Summer Fire
Page 95
“Headache?” David asked quietly. When she nodded, he placed his hands on her shoulders and began to knead the tight muscles there. “You’re got knots the size of golf balls on your shoulders,” he murmured, squeezing and compressing the muscle spasms, working his way along her shoulders and up the sides of her neck to rub the tendons there.
Her only response was a deep groan that he felt in every cell of his body. Touching her was a mistake. Even through her clothes, her skin tantalized his nerve endings and made him burn for her. He was just doing this to keep up the pretense of being a solicitous husband, he told himself. At least until he had her alone and isolated so she couldn’t run from him. When he found himself thinking about sliding his hands down her back and around to her breasts, he jerked his hands away. “Maybe you should take the medicine the doctor prescribed. Do you have it with you?”
“In my purse,” she murmured, willing him to touch her again. Her breasts felt swollen, nearly painful with her nipples so hard she had to bite her tongue to keep from begging him to touch her, to pinch the taut peaks, then soothe them with his mouth.
“When we get to your apartment, take one of your pills.”
Tessa managed to nod. She hunched her shoulders and tried to think of something else, but with him sitting next to her where she could smell the musky cologne he used, that was just about impossible.
Finally Paul got behind the steering wheel. She gave him directions to the garage apartment she rented from Lucy Rhone, the doctor’s sister. A few minutes later, Paul pulled into the driveway, and the three of them trooped up the stairs to the apartment.
When Tessa unlocked the door, she looked at the small space with a different perspective than she’d had that morning. Before, it had seemed like a sanctuary that was all hers, away from the curious eyes of the town. Now, the large room with a tiny kitchenette and an even tinier bathroom just seemed small and a bit shabby.
She looked around. “There’s not much to get.” She pulled a couple of plastic grocery store bags from a kitchen drawer and filled one with her toiletries and her pair of flip flops. When she opened a dresser drawer and started removing her panties and bras, she felt David’s eyes on her. She looked at the flaming red bra in her hand and blushed, hurriedly scooping the rest of her lingerie into the second plastic bag. “I guess you’re not surprised to see my sexy undies.” She tried to make light of it when all she could think about was stripping down and showing him the undies she wore under the hand-me-down dress.
David cleared his throat. “Actually, you never wore anything like, uh, like that.” He cleared his throat again and turned around, staring at the strawberry clusters on the kitchen wallpaper as if they fascinated him. He couldn’t stop himself from imagining her in the hot red bra with the lace cups holding her breasts like a present just waiting for him to unwrap. And the panties, if you could call those scraps of lace panties, well, they would do nothing but point like an arrow to the part of her body that, like her breasts, she’d never offered freely to him. Not after they’d married.
“I’ll just let you finish packing,” he managed to say. “Paul can help you. I need to make a call.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and retreated down the stairs, carrying with him all the hurtful, confusing memories from their marriage.
Paul followed. “She told me she didn’t need help. She wants me to find her landlady and just give her the other stuff in the apartment that she’d bought.”
“Hell. Do whatever it takes to get out of here.” David called the pilot. “Hey, it’s me. We’ll be there in a couple of hours I think. Be ready to leave as soon as we board.”
He removed his navy pinstripe suit coat, tossed it onto the backseat, and loosened the red silk necktie. He leaned against the hood of the car, not caring whether he got his trousers dirty. Tessa hadn’t asked any questions. She’d just come with him like the trusting soul she’d never been. Weird. If she really had amnesia, she’d want to know everything. Maybe she didn’t have to ask questions since she already knew the answers. He wished he could figure out her game.
A short while later, she came downstairs with the plastic bags and three bottles of water clasped precariously in her hands. He hurried to her. “Let me take those bags.”
He stowed them in the trunk of the car next to his briefcase and duffle bag. Tessa handed a cold bottle beaded with condensation to him and one to Paul. Carefully polite, he thanked her, opened the bottle, and drank deeply.
