Rand chuckled at Cayce’s antics, then turned and gave a big, “Aha! I found the culprit.” He reached under Meggie’s lounger and brought out the empty bottle of champagne he had seen lying on its side under her chair.
“There’s another one over here,” Kel said lifting the bottle he found under a damp towel beside Laura’s chair.
“Here’s another!” Cayce whooped.
The three men laughed and then just shook their heads at the state the women were in. “Well, they certainly deserve a little, shall we say, down time?” Kel said. Then added, “C’mon we’d better get them out of their wet bathing suits and into bed.”
“Spoken like a true cad.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I suppose we do,” Rand muttered. “Each one take the one that belongs to them and carry them back to the cave.”
Kel lifted Laura high up into his arms and walked to the open patio doors. “You two take whichever one you want, I’ve got mine,” he joked and then he disappeared into the house with Laura.
On the way up the stairs, her head lolled against his chest and she belched. For a minute he thought she might be getting sick, and he turned mid stride to take her in the opposite direction, toward the bathroom, but her steady breathing assured him that the crisis was over. He carried her into her bedroom, placed her on the bed, and then debated whether he should remove her wet suit or not. It wasn’t much of a debate. He knew he couldn’t leave her this way. He stripped off her suit telling himself not to take in her lovely breasts and incredibly long legs with the fury thatch at their apex, but he didn’t listen to himself. He took a few seconds to admire her lovely skin before covering her with the comforter. Then he took the wet bathing suit into the bathroom and hung it over the bathtub. He heard her moan his name. Uh, oh. She was going to be sick after all. He ran back to the bed and knelt on the floor by her head.
“Laura?” he whispered, “are you okay?”
“Yes. Tried to call you.”
“I didn’t get a message that you had called.”
“Couldn’t find the phone, then I couldn’t remember what I needed it for.”
“Do you now?”
“Yessss!” she said emphatically, still quite drunk and slurring her consonants big time.
“What? What did you need to tell me?”
“I think I’m falling in love with you. But I mustn’t.”
He smiled, his heart careened and his blood warmed. “Why mustn’t you?” he asked.
“I don’t think you believe in happily ever after anymore. And I do.”
“Oh, is that so?” he challenged, then he leaned over and kissed her cheek. “I have to go lock up and make sure the guys get the girls in their cars. Call me if you need anything. I’ll just be downstairs. I’ll turn on the monitor, so I can hear you.”
The men were gone, so were the women, but Joshua was camped out on the sofa. “What the hell?” Kel began, then Cayce came through the front door.
“What? Did you think I could carry them both at one time? And mine got sick on the way.”
“Sorry, no exchanges.”
“Hey, before I forget, Paige keeps saying that there’s something very important you need to know.”
“And what’s that?”
“Danged if I know, every time I ask, she passes out.”
“Great.”
“I’ll call you if I get it out of her.” He hefted Joshua into his arms and headed for the door.
“Seems like you have an instant family.”
“Yeah, and I couldn’t be happier,” he said with a big shit-eating grin.
No sooner had Cayce disappeared before Rand came back through the door. “You got some paper towels?”
“She was sick, too?”
“I think she heard Paige and thought it was a good idea.”
Kel went to the kitchen and got some wet dishtowels and took the roll of paper towels off the holder and handed it to him.
“Thanks. By the way, Meggie keeps saying there’s something you oughta know, but I can’t get her to tell me.”
“Great. They all had a brainstorm, now no one can remember what it was. Let me know if you need more help.”
“Nah, I think I’ve got it under control.”
“You two an item?”
“Trying to be, but the ex won’t let us.”
“You lettin’ that stop you?”
“Hell no!” he said with a big grin as he ran out the door.
Kel closed the door behind Rand, waited until he saw him pull away from the curb, then locked the door. He went out to the pool area and cleaned up, then worked on the kitchen. It appeared that three woman had polished off four bottles of vintage champagne.
He fixed himself a vodka tonic and went into the family room to find out how the game he had been watching had ended. He picked up the remote and spoke out loud, “Well, this certainly turned out to be a fun evening.” But interestingly enough, he was quite content to be here in Laura’s home, knowing she was safe and tucked in upstairs.
Chapter Thirty-six
He jerked awake when his brain registered a low moan; he was on his way up the stairs when he heard the ear-piercing scream. The monitor downstairs had been turned all the way up, so he heard it in stereo as he took the stairs two at a time, reaching the landing in only seconds. Laura! His blood was pounding and his heart was beating frantically as he ran into her room. She was sitting up in bed, white as the sheet she was clutching at her breasts, her tousled hair frizzed in places, and still damp in others. But it was her eyes that gave her fear away. They were huge and unblinking. If he hadn’t known better, he would have thought she’d seen a ghost. The fear that she suspected someone was in the room became evident as her eyes flitted to each corner of the room. He quickly scanned them himself and then checked behind the door.
