Midnight Rose

by Shelby Reed

  “Yeah,” Jude said aridly, tucking his hands behind his head as he stretched out on the leather sofa. “I’d love to hear what his take was on the monster part.”

  “Nothing like what you think, I’d imagine.”

  “I can probably guess.”

  Gideon’s gaze narrowed and he folded his arms over his chest. “Okay, Jude. Let’s hear it.”

  The teenager sighed and stared up at the massive iron chandelier. “Whoever wrote all those notes probably talks about how the vampire feels torn between being human and being a monster, especially when he meets the girl. Then the vampire wishes he could be mortal, but he can’t be, because once a monster, always a monster.”

  Black gaze locked with black gaze, and no one spoke.

  “Is that what the comments say, Gideon?” Kate asked finally, confused by the obvious tension between father and son.

  Gideon’s attention finally left Jude’s face. “Yes. But there’s far more to the story than that particular conflict. Use this copy. Jude knows how to take care of a book.” Tenderness softened his features as he gazed down at Kate. “Everything in this house is at your disposal, Ms. O’Brien.”

  “Thank you.” She swallowed, her cheeks burning under his piercing appraisal. Was he thinking about last night? She could hardly entertain another thought herself.

  He seemed rested, full of life and sunshine and the scent of the roses he’d been working on in the greenhouse. She recalled the shift of muscles beneath his skin as they made love, the softness of his hair against her breasts, his mouth touching every inch of her. A jolt of sheer arousal sizzled through her. She wanted him again, and he knew it. His gaze was shuttered as he moved away from her and seated himself on the ottoman beside the sofa.

  “So how are you, J?” he asked his son, resting his elbows on his knees as he turned the book in slow, restless circles between his palms.

  “Fine.” Jude rolled toward him, pillowing his head on his hand. “I don’t remember very much about yesterday or anything.”

  “I know. That’s just as well.”

  “I remember what I said to you in the kitchen, though.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.” Jude sighed. “It was dumb. I mean, I said some stuff that wasn’t very… I just didn’t mean it. Most of it, anyway.”

  Gideon studied his face, and for a long moment neither spoke, as though they carried on a silent conversation of apology and reconciliation.

  Feeling like an intruder, Kate cleared her throat and busied herself perusing the bookshelves. She heard Gideon murmur something to Jude and turned to see him press his lips against the boy’s forehead. Jude’s arm crept around his neck, just for an instant. Surrender. A truce. The sight brought a lump to her throat.

  Then Gideon straightened and glanced at her. “I’d like him to start this novel as soon as possible.”

  “Okay.”

  “He can lie in here and read while you take a walk with me.”

  Kate’s heart leapt, but she managed to sound perfectly composed when she said, “Fine. Jude, please read the first three chapters. When I get back we’ll write a paragraph summary and then start on your math.”

  “Okay.” He took the book from his father’s hands and flipped it open, propping it against his thighs as he scrunched into the corner of the sofa.

  With a satisfied smile, Gideon got to his feet and ushered Kate out of the room.

  Once in the privacy of the shadowed hallway, he caught her hand and drew her against him, his lips opening soft and hungry against hers.

  In return she ran her fingers up the nape of his neck and sank them into his hair, kissing him with abandon.

  “I’m never going to make it through this day without having you,” he said when they parted to smile at each other. “Just seeing you in the library made me ache all over again.”

  Lost in a haze of pleasure, she clung to his shoulders and pressed her lips against his throat. He smelled like soap and faded aftershave. “Let’s take that walk.”

  “I have a better idea.” He opened a door a few feet behind her, revealing a narrow back staircase she hadn’t known existed.

  “Where does it lead?”

  “To the east wing hallway.”

  “Near your bedroom,” she said with a slow smile.

  “Smart teacher.” Grasping her hand, he led her up the dark stairwell, into the hall above, and they moved with furtive silence to his bedroom, where he locked them in and drew her into his embrace.

