by BETH KERY
“Lean back,” he urged, his deep, gruff voice penetrating her groggy, post-crying state. She followed his directions without hesitation or thought, sinking into the couch on her side. He came down next to her, so that they were belly to belly facing each other, their heads resting on the same cushion. He whisked a throw over them, tucking it carefully around her back. She blinked open her eyelids when he cupped her jaw in one big hand. An anxious thought entered her sluggish brain and she opened her mouth to voice it.
His finger slid across her numb lips as if to silence her.
“I have the alarm set on my phone. I’ll make sure you’re up in time so that you can get back to the hospital early,” he said quietly.
She exhaled in relief, moved by the fact that he’d anticipated her concern, and that he took care of her so well. So effortlessly.
The last thing she was aware of before she succumbed to sleep was his kiss on her mouth, soft and sweet, asking nothing from her.
Only giving.
TWENTY-ONE
She awoke to the same sensation: Trey’s mouth moving on hers. She awoke to need.
It was dark, and she felt warm. Secure. So good. She pressed closer to his long, solid body, craving his heat. His strength. Her body quickened in arousal. He groaned roughly when she deepened their kiss, his big hand running along the side of her body, detailing her shape.
Her desperate longing mounted.
She began to claw at his shirt buttons. Frustrated by her fumbling fingers, she shifted her attention to getting him out of his pants. He was busy shoving her dress up to her waist. All that mattered at that moment was the essentials.
All that mattered was that they were joined.
A frantic few seconds later, he lay on top of her on the couch, his cock sinking into her. She stared up at his large, shadowed form, her fingers digging into the rounded muscles of his shoulders. He filled her up so greatly. So perfectly. Not just his cock. She overflowed with feeling. It was all she could do to keep herself from screaming when he pressed his balls against her outer sex.
He went still between her thighs. He leaned down and kissed her mouth, his manner striking her as reverent somehow.
And then he was moving, building that friction in her that only he could, calling her name . . . forcing her to feel more, and then more, until she was bursting with it. He pounded into her body as she climaxed and spoke harshly next to her ear.
“Take it, Eleanor. Take it all. Because I’ve got so much more to give you.”
—
She thought about it frequently the rest of the day, him saying those words so feelingly next to her ear as pleasure lit up her body. She relived and questioned that moment again and again in her head.
Their lovemaking in the predawn hour had felt so passionate. So soulful. So much more profound than anything that had passed between them before . . . more intense than anything she’d experienced in her life.
Maybe it’d been wishful thinking on her part. But there, in that poignant moment with him, it had felt like he’d been telling her something precious with those fiercely uttered words.
—
She was surprised and pleased to see how much better her father looked when she returned to the hospital that morning. He was sitting up in bed, eating his breakfast and talking with her mom and Joan, who had arrived just before Eleanor.
“How are you feeling?” she asked her father after she’d kissed him in greeting and taken his hand in hers.
“Other than feeling a little stupid, I’m just fine,” her dad told her.
“You’ve got nothing to feel stupid about,” Eleanor insisted.
“Maybe you’re right. This time,” her dad conceded. “Now that I know how things stand with my heart, though, I’m responsible on a go-forward basis. It’s nothing that can’t be made right, bug,” her dad said, patting her hand and giving her a pointed look.
“I know,” Eleanor assured. “I’m not worried about that. We’ll whip you into shape.”
“Where’s Trey?” her mom asked.
Heat rushed into Eleanor’s cheeks. Last night, her mother’s assumptions that she and Trey were an established couple had embarrassed her. Today, everything felt different, although she had no solid evidence to prove why it felt different. No spoken words. No promises.
Still, last night felt very amazing to her: beautiful, but delicate.
Fragile.
“He’s on his way to work, I assume,” Eleanor replied lightly to her mother’s question. “He dropped me off this morning.” After they’d made love, Trey had insisted that he’d take her to the hospital, and he’d pick her up that evening at her parents’ house.
“I like him a lot,” Joan said, her eyes sparkling with warmth. “It’s not often that you run into men who are as nice as they are good-looking. And Catherine filled me in on how successful he is.” Eleanor glanced at her mother and rolled her eyes. Her mom had wriggled most of the crucial details about Trey’s professional life from him by the time they’d reached the cashier at the cafeteria last night. “He runs his own company, Dave. Big, lucrative tech business,” Joan told her brother. “I think you’ll approve.”
“It doesn’t bode well that the first time I met your special man, I was unconscious,” her dad grumbled.
“You guys are making more of a big deal about Trey and me than is warranted,” Eleanor felt obligated to say. Her dad squeezed her hand and gave her a look. She couldn’t help but smile when she saw the glint of understanding in his green eyes. She and her father had always been unusually close. He clearly had sensed her bubbling happiness and accompanying uncertainty when it came to the topic of Trey.
—
The day passed quickly as they conferred with the cardiologist, and a nurse educated them on future diet, medication and care. Her dad seemed so much his normal self that it had Eleanor second-guessing whether or not it wasn’t just wishful thinking on her part. The nurse assured her privately, however, that in instances of a heart attack as minor as her father’s had been, recovery could be rapid. Her dad left the hospital on his own two feet that afternoon. If it weren’t for the pallor of his skin, Eleanor would never have guessed what had just happened to him.
