For three months, she had been trying to forget Jonas Hinton. Hands down, it had been one of the hardest things she had ever tried to do. And here it was, one call and she was ready to run back to his world. Hell, he wasn’t even Jonas. It was his brother.
What did they think, that they could just keep passing her around like some kind of serving tray? Who knows maybe she’d get the trifecta and Quentin would start calling.
“Toni?” Brooklyn broke through her troubled thoughts. “Where did you go?” She laughed and slid another strip of tape across another box.
“Oh, I’m sorry. What did you say?” She sat the phone back down and returned to packing.
“I asked whether you thought about moving to Texas? I know I’d love it if you were there in Austin. If would be like old times. You and me-”
“And the kids,” Toni added. She didn’t mean for the words to have such a biting edge, but she knew the drill. Married girlfriends weren’t the same as single girlfriends. Their conversations were or would always turn into subjects about their husbands and kids. “Oh, such and such did the funniest thing to today” or “guess what my husband did today.”
Then again, retuning to California meant Botox parties, getting the pointers of the latest starvation diet and constantly having your body image accosted. And that would be within the first five minutes at Maria’s apartment.
“I don’t know, Brooklyn,” she sighed. “I just know this place holds too many memories for me.”
Sighing, Brooklyn laid down the box tape. “Toni, why don’t you just call him?”
Toni started to ask, “call whom?” but one look into Brooklyn’s serious face, and she knew playing dumb wasn’t going to work. “There’s nothing to say. It’s over.”
“Okay. Where is the next box?” Isaiah asked, stomping back into the house.
“All the boxes in the kitchen are marked and ready to go,” Toni informed him.
Isaiah slapped his hands together and headed toward the kitchen.
Brooklyn waited until he was out of earshot before returning to the subject at hand. “Come on, Toni. You’re miserable. I’ve never seen you like this.”
“I’m fine,” she lied.
Brooklyn laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“I remember a time when you were trying to get me to call Isaiah when we broke up. I kept telling you I was fine when I was anything but.” She met Toni’s gaze. “I felt like I was dying inside. Slowly but surely.”
Toni was the first to look away. That was exactly how she felt.
“After what happened between me and Evan...and Macy, I was positive that marriage wasn’t for me. I didn’t want to depend on another man. Love isn’t a woman’s greatest downfall. It’s the inability to love.” Brooklyn stood up and walked over to her best friend. “Call him.”
After dinner, the Hinton brothers returned home to Jonas’s condo. Luckily, Sterling was the designated driver, because once Jonas started drinking, he was unable to stop. At one point when Jonas was really blitzed, he’d grabbed Sterling by his head and spoke with such pain that it nearly tore Sterling’s heart in two.
“I love her. A million times more than what’s-her-face.”
In a couple hours, Jonas had covered a gamut of emotions. One minute he was laughing and the next he would brood into his drink. Sterling considered himself lucky for not have crossed paths with a woman who could do this to him.
Real lucky.
Once they arrived at Jonas’s, Sterling and Q each grabbed an arm and a leg and carried their brother to his bedroom.
“See. This is why I say keep your emotions of out it when dealing with women,” Q commented after they had gotten Jonas into bed.
Sterling stared down at their older brother sleeping like a baby. “Yeah. I just wish there was something we could do for him.”
The younger brothers back out of the room and closed the door.
“Well, I’m going out,” Q announced.
“It’s two in the morning,” Sterling said.
“That may be, but I’m not going to be like you two losers. I need something soft and warm to curl up to tonight.” He bolted toward the stairs. “Don’t wait up.”
“Don’t forget about your agreement. First thing tomorrow, you need to be looking for a job.”
“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.” Q raced out the front door.
Shaking his head, Sterling felt his cell phone vibrate against his leg. Who on earth could be calling him this late?”
He scooped the phone out of his pocket and froze. It was Toni Wright.
Chapter 30
Jonas woke with a massive hangover. When bits and pieces of what happened the night before floated back to the forefront, he groaned and moaned over his behavior—and the fact he’d done it in front of his brothers. The most humiliating part had to be when he stood up and changed the words to Barry Manilow’s song “Mandy” to “Toni”.
Why did he even know the lyrics to that song?
After a quick shower and a change, Jonas rushed from the house before either of his brothers had a chance to corner him and poke funny of what happened last night.
And he certainly didn’t want to remember the man’s voice who’d answered Toni’s phone. Jonas wasn’t dumb. A relationship had to have progressed rather well for a man to have permission to answer a woman’s phone.
It was all the evidence he needed to prove that Toni had moved on.
Jumping on the back of his Harley, Jonas blinked in surprised at a brief hand written note taped on his bike.
Meet me at the skybox.
-Sterling.
What the hell? He pulled the note off and balled it up. Leave it to Sterling to anticipate his first move—and annoying habit of his.
