by Tina Leonard
She gasped, feeling flames of desire light within her. Fast-burning tinder caught fire in her nerve endings and streaked to her feminine core. “Sam,” she said weakly. She wrapped her fingers in his hair. “You’re beyond important,” she added desperately as he kissed down her stomach, squeezing her buttocks with his hands. “You’re everything to me,” she cried, as he parted her with his tongue, claiming her with a fiery slickness she craved.
He licked and laved her, pushing in so that nothing escaped him, before withdrawing lightly to tease her sensitive pearl. Maddie shivered, her heart thundering, her soul on fire. It was happening fast, and faster still, as his attention brought her to a peak on which she balanced treacherously. He sensed her need for release and plunged his tongue deeper, drawing an agonized moan from her. Just when she thought she might scream from the pressure building inside her, he pressed her buttocks together, rapidly sliding in and out with his tongue, finally flicking the tip of her diamond-hard passion. She cried out his name as she climaxed, and he rose, impaling her so swiftly that she barely felt the emptiness before he filled her again.
Rocking back toward the bed, they fell onto it, mindless with desire to be one with each other. They came together in heart-stopping, desperate thrusts, reaching for the one thing they both wanted. And when they found it, they clung to each other as the waves rolled over them, bringing them to shore.
Their marriage.
It doesn’t have to be just a memory, Maddie told herself as she held Sam to her pounding heart.
It could be forever.
“You have to go,” she whispered in his ear as he lay over her, their bodies entwined on the wide bed.
“I don’t want to leave you. Come with me.”
“The babies…” she reminded him worriedly.
“Will be better off if we’re together.”
Her eyes widened. He had a point.
“You scared the hell out of me with that tale about your parents. We’ve already had one separation, and it was too damned long for me. Come with me.”
“It seems selfish to Henry and Hayden.”
“Support me,” he told her.
“I do,” she replied. “Book the flight.”
IN THE END, Maddie knew she had to be with Sam. If they were ever going to learn to lean on each other, it would be better to be with him. The babies were too young to travel, she thought, so she would leave them with four doting grandparents.
It was one of the hardest things she’d ever done.
But her time with Sam had taught her something: she’d focused on the process of having children, and not the goal of building a life with her husband.
She wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. She had to love him better, more completely. She couldn’t control her body’s timetable for having children, but she was in control of her own decisions.
And her decision was to reprioritize.
She needed to make her marriage work. Consequently, if Sam wanted her, she would be at his side.
“I know you’ll be busy, but please check on Joey,” Franny pleaded as they boarded the plane. “Try to make him see sense.”
Maddie smiled and shook her head as she tucked her hand into Sam’s. Joey’s life was his own. She would not try to influence him under any circumstances.
THE FIRST DAY they were in France, Sam and Maddie toured the vineyards. Martin and Vivi were delighted to see them. They gave them the royal treatment. Maddie began to feel guilty for their underlying, secret reason for being in France. She chatted with them over chilled wine, under an umbrella positioned in the valley, while Sam returned to the office, ostensibly to introduce himself to the employees. The truth was, he was going to examine some of the figures Jardin was inputting. He had also decided he would probably hire an auditor. There was a lot for him to do, and Maddie was nervous. It was difficult to keep a smile on her face when Martin and Vivi seemed so anxious to please her. If they were hiding something, she would never have known it.
She felt guilty until the second day, when Joey met her and Sam at a café for lunch. He brought his girlfriend, who was named Sasha.
Sasha didn’t shave her underarms. Maddie swallowed, telling herself it was nothing unusual and that it wasn’t up to her to do anything but like her brother’s friend.
Sasha had a belly-button ring that glinted silver below the hem of her spaghetti-strap tank top. Maddie told herself it was fashionable, and so was the one in Sasha’s tongue. She steeled herself and made herself eat the wonderfully prepared fish-and-pasta dish.
