by Lori Ryan
Jill didn’t answer, but her hand kept up the steady support on his back. The calm patience he needed as memories of a pain he knew he’d never fully recover from washed over him.
“We were attracted to each other from day one. I liked the joking and flirting every morning when I picked up my coffee, but it was all a setup. She told me she was on the pill, but I found out later that was a lie. In the beginning we used condoms anyway but as soon as I told her I loved her, she told me we shouldn’t use them anymore because we were in love and would only be with each other.
“I can’t believe what an idiot I was. I was in graduate school for God’s sake. It’s not like I was in high school, or even college. I was an adult. I should have been able to read her better. To see the lies for what they truly were.” Andrew was surprised at how dead and flat his voice sounded as he talked about Blair.
“As soon as Blair got pregnant, she went to my parents. She never even told me she was pregnant. My parents told me two days later that they had ‘fixed my problem’ for me. They paid her $500,000 to abort the baby and leave town. They knew I would want to marry her if she was going to have my child and they never considered Blair to be good enough to be a Weston. Blair never wanted a child. She wanted leverage.”
Andrew didn’t tell Jill about the nightmares. He didn’t have them very often anymore but for a long time after Blair’s abortion, he woke in a cold sweat. He remembered flashes of the dream, his baby crying as he ran from room to room looking for it but he could never find it. He didn’t even know if the baby was a boy or a girl.
“I was a wreck for a week. Jack and Chad came and managed to get me out of my drunken stupor and brought me here to Nora’s. Nora and I both cut all ties with them. We haven’t had any contact since then.”
Andrew finally chanced a glance at Jill’s face and saw tears.
“Don’t cry sweetheart, don’t.” He wiped the tears from her cheeks as he held her in his arms.
Andrew had always believed what happened with Blair was only partially his fault, but on some level, he supposed he always felt like a fool for letting Blair string him along that way. For not seeing how manipulative and cold she really was.
Now, as he told Jill about her, he didn’t feel that way at all. For the first time since news of the abortion, he felt free of it. Free of the guilt.
He would always feel the pain of losing his child and not knowing what could’ve been, what it would have felt like to hold his baby. To raise his son or daughter. But lying there with Jill, Andrew felt as whole and complete as he ever had.
Jill ran her hands through Andrew’s hair, trying to soothe, to stop the pain. As she listened to his story, she couldn’t imagine the betrayal, the anger and hatred, the sadness he must have felt when he found out what Blair and his parents had done behind his back.
He’d lost it all. The woman he thought he loved, his child, and his parents.
Jill’s problems with her marriage and her emotional state after her divorce seemed pale in comparison to what this incredible man had been through.
She was amazed that Andrew still had so much love in him, despite what had happened. She’d seen the love he gave to his friends, the bond he had with Nora. She knew how fun and happy he could be, how much he made her laugh and how much he cared about what she was feeling, and she loved that he still had that in him despite what he’d been through.
Jill and Jake had never had children but Jill had miscarried once. The pain of the loss she felt had threatened to swallow her for a long time after. She could only imagine what Andrew’s loss was like. To find out about the baby after it was too late, must have torn him apart.
She cupped Andrew’s cheeks and placed a soft, tender kiss on his lips. A kiss that Jill hoped spoke to him of all that she was feeling but couldn’t say to him. She wanted to be able to wash away his pain.
She threaded her fingers in his hair and trailed slow, sensuous kisses across his cheek and down the strong line of his jaw. She kissed his neck, feeling the scratch of stubble against her skin. She stopped to brush her lips across his neck, tickling and teasing.
“Jill,” Andrew breathed. There was a note of pleading in his voice and suddenly the air was no longer filled with pain and sympathy. She was no longer trying to ease his hurt or make up for past cruelties. Even with all that Andrew left unspoken – when he said her name, he turned the air to heat and passion.
His hands came around her waist and he lifted her up to straddle his hips. She pressed down, feeling the hard length of him tease her as she continued her exploration of his body. Every kiss she laid on him sent shivers back through her. She reveled in the feeling of Andrew’s hard muscles under her lips.
She stopped to tease his nipples with her tongue and then continued down to the hard plates of his stomach, the taut plane that led to his groin. She nipped at his skin, and listened as Andrew’s breath hitched beneath her. With each kiss, each lick, every teasing lick, she hoped he was forgetting all about Blair’s betrayal. Of the memories she’d raised.
In the blink of an eye, her play was interrupted as Andrew rolled them, hoisted her under him and came down over her body with a growl that told her he didn’t have the patience for anything more. He reached in the bedside stand and rolled on a condom before entering her quickly and burying himself to the hilt.
“God, what you do to me,” he groaned. He lay still for a moment letting them both catch their breath.
She laughed, but it was thready and needy. “I know the feeling.”
He moved languidly inside her, rocking his hips into her again and again as he stared into her eyes. Slowly, teasing, Andrew drew himself out of Jill and then deliberately plunged to the hilt again. Her eyes closed but he whispered to her to open them.
