Against All Odds (Arabesque)

by Gwynne Forster

  Her forehead grew hotter with the slight pressure of his lips there, as he breathed erratically, telling her of his struggle for self-containment.

  “Adam... Oh, Adam...” The feel of his warm hand sliding up and down her back, easing her tension, protecting her, sent a different message to her senses than he intended. She didn’t want to be protected from him.

  “It’s alright, baby. I’ll get it together in a second. If I told you I didn’t plan for that to happen, would you believe me?”

  She looked at him, and her tongue darted out, moistening her lips, as she moved toward him. He wrapped her to him in a gentle hug, and she knew he was back in control.

  “Would you believe me?” he persisted.

  She let her head loll on his chest. “I don’t think so. Maybe you didn’t intend for it to go that far, but you sure left your office and came in here to give me my comeuppance.”

  “What about your libido? Think it knows I’m alive now?” Her hand accidentally grazed one of his pectorals, and his demeanor changed, the playful tone gone. “Don’t ever do that, Melissa, unless you’re planning to make love with me right then and there.”

  “You don’t take rain checks?” she asked, feeling devilish.

  His gaze stroked her sensually, though his words were contradictory. “I usually smile if I’m joking.” He pinched her nose. “You take that piece of information and use it wisely.” His behavior disconcerted her. She wasn’t used to that side of him.

  “What do you say I drop by for you here around five thirty and we go goblin hunting tonight. Hmm? No telling what we’ll catch.”

  Chapter 6

  “I’d forgotten that the lights in this town are always dimmed on Halloween. It’s eerie walking behind a skeleton on these dark streets, Adam. Ghoulish things give me the creeps.”

  “Don’t be such a namby-pamby.” He draped an arm around her shoulder. “That’s just a man wearing a costume, but if you’re going to be chicken, we can turn around and follow that mummy we passed back there, see how many people he scares.”

  “Give me the mummy over this thing anytime. At least I can’t see what’s on the inside.” They strolled along closely behind the shrouded figure for the next twenty minutes until the rising wind and the night’s chill made their walk uncomfortable. Adam quickened their pace until he caught the mummy and tapped him on the shoulder. Melissa stepped back a few feet. Whatever was in those wrappings might be alive, but from its appearance, she wouldn’t swear to it.

  “You deserve the prize, Wayne, but I’ll have to abstain from the vote.”

  “No problem. I still have six other chances.” He nodded to Melissa. “You’re not a judge, I take it?” he asked hopefully. Adam’s incredulous look made an answer unnecessary, but he seemed compelled to make his point.

  “Make sense, Wayne. This woman’s scared of her shadow.”

  “Am not.” She squinted at Adam, wanting to be certain that he was aware of her displeasure. He gazed down at her, his brilliant smile tender and possessive. Warmed, secure, she stepped toward him, and jolts of pleasure rioted through her when his strong arm welcomed her.

  “Then you’re scared of the dark,” he teased. “When you saw that skeleton, you were ready to dive into my pocket.” Wayne looked from one to the other and laughed.

  “Don’t let him get your number,” Wayne advised Melissa. “He’s been known to wear a joke thin.”

  “I’ve already got her number,” Adam argued. “She’s only tough before sundown.”

  “Am not.”

  “Are, too.”

  “It ought to be a while before you two get this settled. Adam, I’ve got to frighten some more kids and shore up my position, since your ethics won’t let you vote for me. See you later. Hang in there, Melissa.” He darted into a darkened side street.

  “Wayne wasn’t antagonistic toward our being together. In fact, he was friendly.”

  “Melissa, my brother is my best friend. I hope he’d be civil to any woman I had my arm around. Besides, he probably doesn’t even know how a mummy acts when it’s angry. Let’s go over to Banks’s Watering Hole and get a drink.”

  You never had to guess when he’d finished with a topic, Melissa mused. “I don’t mind. At least the town gossips will be spreading the truth for a change.” She had a sense of devil-may-care when he squeezed her shoulder and pulled her closer to him.

