by Jo Leigh
That thought made her queasy... Double damn it, because her first thought had been that Faith might be going to the bar and the two of them would run into each other. This night needed to end already. She didn’t give one damn about New Year’s. Or First Night. Next year, she wasn’t coming close to this hotel. Maybe she’d stay home and watch a movie and eat popcorn. Yeah, that sounded great.
She kept her eye on the door for the next five minutes, but the only thing of interest was Rick leaving the suite. Two more minutes of pacing, and then she was really worried. She called Payton’s cell phone. Again. And again, but it went straight to voice mail.
She’d have to go find him. The suite was packed but she made it out the door quickly. And then she saw Rick. Alone. Staring down the hallway with a rapt expression.
Jenna followed his gaze. The hallway was busy with people, so at first, she only had a terrible feeling about what had made him stop in his tracks, but then she got the confirmation. A space in the crowd had opened up. As if to frame the last thing on earth she wanted to see. Payton and Faith were hugging so tightly Jenna forgot how to breathe.
But it got worse. Jesus, how could it get so much worse?
When they parted, it was only to take a half step back. Just enough room for Jenna to notice that Payton looked...happy. A different kind of happy. Nothing she’d seen in all their years together.
So happy he’d forgotten her.
“What the...?” She jumped and found Rick was inches away from her. He glanced at her, and then his gaze went back to the couple down the hall. He looked stunned.
“They’re just friends,” she said to him. “He said that several times. Friends.”
He seemed surprised to see himself next to her, but he was quick to go back to watching Faith and Payton. “That’s what she told me, too.”
Payton continued to beam, even as he put their drinks on the closest surface, which happened to be a railing too narrow to properly hold the glasses, but he obviously didn’t give a shit about the drinks or her because he was talking a mile a minute, making another woman laugh, making her put her hand—both hands—over her heart. He spoke extravagantly, with lots of arm waving, although none of it in Jenna’s direction.
She’d known him five years, and not at all.
“Who the hell does he think he is?”
Rather than watch the train wreck down the hall she turned to Rick. He looked ready to pound Payton into a puddle, and she thought that was a fine idea.
“For one thing, he’s my fiancé.”
He turned to her, and took a moment. “Look, I don’t want to cause a scene or anything, but I swear to God if he touches her again...”
“I know. I mean, I don’t know. I’ve never seen him like this. Normally, he’s...nice. He hasn’t spared me a glance since your...girlfriend tried to absorb him into her skin.”
Rick shook his head. “You saw that, too, huh?” He sighed, loudly. “I have a goddamn ring in my pocket. I feel like the world’s biggest idiot.”
As tight as her stomach was, the implication of what he’d just said made it tighter. “We need to do something. Now. There are only a couple of minutes left.”
“Do something? Like knock his block off?”
She shrugged. “It’s too crowded to take a swing up here. You could hit anyone.”
“My aim’s really good.”
“Umm, has she ever done this before?” Jenna asked.
“Hell, no. Goddamn it, she’d been so casual asking to come to this reunion. Like it was no big deal.”
“I know. I mean, maybe they discovered they’re long lost...siblings?”
Rick gave her a look that made her last hope vanish. “You ever touched your brother like that?” He was practically growling in a very Danger Bond way. It was sexy as hell.
Oh, God.
Something had to be wrong with her brain. Had she really just gotten weak-kneed over the man who wanted to beat up her fiancé? Alcohol was the only answer, even though she felt as sober as a...sober person. “I don’t know. Maybe you could hit him one time. One time wouldn’t be too much.”
Rick retrieved something from his pocket, and for a moment Jenna was afraid it would be a gun or a knife. It wasn’t either, although she had the feeling he would have been handy with both. It turned out to be the ring, of course, and it was stunning. “It’s beautiful,” she said.
“I thought so. I thought she’d think so, too. But then she met... Is he famous or something? Faith never said what he did for a living.”
She sighed. “He’s an accountant.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“I can’t seem to turn away. They just keep doing...” She moved her hand in a vague gesture.
Rick wasn’t looking at her, though. He was tall enough to see over people’s heads. “Shit. She’s a well-respected journalist. She’s won awards. She specializes in covering natural disasters.”
“Like the one we’re having now?” Jenna asked. The shock was wearing off a bit. More precisely, the shock was being shoved aside by a hurt that might be fatal.
“Yeah, except there’s nothing natural about it,” he said, as he put the ring back in his pocket. “Great way to bring in the New Year, huh?”
“I’m trying to think of one thing he could say right now that would fix this.” If only they’d left with Mindy and Zane...
“Hey...” Rick put his hand on her arm. “You okay? You’re looking awfully pale.”
“I’m fine, thanks,” she said, trying to breathe. “And by that I mean I’m not fine in any way. Although I doubt I’m going to faint.”
“Ten...”
The number filled the air, so loud it hushed the huge crowd.
“Nine...”
“Shit,” Rick said again. He took a step closer to Jenna. “If they—”
“Eight...”
