by Debra Webb
He straightened from his relaxed stance. “Agreed.” Time to put his other plan into high gear. “Have you decided when we’re going to get together?”
She faltered visibly at the question. “I…today was really busy. I didn’t have a chance to give it much thought.”
Zach closed the distance between them with slow, deliberate steps. That deer-caught-in-the-headlights look widened her eyes. “I haven’t thought about much else,” he returned softly. He trailed a finger down her arm. She shivered. Desire struck him hard and low as his fingers closed around hers. “Patience is not one of my strong points.”
“It should be soon,” she said quickly. “I just have to check my schedule.”
He angled his head and searched her eyes as best he could in the moonlight. “You haven’t changed your mind, have you?”
All signs of doubt disappeared instantly. “Of course not.” Taking a deep breath, for courage, he supposed, she tiptoed and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips. “I can’t wait,” she murmured.
His free arm went around her waist and he pulled her firmly against him, making sure her softness molded fully to the proof of his own anticipation. “Why wait?” He closed his mouth over hers before she could respond.
To his surprise, she didn’t resist him. Instead, she draped her arms around his neck and leaned into the kiss. She drank greedily of all he had to offer, her mouth tempting his in every way. So hot, so sweet…and so very needy. He could feel her desperation as she practically writhed in his arms. Her neediness sent his senses spiraling out of control. He wanted to do whatever it took to make her happy…to satisfy her. He wanted to make love to her as no one else ever had. He cradled her head and deepened the kiss, thrusting his tongue inside her mouth. She whimpered softly and glided her hot tongue along the length of his. Desire erupted inside him.
He had to have her.
His hands slid down her back and over her heart-shaped bottom. He lifted her against him and stumbled toward the oak. Leaning her against the trunk, he pulled her legs up around his waist so that he could grind the ache in his loins into her feminine heat. She arched into him. He groaned. She made a tiny sound, almost a cry. Her fingers plowed into his hair, crushing his mouth more fully into hers. The hard, jutting peaks of her breasts seared his chest. He cupped her bottom, his fingers squeezing the tightly encased flesh.
He had to get her in the house…to his car…somewhere so they would have some privacy. The gazebo flashed through his mind followed by the vivid image of making love to Beth on that wooden floor. Reason intruded like a blast of icy water.
What was he doing?
He couldn’t take Beth like this. He stopped. Hadn’t he already decided that taking her at all would be a mistake? He drew his mouth from hers. Her ragged breath sizzled over his sensitized lips.
She stiffened in his arms, reason apparently overtaking her once more as well. “Oh, God.” She scrambled away from him before he could stop her. “I have to go.” She shoved a handful of hair behind her ear and hugged her arms around her middle in a protective manner. “I’ll see you at noon tomorrow.”
All he could manage was a curt nod. His entire body was hot and throbbing, aching for her. But all he could do was watch her go. When he’d recovered his composure, he turned and started toward the house.
Well, he thought dryly, so much for reverse psychology.
COLLEEN ENTERED Pearle’s, her absolute favorite restaurant in Cartersville, one minute past the hour. She hated to be late, even one minute, but there was nothing for it. Bernard, the maitre d’, gifted her with a wide smile and offered his arm.
“Good afternoon, Mrs. Ashton. It’s a pleasure to see you today. I hope you’re doing well.”
“It’s good to be alive, Bernie,” she said in all honesty. “I’m doing quite well, thank you.”
“When Mr. Ashton called, I made sure your favorite table on the mezzanine was reserved.”
Colleen patted his arm. “You know how I love that view of the atrium.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Bernie escorted her up the short flight of stairs and to the same small table for two she’d asked for since the restaurant opened almost thirty years ago. It was her table and everyone from the maitre d’s to the busboys knew it.
“Enjoy your lunch.” Bernie pulled back her chair and rushed away before she could even sit down.