Drawing a deep breath, Jonas glanced at his watch and started his bike. He may as well head over to the stadium; he certainly didn’t feel up to going into the office today. A light drizzle dotted his wind visor as he joined the morning traffic. Forty-five minutes later, he arrived at the stadium’s skybox, but judging how the light rain had turned into a torrential downpour, he knew practice would be cancelled. Still, he dropped into one the leather chairs and kicked back.
Maybe he needed to go away somewhere where he could clear his mind. A vacation.
A long vacation.
He certainly couldn’t go back to the Caribbean. The island would only remind him of Toni. Yet, he wanted be wanted to be reminded. He wanted to remember what it felt like caressing her skin, kissing her mouth and plunging himself as deep as he could inside of her.
A sad laugh escaped his lips, but then he sobered and drew a deep breath. Hell, even now he could recall the sweet smell of lavender that always clung to Toni’s skin.
Was he going mad?
“A penny for your thoughts.”
Jonas’s eyes snapped open, but he couldn’t turn around.
Toni’s awkward laugh tumbled behind him. “That line never works with you.”
He drew a deep breath, but still didn’t turn around. “What are you doing here?”
“Haven’t you heard? I’m a glutton for punishment.” The room fell silent, and then, “I talked with Sterling. He brought me here.”
Jonas vowed to kill his brother.
“Aren’t you going to turn around?”
Jonas didn’t know if he should. He didn’t trust himself to keep it together once he saw her. He was afraid he would run to her and fall to his knees. Undoubtedly, he would beg and promise her the world if she would just take him back.
The soft rustle of fabric caught his attention and he listened as her light footsteps approached from behind. Seconds later, lavender invaded Jonas’s senses and he clutched the sides of the leather chair, hoping it would aid him to keep it together.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered so softly that he barely heard her. “In the Caribbean,” she went on. “When you told me you loved me...I got scared. You see, I was falling in love with you, too and...well, I’v
e always made it a rule to get out before emotions come into play.”
Jonas remained silent as his hands tightened on the chair.
“Only this time, I didn’t get out in time,” she added. “My parents...didn’t die in a car accident,” she said softly. “My father was a very abusive man.”
Jonas tensed.
“He would beat my mother often. For years, no matter what he did, my mother wouldn’t leave him. She always said that she couldn’t leave because she loved him.” Toni sniffed and struggled to continue. “One of the things my mother ingrained in me was: love was a woman’s greatest downfall. I believed her. When she finally grew tired of the beatings, we packed up our things and moved into a woman’s shelter in Atlanta. When my father came home from work and discovered we were gone, he came looking for us. He shot my mother and then turned the gun on himself.”
Tears streaked down Jonas’s eyes as he listened.
“All these years, I’ve been afraid to fall in love. Afraid of what it would do to me. But it happened anyway. I miss you.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “I love you, Jonas.”
Her touch effectively destroyed his wall of resistance and he reached up to cover her hand with his own. “I love you, too.”
Toni walked around the leather chair to face him. Once again, she wore the same silver raincoat. To look at her was to look at love and Jonas knew at that moment he wanted to spend the rest of his life waking up and laying down with this woman.
“Marry me.” The words were out of his mouth before he knew it. And there was nothing on earth that could describe the joy he felt when he watched her eyes fill with joyous tears.
“You stole the words right out of mouth.” She laughed.
Jonas jumped to his feet and pulled her close. Their lips connected and a bolt of electricity shot through them. “I love you, Toni,” he murmured once he came up from air. “I’ve felt like the walking dead these past three months. You are my heart. My soul. Never leave me again. Promise.”
“I promise,” she groaned, and then pressed her lips against his again. Arching gently against him, an old familiar ache throbbed within her. Her sexual hunger only intensified when she felt his desire harden and press against her pelvis.
Desire swirled like a tornado through her veins as she slipped her hands up his broad back. She stroked its hard planes and ardently wished she could do away with his clothes. Yet, there was one more thing she had to do.
“Baby.” Her fevered whisper trembled. “There’s something I have to tell you.”
Jonas broke away with a frown already touching his face. “If it’s about you seeing someone else during these last few months.” He swallowed. “It’s okay. It’s in the past. You’re mine now. We’re together.”
Confusion twisted Toni’s expression. “I haven’t been seeing any one since we broke up.”
Jonas failed to cover his surprise and his pleasure. “When I called yesterday, a man-”
Toni shook her head. “Isaiah answered the phone.”
The name didn’t ring any bells so he waited for an explanation.
“Isaiah is my best friend’s husband. They were helping me pack yesterday.”
Another wave of relief hit, but then, “Pack? Where are you going?”
Toni’s gaze dropped to the wide span of his chest. “I was moving back to California. I was trying to run away from the pain of losing you.”
Jonas cupped the bottom of her chin and tilted it up. “Well, you don’t have to run any farther. You’re right where you belong.” His mouth descended again and the passion he unleashed left her swaying in his arms.
She still hadn’t told him yet.
“J-Jonas,” she managed to say during his torrent love storm. “There is still something I have to tell you, baby.”
