by Debra Holt
“Forget something?” J.D. stood at the opening of the sliding glass door. He had evidently been outside on the balcony patio. Gone was his jacket, and he had undone at least three buttons of his shirt, allowing a wide expanse of tanned chest open to view. There was a glint of silver that shone around his neck as he moved a couple of steps inside the room.
Amanda found the warmth of the room soared several degrees, and long-dormant feelings spiked to life at the sight of the sexy man watching her intently from the opening… much the same as a hawk might lock onto a field mouse during a hunt. She couldn’t let him know what the sight of him was doing to her nerves. She needed to escape to the safety of her room as quickly as possible.
“I left my bag beside the couch. I needed something from it, so now I can get some sleep.” She took a step toward her room, but his one step placed him in her path.
J.D.’s hands slid into the back pockets of his jeans, making his shirt expose even more skin, and she found it difficult to put a coherent sentence together. Involuntarily, her tongue flicked nervously across her bottom lip.
His eyes darkened as he caught the movement. When he next spoke, his voice had lowered and flowed over her like warm honey, bringing her senses alive.
“I remember that scent... a hint of roses. I’ve never forgotten it.”
“It’s late. Tomorrow is a long day and…” The rest of the sentence died away when he reached out a hand and slid it beneath the hair at the back of her neck. The touch of his skin on hers sent waves of pulsating tremors down her spine.
“I remember everything.” J.D.’s lips laid siege to hers in one swift move, and the battle was over almost before it had begun. His mouth was in total control; his hands slid possessively around her waist and drew her up tightly against his length. The feel of him and the heat from his body immediately arced into hers, and her fingers wrapped themselves in the open folds of his shirt to keep from falling when her knees went weak from the onslaught of his lips and all the feelings they stirred from deep inside her. He unlocked a door that held all the memories and feelings she had hidden inside the place in her heart that was filled with him.
Amanda's lips parted to admit his searching tongue, and a low groan emanated deep within the chest she was welded against. His palms moved lower and cupped her bottom and brought her up against his body even tighter. Through the thin material of her night gown, she was more than painfully aware of his need for her. For the barest of seconds, somewhere in the outer reaches of her brain, a tiny voice tried to remind her of why this would not be a good idea, but it was drown out by the shouts of all her senses, re-awakened and alive at the touch of this man.
“I remember how you always liked me to kiss you in this spot.” His mouth was hot against the soft, sensitive skin just below her ear. Waves of intense pleasure rippled down her body as her head automatically rolled to the side to allow him better access to the soft skin of her neck.
“And I remember the soft moans you would make when I would touch you like this.” An unerring hand moved up along and around her soft body until she responded with soft sounds from deep within her at the delicious torture he invoked upon her body.
Her hands moved from his shirt front to slip under the open cloth, and with palms flat on his chest, Amanda slid them up and eased the cloth over his shoulders and down his arms as far as it would go. She needed to feel his skin against hers, but her nightgown was definitely in the way. As her hands came back up to his shoulders, she felt his arms and hands move and she was lifted effortlessly off the floor. Her arms tightened around his neck as his mouth found hers once more. He headed in the direction of the closest bedroom, but a loud chiming noise broke his stride. His head lifted from hers at the same time he muttered a forceful imprecation at the rotten timing of whatever had interrupted them. The chime sounded again, and they both recognized there was someone at the door. Reality came crashing back in full force.
J.D. reluctantly allowed his arms to release the squirming body of the woman who sought to put distance from him.
The moment her feet touched the carpeting, Amanda pulled her robe tightly around her body, and, taking a couple of steps, she grabbed the shoulder bag that had been dropped and forgotten a few minutes before.
“I’ll get rid of whoever that is then we…” J.D. wasn’t allowed to finish the thought.
“I’m going to bed.” Amanda bit out, not making eye contact with him, feeling the crimson heat along her cheeks as she realized just how close she had come to repeating the past and how easily she had given in to J.D. She did not hesitate, even after he called her name again. She only stopped once she was inside the bedroom, and the lock had been turned on the door.
Chapter Twelve
“This better be really important.” J.D.'s eyes were fairly shooting sparks of fire at the unwelcome intrusion as he opened the door of the suite.
“I think you’ll agree that it is. It’ll take a minute or two.” Alex stood on the threshold, a serious look on his face, and he held a piece of paper in his hands.
J.D. stood back and motioned him to come into the room. He followed behind the man, adjusting his shirt and buttoning it back across his chest. “I have more than a minute,” he muttered under his breath. Why was it when he managed to take three steps forward with Amanda that something… or in this case, someone… managed to also make them take two steps backward? She had used the interruption to escape behind a locked door. He'd heard the click of the lock, which had only made him more frustrated. There would be no talking to her now. The walls would be firmly back in place around her feelings.
As they reached the couches, Alex did not take a seat. Instead, he turned and handed the paper to J.D. “One of my old friends at the local paper called me about this a little while ago. I did some digging, and it’s on the up and up. I’d say you and Amanda will be hit with this tomorrow morning.”