  Instantly rapacious, she tugged his shirttails from his pants while he reached beneath her denim skirt to skim off her panties. They sank to the carpet, where he unfastened his jeans, freed his erection and stretched over her, parting her knees to slide between. His shaft slid against her wetness, probing, seeking home.

  “God, Kate, you feel so good. I can’t wait.”

  “I don’t want you to.” She shoved his jeans farther down his hips and clutched his naked buttocks, arching toward him until the tip of his penis slid inside her. “Hurry, Gideon. Hurry.”

  He braced himself on his arms and thrust inside her to the hilt, his eyelids sliding closed as ecstasy washed his features. “Oh, yes.”

  Kate moved in tandem beneath him, opening her thighs wider to take him as deeply as possible. He was fierce and hard, and set her on fire with his passion. The fact that it was midday, with all of Sister Oaks awake and bustling around them, only fed her wild excitement. A few of his deliberate, firm strokes and she bit back a cry as she came, shuddering in rhythmic bursts around him.

  Gideon shifted his weight to his forearms and brought his chest against hers where she could feel the wild hammer of his heartbeat. As he thrust inside her with steady, forceful movements, she dug her fingers into the thick carpet and opened her eyes to watch him take his pleasure.

  There was nothing quite so exquisite as his flushed, enraptured features in the seconds before fulfillment. Concentration creased his brow; she could see the pulse throbbing wildly beneath his skin at the base of his throat. The tendons in his neck stood out, his lips parted and at last a gasping breath tore from him, heralding his climax. “Oh…God…”

  It undulated through him in waves, lifting him again and again before he finally sagged against her and his head dropped to her shoulder.

  “Kate,” he whispered, his lips at her ear. It sounded like a prayer.

  She released a languid sigh, let her fingers drift up his back and down again beneath the light material of his shirt. His skin was so cool, so smooth. Declarations of love rose within her, but she bit them back. He touched her in the telltale, worshipful way of a man in love, but she needed to hear him say the words before she told him again where he fit in her heart.

  For now, this was enough; the delicious weight of his body resting on hers, the ebbing throb of his erection inside her, the tenderness in his dark eyes as he looked down at her.

  After a moment he kissed her, then carefully lifted himself from her body and headed to the bathroom.

  Dazed, Kate sat up, straightened her clothing, raked her fingers through her tousled hair. One of her hoop earrings was missing, and she brushed her palm across the ivory carpet to no avail. The tiny gold circle was lost somewhere in the plush pile, and would no doubt fall victim to the housekeeper’s vacuum cleaner. A wicked smile curved her mouth. The governess’ earring lost in the boss’s bedroom carpet. Delilah had only thought the situation had naughty potential.

  A movement across the room caught her attention and she glanced up. Sunlight poured through the French doors, flooding the room with golden warmth. All except for the far right corner, where a mass of shadows seemed to cluster behind a large potted palm. Twisting, like limbs and heads and wailing mouths. Kate blinked and straightened, her pulse pounding.

  And then the shadows were gone. Gideon reemerged from the bathroom, looking as unwrinkled and relaxed as though he’d never known the mad throes of ecstasy moments before. Extending his hand, he hauled her to her fe
et and brushed a kiss against her lips.

  “Washcloths and towels are in the bathroom. And anything else you need.”

  She clung to him for an instant, breathed in his scent and strength before she started across the room, keeping one eye on the suspicious corner. For heaven’s sake, nothing was there.

  “Kate?” he said, and something in his voice stopped her. She paused in the bathroom doorway and glanced back at him.

  “Yes?”

  “I love you. I want you to know that. I want you to remember it every time you look at me. I love you, and no matter what happens, I always will. Promise you’ll remember.”

  It was what she’d wanted to hear from him, and yet stowaway shadows clung to his declaration and weighted her heart with sadness instead of elation.

  “I’ll never forget, Gideon. I love you, too,” she said in a wavering voice. “Nothing will change that.”

  Instead of replying, he simply nodded and turned away.

