"Ah, here they are." His mother motioned for them both to enter. His father gave his brother a hug and nodded at Deanne who was sitting on the couch. Deanne, however, ignored his father, her eyes instead latched on him. What registered first was the surprise he saw in her eyes. He hadn't seen or spoken to the woman in twelve years. He'd changed. Dramatically. But she hadn't. Her blonde hair fell to her shoulders in a soft wave. Her hazel eyes ran up and down him as if sizing him up for a suit. She lifted an eyebrow and cocked her head slightly as if she was holding an internal debate.
"Dinner's ready." Mavis' voice behind him seemed to pull everyone out of the frozen moment they'd fallen into. He followed the two couples into the war zone. Time to do battle.
Rio palmed his cell as he backed out of the driveway.
"Hello." Meg's voice splashed an immediate balm on his irritated and well-worn nerves.
"Hey, are you busy?" He put the SUV into gear and headed toward Pooler. He needed to see her, to talk with someone who was outside the insanity that had just exploded inside his family's home.
"Not really. I'm watching Monica and Joey talking in the hall outside their apartment."
"Are they your neighbors?" Dammit, he wanted to see her tonight, to restore some of his faith in humanity.
"Nah, they're friends." She laughed as she spoke.
She was supposed to have met with Carl tonight. Was she still out? "Oh, well I better let you go then."
"No silly, Friends, the television show, not friends as in friends."
"Oh, well if Ross and Rachel don't mind, may I ask how your night went?" Rio relaxed and maneuvered through light traffic towards the interstate. He could be at her house in thirty-five minutes.
She sighed heavily into his ear. "You know things never go as you expect them to go. It was… interesting, to say the least."
"You okay?" Warning bells were blaring in his brain and he had no idea why, other than her carefully worded answer to his question.
"I am. If I never see Carl again, it will be too soon. He's by far the worst guy my sister has tried to set me up with, but I'll live. I'm resilient like that." She took a drink of something. "How about you, what happened tonight?"
"Yeah, well that was interesting." Rio hit the turn signal and waited for the road to clear so he could turn left.
"How so?"
"Dad and I thought through how we were going to broach the subject of my inheritance. We figured Mason knew because he had access to the documents. He did. His reaction barely made a blip on the radar, except he was hurt. You could tell."
"What about his wife? Deena wasn't it?"
"Deanne."
"Oh, sorry."
"No need. She wasn't there."
"Why? Didn't she come do dinner?"
"No, she did."
"I don't understand. Then why wasn't she there? Was she with your mom?"
Rio gave a rueful chuckle, "God, no. I don't think Mom is going to talk to Deanne for a long, long time."
There was a beat of silence. "Okay, maybe I need to stop drinking wine, now. I'm not following, and I've been nursing this glass for almost an hour, so I don't think I'm drunk. Warm and fuzzy, yes, but I have a feeling I'm still cognizant of my faculties..."
"Babe, if you can say cognizant of your faculties, you're not drunk." Rio chuckled and accelerated to pass a car that was going about twenty miles under the speed limit.
"True, so will you please fill in the blanks?"
"Okay, we sat down to dinner. Conversation was the normal nice things like, how's the weather and mundane shit, you know? Just kind of casual. I then asked Deanne why she never mailed Mason's letter to me."
"Well, I bet that went over like a lead balloon."
"Right? She blinked at me like she had no idea what I was talking about. Even said those words." Rio stopped at a red light as he shook his head and watched people coming and going at the gas station across from him.
"What happened then?"
"Mason happened."
"Not enough info there I'm afraid. What did Mason do?"
"He asked her if she mailed the letter he wrote asking me to be his best man." Rio swallowed hard. "She claimed she had no idea what he was talking about. Evidently, he'd read her the letter. He wanted to make sure he'd worded it right. She told him she was going to the post office anyway and she'd mail it."
"But she didn't?"
"It would appear. Then Mason asked her if she actually invited me to the wedding."
"And?" Meghan prompted.
"She said she did. That's when my mom got involved." Rio bit the inside of his cheek. The things he wanted to say about Deanne didn't need to be said in polite company.
