by Pat Warren
Tate glanced at Nick, but his face was carefully expressionless. “Adam was, is, quite handsome and very charis matic, the all-American boy type, tall, well built with blond hair and blue eyes.”
Listening, the reason she had been so silent so far hit Nick like a ton of bricks. A U.S. senator was Josh’s father. That was one he wouldn’t have guessed in a million years. Small wonder she’d been so frightened. From what he’d read, Weston was a powerful man, heading several important committees, a go-getter on the way up.
“Adam is very charismatic, especially when he wants something,” Tate went on. “Or someone. That year, he wanted me. I still didn’t trust men, but he pursued me zealously. Despite my misgivings, I was too young and inexperienced to be immune to his charm. We began dating and very soon after, we became lovers.”
She was coming to the hard part and, although it all had happened so long ago, Tate felt as if it were yesterday. “If I’d have been just a little smarter, I might have caught the early-warning signs, but I was wearing some pretty heavy rose-colored glasses.”
Nick wanted to interrupt her, to tell her to stop blaming herself for falling prey to an experienced seducer ten years her senior, but he didn’t speak up, allowing her to tell her story in her own way.
“You see, Adam insisted we keep our relationship secret until after the election. He had a ready list of reasons. The rest of the staff, mostly young and female, might be jealous. The press would dog my steps and make my life miserable. We wouldn’t have any privacy. So, naively, I agreed. I didn’t even tell Maggie or my roommates.”
Tate forced herself to get it over with. “Just about the time I learned I was pregnant, Adam won the election. I was elated, thrilled to be a part of his victory, sure we could come out of the closet at last. But suddenly, he was traveling to Washington and other places out east, never phoning me, not returning my calls, always unavailable, according to one of his many aides.
“Finally, I took a home pregnancy test just to make sure, and decided I’d have to find Adam somehow, go to him and explain, still sure he’d be happy about the baby and me. Before I could, I read in the newspaper that he was engaged to marry the daughter of a politically connected senator from the East Coast.” She let her last statement hang in the still night air.
Nick wanted badly to take her in his arms, to try to make up for all the pain she’d suffered, but she held herself erect, watching her hands shred a tissue in her lap.
“Like a bad novel, innocence ended for me that day. The worst part was telling my father. Though he was wonderfully supportive, I knew I’d disappointed him. He offered to help me put the baby up for adoption, but I was determined to have my child and never tell anyone who’d fathered him. Adam didn’t deserve to know. However, I couldn’t hide the pregnancy, so I confided in Maggie and my roommates. They were wonderful. Laura and Molly helped me keep up my classwork and when Josh decided to make an early appearance, all three of them helped deliver him right here in my room upstairs. From the first moment I saw him, I vowed he was mine and no one else’s. I swore I would shield him from any harm.”
She let out a long, shuddering sigh. “Unfortunately that wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped. After graduation, Maggie took care of Josh while I worked my way up to manager at Brennan’s. They’ve been so good to me, putting up with my comings and goings. I began saving some money, hoping to get a small house for Josh and me, knowing Maggie was getting older. And then, the bottom fell out of my world again.”
Nick had been waiting for this. He moved a little closer, but he didn’t touch her, didn’t speak.
“When Josh was almost four, I’d taken him shopping. I remember it was around Christmas and all the stores were decorated. I took him into Brennan’s to show him off. He was such an adorable little boy, so loving and carefree.” Regret moved into her eyes as she continued. “We were just walking out of the store when this tall man walked in. I looked up and recognized him immediately. Senator Adam Weston.
“My heart stopped. His smile, the public one, slipped a little and he had the decency to look a shade guilty, but he did remember my name. I tried to push past him, anxious to get Josh away because, as you’ve probably figured out, he looks a great deal like Adam. Well, no one ever called Adam stupid. I wasn’t quite fast enough. He took one look at Josh and he knew. I left without another word as if the hounds of hell were after me. Little did I know they soon would be.”
