Garden of Dreams

by Patricia Rice

  She grimaced. “I saw my mother, and the damned Mercedes followed me.” Her voice wavered, and she hurriedly slid off the bed as if to escape.

  JD jumped up to prevent her. She seemed so small and frail, he feared she would crumble right before his eyes. He couldn’t deal with tears. And he couldn’t distinguish between his terror of her tears and the terror of her announcement about the Mercedes.

  So he did the only thing that came naturally to him. He pulled her into his arms, and kissed her.

  Chapter 16

  Lord God in heaven above, JD blasphemed silently as Nina sank into him as naturally as a hot breeze on a summer day. He wrapped his arms hard around her and pulled her up against him so he could delve deeper into her kiss. She weighed no more than that ephemeral breeze. He feared she would disappear just as easily. He knew better than to catch the wind.

  He tasted the salt of her tears on her lips, but that didn’t stop him. Her lips parted so willingly beneath his that he couldn’t have stopped now even had he wanted. And he most certainly didn’t want any such insane thing. He wanted to climb in and crawl around and make her so entirely his that she would never escape again. JD taunted her tongue with his and nearly groaned as the blood surged in his groin at Nina’s tentative response.

  Her slender arms slipped around his back, and he exploded at the stroke of her soft palms through the T-shirt. Yanking her from her feet, he demanded more of her mouth, ravishing it as thoroughly as he needed to take the rest of her. She moaned, quivering slightly but moving against him in all the right places. Her hands clung now instead of stroking, and he could feel the heated desperation of her kiss.

  Satisfied that the lust wasn’t all on his part, JD indulged in the pleasure of sliding his hand beneath the loose bodice of her dress, caressing the pert breasts she hid there. She wasn’t so small as he had imagined. She filled his palm like a plump California peach, a peach that wouldn’t bruise when he squeezed it. The sigh she emitted at this caress heated his blood beyond boiling. Touching wasn’t enough. He needed so much more it scared the hell out of him.

  “Nina,” he growled against her mouth, instinct demanding that he ravish her while the time was ripe, conscience nagging that she wasn’t the kind of woman who would treat sex lightly. JD cupped her breast through the tight ribbed shirt and stroked the pointed nipple. Her arousal heightened his. “Nina, I want you now. Tell me yes.”

  She moaned helplessly in reply, arching her breast into his hand and letting him fill her mouth with his tongue again. He couldn’t hold out much longer. With other women, he could pet and tease half the night away. Not with this one. He needed her sprawled across the bed and wrapped around him, raising herself wantonly to his plunge. He couldn’t remember ever being aroused to the point of savagery.

  When she made no protest, JD cupped her buttocks and carried her to the high bed, settling her on the edge while he tormented her more with his tongue. Her legs parted, allowing him closer. Giving up any claim to conscience, he leaned over her, pushing her down into the soft mattress, propping his hands on either side of her head. Elation at conquering his prey shot through him as she not only accepted this position, but wrapped her hands in his hair.

  He ignored the clamor of the downstairs door knocker. Whoever it was could come back later. He didn’t give a damn about Nina’s tears or her aunt Hattie or her missing mother. Desire alone drove him. He wanted all this flowery cotton out of the way so he could sink his fingers into naked flesh. He could almost feel the satiny softness now. She wore no restricting undergarments beneath her flimsy bodice. JD caught her long skirt in his fist and yanked it upward.

  The knocker pounded more imperatively. Cursing, JD slid his hand along a silken thigh and was rewarded with the urgent cry of “JD!” as Nina pulled her mouth from his and brushed her hips upward. He was almost there. The heat of her skin burned his hand. Just a few minutes more. His fingers slipped beneath the elastic of her panties.

  “JD! No, stop! No!”

  Those weren’t the words he wanted to hear. All thought processes blurred with the driving need of hormones; JD didn’t heed the warning but dipped his fingers into the moist heat of her. Nina arched against him with a cry, but her fingers dug into his arms as she uttered another feeble protest.

  The knocker continued pounding.