"Your mom?"
"Yeah, see Deanne told Mom Mason didn't want me invited. Said he was still pissed that I'd knocked him out that time. I told you about that, right?" They'd spent so many hours talking there was no way they hadn't covered that.
"In front of the restaurant. Yeah, you told me, I think it was at the beach."
"God, that seems like a lifetime ago."
"Just a week, but I get it, life can get seriously complicated in a fraction of a second." Meghan would know. She had her own family issues with which to deal, that was for sure.
"Yeah, well Mom confronted her, I mean like she got real still, and she volleyed her eyes from Deanne to Mason, to me and then she stared at Deanne as if all the events had suddenly aligned in her brain. She asked Deanne to repeat herself."
"Did she?"
"Repeat herself?"
"Yeah."
"She did. Mom pushed her soup bowl away and clasped her hands in front of her. Did I tell you my mom was a lawyer?"
"No, I didn't know that."
Rio accelerated onto the interstate. The trip through Savannah was surprisingly quick. "Yeah, she gave it up when she got pregnant with Mason, but she was an Assistant District Attorney."
"What did she do?"
"As a lawyer?"
"No! At dinner."
"Oh. She asked Deanne point-blank if Deanne thought she was stupid."
"If Deanne thought your mom was stupid?"
"Yeah."
"And? Don't keep me waiting here."
"The woman was cool, I'll give her that. She told Mom she had no idea what she was talking about, that she had the utmost respect for both her and Dad."
Meghan was silent for a couple of heartbeats. "Oh, for God’s sake, Rio, what happened? You suck at storytelling! Get to the point!"
Rio had to laugh at the exasperation in her voice. "Deanne denied telling Mom Mason didn’t want me at the wedding, but Mom wasn't having it. She asked Deanne if she looked senile."
"No."
"Yep. Then Deanne started the waterworks and claimed we were ganging up on her. She demanded Mason leave with her and drive her home."
"But he didn't, because you said he was hurt, but Deanne wasn't there, right?"
Rio nodded although Meg wouldn't be able to see him, well, not for another ten minutes or so. "He said no. They'd driven to the house separately and her crocodile tears didn't seem to affect him. Deanne went from crying to extremely pissed in about as long as it takes to launch a grenade out of a M-240 and stormed out of the house."
"Ahh… I'm not sure I get the analogy, but I'm taking it that is pretty quick."
"Yeah, that's a grenade launcher, and yes, that is quick. Mason and I hashed out a lot of things after that. Mom and Dad were there. It was good. Cathartic. Then the inheritance came up. Dad explained why he thought Pops left more to me."
"What's Mason going to do?"
"About the inheritance? Not much he can do."
"No, about Deanne, I mean she lied and manipulated all of you, right?"
Meghan didn't have a clue how much the woman had done. He hadn't said anything about the falsified pre-nup. He hoped like hell Mason had protected himself after he found out about the missing power of attorney.
"Hello? Are you still there?"
&nb
sp; Meg's question refocused his attention on their conversation as he exited the freeway. "I don't know what Mason is going to do. He has always kept shit close to his vest. He said he had to do some thinking and some research. Mom and Dad wanted some time with him. Hell, the guy was slaughtered by everything that happened tonight. I decided to leave so they could talk in private."
"So you're what, going out tonight?"
"I am."
"Oh." The sound of her disappointment rang clearly through the connection.
"Do you want to know where I'm going?" He pulled into the apartment complex and whipped his truck into a parking spot in front of her building. It was a stroke of luck, or the fact it was Friday night and her apartment complex boasted a resident population of twenty-somethings who were out partying.
"Ummm… to a bar?"
He got out of the truck and hit the fob to lock it. "Nope." He walked across the small grass yard, noticing the crickets’ and katydids’ musical serenade from the wooded area to the right of the apartment complex.
She was quiet while he walked up the cement stairs. Finally, she asked, "Where are you going? A club?"
"Nope. I'm at yours." He strode down the outside hall that led from one front door to the next. Stopping outside her door he knocked on it.