An elderly woman with snow white hair hurried from the back door. “Oh, I’m going to miss you, dear.”
David watched Tessa wrap her arms around the shorter woman and hug her. “Miss Lucy, I’m going to miss you too. You’ve been so kind to me.”
He helped Tessa into the car, surprised at the tears he saw in her eyes. He’d never seen her tear up about anything. She’d been guarded and tightly controlled most of the time.
As Paul drove away, Tessa took the prescription muscle relaxer. David pulled the console down between them in the back seat and placed his bottle of water in it. Tessa placed her bottle next to his. She’d have preferred to move the console out of the way so she could be closer to him, but she felt too tired to attempt it. The medicine was working fast. It was always this way. The muscle relaxer, although it was supposed to be a mild medication, swept her to oblivion. Her eyelids were heavy. She blinked slowly. When she awoke, she’d be back in Texas with David. Ready to resume her real life. She looked at him. “I guess it’s a long drive to that lake house you mentioned. Do you mind if I take a nap? Then when I’m more alert, we can talk.”
“No problem. You look exhausted. Get some sleep.”
“That’s not very flattering,” she mumbled sleepily. “Shouldn’t you be flattering your wife and telling her how beautiful she is?” A sleepy giggle escaped her.
After a long minute, David said, “I don’t do that anymore.”
Tessa didn’t reply. She’d fallen asleep. He sighed and relaxed. Not only had she changed her appearance, but she’d had a personality makeover too. This Tessa teared up, and she giggled and teased. The Tessa he’d known didn’t do any of that. This Tessa was more like the woman he’d met and fallen in love with. That woman had vanished long before she’d driven away and disappeared.
A short while later, Paul asked, “Is she asleep?”
“Yeah. Pull over so I can get up front.”
For the rest of the trip, the two men talked quietly. After a bit, David glanced at his wristwatch. “I guess our little press conference is playing on the six o’clock news right now.”
They made it across the state line to Texas in record time. Not long after that, they pulled up to a small airport, south of Interstate 20. Paul parked on the tarmac.
David opened the door to the backseat and tried to rouse Tessa, but she was out cold. While Paul got their bags from the trunk and took them to the twin-engine Cessna, David grabbed her purse and tossed it to Paul. Then he got Tessa out of the car and lifted her into his arms. She moaned and briefly struggled against him. When he shushed her, she relaxed. He carried her to the plane and up the folding stairs, hating that he liked the way she felt in his arms. Hating the way he couldn’t stop thinking about stripping her clothes off and covering her with his body.
“She’s out like a cheap drunk,” Paul joked. “What kind of meds is she on?”
David’s mouth tightened. Paul might be his best friend, but his words annoyed David. “Just a muscle relaxer and an anti-inflammatory. Maybe the busy day was too much for her.”
“Maybe,” Paul said. “Or maybe she had a quick belt when she was alone in her apartment. Booze with a muscle relaxer would knock her out.”
“I don’t smell any liquor on her.”
“Wasn’t her drink of choice vodka? You wouldn’t smell that.”
Before she’d disappeared, David had come to realize Tessa drank too much. But only at certain times. His mouth tightened at the humbling memory. In a sharper voice than he inten
ded, he said, “Call me if you need anything.”
“Happy landings.” Paul studied Tessa, asleep in David’s arms. His forehead wrinkled. “Maybe we’ve misjudged her. Maybe she really does have amnesia.”
“Yeah, she’s got amnesia just like I still have a company worth millions instead of one bleeding red ink. All because of her.”
Paul cleared his throat. “Look. I’d have to be blind not to notice that she still, uh, affects you. Whatever you do, don’t sleep with her. Just get the papers signed.”
“That’s the plan. I don’t know what her game is, but she won’t balk at signing the divorce papers. There’s no reason for her to refuse. Amnesia or not, she’s smart enough to know that when it comes to community property, half of nothing is nothing. She signs and she gets a cash settlement. So there’s no reason for her to hang around expecting more.”