“—even try to come back at the last second.” He faced Jenna. “She hasn’t even looked down this corridor. Not one look.”
“Five, four...”
People shifted, the crowd seemed to part, giving her another clear shot of the happy couple for a few seconds. If Payton glanced to his right, he would see her standing next to Rick. But he only had eyes for Faith.
“For fuck’s sake,” Rick said. “All they’d needed to do was walk around a corner. We’d have never known why they’d missed the countdown.”
“Maybe they planned...” They weren’t kissing, but they might as well be.
On the count of three, Rick looked at Jenna again, and she’d never felt so much empathy for another person.
Trying as hard as she could not to cry, she moved right into Rick’s personal space but she couldn’t look away.
“One! Happy New Year!”
Payton leaned closer to Faith. So close there was only one thing it could lead to. One second after Payton’s lips touched Faith’s, Rick put his hand on the back of Jenna’s neck and pulled her into their own midnight kiss.
The moment his mouth touched hers...fireworks.
3
RICK PULLED JENNA closer and kissed her again. He thrust into her mouth as the cacophony around them spurred him on. Even through his tux he could feel her fingers digging into him, her lips and tongue as fierce as weapons, the anger and the heat between them more dangerous by the second.
He hoped they were watching. That prick Payton needed to see what he’d lost. Never in his life had Rick experienced anything like this. In the back of his mind a voice whispered that none of it was real. Soon he would wake up, and the betrayal would have been a nightmare.
Jenna nipped his lower lip and broke that spell. It was real, all right. Revenge built on humiliation and pain, and he didn’t give one damn.
He inhaled sharply as Jenna presse
d against him, against his hardening cock. Good. Great. He pulsed back, but when his balls started to tighten, he pulled away. Not far. He had her by the shoulders and she looked...well, she looked beautiful, but wrecked.
Tears had smudged her makeup, and there was a very small nick in her lower lip. Even though her pupils were blown, he could see the desperation in them. Wanting, he knew, to turn back time. Trying to make some sense of this bizarre twist.
“You want to get out of here?”
She nodded immediately. “Anywhere else.”
When he looked down the packed hallway, the lovebirds had finally stopped kissing and remembered who they’d come with. Payton looked stricken, which was a pity because Rick would’ve liked to have struck him first. Faith looked flat-out guilty.
Whether they’d actually spotted them, Rick couldn’t be sure. But when the two of them began squeezing past people, pushing through the crowd, Rick took Jenna’s hand and he bullied their way to the stairwell.
As the door shut behind them, he paused a moment. “I don’t know if you saw, but they were headed toward us.”
Her phone rang, and she pulled it out of her tiny purse. She shook her head and the sad smile she wore when she turned it off got to him. He much preferred the smile he’d seen at the buffet, when the world had still turned on the right axis. He doubted he’d see that anytime soon.
His phone rang, too. Like Jenna, he turned it off. Just for now? Maybe. He wasn’t in a position to walk away from Faith. Their lives were connected. And as far as he knew, they’d only kissed. That pissed him off all over again.
“Come on, then,” he said. They started down the steps. It wasn’t the quickest getaway ever because a lot of other folks had had the same idea, but they weren’t stalled often. Amazingly, when they made it to the coat check, the line moved along nicely.
Not quickly enough to distract Jenna from her thoughts, though. Her shoulders rose as if they could hide her. If he had a say, he’d keep her so busy for the next couple of hours that she wouldn’t have time to look like that again. “You’re from Boston. Where to?”
She blinked at him, coming out of her hurt, looking surprised to find him holding up her wool coat. “I don’t know,” she said, slipping her arms into the sleeves. “I rarely come downtown or to the harbor.”
“That’s okay.” He hastily shrugged into his coat. “I know where there’s a party.”
Her hands shook as she slid on her gloves. He pulled on his own, and then took her hand. They hurried through the swarm of revelers, some still wearing the silly paper hats the hotel had provided. He wondered how many other hearts had been broken at the stroke of midnight.
The second they were out in the cold, Rick pulled her closer. It was freezing, and there was a huge line of people waiting for taxis, so the train it was. Luckily, it was just across the street.
Inside the terminal the mood was festive despite the terrible smell of overindulgence, but Jenna started shrinking again.
“All right,” he said. “I’m whipping out a cliché, but only because when you mentioned you were a teacher, you lit up. What’s your favorite book?”
The question appeared to win over her despair, and she surprised him with the smile he’d figured was a lost cause. “I do light up, don’t I?” she said. “I know it’s not glamorous, but I love turning the kids on to the magic of books. I honestly believe that being a reader changes lives for the better.”
Oh, yeah. This was more like it. “I agree. But you’re not getting out of answering my question.”
“I get asked that a lot, but I never know what to say. I don’t have a favorite. I learned how to read when I was four. My favorite back then was an alphabet book.”
“How about when you were...fifteen. When the hormones kicked in.”
Their train pulled up, and they scurried into the car, not even minding that they had to stand. “Let’s see if I can remember. Um—” she lowered her lashes for a moment and he fought the urge to wipe away the traces of her tears “—okay, it was All-American Girl by Meg Cabot.”
