“What question?”
“How long has it been since you’ve been with a man, and more importantly, why has it been so long when you’re clearly gifted in that particular area?”
She laughed and hoped he hadn’t heard the nervous edge in her voice. “Let’s just say I’m careful about who I sleep with.”
“Why, besides the obvious?”
“The obvious being disease and pregnancy?” When he nodded, she said, “I like sex too much.”
Just then, Cal came up the stairs and smiled at Lita, his eyes drifting to the container of cookies on the table. “Hey there. I heard you had some of these over here you’re looking to give away.”
“I sure do,” she said and watched Jesse’s sullen expression when Cal took a seat at the table and ignored him. “Can I get you some milk?”
Cal glanced at Jesse, then back at her. “No, just the cookies are fine.”
“Where’s Ty?” Jesse asked. “We sent him to find you.”
“I’ve put him to work in the shed.” He knocked the crumbs from his lap and looked between Jesse and Lita. “So, what are you two discussing so seriously over here?”
Before Lita could answer, Jesse said, “Sex.” Cal stood up and gave Lita an awkward smile. “Thanks for the cookie, Lita. I’ll just go and check on Ty.” She watched him retreat down the steps and up the hill.
Lita scowled at Jesse. “Why did you embarrass him like that?”
Jesse glanced innocently toward where his dad had beaten a hasty retreat. “Calvin? He’s not embarrassed.” His eyes returned to hers, full of challenge. “But you are.”
He’d hit the nail on the head. “I’m not embarrassed, but that was rude.”
“No, it wasn’t. Cal came over here to share cookies and stories with his beautiful guest. You’re too eager to listen.”
“I like his stories.” Clearly, the two of them hadn’t made up. “Seeing as how most of them are about you when you were younger, I’d think you’d like them too.”
He shrugged and reached for another cookie. “I’ve heard them all before and Cal just likes to hear himself talk.” He picked up his milk and swirled the creamy liquid in the glass. “Besides, you’d just loosened up enough to have our conversation about sex—specifically why you don’t have much of it when you like it too much.”
“Oh no.” She swatted his hand from the container. “That’ll have to wait for another day.”
“Until tomorrow?” He snagged her from behind as she tried to scoot past him to the door. He scraped the nape of her neck with his teeth. She nearly moaned. “I’ll pick you up at six-thirty.”
***
Kerri Ann blew the bubbles from Bryce’s back and fished around what little space was left in her tub for the small sponge. When she found it, she wiped it lovingly over his shoulders, down along his chest, and delighted in her ability to make him shudder. She’d only managed to get a few bites of food in him before he’d led her to bed and made her forget everything else but him. Every time they were together, she fell more and more in love with him. How in the world would she be able to give him up?
Bryce switched around in the tub and wrestled the sponge from her grasp. “It’s my turn,” he said with the drawl she now recognized as deceptively lazy. There wasn’t anything lazy about Bryce Jenson or how he planned to torture her. Helpless. All she could think was how helpless she was to defend herself from his hands, mouth, and tongue. And how helpless she’d been in defending the most fragile places deep inside herself against him.
He’d relentlessly stripped her of her clothes and her defenses when he’d led her to the bath he’d drawn. The candles he’d lit along the edges of the tub cast a romantic glow over their skin and the air, infused with the scent of soap and bath salts, felt like a living thing in the small room with them.
He ran the sponge over the crest of her nipple and kept his eyes on hers. She saw a challenge in his stare as she squirmed. “Tell me to stop, Kerri Ann. Tell me if you don’t want me to touch you.”
He asked questions like that to draw her out of herself, but mostly so she’d reward him with the words he seemed to treasure like gems. He needed her to tell him she wanted him, wanted his touch, wanted him to do anything and everything to her body. She could give her body freely, without hesitation. But when she looked at him, really looked, she saw he needed more than her body. “Say it. Tell me.”
“I don’t want you to stop, Bryce. I want you to touch me…everywhere.”
She and Jesse had been too young and too conflicted to find any playful joy in sex during their marriage. For them, it had been a release, the same way a swim in the cold river on a hot day brings relief. Being with Bryce was so different, so much more than she’d ever known two people could be with each other. She was growing, one day at a time, one touch at a time, to need him in ways she’d never expected. Air, food, water, Bryce. At that moment, and every moment in between, he’d become essential.
The water grew cold and their skin wrinkled when she dragged her head from his chest and reached for a towel. Bryce groaned. “Do we have to move?”
“I don’t know about you, but I’m turning into a raisin. A cold one.” She pulled her arms into the soft terry robe she kept on the hook behind the door and handed him a towel as he stood.
