Marking Time

by Marie Force

  “I love when you get all proper like that and call me Katherine,” she purred, burying her hands in his hair and kissing him with abandon.

  “Keep that up and you’re going to end up with your skirt tossed over your head in broad daylight, Katherine.”

  She laughed. “Bring it on.” Her laughter froze in her throat when she looked out the car window and saw her father watching them. “Oh, shit.”

  Reid stopped kissing her neck long enough to ask, “What?”

  “My dad.”

  Reid gasped and pulled away from her.

  Kate’s stomach lurched, and her heart pounded. Her father wore the tight-lipped expression he saved for only the most extreme circumstances, and this certainly qualified.

  Reid squeezed her hand and got out of the car. “Jack—”

  Jack held up a hand to stop him. “Don’t talk,” he said in an icy tone as his other hand curled into a fist at his side. “Don’t say a single word.”

  “Dad,” Kate said as she came around the car to him.

  “Get in there and pack your stuff. Now!”

  “Dad, come in, let’s talk, please,” Kate said with tears rolling down her face.

  Jack’s lips got thinner and whiter, and his wild-looking eyes made her wonder if he’d been up all night. She’d never seen him like this.

  He grabbed her arm. “Pack your stuff, Kate. You’re coming home with me.”

  Reid took a step toward them. “Jack, let her go.”

  “I told myself I wouldn’t hit you. But if you don’t shut up, I’m going to flatten you.”

  “I won’t let you treat her like this.”

  Jack’s face turned red. “You won’t let me? You won’t let me? She’s my daughter, you son of a bitch. My daughter. I trusted you with the most precious thing in the world to me, so I’m going to say this once more, and I urge you to listen this time: do not talk.” Jack dragged Kate with him up the stairs to her front door. “Let’s go.”

  With shaking hands, Kate unlocked the door.

  Reid followed them into the house.

  “You’ve got ten minutes to get anything you can’t live without, and then you’re coming home with me,” Jack said. “Your little adventure is over.”

  “No,” she whispered.

  “What did you say?”

  “No.”

  “Kate, you really, really do not want to screw with me right now. You’re going to do what you’re told.”

  “I’m not going home,” she said softly. “I’m eighteen. You can’t make me.”

  “I don’t know what’s happened to you here, but the one thing I do know is you’ll be on that flight home even if I have to drag you onto the plane.”

  “I love him,” she whispered.

  Jack snorted. “You love him. Isn’t that precious?”

  Suddenly furious, she crossed her arms in defiance. “Aren’t you being a bit of a hypocrite?”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  “When Mom was sick and you fell in love with Andi, who supported you? All I ever wanted was for you to be happy. Why can’t you want the same thing for me?”

  His gray eyes flashed. “Because two months ago I could’ve had him thrown in jail for this. Does that answer your question?”

  “I fell in love,” Kate implored. “I’m sorry if that hurts you, but I didn’t do it to hurt you. I’d never hurt you. People love who they love. Isn’t that what we learned from everything that happened to us?”

  “Don’t you dare try to compare my relationship with Andi to what you’re doing with this pervert. I never should’ve let you come here. It’s the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my life. No wait. It’s the second biggest. The first was to think I could trust my friend to keep an eye on my daughter. That was a much bigger mistake.”

  Reid shook his head and appeared to be making a supreme effort to stay quiet.

  “You gave me a year to get a recording contract, and I’ve done it in two months.”

  “Any deal you and I had went up in smoke the minute I found out what you’ve been up to here.”

  “Dad, listen to me! Buddy Longstreet and Taylor Jones have asked me to open for them on their summer tour. I’ll be recording one of my songs on their label before the tour.”

  He dismissed her with the wave of his hand. “If you don’t come with me right now, I’m through with you. Do you understand?”

  “But I’ve done what I came here to do! My career is just getting started. You can’t ask me to walk away now.” She went to Reid, and he put his arm around her.