“I want to see those gorgeous eyes. I want you to be looking into my eyes when I make you come,” he said as he drove into Jill again and again. Within minutes she was calling his name just as he was crying out to her.
She wrapped her arms and legs around him and held him afterwards. She trailed her hands over his back and marveled at the feel of his strong, hard body in her arms. They stayed that way for a long time before rolling to the side and drifting off to sleep and she knew she was dangerously close to losing her heart to this man.
Chapter Twenty
Andrew woke some time later and slipped from the bed to use the bathroom. When he came back into the room, he spotted Rev at the foot of the bed. Something seemed off. The dog was lifting his feet in a funny way and almost looked as if he couldn’t get his legs to work properly.
Andrew shook Jill awake gently and whispered in her ear. “Honey, I think something’s wrong with Rev. He’s acting funny.”
Jill was up and out of the bed in a flash, and on the floor with Rev.
“Shhh, lay down Rev,” she cooed to the dog as she coaxed him to lie down on his side. Rev’s legs stuck straight out in front of him, quivering and tense. His eyes looked glazed and he didn’t fight Jill as she cradled him.
“What’s wrong with him?” Andrew asked over her shoulder as he watched her comfort Rev.
“He has seizures sometimes. It’s not a big deal. He’ll be like this for a few minutes and then he just snaps out of it and it’s over. He might be a little tired after, but that’s it.”
“Can they give him medicine for them?” He sat on the floor behind Jill and wrapped his legs and arms around her and the dog. Even though she was calm and trying to act casual, he could tell she was worried.
“They can, but they won’t do that until he starts to have them more frequently. The meds have some serious side effects, so his vet will only start him on them if his seizures happen more than once a month. As long as they aren’t that often and they stop within five minutes, we don’t need to do anything other than make him comfortable and safe when they’re happening.”
She looked down at Rev as she talked and petted gently until his legs began to relax.
“See? He’
s coming out of it already,” she said and smiled up at Andrew.
He felt like he had been punched in the gut when she smiled at him like that.
Somehow, someway, in the short span of just a few days, this woman had reached deep down into his soul, touching a part of him that he had buried the day he found out what Blair had done.
Andrew wasn’t sure he wanted anyone reaching that deep inside him but neither did he want to fight his response to Jill.
He helped her lift Rev up onto the bed with them and they fell asleep with the dog between them. Just before slipping into sleep Andrew wondered how the hell he ended up snuggling with a giant, curly mop of dog hair instead of Jill, but was surprised to realize he didn’t care.
Shit.
Chapter Twenty-One
After leaving Jill’s house the following morning, Andrew pulled into Nora’s driveway and let himself in through the front door.
“Nora, Lydia!” he called out as he walked back toward the kitchen. He found the ladies sitting in the breakfast nook together, looking up at him as innocent as can be. Andrew had learned a long time ago that these two were anything but innocent.
“Good morning, dear,” Nora greeted him. “Will you join us for breakfast?”
He leaned his large frame in the doorway, crossing one foot over the other. Arms crossed, he leveled a hard stare at both women.
“Is that a ‘no’?” Nora asked.
“You told Jill about Blair.” He knew his stance and tone would have gotten results in the boardroom, but Nora refused to budge.
Lydia squirmed a bit and got up to fidget with a plate of eggs and toast for Andrew, but a little fidgeting didn’t appease him.
“Sit, eat. You’ll feel better.” Lydia passed Andrew the plate and tried to herd him to the table.
He held his position for a moment, but then gave in to Lydia and sat down. He couldn’t resist the two women when they ganged up on him and remaining angry was just too hard in the face of Lydia’s cooking.
The three sat and ate while Lydia and Nora chatted about mundane affairs: the weather, their plans to have the upstairs library painted, a charity event they’d be hosting in a few months. Andrew finished his meal and brought the conversation back around to Jill and Blair.
“Nora, you told her about Blair,” he said more emphatically.
“I must have had a moment. I forget who knows about Blair and who doesn’t.” She tried her best to look innocent but Andrew knew better than that.
“You’re more lucid on a bad day than I am on my good days, so don’t give me that crap. You know perfectly well that outside of this family, Chad and Jack are the only people who know about Blair.”
He didn’t need to explain that his reference to family encompassed Lydia.
His grandmother raised her chin. “Then maybe it’s high time to change that. If you don’t talk about things like that, you can’t possibly have a future together.”
“Nora,” he said with patience but still an undertone of firm resolve, “Jill and I aren’t going to have a future. We’re just having fun together. Nothing serious.”
As he said the words, he knew they weren’t true. A week ago, hell, even a day ago, they might have been true, but they weren’t anymore. He felt more for Jill than he had ever felt for another woman.
Shaking off his thoughts, he stood and carried his plate to the sink. He rinsed it and put it in the dishwasher then turned to the women.
“I have to get to work, but really, Grandmother, stay out of this. I don’t need you interfering with Jill and me.” He hoped his use of the word grandmother would help to convey the seriousness of his message.
Andrew never called Nora anything other than Nora, but the effect was lost. She sat looking as unflappable as ever.
“Yes, dear. Have a nice day at work,” Nora said.