  And then the back door slammed, and Jackie’s voice carried up the stairwell. “Someone’s at the front door! Anyone home? Miss Toon, you there? Want me to answer it?”

  Nina jerked upright and out of JD’s grasp.

  “Shit. Damn.” Insides roiling, JD pulled back. The pain of unquenched desire enveloped him, and he closed his eyes against the sexily rumpled wood sprite on the bed. He couldn’t look at those wounded green eyes as she scrambled away from him. Damn Jackie. Damn this town full of Andy Griffith look-alikes. Damn the whole rest of the world. Why couldn’t he enjoy just this one simple pleasure before the whole universe toppled down on him?

  He collapsed against the mattress as Nina brushed past him. Even with his eyes closed, he could see her nervously pressing at her dress, rumpling her hair even more as she attempted to right the damage he’d done. It couldn’t be done. She couldn’t wish away her kiss-swollen lips or the dazed glaze of her eyes. JD opened his eyes and admired the splendid sight of the intrepid Miss Toon mussed from his lovemaking.

  “We could lock the door,” he suggested, knowing full well her response to that yet wanting to see her flush. Idly, he wondered if she understood just how close he’d come to losing it completely. She didn’t seem particularly triumphant at her conquest. Mostly, she looked very flustered.

  “I’ll answer the door,” she said nervously, still pawing at her hair as she opened the bedroom door.

  Since he could hear Jackie talking to the visitor, JD thought that a flimsy excuse for leaving, but he understood her need for escape. He was pretty rattled himself. He wasn’t precisely certain what had happened here. He just knew he wasn’t ready for it to end. His whole body ached when she slipped away. His head pounded once she was out of reach and his mind functioned again. She’d said the Mercedes had followed her. JD shut his eyes and groaned.

  ***

  Utterly terrified by what she had almost done, Nina walked down the dark hallway, readjusting to the real world of gloomy shadows. For a few moments, the world had shone with light and glory and an all-encompassing happiness that still left traces in her soul. She’d never felt like that in her life. She could still taste JD’s lips against her own, and his hand had seared a permanent brand against body parts that embarrassed her just thinking about. For a few minutes, joy had ruptured the husk of her narrow life.

  But then, she’d once believed in Santa Claus, too.

  Realizing Jackie stood in the doorway, keeping the visitor on the front porch, Nina hurried to correct that inhospitable situation. The interruption might have irritated her, but she supposed it had been timely. The thought of how far she might have gone if the real world hadn’t intruded... Her visitor deserved some measure of appreciation in return.

  Not until Jackie stepped aside and she had a full view of the person standing on the porch did Nina remember why she had tried so desperately to drown in JD’s kisses—her mother.

  The woman glanced up as Nina faltered on the last few steps. The gauzy broad-brimmed hat sheltered her face in shadows, but Nina could see her own eyes in this woman’s, see the narrow bones of her face, the delicate line of her jaw. Aunt Hattie had often remarked on her resemblance, and there were all the old pictures in the photo album. Even twenty years couldn’t erase the likeness. It would have been simpler if she’d gained fifty pounds and waddled like a duck, but she looked the same, only a little older, with a little more flesh sagging about her chin and harsher lines around her eyes.

  “Nina,” the woman said as she approached, her inflection revealing none of her thoughts. “Am I intruding?”

  Nina flushed, certain that everything she had done these last few
minutes was spelled out across her face. Even Jackie gave her a quizzical look. Curtly, she said the first thing that came to mind. “What are you doing here?”

  The woman looked slightly taken aback. Nina couldn’t think of her as “mother.” Aunt Hattie had been the only mother she knew. The arrangement hadn’t always been satisfactory. Hattie had often been annoyed by a young child’s energetic rambunctiousness. Nina had wished for a younger woman to understand her teenage angst. But they’d worked around the bumps. They loved each other. This woman had no such claim.

  “I’m sorry. I...” The woman twisted the handle of her purse, gazing from Jackie back to Nina. She needed only short white gloves to complete the picture of fifties matron. She had so obviously dressed for the occasion that Nina almost felt sorry for her. And then the woman glanced over Nina’s shoulder at the stairs behind her, and Nina’s heart hardened.