  After a moment she closed herself into the bathroom, wondering why, in the wake of such intimacy, she felt like weeping.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The late August heat hung thick and gauzy over the countryside. Even still, signs of autumn showed themselves, incongruent to the sticky, searing temperatures.

  Kate stood on the lawn near the duck pond and watched the exodus of birds flying in A-shaped squadrons overhead. Flying south for the winter. Part of her wished she could flee with them.

  She couldn’t shake the sense of being barely two steps ahead of something dark and chaotic. The anxiety was faceless, insidious, but it showed itself at night in her dreams, with Gideon at the nucleus of a whirling, wailing cyclone. More than once in the last few weeks, she’d jolted awake and found herself gasping in the middle of his bed while he slept peacefully beside her. And always, the nightmares were trailed by the faint, phantom warning, go home.

  She stayed.

  Gideon had left two days earlier for a convention in New York. Kate declined when he’d invited her to accompany him, and now she regretted it, missing the sensuous comfort of his embrace and his presence at night beside her. But she hadn’t wanted to leave Jude at Sister Oaks with just the house staff and Mrs. Shelton to watch him.

  Jude seemed more reclusive and secretive than ever. At fourteen, he stood at a disconcerting six feet. His voice had deepened, his shoulders growing broader, his torso leaner. Rarely in her life had Kate seen a less awkward teenager. To the naked eye he was perfection. One would never guess the illness that continued to ravage him.

  He’d made friends through the Internet, as she’d guessed he would. And last night, when she went to knock on his door to call him for dinner, she’d heard his voice, his soft laughter, floating out into the hallway. He was on the phone with someone. From the sound of his low, intimate tone, a female someone. When she tapped, she heard the abrupt slam of the receiver, and he’d hastily called out, “I’ll be down in a minute. Don’t wait for me.”

  Odd behavior. Kate smiled to herself. He’d probably met a girlfriend in cyberspace and would be mortified if he knew anyone suspected.

  Sudden droplets of rain drew her from her thoughts and spattered the pond water, radiating circles from the point of impact. She headed back toward the house, where the scent of broiled steak drifted on the evening air.

  Inside, Jude was bouncing a tennis ball off a wall in the empty dining room. The sound echoed like a slow hammer through the downstairs.

  “I’m sure the housekeeper loves that,” Kate said dryly.

  He tossed her the ball. “I’m bored. Let’s go somewhere.”

  The announcement surprised her. “What did you have in mind?”

  “I don’t know. What do you think kids in Putnam do on weekend nights?”

  Kate knew the answer. They cruised up and down Main Street in their pickups and hot-rods, hormones on parade. She’d gotten caught once or twice in the line-up, and on one occasion had to close the car’s windows to prevent a truck full of hooting teenage boys from ogling her. The procession appeared to culminate at the Jupiter Drive-in Restaurant next to the community bank, where the kids piled out to socialize and spend their parents’ money on greasy fries and watery milkshakes. Maybe she could drive Jude up to the restaurant for a snack once it got dark.

  But not without Gideon’s permission.

  “We have to call your dad first,” she said as she tossed the ball back to him. “But maybe I could take you into town.”

  Jude’s eyes lit up. “Call him now.”

  Heading up to her room, she found Gideon’s Manhattan hotel number and dialed it, then sank to the side of her mattress with a sigh. God, she missed him. Her need for him was elemental, like oxygen and food and water. When he answered on the third ring, her heart leapt in her chest.

  “How’s the Big Apple?” she asked, trying not to sound too eager.

  “How do you think? I should be out wining and dining in the world’s finest restaurants. Instead I’m holed up here in some soulless high-rise hotel, thinking of you.”

  She smiled. “Mooning over me instead of food?”

  “I can go without food. But without you…I don’t stand a chance.”

  Although he was teasing, she could hear the strain of need in his voice and her body instantly responded, warming and softening at the thought of his desire. “Have you thought of me a time or two?”

