Tori wrung her hands in her lap. “Maybe I was wrong to force you into celibacy for a whole year. I know how sexual you are and—”
“I keep telling you—”
“Will you please be quiet!” she snapped.
Three heads looked their way: the lone customer at the bar, the bartender, and the barmaid.
Tori’s lips quivered in an effort to contain her emotions. She lowered her tone. “I’m trying to find a way to salvage our relationship.” She stole a sideways glance at Dallas, then looked at Alicia before focusing on him again. “Unless it isn’t important to you anymore. Unless I’m not important to you.”
Dallas went to her and lifted her chin so they were looking each other directly in the eyes. “You’re my best friend. You will always be important to me.”
The tears that came into Tori’s soft brown eyes were enough to make Alicia want to slither away.
“Then why’re you trying to end things?”
Dallas released a weighted and weary sigh as he stood erect. “It’s not just about what happened with Alicia. It’s not just about what happened today. This has been a long time coming, Tori. You hired a damn publicist. And you’re conducting a virtual media blitz about our engagement and what doesn’t go on in our bedroom.” He shook his head. “You know how I am. You don’t ever see me talking about my life like that and I’d just had enough, Tori. This isn’t our wedding anymore. It’s your mother’s. It’s the media’s. I’ve had it up to here”—he gestured above his head—” with all of it.”
Tori grimaced as though hearing his side of things pained her in some way. “I’m sorry about all that.”
He shook his head. “I know that you are, but the final straw has nothing to do with you.” He paused. “I thought I knew myself,” Dallas’ gaze went over Tori’s shoulder to Alicia. “But I’m realizing that I’m not as strong as I thought I was.”
Tori followed his gaze to her aunt. With resignation in her eyes, Tori said, “What if I said I’d get rid of all of that wedding stuff, get rid of the publicist, and,” she took a deep breath, “that it was okay for you to keep seeing her for a while.” Tori lowered her head, and the defeated movement made Alicia stare openly at her niece. “You know, sort of like getting her out of your system before we get married.” She paused, then amended her words. “Before we get married ... or however long it takes.”
“What brand of crazy Kool-Aid are they serving your ass in medical school?” Alicia said.
Dallas peered at Tori in a manner that said he totally agreed with Alicia. “You’re saying . . . “
Tori nodded slowly, as though hating to confirm his summation out loud.
“Hel-loooo,” Alicia crooned, waving a hand in front of both of them.
“Be quiet,” Tori snarled at her aunt, who recoiled from the viciousness in those two words. “I’m negotiating the terms of marriage with my future husband. You’re just an unfortunate part of the equation.”
Dallas tilted his head, frowning before one eyebrow shot up and his lips twisted as though in deep thought. His gaze shifted from Tori, then to Alicia and back to Tori again.
The man was actually considering Tori’s offer!
“You’re talking about an open relationship? And maybe even an open marriage?” he said, frowning at her.
“It’s obvious you have some kind of connection with her,” Tori said, as if the admission pained her. “I don’t like it, but if you’re going to be with another woman, I’d rather it be with her.” Tori passed an icy glance at Alicia. “At least she won’t go running to the press and damage your brand. And when you get this out of your system, she’ll disappear and we can resume our life.” Tori spoke with a finality like she’d worked everything out in her head. “And trust me, she knows how to leave. It’s what she does best.”
Alicia’s head snapped to her niece. “Really, Tori?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Tori replied with a dismissive wave, but the two women’s gaze stayed locked for several moments. When neither Dallas nor Alicia said anything, Tori continued. “I was upstairs giving it a lot of thought. We can all benefit from this. Obviously, I underestimated your need for sex, and—“
Dallas interrupted, “I told you this isn’t about sex.”
Tori ignored his words and turned to her aunt. “I have no intention of changing my celibate stance. So he gets you for a while and I get him for a lifetime.”
Dallas and Alicia stared at Tori as if she had grown wings. “Why would you want to do this?”
“Because in the end, this will work for me. You might be all in lust now, but I know you love me, and I also know that you want kids more than anything else. So when that lust shit wears off, you’ll long for a family.” Tori glared at her aunt again, before turning back to Dallas. “A family that only I can give you.”
Tori gave her a quick head-to-toe as though summing her up for the first time, then she placed her hand on her flat stomach. “Women make these kind of compromises all the time. Mostly, it’s after they get married but …” She rubbed her stomach to make a unspoken point. “…but it’s not a big deal. Because she can’t give you what I can.”
Dallas and Alicia both stood speechless. The crew cut-sporting busboy swiftly moved about the tables, cleaning the area as the bar prepared to close. The television screens went blank and the solitary patron had left.
But Dallas, Alicia and Tori stayed in their places.
“Why?” Alicia asked. “Why would you even think about such a thing?”
“I just explained it. What part didn’t you understand?”
Alicia knew that she should have stomped away as soon as Tori started talking this foolishness. She would never agree to something like this.
