Falcon gave her a level stare. “Just who does Robin think she is, suggesting that we do something outrageous like that?” she asked vehemently.
Raven shook her head, grinning. “She’s the one who doesn’t have the red puffy eyes.” Grabbing her sister by the arm, she pulled her toward the bedroom. “Come on; let’s get dressed and go to Leo’s. And maybe, just maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to win the hearts of our men back.”
Raven and Falcon entered Leo’s. The place was crowded, which was no surprise. It was Saturday night and Earth, Wind & Fire was providing the live entertainment, jamming out their classic hit “Let’s Groove.”
“I think we should split up,” Falcon said, glancing around the room.
Raven gave her a skeptical look. “You think that’s a good idea?”
Falcon looked at her sister and nodded slowly and smiled. “Yes. I don’t want you around if I have to resort to begging.”
Raven chuckled as she laced Falcon’s fingers with hers, tightening her hold on them before letting them go. “Good luck, Sis.”
“Same to you.”
“What if neither of us are successful in meeting our goals here tonight?” Raven asked as she pulled in a deep breath for courage.
“We will be successful. If not on the first try, then maybe the second, or the third, or the fiftieth. And the reason is that the Anderson sisters will always be successful in their endeavors. Willow Anderson willed it to be so. Now scat.”
Raven sure hoped Falcon was right. Turning, she walked off alone toward the area where Earth, Wind & Fire had begun performing another of their classic hits, “Saturday Night.”
Linc saw Raven the minute she walked in. The deep feeling of love and desire he still felt for her even after what she’d said to him last night didn’t stun him. It was the words she hadn’t said that had meant a hell of a lot more. She had not been able to look in his eyes and say that she cared nothing for him. That still gave him hope.
Sighing deeply, he turned to the man sharing his table, “Raven just walked in,” he said to John. “She came in with another woman who I believe is her sister. Is that the birthday girl or your woman?” Linc asked, nodding his head in the direction where the other woman had gone, choosing a table on the other side of the room from Raven.
John’s gaze followed Linc’s and his eyes lit on Falcon. Pain clutched at his heart. “That’s Falcon. And she’s not my woman.” He frowned. “I wonder why they’re sitting at separate tables.”
Linc shrugged. “A sisters’ spat perhaps?”
“Not hardly,” John said, taking a sip of his wine. “They might disagree sometime, but never to the point of anything separating them. They stick together like glue.”
Linc nodded. “I wonder where the third one is. The birthday girl.”
“Who knows about those sisters, and frankly, who cares?”
Linc shook his head, deciding not to remind John that he cared. They both did. If they didn’t care, the two of them would not have stayed at Leo’s until the place closed last night, nursing their pain with drinks. “Well, don’t look now, but the one you claim is not your woman has seen you and is headed this way.”
Linc chuckled at the curse he heard flow from John’s lips. A few moments later a very attractive woman with features closely resembling Raven’s stood before their table.
“Hi, John. It’s good seeing you again.”
Something about the way she said the words made John look up from studying his wine. His gut twisted. Falcon Anderson was more beautiful than ever. Then he remembered that this was the woman he had loved but who had chosen a career over his love. “Falcon, I would say ‘Likewise,’ but it wouldn’t be true. It’s not good seeing you again. What the hell are you doing here?”
Deciding that this should be a private conversation, Linc stood. “Hello, I’m Linc Corbain.” He offered Falcon his hand in a warm handshake. “I was just about to leave, so you can have my seat.”
Linc’s statement gave Falcon pause. He couldn’t leave before Raven got a chance to talk to him.
“Hold up, Corbain; I think I’ll call it a night myself. There’s no reason for me to stick around,” John said coldly, staring at Falcon.
Falcon’s eyes reflected pain from John’s remark. But then the look in his eyes made her heart ache. She had hurt him and he was retaliating in the only way he knew how, by trying to hurt her in return.
“John, can we talk?” she asked quietly.
“Talk? Why do you want to talk to me?” John asked gruffly, almost growling the words. “I think you said all you needed to say a year ago.”
“I thought I had, too.”
Something in Falcon’s voice made John uneasy, cautious, and curious. “OK, Falcon, you talk and maybe, depending on what you have to say, I might listen.”
Linc decided that now was the time to leave the two people alone and headed for the door.
Raven’s heart sank as she watched Linc leave the club. She knew he had seen her when, for the briefest of moments, their eyes met across the room before he walked out the door.
“Would you like to order dinner?”
The waiter’s question interrupted her thoughts. She looked at the door Linc had walked out of a minute ago. “No, I’ve changed my mind. I’m leaving.”
She glanced across the room and saw Falcon sitting at the table with John. Feeling certain she was not leaving her sister stranded, Raven didn’t waste any time as she grabbed her purse and walked out of the club.
On instinct Raven drove to Linc’s apartment, hoping that’s where he had gone. She released a breath of relief when she pulled into his apartment complex and saw his car parked in the space he usually used.
“You can do this, Raven,” she told herself as she parked her car alongside his and got out. “He’s worth it and more.”
Taking another deep breath, she knocked on his door.
