Drawing back the curtains, he stared out at the empty swimming pool, the edge of the crowded parking area and then up at the black night sky. In the stillness, he listened to the howling wind and the frigid sleet as it hit the icy ground.
He heard the other bed creak and knew Lori Lee was getting up. He stood by the window. Unmoving. Holding his breath. She walked up behind him and laid her hand on his back. He sucked in a deep breath, then let it out slowly.
“I can’t sleep, either,” she said, then rested her forehead on his shoulder.
Rick eased his arm around her, drawing her close to his side. “You know what I want, don’t you?”
“Yes.” She melted against him as she put her arms around his waist and laid her head on his chest. “I was a fool to offer you my friendship when we both want...” She lifted her head and looked up in the darkness, barely able to see his strong, chiseled features. “After tonight, we have to stay away from each other.”
“Don’t ask me to stay away from you,” he said. She was asking him to make the ultimate sacrifice, to give her up when he knew she was his for the taking.
“I’ll do everything I can to help Darcie. I promise. She’s become very special to me. I—I—”
Rick kissed her forehead. She shivered. Caressing her through her slacks, he cupped her hip in his big hand. “What are you so afraid of?” he asked. “I know I’m not good enough for you, that a woman like you would never marry a man like me. But I’m not asking you to marry me, am I? What would be so wrong with the two of us having an affair? We could be discreet. We could find a way to keep it a secret.”
She clung to him, tempted by what he was offering, but she knew, even if he didn’t, that she simply wasn’t the type to have an illicit affair. She didn’t have the courage to openly date Rick, despite how desperately she wanted him. She could not take the chance of getting her heart broken and her reputation ruined for a man who wanted only an affair.
“I can’t become your lover,” she said. “I can’t risk everything for a few stolen moments here and there.”
“I’d ask you to marry me if I thought—” He took her face in his hands and forced her mouth against his, kissing her possessively. Breaking the kiss, he breathed deeply, gulping in air. “Forget I said that. Why would you marry me, a blue-collar guy with grease under his fingernails and a ready-made family, when you could marry Powell Goodman and have everything money can buy and kids of your own?”
Fighting her body’s need to cling to Rick, to wrap around him and find release, Lori Lee somehow managed to stay sane and rational. “If and when I marry again, I’ll love my husband deeply and completely and he’ll love me the same way.”
“Yeah, you’d want love, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, I want love. Don’t you?”
“I’d settle for less,” he admitted. “If I could find a good, decent woman who wanted to be Darcie’s mother, I’d marry her, if the chemistry between us was right.”
“You’d want sex whether or not there was any love involved.” She had known Rick was a virile man, a man who wanted and needed sex on a regular basis. He wanted her right now, and if Darcie wasn’t in the room with them, he would take her to bed and make love to her all night.
And she’d let him.
And he knew it.
“I’d better go back to bed,” she said.
He rubbed himself intimately against her, letting her feel his arousal. Closing her eyes, she sighed and gave herself over to one more kiss, a kiss that soon raged out of control. With their bodies glued together, their mouths devouring, their hands groping, Rick walked Lori Lee backward until her legs brushed the edge of the bed. He shoved her onto the bed, then came down on top of her.
He nestled himself between her legs, longing to strip away her clothing and bury himself deep inside her.
“Rick? Rick, we can’t do this,” she whispered breathlessly.
“I know, dammit!” He jumped up off her, felt around on the floor for his boots and slipped into them. “I’m going for a walk. Lock the door and go to sleep.”
Lori Lee sat on the edge of the bed. “You can’t go out in weather like this.”
“I’ll walk around in the hall for a while and then sleep in the lobby.”
She started to protest, but realized he was doing what was best for both of them. If he stayed here, neither of them would get any sleep unless they made love. And they couldn’t have sex with Rick’s daughter asleep in the room with them.
“When we get home, we can’t—” she said.
“Don’t worry, honey. I’ll leave you alone. I won’t have any trouble finding myself a more willing woman.” He grabbed his coat, opened the door and left.