After they’d gotten her father home and comfortable, she and Joan went out to get her father’s prescriptions filled and to go grocery shopping for heart-healthy food. By the time they returned home and put everything in the refrigerator, it was dark out. Eleanor prepared dinner with her mom, making sure she stuck to the low-fat cooking regimen.
Her dad was tired after dinner, and her mom went up with him to bed. She and Joan were cleaning up in the kitchen when the doorbell rang. An anxious tremor of anticipation went through her at the unexpected sound.
“I’ll get it,” Eleanor said, wiping her hands off with a dish towel and leaving her aunt in the kitchen.
A tight feeling expanded in her chest as she walked toward the front door. She knew it was Trey even before she opened it. Her breath caught at the vision of him standing on the front porch, his blue eyes sharp on her, his shoulders looking so broad in his black dress coat, his hands deep in the pockets.
She’d never seen a more welcome sight than that of him there at the front door of her childhood home.
“I hope you don’t mind,” he said when she opened the storm door for him. “Your parents’ address was listed, and I saw the car in the driveway.”
“I don’t mind at all. We just finished dinner. I was about to call. Thanks for coming. I’m so glad to see you,” she told him with breathless sincerity. She opened the door wider and beckoned him inside. Her gaze traveled over his handsome face in fresh wonder. It was as if she were seeing him for the first time. She knew her heart was in her eyes, but she couldn’t seem to control her zeal for seeing him.
“I should have called sooner, but it’s been one thing after
another all day,” she said. “Here, let me take your coat.”
“How’s your father?” Trey asked her as she led him into the living room a few seconds later.
“He’s fantastic.” The Christmas tree was lit. She turned on an extra lamp. “If I didn’t know for certain he’d had a heart attack last night, I would have never believed it, seeing him today.”
“I’m glad,” he said, his gaze running over her face. “You look better too. Relieved.”
“Thanks. It has been a relief, seeing him so much better today,” she said, flushing in pleasure at the gleam in his eyes as he studied her closely. She thought of how he’d been there for her last night, how he’d held her while a storm of grief had shook her. A moment of awkwardness suddenly came over her. He somehow shrunk the dimensions of the familiar living room. He seemed so big standing there, so vibrant. So wonderful.
“Trey? I thought I heard your voice.”
Eleanor blinked and looked up at the sound of Joan’s voice. Her aunt stood at the entryway, smiling. Trey greeted her.
“We just finished dinner. Chicken, a baked potato, broccoli. It was a little bland, but healthy as can be. Should I warm up something for you?” Joan asked him.
“No, I’ve already eaten. But thanks.”
Eleanor smiled when he glanced back at her. “Just his luck,” she told Joan. “He’d just sampled Mom’s leftovers from Thanksgiving and fallen hard for Russian cooking. Now there’s been a halt to Russian feasts.”
“I’m sure he’ll have plenty of opportunity to sample Catherine’s famous cooking, at least on the holidays, if not every day. All things in moderation. I’m going to get back to the dishes,” Joan said with a wave of the dish towel she carried.
“So,” Trey said gruffly when they were alone again. He glanced around the cozily lit living room. “This is where you grew up. It’s nice.”
“Yep. This was home. For eighteen years of my life, anyway.”
“Somehow, your childhood home is always home,” he said. His gaze skated over her, and suddenly he cursed softly under his breath. He stepped toward her and took her into his arms. He bent his knees and kissed her firmly on the mouth. Eleanor looped her arms around his neck, responding wholesale to his kiss.
“When’s it going to stop?” he asked her a moment later, his lips brushing against hers. She plucked at his mouth hungrily before responding.
“When is what going to stop?” she wondered, distracted by his scent, and the feeling of his body pressed against hers, by his kiss.
“That awkwardness. When we first see each other,” he murmured, shaping her lower lip between his. “I vote for right now.”
“Okay,” she agreed. “I’ll try. No more awkwardness.”
He leaned back, peering down at her closely. “Promise?”
“Yes,” she whispered fervently.
A smile curled his mouth. He glanced downward at a table.
“Is that you?” he asked.
“Huh?”
He released her and stepped toward an end table. He picked up a framed family photo and examined it.
“Yeah. I was twelve there,” she said, looking around him at the photograph he held. A feeling of mixed amusement and embarrassment shot through her at the idea of Trey seeing her at that age. She resisted a stupid urge to snatch the frame from his hands.
And he thought she could be awkward now, at twenty-eight. At twelve, she was taller than all the other kids in her seventh-grade class. She looked like a malnourished foal wearing braces. Caddy, on the other hand, was in the first, lush bloom of an uncommonly beautiful seventeen-year-old girl.
“You’re so cute,” he murmured. She rolled her eyes. He lifted the photograph closer to his face.
“Some things don’t deserve closer examination,” she told him drolly. But then she noticed his intent expression and furrowed brow.
