by Nikki Duvall
J.D. dropped his gaze and watched while her fingers entered forbidden territory. He groaned. “Halee…”
“You just keep your mind down here,” she murmured, stroking his hard shaft.
He let his head fall back. “Halee…”
He covered her hand with his, guiding her, teaching her. She watched him, felt the tension rising in her own body, resisting the urge to take him in her mouth and fulfill her own fantasies. In another minute he’d turned to granite. His breathing became erratic.
“Ahh, that’s better,” said Halee, removing her hand and backing away. “All warmed up. Better hit the shower.”
“Where are you going?” J.D. gasped.
“Now, J.D., you wouldn’t want to get too close, would you? If you get used to me, I might never leave.”
She headed to the shower wearing a satisfied smile.
***
“This is a nice place,” said Sanchez, peering closer to the inscriptions on the line of trophies gracing J.D.’s walls. “You know Derek Jeter?”
“Met him once or twice,” said J.D., keeping his eyes on Halee. She was wearing a sleeveless sundress and a satisfied smirk. He wanted to remove them both.
“How long you play baseball?”
“Long as I can remember.”
Halee winked at J.D. and moved to join Ty on the floor. She leaned over, lingering long enough to torture her frustrated lover. By the time J.D. had reached Halee on the way to the shower, Ty had been up and ready for the day, leaving J.D. in an unsatisfied sexual stupor. The sooner Sanchez left, the better. He’d put Ty down for a nap and finish what got started.
He maintained a predator stare on Halee. “You got some paperwork with you, Mr. Sanchez?”
Sanchez wrenched himself away from the wall and approached his briefcase, drawing a thick folder from the middle pocket. “I will need your identification.”
J.D. reached into his painfully tight jeans and extracted a wallet, handing over his driver’s license to Sanchez.
“Oklahoma. First one I seen,” said Sanchez. “You got an Illinois i.d.?”
“Nope.”
Sanchez hesitated.
“That a problem?”
“You need to be resident of this state to adopt here.”
“I’m a resident,” said Halee. “I’m adopting, not Mr. Shaw.”
“Not the two of you?”
Halee connected gazes with J.D. “How about we start the paperwork with my information and add my fiancé later?”
Sanchez shrugged. He drew a pen from his briefcase and began to write.
“You want newborn or older child?”
“I already answered all those questions at the adoption agency,” said Halee.
“New house, new paperwork,” said Sanchez.
“I thought you came for a home inspection so I could adopt Ty.”
“You are only temporary foster parent for Ty. Until we find the mother.”
“But I can keep him till then?”
“You have income?”
Halee hesitated. She’d quit her job at the Foundation just a few days ago to move to New York and better her chances at qualifying for adoption. But now she had a baby and no job. Everything was mixed up.
“I work for my uncle at his restaurant,” she hedged.
“What is your salary there?”
“Depends,” said Halee softly. “Depends how much business we get.”
“Sorry. Depends don’t qualify you,” said Sanchez. He shoved the stack of paperwork back into his briefcase and reached for his raincoat. “I’ll send someone by to pick up the child.”
“I took a job in New York,” Halee blurted. She glanced warily at J.D.’s shocked expression and rose from the carpet. “With Federals Charities. Six figures,” she said, holding her chin higher.
“In Chicago?”
“In New York.”
Sanchez shook his head. “You don’t take baby out of Chicago.”
“But I have the means to support him. His mother left me a note giving me custody. I have legal custody.”
“Baby stays here.”
“Look,” cried Halee, “I’m tired of your ridiculous red tape. This child loves me, I’m willing to care for him, and I can do it!”
J.D. rose from the sofa and stretched his six foot four frame, indicating he’d had enough. Pulling his cell phone from his front pocket, he moved to the kitchen and dialed a number while Halee and Sanchez continued to argue. “Dale,” he said, “I need a favor. Can you stop by?” He nodded and replaced the phone to his jeans pocket.