Tate shifted in her seat and looked at him. “Are you getting bored by my little tale of woe yet?”
“Hardly.” Because she was nearing the end, he took her hand again, and this time, she didn’t pull away.
“It seems that Adam had everything he’d ever wanted—wealth, power, the possibility of one day moving up to perhaps the presidency, and a beautiful wife. Except that I learned that his wife couldn’t have children.”
“How’d you find out?”
“From the great man himself. He arranged a private meeting, threatening me even then and all but physically forcing me to go. That’s when I learned about his wife. And, having seen Josh, his perfect little replica, Adam wanted him. And what Adam wanted, Adam went after and usually got. But not this time. He offered me an outrageously generous amount of money to hand over my son. When I refused, he upped the ante. I believe he was truly shocked when I told him that no amount of money could buy Josh. He was furious when I walked out on him, yelling after me that he would make my life so miserable, I’d eventually give in. Well, I haven’t given in, but he has made my life miserable.”
Tate threaded her fingers through his, glad this was almost over. “The harassing began right after that meeting. He sent one of his so-called aides—more of a bodyguard than an aide really—by the name of Rafe Collins to visit me. Thank God, Josh wasn’t with me at the moment. Rafe is the man in black with a long ponytail, a thug who used to be a boxer and gets off on intimidating women.”
“He came to your apartment and more or less beat you up?”
“You know about that? Oh, I remember. I’d called the police so it’s on record. Their advice was to file a restraining order. Can you see the clerk’s face now if I told her that Senator Weston was harassing me and sending his henchman to intimidate me? Right!”
“Maybe the embarrassment of having to explain would have stopped him,” Nick suggested mildly.
“You don’t know Adam. Besides, it would be my word against a United States senator. Who do you suppose they’d believe? I had no proof Rafe had been sent by Adam.”
“You’re right.” Nick was thoughtful, digesting all he’d heard. “So that’s when you and Josh disappeared for a while.”
“Yes.” She hesitated a moment, then decided it should be all or nothing at all where trust was concerned. “My mother has a sister who’s married to a rancher up in northern Arizona. It’s lovely country, but quite isolated. In the winter, the roads can become impassable. They have a phone, but it doesn’t always work when the weather’s bad. We went there and stayed quite a long while. No one knows about my aunt Helen so I felt safe again.”
“Why did you come back?”
“My father had a heart attack. Maggie got word to me. I came back, had Maggie watch Josh and I spent ten days at the hospital, but a second massive coronary took him. I hadn’t heard from Adam or any of his people in over two years, so I decided to stay, hoping he’d forgotten or given up. Maggie had grown older, more frail. I felt she shouldn’t be alone. Besides, it was time for Josh to go to school. Up there, the school’s some distance away, over an hour’s bus ride each way. I didn’t want that for him.”
“And then it began all over again, right?”
Tate nodded, leaning her head against the couch back, feeling drained. “I don’t know how he found out we were back. I tried to keep a low profile. He must have had someone in Tucson checking.” She rubbed a spot above her left eye, hoping to forestall a headache. “I’m so tired of moving, of looking over my shoulder, of being afraid.”
“I’ve never told anyone the whole story like I did tonight. Does that show you how much I trust you to help?”
“Thanks. You won’t regret it.” He smoothed her hair back. “There’s one thing that puzzles me. Why do you think he’s never kidnapped Josh up to now? I mean, surely with his connections, he’s had means, motive and opportunity.”
“I think because I told him once that if that ever happened, I’d notify everyone—the police, the newspapers, TV, the senate chamber if I had to—and blow everything sky high. I believe he knows I meant every word. His career and quite possibly his marriage and his lofty plans would be over. So he thinks his one chance is to persuade me to give up Josh, that I’ll tire of the harassment and the fear. What he can’t seem to get through his thick head is that hell will freeze over before I let him near my son.”
“Has Josh ever asked about his father?”
