“Best friend,” he snorted. “Yeah, right. When it comes to a man’s and a woman’s relationship, there’s no such thing.”
Whatever words Walter said after that were drowned out when Stern lifted the violin to his shoulder. Accompanied by the band and Sampson at the piano, he played, moving the bow across the strings to produce perfect notes. JoJo had heard that particular song many times, but not until now had she truly been pulled into the melody. Stern was putting his heart and soul into the music and she couldn’t help but recall how he’d taught her to play that same instrument when they were in high school.
She felt Walter tug at her hand. “Come on, we were about to leave. If that guy’s your best friend, as you claim, then you can hear him play anytime.”
JoJo ignored Walter’s rudeness as she continued to sit at her table, totally mesmerized by the sight of Stern playing his violin. She was in awe of his skill, as was everyone else in the room.
She’d heard him play a number of times, but tonight was different. He was playing for her. Knowing he’d selected that piece for her sent a warm, fuzzy feeling through her. Somehow, and she wasn’t sure how, he’d known she would be here. And somehow he’d also known that tonight hadn’t gone as she’d hoped it would. Somehow her best friend had known. And he was here, making her feel beautiful nonetheless.
He continued to play and hold her gaze. In her heart and in her mind she felt he was affirming that no matter what, their friendship could withstand anything. Even the Walter Carmichaels of the world.
At the end, when Stern lowered his violin, he got a standing ovation. On wobbly legs she stood and clapped until her hands began to hurt. He winked at her, and she couldn’t help but laugh and wink back. They had a lot to talk about, but she was just happy that her best friend was back.
“Okay, I’m ready to leave,” Walter said again. He had stood and was tugging at her arm with a little more force.
She snatched her arm away. “Then by all means go, but I’m not going with you.”
Walter’s eyes darkened to a cold stony black. “Moments before your best friend took to the stage, you suggested we leave.”
JoJo frowned as she sat back down. “I suggested no such thing. I told you I was leaving. At no time did I invite you to leave with me.”
He leaned down near her face. “Don’t you dare tease me. I don’t take kindly to women who play with me. I don’t think you know who you’re messing with.”
“And I don’t think you know who you’re messing with.”
JoJo blinked when Walter’s face broke into a smile. “Okay, I get it. You like being the dominant one. This time I’ll let you, but when we get to your place we’ll reverse roles.”
JoJo tilted her head and stared at him. Was he crazy? She stood up and parted her lips to give him the put-down of his life when Stern approached.
“Is everything all right?” he asked.
She saw the concern in his gaze. “Yes, everything is all right. I’ve got this.”
“Okay.”
She knew Stern agreed to stay out of it only because he knew she had it under control. Turning to Walter, she said, “Read my lips, Walter. I am not going anywhere with you and you aren’t going anywhere with me. I misjudged your character and evidently you’ve misjudged mine. Now get out of my face.”
The stony look returned to Walter’s gaze. “I don’t like being made a fool of. I am not wrong about you. You walked into this club dressed like a woman anxious to get laid.”
JoJo quickly reached out and touched Stern’s hand when he took a step toward Walter. “No, Stern,” she said firmly. Her eyes flashed fire as she stared at Walter, fully aware that people were beginning to stare. “I don’t like a man assuming things about me and treating me with disrespect.”
“Respect? I can treat you anyway I please,” he said with a sneer. “Do you know who I am?”
JoJo narrowed her gaze. “Yes, a little boy in a man’s suit who needs to grow up.”
A few chuckles came from behind them, from the bar where his friends were still standing. Walter Carmichael had the good sense not to say anything else. Instead he gave JoJo another glacier-cold look before walking out of the club.
“You okay, JoJo?”
She slid her gaze from the club’s exit door to Stern. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Stern touched one of the curls in her hair before running a slow hand down the side of her face and touching the collar of her dress. “Because you did all of this for him,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”
She drew in a deep breath, tempted to say that she’d only done it for Walter as a way to forget about Stern. The last thing she wanted was for Stern to feel sorry for her, especially when she was trying hard not to feel sorry for herself.
“It’s okay. I’m fine. Thanks for the musical piece you performed. It was beautiful and touching. I felt special. How did you know I was here?”
Stern looked around and she noticed at the same time he did that they still had an audience. “I don’t have another performance tonight,” he said. “Come on, I’ll follow you home and then we can talk.”
She nodded and together they walked out of the club.
* * *
“I’m making coffee. You want a cup?”
Kicking off her shoes, JoJo entered her living room and watched Stern head for her kitchen. “Yes,” she called out after him. “And you know how I like it.”
She placed her purse on the table and eased down onto the sofa, thinking about how badly things had gone tonight. Perhaps she should have done something differently? She hadn’t teased Walter as he’d claimed. They had been having a conversation about a recent movie when suddenly, without warning, he shifted the conversation to sex. Rather explicit sex. He told her right out what he liked women to do for him and that he thought a roll between the sheets was a great way for two people to get to know each other. Then he tried to talk her into leaving with him.