He glanced up and looked at the bookcase at the far side of the room. He set down the frame on the table.
“Trey?” she asked him.
A strange feeling went through her as she watched him walk over to the bookcase. He picked up a photo. He studied it as closely as he had the other one. She approached him from the back, a feeling of trepidation rising in her that she couldn’t explain. “Trey?” she repeated hollowly when she came alongside him. She looked at the photo he held. It was a photo of Caddy and her when Caddy had graduated from law school.
“Your sister was a lawyer?” he asked, staring at the photo narrowly.
“Yes,” she said slowly, perplexed. She examined the photo for evidence that Caddy was graduating from law school, but couldn’t find it. She was wearing her cap and gown, but it might have been any graduation. “How did you know that she was a lawyer?” she asked him. She knew she hadn’t mentioned it last night. Maybe her mother had told him at the hospital, while Eleanor was in the bathroom or something?
He turned his chin, his blue eyes scoring her.
“Your sister was Arcadia Green?”
The hair on her neck and forearms stood on end. “Yes. We’ve always called her Caddy for short, and Green was her married name. How did you—”
She broke off when he set the photo back on the shelf abruptly. He turned to her.
“I knew her. I knew your sister,” Trey said.
She had a sudden, shockingly vivid image pop into her head of Trey and Caddy together. They’d be such a striking pair, both of them tawny and beautiful, both blessed with that warmth and elemental charm that would open a lifetime of doors for them . . .
. . . Both of them the type to light up a room.
It was too much to take in, too unexpected. An invisible band seemed to tighten around her chest.
Oh God. I can’t breathe.
—
Eleanor just stared at him for several seconds, her mouth hanging open, her large eyes glistening. He felt like he’d just slapped her. Her shock was palpable. He heard a sound like wind rushing past his ears.
Maybe he was in a bit of shock himself, come to think of it. When he’d looked at the first photo, it’d just been a suspicion. He’d known Arcadia for the past several years. There was a big difference between the polished, sophisticated woman he’d known and the beautiful young girl in the first picture. The second photo had slammed the truth home, though.
“Come here,” he said, reaching for Eleanor’s hand. He didn’t care for the fixed, stunned expression on her face. “Let’s sit down.”
He started to walk over to the couch, but she remained unmoving, pulling back on her hand, resisting him.
“What do you mean you knew Caddy?” she demanded.
“I knew her from work. Dobsen, Mayer and Peterson consults for us at TalentNet,” he explained, referring to the consulting legal firm for which Arcadia had worked. “Your sister is our primary contact there. Was, I mean,” he corrected, grimacing. He bit back a curse. Eleanor looked even more slain than she had last night, upon finding out about her father’s heart attack. “Let’s sit down, okay?”
“How well did you know her?”
“Fairly well,” he replied honestly. “We worked closely together on building the legal infrastructure of TalentNet as a separate legal entity from BandBook. I’ve known your sister since TalentNet’s inception.”
“I don’t believe you.”
He blinked, startled by the baldness of her statement. “I’m sorry. It’s a shock for me too to realize it. I didn’t have a clue until I saw those pictures just now.”
“She never mentioned you to me. Caddy would have mentioned you to me. If not you, then at least TalentNet.”
“She told you the names of all of her clients?”
For a few seconds, she didn’t respond. He sensed her going through the new information in her head, sifting it, trying to make sense of it all.
“No,” she admi
tted after a moment. “But some of them, she did. I’m sure she would have mentioned you.” She stepped toward him, her focus on him absolute. “Is that all it was between you and Caddy? Professional?” she asked him shakily.
He hesitated. It was hard to define what his relationship with Arcadia Green had been. It’d been special, that much was certain. He’d never had a relationship with a woman as unique as the one he’d had with Arcadia.
“No. It wasn’t just professional. I considered her a friend.” He threw up his hands in a helpless gesture. “Jesus, this is bizarre,” he said, looking around the cozy, attractive home, seeing it through different eyes than he had just moments ago. This was where Arcadia had grown up? Right here, in this very house . . . with Eleanor? It was too incredible to absorb.
He recalled his shock when he’d heard about Arcadia passing away months ago. Impossible to imagine: that vibrant, funny, smart woman gone forever.
Whatever pain he’d experienced, Eleanor had felt a thousand-fold, he realized, staring at her rigid, pale face. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t attend her funeral,” he told her quietly. “I was on a trip to China at the time. By the time I got home, she was gone. Her funeral was over. I hadn’t even realized she was sick—”
“You mentioned when we first met that you were examining your life because you’d lost some important people in your life unexpectedly. Was Caddy one of them?”
He didn’t reply for a moment, just staring into Eleanor’s golden green eyes. A weird, swooping sensation went through him. Just this morning, he’d felt so close to her. He’d hoped they’d only grow closer, still. Last night, he’d finally put a name to this new, incredible thing that was happening between them. Inside him.
He’d fallen for her. Hard.
But suddenly, it was like she was flying away from him, even though she stood right there in front of him. It couldn’t be clearer that he’d just unknowingly backed into a giant hornet’s nest. He couldn’t fathom in those seconds how to put things right.