"Mine?"
"Yep. Open the door."
"Oh, I'm ahh... I don't have any makeup on."
"I don't care."
"But..."
"Meg, honey, open the door." Rio tapped on the door again.
"Ummm..."
"Don't you want to see me?"
"Yeah, but I don't want you to see me."
His eyes lifted from his feet to the front of the door. "Why?"
"Well, I had a little accident."
"When? Never mind. Now I'm worried about you. Open the door, please." Rio stared at the peep hole and watched the light from her apartment disappear. "I know you're at the door. Let me in."
"I will, but you have to promise you won't get mad."
"About an accident?"
"Yeah."
"Why would I get mad about an accident?"
"Just promise me." He could hear her behind the door; no longer needing the phone, he hung up.
"Done. Open up, Meg." He spoke to her through the door.
The deadbolt turned and the door cracked open before she stepped back and let him in. He paused in the doorway, noting the bandage wrapped around her wrist. She moved to shut the door and her hair fell in front of her face, blocking his view of those expressive blue eyes. When she turned around, his hand snapped out, cupping her neck and lifting her face. "What happened?"
"It was an accident."
"You said that, but how did this happen. Oh damn, babe, you're going to have one hell of a shiner."
"Yeah, I know. Come in and I'll tell you. Do you want something to drink?"
"No, thanks." He followed her to her couch where she sat down in the corner. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her shoulders dropped, and she brought her eyes up to his. "It happened when I was meeting Carl tonight."
Rio's gut clenched hard. Every instinct told him that bastard had done this. He nodded, trying like hell to keep the rage that was bubbling up in him from showing. "Go on."
"He grabbed me to stop me from leaving." Her hand rubbed her arm under her t-shirt. He reached out and pushed the shirt up. Finger marks, red with a blue tint were clearly visible. "When I jerked away from him, his beer spilled. He did what anyone would do, he tried to move away and when he did, his beer mug caught me on the cheek. I fell down and..." She lifted her wrist and waved it a little.
"He grabbed you?"
She nodded. "He wasn't happy I was leaving, but the waitress helped me up, got me some ice for my face, and put me in a taxi. The bar paid for it. I'll catch an Uber tomorrow and go get my car."
"What did this piece of shit do while you were on the ground?" Rio's anger vibrated under his skin.
She shook her head. "Nothing."
"Nothing." Rio nodded. "What bar was this again?"
"Why?"
"Just wondering." Just wondering how in the hell he could be in two places at one time. Here and at the bar because he was going to meet up with good, ole Carl. Or rather Carl was going to meet up with his fist.
"No need. After I get my car, I won't be going back." She pushed her hair out of her face. "Sorry about no makeup." Her neck reddened and her cheeks pinked up.
"You shouldn't be. You're beautiful." He pushed the hair away from her uninjured cheek and ran his thumb over it gently.
"I'm not." She ducked away from him.
"Hey." Rio pushed back into the couch, twisting so he was facing her.
She looked up.
"You realize you can't tell me what I think is beautiful, right?"
"Huh?"
Her eyes were so expressive. Those blue orbs told him she had no idea what he was talking about. "Every time I tell you I think you're perfect or beautiful, you deny it. You don't get to do that. It would be like me telling you you can't like your favorite color. I can't influence that, and you can't influence what I see when I look at you."
"It's just difficult, you know? Hearing things like that." She pushed her uninjured cheek into his hand when he reached up and cupped it.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it. I plan on telling you every day." He leaned in and let his lips drift over hers.
She chased his lips, and he smiled before he pulled her up and over him. Her legs straddled him. He pushed her hair away and stared up at her. The bastard had hurt her, and Rio would have his pound of flesh, that was a guaranteed thing, but right now he had better things to do, and they started with making sure Meghan knew just how beautiful he thought she was.
Chapter 16
Meghan stared down at him. He was so handsome and so attentive. She could feel him wrapping around her, becoming her air, and the beat of her heart. He was all consuming and so far out of her league. "What did I do to deserve you?"