“Don’t do that,” Stern said, coming back into the room and taking the wingback chair across from her.
“What?”
“Gnaw off your bottom lip. He’s not worth it.”
“I know but...”
“But what?”
“But I can’t help wondering what makes some men turn into total jerks.”
Stern leaned forward and stared at her for a moment. “What exactly did he do to get you so riled?”
“He insisted that I sleep with him. Tonight. Dammit, Stern, we hadn’t even kissed yet. All he wanted, all he was looking for, was a one-night stand. I wanted more. I wanted to develop a relationship with him. I thought he would be someone I truly wanted to get to know better.”
“He didn’t deserve the things you wanted, JoJo.”
“I know.” She rested her head against the sofa cushion to stare up at the ceiling. “So you want to tell me how you happened to be there tonight?”
He stood. “Let me pour our coffee and then we’ll talk.”
JoJo lowered her head and watched him leave the room. It was so unfair that the guy she’d fallen in love with was the one person she could not have. She heard Stern in her kitchen, opening cabinets to get two coffee cups. He knew his way around her house as much as she knew her way around his, and he didn’t hesitate making himself at home whenever he visited. It was the same with her whenever she was over at his place. No limitations and no restrictions. As far as she knew, she was the only nonfamily member who had a key to his place.
He came back into the room carrying a tray with two cups and her coffeepot. He proceeded to pour the hot liquid into their cups. “I thought about making you tea instead. Drinking this will probably keep you up tonight.”
She had news for him. She would probably be up late tonight anyway, trying to recover from everything that had happened. She took the
cup from him. “Thanks.” She took a sip knowing she would enjoy it. Stern had a knack for making good coffee.
She watched as he returned to the chair he had been sitting in earlier. Why did they have to be best friends? If they weren’t best friends, then...
She drew in a deep breath and stared down into her cup.
If he wasn’t your best friend, then he would have no reason to be sitting in your living room, tonight or any night. He probably wouldn’t even know you existed. Men who look like Stern don’t date girls who do what you do for a living. And when they do, they are only after one thing.
She frowned, refusing to lump Stern into the same category as Walter.
“You’re frowning, JoJo. Is the coffee that bad?”
She shook her head and looked over at him. “No, I was just thinking.”
“About Walter?”
No, you. Instead she said, “Yes, Walter.” That was partly true.
He took a sip of his own coffee. “May I ask you something?”
“Yes?” she replied.
“What did you ever see in him?”
JoJo couldn’t help but chuckle. Only a man would ask a question like that. Although Walter had acted like a total jerk tonight, that did not change the fact that he was a nice-looking man. “Um, possibilities.”
She figured they should leave it at that for now, especially because she had her own questions. “You knew I would be at the Punch Bowl tonight. How?”
He stretched his long legs out in front of him and leaned back in her chair. “I have my sources. Since you refused to tell me where you were going or the name of the man you were interested in, I decided to do my own investigation.”
She nodded. It wouldn’t be hard to find out his source because she knew every single person who had the information. She met his gaze. “You didn’t return my calls.”
She watched as he looked down into his coffee cup, seeming to gather his thoughts. He then looked back at her. “No, I didn’t. I needed time to think.”
“About that kiss we shared?” There was no reason not to directly address what she knew had bothered him.
“Yes, about that kiss we shared.”
“But why? We knew starting out that the kiss meant nothing, Stern. We even talked about it before we did it. I don’t understand why you made such a big deal out of it when you were merely helping me improve my skills.”
* * *
Stern looked down into his cup of coffee again. How could he explain to JoJo that the kiss did mean something? Although he’d wanted to believe that kiss had been about helping her improve her skills, in fact it had not been about that at all, which was why he’d felt the need to back off. Now he wondered if what Zane had said, and what Sampson had alluded to, were true. Was Stern beginning to feel something for JoJo that had nothing to do with friendship but everything to do with a man desiring a woman?
Even now, she was sitting across from him looking sexier than he’d ever seen her look. He could see why all the men at the bar had been so taken with her tonight. Whoever had performed her makeover had done an outstanding job.
But then, that was part of the problem. The makeover only emphasized the beauty on the outside. Those other men had failed to see the beauty that was on the inside. In his opinion, she hadn’t needed a makeover to emphasize that beauty. It was always there with her. Carmichael hadn’t wanted to see past her looks.
“Stern?”
He drew in a deep breath and decided to answer her question truthfully...as best he could. “Yes, we talked about the kiss and it was supposed to be nothing more than a way to improve your skills. However, I lost control, JoJo, and I shouldn’t have. If your phone hadn’t interrupted us, I would have tried stripping you naked.”
She held his gaze for a moment before waving off his words. “You would have stopped.”
“No, I wouldn’t have. Hell, JoJo, I had unbuttoned your blouse.”
And she had let him, which proved just how much she had trusted him to do the right thing. But, at the time, doing the right thing had been the last thought on his mind.
“So you unbuttoned my blouse—no big deal.”