“Can it wait?” His hands reached to undo the belt of her coat. “I want you. I need you right now.”
Her slash fell open.
“But-”
Jonas peeled the coat from her shoulders.
“It’s important.”
When the coat hit the floor, Jonas glanced down and froze. Toni’s beautiful, nude body still had the power to excite and ignite his passion; but there was no mistaking the small, bump of her belly. “Baby...”
Toni pressed her warm, soft hand against his stubbed cheek. “The first two months I think was in denial. And then I didn’t want to trap you into-”
Jonas silenced her with a kiss. He poured everything he had into it and he was rewarded when she did the same. Soon, the couple tasted the salt of each other’s tears and it only made their joining that much sweeter—that much hungrier—that much more satisfying.
And it would be so, Jonas vowed, for the rest of their lives.
Epilogue
Alyssa sighed when Sterling finally finished the story. It wrapped with a happy ending-just the way she liked them. Now, here she was at the center of what would undoubtedly be dubbed as a fairytale wedding...and she had to stay in her room.
“Fifteen minutes to showtime,” The wedding planner rushed alerting the wedding party. “Everyone take their places.”
Sterling smiled and stood up straight. “I guess that means me, too.” His gaze raked over her attire: blue jeans, Mary J. Blige t-shirt and a pair of Reeboks that had seen better days. “I know I’m long past being hip. Well, I was never what you would call hip...but is that what you’re wearing to the wedding?”
Alyssa dropped her head and couldn’t help but poke out her bottom lip. “I can’t go. Dad said that I would just be in the way.”
Sterling chuckled and then placed a comforting arm around her shoulders. “Nonsense.” He looked her over again. “It just so happens that I require a date for this evening. How fast can you change clothes?”
Hope bloomed in Alyssa’s heart. “But Daddy said-”
“I’ll have a talk with Alfred. I’m sure I can get him to change his mind.”
“Do you really think so?”
Sterling’s chest swelled with confidence. “I’m a pretty persuasive guy. It’s served me well in business.”
“Yeah, but-”
“Trust me.”
He winked. Again his uncharacteristic playful side charmed Alyssa. “Okay,” she said, backing away. “I’ll go change.” She turned and raced off to her room. The only dress she had in her closet suitable for a wedding was the frilly number her father bought her for Easter. She frowned at the excessive lace, but quickly showered and shimmied into the dress in what had to be an Olympic record.
A couple of brush strokes through her hair, a ribbon and she was out the door. As she rushed to grab one of the white, wooden lawn chairs she took in the final staging for the ceremony and felt as if she had been cast into a glorious dream. White and pink flowers were strewn as far as the eye could see while a live orchestra played as if they were introducing her to the crowd.
No sooner had she found a seat on the groom’s side, did someone hand her a folded letter. She suspected it was from her father before she even opened it.
And she was right. Be on your best behavior-Dad
Alyssa smiled and folded the letter. Sterling had pulled off a miracle and she would be eternally grateful.
A handsome, Jonas took his place before the preacher, looking happy and nervous. The processional music started up and everyone turn in their seats in time to see the first bridesmaid and groomsman march down the aisle.
Of course, Alyssa’s heart didn’t start pounding until Quentin appeared, escorting a blushing Maria. Alyssa pretended not to notice the subtle signs of the beautiful Latina flirting with her future husband. Q spotted Alyssa in the crowd and winked.
In that moment, if she had died, she would have left this world one of the happiest girls alive.
I will marry you one day, Quentin Dwayne Hinton. I will.
Sterling was the next Hinton to walk down the aisle. When he, too, spotted her in her silly Easter dress, he smiled and gave her the thumbs up. She smiled
and mouthed the words thank you.
The wedding marched began and everyone rose to their feet when the bride marched down the aisle on the arm of her friend Isaiah Washington. She was six months pregnant and glowed like sun. When everyone returned to their seats, they all waited in anticipation of the “I do’s.”
This time, neither the bride nor groom stopped the wedding. Precisely twenty minutes later, the minister introduced Mr. and Mrs. Hinton to the crowd.
The fairy-tale wedding wasn’t over for Alyssa. To her surprise, Q offered his arm for her first dance. Being in his arms was like a dream come true and it took everything she had not to make a fool herself.
“Ah, I still stand by my earlier assessment,” he said. “One day, you will break men’s hearts. “I just pray I won’t be one of them.”
She was sure her entire body turned beet-red and it was a wonder that she didn’t trip all over his feet.
However, when the song ended, Quentin disappeared to sweep another woman off her feet.
“May I?” Sterling asked.
“Yes, you may.” Alyssa’s glided into his arms and soon discovered he was as good a dancer as his younger brother. “Thank you for talking my dad into letting attend.”
“Oh, think nothing of it. What else are friends for?”
She smiled, feeling for the first time that she was his friend and not just some servant’s daughter. Alas, the dance ended too quickly and Sterling disappeared into the crowd, as well.
Feel The Fire (Unforgettable Series) Page 18
