One Winter's Night

by Brenda Jackson

  “Is that what you think?”

  He rubbed his hand down his face. “I don’t know what to think, so tell me.”

  * * *

  Alpha tried not to give in to the plea she heard in his voice and turned her back to him. For two solid days she had tried putting thoughts of him out of her mind. She had tried to concentrate on what had to be done for this party. It hadn’t been easy, but she had managed to get through it somehow, and every single Westmoreland here, including him, had complimented her on her work. Tonight should be a night of celebration and excitement for her. Instead it was one of heartbreak.

  She heard him move and could feel his heat, breathe in his masculine scent and knew he was standing directly behind her with little space between them. The thought of what he’d done and what he’d thought of her hit low and hard, and he had the nerve to act like nothing happened. In essence he had no idea what she’d found in his drawer. Maybe it was time for her to tell him.

  She turned around and met his inquisitive gaze. “Yesterday morning after you left, I needed a T-shirt to put on before going downstairs to get my clothes.”

  “Go on.”

  “I thought you wouldn’t mind if I looked in your drawer to get one.”

  Something in his gaze let her know that he knew what would come next and he spoke before she did. “And you found that DVD Paula gave me.”

  His words nearly sucked the breath from her lungs. “Paula?”

  “Yes, Paula, from McKay’s.”

  Her head began spinning. Now she understood the looks that had passed between him and Paula that night. “So that was the private joke between the two of you,” she said, barely getting the words out, forcing them beyond the tears she refused to let fall.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Nothing. The main thing right now is that you had that video and you thought it was me, didn’t you? That’s why you initiated an affair with me, isn’t it? I played right into your hands—and into your bed.”

  * * *

  Riley felt a sting to his cheek, thinking her words were like a slap to his face. He struggled against the need to lash out at her the way she was lashing out at him. How could she assume something like that? “What are you accusing me of, Alpha?”

  “That you and your ex-girlfriend thought you had things figured out. You both thought that I’m the woman on that porn DVD.”

  At that moment he felt angrier than he’d ever felt in his life because the woman he loved didn’t trust him. She had a lot of nerve. He had been up-front with her about everything. She was the one keeping secrets yet he had fallen in love with her anyway, against his better judgment.

  Risking the kind of pain he’d vowed never to feel.

  “I knew you were not the woman on that jacket,” he said through gritted teeth.

  She took a step closer to him, got in his face. “How could you have known that when Omega is my identical twin? You wouldn’t be the first man who thought I was her.”

  “I don’t give a royal damn what other men thought. I knew it wasn’t you the minute I looked at that DVD jacket. You might be identical twins but a man who has made love to you as often as I have, who has touched you, tasted you, got up close and personal with you, could tell the difference. I know every mole, crevice, indention and mark on your body. I knew that wasn’t you and figured it had to be your twin…a twin you never told me you had.”

  He paused a moment and added, “And if you recall, I did mention we needed to talk and intended to bring it up on Thursday night, the same day Paula brought that DVD over for me to see. I told her then it wasn’t you. So who’s the victim here, Alpha? It seems pretty clear to me that I trusted you a whole hell of a lot more than you trusted me.”

  He then turned and walked out of the room.

  Alpha drew in a deep breath the moment she heard the door close behind Riley. Was it really true? Had he known the woman on that DVD jacket wasn’t her? If so, then she had done him a grave injustice, especially when she hadn’t told him about Omega.

  What had been lacking between them was trust and communication, more on her part than on his. He had told her about his family, introduced her to them, but she had told him hardly anything about hers. And he hadn’t been quick to believe the worst about her like she had about him.

  And he had wanted to talk Thursday night, but she’d assumed he wanted to break things off with her. Had she let him have his say, none of this would have happened, and if she hadn’t jumped to conclusions and assumed the worst then she wouldn’t be standing here filled with so much remorse. But after dealing with the likes of LeBron and Eddie, she had been too afraid to trust another man.

  There was a gentle knock on the door. “Yes?”

  Lindsey stuck her head in with a concerned look on her face. “Is everything all right?”

  “Yes, why do you ask?”

  She came into the room and shrugged. “I saw Mr. Westmoreland request to talk privately and wondered what could be wrong since everything seems to be going all right. Everyone I talked to thinks you outdid yourself. Everything is beautiful.”

  Alpha swallowed deeply. “I had a lot of help, and no, Mr. Westmoreland wasn’t complaining about anything. He wanted to discuss another matter.”

  “Oh.”

  Deciding the best thing she could do now was to get back to work and stay busy, she said, “Come on. Let’s make sure everything continues to stay impressive for everyone.” She checked her watch. “It’s almost time for the snow to start falling.”

  As part of the theme, she had decided to have fake snowflakes swirl from the ceiling, and with the special lightning she had installed, it would give the illusion that the entire ballroom had been transformed into a beautiful winter wonderland.

  As Alpha left the room with Lindsey, she knew what she should do but had no idea how to go about it.

  * * *

  “You sure you don’t want to come to dinner, Riley? With that huge snowstorm headed this way it might be the last good home-cooked meal you get for a while,” Dillon said.

