, the moment ended and reality once again intruded, but still – it happened, and Athena determined to take advantage of it before the traces of it completely disappeared.

  Since Paul had offered to back her up, she made him privy to her plans. He agreed to conveniently “forget” to let Derek know when they were leaving for the French Quarter, leaving the way open for Athena to be alone with him.

  As soon as the group left the hotel, she made her way to Derek’s room and knocked on the door.

  “Yeah, I’m almost ready,” he called out, clearly thinking she was Paul.

  She slipped into the room and leaned against the door. Derek froze in the act of donning a supple suede jacket when he saw her, his brows rushing together in a frown.

  “What is it, Athena? I’m about to leave.”

  Her heart sank at his irritated tone. It appeared his momentary tenderness was just that – momentary. Any hope she harbored for a friendly conversation vanished, much less the wish for anything even remotely loving. Still, she had to try. “No, you’re not.”

  The twist of his lips indicated what he thought of that. “Yes, I am. We’re all going to Bourbon Street as soon as Paul comes to fetch me.”

  “They’re already gone,” she informed him. “They left about five minutes ago.”

  “What?” His frown turned thunderous. “Why didn’t they tell me?”

  She decided not to implicate Paul in her plan, and shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess they forgot, or thought you weren’t going.” She noticed her hand rising toward her mouth, and forced herself to lower it. Over the past few weeks she had added biting her nails to her sins of lying, duplicity and deception, not to mention subterfuge, and she was determined to at least go to hell with decent fingernails, even if they weren’t polished.

  “Damn it!” Derek jerked off his jacket and flung it on the couch. “That’s just fucking wonderful.” After engaging in a few moments of pacing and cursing the idiocy of his band mates, he paused to give her a wary glance. “So what do you want?”

  Absolution, but no way could she tell him that. “You and I need to have a long talk.”

  In an instant he became still as a statue. “No. We don’t.” The only part of him that moved was his eyes which raked her with a shuttered gaze.

  “Yes, we do,” she contradicted.

  “Forget it. I’ve said all I have to say.”

  “Well, I haven’t.” Athena pushed away from the door and took a few tentative steps into the suite, her courage seeming to drain out into the thick carpet with each footfall. “I found out today that you thought that I was…that something happened to me when I didn’t answer your letters.”

  After a moment of shocked silence, Derek turned the air blue as he cursed Paul, Paul’s ancestors, and anyone or anything ever associated with the singer.

  His discourse was not only descriptive, but entertaining, and Athena waited patiently until he paused for breath. “I’m sorry, Derek. I had no idea you’d think something like that. I understand now why you were so mad at me when you saw me in Memphis.”

  “Mad? You thought I was mad?” He barked out a humorless laugh, and Athena half expected to hear about her own great-grandfather’s probable infatuation with barnyard animals. “It went way beyond mad. I was furious. Still am, come to that.”

  She breathed strongly through her nose. “So you’re furious because I wasn’t really dead?”

  The look he tossed her was full of contempt. “Of course not.”

  “Then why were you furious?” When he began pacing again without answering, she ventured another step forward and tried again. “Why? Come on, Derek. I want to know.”

  “Fine.” He came to a halt, putting the couch between them. “You want to know so badly, I’ll tell you.” Those eyes were chips of blue ice. “I was furious that I’d gone all that time thinking the only reason you would have left me was because something tragic happened, only to find you’d just tossed me aside with no word of explanation, and gone off and had yourself a happy little life. Yeah, it made me furious.”

  “A happy little life? You thought I was happy?” Now she was the furious one after hearing the hell she’d been through described as happy. Hands on hips, she glared at him across the couch. “I was devastated when that stupid girl told me those lies. I thought you were the one who did the tossing aside. And because of it I ended up married to a man I didn’t love.”

  “Why did you marry him, then?” he asked, throwing his hands wide.

  Here it was. “I was pregnant, that’s why.”

  “Oh, right,” he sneered. “You were so heartbroken when you thought I was marrying someone else that you ran right out and got pregnant. Touching.”

  Anger swept through her, leaving her hot and shaking. �
�It wasn’t like that.”

  “How was it then, Athena?” he all but shouted. “Explain it to me.”