Ten minutes later a trim man dressed in linen slacks and a black silk shirt stood beside J.D. making phone calls and typing on a laptop. “Judge will have an order by the end of the day,” he said to Sanchez. “The baby can leave the state.”
***
Halee listened while J.D. shut the door behind Sanchez and his lawyer friend. There had been an uneasy tension in the room since she’d blurted out her intentions to move to New York. That, coupled with the sexual tension left over from this morning, had her jumpy and braced for battle.
It didn’t take J.D. long to engage.
“Just when did you think you would tell me about your new job?” he demanded.
“Don’t attack me! New York is a big city, J.D. You don’t own it.”
His dark eyes narrowed. “When did you know about this?”
“What do you mean?”
“When did you and Victoria Pryor dream this one up?”
“Dream what up? Victoria asked me to take this job the morning after the Literacy Foundation gala,” said Halee. “If that’s any of your business.”
“Did she know about us?”
“What us? There is no us.”
“I’m wagering Victoria Pryor thinks there is.”
“This has nothing to do with you, J.D. Victoria wants to open a literacy office under Federals Charities. She asked me to run it.”
“She’s up to something.”
Halee snorted. “What would she be up to?”
“She and King are in cahoots.”
“You’re not making sense.”
“They want us together. They’re setting us up.”
“Are you saying I got this job as part of some mysterious plot between Victoria Pryor and Tony King?”
“Why else would Victoria hire you?”
“Huh!” Halee squared her shoulders. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Yes, it is. You think I’m some stupid bimbo like every other girl you’re ever dated. I might have been stupid enough to sleep with you, but I have plenty of brainpower, thank you very much.”
“I don’t want you in New York.”
Halee stepped back as if she’d taken a blow to the chest. “I think we’re done playing this game,” she said in a low voice, avoiding his eyes. She removed the ring and placed it tentatively on the glass coffee table between them. “I’ll call a cab.”
She pulled Ty into her arms and retreated to the back bedroom. Her throat tightened as she calmly folded her clothes and laid them on the bottom of her tired old suitcase. There was no way she would cry in front of him. What he’d wanted to say, he’d said. She’d understood him perfectly.
She could hear him at the dishes again. He turned on the radio and cranked it up loud enough to cause brain damage.
She shut the door, hoping to keep the noise at bay long enough to finish packing. Ty began to fidget and fuss, then broke into a full cry. She marched back out to the kitchen.
“There’s a baby in this house,” she said, hands on hips. She felt the color rising through her neck, felt the indignation boiling in her blood. “You can turn this place back into a bachelor pad soon enough. Until then you’re making him crazy.”
“You mean making you crazy?”
“Oh, now you’re calling me crazy?”
“Bat shit insane is more like it.”
Halee gasped.
“What do you think you’re gonna gain by following me to New York, Halee? Do you think I’m gonna marry you?”
A mixture of shame and regret burned from her chest into her throat. She pushed back the swell of emotion threatening to crumble her will to fight and replaced it with a wicked, consuming rage. Her words came out hot and razor sharp. “Is that what you’re afraid of?” she sneered. “That I’ll wreck your playboy image and none of your sleazy fans will want to buy your jerseys anymore? I promise you, J.D., I wouldn’t dare improve your life like that.”
She measured her steps back to the bedroom, careful to appear in control. Then she shoved the last remaining items into her suitcase, perched Ty on one hip, and strode back out past the kitchen, slamming the door behind her.
~TWELVE~
“Victoria Pryor, meet Catrina Hiett.”
“The fiancé,” Victoria noted, sizing up Cat’s three inch platform heels and gold toe rings. Cat’s red skirt ended at mid-thigh, revealing a generous length of shapely tanned legs. Her matching jacket barely buttoned across her ample chest. Victoria leaned back against the leather seat of the limousine and began to dial her cell phone, ignoring the young blonde across from her.
“I have that dress,” said Cat with a mean squint to her blue eyes. “Size smaller.”