“Mine, too.”
She laughed.
He wanted to kiss her. And punch Payton into next week.
The moment they’d reached Copley Square, something changed. The light that had sparkled in her seconds ago had dimmed. Rick led her to a shadowed corner. He stared into her sad, confused eyes as he shoved his gloves into his coat pocket. “I didn’t mean to make you cry,” he said and used his thumb to wipe the damp tracks from her cheeks.
She sniffed, but she didn’t make a move. “It wasn’t you. God, every time I think of how he—” A shudder shook her body. “I’ve already picked out my wedding dress.”
“I have no idea what he was thinking. Anyone who could cheat on you is an idiot.”
Jenna tried to smile. “If you were in my class you’d get an A for effort.”
“Nah, I would’ve already flunked out.” Rick grinned at her raised brows. “Too hot for teacher.”
“Faith is the idiot,” Jenna said with a soft laugh, and leaned closer.
Or maybe they both did. He wasn’t going to kiss her, even though he wanted to. But he wouldn’t object at all if she kissed him.
She brushed her lips across his and whispered, “Thank you.”
He caught her elbows and pulled her even closer. She came willingly, her lips parted, her warm breath an invitation he couldn’t refuse.
Everything else dimmed. The noise, the lights, the crowd. They were back to that space, that separate reality. From strangers to this in a single hour.
“Son of a bitch.”
The man’s voice was low and angry. “That’s my spot you’re using. Don’t you be messing up my spot with your nasty business.”
Although he was big and held a large black case that would make an impressive weapon, he looked pissed off, not scary. “Sorry, man,” Rick said. “Wouldn’t dream of trespassing.”
With his arm around Jenna, he walked them out to the edge of the flow of traffic. It must have been the right spot because the busker was pulling a sax from the case, which he left open for tips.
Jenna was frowning into her purse just as Rick pulled out his wallet. “Everything okay?” he asked.
She nodded. “Tiny purses don’t hold much, especially cash on New Year’s Eve.
“I’ve got it covered.”
The music began, jazz, just loud enough and easy, that even the really drunk wouldn’t have a problem with it. He left Jenna’s side for a moment to drop a twenty into the case. When the busker paused, Rick said, “If you can play something to dance to, that’ll double.”
There was no way to tell if the saxophone player would go for it. But the moment Rick reached Jenna, the music segued perfectly into an old Gershwin song, “Embraceable You,” which was one of the best slow-dancing songs ever.
Rick pulled Jenna close, already moving his feet to the music.
“What are you doing?”
“Dancing. In the subway. On New Year’s Day.”
“No, wait,” Jenna said, her words riding a laugh. “I’m a terrible dancer.”
“Nope. Sorry. That excuse is for other nights, other subway stations.”
“That’s fine, but I’d have to be a lot drunker than I am now. So let’s just stop and listen to the nice man’s saxophone.”
Rick moved them into a shadow as other people stopped to listen. It was mostly an older crowd, but that was cool. No one was watching them, though, as he reached inside his coat pocket and brought out two miniature bottles of vodka. He snuck them into her peripheral vision and she barked out such a big laugh people did look. But Rick didn’t care. “Drink up,” he said.
“Seriously?”
He nodded. “I really want to dance with you.”
“But we’re—�
� Jenna looked around as if there were plainclothes cops on the lookout for tiny booze.
“You know what? It’s fine.” He smiled. “We can just go upstairs—”
She plucked one of the bottles from his hand seconds before it would have disappeared in his pocket. Grinning like crazy, she took off her gloves, opened the bottle, lifted it in a silent salute and chugged that sucker down like a pro.
Then she coughed for almost a minute.
By the time she lifted her arms in the traditional slowdance posture, the song had ended. He decided he liked the new one just as much, even though he didn’t recognize it.
They stayed low-key. There were no grand sweeping moves as they danced close, away from the people rushing by. Considering where they were and how many people surrounded them, he was startled that he could smell her. The ultrafeminine scent didn’t surprise him in the least. It completely suited a woman like her. It was a weird thought that meant he might be drunker than he imagined.
The sounds of the trains made it hard to hear all the notes, but the crowd got bigger, and then some other folks started dancing.
He pointed it out to Jenna, and she just beamed. “I love this,” she said, shouting to be heard.
“Me, too.”
While it wasn’t exactly a flash mob, the dancers and the audience were making it difficult to pass through, which brought a cop around to break it up. Rick and Jenna exchanged smiles. She had beautiful shining eyes when she wasn’t crying. No matter what happened next, or even tomorrow, Rick wanted to remember her exactly like this.
* * *
JENNA WALKED INTO the gorgeous Mandarin Oriental hotel, glad to have Rick’s arm around her. It felt different, of course. She’d gotten used to Payton, and how they fit together. This was...unsettling. Because she felt comfortable. As if the difference suited her. Probably because she was tipsy. And pissed. And hurt down to her bones.