He ran his fingers over his skin and wrinkled his nose. “That salt I put in the tub feels weird. I’m going to hop in the shower and rinse off real quick.”
“Okay, but don’t blame me if you end up with scales.” She pinched the taut skin of his backside as he stood. She left him singing an old Elvis tune in the shower as she wandered into the bedroom and assessed the damage. They’d wrecked the bed, but seeing as how they were headed there shortly, it didn’t seem to matter. Their clothes littered the floor. She balled up her underwear, jeans, and top and stuffed them in the hamper. Bryce should be more careful with his suits, she thought, as she picked up his pants and carefully folded them along the crease line before draping them over her desk chair. When she picked up his coat, something fell with a clunk on the hardwood floor. She bent down to retrieve what had fallen and the coat slipped from her arm as she realized what it was.
The small ivory jeweler’s box weighed practically nothing, but felt like a velvet boulder in her hand. She stood cradling it when Bryce came out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped loosely around his waist.
“Can I use your toothbrush? I think I got that salt in my mou—” His words trailed off as he realized what she held in her hand. “Oh…”
She blinked at him and waited for an explanation as to why he had a jeweler’s box in his coat pocket. She wanted him to tell her it was a gift for his secretary, his sister who lived in Hoboken that he hardly ever saw or talked about. Anyone but her.
She filled the silence. “I wasn’t snooping.” She shoved the box into his stomach and forced him to take it. “It fell out of your coat when I picked if up off the floor.”
Bryce looked at the box, then up at Kerri Ann. Her face felt hot, her pulse raced, and she felt so lightheaded she nearly passed out. His sheepish expression didn’t help. “Well, I hadn’t planned on giving this to you just yet, but…” He tossed the box at her and laughed when she let it bounce off her robe and fall to the floor. “It won’t bite, Kerri Ann.” He stooped to pick it up and held it out for her. “Open it.”
She twisted her hands behind her back and stepped away. “I can’t.”
Bryce cocked his head. “Sure you can, just lift the lid, like this.” He tilted back the top and extended his arm to show her the largest and most beautiful diamond ring she’d ever seen. It looked bigger and more sparkly than Mrs. Foster’s, who told anyone who’d listen her husband had spent five days in the diamond district in New York picking out the perfect ring for her.
Kerri Ann strained her neck to get a better look, but kept her hands behind her back. When the diamond caught the light from the bathroom, it glinted in her face and she whimpered. “Bryce…” He had th
e same puppy dog look on his face he habitually wore in middle school when he’d offer to do her homework for her or do one chore or another so she could go to the football game or go out with her friends. Back then, she thought his attempts at courtship were pathetic. But now, as he stood nearly naked in her bedroom offering up the most beautiful diamond she’d ever seen, he looked magnificent and so far out of her reach.
“I want you to be my wife, Kerri Ann.” He stepped closer, still holding the box in his hand. “I love you, I’ve always loved you, and I want everyone on the face of this earth to know you belong to me.”
Oh God, how could he do this to her? How could he say those musical words? “I can’t,” she whispered through the lump in her throat. “I can’t let you do this, Bryce.”
His brow furrowed, as if he couldn’t decide whether to be confused or angry. “I know this seems kind of sudden, Kerri Ann, but…we’re not just dating here.” He swung his arm around the room to emphasize the things they’d just done to each other and he raised his voice. “What did you think, we’d have a few laughs, have some fun in bed, and then move on with our lives? Damn it, woman, I love you.”
“I love you too.” She reached out and closed the lid to the ring. “That’s why I can’t let you do this. I won’t marry you, Bryce.”
He swirled around and paced two steps away and was back in her face in an instant. “Just what the hell does that mean? You’ve said some pretty stupid things over the years, but that just about takes the cake.”
If he’d respond better to anger, then she’d give him anger. “I think you should go.”
He laughed scornfully. “You think I should go? Well, let me tell you something, I’ve had it. I’ve had it with you and your crazy ideas. I’ve had it with chasing you all around town like a lovesick puppy. If I leave this house tonight, I’m done, Kerri Ann. Done. You won’t get another chance to do this to me again, so you be real sure you want me to leave.”
She knew it would end, had to end sooner or later. Better to do it now, rip the bandage off quick and spare herself and him the pain of a slow pull. “I want you to leave, Bryce. I want you to find someone else to love, someone who can give you what you deserve.”
She saw a flash of pain in his eyes just before the anger seeped back in. He turned without a word, grabbed his clothes and shoes, and slammed the door in her face. She took a step toward the door, but then turned away. She couldn’t go after him, couldn’t stop him from leaving. That had always been the problem. She knew she’d have to let him go. She just hadn’t thought it would be so soon. When it hit her, his leaving, her knees buckled and she literally sank to the floor, curled into a ball, and howled.
