“It’s just a simple country waltz,” she sang. “The kind you hear all the time. So darlin’, let this dance be mine.”
Jess let her eyes rest on Rob as she sang the second verse. “The music pulled us out across the floor. You held me oh so tight.” Her voice caressed the notes as she looked into his eyes.
God, how he wanted her. He wanted to kiss her, to devour her, to fall back on his bed with her, her body underneath his. He wanted to lose himself in her, to hear her cry out his name.
His hands were clasped tightly in front of him on the table, and he looked down, away from her for a moment, closing his eyes briefly. When he looked up, she was still watching him, and he knew she couldn’t help but see the heat in his eyes.
“Your smile, it set my heart on fire,” she sang, her own desire thickening her voice. “I hoped that you’d be mine, and stay and dance with me all night.”
Her eyes were telling him that she was singing this song for him. She was giving him an invitation to become part of her life tonight. But not just tonight. Every night. Jess was not a one-night woman. Her invitation would last from now till death do us part.
Death.
God, if she only knew…
JESS STEPPED OFF the stage and nearly ran right into Stanford Greene.
“Evenin’ Miss Jess,” he said, in his thick southern accent. He was standing much too close—they were nearly nose to nose. His eyes watched her unblinkingly. She was reminded of the baleful stare of his father, sitting in his wheelchair, out on the porch.
“Stan!” she said in surprise. She took a step backward, trying to achieve a more normal distance between them. He never seemed aware of anyone’s personal space. “What are you doing out here?”
He shuffled toward her, his hat in his fat fingers. She moved back another step, bumping against the hard wood of the bar. All this time, and the man still hadn’t blinked.
“Ah came to hear you sing. Mama sent me over. She thought it might be a good thing for me to get to know you a little better. Us both being unwed, you with a small child to raise…”
Jess carefully kept her face neutral. “Oh,” she managed to say.
He leaned closer to her and spoke conspiratorially. “I think she wants a grandkid of her own.” A thin strand of the greasy hair that he kept combed across his bald head was dislodged, and it hung down in front of his left ear, almost to his shoulder.
Jess wasn’t sure what to say. “Well,” she hedged. “That’s nice…”
“Yes, ma’am.” He didn’t move. His watery eyes moved down to her low neckline.
Jess tried hard to keep her voice pleasant. “Um, Stan, have you got a table, a place to sit?”
“No, ma’am. Ah have just arrived.”
Jess grabbed the empty bar stool next to her gratefully, patting the smooth seat. “Well, here you go. Why don’t you sit right here, order yourself something to drink? I’m going to start singing again really soon, and right now I have to go check on…on Kelsey,” she said, clutching at her daughter as an excuse, “so I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Stanford Greene, Jess thought, shaking her head as she made her escape, easing her way through the crowd. Did Mrs. Greene honestly think that Jess and Stan… No, it was too awful to consider. What was that saying—not if he was the last man on earth?
Just as Jess approached Rob and Kelsey’s table, a strong hand seized her above the elbow.
“Jess! Darling! Taking your union break, I see.”
She froze. The slightly bored, cultured voice was unmistakable. She slowly turned around.
Ian. Wearing a Hawaiian shirt unbuttoned nearly all the way, and a scruffy pair of safari shorts. His shoulder-length blond curls looked as if they had exploded around his face, and his pale blue eyes were rimmed with red. Her ex-husband had been drinking.
“Oh, damn.” She quickly glanced at Kelsey. The little girl’s smile had faded, and she was coloring again, giving her book her total, undivided attention.
“A gracious greeting as usual,” Ian said, slipping his arms around her waist. Jess turned her head away before he could kiss her on the mouth. Instead he kissed her just underneath her ear, letting his lips trail down toward her throat.
She tried to break free, but he held her too tightly. “Ian, stop it,” she whispered. If she struggled too hard, there’d be a scene. Lord, if there was one thing she didn’t want tonight, it was one of Ian’s scenes.