Frowning at his sudden loss of decorum, Colleen took her seat. “I wonder what put a burr under his saddle.” She glanced across the table to admonish Zach for not acknowledging her arrival just as the large menu blocking him from view lowered.
Helen sat in the opposite chair.
“You!” Helen gasped. “What are you doing here?”
“I beg your pardon,” Colleen replied in a stage whisper, glancing first left, then right to make sure no one had heard the outburst. “This is my table.”
Fury streaked across Helen’s face. “I don’t see your name on it, you pompous—”
“Don’t you dare make a scene,” Colleen cut her off, in the calmest voice she could muster. “My son asked me to have lunch with him here. This is my table.”
“Beth asked me to meet her here for lunch,” Helen countered. “And this is the table I was shown to.”
Colleen’s gaze narrowed. So, this was the way of it. “I smell a rat,” she muttered more to herself than to her reluctant luncheon companion.
Realization appeared to dawn on Helen at that moment as well. “They wouldn’t,” she said in disbelief.
“Excuse me, Mrs. Ashton,” a waiter interrupted. “Mr. Ashton asked me to give you this.”
Colleen accepted the envelope and thanked the waiter. She looked first at Helen, then at her own name scrawled across the pristine white envelope in Zach’s bold handwriting. She couldn’t believe her own son would set her up this way.
“Read it,” Helen urged, clearly impatient to be on her way.
Ignoring the sting to her feelings that accompanied her friend’s tone, Colleen opened the envelope and quickly read the short note, her suspicions confirmed.
“Out loud,” Helen snapped.
Colleen made a resigned sound and obeyed. “Mother, this is for your own good. Make up with Helen. We’ll be watching. Love, Zach.”
Silence reigned supreme for three long beats. Colleen refolded the note and laid it aside. This had gone too far. Why couldn’t Helen see that she was wrong? Why couldn’t things go back to the way they used to be?
“This mess we’ve made is beginning to affect them,” Helen said tightly. “We can’t go on this way.”
Colleen’s gaze snapped to hers. “Did you think they wouldn’t notice? You must admit that you’ve been rather open with the whole mess.”
Helen’s lips tightened into a thin line.
Colleen sighed wearily. “I’m too old for this. If our friendship has ever meant anything to you, why can’t you just leave it alone?”
Helen started to rise from her chair. “We have nothing to talk about.”
Heads would be turning their way any second. Colleen snagged her by the arm. “Don’t you dare walk out on me here. Sit down and have lunch. It’s on me.”
“I don’t want lunch,” Helen said crisply.
“We have to talk about the children,” Colleen offered quickly, in hopes of defusing the situation.
Wariness slipping into her expression, Helen resumed her seat. “What about the children?”
Relief sped through Colleen’s veins. While she didn’t want Helen to make a scene in Pearle’s, of all places, more than that, Colleen didn’t want this standoff to continue. She wanted Helen to see things her way.
“Are you ladies ready?” The waiter paused at their table once more.
“Let’s order,” Colleen suggested, “and then we’ll talk.”
After their selections were placed, Helen’s grudgingly, the waiter scurried away with a promise to bring their drinks.
“I’m waiting,” Helen insisted.
“They must have plotted this little tactic last night,” Colleen began, glancing around. “According to Zach’s note, they’re in here somewhere watching us.”
“What makes you think they planned this last night?” Helen countered. “Other than a short walk, Beth was at home all evening.”
“I saw them,” Colleen told her, a knowing quality in her voice. She also knew what she’d seen.
Helen’s brow creased. “Where?”
“Out by the swing.”
“How do you know they were talking about us?”
Colleen exhaled her impatience. “Because my son asked me to lunch immediately after he came inside.”
“That—” Helen snapped her mouth shut while the waiter deposited their drinks before them. As soon as he’d ensured they required nothing else of him at the moment he walked away. Helen continued, “That should tell you something. Our kids are worried. This has gone too far. We have to do the right thing.”