He smiled up at her, tenderly pulling her down to him. "I'm the lucky one," he whispered before they kissed. A shiver of desire raced through her. His tongue licked her lips. She gasped, and he entered her mouth. Oh, the desire that pounded through her veins started at a crescendo, how could she want him more?
His hands slipped up from her hips, under her t-shirt. He groaned into their kiss when his fingers traced up her waist against her ribs and gently touched her bare breast. She gasped against his lips when his fingers rolled her nipples gently. Splinters of excitement skittered from where he touched her and pooled deep inside her. She ground down against him. Her body moving in ways she didn't understand and couldn't... no wouldn't stop. His hips pushed up when she moved down.
"Oh, yes." Her eyes popped open at her own words. His eyes were fixed on her, his pupils wide with desire. He wanted her. Her. A finger snuck between one of the buttons on his dress shirt. She popped it out of its anchor before he claimed her lips again. Her fingers traveled the course of his buttons with starts and stops as he rolled her onto her back and loomed over her. She released the last button, and his white and blue pinstripe shirt fell open, draping like a curtain around her. She stared at him as she reached up and ran her hands over his pecs. They moved, shivered, when she touched him. Her eyes flitted back to his. He smiled, emboldening her to reach up with both hands. She trailed her nails over his skin. The spring of his chest hair tickled the pads of her fingertips.
"Meghan. I want you." He lowered over her, resting on his elbows.
Could she jump out of her skin? Her nerves fired in a series of explosions as his words sank in and took hold. He lowered his lips to her neck and kissed down to the collar of the t-shirt. He kissed lower, his hot breath moistening the soft cotton of her shirt, and he found her nipple and took it between his teeth; not biting, but still possessing her. She arched her back and slid her hands up his biceps to his shoulders, gripping the shirt that she'd unbuttoned.
"Let's g
o to the bedroom." She heard her voice, her words, but she had no real thoughts of saying them before she did.
Rio made a noise of agreement but continued his sensuous onslaught. He lifted her shirt, freeing her breasts. She clenched her eyes shut. The only other time she'd had sex was in the dark so the man she was with couldn't see her. Her first and only experience was uncomfortable and unfulfilling. She stiffened when she realized Rio hadn't moved since he'd lifted her shirt.
"I once saw an alabaster jar in a museum. It was exquisitely beautiful. That work of art couldn't compare to you. Your white skin tinged with the flush of desire is so damn sexy. My God, where have you been all my life?"
Meghan opened her eyes. What she saw undid her.
He wasn't looking at her nakedness, his eyes were glued to hers. "Please let me make you feel as beautiful as the woman I see beneath me."
How could she not? She nodded and he smiled. He stood and extended a hand to her. She grabbed his offered hand with her uninjured one and let him help her stand. She struggled with her injured hand to pull the shirt down over her.
"No, wrong way." He lifted the shirt, removing it seconds before he groaned, "Perfect."
Embarrassment flamed in her face, and she crossed her arms in front of her. Downcast eyes prevented her from seeing him, but she watched his shirt drop to the ground, and his hands moved to his belt. He unbuckled it, unfastened his khakis, and dropped them after he toed out of his shoes. His cock pushed against his briefs. The black knit was wet at the flared head. She could see the outline of him clearly. He put his hand under her chin, and she lifted her eyes. Slowly. His body was perfect. Ridged muscles punctuated with silver-grey scars and newer red ones. She reached out and traced a jagged scar that ran from just under his ribcage to his left hip.
He trailed his finger down her arm. The tenderness of the moment drowned her fears in a current of intimacy that swirled around them like a living, tangible force. He offered her his hand, which she took. He leaned down and kissed her—kissed her until she couldn't breathe, until she couldn't think of anything but the man in front of her.
They walked into the bedroom. There were no lights on, but they didn't need any. They lost the rest of their clothes in a controlled rush. Rio whispered beautiful words to her as his hands, lips and tongue traveled over every inch of her body. She cupped his chin as he lifted away from a kiss. "Tell me what to do to make you feel good." She had to know. She wanted to...
Hot SEAL, Savannah Nights Page 13