  Jack’s eyes went hot with fury as he studied the two of them for a long, tense moment. “I’ve already canceled your credit card, and you can figure out how to pay your lover his two-thousand-dollar-a-month rent. You’re on your own, and I want you to stay the hell away from my other children. I don’t want them poisoned by your sordid life.”

  “Please,” Kate whimpered. “I love you. Don’t make me choose.”

  “You’ve already made your choices, Kate. Now you can live with them.” He pushed past her on his way to the door.

  “Daddy!” she shrieked, chasing him down the stairs.

  He never stopped, and he never looked back on his way to the rental car.

  Kate chased the car as he drove away. “Daddy!” When he’d driven out of sight, she sank to her knees on the pavement and sobbed.

  Reid came up behind her, urged her to her feet, and helped her inside. “I cannot believe Ashton did this.”

  “You still think it’s going to blow over?” Kate asked between sobs.

  “No,” he said with a grim expression as his cell phone rang in his suit pocket for the third time. “Damn it. I’ve got to get this. They’re wondering where I am.” He kept one arm around her when he took the call. “I’m sorry,” he said into the phone. “We’re going to have to reschedule.”

  Kate wiped her face and shuddered as she relived the confrontation with her father.

  “I’m sorry they feel that way.” Reid’s jaw clenched with tension. “I had an emergency that couldn’t have been avoided.”

  Overnight their whole world had become an emergency that couldn’t have been avoided. She didn’t understand how something so beautiful to her was ugly to others. It just wasn’t fair. Nothing had ever hurt more than having her father cut her out of his life. It had hurt even more than losing her mother for three years. She gasped. Oh, God. He’ll tell her, and she’ll hate me, too! And I just got her back! She began to cry again in deep, gulping sobs that only intensified when she thought of Maggie, Eric, and the twins.

  Reid was in the midst of a heated argument on the phone. “I can’t do this right now. I’ll call you when I can.” He slammed his cell phone closed and threw it across the room. It hit the wall and shattered into pieces. With a deep sigh, he dropped his head into his hands.

  His rare display of anger startled Kate.

  He reached for her. “I’m sorry.”

  “Reid,” she said, crying again.

  “What, baby?”

  Tears coursed down her face. “He said I can’t see Maggie or my brothers. Do you think he meant that?”

  “He’s mad right now. When he has time to calm down, he’ll change his mind.”

  “I don’t think he will. I’ve never seen him like that before.” Another thought occurred to her. “I’ll call Andi. She’ll talk to him.”

  Kate went into the kitchen to get the phone and dialed the number in Newport as she went back to sit next to Reid. “Andi, it’s Kate.”

  “Hello, Kate.”

  The warm comfort of her stepmother’s voice brought new tears to Kate’s eyes. “Have you talked to Dad?”

  “He’s very upset.”

  “Yes.”

  “So it’s true? You’ve become involved with a man your father’s age?”

  “It’s not what you think. I love him.”

  “Did he give you that locket you had on at Christmas?”

  “Yes.�
�

  “And you felt you had to lie to me when I asked you about it?”

  “I’m sorry,” Kate said, weeping again. “Dad is so mad. I don’t know what to do. He said I can’t see Maggie or the boys. He can’t mean that.”

  “He does mean it. You’ve hurt him very much, and by hurting him and lying to me, you’ve hurt me, too. I don’t think you have any idea what you’ve done.”

  “All I did was love a wonderful man. I thought you of all people would understand that.”

  “What kind of wonderful man takes a girl who’s nearly thirty years younger than him to bed? No, I don’t understand at all. And if you’re hoping I’ll run interference for you with your father, you’ve vastly underestimated me.”

  Kate brushed at new tears. “I’m sorry. I love you, Andi. I’m sorry I lied to you.”

  Andi’s voice broke. “I’m sorry you felt you had to. Take care of yourself, Kate.”

  “Andi—” Kate said, but the click on the other end told her she was gone. Kate dissolved into tears, and nothing Reid said or did brought her any comfort.