“Delicious,” he murmured, still nuzzling her neck. “Absolutely delicious. Don’t you think, Robert?”
Rob. He was coming to her rescue.
“That’s enough, Ian,” Rob said evenly, pulling Jess gently away from the other man.
“Yes, sir,” another man added. “Don’t be obnoxious, Ian.”
It was Frank Madsen—Rob’s friend from his office. No, not his friend—an acquaintance, Rob had called him. Jess hadn’t noticed Frank at first, standing quietly behind Ian.
“You don’t mind if we join you?” Ian asked mockingly, pulling another chair up to the table and sitting down. “You all know Frank Madsen, right? Of course you do. I first met him at one of your gigs, Jess. And he works over at that computer place with Robert, isn’t that correct?”
Jess smiled tightly at Frank as he shook hands briefly with Rob. She had to get Ian and his abusive mouth away from Kelsey. “Actually, Ian, I do mind—”
He tossed a ring with two keys onto the table. “Here are your car keys, Robert,” he said. “Thank you so very much.”
Jess looked up at Rob in surprise. “You lent Ian your car?” she said.
I’m sorry, his eyes said. His arm was still protectively around her, and she felt her pulse quicken from the warmth and solidness of his body next to hers. “He had some kind of emergency,” Rob told her quietly, “and I didn’t need it…. He was going to drop it off tonight, so I called and left a message on his machine that I wouldn’t be home—that I’d be here, with you.”
He clearly hadn’t expected Ian to come all the way out here to return his car—and to hassle Jess. But despite the words of warning he’d given her recently, he obviously didn’t know Ian very well. Certainly not well enough to lend him his car. But Rob was always loaning people his car. Jess remembered a few months ago she’d heard that he’d even let Stanford Greene borrow it.
“I told you just to leave it in the driveway,” Rob said to Ian. “With the key under the mat.”
Ian shrugged expansively. “I thought I’d do you a favor and bring it out here.”
“I have to get ready for my next set,” Jess said abruptly. “And no doubt Ian has someplace else to be…?”
“Actually, no,” he replied, sitting back in his chair and stretching his legs out underneath the table. “Frank and I were just talking, weren’t we, Frank?”
“Ian—” Frank said in a warning voice, shaking his head. He met Jess’s eyes apologetically. He was older than the rest of them, in his midforties at least, with straight golden brown hair and rather nondescript hazel eyes. He was tall, quite a bit over six feet, with a paunch starting out front. He looked like a former football player gone to seed, still quite handsome, but fading around the edges.
“I was wondering just how many men in this place want to make it with my ex-wife,” Ian mused. “I’d guess there are three right here, sitting at this table.”
Kelsey put down her crayons and stared at her father, hostility on her small face.
Rob squeezed Jess’s shoulder, then crossed around to Kelsey, digging several quarters from his pocket. “C’mon, Bug, why don’t you go play a video game?”
“With you?” Kelsey asked hopefully.
Rob glanced across the table. Jess nodded once. Yes. She wanted Kelsey away from there. She could handle Ian, particularly with Frank nearby.
As Rob led Kelsey away, Ian laughed. “Look at that guy, auditioning for the part of ‘Daddy,’” he mocked. “Isn’t that sweet? It makes me want to puke.”
Frank stood uncertainly near the table, unsure whether to sit or stand or leave Jess and her ex-husband alone.
Ian leaned forward. “Can you believe I saw Stanford Greene sitting at the bar?” he said, his voice lowered to a loud stage whisper. “How on earth did you persuade him to leave his mommy’s basement? Really, Jess, he’s not quite your type. I just can’t imagine the two of you together. Well, actually, I can, and it’s really rather hideous—”
Frank made his decision. “Ian, leave Jess alone. Let’s go. I’ll drive you home.”
“Without seeing Jess’s last set? We couldn’t!”
“Yes, sir, we certainly could,” Frank said firmly.
“You go then,” Ian said with a shrug. “I’m staying.”
