The Scale (Martha's Way)

by Mika Jolie

  He was about to kiss her again; only this time she was one hundred percent sober. Minka toyed with the idea of begging him to have a little mercy on her. But she didn’t, instead her long lashes fluttered when he paused for a mere second.

  Then he was kissing her, another mind-blowing kiss. His lips felt just as great as they had last night, if not better. Minka heard a soft noise from her throat as he deepened his hold on her.

  Against her lips, he whispered, “God, you feel good.” His voice was raspy as he spoke the words, the heat of his mouth caressing her lips. “Let’s go back to bed.”

  She wanted to, oh how she really wanted to go back to bed with him one last time.

  “I really have to go. I promised Keely I’d go to her fitting with her.” Where she found the voice to speak, Minka wasn’t sure.

  “Otherwise you would have stayed,” he challenged, still standing way too close to her, his lips too close.

  “Yes, probably.” He raised an eyebrow. “Yes,” she admitted. At least for one last time, she would have stayed.

  He nodded and took a few steps back away from her, seeming to understand her dilemma. The space unexpectedly left her feeling empty.

  He walked over to the bedroom door and opened it. She quietly followed him as he led her down the spiral mahogany stairs. The house, she realized, was quite large with a certain charm. A Victorian style house that was clearly a work-in-progress, with what appeared to be freshly stained and finished floors, newly painted walls and sparse furniture. With the exception of his bedroom and the big leather sofa in the living room accompanied by a big screen television, it didn’t look like any other furniture had been purchased.

  She wondered who was actually behind the man and why he lived in this big old house alone. Was he coming fresh off a relationship, perhaps a divorce? And if so, had he gotten his heart broken or had he been the heartbreaker? Minka decided it was probably the latter.

  “So, should we try this again?”

  Lost in her thoughts, the question caught her off-guard and she bumped into him. Her hands landed on his bare chest and stayed there for a second too long. She really should have insisted he put a shirt on as well. Not that the sexy, thigh-hugging boxers were helping much.

  “We should try this again,” he repeated, but not as a question this time. “I want to see you again, Minka.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Because…”

  Okay, so he was persistent.

  Because next time, there won’t be any alcohol. Because next time you will see I’m not built like a model. Because next time, I won’t be good enough.

  “Because whatever kinky sex we had was induced by alcohol, and that wasn’t me,” she said instead. Her voice sounded almost remorseful.

  “I was sober. So were you,” he said gently, looking at her with such intensity Minka wanted to run and hide.

  “I had a few drinks.” Two to be exact, nothing that could have clouded her judgment.

  “Then I think you owe it to us to try it once more, not drunk.”

  He didn’t wait for her to agree or disagree; he lowered his head to kiss her again, a soft, delicate kiss that left her breathless. The thought of blowing off her sister crossed her mind. She could use a few more hours without having to feign happiness. The vibration of her phone brought her back to reality. Sadly, she pulled out of his hold to retrieve the phone inside her purse. Upon seeing who the caller was, she answered the phone.

  “What’s on your agenda today? Tell me the MOH slept with the best man.” Lily’s voice was filled with humor on the other end of the line. Minka couldn’t help but smile.

  “Lily, can I call you back? I, um…I have to get in my car.”

  There was a slight pause on the other end of the phone, then her friend burst into full laughter. “OemGee!”

  Miserable, Minka rubbed her free hand over her face.

  “You’re still with him, aren’t you?”

  She glanced over at Jason. He was now leaning against the wall in hallway with his arms crossed over his chest, the tattoos on his bicep giving prominence to tight muscles. She looked away.

  “Yes,” she responded. “I’m on my way to meet Keely.”

  “From Jason’s,” Lily said on the other end of the phone. Her voice filled with mischief. “Damn, Minka, I’m so proud of you.”

  At the same time, Jason pushed himself from the wall and disappeared down the hall.

  “You needed to have a good time.”

  Well, she had a good time, all right.

  Minka glanced at her watch; she had twenty minutes to make it to downtown into Oak Bluffs to meet her sister. “I’ll call you later tonight.”

  Lily let out a chuckle. “You bet. I want to hear all about your wild night and don’t leave out any dirty details.”

  “I promise.”

  At that moment, Jason reappeared. To her relief he now had on a pair of worn sweatpants. She caught a glimpse of his chest again, and her stomach did a little dance of pleasure. “Lily, I have to go. I’ll call you later and thank you for checking up on me.”

  After she ended the call, Minka searched through her purse for her keys. She needed to get out of the house and as far away from Jason as possible. Her body froze as his hands covered hers to take the purse away from her. She had no choice but to look up at him.

  “What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?”

  Beautiful. The man was obviously crazy. First he asked to see her again and now he was calling her beautiful. Okay, he said she had a beautiful head, but that was close.

  “I have to go.”

  A small smile escaped his lips. “Yes, you keep saying that.”

  That was true. She had said that several times, but the fact that he pointed it out annoyed her so she turned on her heels and walked down the hall to the front door, feeling his presence behind her the whole time.

  She turned to face him. Her eyes filled with daggers. “Do you have my keys?”

