“Don’t…don’t do that.” Blinking furiously, her eyes flew to his.
“Don’t do what?” Justin replied quietly.
“That! Kissing. Don’t!” It was hard to think.
“Are you asking me not to do this?” He planted the sweetest of kisses on her temple. She stiffened. “Or this?” His lips moved to her eyelids. Pushing against his chest, Davia forced him away from her.
“No!” On shaky legs, she backed away.
“No, what?” Justin didn’t retreat.
“I can’t…I can’t…” Davia stuttered.
“Care for me?” Justin finished her sentence. “I disagree.” He reached out to her.
Davia’s heart was beating out of her chest. Could it be possible? His words were so reassuring.
“Trust me, Davia,” he crooned. “I won’t hurt you.”
The words pricked her soul. Was it possible? Could she really trust him? Davia’s stiffness began to recede.
Justin’s body was now flush with Davia’s as her eyes closed involuntarily. Gently, he wrapped an arm around her waist.
“Believe in me.” He kissed both eyelids.
She wanted to believe.
His kiss moved to the tip of her nose. “Trust me.”
She swayed and a sob caught in her throat. Lord, she needed to believe in the possibility!
Cautiously, Justin’s lips touched her lips. She didn’t resist. He increased the pressure and her lips slowly parted.
CHAPTER 11
The kiss was brief. Davia was the first to pull away. Justin could see that she was frightened and he wanted to reassure her that she had no reason to be. He wanted to hold her close to him, to let her know that he had anxieties too. He reached out to caress her cheek, but she backed away. His hand halted in midair.
“I know that you’ve been hurt, Davia.”
“No, you really don’t know anything about me,” she corrected him. Her voice was shaking. How could he know? How could he have a clue?
“I can’t argue that, but I want to get to know you.” He dared a step toward her. “I want to know everything about you because I care.” The sincerity in his eyes confirmed his statement as he dared another step toward her.
Despite her continued uncertainty, Davia didn’t retreat. She had already opened up to this man more than she had to any other man in her life. Justin’s kindness and concern overwhelmed her. The qualities that he seemed to possess indicated that he might be different from other men she had known. He threatened to penetrate defenses that she had perfected. She could feel them crumbling. Still, she challenged his resolve.
“So you want to know about my life. You, the son of privilege who couldn’t possibly understand.” She shook her head. “No, Justin, you only think you want to know. You see, my life has been very different, and the picture isn’t pretty.”
Wanting to put distance between them, Davia moved across the room to the refrigerator built into the wall. Opening it, she withdrew a can of soda. Popping the top, she took a swig, more in an effort to squelch her rising heat than to quench her thirst.
On the other side of the room, Justin witnessed Davia’s attempt to withdraw, but he was determined not to let her. He was falling hard for this woman, and there were matters that needed to be discussed before he succumbed completely.
Walking across the room, he took a detour to the office door and turned the lock. He could hear Davia’s intake of breath.
“Don’t lock that!” Her voice was strangled.
Turning, Justin was stunned by the look of panic on her face. Her eyes were riveted to the lock on the door.
Disturbed by her reaction, he quickly unlocked the door. “I just wanted us to talk. I thought about how Leroy came in…” He faltered in his explanation.
Davia gripped the back of a chair to steady herself. She took a ragged breath in an effort to regain her composure. She didn’t like locked doors.
Not wanting to upset her further, Justin moved toward her cautiously. “Are you all right?”
She nodded, but the look on her face made a lie of her claim. Justin didn’t believe her for a second. He fought to control his emotions. Who or what could have caused such a reaction? He chose his words carefully.
“You said that men always hurt you,” he said quietly, his voice unable to contain his anger. “Some man abused you.”
Davia’s body jerked. The soda can slipped from her hand and tumbled to the floor. Soda spewed like a fountain from the can onto the Berber carpet. Davia didn’t notice.
She had said too much to him.
“That’s why you don’t trust men.”
She shouldn’t have said anything.
“Or is it just me that you don’t trust?”
Noting that she didn’t answer him, he drew closer as she stood staring at him. He spoke in a soothing voice.
“If you don’t want to tell me what happened, that’s fine, but I want to help you. I want to offer my support and my friendship. I’ve never known anyone like you and I want you in my life. But the barriers between us have to come down.”
Justin now stood face to face with Davia, whose eyes were glazed with unshed tears. Yet, the hard set of her mouth revealed that she was still resistant.
Bending, Justin picked up the fallen soda can, and then, finding a roll of paper towels, he wiped up the spill. Tossing the towels into the trash, he washed his hands at the sink, wiped them dry, and then, under Davia’s watchful eye, he sat in a chair and got comfortable. He was prepared to be as stubborn as she was.
“So, you’re not going to talk to me. Am I being punished because you think that I’m from a different world and that I would be shocked by what you have to tell me? Perhaps I’m more aware of the world than you think I am. After all, I am a full-grown man. I know that our lives have been different…”
“Very different,” Davia corrected him, “and I’m not punishing you.”