  “Yes, it might be at that,” Riley replied as he stood at the window and looked out. It hadn’t started snowing yet but according to the forecasters a snowstorm was headed their way. “But I’ll still pass. I wouldn’t be much company anyway.”

  Dillon didn’t say anything for a minute. “So Pam and Chloe were right. There’s trouble in paradise.”

  Riley didn’t have to figure out how they knew. He had found out a long time ago that the women in his family were too observant for their own good. “I guess you can say that.”

  “Then take it from someone who knows, people in love have spats sometimes.”

  Riley lifted his brow and said in a defensive tone, “Who said I was in love?”

  “I did. And don’t try denying it. I watched you and Alpha at the party trying to avoid each other. It’s been over a week. Don’t you think the two of you need to kiss and make up?”

  Riley rolled his eyes. “Too complicated to kiss and make up, Dil.”

  “Not if you really love her. If I can forgive Pam for coming within seconds of marrying another man, then I’m certain you can forgive Alpha for whatever the transgression.”

  A short while later, after his conversation with his oldest brother had ended, Riley stood in the kitchen pouring a cup of coffee, replaying in his mind what Dillon had said. He appreciated the pep talk but there were times when it was better just to count your losses, move on and not look back. Instead, he was going to take the same advice he’d given to Bane—advice Bane had refused to follow. Now, his brother was still hurting and, more than ever, Riley refused to be another Bane.

  He was about to walk over to the refrigerator to pull out a microwave dinner when he heard his doorbell. He didn’t have to wonder who was probably at his door. Bailey. She’d called twice already and if Dillon had mentioned Riley planned on skipping a meal with the family, she wouldn’t hesitate to come and grill him about things he�
��d rather not talk about.

  He thought about not answering but decided if Bailey had braved the blistering cold to come to his place then he would see what she wanted. But he would not let her stay long. Although the snowstorm hadn’t hit yet, it was cold as the dickens outside. He would send Bailey on her way, and he would eat his meal alone and get in bed early. The mayor had already predicted that most of Denver, including the airport, would be shut down tomorrow.

  Riley opened the door to find this furry white thing standing in front of him. He leaned in the doorway, trying to make out just what or who it was when the person tilted her head and moved away all the fur. “Alpha?”

  She nodded. “May I come in so we can talk? It’s cold out here.”

  He quickly moved aside. “Get near the fireplace,” he ordered, wondering what in the world she was doing out in this weather. It was in the low teens. He thought it was pretty damn cold and he was used to it. It would be murder on someone like her.

  He stood back and watched as she peeled off a long white coat trimmed in fur with a matching hat and gloves. She then pulled a white knitted ski mask from her face before pulling off another coat and two sweaters. When she stood trembling in front of the fireplace in a pair of winter-white stretched slacks and a pretty winter-white pullover turtleneck sweater, he just stared. The outfit looked good on her. Too good.

  And when she ran her fingers through her hair to fluff it out, he felt heat on his skin. He swallowed hard and said, “I’ll pour you a cup of coffee while you warm up. And then you can tell me why you came here in all this bad weather.”

  He quickly walked away, to the kitchen, and tried to breathe calmly while he poured her coffee. He hadn’t seen her or talked to her since the party, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t thought about her, because he had—every waking minute as well as when he should have been sleeping. She hated cold weather, yet she had come here, on what would probably be the coldest day they’d had since last winter.

  Trying to keep his hand steady, he walked back to the living room and found her standing with her back to him, in front of the fireplace, staring down at the flames as if she was in deep thought. He wondered what she was thinking about and knew he would soon find out.

  “Here you are,” he said, claiming her attention. She crossed the room to meet him. She took the cup from his hand and the minute their fingers touched, a frisson of warmth flowed through him. He took a step back and watched as she immediately took a sip.

  She glanced up at him. “Thanks, I needed that.”

  “I’m sure you did. So why are you here, Alpha?”

  “I was hoping we could talk. I considered calling but figured you would refuse.”

  She had figured right. “What more is there to say? I trusted you more than you trusted me.”

  “It’s not just about trust, Riley.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest. “Then what else is there?”

  “An understanding between us. And I would be the first to admit I didn’t tell you everything, but I had a reason for keeping my family secrets to myself. All we were sharing was an affair.”

  She glanced over at the sofa. “May I sit down so we can talk? I think it’s time that I tell you everything.”

  A part of him was tempted to tell her no. It was too late to tell him everything. He preferred that she leave.

  But he knew he couldn’t say any of that. She had come over in the cold weather, which meant whatever she had to say was important to her. So the least he could do was listen to what she had to say. “Yes, you may have a seat.”

  She sat down and he took the chair across from her and wondered why she hadn’t been able to decipher when his feelings for her had changed and he’d wanted more than sex without a commitment. What had she thought those flowers were all about, the amount of time he had spent with her compared to all the others?

  He watched her and knew she was trying to gather her thoughts. Why? Was he such a hard guy to talk to? He had shared more of himself with her than with any other woman. Too bad he couldn’t say the same about her.