Linc looked startled when he opened the door to find her there. “Raven, what are you doing here?”
Raven breathed in slowly. He had removed his shirt and stood in the doorway. Her gaze dropped from his bare chest and moved lower to his flat, hard stomach, then lower still to the unsnapped top of his pants. She sucked in a deep breath and forced her gaze back to his face. “I need to talk to you.”
Linc studied her with an odd expression on his face before moving aside to let her enter, closing the door behind her. “What is it you want to talk about?”
She met his gaze. “It’s about last night and—”
“Linc, sweety, where are your towels?” a woman asked, coming into the room. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t know someone was here,” she said, studying Raven with as much interest as Raven was studying her.
Raven’s gaze took in everything about the very beautiful woman, even the fact that she was only wearing a bra and a slip. Raven’s anger flared at the thought that the reason Linc had rushed from the club was that he’d had a woman waiting here for him.
“No, I’m the one who’s sorry,” Raven said before rushing out of the apartment without looking back. She went straight to her car and got in. She tried ignoring Linc’s hard knock on her car window as she tried putting her car in reverse. She didn’t want him to see her cry.
When another car that was coming into the apartment complex blocked her from backing up, she had no choice but to roll her window down. Her pride dictated that she do so.
“What do you want, Linc?”
He pulled a shirt over his head before stooping down beside the car’s open window. “Why did you run out like that?”
Raven was speechless. She would think it would have been pretty obvious to him why she’d left the way she did. Evidently it wasn’t, so she decided to tell him. “You had company.”
“I don’t consider Sydney company, especially when she pops up unexpectedly. But I’d like for you to meet her.”
Raven couldn’t believe his nerve. “You want me to meet her!”
Linc frowned a
s he stood. “Is there any reason you don’t want to meet my sister?”
Raven’s mouth dropped open. “Your sister?”
Linc’s frown deepened as he studied her. “Yeah, my sister. She arrived this evening from Memphis.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Who did you think she was?”
Raven didn’t want to tell him what she had thought. But she didn’t have to. The deep coloring of embarrassment on her face gave her away.
Linc leaned over and rested both his hands on the opening in her door. “You actually think I’d leave your bed last night and find another woman to put into mine tonight, Raven? I told you last night that I loved you, and when a man loves one woman he doesn’t sleep around with another.”
Elation spread through Raven as a rush of air entered her lungs, reminding her to breathe. “You still love me?”
Her question surprised him. “Of course I still love you. When you really love someone you don’t fall out of love with them like that,” he said, snapping his fingers for effect. “Besides, I have no intentions of giving up on you that easily, Raven. I made a promise to myself to not let you walk out of my life a second time, although I was about ready to do just that until I ran into John last night. Talking to him made me realize his mistakes in dealing with your sister.”
“Which were?”
Linc stooped back down to be on eye level with her. “Giving up on Falcon too quickly and too easily. I decided not to make the same mistake with you. I figured that sooner or later I’d succeed in wearing down your resistance.”
Raven smiled softly, believing that eventually he would have. “It took Robin’s announcement that she’s getting married to make me and Falcon see the mistakes we were making. I love you, Linc. I first fell in love with you in Daytona and then fell in love with you all over again that night I saw you in Leo’s.” She leaned over out the car window and tasted his lips. “I love you and I will be successful because I’ll have everything I’ve ever wanted or dreamed of having and more.”
Linc stood up and opened her car door. “Slide over, baby,” he said huskily, easing into the car as she scooted over into the passenger seat. “Do you know a place where we can go to be alone?”
Raven gave him a sensuous smile. “My place. I doubt either of my sisters will be returning there tonight. What about your sister?”
Linc grinned. “She’s a big girl who can take care of herself.” He paused before starting the car and turned to her. “Come here and tell me again.”
Raven scooted over closer to him, glad that her car had bench seats. “I love you and I want it all—you, my dreams, your babies, the works.”
Linc pulled her into his arms. “And I’m going to make sure you get it all. Starting tonight.”
Epilogue
Six Months Later
Sunlight poured into the room through the curtains. Raven yawned and stretched, still feeling tired and still not wanting to open her eyes just yet. Yesterday had been such a busy day. A beautiful triple wedding had made it understandably so. But she, Falcon, and Robin had survived and were gloriously content with sharing the rest of their lives with the men they loved.
After an elaborate wedding followed by a just as elaborate reception in one of the large rooms set aside for parties at Leo’s, Robin and Franco had flown to Europe to honeymoon on the Riviera. French and African-American, Franco Marcus Renoir was a very handsome man, and Raven knew he would make her sister happy.
Raven smiled thinking about Falcon and John, who had left the wedding reception heading for California. After a week of honeymooning there, they were flying to Hawaii for an additional week. Lines of happiness had replaced Falcon’s red puffy eyes.
Raven then thought about her and Linc. They had flown into Daytona Beach to spend a few days here before driving to Port Canaveral to catch their cruise ship for a week’s cruise in the Caribbean for their honeymoon.