Irritation filled Colleen with tension. “I have not and will not change my mind. We’ve had this discussion already. There is absolutely nothing to be gained by rehashing it.”
“You’re wrong, Colleen,” Helen said tiredly. “You’re making a mistake. We can’t keep this secret any longer. It’s bigger than we are. When the kids were small it didn’t matter, but now they’re adults. We can’t pretend it never happened.”
A mixture of dread and fear crept into Colleen’s bones, making her already faulty heart ache. “We can and we will. I will not spend my final days on this earth with my son thinking any differently about me than he does now.”
“We were wrong then, we’re wrong now,” Helen said simply. “We have to make this right.”
“Never, do you hear me, Helen McCormick?” Colleen warned. “I won’t allow it.” A new thought occurred to her. “Besides, there’s another side to this situation now.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think Zach and Beth are…involved,” she offered for lack of a better term.
Helen looked taken aback. The exact same reaction Colleen’d had last night.
“Why would you think that? They’ve been friends—brother and sister practically—all their lives.”
“Be that as it may,” Colleen countered. “I know what I saw. And there was absolutely nothing brotherly about the way my son kissed your daughter last night.”
Helen’s eyes rounded. “Zach kissed Beth?”
“Well, Beth started it. She kissed him first.”
“No,” Helen denied, a strange look claimed her features, not quite approval, but not quite disapproval.
Colleen sipped her tea in an effort to appear unaffected. “It was a rather stimulating sight. They looked good together.”
Helen frowned. “I guess I thought that would never happen.”
“With Zach’s ambitious drive, I was beginning to wonder if he’d ever settle down.”
“We may be reading too much into this,” Helen tossed out. “It might just be a passing fancy. You know the ink on Beth’s divorce is barely dry.”
“But you said yourself she admitted the marriage had been over for years, so it’s not like she’s on the rebound,” Colleen argued.
“And you said,” Helen returned, “that Zach went through women—not that I’m speaking ill of him, mind you—like he went through legal briefs, thoroughly but quickly.”
Colleen inclined her head in a semblance of a shrug. “It’s true. That sweet little receptionist at the Colby Agency, Amy Wells, keeps me informed. He never dates the same woman more than three times.”
“Well, he is a very handsome and charming man,” Helen admitted. “And busy. I’m sure it’s difficult to hold his interest.”
“I doubt that’s the problem at all,” Colleen defended. “I think he has secretly always wanted Beth and that no other woman has ever measured up.”
Worry flickered in Helen’s eyes. “You don’t think he’d date Beth three times and then just…”
Colleen shook her head adamantly. “I don’t believe he would ever hurt Beth. I won’t believe it.” She cocked an eyebrow. “If he did there’d be hell to pay, let me tell you.”
“They’re both adults, it’s out of our hands anyway.”
“I swear, Helen, you’re such a fuddy-duddy. There are things we can do to help them along. I kept her marital woes from Zach just like you asked me, but you should have seen the look on his face the other day when I told him that Beth had left her husband months ago. Besides, it’s not like matching the two has never crossed our minds before.”
“That was just talk, and it was a long time ago. Things change.” She pressed Colleen with a pointed look. “People change.”
“You’re not going to change my mind,” Colleen said, her words final. “Considering this new development I’d think you wouldn’t want to risk upsetting the apple cart. Imagine how Beth would feel if she found out the truth? Everything she believes about hers and Zach’s relationship would come into question.”
Colleen experienced another trickle of relief. She’d gotten through with that one. Helen’s adamant expression faltered. Thank Heaven. Maybe now Helen would see things her way.
“I still believe that carrying on with this secret is a mistake,” Helen said finally, but her tone didn’t sound nearly as convinced.
“But,” Colleen interjected, “are you willing to risk your daughter’s heart?”
The silence that followed proved telling.
“AT LEAST they’re talking,” Beth murmured as she peered toward the mezzanine. From where she and Zach stood in the bar they could see the two perfectly, but their mothers couldn’t see them.