He wondered why she was making light of what he’d done when he had taken his inappropriate behavior seriously. He hadn’t been able to sleep much that night, but it hadn’t been remorse that had kept him awake. It had been the memory of how aroused he’d gotten from touching her skin and kissing her lips. Why, after all these years, was he being drawn to her this way? Why, all of a sudden, was there this full-blown attraction he couldn’t fight?
“Although Walter was a big disappointment,” JoJo said, interrupting his thoughts, “I don’t think this weekend was a complete waste. I got to spend time with your cousins and sisters-in-law. Ritz and his assistant were a hoot and I liked the way they did my hair and makeup. They even told me how to apply the makeup myself if I ever decide to indulge again. So I should thank you for suggesting the makeover. ”
He wasn’t sure she should thank him. He wasn’t all that concerned about things not working out with Carmichael because he had planned to sabotage that anyway. He might as well come clean about that, too.
“I have a confession to make.”
She glanced over at him. “What?”
“I didn’t want you and Carmichael to hook up tonight. In fact, I was hoping you wouldn’t. I had even planned to do something to interrupt you if the two of you left together.”
JoJo lifted a brow. “Do what?”
“Become a nuisance. And when Sampson told me what a jerk Carmichael can be with women—to the point that he’s rumored to have roughed up a few who dismissed his advances—I knew I didn’t want you with him.”
She got up from the sofa and moved to where he’d placed the tray with the coffeepot. She poured another cup. His gaze followed her movements in that too-sexy dress. She’d removed those killer stilettos and was in her bare feet, allowing him to appreciate her gorgeous legs.
“Want some more?” she asked, turning around.
He met her eyes. “What?”
“Coffee.”
“No, I’m good,” he said, taking a sip and wishing he had something stronger. His attraction to her tonight was fiercer than ever. That’s the last thing either of them needed. She needed a shoulder to cry on, not a friend with a hard-on. And he felt himself getting harder as he watched her walk back over to the sofa and tuck her legs beneath her, which raised the hem of her dress and gave him a glimpse of luscious thighs. He knew it was time for him to go, but there was no way he could stand up just yet.
She took a slow sip of her coffee before meeting his gaze. “Explain something to me, Stern.”
“I will if I can.”
“You didn’t know Walter. Why wouldn’t you want things to have worked out for us?”
“I told you what Sampson said.”
She nodded. “So, you only planned to make a nuisance of yourself after finding out about Walter’s character?”
“No.”
He saw her forehead crease and figured he was confusing her. There had always been total honesty between him and JoJo, which was why their friendship had lasted so long and had remained so strong.
“Let me explain something to you about men in general, JoJo. We’re made to desire women and made to want to make love to women.”
She frowned. “Please tell me you’re not trying to justify Walter’s behavior.”
Stern shook his head. “No, definitely not. Mainly because a real man also knows how to respect a woman. Not to talk down to her. You were right on point when you said he was acting like a little boy in a suit, although I don’t think he liked hearing it.”
“I was just being honest.”
“Well, there are some who don’t prefer honesty.”
She shrugged. “Then it’s their problem, not mine.” She took another sip of her coffee.
Stern watched her. What was it about being here with her, alone, tonight? He’d done exactly this a number of other times without feeling anything more than friendship. It could be the way she looked tonight, sexy, displaying all those attributes she usually kept well hidden.
She looked good in that dress, with red on her sultry lips and those sexy earrings dangling from her ears. And damn, what was that fragrance she was wearing? It was such an alluring scent. Her hair, styled in feathery layers around her face, brought out the darkness of her eyes, the fullness of her cheekbones and the lushness of her mouth. He was tempted to move close to her and run his fingers through the silken strands of her hair right before taking her sultry lips with his. Were things just as Zane claimed? Had Stern’s feelings for JoJo shifted without him realizing it?
“So why did you plan to make a nuisance of yourself, Stern? Especially when you knew all the trouble I’d gone through to make a good impression on Walter?”
Something inside of him almost snapped. Why was she so fixated on Walter Carmichael? He mentally replayed everything that had happened between them since that day at the lodge when she’d asked him how to make a man want her. His jealousy for the unknown man had started then and it had increased each and every time she’d brought up this mystery man.
“Stern?”
He gave her a sharp look. “Do you really want to know?”
“Of course I want to know,” she said in exasperation.
He’d tried to explain it before but for some reason she just wasn’t getting it. “What if I said I didn’t like the idea of you chasing behind a man?”
She lifted her chin. “I wasn’t chasing behind him, not exactly. I saw him and decided he had potential. He would do.”
He lifted a brow. “Do for what?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
He thought it did. As far as he knew, JoJo had never been intimate with a guy. Had she selected Carmichael as the man she’d wanted to share her first sexual encounter with? JoJo would not sleep with someone she didn’t care about, so Carmichael had blown his chance when he’d tried making her a one-night stand.
Brenda Jackson The Westmoreland Collection: ZaneCanyonStern Page 44