“Not until he started school and most of his friends had dads who lived at home. I told him that his father had to leave us, that those things happen sometimes and that I’d be both mother and father to him. I even went to a father-son luncheon they had earlier this year. He seems satisfied with my explanation so far, but I know one day he’ll want to know more. I’m not looking forward to that day.”
“You have nothing to apologize for. You’ve done nothing wrong.”
“Except make a lot of poor choices, giving in to Adam being the major crime.”
Nick touched two fingers to her chin, turned her face toward his. “It’s not a crime to be young, to fall in love.”
“I suppose not, but I wonder if my son will agree.” She sighed noisily. “I often think I’d like to visit high school seniors and tell them my story, anonymously, of course. To explain how one bad decision can change your life forever. Women are so vulnerable in their teens and early twenties. Especially, like me, if they have no mother to guide them and a father who was methodically working himself to death and had very little time left over.”
“You were looking for someone to love you and instead found someone who used you. And now, he’s trying to do it again.”
Looking sad, she nodded. “But let’s not excuse what I did so readily. I take full responsibility. No one held a gun to my head and told me to go with Adam. I have to live with the results of that bad decision every day. I have so much guilt over having to uproot Josh, haul him up north, then back here. He didn’t see me get hurt, but he saw my face and it scared him. Now, it’s happened again with Maggie. I’m surprised he’s not having nightmares.”
“Kids are far more resilient than we give them credit for. Josh seems much happier since Ralph arrived.”
“Yes, the dog helped a lot. I should have thought of a pet for him myself.”
“Hey, why are you beating yourself up so much? You’re only one person. Besides, Josh knows he’s loved by you and by Maggie. That’s most of what a kid needs right there.”
Tate shifted her head so she could study him for several moments. “You seem always to know the right thing to say at the right moment.”
He smiled, then his mood sobered as he reached to cup her face in his big hand. “You deserve good things in your life, Tate. You’re a beautiful person, inside where it counts. I wish you’d stop blaming yourself for your past mistakes. We’re all human and we make mistakes. But we learn from them, as you have.” He ran his hand down her silken cheek to her throat where he felt her pulse pick up speed. “I hope I can bring good things to you.”
“You already have. If anyone can get this monkey off my back, I believe it’s you. I’ve carried it alone so long. You can’t know how good it feels to have someone in my corner.”
Nick leaned into her, nuzzling her, his mouth finally settling over hers. The kiss was almost lazy, lips brushing lips while his hands encircled her. He wanted to show her that it didn’t have to be all flash and fire, that slow and seductive could be arousing, too.
Tate returned the gentle pressure, her eyes closing as she let the floating feeling take her. Her pulse stirred, awakened, came alive. His beautiful mouth skimmed down her throat as his clever hands shifted and closed over her breasts. She sucked in a deep breath, almost a gasp, as she felt her own response build. It had been so long since she’d allowed a man this kind of intimacy.
Only the thin jersey was between her flesh and his gently stroking fingers. She felt the heat take over, warming her blood, making her restless. Then his mouth replaced his hands, drawing on her through the cotton material, and she all but lost it as a moan escaped from between her parted lips. She buried her hands in his thick hair, pressing his head closer, wanting more.
Nick was breathing hard, wondering why he was putting himself through this a second time in one day. There was no way they could finish this on the couch with Maggie asleep two rooms over and Josh upstairs. Yet as he shifted his attention to her other breast and felt her nipple tighten into a hard bud at first contact, all rational thought fled from his mind. All he could think was that Tate was here, in his arms where he’d imagined her so many times, warm and willing.
Tate knew she should stop him and she would, in just a moment. Just a moment longer to feel his wondrous mouth turn her brain to mush, to enjoy his seeking hands wandering over her body, to allow herself to dream that this would never end. Finally she drew him to her by placing her hands on his cheeks and brought his mouth back to hers.