  Chapter 29

  “Are you serious?” Aidan said as he followed Clare into her house in Newport. “This is where you live?”

  Clare laughed at his reaction. “Your house isn’t exactly a shack.”

  He checked out the ocean view from the back of the house. “I never pictured this.”

  “I told you my ex-husband is an architect.”

  “This is a work of art.”

  “Come see the rest.”

  Clare led him upstairs to the girls’ rooms.

  “I can tell just by looking which room is Jill’s and which one is Maggie’s, so I guess that one’s Kate’s.”

  “That’s right. I can’t wait to see her next weekend.”

  “I’m looking forward to meeting this lookalike daughter of yours.” Aidan pointed to the spiral staircase. “What’s up there?”

  “Come see.” Clare led the way up the stairs and braced herself for an onslaught of emotions that never materialized. All she felt now was pride as she showed Aidan the house that meant so much to her.

  He stood in the middle of the empty circular glass room and turned to take it all in. “This is unreal.”

  “I should call Maggie to let her know we’re here.”

  “In a minute.” Aidan put his arms around her. “It must’ve been very hard to lose the person who did this for you.”

  His insight startled her. “It was,” she whispered.

  “You have me now,” he said with a fierce look of love that made her heart contract.

  “I know.” She reached up to kiss him and was taken aback by the intensity of his response, as if he was trying to chase away all her pain with one kiss.

  He held her close and changed the angle so he could delve deeper. “I want you, Clare,” he said against her lips after several long, hot kisses. “I can’t wait anymore.”

  She felt a flutter of fear go through her. What if she couldn’t do it? What if the moment arrived and she couldn’t go through with it? But when she looked up at him and saw only love and naked desire on his face, she knew that she was safe with him. Only him. “Come downstairs with me.”

  He followed her to her bedroom in the first-floor study. “Why’s your room in here, rather than upstairs?”

  “I couldn’t manage the stairs after…after my fall.”

  He put his arms around her. “I love you, Clare. You know there’s nothing you could tell me that would change that, right? Nothing.”

  She nodded. “Aidan?”

  “What, honey?”

  She wound her arms around his neck. “Would you please, please make love to me?”

  He looked deep into her eyes as if he was trying to find her secrets before he lifted her and kissed her with new urgency. Under her shirt, his hands were cool against the heat of her skin, and Clare shuddered when he lowered her to the bed. Determined not to let fear ruin this perfect moment, she pulled him down with her. He landed on top of her without surrendering her mouth. His muscular body molded to hers, sending a storm of sensation through her. She didn’t remember desire quite like this—the need to rip at clothes, to kiss, to bite, to possess. Madness… Now, she thought, pushing at his shirt and tugging on the button to his jeans.

  He broke the kiss long enough to tear the shirt over his head and then turned his attention to her neck, kissing his way down to the top button on her shirt. He fumbled with the buttons, letting out a frustrated growl as he pulled the shirt over her head. When she succeeded in unzipping his pants, he uttered an oath under his breath.

  Steeped in the woodsy, outdoorsy scent she associated with him, she ran her hand along the length of him, and he swore viciously when she applied pressure in just the right place.

  “Sweetheart, stop”—he gasped—“or this’ll be over before it starts.”

  She pushed at his jeans but lost her train of thought when he ran his tongue along the tops of her breasts. Through her satin bra, he rolled her nipple between his lips, making her moan.

  “So beautiful,” he whispered as he chased the straps down her arms with his lips. “So perfect.” He kissed her everywhere but where she wanted him most.

  “Aidan.” She combed her fingers into his hair to pull him to her chest.

  Chuckling, he pushed her bra aside and laved at first one nipple and then the other. He kissed, suckled, and bit until she was crazy with wanting him. Then his eyes made slow love to every inch of her as he worked her jeans down her legs and discarded his own pants.