J.D.’s earlier frustration turned to slowly mounting anger as he read the words on the paper. “Seems some enterprising newshound sighted us at the gallery. They also followed us back to the hotel.” He shook his head in disgust. “I would guess that some money exchanged hands with someone employed at the hotel, and one plus one will equal five by the time the story hits the newsprint and the wire services.” It was the usual headline-seeking trash that he had grown used to a long time ago. Except, now it involved Amanda… something he had tried to keep from happening.
“What do you want me to do?”
“There’s nothing to do right now. I’ll have to tell Amanda about it in the morning. We’ll probably cut the trip short and head back to the ranch... blast it all!” J.D. didn’t voice the fact that this was doubly infuriating because he had wanted to spend time on this trip to try to see if there was any hope of having Amanda care about what they'd had once… what he desperately hoped they could find again. Perhaps there was something to be built on the ashes of the past. But the ugly side of his life just wouldn’t be kept at bay. Now Amanda had been drawn into it. His resolve to protect and shield her from any more hurt induced by him replaced his own need and desires.
“I’ll tell her about it at breakfast. Have the jet ready to go first thing.”
“We could leave this evening. I can get you both out of here.”
“No. We aren’t fleeing in the darkness. That would make it even more clandestine for these leeches to feed on.”
“Okay. See you in the morning.” Alex let himself out. J.D. stood in the center of the room for a few long minutes more. Then his hand crumpled the paper into a tight ball, and he dropped it in the center of the coffee table. It would be a long and lonely night ahead for him… and a sleepless one.
****
With extra concealer applied to the circles beneath her eyes, and dressed in a crisp, grey wool two-piece pantsuit, Amanda had completed it with a bright magenta knit top with a deep cowl neck that lay over the collarless jacket top. She added silver hoops and a long, slender silver chain. She might fee
l washed out on the inside, but she would put forth the best front she could in order to get through the rest of the trip. She had tossed and turned throughout most of the night, only finally sliding into an exhausted sleep just before dawn.
The ringing of the phone next to her pillow had easily woken her. The wakeup call that came so early had surprised her. Evidently, J.D. had changed the schedule and wanted to get an early start on the day. Which meant he probably wanted to get back to the ranch and be rid of her. She couldn’t blame him. She had given him mixed signals last night. If they hadn’t been interrupted, she had no doubt there would be a lot more to be sorry about this morning. Yet, there was a niggling doubt inside her... just how much would she have really regretted going to bed with J.D.? And the really hard part of understanding what had happened last evening was the fact that one touch from him, and she had fallen right back where she had been as that young, naïve girl of seventeen... in love with J.D. Sterling.
It was that bald truth that had kept her from sleeping. That and the tears it had produced. She had not allowed herself to cry for a long, long time. Once she had found the strength to move on after the death of their child and had found a niche in selling real estate and supporting herself, she had promised herself that she would never be a weak female again. No man would ever place her in such a situation again. That had lasted until J.D. had returned out of the blue… with his gorgeous, knee-weakening, bone-melting smiles and passionate kisses that made her remember what it was like to come alive at a man’s touch. Not just any man, though, but the man who had awakened her womanhood and had claimed her heart as his prize when they both were teenagers.
Only they were two different people from two vastly different worlds now. Once he tired of the quiet of the country and ranch life, he would return to the bright lights and the arenas full of screaming fans. There was no way she could compete with that… even if she wanted to. He would only bring her pain if she allowed him into her heart again. She had survived him once. Amanda feared that wouldn’t be possible a second time.
When she entered the living room a few minutes later, she was surprised to find J.D. and Alex were both already seated at the table in front of the tall windows with their impressive view of the city below them. The sun was rising into a cloudless blue sky. The sound of the traffic beginning to fill the downtown streets far below barely reached them and only in a muffled sound through the slightly opened patio door.
As Amanda crossed the room toward the table, they both stood. In the brief glance she had sent J.D.’s way underneath lowered lashes, she noted he was dressed in a charcoal suit, light blue shirt, and minus a tie. Just the brief sight of him, and her senses were already wanting to riot against her strong will to hold them in check. Amanda flashed a smile at Alex and murmured her thanks as he held her chair for her to be seated. J.D. resumed his seat directly across from her. She could feel his eyes upon her, but she kept her attention on pouring herself a cup of coffee from the carafe on the table. Then she had to add the sugars. The stirring took some time also. It was evident that J.D. grew impatient of waiting for her attention.
“We have a problem we need to discuss.” His clipped words brought her gaze to meet his. Actually, it was the tone underneath the words that alerted Amanda to the fact that, whatever the problem was, it boded no good, by the set of his jaw and the flat look in his eyes.
After taking a sip of her coffee, she set it down carefully and looked at both men in turn. Alex kept his gaze on J.D. Hers joined his, and she waited for J.D.to explain whatever the problem was.
“Last night, Alex was contacted with some disturbing news. It seems that a freelance reporter… and I use the term reporter very loosely… was given a tip by someone in this hotel that we were staying here, in this suite. He also followed us when we went to the gallery. He got some photos, and he filed the story with the wire services. Needless to say, it’s the usual garbage that sells the tabloids at the checkout stands that should only be used in the bottom of a rat’s cage.”
