Love Becomes Her

by Donna Hill

  Barbara was happy for Elizabeth. For a while she was really concerned that she wouldn’t be able to get beyond what Matthew had done. But she had. What stunned her more than anything was Ann Marie. In her own unique way she’d reached out and made her peace with Stephanie, and Steph had somehow found the courage to break free from Conrad.

  She turned out the lights in the living room. Life was all about getting to the good part. She went into the bedroom, got undressed and slid beneath the cool sheets—her first night alone in some time. She reached for the phone next to the bed and dialed Michael’s hotel room. A little late-night sweet talk was just what she needed.

  Chapter 26

  “You can’t do this, Elizabeth,” Matthew said, running his hand across his close-cut hair as he paced in front of her.

  Elizabeth sat back in the kitchen chair with her arms folded and her right leg rocking leisurely across her left beneath the table. Whenever Matthew was nervous his top lip began to sweat. It was sweating now. She felt smug and oh so powerful.

  “I can and I have. While you were so busy at work, you left everything up to me, remember? You may have been paying the mortgage all these years, but the house is in my name since you had such crappy credit when we were house hunting.” She smiled. “Remember? I’m the sole owner of this half-million-dollar home.”

  Matthew stopped so short his shoes squeaked against the black-and-white linoleum.

  She exhaled a satisfied sigh. “I guess it’s coming back to you now.”

  Matthew glared at her. “You would sell the house right from under me?”

  “You were ready to put me on the street,” she said, her voice as even as a straight line. “I think it’s only fair that I be duly compensated for the mental anguish, don’t you, not to mention adultery?” She covered her mouth in mock alarm. “Oh, I did say not to mention the A word.” Slowly she pushed up from her seat. “Who knows, I might feel generous and give you a settlement after the sale of the house—on one condition.”

  “What?”

  “That you face your daughters and tell them yourself exactly why you left.”

  He lowered his head, and his body appeared to crumble. “I…can’t face them.”

  She shrugged. “Fine. Then we have nothing else to discuss. I’ll have my lawyer contact yours with all the proper amendments to the divorce. Our business is finished. Thanks for dropping by. You know your way out.”

  “This isn’t like you, Ellie.”

  “I know, dear. There’s a new sheriff in town. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have things to do.” Gee, she wished she smoked. It would have been the perfect closing scene to light up.

  Matthew slung his hands in his pockets. “Ellie—” he shook his head as he spoke, then looked at her “—I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. You were…are a good wife and a great mother. I know you didn’t deserve this.”

  The muscles in her throat tightened until she felt as if she would choke. When she looked at her husband now, right at this moment, he was the man she’d married. The handsome, loving, ambitious man who wanted nothing more in the world than to make her happy. Where had he gone? What had gone so terribly wrong that they’d arrived at this place?

  She blinked back tears of regret and turned away from his searching eyes. “I really think you should go now, Matt.”

  “That’s just it, Ellie, I don’t want to go. I…”

  Her gaze jumped in his direction right along with her racing heart. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that I made a mistake, a terrible, ugly mistake.”

  She gripped the edge of the table to keep from fainting. How many nights had she lain awake hoping, praying that this was all some silly misunderstanding, some miscommunication that happens in romance novels. And when the hero finally explains his side, the heroine melts and all is forgiven.

  Hell, that was a romance novel. This was for real, her life, her feelings. There wasn’t anything remotely fantasy filled about them.

  “I’m sorry to hear that, Matthew.”

  “What?” He frowned in confusion.

  “I’m sorry to hear that after all you’ve put me through, put your daughters through, you’ve suddenly awakened and realized that you made a mistake.”

  “I want to come back home, Ell.” He took a step toward her.

  Her nerves vibrated so violently she thought they’d ignite and singe her skin. She found the courage to look him in the eye. For a moment she wavered, remembering the good times, the loving, the children she’d carried, the times they’d shared. But what rested foremost on her mind was not the past but the present, the here and now. He’d taken them to a place of no return.

  He reached out to her. “It could be good again, Ell. Better. I swear I’ll make it up to you.”

  Her smile was sad and filled with longing and regret. “I can’t.” She turned her back to him. “Please leave, Matthew. Now.”

  “Ell…” His hand was on her shoulder. It burned to the marrow of her bones. He turned her around and pulled her close. “Please Ell.”

  She pressed her hands against his chest and slowly shook her head. “No, Matt. I can’t do it. I won’t.”

  His jaw rocked back and forth and his expression hardened by degrees. “Fine.” He stepped away. “Have your lawyer call mine.” He snatched up his jacket from the back of the kitchen chair and stormed out.

  Elizabeth released a shuddering breath, holding on to the side of the table for support as she bent in half, drawing in large gulps of air.

  Slowly she stood and miraculously she didn’t feel even a hint of tears. She was going to be all right. She went to the fridge and took out a bottle of water, twisted the cap and took a nice cool swallow.

  Wow, a half-million dollars was nothing to sneeze at. She might have begged to come back, too.