  “Many a lie has begun with the truth, but if that bothers you, I’ll take you home.”

  “You’re not calling me chicken twice in one night.”

  * * *

  They walked into the crowded, noisy bar, and in less than a minute not a sound could be heard. Melissa released a long breath when she saw her friend, Banks, rushing to meet them.

  “I see you two decided to stonewall it and defy the gossip mongers. Come on back here to my table, give ’em something else to talk about. Bill Henry stopped by here a few minutes ago asking for lemonade, and I had to rescue him from that little number posing over there at the end of the bar. Everybody’s going to swear that your folks have me in their pocket, Adam. Not that I’d mind hanging out in such nicely lined pockets.” She paused at a table and crushed her cigarette. “Sit down, and I’ll get your drinks. What do you want?” They each ordered a gin sling.

  “I hadn’t connected this place with Banks. I take it her family owns it, since she’s working here.”

  Adam looked around, certain before he did it that most of the other patrons were gazing at him and Melissa. Rafer’s law partner sat at a nearby table eyeing them intently, and Adam figured that guaranteed Melissa another scene with her father. He lifted her hand and stroked its back gently, idly.

  “The place belongs to Banks’s father,” he said at last, “but she never works in here. She’s waiting on us as a courtesy. I can’t imagine Banks waiting tables in a bar. The place would be out of business in weeks.”

  “Why?”

  Adam smiled at some tantalizing, imaginary scene. “The first unfortunate Joe who couldn’t resist temptation would have to explain his adolescent behavior to a judge. After she dumped whatever she had in her hands right on top of him, of course.” Banks joined them with the drinks and sat with them until they’d finished. Melissa’s eyes widened when her friend walked them to the door and told them good night there.

  “What was that about?” Melissa asked.

  Adam’s shoulders jerked upward. “Beats me.” Minutes later they understood as Rafer’s car moved out of the parking lot and into the street at a pace well above the speed limit.

  At Melissa’s questioning glance, Adam told her, “Your father probably walked out just before we got there. She knew he was out there and wanted to make certain he didn’t lose his temper in the Watering Hole.” He walked with her to her door.

  “I don’t want you to come in tonight, Adam. There’s no reason for me to flaunt you before my father. It’s enough that I defy him. I know he’s wrong in this, but I don’t want to humiliate him.” Scattered pellets of rain dampened her red designer jacket, a carryover from her New York dress-for-success wardrobe.

  “I enjoyed checking out the goblins with you.”

  “Me, too,” she replied, “and I’m not scared of my shadow.”

  “Are so,” he teased, rubbing her nose with his thumb. He opened the door and kissed her quickly, so quickly that she didn’t know whether her upturned face had invited the kiss or his finger under her chin had signaled his intent. She stared after him as he dashed through the raindrops to his car. Her father awaited her, but he only nodded when she greeted him, and she thought she detected sadness on his face.

  * * *

  Melissa got ready for bed, put on a robe, and knocked on her mother’s bedroom door. She couldn’t get used to her mother’s open affection, and she cherished it in her heart. She must have been a difficult child for her mother, she mused, for she had been so concerned about getting her father’s love and approval that she hadn’t reached out to her mother,
hadn’t been responsive to her silent pleas for affection. She’d taken her mother’s secret acts of love for granted, hardly ever acknowledging them.

  “It’s been years since I went frolicking on Halloween,” Emily said. “From your father’s temper when he came home, I assumed he saw you out with Adam.”

  Melissa nodded. “I guess he did, though we didn’t see him.”

  “Do you love Adam, honey?”

  “I don’t know, Mama. But I feel so good when I’m with him. No matter what kind of shenanigan I pull off, what I say or do, Adam is equal to it or better.” She couldn’t help comparing Adam to other men she’d known. “When I was in undergraduate school,” she recalled, “I went out with a guy a few times, but I couldn’t get along with him, because every time I used a word with more than two syllables, he accused me of being uppity. After a while I did it just to annoy him. It didn’t take me long to figure out that airheads weren’t for me.”