“Excuse me. My break’s almost over.” Jess smiled one last time at Frank, then escaped into the crowd. When Ian became so absolutely pigheaded, there was no use arguing with him. She could only hope that he wasn’t loaded enough to start heckling her during her set.
She headed toward the bar, hoping to get a cool glass of soda to ease the headache that had started with Ian’s arrival. But she caught sight of Stanford Greene’s unblinking stare directly in her path, and made a quick detour to the stage. There were only a few more minutes before she had to go on, and she might as well spend the time tuning her guitar….
A hand touched her lightly on the back of her neck, and she jumped, spinning around. “Oh! Frank, you startled me!”
“Sorry.” The older man smiled apologetically. “I just wanted to say that I’ll try to keep Ian away from you.”
She looked up into Frank’s kind eyes. “Ian’s not your responsibility.”
Frank shrugged. “It’s not a problem. I’m happy to run interference.” He paused. “You know, Rob gave me a call, to let me know you were playing out here tonight. I guess you got this job sort of last minute, huh?”
“The manager called me just this afternoon.”
Frank nodded slowly. “Good for you,” he said.
Jess gazed across the club, to where she could see Rob’s brown hair near the pair of video games in the corner. “I can’t believe Rob lent Ian his car.”
“Good old Rob.” Frank smiled. “I’ve borrowed his car several times myself in a pinch.”
“He’s very generous,” Jess said.
“Yes, sir, he is, indeed.” Frank hesitated. “I didn’t know you two were…dating.”
Jess smiled. “Tonight’s our first date,” she said. “If you can even call it a date. I mean, Kelsey’s with us, and I’m performing….”
Frank nodded. “Oh. Well, I guess I’ll see you around.”
He turned to go. Jess put her hand on his arm, and it was Frank’s turn to jump.
“Sorry.” She smiled gently at his tense expression. “I just wanted to say, if I don’t see you after the set, thanks for coming. I’ll talk to you soon, okay?”
He nodded. “Okay.”
Jess strapped on her guitar, and sat back up on the stool. From over at the bar, she caught a glimpse of the bartender, Pete, watching her.
All evening long she’d been aware of his pale gray eyes following her around the room.
She met his eyes almost defiantly, and he smiled. Or at least he moved his lips upward in an approximate facsimile of a smile. This was not a man to whom a broad, heartfelt smile was a natural expression. It was strange that Lenny should hire him as a bartender. He normally liked retired bouncers—big, tall men with biceps the size of her thigh. Either that, or Lenny hired out-of-work stand-up comics. This Pete was obviously neither.
He wasn’t skinny, but he was no Arnold Schwarzenegger. As for his sense of humor…well, he was no barrel of laughs, either. There was something strange about him, and it was more than just the way he always seemed to watch her—after all, she was a performer. People were supposed to watch her.
Adjusting her microphone, Jess began to play a soft, soothing instrumental. She closed her eyes and before too long, she lost herself in the music.
HIS BODY WAS HUMMING. Every nerve was stretched tight, taut, ready to snap.
He couldn’t have her.
She was singing. Her beautiful, rich voice washed over him. It should have been calming, peaceful—instead it tore like barbs into his already sensitized skin. And the sound of the applause cut through him like a knife to his brain.
But he couldn’t leave.
Not with the stage lights making her silky dark hair gleam. Not when she looked out over the quiet audience and sang directly to him. For him. She had to be singing for him. He knew that she was.
He couldn’t leave, and he couldn’t stay. He just sat, feeling the rage building, boiling in his veins.
Chapter Four
It was after one o’clock before Jess put her guitar in the trunk of her car.
The parking lot was nearly empty, and inside the Pelican Club the lights were going off, one by one.
Rob was carrying Kelsey, and he gently put the sleeping child into the back seat and fastened the seat belt around her. He backed out of the car, careful not to hit his head, and quietly shut the door.