Lori Lee closed and locked the door, then went into the bathroom and had herself a nice long cry. Get it out of your system now, she told herself. Rick Warrick is still the same heartbreaker he always was. He wants you, but if he can’t have you, he’ll just get himself another woman. That’s exactly what he’d done fifteen years ago, and that’s still what he’d do. You were nothing more to him than any other willing woman back then, and that’s all you are to him now. Nothing between them had changed. Beneath his reformed facade, Rick was still bad to the bone.
Six
Lori Lee hit the rewind button on her tape player. She had accidently recorded the wrong music for the third performance of the annual recital and would have to record the correct tune over it. She changed the tapes, putting in Thunder Drums. The Dixie Darlings, her oldest group, would perform their dance-twirl competition to the hot, wild beat of Scott Fitzgerald’s percussive coup de grace. She wanted to make a few changes in the routine before the girls performed the number at the April recital.
Picking up her baton, Lori Lee stood and walked to the center of the room in the downstairs studio. Playing around with her baton, she danced it through her fingers, then tossed it into the air and caught it easily. Taking a second baton from the wall display, she began figuring out the subtle changes she wanted to make in the routine, little things that would make the performance a bit more showy.
Talented performers were essential, but she had discovered that competition judges were often influenced by a group’s showmanship. Presentation and ability in equal parts was a winning combination.
Although the recital was still a month away, she wanted to get her plans precisely right today. The girls would need as much extra time as possible for practice.
She’d already begun evaluating each student for the awards Dixie Twirlers presented each year after the final recital performance. She tried to make sure that every student received a small trophy because she didn’t want any child to feel left out on the big night. Of course, there were several awards that every child and parent coveted, an important one being Best First-Year Student. She had no doubts about who deserved that trophy. Darcie Warrick. In the two and a half months she’d been with the twirlers, she had shown an aptitude for twirling and performing that was nothing short of amazing.
After her regular class, Lori Lee had taken extra time with Darcie. Ordinarily she charged students for private lessons, but she knew Rick could barely afford what he was already paying. She worried about how he’d pay for the expensive costumes for the recital and upcoming competitions. Knowing what a financial burden Rick was under, Lori Lee had told Aunt Birdie to sell him Darcie’s costumes at cost and, if need be, arrange for him to pay for them on credit.
In the month since the Clanton competition and their forced stay at the Cullman motel, Lori Lee and Rick had kept their distance, seeing each other only occasionally. When Rick picked up Darcie from lessons. When they both attended a Deshler basketball game, she with Powell Goodman and he with a woman named Angie Clemmons. Then again when the twirlers had gone to competition at Wetumpka last week. Rick hadn’t brought Angie with him, and Lori Lee had been thankful.
She told herself that she didn’t care if Rick was dating someone, and certainly didn’t care who the woman w
as. But she had listened when Aunt Birdie and Deanie shared all the local gossip about the woman in Rick’s life. Angie Clemmons was a divorcée with an eight-year-old son. She wasn’t a local girl, having been born and raised in Georgia. She had moved to town with her former husband four years ago. She worked as a clerk at the local Wal-Mart, and had recently ended a yearlong affair with a coworker, who just happened to be married.
Word was that Angie had a reputation that suited her dark, sultry appearance. It was a well-known fact she liked to spend her time at the Watering Hole, a favorite night spot for adults on the prowl. A friend of a friend of a friend had told Phil Webber that Angie was a wild woman in bed.
One of Lori Lee’s batons hit the floor, bounced a couple of times, then rolled to a standstill. Damn! She never dropped a baton. Except when she lost her concentration by allowing her thoughts to wander. She tried not to think about Rick and Angie Clemmons having sex, but the unwanted vision of the two in the throes of passion had caused Lori Lee more than one sleepless night.
Her good sense told her she was doing the smart thing, the only logical thing she could do—keeping away from a man who could cause her nothing but heartache. But her body longed for Rick. For his demanding mouth. His caressing hands. For the earthy words he whispered to her. And for the pleasure of his total possession.