The past six months had been wonderful for them. She had flown to Tennessee with him over the Thanksgiving holiday to meet his family, a family who had welcomed her with open arms. She had also convinced Linc to rethink his decision not to enter politics. She knew his fairness and honesty were assets he could offer the people he would represent. Besides, like she’d told him, she could easily add being a politician’s wife to her agenda.
Raven barely caught her breath when she felt the sheet covering her naked body slowly being brushed aside. She didn’t want to open her eyes just yet. She preferred just lying there and enjoying the sensations she knew her husband could make her feel whenever he touched her.
Her heart began pounding furiously in her chest when she felt Linc’s strong, firm hands slide over her, beginning with the calves of her feet and working their way upward, to her breasts, letting his lips follow the path of his fingers.
She wondered how much longer she could pretend sleep. Undoubtedly she was about to find out when his wet, hot tongue latched onto a nipple and feasted hungrily before moving to the other one.
The assault he was making on her body was one she could not bear any longer. She knew she was a goner when he moved from her breasts and attacked her mouth, making love to it in his own special way. She automatically wound her arms tightly around his neck as she mated her tongue with his.
“Open your eyes and look at me, Raven,” he whispered as he pulled back from their kiss and moved his body over hers.
Raven opened her eyes and met his gaze the exact moment he entered her, hard and fast, lifting her hips to receive all of him, joining their bodies as one.
The look of wanting, desire, and love in his eyes inflamed her, making her wrap her legs around him to enjoy the moment of being a part of the man she loved—her husband.
“I love you,” she whispered to him as waves of heat consumed her with every thrust he made into her body.
“And I love you,” he said huskily before throwing his head back and releasing a deep, guttural sound from his throat as he emptied his seed deep into her womb, glorying in the feel of having unprotected sex with his wife. They tumbled over into the throes of ecstasy together, savoring every moment until at last his mouth moved back over hers, absorbing her whimpers of pleasure.
When it felt like everything had been drained from him, Linc collapsed against the pillows, taking her with him and shifting their positions so his weight would not hurt her. Pulling her closer into his arms, he cradled her to him and kissed the top of her head. “This is where it all began, isn’t it, Mrs. Corbain?”
Raven smiled against his chest, liking the sound of her new name. She rose slightly to look down at him, the man who had come to mean everything to her. “Yes, right here in this very room.” They had managed to get the same room at the hotel where they had spent one hell of a passionate week four years ago.
“And there’s a very good possibility this is even the same bed,” she added, grinning. “At least it feels like it. The one thing I remember about the bed is that it had very good springs.”
Linc laughed as he reached up and touched her cheek. His eyes then became dark and passionate. “We’re making new memories to keep for always.”
“Yes, for always. And I have a new main agenda,” she said softly.
“Oh, yeah, what is it?”
“Loving you,” Raven said, leaning down toward his lips. “My main agenda is loving you, Lincoln Corbain.”
Strictly Business
A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confesses and forsakes them, he gets another chance.
—PROVERBS 28:13 (THE LIVING BIBLE)
Prologue
Mitchell Farrell was man enough to admit he had made a few mistakes in his lifetime. But he had absolutely no intentions of making the same mistakes twice. With a determined smile he snapped his seat belt in place and settled into the flight that would take him to Houston.
Never in his life had he been so determined to achieve a goal—a goal some would think was impossible with all the obstacles he
faced. But he was a man with a plan.
A plan to get his wife back.
As his private jet cleared the Los Angeles runway and tilted its wings toward Texas, he settled back in his seat and remembered the first time he had seen Regina Grant on the campus of Texas Southern University seven years ago; the mere sight of her had taken his breath away. It hadn’t been like him to fall hard and fast, but against her he hadn’t stood a chance. No other woman had taken such hold of his mind and body like she had. She completely captured his heart.
During his teenage years he had grown up dirt poor, so he’d been determined to one day have wealth and power at his fingertips, determined that nothing and no one would get in the way of his achieving that, especially a woman. He had pretty much kept that resolve until his final year in grad school, when he had met Gina. She had been in her senior year of college. He had been lost the first time they’d made eye contact. That day she’d become as basic to him as breathing.
For the longest while he’d thought he could simply add her to the list of things he wanted in life, which was why he had married her less than a year later. He soon realized that marriage to Gina was more of a challenge than he’d anticipated. He could not get her to understand the driving force of his need to make it to the top at the cost of everything else—including the baby she desperately wanted. Their marriage hadn’t worked out, and after four years it had ended. That was a huge mistake. He should never have let that happen.
He had been a fool to let her walk out of his life, an even bigger fool to have placed more emphasis and importance on making it to the top than holding their marriage together. And the main reason he’d walked away so easily was that the amount of love he’d felt for her had disturbed him. He had never counted on loving any woman so intensely that it made him lose his focus.
It had taken him two lonely years after their divorce to accept just how much he had loved her and that success was nothing without her. He wanted and needed her back in his life. For him the tragedy of September 11, 2001, served as a blunt reminder that you could be here one day and gone the next, and that when you left this world you couldn’t take anything with you, especially not the material things you had worked hard to accumulate.
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