  No; she couldn’t tell him about Elizabeth when he was in such a mood. The way he was looking at her let her know in no uncertain terms that even if she did tell him he wouldn’t believe her.

  “It wasn’t like that,” she repeated. “And as for my happy little life, Steve left me when the baby was only two months old. I had to get a divorce without having any idea where he was, and then raise Elizabeth by myself. I’ve done nothing but work my fingers to the bone since then, and I can assure you I’ve been anything but happy.”

  He regarded her in silence, and his aggressive stance relaxed. “All right, then,” he sighed. Turning, he went to stand in front of the window, shoulders slumped. “Why are you here, Athena?”

  “I told you. We need to talk…”

  “No.” He shook his head. “I mean why are you here as our personal assistant? Why did you take this job?”

  “I’m here for Elizabeth,” she said softly.

  “What does your daughter have to do with it?”

  Our daughter, she wanted to cry. Ours! But it still wasn’t the right time. In his current mood, hearing that she’d come to reunite their daughter with her father might send him jumping out that window – after he tossed Athena through it first.

  “I’m going to use the money to put a down payment on a house.”

  “The money? He turned to face her again, his expression hard. “That’s it?”

  She bristled at the implied accusation of gold digging. “That money is going to make it possible for me to get Elizabeth out of that crummy apartment we’ve been in for almost seven years. She’s going to have a back yard with grass and a swing set so she can actually play outdoors. She’s going to have a puppy, and a big bedroom where we can paint the walls pink like she’s always wanted. That money is going to get us into a nice neighborhood where she can finally go to a good school and have friends over without having to be ashamed, and she can really have a happy little life.” She stopped, breathing hard.

  “I don’t want you here,” he whispered.

  The pain of rejection crushed her chest, and she stumbled backwards. “You’ve made that abundantly clear,” she choked out through trembling lips. “But I was really hoping you could get over being so pissed off at me, and we could at least get along.”

  His head jerked up. “It’s not that. It was never really that.”

  “Then what?”

  “I don’t want to be near you.”

  His image blurred through a rush of humiliated tears. “Gee, thanks, Derek. You really know how to make a girl feel good.”

  “You don’t understand,” he growled.

  “Oh, I understand just fine.” With alarm, she saw him coming toward her, and she backed toward the door. “Forget it, all right? Heaven forbid you should have to be near me just because it’s my job, and because we used to be…Forget it. We’ll just ignore each other until this tour is over and we can go our separate ways.”

  “Oh, no you don’t,” he said as he reached her. “You wanted to talk, so we’re going to talk.”

  “I think you’ve made your point.” She wanted so much to flee the room, but her legs were too weighted down by defeat for her to lift. “No need to keep hammering me with it.”

  “I’m not trying to hammer you with it!”

  She made a rude noise. “Well, you’re doing a damn fine job of it.” It was too degrading to take another second of his obvious disgust for her, and she forced her body to turn toward the door. Before she could take a step, his fingers closed over her wrist in an iron grip.

  “You don’t understand,” he gritted out. “If I push you away then you won’t get near me.”

  “Oh, that’s even better.” She tried and failed to pull her wrist loose. “I’m so sorry my very presence offends you so much.” With her other hand she attempted to pry his fingers loose, but only succeeded in having him take her other wrist prisoner as well.

  “No, damn it!” He gave her arms a little shake. “I don’t want to be near you because…”

  “Let me go, Derek.” It wasn’t fair. The feel of his skin against hers was so exciting, so welcome, so right; and having him touch her while telling her he didn’t want her was more cruel than anything else she’d endured.

  Taut with tension, his voice was almost unrecognizable. “It’s because what I really want, what I need, is to be close to you, and I don’t think I can bear it if you don’t want that, too.”

  It took a minute for his words to make sense, but when they did her breath stopped. “You don’t want to be near me because…because you want to be near me?”

  Taking a step forward, he backed her against the wall, still holding her wrists captive. The trembling in his hands traveled up her arms. “Crazy, isn’t it? But, yeah. That’s what I want.” His soft voice went through her like a bolt of lightning, and she gasped.

  “Fuck it, Athena. I want,” he almost whispered. “And I’ve wanted since I first saw you. But I’m so fucking afraid you’re going to reject me again, and I don’t want to be hurt anymore.”