“And so it begins,” mumbled J.D. He stared out at the Chicago skyline and wondered why his heart tugged at the thought of leaving this city. All he’d wanted to do since he got here was get back out. There had been a few exceptions to that rule, of course. The first two weeks after he’d met Halee, and surprisingly, the one night she’d spent in the penthouse with Ty. Every time Halee walked out, his life took a turn for the worse. Today marked the next chapter in that book of misfortune.
Cat took J.D.’s hand in hers and turned the union toward her to admire the two carat diamond now perched on her finger. Somehow the gaudy bauble looked pretentious on Cat’s hand, thought J.D. Alongside the manicured red claws ready to scratch out Victoria’s eyes.
“How long to the airport?” Cat whined in her west Texas accent.
Victoria peered over her reading glasses. “However long, I’m sure you have the time.”
Cat narrowed her eyes, sensing she’d been insulted. “Which apartment do J.D. and I get? Does it have a pool? I need a pool.”
“Tell your fiancé I don’t deal with such things,” said Victoria to J.D. with a sigh. “She can call my business manager.”
“Halee McCarthy?”
Cat fixed a piercing stare on J.D. at the mention of her rival.
“Heavens, no,” said Victoria, looking amused. “Didn’t Halee tell you? She’s starting a new arm of Federals Charities. She’s one of my top executives. Best thing I’ve done in a long time. Such a talented young woman. You’ll be seeing quite a bit of each other,” Victoria continued. “She and the child will be living in the opposite building from you and…” Victoria motioned toward Cat, who was flipping through a tabloid magazine.
“That’s not gonna work,” said J.D.
Victoria gazed out of her window with a tired expression. “Make it work.”
They pulled off the interstate and took the airport exit toward a far hangar where a line of private jets sat waiting. Cat peered eagerly out the window like a kid at Disneyland.
“Which one is ours?”
Victoria rolled her eyes. The limo pulled up next to an unmarked white jet and an attendant ran out onto the tarmac, hurrying to open the car door. Cat climbed out ahead of Victoria, practically knocking her back into her seat.
Victoria glared at J.D. “Stupid boy,” she hissed. She climbed out next, refusing the attendant’s hand. “We’re waiting for two more passengers,” she said, never making eye contact.
“Yes, Ma’am.”
J.D. emerged last and traded nods with the attendant. The attendant turned toward Cat and surveyed her skimpy outfit with approval. His face brightened. “May I help you with your luggage, Ma’am?”
“Over there.” Cat pointed to the twelve matching pieces of luggage piled by the limousine’s trunk. The attendant furrowed his brow, took a deep breath, and got busy.
J.D. stretched and rubbed his sore shoulder. He did a light jog the length of the tarmac, as far as he could get from Catrina’s chatter. One hour into the trip to New York and she was already on his last nerve. Every other nerve had been used up in his fight with Halee. How did that woman get so deep under his skin? He could sleep with thirty different women in a month and walk away without a hint of regret. But just one cross word from her, and his mind stayed jacked up and jumbled for days on end. He couldn’t afford this kind of distraction. The Federals had their pick of the litter. He’d simply been in the right place at the right time. This one chance was all he’d ever get.
He reached down to touch the ground, stretching his hamstrings, when a shorter version of Victoria Pryor’s limo roared past him and slammed to a halt just in front of the Federals’ jet. The door opened and a set of long bare legs appeared, the same legs that had given him night sweats and made him call in sick to practice.
What the hell?
The rest of Halee appeared, fresh from the salon, all shined up and ready for the big city. Her nails were pink, her toes were pink, and her short pink skirt alternated between layers of white lace and cotton ruffles. At the top of the skirt, a tight band of white had J.D.’s painful attention.
She reached back into the limo. Every man on the tarmac watched her skirt and held his breath. J.D. came up behind her.
Ty gurgled a hello when he saw J.D. and catapulted his compact body toward the big guy’s arms. J.D. caught him and slung him like a gun onto his hip. “Let me guess. You’re riding along.”