He’d ignited a fire in her that was no longer a slow burn but a raging inferno. She let him deepen the kiss as she squirmed closer to his strong, hard body. Needs she hadn’t recognized in years fought for dominance over her hazy mind. Not even as a teenager had she necked on a couch, shamelessly pressing herself to the one man who’d unleashed a sleeping tiger.
Nick tasted traces of a minty toothpaste and inhaled the fragrant lotion he’d watched her apply to her body through the backyard window. Her tongue was dancing with his now as he mimicked the act of love. Maybe they could go upstairs to her room and…
Suddenly Tate pulled back, cocking her head to listen above the hoarse sound of their breathing. “It’s Josh,” she said when she again heard the coughing sound. She pulled back and jumped up, straightening her clothes, looking with dismay at the wet spots on the front of her jersey where Nick had tasted her breasts. “It’s his asthma. I’ve got to go to him, give him his inhaler.”
“Sure, all right,” Nick said, sitting back heavily, waiting for his thundering heart to slow down to normal.
Tate blew her bangs out of her eyes as she hurried up the stairs. Saved by the bell, or rather, the cough. As she rushed to her son’s bedside, she couldn’t help wondering what might have taken place had Josh not awakened just then.
Chapter 8
They needed a break—from the stress, the worry, the tension. Saturday morning, Nick woke up early in his bed on the couch and went into the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee, thinking he’d take all three of them out somewhere today. Four, if you counted Ralph who came bounding downstairs, greeting him with lavish licks, then hurrying out into the backyard through the door Nick held open.
It was a happy coincidence that both he and Tate had the same Saturday off. A drive in the country would be nice. He was on his second cup when Tate came down, already showered and looking morning fresh in white shorts and a yellow top, her feet bare. He returned her somewhat shy smile as he rose from the kitchen table.
Glancing first at Maggie’s closed door, he took her in his arms. “Did you sleep well?” he whispered in her ear.
“No,” she answered honestly. “I thought about you all alone down here…”
He nuzzled her fragrant neck. “I’d rather have been up there with you.”
“Me, too
.” She kissed him lightly before moving to the counter and pouring herself a cup of coffee.
“Do you have a lot planned for your day off?” Nick asked.
Tate took a couple of sips and felt the caffeine dance into her system. “Not really. A couple of errands. Why?”
“I thought I’d go home and clean up, then come back and take everyone for a long drive, like up Mount Lemmon. We can check out the shops, have lunch, just relax for a day. I think Maggie and Josh could use a little time away from the house. What do you say?”
She looked at him over the rim of her cup. “Do you think it’s safe?” She knew she didn’t have to explain what or who she feared.
“It is when you’re with me.” He slid his pantleg up, revealing his ankle holster and gun. “I’ll be armed, just in case, but after hearing who’s behind all this, I doubt he’ll make a move in a crowd. Even Rafe, if he got caught, could be traced back to the good senator. Might get messy.”
She believed him, believed he’d keep them safe. Mount Lemmon held some bad memories for her, but with Nick, she’d be all right, and they all could use a day off. “Then I say let’s go.”
“Great. You get everybody ready. I’ll be back by, let’s say eleven. Okay?”
“Okay.” She walked him to the door, saw he’d neatly folded the bedding he’d used. When he tugged her into his arms for a kiss at the doorway, she had a question for him. “And how did you sleep?”
“Who, me? Like a baby.” He opened the screen door. “One who’s got colic, a bad cold and is teething.” He gave her a smile before sliding behind the wheel and taking off.
Tate closed the door and leaned against it. A leisurely day driving and strolling around, acting like tourists. Like people who hadn’t a care in the world. She could pretend, for a little while, that she was one of them.
He’d gotten his Taurus washed and, except for a rather elaborate radio system and the flashing red light he could clamp onto the roof if needed, the car looked like any other on the road. Nick chose a roundabout route, driving for the sheer pleasure of sight-seeing, even though he’d lived in the area all his life and so had his passengers. Taking it slow, he drove around the University of Arizona campus first, commenting on how much it had changed since he and Tate had attended.