  She finished off her water and tossed the empty bottle in the recycle bin. She looked around. She’d spent some of the best years of her life in this house, she thought as she moved from room to room. But it was only a building, not some spiritual entity. With her marriage all but a period, it would do her a world of good to start her new life in a new place.

  She smiled, feeling very optimistic. She knew just how she wanted to fix up her new place…and she had the money to do it.

  Chapter 27

  “So you’re really going to do it?” Michael said as he and Barbara sat opposite each other at Spoon-bread Restaurant.

  As usual for a weekend, the small, family-run soul-food restaurant was packed—surprisingly, with white couples and the yuppie students who dormed at Columbia University a few blocks away.

  Barbara added a dash of hot sauce to her collard greens. “Yep. We closed on the building on Wednesday. Ann Marie is working out the details of the business license and the contractors that you recommended are coming by to give us an estimate on Monday.” She brought him up to date with Stephanie and Elizabeth, leaving out the really sordid details. He’d surprised her by coming in for the weekend and she couldn’t be happier.

  He tore into a barbecue spare rib, savoring the rich, thick sauce. For a moment he closed his eyes in pure bliss. “Mmm, mmm, mmm, the food here is great! Make a man leave home in the middle of the night for these ribs.”

  Barbara laughed.

  “That’s one thing that Miami is lacking, good soul-food restaurants.”

  “More reason for you to spend time here.”

  He looked across the table at her. “I have my reason. You.”

  She blushed then focused on her greens.

  “What are you going to do about your job?”

  Barbara put her fork down and sighed thoughtfully. “Well, my plan is to work at the house part-time while we build the business. When it takes off then I’ll leave.”

  Michael nodded. “Makes sense. You seem so focused and certain. Aren’t you even a little bit scared?”

  “You know, I thought I would be. But after seeing the place, talking with my friends and finally underst
anding that it’s long past time for me to do something for Barbara, I said the hell with fear and just go for it.”

  “That’s the only way to make any real change in your life is to take that leap of faith.”

  “Like you and me?”

  “Yeah, just like you and me.” He picked up his napkin and dabbed at a spot of potato salad from the corner of her mouth. “Come on, finish up. I want to show you how much you’ve been missed.”

  “Sounds like dessert to me.” She put her knife and fork down and finished off her iced tea.

  “Exactly.”

  “Hmm, my mouth is craving something sweet,” she cooed.

  The corner of his mouth curved upward. “So is mine, baby, so is mine.”

  As they walked hand in hand back to Barbara’s apartment she thought about how much her life had changed, but more importantly how she had changed in the past few months.

  When she was married to Marvin—God rest his soul—she never imagined herself as a sexual person or even sexy, for that matter. Prior to her marriage she’d been with one other man and that had ended in disaster of epic proportions. It was a lifetime ago. A time she’d shared with no one—not her friends, not even Marvin. Once she was a married woman, sex was simply sex, something married people did. Marvin wasn’t the adventurous type. He frowned at X-rated movies, and sex toys or sex talk didn’t enter into their marriage. You could hold a gun to his head and he wouldn’t perform oral sex. It was simply taboo in his mind.

  So, she simply accepted her sex life for what it was: a duty. More often than not, she didn’t experience a climax, but she’d grown used to that, as well. She often wondered about her girlfriends, what their experiences were like, but she’d been so conditioned not to discuss the subject since she was a young girl that she couldn’t fix her mouth to broach the topic—not even with her closest friend, Elizabeth. And although Stephanie and Ann Marie were in no way shy about relaying their escapades, she could never see herself reciprocating. For the most part she thought they must be lying. Sex could never be as mind-shattering as they’d said.

  Ha, that’s what she thought until she made love with Michael. Lawdhavemercy, just thinking about it got her panties all damp. The morning after was always filled with aches and pains, having used muscles she didn’t know existed, but the getting there was well worth it.

  “So what is your coach saying about the knee?” she asked, needing to get her mind out of his shorts for a minute.

  “So far so good. They have me on a restricted training program. I still get therapy every day and he’s letting me practice for longer periods of time. Our first scrimmage is next week. That’ll be the real test.”

  “Mike?”

  “Yes.” He looked down at her.

  “Have you ever considered—seriously considered what you would do if you couldn’t ever play again? I mean, you’re barely into your thirties.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. Especially since the accident and meeting you.” He paused a moment. “I have a good deal of money socked away and some solid investments. I know I want to remain in sports in some capacity. I’d been thinking of opening a training camp for inner-city kids.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded. The excitement lit his eyes in the twilight. “For so many urban kids sports is a way out, ya know. I mean, everyone won’t be a star, but at least it will provide them with an option.”

  “I think it’s a great idea. Something sorely missing and needed.”

  “Exactly. So…we’ll see how things go with my career and then I’ll decide.”

  “Have you thought about where you want the camp to be?”

  “You’re here, so what better place to start?”

  For a reason that she couldn’t quite grasp, his answer unsettled her.