Chapter 25
The beauty of the mountains still amazed Lita. She tried to hold onto the sense of peace they gave her on her morning hike through the woods at the start of every day. At the top of the path, just before it switched back down, she’d pause and watch the sun cast its glow across the valley below. The breeze always rustled her hair and kissed her face as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath of clean mountain air. She’d never smelled anything as fresh and invigorating as the woodsy scent of the mountains. She wanted to bottle it, capture it in her lungs, so when she was home and feeling suffocated, she could close her eyes and conjure up the scent and drench herself in its purity.
The list she kept in her head of all the things she’d miss when she left kept growing. The mountains and watching the sky wake up were near the top. Jesse was another. Somehow, he’d taken up the number one spot and it worried her, for more reasons than one. She’d let herself get attached to him and his family. Cal, Ty, Kerri Ann, and Bryce—they were all connected and all a part of her life now. She couldn’t imagine not seeing them during the week, not witnessing the relationship between Kerri Ann and Bryce take root and grow. Ty, on the verge of manhood, seemed to change everyday. It fascinated her, watching Jesse with his son. It made her wonder what it would have been like for her if her boy had lived. She’d never been able to imagine him beyond toddlerhood, but seeing Jesse and Ty made her wonder. What would it have been like to have an almost adult relationship with her child?
She poured herself another cup of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table to work on her designs and answer e-mails when her cell phone rang. She flipped it open with a quick glance at the number. Her father. She knew she couldn’t avoid him forever.
“Angelita, finally you answer.” The anger she heard in his voice had her regretting her decision to speak to him. She hadn’t decided what to do and didn’t know how to put him off again, especially when under the gun. “Are you home?”
She feared he’d soon hire a private investigator to find her and drag her back. “I’m still out of town. It’s difficult to answer when I’m in meetings,” she lied and hoped he’d buy her excuse.
“I received a call from a reporter from the Atlanta Sentinel yesterday.” Oh no. She should have told Jesse to have his friend keep it low-key.
“Why are you telling me this?” She tried to sound bored when inside she trembled.
“Apparently, he’d heard a rumor that the consulate might be closing.” He cleared his throat and, as he did when she was younger, waited for her to fill the silence with information. When she offered nothing, his control snapped. “Tell me you’re not responsible for this.”
“Of course I’m not responsible.” She hoped she’d come across as insulted, instead of scared to the core. “I’ve barely had the time to give your…proposal a second thought.” She got up to pace, suddenly unable to sit while her nerves bounced uncomfortably beneath her skin. “If you’ve heard the rumors, surely you can’t be surprised someone in the media heard them too.” Unless he’d lied to her and the supposed rumor was, as she’d hoped, a fabrication.
“It’s highly unlikely anyone outside the government in Brazil would know.” He exhaled forcefully. “Arre, Angelita, you disappoint me.”
A fate worse than death when she’d been a teen now seemed a million times worse. She needed to get off the phone. “I’ve got to go. My meeting is about to start.”
“Are you in expansion meetings? Have you moved forward with your decision?” Was it her imagination or did she detect a hint of desperation in his voice?
“We’re still feeling out the possibilities. I really can’t get into it now.”
“Angelita?” His tone made her stop pacing. “It may be more than my life at stake.”
Her imaginary meeting forgotten, she fell into the chair. “What are you talking about?”
“If you won’t cooperate, your life could be in danger too.”
“I don’t understand. How can I be in danger?”
“They won’t stop with me, Angelita. If you can’t come through for me and our country, your life, your pretty little business partner, anyone you care about...” He let the threat hang in the air. “Is it worth the risk?”
He’d just tightened the noose around her neck. “How much time do I have?”
“A week, at best. You need to come home, Angelita, so we can head off the danger. The longer you’re away, the more perilous it becomes, for everyone.”
“I’ll be home within the week. Davi?”
He answered her with silence.
“Leave Sophie alone. I’ll call you when I get back.”
“I look forward to it.” She heard the click of the disconnect and could have thrown her phone at the wall. She’d never be free of him, never be able to live without his interference or control. True or not, threatening Sophie and others made her decision easy. Hadn’t she wished for an easy solution to her problem? She should have been more careful what she wished for.
***
Cal swung into the parking lot of Sequoyah Falls Federal Bank, right next to his old reserved spot under the sycamore tree. It had gotten so big since his retirement it had left a five-foot crack in the sidewalk. When he’d been president, he’d have had that fixed right away instead of waiting until some little
old lady tripped and attorneys got involved. But it wasn’t his place to say anything and that fact really chapped his hide.
Shoe Strings Page 24