When Sasha lit a cigarette, Joey joined her. Maddie was shocked, because her brother was an avowed fitness nut. Sam grabbed her hand under the table, squeezing it, perhaps so she wouldn’t say anything.
Maddie had no intention of saying a word. It was none of her business.
“I think college is so blasé,” Sasha said. “I can’t imagine what anyone can learn from stodgy, imagination-impaired professors that they can’t learn in other, more stimulating ways.” She pressed up against Joey’s arm as she uttered this comment, her breasts straddling his large biceps.
Maddie swallowed. At that moment, something began moving up her leg. Her eyebrows raising, she realized it was Sasha’s foot, inadvertently brushing her instead of Joey under the small table. Maddie gulped, sliding closer to Sam. Sasha realized her mistake, but instead of appearing shamefaced, merely gave her a daring smile.
Maddie wanted to pour pepper in the girl’s hair, but Sam had her by the wrist now, reminding her to remain calm.
She was desperate to do so. “It was lovely to meet you,” she said, gritting her teeth.
“We’ll be sisters one day,” Sasha told her. “Won’t it be great?”
“Great,” Maddie agreed.
“We can smoke a little—”
“Later,” Joey interrupted.
“But I was going to invite your sister to—”
He dragged her off. Maddie heard him say grimly, “My sister doesn’t even smoke cigarettes. She wouldn’t touch weed or anything like that. And she’s just had twins.”
“I thought she seemed uptight,” Sasha said, the words barely floating back.
Maddie whirled. “Has my brother lost his mind?”
Sam chuckled, taking her firmly by the arm. “Remember what you said. It’s not your business. If she’s what Joey wants—”
“But—”
“But nothing,” Sam said firmly. “We’re going to stick to our family. Our marriage. Our babies. What Joey wants is Joey’s choice.”
Maddie relaxed slightly as Sam put his arm around her. “I thought she’d be beautiful,” she said piteously. “I wanted my baby brother to have the most wonderful woman in the world.”
“I know,” Sam told her. “Remember, we have a long history of this in our family.”
Maddie shook her head. “She’s not right for him!”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s his scholarship, his love life.”
“I know you’re right, but it makes me sad.”
He turned her to him, kissing her until she was breathless. “Tell me again about your new goal.”
“I’m concentrating on nothing but you,” she said, her mind turning from Joey’s gypsy girlfriend to Sam. “I’m in France, and alone with my husband.” She took a deep breath as the teasing kiss turned into something a great deal warmer. Hotter. “In fact, I view this as a second honeymoon. We needed a second honeymoon, Sam.”
“You’d better believe it.” He tugged her hand, pulling her quickly in the direction of a cab. “Second honeymoons call for special celebration.”
They slid into a cab. Sam gave the address of his apartment, while he ran a searching hand up Maddie’s leg. She put her head on his shoulder, barely able to wait until they reached their destination.
“I have something for you,” he said when they got out. “It’s special. We need to commemorate our honeymoon.”
She could feel herself glowing with happiness. “I ne
ver thought I’d be here with you, so I don’t really need anything to remember this time by. I’ll never forget any of it.”
“Still, I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least attempt it.”
They reached the stairs, hurrying up them. Sam opened the door, and they practically fell inside, rushing to be with each other.
Suddenly, they realized a voice was speaking.
“The answering machine,” Sam said. “It’s Martin.” He jerked the phone off the receiver. “Hello?”
Maddie kicked off her heels. She glanced at Sam, whose face had turned serious. “I see,” he said. “What course of action is open to us?”
After a few more moments of listening, Sam hung up. He closed his eyes for a second. Maddie’s heart fell into her stomach. “What is it?”
“It appears that, bumbling as they may be, our parents were correct.”
He sank into a chair. “The Jardin books were being cooked, by Vivi’s brother, Jean-Luc. He’s just left the country with several million dollars of our money.”