  They reached her apartment building and she pushed the thought aside. For now, only pleasure would be on her mind.

  Michael was right when he said he wanted to show her how much he’d missed her. They made a game of foreplay, moving from one room of the apartment to the next as they stripped and played with each other’s bodies.

  He loved to make love to her in the light and she’d grown comfortable with her body, proud of her womanly curves and that extra dip in her hips. She was no longer shy about looking at him fully erect and throbbing. It gave her a sense of her womanly powers that she could do that to him, time and again.

  When they half stumbled, half laughed their way into the kitchen, Michael did something with an ice cube that should be illegal.

  He emptied the ice tray into a plastic bowl and put it on the table.

  Barbara’s brown eyes widened. “What do you plan to do with that?”

  Michael winked and crooked his finger, beckoning her to him. She crossed the cool tile floor, totally unselfconscious. Even the slight jiggle in her stomach didn’t bother her.

  “Yes, Mr. Townsend? What can I do for you?”

  “It’s more like what I’m going to do for you.” He took a cube of ice from the bowl, sucked on it for a moment then used it to create a trail down the valley of her breasts. After the first startling feel of it, Barbara embraced the new sensation. He used another cube to circle her nipples, making them stand on end. She shuddered but not from the cold. Everywhere he stroked her with the ice he followed it with his mouth, his tongue licking up the droplets of water. Just when she thought she couldn’t take much more, he took a cube of ice and slid it back and forth across her clit.

  Her inner thighs trembled and she grabbed onto his shoulders to keep from falling to the floor.

  “Michael,” she gasped.

  “Go with it, baby,” he whispered in her ear an instant before he slipped the cube inside her.

  Her climax was immediate and so intense she swore she blacked out for a moment. And still Michael wasn’t done with her. While the explosions continued to erupt, he slid down until his mouth reached her center and sent her over the edge one more time.

  She’d heard of “whip appeal” but she’d always associated it with a woman’s sexual hold over a man. Barbara curled closer to the warmth of Michael’s body. She was pretty sure that’s what she was suffering from, and she had it bad. As much as she loved what Michael did for her and to her, the way he’d made her feel about herself awakened her sexuality, there was a part of her that knew she couldn’t keep up with him—not for long, anyway.

  He was barely thirty. By the time he was forty she’d be sixty. Menopause would have sealed her fate by then and a cube of ice she’d need more for hot flashes than turn-ons.

  She pressed her lips against the curve of his spine and wrapped her arm around his narrow waist. Inch by inch her fingers traveled down his hard belly until she reached his partially erect penis. She took it in her hand and stroked him slow and steady, bringing him to full attention.

  He groaned with delight and turned around to face her.

  What the hell, she thought. You only live once.

  Chapter 28

  Elizabeth volunteered to meet the contractors at the house at 7:30 a.m. Ann Marie promised to come as soon as she was finished with a closing on another property, which probably wouldn’t be until late afternoon. Stephanie had a policy of never leaving the house before nine, and Barbara would arrive as soon as she got off work at four.

  When Elizabeth pulled up in front of the house, a guy who looked like he belonged on the cover of Contractors ’R Us, complete with faded jeans, weatherworn plaid shirt with sleeves rolled up, revealing muscled arms, stood in front of the house with the brim of his baseball cap pulled low over his eyes.

  Something inside her jumped and shifted. She eased into an available parking space and got out, thankful that she’d put on some makeup and had her hair done over the weekend.

  She stretched out her hand as she approached. “Hi, I’m Elizabeth Lewis, one of the owners.”

  “Ron Powers.” He took her hand.

  It was hard, firm. Her head felt a little
light and her stomach was doing something funny. His face was all rugged angles, the color of roasted coffee nuts with the hint of dark stubble on his cheeks and chin. His eyes were a remarkable cinnamon brown with curly black lashes and thick brows.

  “Pleasure,” he said, releasing her hand then angling his head over his broad shoulder. “Nice place. Solid foundation.” He turned back to look at her. “Ready to go in? I want to take a look around, make some notes before the guys get here.”

  “S-ure,” she managed to sputter, wondering if the rest of the “guys” looked anything like this hunk of a man.

  They started at the top and Ron did some measurements in comparison to the schematics of the house that he had in a folder. He pulled a pen out of his back pocket.

  Hmm, didn’t think there was room for anything in those pockets the way his jeans snuggly hugged his rear end and outlined those powerful thighs, Elizabeth mused. A thin film of perspiration ran across her hairline. Was it hot in here or was it her overactive imagination?

  “The first thing we’ll do is strip the roof and recover it,” he said, suddenly turning toward her.

  She blinked him back into focus. “O-kay.”

  He gave her a half smile. “Are you okay? You look a bit flushed.”

  It was times like this that Elizabeth resented her sandstone complexion. All of her emotions rose to the surface of her skin.

  “Fine. Just a little anxious about the house.”

  He chuckled lightly. “You’re in good hands. My team is one of the best in the city. I’d trust them with my mother’s house.”