  Floating on a cloud of sensation, she lost the capacity to think or breathe when he bent to drop hot, wet kisses from her calf to her thigh, stopping finally to press his lips against her silky panties. The heat of his mouth was almost enough to tip her over the edge.

  Clare tugged at his hair to bring him back up to her, and his soft chest hair made her skin tingle as she pushed at his boxers. “Aidan, I need you, please.”

  He moved fast to divest them of the last of their clothing and was inside her in one swift movement.

  There were no ghosts, no fears, no thoughts of anything but him when his eyes claimed hers, all but daring her to look away.

  “I want to go slow,” he said, his face pinched with the strain of fighting for control. “I want to remember this, but I—”

  “Don’t,” she pleaded. “Don’t go slow.”

  He gave her what she wanted in hard, urgent thrusts that quickly had them both slick with sweat. A climax claimed her in fast, almost violent waves, dragging him into the abyss with her.

  Drawing in ragged deep breaths, he rested on top of her. “Jesus,” he whispered.

  She giggled. “He can’t help you now.”

  “I don’t think anyone can. I’m sorry I didn’t last longer.”

  “I don’t know if I could’ve taken much more.”

  He lifted his head to give her a lecherous look. “We’re just getting started, baby.”

  “Is that a threat or a promise?” she asked with a grin.

  “A promise.” He kissed her and rolled them over so she was on top. “Very definitely a promise.”

  Much later, after they sent out for pizza and ate it in bed, Clare remembered she had never called Maggie.

  “Tomorrow,” Aidan said, yawning as he nestled her against his chest.

  “I feel kind of bad being here and not calling her.”

  He raised her chin. “Can we have tonight, just this one night for us? We can spend all day tomorrow with Maggie, okay?”

  “It’s getting late anyway,” she said with a deep sigh of contentment, but something still nagged at her. “Would you mind terribly if I called her now to make plans for tomorrow?”

  He smiled and lifted his arm to let her up. “Of course not.”

  She leaned over to kiss him. “I’ll be very quick. I promise.”

  “Good, because I’m already getting lonely.”

  Reaching into her closet for a robe, sh
e tied it around her on the way to the phone across the room. She felt Aidan’s eyes on her as she dialed Maggie’s cell phone.

  “Hey, honey,” she said when Maggie answered.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “Hey, guess what? Aidan and I are in Newport for a day or two, and we’re hoping you’re free tomorrow.”

  “What’re you doing here?”

  “Aidan’s father had a mild heart attack, and I went with him to Cape Cod to check on his dad. Since we were so close, we came to see you.”

  “Oh, good,” Maggie said but without the enthusiasm Clare had expected.

  “What’s wrong, honey?”

  “Have you talked to Kate?”

  “Not in a couple of days, why?”

  “Well, um, something’s going on, but I don’t know what. Dad got a call last night from a friend of hers in Nashville, and he flew down there today. He’s on his way back now. I don’t know what’s going on, but he was really mad about something. Andi seems upset, too.”

  Clare’s stomach dipped with anxiety. “Is she there? Can I talk to her?”

  “Sure, I’ll get her.”

  “Call me in the morning?”

  “I will. Here’s Andi.”

  “Hi, Clare.”

  “Hi, Andi. Do you know what’s going on with Kate?”

  Andi hesitated. “Jack is on his way home from the airport now. Why don’t I have him call you when he gets in?”

  “Is she all right? Is she sick?”

  “It’s nothing like that.”

  “Andi, you’re making me very nervous. I’m in Newport. Can you ask him to come by the house before he goes home?”

  “I’ll do that. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be evasive, but you really should talk to him.”

  “Okay. Thank you.”

  Aidan sat up in bed. “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know. Something’s happened in Nashville.” Clare pulled on her jeans. “Jack’s coming over here.”

  Aidan got up to find his shirt. “I’m sure if it was something bad, they would’ve called you by now, right?”

  “Yeah, but Jack’s wife sounded really odd and so did Maggie.”