  He reached into his pocket, retrieved the keys and handed them to her along with a small card. It took all of her good manners not to snatch them from him.

  “I want to see you again,” he persisted.

  The man was obviously crazy. “I can’t.”

  “Don’t forget you and I will see plenty of each other for the next two weeks.” He challenged while closing the space between them. “So really how far can you run?” he whispered.

  He stood way too close, and his lips were sinfully too close as well. Her lips parted, ready for his kiss. Only he didn’t kiss her. Instead he stepped back to give her enough space to leave.

  As she stepped on the porch, she almost crashed into a large man about Jason’s height with piercing blue eyes similar to his, only he had sandy brown hair covered with flecks of gray. He looked to be in his mid to late fifties. She glanced back at Jason. The two men stood staring at each other. Neither looked particularly happy. Then the older man, whom she guessed to be Jason’s father, turned his eyes on her. He examined her for a few minutes.

  “She’s not your type.”

  “You’re not welcome here, Dad,” Jason said.

  A nervous knot formed in the pit of her stomach. His father was right. She wasn’t his type. Standing there with the two men, Minka knew she was out of her league. She turned and walked past his father to her car. She felt Jason watching her the whole time but she didn’t turn to look back.

  Minka let out a deep breath once she was safe in her car.

  What had gotten into her?

  Going to bed with a man like Jason Montgomery could only land her in trouble. For all she knew, he could have been a murderer and she could have ended up in a body bag somewhere. She hadn’t been that lucky. Instead he screwed her brains out.

  Regaining her composure, she opened her hand to examine the thin card where he had given her his home and cell numbers.

  Had she been that good?

  She thought about tearing the paper into tiny piece
s to eliminate any possibility of ever looking at it again. Instead, she tossed it inside her Yves St Laurent bag, turned on the ignition of her black Audi and drove away.

  Chapter Seven

  “What kind of scale compares the weight of two beauties, the gravity of duties, or the ground of speed of joy?”

  Ani Difranco

  Jason stood by the door until the sleek black Audi made a left turn at the corner and disappeared from view. An odd emptiness rose inside him. He was aware of his father watching him but chose to ignore the older man. It had been five years since he’d stood in the same room with his father and wished the man would go back to his big mansion on the island of Chappaquiddick.

  He knew the reason for this visit. Although the two men were not active in each other’s lives, he kept tabs on his father. Not by choice, but that happened when you lived on an island with a population of barely fifteen-thousand people. The locals’ ideal pastime was to keep track of who was sleeping with whom, which celebrity was building a new mansion and what the Montgomery boys, as they were referred, were up to. Martha’s Vineyard was home of the Kennedys and Charles Montgomery. Jason considered himself guilty by association. Fate was a bitch.

  “Why are you wasting your time remodeling this place? It’s an abandoned house.” Charles’ voice echoed in the empty hallway.

  Jason walked past his father into the kitchen. Footsteps echoed close behind. He turned to check out what the old man was up to and caught his father staring at the picture of his deceased wife.

  “This house belonged to my mother. I decided to expand it,” Jason answered. He didn’t need to explain but what the hell.

  “Waste of money.”

  Jason shrugged. “Since whatever I spend I’ve earned, I guess it’s none of your business how I choose to spend it.”

  “How long do you intend to keep this up?”

  The old man would never get the picture. “Keep what up?”

  Charles waved his hands in the room. “This need to prove you are independent and I can’t tell you what to do.”

  “What do you want?” he asked, grabbing a bottled water out of the fridge. He twisted off the cap and gulped down a swallow.

  Charles walked to the large French doors leading to the wrap-around porch. He stood there for a moment with his back to the room, exuding supreme confidence.

  Leaning against the kitchen counter, Jason watched his father. Charles Montgomery had an aura about him. He was fifty-eight with very little gray hair. The two men were the same height, while his father was not as lean as he once was; the years had added a few pounds on his frame. It was not to his detriment, however. If possible, the bulk made him look more daunting and even more charismatic.

  “I’m divorcing Agnes.”

  Jason waited. This fact he already knew.

  “She’s coming after you,” his father announced. He turned and their gazes collided.

  “I assume you mean for money.” It made sense for Agnes to try to come after him for more financial gain. He’d worked closely with his father in his firm. The woman probably thought his father was using him to stash some cash away from her. Ha! The thought almost made him laugh.

  Charles nodded, confirming his statement.

  Jason processed the information. He didn’t want to be dragged into their mess but he would deal with it if it ever came to that. “The last time I saw Agnes, you had your pants down and her legs were up in the air…on your desk.”

  The words hung in the air. Father and son stared at each other, neither willing to back down. Jason’s cell phone rang in his pocket. He reached and glanced at Rita’s number. Pressing decline, he placed the phone on the counter.

  “Is she your new toy?”

  For a moment Jason was confused, then he realized his father thought the call was from Minka. “I don’t have toys, Dad. I have sex with women. I promise them nothing. I don’t take vows and break them.” He glared at his father. “Or murder them for that matter.”

  “Your mother made a mistake. It’s unfortunate she died.”