Tori stared at her aunt for a few moments. “Did you know he gave Dad the money to come out of bankruptcy, then paid off all the student loans I had to take out because Mom had ripped through my college fund? Did you know Dallas was that kind of man?” Tori looked to Dallas, who tried to keep his expression neutral, before focusing on her aunt again. “He’s never laid a hand on me, never raised his voice, never mistreated me. He doesn’t do drugs, and—”
Alicia shook her head sadly. Bernice had truly done a number on her daughter. “He’s not supposed to do those things, Tori,” Alicia said. “That doesn’t give you a reason to give him a pass on anything else.”
Tori snapped, “Let me tell you something. With everything that he’s done for me and my family … he’s not the type of man you call a former boyfriend. That’s a man a woman calls her husband.” She took a deep breath. “And if his only flaw is that he has to be with you sometimes, then that’s something I’m willing to deal with.”
The silence expanded between them as both Dallas and Alicia stared at Tori.
“Don’t say anything right now,” Tori said, before she rose from her chair and stretched. “Think about it, figure it out, and I’ll see you both in the morning.” She took a few steps across the carpet and into the corridor before turning back to Dallas, “You’ve already paid for two suites; you might as well make use of one of them.”
The suggestion hung in the air before Dallas’ expression darkened with anger. “Is all this about money? You want my money?”
Tori pressed her lips into a thin line and said nothing.
Dallas continued, “You don’t have to marry me for money. I’ve already given you an ‘I fucked up real bad’ going away present.”
Tori’s squinted angrily as she glowered at Dallas. “I told you what this is about,” she said before she quickly put distance between them by hurrying toward the elevators.
“Dallas, you were wrong for saying that,” Alicia said, insulted for her niece’s sake. “Evidently, she loves you, and she’s willing to accept a few things that other women wouldn’t.”
Dallas paused to take those words in, then guided Alicia back down to her chair. He let silence hang between them for a few moments before he asked, “How do you feel about what she put on the t
able?”
It took her only an instant to respond, “I won’t be a part of something like that.” She shook her head. Though for the life of her she still wanted him, and Tori’s suggestion was swirling through her mind as well. “Earlier, I didn’t know you were her fiancé. I won’t have that excuse anymore.” Alicia took in the conflicted expression on his face and cupped his face in her hands. “You need to go to her!”
“And do what? Beg to be in a marriage that would start on a sour note? That’s not fair to her. Or to me.”
“This is your chance to make things right. She needs you, Dallas; she cares for you,” Alicia whispered. “Do it … for me.”
“How can you tell me to do that?” he asked.
“Because I know my niece. We haven’t been close over the last year, and really, we were drifting apart before then.” Alicia paused, wondering just how much she should share with Dallas. A part of her wanted to tell all: how much she now resented Tori at times, how unfair that was, how hard it was to resist that feeling, though, since she’d given up so much, had made so many sacrifices for her niece. With tears in her eyes, Alicia added, “I’m asking you as a woman who knows what it’s like to lose something very valuable—with no way of getting it back.” She placed a calming hand over his chest. “So she went a little overboard on the wedding. She said she’s willing to give all that up. She has a good heart and you know it.”
Alicia wrapped his coat around herself. “I’m going up to my room.” She stood on her tiptoes, and Dallas lowered so they could embrace. She pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. “Thank you for taking care of me.”
She tried to move back up, but he held her in place. With an extra effort, she pushed him away, then made her way to the elevator.
He called out, “What is it about you? Why can’t I resist you?”
She paused and faced him, thinking that she had asked herself that same question from the moment the frosty air had blasted her face when she ran from her home this afternoon.
“You take care,” was her reply.
To this, he only smiled as he watched her step into the elevator.
Chapter 9
10:28 p.m.
Dallas went into the Grand Suite and trudged past the moonlit dining and living room areas. Tori had planted a seed in his mind, and he needed to figure out why she had even put something like that on the table.
Tori lifted from her lounging position on the bed the moment he paused at the threshold. “You came back to me.”
Her soft words sounded more like a question than a statement, but at that moment, the truth was, he was trying to decide his next move. He didn’t feel as if he belonged with Tori anymore, but her proposition was swirling in his head. Especially the part about children; his legacy was important. But was it as important as Alicia?
“Thank you for sending up dinner,” Tori said, gesturing to the tray of food that had been wheeled in earlier. “Would you like something to eat?” she asked.
A quick glance showed she had barely touched anything. Dallas shook his head and continued his study of her golden features—deep-set eyes, and silky lips. Tori was stunningly beautiful in every way. She was the perfect woman to be his wife—intelligent and driven, and genuine in her friendship with and caring for him.
“So, have you given my proposition any thought?” Tori asked when he didn’t respond to her question about dinner.
“I’m still trying to make sense of it,” he said, crossing the distance between them in a few strides.
Tori slipped off the bed and met him halfway, wearing only a red lace bra and panties. This was his first glimpse ever of her semi-nude body and he was not moved.
She reached to cup his face in her hands in much the same way Alicia had done minutes ago, which shocked him. He could count the number of times Tori had engaged in any kind of intimacy with him. “It’s simple,” she said. “You couldn’t really love someone like her. It’s just sex, Dallas. That’s all it is. Just sex. And I know that, and understand that. But, I also understand other things.”
“Like children?