*
Tessa and David’s short press conference made the national news later that night. The local television newscaster was adding his two cents when a click of the remote control shut the TV off.
Unbelievable. She had survived. Now her face was plastered on every television screen in the South. Maybe in the country. She’d had amnesia, but was now regaining her memory? Too bad for her.
The phone in the office rang. There wasn’t much to do except answer the phone and promise to do the job right next time.
Chapter Three
A loud noise woke Tessa. Confused, she looked around. Was she in a plane? David sat across from her, reading a blue-backed document she recognized as a legal paper.
“Good you’re awake.” David folded the document and tucked it into a black briefcase. “We just landed.”
As the plane pulled up to the tarmac, he explained that they’d flown to west Texas, somewhere between Abilene and San Angelo. From there they’d drive to the lake house where his grandparents used to live. When the plane came to a stop, he helped Tessa stand. She slipped her purse on her shoulder and followed him from the plane.
Disoriented by this new situation, she said, “I thought the lake house was near Houston.”
“I never said that. This place is better because it’s isolated. We’ll keep a low profile, and in two weeks, your disappearance will be old news.”
Tessa didn’t know what else to do so she nodded and followed him to a brown Ford Crew Cab pickup parked next to a metal building. He stowed their bags on the backseat.
She tossed her purse back there too and yawned. “I’m going inside to find the restroom.
She relieved herself, washed her hands, and splashed water on her face. That helped clear her head. Her reflection showed a woman with shadows under her eyes, but there was little she could do about that except get more sleep. She snorted. If only. Most nights she slept fitfully with her dreams haunted by a dark specter that terrified her. She often thought if she could remember something other than the terrifying shadowy image, she’d be able to get over the fear. With a troubled sigh, she left the restroom and met David as he was exiting the men’s room.
“Ready?” he asked, taking her arm and escorting her outside.
“I guess.” Desire simmered between them. She felt it and knew that he did too.
In the truck, before he started the engine, he asked, “Are you hungry?”
“No.” She’d realized as she saw him with the truck keys in hand, that he’d planned this all along, cajoling her into thinking it was a good idea. Why hadn’t he just told her up front that they would be going halfway across the state?
“That’s just as well. There’s probably nothing open around here.”
“Then why did you ask?” She made her voice sound as coolly detached as his. She studied his strong profile. “Have I ever been to this lake house before?”
“No. You’ve seen pictures. One was of the spring bluebonnets.”
That time. He actually had lied to her. Had he lied about anything else?
As they drove away from the small airport, the sun, a brilliant burnt orange, was setting in the western sky turning everything in front of it into black silhouettes. Tessa looked at the darkening countryside for landmarks as they sped past, but there wasn’t much to see except wild grass, cactus, and mesquite trees. The scenery was as desolate as she suddenly felt. Had she made a mistake by coming with David? She’d thought she could trust him, but did she really know herself well enough to trust her judgment?
David needed distraction. For himself and her. He could practically see the wheels spinning in her brain. He switched on the radio. An Eagles song began to play. That kept him from hearing the soft sighs she made. Each sound chewed at his conscience. He could smell her perfume. That damned gardenia scent mixed with her own body chemistry gave him a hard-on. Thank God the lake house and the surrounding land were large enough that he wouldn’t have to see her unless he chose to torture himself with her presence.
After he had the talk with her, he imagined she wouldn’t want to see him either so the problem of lusting after her would be solved.
David’s hands tightened reflexively on the steering wheel. From the moment he’d met Tessa, he’d fallen hard. The first time he’d held her … kissed her, he’d known what lay between them was different from anything he’d experienced with other women. After their marriage, he’d learned he was right, but in ways far different than he’d expected. Things between them had been perfect until the day they’d returned to Houston. That night, she’d been a different woman. Distant. Cold. As if now that she’d trapped him into marriage, she didn’t want him in her bed.