The last words were ground out as he spoke them. It was very clear he found the whole matter distasteful.
After several beats of silence, Amanda spoke up. “Surely, this is normal? For you, I mean? That goes with being a celebrity, correct?”
His eyes softened a bit as they fell upon her.
“I’ve had to live with it. But this time, it’s not me they’re aiming at... it’s the ‘leggy, blond, mystery woman’ they’re after.”
She didn’t react for a moment or two. The words sank into her mind. It didn’t take much to realize that she was the leggy, blond, mystery woman. Amanda sat quietly, her mind expanding on the full implications.
“Define ‘that they are after’,” she requested, trying to maintain an outward calm in the face of this news.
“They’ll make it their mission to find out all they can about you. And if they can’t find the facts, then they will invent them. You are the story of the moment.”
“What have they printed about me so far?”
J.D. was sick to his stomach with the whole thing. Alex sensed the depth of the turmoil in the man and took up the subject.
“It’s just a short blurb right now. Just enough to whet the appetite of the fans who will buy the publications to read more later. You might as well see it for yourself.” Alex handed the paper to her.
Amanda’s eyes fell on the photos first. The first one had been taken as she'd followed J.D. from the car in front of the gallery yesterday. The second one was of J.D. smiling down at her, with a hand on her elbow, as he'd allowed her to go ahead of him into the store. Then she read the brief paragraph underneath the pair of photos:
Country music superstar J.D. Sterling was sighted escorting a leggy, blond, mystery woman into an exclusive jewelry gallery in San Antonio, Texas. A source also verified the fact that the couple shared a luxurious suite above the River Walk during their stay. Could this mean that Sterling, country music’s most sought-after bachelor has been taken off the market? Are wedding bells around the corner? And who is the woman who finally roped this maverick in?
Amanda dropped the paper to the tabletop, her appetite definitely depleted at the sickening words and their veiled innuendoes.
“I’m sorry that you have to be subjected to this garbage,” J.D. apologized as she read the words and looked at the photos.
“We have the jet ready at the airport, and the car is downstairs. They’ll come up for the luggage, and then we’ll get back to the ranch. We will be better able to keep these so-called reporters at a distance there,” Alex spoke up, explaining what the immediate plans were.
There was a long silence in the room. Both men looked at each other and at Amanda, as she sat perfectly still in her seat. They watched as she reached out and took her coffee cup in her hands, taking a long sip of the lukewarm liquid. She returned the cup to the table, before folding her hands on her lap and straightening her spine in the chair.
“We weren’t anywhere near a jewelry store yesterday. They don’t bother to get the facts straight, do they?”
“The gallery did have some antique estate jewelry pieces in the back of the store. So... technically, that was not a fallacy,” Alex explained in response to her question.
“Technically... I think that is a word used to shade the truth by these people. They only want sensational stories to sell their garbage can liners to mindless fools who can’t put two and two together and know it’s four and not five, nor can they smell a dead fish when it’s right in front of them. They aren’t reporters. They’re wannabees, who will never be anything above trash collectors.” Finally, Amanda took a breath. “Are we ordering breakfast?” She reached for the menu in the center of the table and opened it, her vehement comments having allowed her to vent, and then leaving her as quickly as they had come. A blue fire remained banked in her eyes, and a hint of color infused in the once-pale cheeks.
There was silence. When she ventured a glance up from the print, both
men sat looking at her with strange expressions on each of their faces. Surprise was the tantamount expression, followed by something that resembled respect and even a hint of amusement.
“Aren’t you both hungry?”
“I thought we might forego breakfast and just get to the airport,” Alex said, his eyes moving from J.D.to Amanda and back to J.D.
“I thought you wanted to look for statuary today? And we still need to find a few more paintings for the den and the other bedrooms. Isn’t that why we came?” She looked J.D. squarely in the eyes.
“That was before this story came out. Surely, you don’t want to be hounded by more paparazzi today… and there will be more on the trail now. They’re like sharks that smell blood in the water,” J.D. responded.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but the first rule of being in the water with sharks is Don’t panic. That equates to don’t run away in this case. We have done nothing wrong... they have, with their technically correct gossip. If they have nothing better to do with their day than stand around outside galleries and stores, then I pity them. But if we run away and try to hide, they’ll become more determined they’re on the trail of a bigger story. At least that’s my take on all this.”
Alex had a full smile on his face as he looked at her. Crossing his arms, he gave a slight incline of his head. He looked at J.D. “The lady does have a point.”
“This doesn’t bother you? The photos and the falsehoods?” J.D.’s steady gaze watched her.
“Yes, it bothers me. It bothers me a lot. But I have had far worse falsehoods leveled at me than being called a leggy blonde,’” she responded and even managed a slight upturn of one corner of her mouth.
J.D. studied her with a level look for a few more seconds. He spoke to Alex but did not take his eyes off Amanda. “You heard the lady. We have a busy day ahead of us. Let’s order some food.”