“Laura, did you see someone?” He asked as he walked toward her. There was something about her posture that made him take things slowly. “What is it? What woke you, honey?”
She blinked then and her head bobbed with the effort. “I saw him. Or at least I think I did.”
“In here?” he croaked, terrified that the killer could have been this close without him even being aware.
“In my dream. An awful dream.” Then she broke down and started crying, soft little sobs that shook her shoulders. Her hands were trembling when she covered her face and sobbed harder.
Kel sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her into his arms. He held her close to his chest and rubbed her back and stroked her long hair. “Shhh, it’s okay. It was only a dream, none of it was real. Just your imagination, sometimes alcohol does that. It makes things seem real even when they’re not.”
“It was horrible Kel. He was the most despicable man. He made us do things. It was—” her voice broke on a sob and she had to fight to get a breath.
“Breathe, Laura. Concentrate on bringing one breath in, then letting it out. Deeper,” he coached and he breathed with her until she had her rhythm back.
“It was the worst nightmare I have ever had Kel, and over the years I’ve had some doozies. This one was really horrible.”
“Well, my mother used to tell me that if you turned on all the lights and shared the bad thoughts, that they would go away and never bother you again.”
“I wouldn’t want to wish this dream on anyone else.”
“C’mon, tell me all about it. It’ll make you feel better. The monsters seem smaller and more manageable when there’s a united front.” He got up and turned the overhead light on and then the two lamps on the nightstands. The room was glaringly bright, but Laura had to admit that she instantly felt better.
Then Kel found her bathrobe on the
hook behind the bathroom door and handed it to her. “Let’s get you warm first, you’re shivering.”
She hadn’t even noticed. But now she even had goose bumps. He turned his back and she slipped the robe on and tied the belt. “Okay.”
He turned back and slid into the bed with her, settling his back against the headboard. Then he drew her back against his chest and held her close. “Okay, tell me about your dream. And don’t leave out anything or it’ll come back to spook you. Time to purge.”
She took a deep breath and he could feel her chest rise and fall as he snuggled her back even more securely against his chest. Her breasts, resting on his arm, felt soft, full and warm under the fabric of her robe. When she didn’t say anything he, prodded, “It began . . . .”
“I was in Lifeguard Class. I actually was in my junior year of college. It was late at night; we were all there for testing for our certification, seven of us. I can actually see the faces of every person who had been in that class, four girls and three boys. Our instructor never showed up. In the dream we had all received an e-mail to be there at ten o’clock if we wanted to be certified. So there we were in our bathing suits waiting for the teacher. But the man who showed up wasn’t the teacher. He was evil. He was despicable. He was ugly and vile.”
“What did he do?”
“He showed us a gun and fired it into the water to show us that it was loaded. He told us he had no problem with the idea of shooting us and throwing us in the pool to see how red he could make the water. In fact, he said he rather liked the idea, that it sounded like great fun. He had a horrible laugh—eerie and high-pitched, like the Joker in Batman.
“He made us line up in front of the pool. The girls had to drop the straps on their suits and bare their breasts. It was horrible Kel, everybody was looking at me. Even the boys who were just as scared as we were couldn’t help looking, and he was leering. Then he walked down the row fondling us, pulling hard on our nipples. It hurt. It hurt really badly. I can almost feel it now, it hurt so badly in the dream, I think I moaned.”
He watched as she moved one hand over both her breasts palming the nipples through her robe, testing them for soreness. He should not be getting hard at a time like this!
“Then he walked down the line pulling out the waistbands of the boys’ trunks and looking down at them. He made crude remarks about their size. He laughed at one boy who’d been in the pool earlier whose penis had shrunk from the cold water. He said we all had to see this tiny thing and he pulled the boy’s trunks down and made us all look at his shriveled penis. His name was Kevin, and I remember he started shaking and crying.
“Then he said he wanted to watch us all have sex together. He paired us up, but we were one boy short, so he picked me for himself. He looked me in the eye and said, ‘It would really be nice if you were a virgin, because I haven’t had one of them in a long, long, time.’ Then as he took out a knife and cut off my suit, he leaned in and whispered, ‘Or are you a tramp? Time will tell, time will tell,’ he hissed. Then he laughed and rammed a finger inside me. I think that might have been when I screamed.”
“Good God Laura, that’s awful! Your recall is astounding though. Are you sure this isn’t some kind of repressed memory?”
He felt and saw her shake her head. “No, just a bad dream. I can never seem to recall the good ones this well, but the bad ones,” she shuddered, “well the bad ones, they’re vivid, aren’t they?”