  “Well, I presume Adam is well educated. Isn’t he?”

  “Oh, sure. He has an MBA from Columbia.” Emily’s happy smile jolted Melissa; her mother was a beautiful woman.

  “I didn’t realize you two had so much in common. The same degree should make you sympathetic with each other’s work. It’s a good basis for—”

  Melissa interrupted her mother’s wistful thought. “You shouldn’t be counting on anything coming of this, Mama. We’ve got too many obstacles, and there’s no commitment between us.” She could see the disappointment mirrored on her mother’s face.

  “We haven’t talked about things like this, and it’s another way that I failed you. Did you ever love another man?”

  Melissa thought back to the time when she would have given anything to be able to discuss Gilbert Lewis with her mother. The pain, the disappointment, had been severe, so much so that it had shoved her into womanhood. She had later marveled that the first man to whom she had been attracted should have displayed the kind of callousness toward her that her father did. She took her mother’s delicate hand.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever been in love, although I once thought I was. I was naive until I discovered that he...well, he was sophisticated, successful, and not interested in any one woman. You know the type. After we’d gone out together for a while, he told me that if I wanted to continue seeing him, I had to go to bed with him. He gave me that ultimatum because he thought I was crazy about him. I told him to get lost.”

  Emily patted the edge of the bed, inviting Melissa to sit beside her. “You were hungry for love, the love you should have gotten right here at home or you wouldn’t have reached out to a man who was obviously wrong for you. I hope you’ve gotten over it.”

  Melissa rested a hand on her mother’s knee in assurance. “The only thing I’m carrying around from that experience is the lesson I learned, and the only thing I feel for Gilbert Lewis is contempt.”

  “And Adam?”

  “Oh, Mama. They’re nothing alike. Adam is honorable. I wanted to fall in love with Gilbert—or somebody, but I’m scared to death of loving Adam. I say I’m going to stay away from him, but if I know I’ll see him, I can’t think of anything else. He’s so strong, so.... I can’t explain it. When I’m with him, it’s like lightning wouldn’t dare strike.” She heard her mother’s deep ragged sigh and turned to face her. “What is it?”

  “That last says it all, honey, because you’ve been afraid of lightning all your life. I just hope your feelings for Adam don’t turn bitter in your mouth.” That was the second time her mother had alluded to the misery a person could experience for having loved, Melissa recalled, and decided to risk the question that had nagged her for days.

  “Mama, did you have an unrequited love?”

  “No, dear. It was returned fourfold, but I was a victim of my own stupidity. He pleaded with me to marry him, but I did what my father wanted me to do. I married Rafer instead, and we’ve both suffered because of my cowardliness.” Melissa’s heart constricted as tears flowed untouched down her mother’s cheek. Whatever she had expected, it wasn’t this.

  As if she had waited years to tell someone, had struggled in combat with her fate and then been whipped into submission before glimpsing freedom’s light, the words rushed from Emily’s mouth.

  “Don’t let the same thing happen to you. If you love Adam, take him. Don’t let his family or yours get in your way, because if you do, you’ll spend your life regretting it. I’ve been a good wife to your father, as good as he would let me be. I did what he wanted, loved what he loved, and went against everybody and everything that he didn’t like. He favored Schyler, so I did, too, and I’m sorry. I did all that trying to prove to myself that I loved Rafer.”

  Breath whirled sharply through Melissa’s lips, and she stared at her mother, stunned beyond words. How could she have known this woman for twenty-eight years and yet not known her at all? How could she not have seen the sadness, the suffering? She shifted at her mother’s side, uncomfortable because in many ways she, too, had seen the world through Rafer Grant’s eyes. Silence hung between them until, after a time, Melissa questioned her mother.

  “Good Lord! I never dreamed— What happened?” Melissa knew from her mother’s sigh of relief that she had been awaiting what she feared would be a harsh verdict.