She could lie to Aunt Birdie and to Deanie, and sometimes even to herself. She could deny, a thousand times over, that Rick meant something to her, but in her heart she knew the truth. She wanted Rick so much that she ached with the wanting. And it tore her apart inside to see him with Angie, knowing the two were lovers.
Standing outside the studio, Rick watched Lori Lee while she performed with two batons. Even through the closed door he could hear the powerful beat of the primitive music. She danced to the rhythm, her graceful body smoothly executing the complicated movements. This was the girl he remembered from high school, the beauty queen who took his breath away every time he looked at her. But she was a woman now, more beautiful in maturity, her body ripened with lush curves. The hot-pink tights and black leotards she wore clung to her body like a second skin, revealing the perfection of her feminine form.
His sex grew heavy. He cursed under his breath. He was no horny teenager, but his reaction to her certainly made him feel like one. Why was it that no other woman could appease his hunger for Lori Lee?
He had stayed away from her for more than a month now, but he hadn’t stopped thinking about her or wanting her. He had hoped dating Angie Clemmons would help ease the gnawing ache inside him. But it hadn’t. Angie was more than willing. Hell, she was eager. But Angie wasn’t the woman he wanted.
He dreaded going into the studio and confronting Lori Lee, but his pride demanded a showdown. He hadn’t liked the idea of Lori Lee giving Darcie special lessons, free of charge, but because her time with Lori Lee meant so much to Darcie, he’d swallowed his pride and kept his mouth shut. But what had just happened a few minutes ago was more than his pride could stand.
He’d taken his lunch break to stop by the Sparkle and Shine shop and check on buying Darcie’s costumes for the upcoming recital. She’d brought home the list of outfits she would need, the prices printed beside each item. The cost had been staggering for a guy who didn’t have an extra dollar to his name, but he’d made arrangements with Tom and Eve to spend his free Saturdays during the next few weeks painting their house. The advance they’d given him would cover Darcie’s costumes, with enough left over to pay for whatever twirler stuff she’d need during the spring and summer.
When he’d gone to pay Aunt Birdie for the recital costumes, she had quoted him a price far below what had been printed on the list Darcie had brought home. He had mentioned the price list to Aunt Birdie, who’d turned beet red, then hemmed and hawed, and tried to convince him that the prices on the list had been inaccurate. But Rick knew better, and when he pressed Aunt Birdie for the truth, she’d admitted Lori Lee had asked her to sell him the costumes at cost.
What the hell did she think he was, a charity case? He hadn’t taken charity from anybody since he’d left his last foster home and joined the army. A. K. Warrick paid his own way, and he was going to make damn sure that Lori Lee Guy didn’t make the mistake of feeling sorry for him ever again.
Rick swung open the studio door. Lori Lee immediately stopped dancing. Tilting her head to see who had entered, she opened her mouth on a silent gasp.
“We need to talk.” He slammed the door behind him and marched into the studio.
Clasping a baton in each hand, Lori Lee stood ramrod straight as Rick approached her. His thick, sensuous lips were set in a hard frown. He glowered at her with eyes narrowed into slits. His big hands were clutched into tight fists at his sides. He looked as if he had come to do battle, and she was his enemy.
“Is something wrong?” she asked, determined to show no fear, although the sight of Rick in such a rage unnerved her.
“Yes, there’s something wrong,” he said. “Something bad wrong.”
“Darcie? Is she all right? Nothing’s happened to—”
“Darcie’s fine.” His voice softened slightly when he spoke his daughter’s name.
“You’re obviously very upset. Are you angry with me about something?” She fidgeted with the batons she held, unconsciously waltzing them through her fingers.
“Yeah, you could say that.” Glaring down at her nervous hands, he reached out and grabbed her wrists, stopping her agitated movements.
She jerked away from his hold, turned and laid the batons on her desk. With unsteady legs and quivering stomach she turned to face him. “Well?”
“I don’t want your damn charity. I can pay for Darcie’s costumes without any discounts from you!”