When she had disappeared, things had been rocky for a while. His disenchantment gave birth to bitterness. After all the months of her absence, he thought he’d worked her out of his system. Seeing her again, smelling her, hearing her voice, touching her—all of it conspired against him.
He relived the way she had responded to his kiss this afternoon. She was different. He snorted. Yeah. She was different. Different color blue eyes. Different hair color. Different personality. Different behavior. But which was real? The Tessa she’d been when he’d fallen in love with her, the Tessa she became after their marriage, or the Tessa she was now? How could he possibly know which was true and which was as fake as her previous eye and hair color?
He drove for almost an hour before she spoke again.
“Tell me about this place where we’re going.”
When he didn’t reply immediately, she said, “David? Did you hear me?”
“Sorry.” He forced the memories away and took a deep breath and tried to make his voice normal. “My brothers and I spent most of our summers there when we were kids. My granddad had a small orchard of peach trees and plum trees. He paid us a dollar a bushel for picking the fruit. It was hard work, but it was great being outdoors. At the end of the day, we’d strip down and swim in the lake.” He smiled. “There was no better feeling than the cold water washing away the sweat and grime of the day.”
“I think that’s the first time I’ve seen you smile and genuinely mean it,” Tessa said softly.
David slowed and turned from the four-lane highway onto a two-lane blacktop road. He kept his speed slow. “Thinking about the farm makes me remember how it was to be carefree. My time was my own. I worked hard and played hard too. I love this old farm.”
“Have I met your grandparents and your brothers?”
“No. My brothers are in service and were stationed abroad when we married. Now that my grandparents are older, they’ve decided to travel and see the world.”
“Why did you come for me?” Tessa suddenly asked. “Was it only to clear your name?”
Startled, David put her off. “I know there’s a lot we need to talk about, but we’ll have the next two weeks to do that. Let’s just wait until tomorrow when we’re not so tired.”
“I had a nap. I guess you must be tired though. Okay. I can wait. I’ll talk to keep you awake.”
“I’m good. It’s not that late, and I’ve never fallen asleep while
driving.” He looked over at her. “Maybe that’s what happened to you.”
“That seems so mundane. Where would I have gone that I’d driven so long that I fell asleep? No. I don’t think so.” After a moment, she sighed. “Never mind. Let’s see. How about some fun facts? Did you know that the vacuum cleaner was invented in England in 1901?”
“That’s a fun fact?” He glanced over at her as if he thought she was a bit odd.
“Yes. The vacuum cleaner was invented in England in 1901 by Mr. H. Cecil Booth of England. He’d seen a demonstration of a dust removal machine that forced air down into a carpet to blow dust up into a box mounted on the machine.”
“Fascinating,” David murmured in a tone of voice that said just the opposite.
“Booth thought it would be more efficient if the machine sucked the dust directly into the box. He got the idea by putting his mouth on the back of an upholstered chair and sucking on it. Gross, right? But that helped him figure out how to get his machine to suck instead of blow.”
“He was a scientist who lived and breathed his work, huh? One could say that sucks. Or even that blows.”
Tessa chuckled, delighted that he’d actually made a joke. “I read that in a great book from the hospital lending library. It was about how ordinary things came to be invented. Want to hear another?”
David shrugged. This was better than fielding questions. “Sure. Tell me another.”
“Let’s see. How about pockets? Did you know clothing did not have pockets until the late sixteenth century?”
“Where did a guy put his car keys?” David asked with a smirk.
Tessa snorted. “Funny. If a carriage had keys, a man would have carried them in his, uh, I forgot.” She simply couldn’t say codpiece.
“You forgot? Just like that?” David asked.
“I guess it’s that pesky amnesia.”
“I don’t think amnesia works that way according to everything I’ve read.”
“I didn’t know you were so well-versed in my ailment.”