“It was a little tense for a moment there,” Zach commented. “But I knew Mother would never allow a scene in this ritzy joint. She knows that anything she says and does here will end up in the county paper, not to mention be the talk of the town for months to come.”
Beth nodded her agreement. She tried to ignore that he stood so close. She could practically feel his husky voice rumble from his chest. He’d moved up behind her to watch the exchange between their mothers and Beth had struggled to manage even a shallow breath. Having him so close—knowing he knew what she wanted—made her giddy.
Her body heated instantly at the memory of last night’s encounter by the oak. All she had to do was close her eyes and she could imagine all over again the feel of his hard body pressed against hers so intimately. His kiss made her want to weep for more. Zach Ashton had definitely mastered the art of kissing. A renewed wave of need washed over her, making her want to lean against him now.
Could she really do this and remain detached emotionally? Every fiber of her being cried out for him…on more than a mere physical level. The notion that she might not be able to keep this just physical, scared her. But not enough so to deter her. She’d made up her mind. She was going to have Zach. If it was a mistake, then so be it. She would not back out now.
He’d known she would have second thoughts. That’s why he’d told her if she changed her mind it would be okay with him. She was a good girl. He expected her to back out.
A jolt of fury pumped up her resolve. She would go through with it all right. Nothing would stop her. Not even Zach.
“So.” He braced his hands on the bar on either side of her and leaned in even closer, his lips only a whisper from her cheek. “Have you had time to think about us?”
Beth couldn’t prevent a shiver at the feel of his breath on her skin. His body touched hers now, only the slightest pressure, but the contact was complete from shoulder to thigh. The subtle friction between his silk trousers and shirt and her cotton blouse and skirt made her want to strip off right there and climb inside all that designer silk to feel his naked skin against hers.
“You started this. Now you’re going to have to finish it,” he murmured huskily.
One arm slid around her waist, his palm flattened on her abdomen and anchored her more fully to him. Beth almost moaned
at the pleasure cascading over her. Just like last night, she felt on fire. Would making love with him be this powerful? How would she ever tolerate the intensity?
It was now or never. He was waiting for her answer.
Her pager chirped, startling her. “I have to get that,” she mumbled, her voice thick with the slow burn of lust.
Zach eased away from her, but only far enough so that she could dig around in her purse. He had no intention of releasing her from his sensual hold just yet.
Beth checked the display of her pager and almost felt relieved. “I have to get back to the hospital. Sorry,” she offered with feigned contrition as she turned to look up at him. Reality had just crashed in on her and she was definitely suffering from cold feet. Those analyzing blue eyes didn’t help. She’d seriously underestimated Zach’s power over her. She would never in a million years be able to make love with him and simply walk away as if it had never happened. And she had a bad feeling that their coming together would not alleviate in any way her obsession with him. She was sunk.
He smiled. One of those true Ashton charmers. Her heart reacted. “Give me an answer and I’ll let you be on your way,” he teased gently.
But if the look in his eyes was any indication, he wasn’t teasing at all. He wanted an answer. Now. She shouldn’t do this. But she couldn’t back out. That’s what he expected her to do. She didn’t want to be just the good little girl next door anymore. She thought about the tattoo parlor and how she’d vowed that she was going to change her image where Zach was concerned.
“Tomorrow night,” she blurted, then composed herself and added, “I’m not on call tomorrow night. How about we get together then?” She gestured toward the mezzanine where their mothers were, from all appearances, enjoying a leisurely lunch. “They have their weekly card game, so there won’t be anyone around to interrupt.”
He looked thoughtful. “You think they’ll go under the circumstances?”
Beth managed a smile at that question. “Are you kidding? They haven’t missed a card game in over ten years. I’m not sure even an act of God would keep them away from the game. Last week your mother beat the pants off the mayor’s wife. My mother raved about it for days. They won’t miss it.”