  “Our parents threatened armed conflict to keep us apart, and they succeeded. I should have known that our fathers, pillars of the community, wouldn’t engage in a public battle, but I believed them and broke my engagement to Bill Henry. God alone knows what that did to me.”

  Air swished from Melissa’s lungs. Stunned, she repeated, “Bill Henry? You mean—?”

  “Yes. Bill Henry Hayes. And Rafer never lets me forget that Bill Henry was my first choice, my first love.” Melissa could not miss the silent confession, and my only love.

  Melissa clasped her mother around her slim shoulders in belated comfort. Encouraged, Emily leaned against her daughter and expressed her concern for Melissa’s fate with Adam. “If you tie up with your father about this, I doubt I’ll have the strength to go against him. I never have, and it’s probably too late for me to start—weakness is habit forming. But you fight for what you want, Melissa. Either you walk the whole mile for him and step over every obstacle or you’ll end up like me. If I had the chance again, I’d face an army in order to be with Bill Henry.”

  Melissa hugged her mother and went back to her room. She stood by the window, pulled the curtains aside, and stared at the night. Small wonder that her father harbored such hatred for the Hayes-Roundtree family, that he opposed any contact between Adam and her with such vehemence. The alleged loss of a family fortune to Hayes and his descendants wasn’t half the cause of Rafer’s furor. A more personal, ego-shattering ordeal nurtured his rancor. His wife’s heart belonged to Bill Henry Hayes. Always had and always would. Melissa could understand that with those two insults, her father couldn’t help being irrational about the Hayeses and Roundtrees. She turned away from the window. What made him irrational about her?

  The next day Melissa moved into her new home, a small, three-story house that wasn’t the Federal she’d wanted, but a more modern facsimile. She raced from the basement to the top floor and stood at the edge of the stairs, panting for breath. The doorbell jarred her out of a self-congratulatory mood, and she loped with some anxiety down the two flights. Surely her father wouldn’t leave his office just to bait her.

  “Adam...what? How did you know I’d moved?” She stood back to let him enter.

  “I called your office to ask if you’d like to see the ’Skins and Giants with Wayne and me this weekend, and your secretary told me where you were. I didn’t know this place was for sale, but there’s no reason why I should have. I left my real estate cap in New York.” His glance swept around the foyer and living room, then across the hall to the small dining room.

  “What’s the kitchen like?” She walked with him to the little room at the end of the hallway and pointed with pride to the modern kitchen she�
��d had installed. “This is a nice house. What did Rafer say about your moving?” Neither his stance nor the heat in his eyes suggested an interest in Rafer Grant’s views.

  “He didn’t know about it until I’d made a binding down payment, and my father doesn’t believe in wasting money.” Adam had stepped closer in order to hear her murmured words, his eyes blazing with passion. She moved backward a step.

  “How come you’re here in the middle of the day?” She looked away to avoid seeing the come-hither look in his twinkling eyes.

  “You asked me a similar question at least once before, and I told you that I intend to find out what we’ve got going for us. Quit faking, Melissa. The football game, this house, and any other excuse we can find for being together be damned. I’m here because I want to be alone with you, and you invited me in because you want the same.”

  She looked at the hand he extended toward her in silent invitation and opened her arms. If she’d expected a searing kiss, a sample of his torrid passion, he surprised her. His arms enfolded her gently, carefully as if she would splinter like fine porcelain. Soft kisses on her cheek exacerbated her longing for the sweet pressure of his mouth, until she stopped fighting for passion and enjoyed his gentle loving. Her heart fluttered as she savored the thrill of his embrace, his tender stroking of her back and arms. His strokes and caresses continued until she curled into him as her senses drank in his sweet onslaught of loving. She looked up at him, and a smile eclipsed her face when she glimpsed the soft adoration in his eyes. He had cherished her, had given her something of himself, perhaps for the first time, because he’d never before made her feel like that. As if he hadn’t wanted to take, only to give. She closed her eyes and let her head loll against him, ashamed that she had tried to move him to a frenzied passion when he’d wanted only to share what he felt.