Halee smiled behind her sunglasses. “I feel like a princess.”
“Great,” mumbled J.D. “Three princesses on one airplane.” He tickled Ty’s little belly. “You and I need to stick together, little man.”
Ty shrieked his agreement.
The attendant waited for directions while his eyes roamed every inch of Halee’s body. “Oh,” she said in an absent minded way, “I only have one bag. Oh, and the car seat. And this painting. Thanks,” she said, fumbling in her handbag for a tip.
J.D. whipped out a ten dollar bill and handed it to the attendant. “What happened to all your things?”
“I never really had much,” she said, as if it didn’t matter. “Nothing I can wear at this job, anyway. I’ll have to buy some things when I get my first paycheck.”
“What about food?”
“Uncle Gus floated me a loan. We’ll be fine.”
“About the other day,” said J.D., feeling guiltier by the minute.
Halee held up her hand. “I promise I’ll stay out of your way, J.D. I appreciate you not making trouble. This is a really big opportunity for me. For us,” she said, tickling Ty’s toes.
The sound of an argument floated across the tarmac. J.D. looked up to see Cat and Victoria going ten rounds. “Better get this show on the road,” he said, “before we both lose our contracts.”
The jet ride was tense for the first hour, Cat sizing up Halee with a look of a viper intent on her prey. She might as well have hissed. Instead she painted on a fake smile and simply stared. Victoria engaged in conversation with Halee as if they were old friends and disregarded any comment from Cat.
Halee seemed oblivious to the blonde planning her death from across the aisle. She was completely wrapped up in Ty. Every coo, every squeal that emanated from the little boy might as well have come from her. She held his chubby little hands and told him about the clouds, described the farm fields below and the green rolling hills. J.D. sat captivated by her tenderness, silently wishing things were different.
The child fell asleep against Halee’s shoulder.
“Want me to lay him on the back bed?” asked J.D.
“No thanks,” she whispered, gazing onto Ty’s tranquil face. “This is my favorite time.”
J.D.�
�s heart squeezed tight in his chest. “Have they heard from his mother yet?”
Halee’s face grew serious. “No word,” she said. “She might as well have fallen off the face of the earth. I like Chantrell. I hope she’s safe.”
J.D. nodded. “Well, he’s in good hands, anyway.”
Halee smiled such a genuine smile that he just wanted to grab her and kiss her right there.
“Thanks, J.D.,” she said. ‘That means a lot.”
“While I have you two together,” said Victoria, plopping into the seat beside Halee, “let’s do a little planning. I have the perfect idea for a party. I’m making it your first assignment.”
“Party?” Cat looked up from her tabloid.
“This one will be held at the Waldorf,” said Victoria.
Halee nodded.
“Count on three hundred guests. We’ll need lots of hors d’oeuvres, a champagne fountain, a band…”
“What’s the occasion?”
“The engagement of Catrina Hiett to Jonathan Dillon Shaw.”
Cat erupted into chatter. J.D. felt the weight of the world crash onto his shoulders. He studied Halee’s face, searching for a hint of emotion. She kept her eyes on her lap, scribbling notes as Victoria dictated the details.
“It will be the perfect event to introduce you to the press, J.D.,” said Victoria. “Once New York gets a taste of your parties, Halee, they’ll be dying to come to every literacy charity fundraiser you decide to put on. It’s a double win for the organization.”
“Are you sure she’s got the right taste to arrange our party?” asked Cat, sidling over to J.D.’s side. She perched her perfect bottom on J.D.’s armrest and played with the skin along his neck. “I mean, that outfit’s pretty Wal-Mart.”
“Target,” said Halee cheerfully. “Their clothes are pretty nice, really. You should try them sometime. Save you a lot of money.”
Cat sneered. “I don’t want Target at my engagement party.”
“Of course not,” said Halee brightly. “Only the best for you two.”
J.D. thought he detected a tear at the corner of Halee’s eye.