“Oh.” A rosy blush stained her cheeks.
“Yeah, oh. Did you think I don’t have sense enough to figure out something’s rotten when the price Aunt Birdie quoted me for Darcie’s costumes was a lot less than on the price list you sent home?”
She’d given the price list to the parents when they picked up their children. She hadn’t sent one to Rick. How had Darcie gotten one? “Oh, she wasn’t supposed to—”
“Don’t think I’m not grateful for all the extra time you give Darcie.” Taking a deep breath, Rick stuffed his hands into his front pockets and pivoted slightly back on his heels. “She’s really blossomed since she started taking lessons from you. You’re all she talks about. Lori Lee says this. Lori Lee does that. I get a dose of Lori Lee every morning with breakfast and every evening with supper.”
“I’m sorry if—”
“No, I’m not complaining.” How could he find fault with his daughter’s choice of a role model, when the woman she’d chosen was the woman he had idolized for as long as he could remember? “I can’t think of anyone I’d rather Darcie emulate than you. You’re the kind of woman I want my daughter to become.”
“I’m very fond of Darcie. She’s a wonderful child.” I wish she were mine. It’s almost sinful the way I’ve come to adore her.
“Look, I... Keep on being Darcie’s friend. She needs you.” Shutting his eyes momentarily, Rick clenched his jaw and took another deep breath, then opened his eyes and looked Lori Lee squarely in the face. “Don’t ever try to play the benevolent benefactress with me again. I don’t have much, not when it comes to money or social position, but I do have my pride. I work for what I want. Do you understand? I don’t take charity from anybody, but especially not from you.”
“I’m sorry if I offended you, but I know how difficult things are for you right now. I just thought—”
He grabbed her shoulders; she stiffened at his touch. A charge of pure electrical energy passed between them, surging through their bodies, making each acutely aware of the other. Their gazes met and locked. Lori Lee shivered.
“Damn you! And damn me, too.” He growled the words, his voice a coarse, deadly whisper.
“Rick?”
He shouldn’t have touched
her. Hell, he shouldn’t have come here and confronted her. When would he ever learn that with Lori Lee he couldn’t control the situation?
“Tell me that you don’t want me,” he said. “Tell me that I’ve done the right thing staying away from you.”
“Yes, you’ve done the right thing. You’ve done what was best for both of us.”
When he stroked her cheek with his fingertip, she closed her eyes and sighed. She had to move away from him. She couldn’t allow anything to happen between them. Not now, not here, at her studio with a glass front open onto Main Street.
“Please don’t, Rick,” she pleaded with him.
Releasing her, he let his hands drop to his sides. “It would make things easier for me if you told me you didn’t want me. Whenever I’m this close to you, my body tells me that you’re mine. Tell me you’re not.”
“I’m not yours,” she said hurriedly, forcing the words. “You don’t need me. Remember, you have Angie Clemmons now.”
He grunted derisively. “Yeah, I’ve got Angie, and you’ve got Powell Goodman, haven’t you? Aren’t we a couple of lucky people. You’ve got a rich, respected blue blood panting after you, and I’ve got a hot, sexy little brunette who can’t get enough of me. What more could either of us want?”
Lori Lee felt as if Rick had slapped her in the face. His scorn shouldn’t have hurt her, but it did. He had deliberately meant to be cruel.
“I hardly think you can compare my relationship with Powell to your relationship with Angie,” Lori Lee told him.
“You don’t think so? Well, I do. Powell Goodman gives you what you want, doesn’t he? You date him because he fulfills your requirements for a boyfriend. Same thing goes for me. Angie gives me what I want, fulfilling my requirements for a girlfriend.”
Lori Lee stared at him, her teeth clenched, her hands shaking, as she willed herself not to cry in front of Rick.
He could tell she was on the verge of falling apart. Whether she was about to cry or go into a raging fit, he wasn’t sure. But either way, he knew he had gotten to her. Upset her. Maybe even hurt her.
A Child of Her Own Page 10