  To Jason’s ears, his father’s words sounded mechanical and unfeeling. In the world of lawyers, business negotiations, he was known as shrewd and callous, but the indifference in his father’s attitude toward his mother made him want to heave, fueling the anger he’d been carrying for the last five years.

  “You killed her spirit the day you decided you needed a fresher, younger woman in your bed,” he spat out. “For a whore.” He paused and sneered. “Just the same, Dad.”

  A bitter silence fell over the room. Five years of tension hung in the air.

  “I appreciate you came all the way here to warn me of Agnes’ intent. I’ll be sure to get a lawyer.” His father was smart. He knew when he was being dismissed. Jason guessed any minute he would march out of the room and out of his life once more.

  “Son, I need a favor.”

  Those were words he didn’t expect. Jason crossed his arms over his chest and waited.

  “I need you to represent me.”

  “I’m not a lawyer.”

  “Your license is in good standing,” Charles pointed out.

  “For personal satisfaction.”

  “Come to my office tomorrow at nine,” his father ordered in typical Charles Montgomery fashion.

  Not one to take commands from anyone, Jason asked, “Why? I don’t work there anymore.”

  Blue eyes identical to Jason’s stayed on him. “You’ll represent me through this divorce. We’ll talk more tomorrow.” His father walked past him, stopped by the door and looked back. “The woman who just left.”

  “She’s none of your business.”

  His father continued to look at him. Then he smiled, almost a victorious smile. “Be careful with her, son. She has that vibe that men fall for. I will see you tomorrow at nine.”

  Ordinarily, he’d fight the older man till he turned blue, but Jason wasn’t in the mood. So he nodded. He’d entertain his father, then tell him what he had been telling him for the last five years. He was done with working with him, or for him.

  Once his father closed the door, Jason went back to his bedroom. His gaze automatically came to rest on the empty bed, making him relive what had transpired between him and Minka. His body ached for her, which surprised him, considering she had just left his house after a night of very little sleep. Normally Jason would be content and go about his business, but for some odd reason he wished she had chosen to stay in bed with him for the day. He shook the images out of his head. This was nonsense. He needed a good run to clear his mind.

  He glanced at the sweatpants he slipped into earlier. He’d be too warm in those. Opening the dresser, he pulled out his Alma Mater Harvard basketball shorts and his favorite Rolling Stones tee. Downstairs he found his sneakers in the empty hallway closet. As he slipped into the worn running shoes, his phone rang from the kitchen counter where he’d left it earlier.

  He immediately thought of Minka. He gave her his cell phone number and all other numbers where she could reach him before she left. He hoped it was her calling, but he knew better. Nonetheless he walked into the kitchen to retrieve the phone then glanced at the text message.

  Hello, want to meet for…brunch?

  He studied the words. The hidden message in the text was evident. Rita had either redefined her meaning of a relationship or perhaps she was going to settle with the way they had been. Neither option sat well with him. Funny, he thought, last night when he visited her, his intention was to lose himself in her then go home physically exhausted. Instead, he was blindsided by a reluctant beauty that blew his mind and left him yearning for more.

  Picking up the small iPhone, Jason keyed in his password to respond to the text.

  Hey there, thought about what you said. You were right in voicing what you want. Unfortunately, I can’t provide that. Take care of yourself, Rita. Jay.

  And just like that, he closed the door to any distraction Rita had provided in the past. He continue
d to stare at the cell phone. He knew Minka wouldn’t call him. Something or someone had driven her into his arms last night. However, as good as the night had been, his instincts told him to accept it for what it was and move on.

  Since discovering the joys of the opposite sex at the tender age of fifteen, he’d never had to chase a woman and had no intention of starting now. But his body betrayed him. He wanted her still.

  During the next two weeks, they would see plenty of each other. Her sister was marrying one of his closest friends, spending time together was inevitable. Somehow he had to convince her to sleep with him at least once more—just to get her out of his system.

  * * * *

  For a split second, Minka took her eyes off the road to glance at the famous beach known as The Inkwell. State Road, the main road in Oak Bluffs, was busy with beachgoers, cyclists, joggers, and newcomers arriving on The Vineyard. Her sister had warned her parking in the area was sparse. She allowed the car to slow down, circling around Waban Park until she found a parking space.

  Before stepping out of the car, she took one quick glance at her reflection in the rear view mirror. She looked like a wet poodle. Wild, frizzy curls splattered across her forehead, streaks of overnight makeup creased over her eyelids, her lips appeared pale and swollen. She ran long fingers over her lips. She looked exhausted, battered, and erotic all at once.

  A vision of Jason nibbling on her nipples raced through her mind. Sweeping all thought of him aside, she stepped out of the car and placed the necessary change into the parking meter. The meter ticked to sixty minutes, which meant she had one hour to dine with her sister and feign interest over her big day. Minka let out a slow breath, thirty minutes would have sufficed.

  As she hurried across the popular park known for having live music at night, she took in Blake’s hometown and admired the fairy tale-like town. Lovers, family, and friends filled the campground famous for summer night concerts, lectures, Sunday services, Grand Illumination Night and fireworks in August, an event she had read about and hoped to witness some day