“Yeah,” he agreed as he pulled her even closer and stroked her from her hip to her shoulder. “I can see why you’re so upset. But let’s take this logically. Your subconscious takes a big hand in these kinds of things. You’re obviously still thinking about the Hilton thing, and you might as well face it, you’re probably going to be thinking about that off and on for the rest of your life. You need to find a way to deal with it. If nothing else, be proud—you’re a beautiful woman. If half the women in that ballroom had breasts like yours, they’d have all been up on that stage strutting and showing themselves off. And take it from me, when men talk about you and that incident, it’ll only be because they were pleased with what they saw. When the women talk, it’ll be out of jealousy. Trust me on this babe, few women have what you have, that have come by it naturally. So turn the table, don’t be embarrassed, be brassy and proud of your body. For the rest of it, you probably hate the idea that a man, any man can have control over your body. You’re never going to get over the revulsion of the things you had to do that night at the Jefferson. No matter what goes on in your life, that night will always haunt you and give you nightmares. You gave up all your control, and you hate that. But remember, you did it willingly for Kayla. Never forget that. You always have the control, you just have to decide if you want to give it up for something more important. And for whatever it means to you, I think you did the right thing all around. I’m very proud of you. You should not entertain any thoughts of shame. You did what you had to.” Then he chuckled and squeezed her hard. “And you did it remarkably well!” He kissed her at her hairline, on her temple.
“Thanks, Kel. I feel much better. The light thing really helps. I’ll have to remember that with Kayla.”
“Yeah, she’s going to have some doozies over the years, too.”
“I wish you could be around to handle them.”
“That can be arranged,” he said with a grin. But when he turned to look into her face, she didn’t have the look he expected her to have. She looked sad, and desolate.
“I’m not the type to have an affair, Kel.”
“I know,” he whispered into her hair.
“And you’re not the type to consider marriage.” She’d said it as a statement, and he couldn’t argue with it. He had never considered it and probably never would. And since he couldn’t refute it, he didn’t say anything.
“So, where does that leave us?” she asked.
“I’m not sure.”
There was silence for a few minutes, then Kel whispered, “Are you sure you’re not the type to have an affair, a very, very discreet one?”
She chuckled. After another minute of silence she finally spoke. “Remember I once asked you if you were one of those men who needed variety?”
“Yes. I remember.”
“Well, are you? Are you one of those men, Kel?”
“No. I think I’ve had enough variety. I’m ready for a steady diet now, something that can grow and get better with time.”
“Well, that would be hard for us, wouldn’t it?”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because I don’t think it can ever be better than it was that night, even with all the stress. That night at the Jefferson has to be as good as it gets. It was the best I’ve ever had.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised,” he said as he turned her into his body. He cupped her neck and drew her close. As his lips descended to hers, he murmured, “Let me show you just how much better it can be when my mind’s on nothing but pleasing you.”
She allowed the scorching kiss. Who could resist those lips that parted hers so softly or that tongue that circled and dipped and lapped? But when his hand went between the opening folds of her robe and lightly stroked her belly, she had to stop him.
“Kel, we can’t.”
“Why can’t we?” he breathed, in a devil-may-care voice as his lips moved from her lips to her throat. “It’s not like we haven’t already done it before.”
His lips were working their way lower when he heard her say, “I need more than you can give me, and we both know it.”
“When I removed your bathing suit,” he murmured as he continued toward her breast, “I wanted so badly to do this.” A split second later she arched and gasped as he captured her nipple in his mouth.
When he released her, he whispered, “I want you, Laura.”
“Kel?”
“Yes?”
“I think I’m going to be sick.”
He leapt off the bed and ran for the bathroom trash can, but he didn’t make it in time. With a great deal of sarcasm he said, “So you’ve stumbled onto one of my favorite pastimes, changing a woman’s bed linens in the middle of the night when I didn’t have anything to do with getting them soiled.”
He lifted her off the bed and deposited her by the bathroom.
“Where are the fresh linens?” he asked.
“You don’t have to do this Kel.”
“Yes, I do. You take care of yourself,” he said using his hand to shoo her toward the bathroom, “and I’ll take care of this.” He bent to strip the bed.
“Thanks, Kel. The sheets are in the closet in the main bath at the end of the hall.”
He made it to the doorway before she called him back. She was behind the closed bathroom door.
“I remembered the thing I was supposed to tell you. Paige, Meggie, and I discovered the link we have to each other. We went to the same spa.”
Kel dropped the dirty linens and stared slack-jawed at the closed bathroom door.
Chapter Thirty-seven
Meggie, you can’t keep avoiding the issue. Not anymore. You’re going to have to tell him point blank that there’s absolutely no chance for him. He thinks as long as he can use these little machinations against me that I won’t want to have anything to do with you. And it’s not true. I won’t give you up, so stop fighting it. I’m tired of his little games, I want to see you.”
“Rand, I’m afraid if he sees us together—or God-forbid if he’s hired some kind of private detective to keep an eye on me—that he’ll come to the hospital and get you in trouble, or that he’ll find a way to run into you somewhere and hurt you.”
Worth Any Price Page 28