Chapter Nineteen
It wasn’t the money that worried Maddie. She was petrified Sam would have another attack of angina—only this one might escalate into a full-blown heart attack.
Her husband was a wreck. Facing financial ruin kept him on edge as he sorted through his options with Martin. His dream of owning his own company was gone. He became quiet and short-tempered with her.
She had to get back to her babies. The week was up and she couldn’t leave them longer than that.
Yet she hated leaving Sam alone in France. He needed her, even if he didn’t realize it. Even if he’d shut her out so completely she felt like there was a door between them.
Whatever magic had existed for the past weeks was gone like a puff of smoke.
When Sam put her on the plane for Texas, it was all she could do not to beg him to return with her. “Sam, I love you,” she told him, her words desperate as she tried to bridge this new wall between them.
But he merely smiled sadly at her. “Take good care of the boys,” he said.
The flight attendant ushered her into the plane. Sam waved once and then she couldn’t see him anymore over the people who boarded after her.
It might take him months to recover the losses he’d suffered at Jardin. There was no way he could give in without losing a ton of money. People were counting on him to keep the company open.
He’d had a dream, and she wanted him to have what he’d worked so hard for. She forced the tears back, and the ones that wouldn’t obey her she dried with a ragged tissue.
“Did you see Joey?” her mother asked when the family met her at the plane.
Maddie burst into tears, silently reaching for her babies.
The grandparents stared at each other, astounded. All she and Sam had told them was that he needed to stay in France for business.
“We were right, weren’t we?” Severn asked.
She nodded at her father-in-law. “Vivi’s brother.”
“Thank heavens it wasn’t Martin. I don’t think Sam could have borne that,” Franny said. “I don’t like being right, but I sure am glad it wasn’t Martin.”
“I suppose that’s the best way to look at it.” Maddie shuddered and sniffled.
“It’ll all turn out,” her father said comfortingly. “Why, Sammy’s got the world by the tail, hon. You just wait and see.”
Maddie wasn’t so sure. Sam had looked pretty broken to her, but maybe she’d just seen him through the mirror of her own pain. She knew how badly losing a dream could hurt the soul.
She would have given anything for Sam not to have suffered. And he was alone, something they had both vowed they wouldn’t put up with again.
A strange tremor passed through her as she realized that once again they were separated, at a traumatic time when they should be standing side by side.
Whether on a dusty cotton farm or in loamy vineyards, people who loved each other should support each other. For better or worse.
But they weren’t.
And he hadn’t seemed to want to.
TIREDLY, Sam opened the door late one night after an unexpected shock. With some surprise, he gazed out at his brother-in-law. “Hey, Joey. Come on in.”
Joey walked in, his beefy face somewhat sheepish.
“Where’s Sasha?” Sam asked without thinking.
“That’s what I want to talk to you about,” Joey admitted, his blush deeper than some wine grapes Sam had seen.
He sighed inwardly, not wanting to have a lovelorn conversation with his brother-in-law. “All right,” he said slowly. “Can I get you a beer?”
“No, thanks.” Joey perched nervously on the edge of a leather sofa.
Sam tried not to think about the wonderful loving he and Maddie had shared on the sofa, and on the floor beside it. He missed her. But right now she didn’t need to be around him while he was foul tempered and in dire straits with Jardin. Sometimes his panic was so strong he could taste it.
“Sasha’s pregnant,” Joey said.
Heat burst inside Sam’s chest. It started out as a rosy flame, then licked into an intense inferno. He reached for a glass of milk and an antacid. “How can I help you?”
“I don’t know,” the brawny football player said. Then he burst into great, racking sobs. “All I could think to do was come to you. I always talk to Maddie about stuff. But I can’t talk to her about this.”
Sam frowned. “Why not?”
“Well, you know.” Joey wiped at his face. “I don’t want to upset her. I’m having a baby. She can’t have any more. I just think it wouldn’t be fair to involve Maddie in my problem. She’s real sensitive about pregnancy.”