  She turned and watched the man striding down the stairway, only a slight catch to his walk betraying his injured foot. JD had tucked his shirt back in his pants and brushed his hair out of his eyes, but nothing could disguise the blatantly masculine and proprietary way he looked at her. Though the heat of his gaze blazed up and down her spine, she was almost grateful for his chauvinistic presence at the moment. She didn’t want to handle this situation on her own.

  “Unless she’s selling cosmetics, perhaps you should invite your visitor in?” he suggested, steering Nina from the doorway where she had supplanted Jackie in blocking the entrance.

  The boy watched with curiosity. Nina would have liked it if the earth had just opened up and swallowed her whole, but without such a miracle, she had no other choice. She nodded toward the living room. “Come in, please. Would you like some iced tea?”

  Without waiting for a reply, Nina hurried toward the kitchen, leaving JD to see her guest seated. He didn’t remain there long. Apparently leaving Jackie to entertain the visitor, he appeared in the kitchen just as Nina reached in the freezer for ice.

  “I’ll get that. You’d better go in there and see what she wants. In my experience, people don’t return from your past without a reason.”

  That utterly sensible, immensely pragmatic statement instantly purged all Nina’s nervousness. Glancing up at JD’s rock-solid form and impassive expression, she nodded agreement with some amount of wonder. He had taken an emotionally devastating situation and turned it into a practical problem akin to mathematics.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m being overly dramatic. I’ll see what she wants.”

  Nina started to leave the kitchen, but JD stopped her by brushing her cheek. The affection of the gesture astounded her, making her go soft and warm inside.

  “You’re so beautiful, she must seriously regret leaving you behind. Feel sorry for her for missing all those years she could have enjoyed with someone as special as you.”

  The smooth-tongued con man spoke again, but Nina needed to hear those words, to feel them deep down inside her. She had little or no confidence on her own. JD gave her what she needed. With a small smile of thanks, she escaped his hold and went to meet the mother she had never known.

  “Yeah, I really like computers. My mom won’t let me have wifi, but JD promised to let me surf the Internet when we get home. He says there’s no net access here and we can’t run up Miss Toon’s phone bills right now.”

  Jackie’s voice carried down the hall, and Nina smiled at his enthusiasm. She hoped JD and the boy’s mother worked out their differences so Jackie could have the father he so obviously needed. Whatever JD might be, he would make a good father. She didn’t know how she knew that. Motorcycle bums and con artists weren’t her idea of good fathers.

  Her mother’s gaze instantly traveled to Nina as she entered the room. Nina gave Jackie’s long hair a quick brush and smiled at the boy’s flush. “JD’s bringing out the tea. Why don’t you go see if there’s anything to eat? You must be starved after camping out all night.”

  Jackie popped out of the chair with alacrity. “I’m about to die. Laddie ate all the peanut butter.”

  Nina felt a tug of dismay at the affection she felt for the boy. She’d always wanted children. She’d just never wanted them enough to marry. She turned her attention back to the woman sitting on the upholstered armchair.

  “You could have written,” she said as she lowered herself into Hattie’s rocker. She needed the reassurance of that rocker right now.

  The woman looked uncomfortable. “What would have been the point? I had no intention of coming back here, ever. And the situation I was in, I couldn’t take you with me. It just seemed better that way.”

  “So what brings you back now?” Nina asked as JD appeared carrying the glasses of tea. She noticed he didn’t bring one for himself. She supposed he had the right to stay out of a family argument. He wasn’t family, after all.

  Her mother glanced nervously at JD as she accepted the tea. “Shouldn’t you introduce us, dear?”

  “JD Smith, my mother. I don’t know what her name is these days.” That was a low blow, and Nina saw her mother flinch. It didn’t give her much satisfaction.

  “Helen Mclntyre, Mr. Smith. How do you do?”

  The easy charm and the gracious smile made Nina’s hands twitch. Her mother knew how to seduce men with her femininity, even with the difference in their ages. JD looked completely taken in by the act. It would have been nice if she’d had a mother to teach her those things instead of Hattie, who hated men and wouldn’t dream of seducing them. But Nina refused to lose the battle on the grounds of ignorance. She rocked the chair until it squeaked and JD turned to her.