  She looked over at him, met his gaze and he knew he had lied to himself.

  He’d awakened that morning with a firm resolve that he no longer wanted her or loved her. But seeing her here at Riley’s Station only confirmed that he still wanted her in a way he’d never wanted another woman. And, more than anything, he still loved her.

  She finally began talking. “My identical twin sister, Omega, dropped out of college our first year when she met this older guy at some club near campus. The man convinced her she should be a model.”

  She paused a moment and took another sip of her coffee. “Omega was always the more outgoing of the two of us and always wanted that sort of thing—the limelight, recognition, stardom—so her decision didn’t surprise me. And, in a way, I doubt that it surprised my parents. At least it shouldn’t have, since she was the one who defied their every order while we were growing up.

  “Anyway, my parents were livid about her dropping out of college. When she left they didn’t hear from her for months, but because she and I are close, I knew her whereabouts. I knew before anyone when she discovered the man hadn’t propositioned her for a real modeling job but for a job as a porn star. He didn’t twist her arm or hold her hostage. Omega could have walked away at any time. It was a choice she made. She thought she had a beautiful body, and she didn’t mind flaunting it. She considered what she was doing a job. She was a well-paid entertainer and nothing else.”

  He nodded. “Did your parents know what she was doing?”

  She shook her head. “No, and Omega and I both figured that they wouldn’t find out, either. She was living out in California and had become popular on the West Coast; whereas my parents lived in Florida, the Bible Belt. We thought good churchgoing people would never find out about stuff like that. But we were wrong. It seemed a few men who knew my parents were getting porn off the internet, so you can just imagine how they couldn’t wait to spread the word. Soon it got back to my parents. Someone even sent them a DVD in the mail.”

  “That was kind of low,” he said.

  “Yes, it was, and it led to a full-blown scandal that embarrassed my parents. Some of their so-called friends stopped socializing with them and, for a while, they lost business at the vet clinic. Mom and Dad tried to talk to Omega. Of course they went about it the wrong way, by making demands, and that only made her defiant. In the end, they threatened to cut her off if she didn’t quit what she was doing and return home. They also forbade me to have contact with Omega, which I refused to do.”

  “I’m sure they weren’t happy about that.”

  She shook her head. “No, they weren’t. They finally just left me alone and requested that I not ever mention anything about Omega to them. The embarrassment was too much, and in the end they made a decision to disown her until she came to her senses.”

  She took another sip of her coffee. “A few years later, I met this guy name LeBron, who moved to Daytona with his job from Ohio,” she said softly. “LeBron and I dated for six months, and I thought everything was going great until one night he presented me with one of my sister’s DVDs and said he’d been a fan of hers for a couple of years. He even said what had drawn him to me was that he assumed I was her. And when he found out I wasn’t, he figured he had the next best thing. He wanted me to imitate what she did on the DVD. He even wanted to call me Omega whenever we made love.”

  Riley tensed and anger flowed through his body. “He actually wanted you to pretend you were your sister?”

  “Yes. I refused to do so and left. The next day he called, breaking things off with me.”

  She didn’t say anything for a long minute. “A year later, I met Eddie when he brought his dog into the clinic. We hit it off immediately. He had moved to Daytona from his family’s home in Palm Beach. They owned a slew of electronics shops, and he’d moved to Daytona to open a new store there. It was hard for me to trust anyone, and after we’
d dated awhile, I told him everything. I confided about Omega and told him about LeBron. He was angry that LeBron could be such an ass, and he said what Omega did for a living meant nothing to him. It was her life and he could understand me wanting to keep a relationship with my sister.”

  “Sounds like a nice guy.”

  “I thought so, and when he asked me to marry him, I agreed. Everything was going along fine until someone, not sure who, sent his parents a copy of Omega’s DVD. They were appalled and demanded that he end things with me. He refused, but they put pressure on him to at least get me to agree not to have anything to do with Omega.”

  She took another sip of coffee. “I refused, and he called off the wedding a week before it was to take place.”

  She paused, as if remembering that time. “That was another embarrassment for my parents, especially when they thought I should have given in to Eddie’s request. I decided to move as far away as I could, which brought me to Denver.”

  He leaned forward. “So when you saw that DVD in my drawer, you assumed I was another LeBron or that I could be another Eddie?”

  She held his gaze. “Yes.”

  Her single answer gave him pause. “Is that the reason you didn’t talk much about your family?”

  “Yes. I know all families have issues but to this day my parents have not forgiven my sister. If they had their way I wouldn’t have any contact with her. My mother is softening somewhat. She at least asks about Omega. But my father is still being hard-nosed.”

  “Is your sister still in the business?”

  “No, she quit making porn movies a few years ago, but some people have long memories, especially since she was once very popular. I’ve been on business trips when men have approached me asking if I was Omega and could they have my autograph.”

  She paused again. “I still don’t understand it. You say you knew immediately it wasn’t me, but that’s hard to believe when most people can’t tell me and Omega apart.”