“Exactly. My aunt is forty-five; how would she give you eight children? Could she even give you two?”
Her points, her questions were good ones that left him feeling conflicted. Part of Dallas knew that was why Alicia left him in the first place. It was right after they laid in bed and he talked about the children he so desperately wanted to have. The next morning, she was gone.
Tori splayed a manicured hand over his broad chest. “I love you. Enough to let you have us both. At least for a while.”
He shook his head. “I can’t do that. I’ve hurt you enough as it is.”
“Leaving me will hurt me more. And I know that it won’t take long for you to get her out of your system.”
She laid her head on his chest, but Dallas withdrew from her. “I don’t know how to get you to see it’s deeper than that. I just can’t do this. She deserves better than that.”
Tori glared up at him with an intensity that lasted only for a few moments before a flash of sadness took its place. “She deserves better than that?”
Dallas closed his eyes against the crush of pain he saw on her face. “I already told you that I don’t want to hurt you either.” Dallas laced his fingers through the streaked blonde tresses that spilled over her shoulders and down her back. “You don’t want this.”
“Shouldn’t I have the right to decide what I want?” she asked in a voice so hoarse with sorrow it made his heart skip a beat. “With everything you’ve done for me and my family, I’m willing to let you have your cake and the cherry. Why is that so hard to believe?”
Dallas hated hearing the insecurity in her voice. Tori’s determination, confidence and compassion had been one of the most beautiful things about her. He would never forgive himself if she lost the best parts of herself.
Tori stroked a hand across his jawbone. “I can’t lose you.”
Dallas encircled his arms about her and lifted her body so that she was flush against him—a move that sent a tinge of warmth spreading through him, but it wasn’t nearly as potent as Alicia’s touch. He whispered into her ear, “Do you realize that we’ve had more physical contact in the past two hours, than we’ve had all year?”
“You know the reason for that,” she said, thinking back to all the times when she’d tried to explain this to him. “I’ve told you. We weren’t like that. I didn’t come from a touchy-feely family and I don’t know why that’s such a big deal.”
For at least the thousandth time since he’d found out that Alicia was Tori’s aunt, he marveled that the two of them were related. One, so hot! The other, so frigid.
The thing was, as cold as Tori was, Dallas had no doubt that she cared deeply for him. And he felt the same about her. Besides that, Tori was the only person besides his mother that he’d trusted.
He’d been surprised when she’d told him that she’d wanted to abstain from sex until marriage. She’d said that it was the way she’d been raised and when she cited religious reasons, Dallas had gone along with that. He wasn’t about to be responsible for messing up Tori’s relationship with God.
At first, it had almost been a relief for Dallas. Making the commitment to Tori meant that he wasn’t out there, trolling, sleeping with one girl tonight, another one tomorrow, and the whole time, checking condoms to make sure that one of those scandalous females wasn’t trying to come up at his expense. But it didn’t take long for him to kick himself for agreeing to Tori’s stipulation. He’d had no clue that to Tori, no sex, also meant “no nothing else.” And for a man who was used to having sex on a pretty regular timetable—having no affection at all was more like he had been dropped into a time warp of ancient times.
“I love you with all my heart,” she whispered so softly he thought he had imagined it.
Dallas hesitated, knowing the words she wanted to hear. Finally, he uttered, “I love you, too.” That statement was the truth. But was it enough?
As if reading his mind, she said, “Go to her. Do what it takes to make you feel all right.”
Tori tried to mask her pain and it tore at his heart. He was at a fork in a rocky road—and neither path was an easy one to take. Stay with Tori and long for what he had with Alicia, eventually hurting Tori in the end? Or go with Alicia, though he wasn’t sure that he’d be able to convince her that they belonged together.
Then lastly, there was the ultimate—he could have his cake and his cherry. Have both women. Tori, who had already brought value to his life, who had helped him save his mother and now she held a debt that he could never repay. She was loyal, would be the perfect mother for his children, and he loved her.
And then there was Alicia. Who held his heart. He more than loved her, he was in love with her.
“There’s no hiding what you feel for her,” Tori said.
Dallas wondered if she knew that her words mirrored his feelings exactly. “Get her out of your system, then come back to me. I promise we’ll make everything work.”
He thought for another moment, and then, his three choices collided, making him angry. Gripping her upper arms, he growled, “Stop it! If you keep pushing me on that woman, I’m going to take you up on it. Stop testing me!” he said, shaking her, though he didn’t meant to be so forceful.
Tori looked up at him with a calm that was more alarming to him than her anger had been. “Close your eyes for me,” she commanded.
“What?”
Tori repeated her request.
Dallas didn’t know why, but he did as she said.
Chapter 10
10:46 p.m.
Dallas stood with his eyes tightly shut as Tori pressed her hand on the half-hardened member in his slacks. It didn’t twitch or otherwise acknowledge her touch.
Tori leaned in and whispered, “Alicia.”
The image of that luscious woman came to mind and his erection sprang to life. Dallas forced himself to take a step back as his eyes flew open. Tori moved with him and stroked that area, punctuating her point with a sly grin.
Open Door Marriage Page 6