Those two were incorrigible. Andrew rolled his eyes, kissed Nora and Lydia on the cheek and walked back out to his car.
Debbie and Andrew leaned over the stacks of papers in front of them, checking to be sure everything was in place for the quarterly finance meeting the following day. Jennie stood next to them, ready to help if they needed any last-minute items. Although Jennie was usually out on assignment working with companies that hoped to gain the financial backing of Sutton Capital, when she was between outside jobs, she floated the office, helping out with secretarial support as needed.
The quarterly meeting would include all the board members of Sutton Capital and a handful of the larger investors. Although there was always a flurry of activity leading up to it, by now, the groups had the process down to a science.
“Let’s add a printout of the estimated costs of the Haynes Project, just in case we have time to discuss that. If not, we’ll push that to the next quarter,” Andrew said. “Other than that, everything looks great. I think we’re ready.”
“Perfect,” Debbie said. “I’ll set out everything in the conference room tonight and lock it. We’ll be ready to go in the morning. I’m planning to be here a couple hours early.”
He knew she’d be there by six o’clock the next morning. She and Andrew were always the first in on a quarterly meeting day, both of them arriving early and not leaving until late evening. Andrew looked at his iPhone.
“I’ve got a meeting with Chad and Jack in a few minutes but then I’ll be free for the afternoon if anything comes up,” he said.
“I’ll print the Haynes estimates,” Jennie said and took off toward her desk down the hallway.
She quickly printed out the report and then went to the photocopy room to make enough copies for everyone attending. She would make two extra copies in case they were needed.
When she got there, Theresa was counting stacks of papers. Jennie had known Theresa before she came to the finance division, and for some reason, the woman always rubbed Jennie the wrong way.
It was odd, actually. Jennie usually got along well with everyone. It was one of the reasons she was good at her job. She was able to go into a wide variety of companies and make friends quickly and easily during her time there.
Theresa struck Jennie as insincere somehow. There wasn’t any one thing she could put her finger on. But for some reason, she always felt uneasy around Theresa.
“All done with the copier, Theresa?” she asked.
“Yup. All yours,” the other woman said. “What are you working on?”
“Oh, just getting some things ready for the quarterly,” Jennie replied lightly and was surprised to see Theresa scowl.
“I thought everything was finished for that.” There was a bitter tone to her statement and Jennie fought the urge to roll her eyes. She’d seen this kind of weird competitiveness at some of the other companies she’d worked in but it wasn’t something that happened a lot at Sutton.
It was something fostered in the environment there. They all pitched in and helped out. If something needed to get done, you did it.
“Oh, this is just a last-minute report.”
“I told Andrew I was available if there was anything he needed. He should have asked me,” Theresa said. Her tone was off. Cold.
Jennie offered a shrug, not sure how to respond to Theresa’s odd comment and behavior. She decided to make light of the situation and brushed off the woman’s discontent because Andrew asked her for help instead of Theresa.
“Oh, well. He probably forgot. Andrew’s head has been all up in the clouds lately. He’s got a new girlfriend so he’s in lala land a lot of the time right now. You know, excitement of a new relationship and all,” Jennie said.
Shit. She shouldn’t be talking about his personal business at work, but the woman had her flustered. Not to mention, Jennie knew the contrived excuse wasn’t true. Even though Andrew was happier than Jennie had ever seen him since he started dating Jill, she had never seen him drop the ball at work.
He was just as focused and on top of things as ever, but Jennie was grasping at straws to try to diffuse Theresa’s absurd anger. She
thought if she could explain away Andrew’s actions, it would calm the angry attitude.
Boy was she wrong. Theresa stiffened, pressed her lips together in a line so they all but disappeared on her face, and waltzed out of the room without a word.
Wow. Scary.
Jennie turned back to her copies, relieved at least that Theresa had gone away. If the woman kept that kind of attitude up, she would find herself losing more and more assignments.
Theresa focused on breathing as she walked back to her desk. Her hands clutched the stack of copies too tightly, creasing the once neat pages.
Girlfriend? Shit. This can’t be happening.
She needed to get herself lined up to work with Andrew so he could see how well they would work together. His interest in her had been clear in their previous encounters, but she knew there was the potential for so much more between them.
If they worked together closely, he’d be able to see the chemistry they had. He would see that he and Theresa could be so much better than whatever whore he was dating. She clenched her fists.
Fucking whore. Trashy, slutty, fucking whore, putting her hands all over what’s mine. Andrew is mine.
Theresa folded her hands in her lap and sat quietly at her desk slowly breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth. Her therapist had taught her the technique and she’d gotten good at using it when she needed to keep calm.
Now was the time to stay calm. She would just bide her time and work on getting closer to Andrew so he could see what they had between them was different. Special. So much more than anything he could have with someone else.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Andrew lay with Jill in his arms listening to the soft sounds of her breathing. They shared a quiet evening at her house, snuggling on the couch and watching a movie – romantic comedy this time. They’d gone to bed early and two orgasms for Jill and one incredible orgasm for Andrew later, she had fallen asleep in his arms.