  Weak with a mixture of relief and the beginnings of a sweet, hot flame of hope, Athena stopped pulling against his grip. “I never rejected you, Derek. I never would have. I thought you rejected me.” Her head rolled against the wall in a slight shake. “It broke my heart.”

  His fingers tightened on her wrists the barest bit. “Why didn’t you ring me again? You had to have known on some level I couldn’t just forget about you, about us.”

  “Honestly, it was because I couldn’t afford it. I spent the last of my money when I called and ended up talking to that lying little twit.” She drew in a tremulous breath. “But most of all it was because I was a stupid kid who still couldn’t believe that someone like you would really want me.”

  “Are you still going on about that after all this time?” His chin lifted the slightest bit. “Didn’t I make it clear how I felt?”

  “Yes, but you were so beautiful – still are, if you want to know – and I was this awkward, gawky kid who…”

  “No, you weren’t,” he interrupted as his thumbs began a slow caress on the insides of her wrists. “You were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen – still are, if you want to know – and even though I’ve tried, I still can’t get you out of my head.”

  “What do you mean?” Please God he wasn’t playing with her. Please let him mean it.

  Instead of answering, he pressed against her with a groan. Releasing her wrists, he slid his hands up her arms to cup the back of her head.

  The feel of his body on hers was her undoing. With her hands finally free, Athena did what she’d wanted to do since she first saw him again. Threading her fingers into his hair, she pulled his head down to hers, and fastened her lips to his with a hunger that had gone unsatisfied for far too long.

  With a growl, Derek took her offered mouth and ravaged it in a kiss so hot it should have set off the fire alarm. His hands left her head and settled on her hips, pulling her against a rock hard erection that made her moan with longing.

  Derek picked her up against his chest and carried her into the bedroom, kicking the door shut with his heel. He set her on her feet beside the bed, and divested her of her T-shirt and bra before taking her mouth again in another mind-numbing kiss. Warm hands slipped up her ribs until he cupped her breasts in his palms. When he stroked her nipples with his thumbs, she arched against him in bliss.

  With shaking fingers, she unbuttoned his shirt and pushed it off his shoulders. Every morning when she woke him up, she’d touched him there with quick efficiency, but now she gave into the longing she’d had to caress that skin, feel the play of muscles as he moved, savor the warmth of him under her hands.

  He removed his shirt like it was on fire, and pulled her down to the bed. His lips left a trail of heat across her jaw and neck as he worked his way down.

  “Want you so
bad, angel,” he breathed against her skin, sending shocks of pleasure to all her nerve endings. His warm mouth fastened over a taut nipple, and Athena melted as his tongue teased her sensitive skin.

  Wild to feel every inch of him against her, she kicked off her sandals so he could remove her jeans, an action she urged him to do by thrusting her hips against his. “Please,” she whispered.

  Derek responded by sucking harder on her breast, wringing a guttural moan of pleasure from her throat. His hands dropped to the waistband of her jeans, and pulled open the snap and lowered the zipper. Fingertips smooth with callus ran over her belly, and she whimpered with need.

  Breathing hard, Derek stood up and yanked her jeans and panties off. “You are so fucking beautiful,” he groaned, his eyes devouring her with a touch that was almost physical. Grasping her hips, he pulled her to the edge of the bed and knelt before her.

  Athena spread her thighs, aching for his touch. “I want you, Derek.”

  “I can see that.” He ran a finger over her, sighing in pleasure at the shudder that ran through her. “So hot and wet for me, angel. So ready.”

  His thumbs spread her open, and she endured a moment of agonizing anticipation. Then he ran his tongue over her softness, and Athena dissolved. He was right; she was ready for him, her climax spiraling inside her, hot and heavy and just waiting for him to set it free. The feel of two of Derek’s fingers sliding inside her provided the spark, and she ignited, the heat of a thousand suns radiating through her, lost in what he was doing to her. Lost in him.

  Still shaking with release, she looked up to see Derek ripping off his jeans. Her breath caught at the sight of his body, still as beautiful as it was all those years ago. He slid over her, his intent obvious, but she wrapped her arms around him and rolled him over on his back. Sweeping her hair out the way, she bent her head toward his lap, but stopped when he gently grabbed her head.