  “Thank you for the tea. We won’t keep you from your work,” Nina said as he handed her the icy glass.

  JD shot her a look she couldn’t interpret. She thought she discerned a predatory gleam in his eyes behind that hawklike nose, but she wouldn’t acknowledge it. She’d lost her head briefly, but that didn’t mean he owned her.

  “Invite your mother to dinner. I make a mean taco.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek as if he had every right to the gesture.

  Nina almost kicked him, but JD beat a strategic retreat. He had no right behaving that way, but her mother didn’t know that. She rather liked the sense of power she felt as the woman across the room regarded her with curiosity and a certain amount of jealousy. She felt a little less incompetent, as if she could attract a man like JD without any of her mother’s artifices.

  “Your Mr. Smith is a handsome man,” her mother acknowledged, sipping her tea. “I thought I understood from gossip in town that he was just a boarder.”

  “I assume the gossip in town didn’t bring you here.” Nina dismissed the subject. She might not have her mother’s Southern charm, but she had a head on her shoulders. She could turn a conversation around.

  Helen nervously slid her fingers up and down the perspiring glass. “I almost didn’t come. I probably shouldn’t have. I just didn’t know what else to do. This was my home once. It’s the only home I know. I heard Hattie’s still alive.”

  Ten years ago, Nina might have fallen for those short, breathless sentences, the sense of desperation attached to them. Perhaps she was still a trifle naive. The people of Madrid in general treated each other with honesty. Nina didn’t associate much with the kind of people who used others and threw them away.

  “Hattie’s almost ninety and senile. She was ill for years before she went into the nursing home. I cared for her myself. I visit her every week. I don’t think she misses you.” Even as she said it, Nina realized she lied. The mysterious “she” that Hattie mumbled about could only be Helen, the niece she had adored to the extent of providing her a house and home, then taking in her daughter when that hadn’t been enough.

  “I’m sorry again. I should have realized. Hattie was always the strong one. I just never thought anything could happen to her. She was good to me when no one else was.”

  Nina waited impatiently for the “but.” She found it difficult believing that her mot
her had returned after twenty years to tell her she loved her and had made a huge mistake leaving her behind. If this were a TV movie, Nina might believe her mother had returned with a millionaire husband prepared to right all wrongs. But real life didn’t work that way.

  “Well, I’m taking care of her now, so you don’t have to worry,” Nina finally replied in hopes of dragging out the real motive for her mother’s return.

  Helen lifted her chin and removed her hat. A flash of defiance crossed her features. “I’ll do it now. After all, I’m Hattie’s heir. I should be the one looking after her and seeing to her property. Is my old room still vacant?”

  Numbly, Nina wondered where she’d put the shotgun.

  Chapter 17

  Leaving the heavy traffic of the interstate behind, the Geo flew past the golden rubble of wheat fields and dusty fence rows of blooming honeysuckle and wild roses. Nancy Walker glanced uncertainly at the gangly man in patched eyeglasses beside her. He had been a true gentleman from the moment they’d thrown their hastily packed travel bags into the trunk and left LA. But after two days of almost nonstop travel, she had begun to wonder about his obsessiveness. Perhaps it took a man with this kind of driving compulsion to accomplish the goals James MacTavish had conquered. She didn’t know too much about men like that. JD was the only other one she’d known, and he’d only been sixteen at the time, scarcely a comparison for this man in his thirties.

  “I thought you didn’t know where to find them?” she inquired cautiously. They’d scarcely left the interstate in the past two days. The fact that they now traveled country roads made her suspicious. This wasn’t Myrtle Beach.

  “I don’t. I just know where to start. I wish I’d brought the adapter for that lousy laptop. JD might have e-mailed me by now. Keep an eye out for computer stores. Maybe I can find a battery out here.”

  Nancy glanced at the emerald bean fields whipping past the car window and grinned to herself. “You had a better chance in Vegas, unless rabbits have taken to using laptops.”