This wasn’t the way Jess had imagined their evening out would end. They had separate cars—and hers had a sleeping child in the back seat. Odder yet was the fact that if they said good-night here and both went home, they’d end up back at the same house.
Rob was watching her, his face hidden in the shadows.
“Well,” Jess said, to fill the silence. “That was a real circus, wasn’t it?”
He looked away. “I’m sorry about Ian showing up.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have.”
“Well, now you do.”
“I felt bad for Kelsey,” Rob said.
Jess glanced toward the car, where Kelsey was still sleeping, and shook her head. “Ian ignores her,” she said. “It’s unbelievable. He doesn’t even say ‘hi.’ And it hurts her so much. I try to keep him away from her.” She sighed. “That’s not necessarily the answer, but for now, it’s easier for Kelsey.”
“It could be worse.”
They lapsed into silence. Jess could hear the sound of the waves lapping at the dock alongside the restaurant. In the grass and trees, insects buzzed and chirped. Somewhere down the street, a dog barked.
“Well,” she said again. “I’d better get Kelsey home.”
Rob looked up. “Jess, I have to tell you,” he said in a rush of words, “that I can’t…”
But before he could finish, the last of the bright club lights went out, plunging them into sudden darkness.
“…that I can’t do this,” Rob concluded softly.
It was velvet, the darkness—soft and warm and enveloping them totally, cutting them off from the rest of the world and from each other.
“Whoa,” Jess said, reaching out for him, suddenly uncertain which way was up. “It’s dark. Where are you?”
“Here,” he answered. His hand gripped her arm, just above her elbow. “I’m here.”
“Can’t do what?” she asked. “I don’t understand.” His grasp turned into a caress as he ran his fingers up her arm to her shoulder. There were other people on the other side of the parking lot, but the darkness was complete, giving Jess and Rob privacy for the first time all evening.
She stepped forward even as he pulled her into his arms.
“Oh, God,” he breathed, holding her so tightly. “Oh, Jess.”
She could feel the warm solidness of his arms, the hard muscles of his chest, the athletic strength of his thighs. She fit against him perfectly, as if he’d been created with her in mind.
He groaned, and she could feel his arousal growing, pressing unmistakably against her. “I can’t do this,” he said again, his voice hoarse. “I can’t kiss you—”
But then he did. He lowered his head
and took her mouth fiercely, with an intensity that left her breathless. It was a kiss nothing like the gentle brushing of lips they’d shared inside the club. It was a kiss that claimed her, filled her, possessed her.
Jess kissed him back passionately, hungrily, exploring his mouth eagerly as he seemed to inhale her. She’d been wanting to kiss him like this all evening long. She’d been anticipating this incredible rush, this roller-coaster pleasure ride of emotional and physical sensations that she knew kissing Rob would bring.
His hands were in her hair, on her neck, sliding down the bare V-back of her dress, moving down even lower to press her hips closer to him.
And still he kissed her. He kissed her as if there were no tomorrow, as if he, too, had been waiting much too long for this moment.
It was nothing like she’d imagined, and better than her wildest dreams.
Rob was so quiet, so calm, so careful. She’d imagined sweet, gentle kisses, softly whispered questions, asking her permission to touch her, to move each small step beyond a simple kiss.
But he kissed her wildly, relentlessly, his hands sweeping urgently across her body, cupping the curve of her derriere, weighing the swell of her breasts, his thumbs caressing the sensitive, erect points of her nipples. He knew exactly how to touch her to make the heat of desire flood through her, to make her gasp with need and tremble with longing. His thigh pressed insistently between her legs, and she opened herself, pressing the heat of her most intimate place against him.
The rocket of desire that soared through her was so intense, she gripped him harder and kissed him even more deliriously, urging him on.
Urging him on…?
Was it possible that mild-mannered Rob Carpenter was going to make love to her right here, in the darkened parking lot of the Pelican Club?
There was no denying that she wanted him. But not here. Not like this. Not with Kelsey asleep in her car….
No Ordinary Man Page 5