Sam closed his eyes for a moment as he thought about Maddie. “I’m pretty sure your sister wouldn’t be traumatized by this. She’d want to help you. Truthfully, it’d probably be better for you to talk to her about this than me.”
Joey rubbed his palms over his jeans. “I’ve never been this scared.”
“Having a baby is unsettling. Being a parent is overwhelming.”
“I’m not ready,” Joey said desperately.
Sam remembered that same attack of fear as if it had been yesterday. He hadn’t believed he’d be a good father. When Joey had called him, his whole world had changed, like shifting colors in a kaleidoscope.
But he’d been so damn grateful for the miracle.
“Give yourself some time to get used to the idea,” he said.
“I can’t. Sasha wants to get married. I know that’s the right thing to do,” Joey said, his voice jagged with distress, “but I’m having second thoughts.”
“I see.” Sam leaned back in a recliner, realizing the ache in his chest was subsiding. “Sasha didn’t exactly strike me as the conventional type.”
“She’s not. But she says money has a way of changing her mind about life’s crass commercialism.”
Sam cracked open a beer, focusing on Joey’s babbling. “What money?”
“I’m not exactly sure. Mine, I guess.”
“I wasn’t aware you had any,” Sam said carefully.
“I don’t, really. Maybe she meant my football scholarship.”
“But she doesn’t approve of college.”
Joey scratched his head. “I guess after college there might be pro football. If I got picked up in the draft.”
“Seems like there’s something missing in your relationship, Joey. Like there’s a major miscommunication.”
“I know.” Joey put his head in his hands. “I don’t think Maddie liked Sasha, and that’s when I decided I was just dating her to defy Mom and Dad. It was fun at first, because Sasha’s out of the ordinary, and our family has always been pretty regular. Mom and Dad can make you crazy with their nosiness, but other than that, they’re definitely not Mr. and Mrs. Excitement.”
“And Sasha is?”
“Definitely. But then, I could tell Maddie was practically tying her tongue in knots to keep from giving me a
scolding, and I started cooling off on Sasha. Maddie doesn’t stick her two cents in unless she has to. She’s always tried real hard to leave that family gene behind.”
“I believe she mentioned that to me.”
Joey nodded. “I told Sasha I wanted to slow down a little bit, especially since I was going to have to report for training soon. But she said she was pregnant. And then I didn’t know what to think.”
I think you got set up, Sam wanted to say. Why, he didn’t know.
He had just as much faith in Maddie as Joey did, though. She would be a great one to talk to about everything. Glancing toward the phone, Sam told himself to call her. To tell her to come back.
But he really wasn’t much fun these days—and he and Maddie needed fun. Romance.
With the missing money, and now Joey, Sam didn’t think he had enough energy left to kick-start his marriage with the romance they needed.
MADDIE ADVANCED upon the flowing water statue in her bathroom with a determined gleam in her eye. In her hand, she carried assorted tools. “You, sister,” she told the statue, “are in for a bit of adjustment under your skirt.”
The statue spit water in reply. Maddie laid her tools on the bathroom counter. “The truth is, I used to enjoy your little tic. Maybe I even related to it. Not anymore. When I get through with you, you’re either going to be a whole statue or you’re going back in your box for a ride to the store.”
It took her an hour but Maddie finally located the various valves and tubes. Following the directions on the box, she made some adjustments.
When she was finished, she stood the silent statue upright. “You will flow and not spray. You will pour peacefully and tranquilly and be a vision of the womanhood you were meant to portray. If you spit, you go back. You are a statue, not a real woman, and I do not have to love your imperfection. I may have learned to love myself, flaws and all, but yours were priced at $45.99. That’s cash I may need, come to think of it, so mind your manners and be fabulously feminine.”
She plugged in the statue, and peaceful streams of water swirled from the appropriate jet into the bowl.