  “Or a thousand. I dreamed of you last night,” he said, his tone dropping. “I woke up hard enough to drive nails.”

  Delight shivered through her. “Oh?”

  “So hard, I had to handle it myself right then and there.”

  She closed her eyes, desire burning a path straight to her core. “Will you do that for me sometime? I’d like to watch.”

  “Only if you return the favor.”

  “With pleasure.” She clutched the phone tighter to her ear, then dragged in a deep breath and regained control. “It’s too early in the evening for this type of phone call, you know.”

  “I know. Long distance foreplay just makes things worse, doesn’t it? But I’ll be home Sunday night to make it up to you.”

  “Thank God.” She sighed. “Actually, I called to ask you a favor.”

  “Anything for you.”

  “How about for Jude?”

  He paused. “What is it?”

  “Gideon. He doesn’t make these requests very often, and I really think you should say yes.”

  “I can’t until you ask the question.”

  She took a breath and plunged. “He wants me to drive him into town tonight so he can see what Putnam’s like for kids his age.”

  Gideon didn’t respond right away. Then he sighed. “That’s a perfectly normal request for a kid whose life has been anything but perfectly normal.”

  “I know. That’s why I had to call. He’s lonely and bored, and I don’t blame him.”

  “You’re a sweet and sensitive woman, Kate. You take good care of my son. And of me.”

  “I have no choice,” she said, closing her eyes. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too. I’ll be home soon. I bought you something from Tiffany’s.”

  “Ooh.” She laughed. “Bigger than a breadbox?”

  “Smaller.”

  “Something sparkly?”

  “Blinding. I want to see you wearing it and nothing else.”

  Her breath caught as a wispy, fleeting suspicion danced through her thoughts. Then she shook her head at its improbability and focused on the provocative conversation. “That could be arranged. I can’t wait for you to come back.”

  “When I do, maybe we can quit sneaking around Sister Oaks like two teenagers in heat.”

  “You mean tell Jude about us?”

  Gideon laughed. “He already knows.”

  “He does not,” Kate said, scandalized. “Who told him?”

  “No one told him. He asked me about it last week. He asked me if you ever slept in the west wing anymore.”

  He
at crept up her neck. “What did you say?”

  “I told him not lately.”

  “Gideon!”

  “I love you, Kate. I’m tired of hiding it. And Jude’s too smart to fool, anyway.”

  “What about Mrs. Shelton?”

  “Martha’s figured out as much, but we don’t discuss it.”

  “No wonder she’s been so awkward around me,” Kate groaned. “I wondered. She stares at me with those owl eyes and I feel like she knows my secrets.”

  A smile lightened his voice. “She probably has you all figured out. Sometimes I think she’s a mind reader.”

  “So tell me again why we’ve been sneaking around?”

  “To up the sexual thrill?” he teased.

  “Or maybe for our own sake,” she said thoughtfully. “To ease into the relationship.”

  “God.” His voice dropped. “I want to ease into you. And stay for a while.”

  “Come home and I’ll see what I can do to accommodate you.”

  “As soon as I can.” He cleared his throat. “Tell Jude to have fun and be careful.”

  “I will. Thank you, Gideon. You’re a good father.”

  “’Night, Kate. Sweet dreams.”

  “Goodnight,” she said softly, and set the receiver on its hook.

  * * * * *

  The trail of trucks and cars snaked over the landscape ahead, a ribbon of twinkling red taillights on the right side and harsh white headlights on the left. Horns sounded intermittently, a girl’s raucous laughter floated over the revving of engines and the backfire from someone’s muffler.

  Kate braked at the stoplight, watched a rambunctious group of teens dance across the crosswalk in front of the Audi, and shot a look at Jude.

  He sat stock-still beside her, a scowl fixed on his face. “This is supposed to be fun? Driving up and down the same road, over and over?”

  “It’s called cruising. I imagine it’s better than sitting on the porch, watching the corn grow.”

  He flashed her a rueful grin. “You’re not kidding. You ever do this, Kate?”