Justin’s mouth lifted into a small smile. “It certainly feels like it. You’ve taken pains to tell me practically nothing about yourself. It’s evident that you were a teenage mother and that you’ve been deeply hurt by a man.” Justin rose and walked over to stand before her. “But, Davia, I’m not the man who harmed you. I’m the man who wants to ease your pain. That is, if you’ll let me.” He reached out to caress her cheek and she didn’t move away.
Justin’s whispered promises summoned Davia’s every need and desire. She was tired of holding onto a past where love was nonexistent. She wanted desperately to throw aside the shackles of distrust which had bound her for so long. Here was a man who was offering her a different reality, one that she had never dreamed could exist for her.
Davia’s silence led Justin to wonder if he had blown it. Would she continue to reject his plea, or should he remain hopeful? He was persistent.
“I don’t know where a relationship between us will lead, Davia, but I’m asking you to give it a chance. I’m crazy about you, and all I ask is that you allow us to get to know each other better.”
The room vibrated with the silence between them as trust struggled to make its presence known. Then, without a word, Davia started walking toward the door. Hope dimmed for Justin. He had gambled and lost. Steeling himself for her departure, Justin closed his eyes and sighed deeply as he listened for her exit. Instead, he heard a click. His eyes flew open. Having locked the door, Davia walked back across the room and stopped in front of him. Taking an uncertain breath, she forced herself to take the boldest step of her life—a step into the future.
“I was raised on the south side of Chicago by a cousin named Phyllis. She was a drug addict and a prostitute…”
* * *
Katherine Miles was perturbed with her son. He was supposed to come by her house and pick up two tickets he had purchased to one of her charity events. He had yet to arrive. Actually, she hadn’t seen much of him in the past few weeks. His telephone calls to her had become less frequent, and she didn’t like it at all.
Upset by what she perceived as her son’s neglect, she had summoned Henry and had asked him to drive her to Justin’s office building when she couldn’t find him at home. If he was there, she would deliver the tickets personally and then give that boy a piece of her mind.
They were on their way there when Katherine noticed a red Lexus sports car waiting for a red light on the opposite side of the street. The distinctive license plate that announced Justin’s name to the world identified the car as belonging to her son.
“There’s Justin!” she alerted Henry.
“It certainly is,” he concurred.
“I wonder where he’s headed,” she said absently.
“Do you want me to blow and get his attention?” Henry asked, poised to obey her command.
She was about to ask him to do just that when she noticed movement on the passenger side next to her son. From this distance, she couldn’t identify the facial features, but it looked like it could be a man or a woman—a woman with very short hair. Justin confirmed that the person was the latter when he leaned over and gave his passenger a kiss.
“Uh-oh, it’s obvious that he’s not headed to his office.” There was a note of male pride in Henry’s voice. “Should I blow?”
“No, don’t bother. He probably wouldn’t stop anyway.” Katherine’s eyes stayed glued to her son’s car. She watched as it accelerated on the green light, turned the corner and disappeared from sight. She should have known. Justin was on the prowl again. She could understand why women loved her son. After all, he was rich and very good looking. Nevertheless, she did not appreciate being ignored by him for one of his little flings. The only name that she had heard connected with him lately was that of Davia Maxwell. Was that the woman in the car? If so, from what she had just witnessed, this woman might be more than a casual acquaintance.
Between this Davia person and her child, Gabby, half of the Miles family seemed involved with these Maxwell people. She made a mental note to find out more about Davia Maxwell, but she was certain that there was no need to worry. Justin was never serious about any woman for very long. For years, Katherine had let him have his harmless dalliances. However, it was past time for him to start thinking seriously about finding a wife. It looked as though she would have to get busy and help the situation along.
As Henry turned the car back toward home, Katherine mentally began to compose a list of acceptable women—ones with the right bloodlines. The name Davia Maxwell was definitely not one that would be on the list.
* * *
Justin sat in the restaurant across the table from Davia, watching as she brought her salad fork to her lips and chewed languidly. He was continuously amazed at the effect that she had on him. Everything she did seemed to turn him on. The kiss she had allowed him in her office had been like kerosene poured on a burning flame. He had contained the flame before it burned out of control, but it was still smoldering. Unable to resist, he had stolen a kiss from her in the car and she had offered no resistance. Davia was beginning to trust him, and he was floating on Cloud Nine until she asked a question that he had never expected.
“What would your mother think of me if you were to introduce us? Do you think that she would like me?”
Justin fell from his cloud with a thump. Chuckling, he shook his head. “You do have a way of starting in the middle of a nonexistent conversation, don’t you?”
Davia grinned. “I usually say what’s on my mind.”
“And my mother was on your mind?”
“Yes, and the fact that you called her on your cell phone before we were seated. Were you checking in?” From what she knew of Justin, he didn’t appear to be a mama’s boy, but for her own sense of security she needed to hear it from him.
Justin guffawed at the very idea. “Checking in is something I haven’t done since I was a teenager.” He laughed again, still tickled. “No, I was supposed to pick something up from her and I just remembered it. I just wanted to make arrangements to follow through. Anyway, I didn’t reach her. Mommy Dearest must be out doing her own thing.”
Davia didn’t respond to his teasing tone as she watched him with serious eyes. It was clear that she wanted an answer to her question. Pushing his unfinished salad aside, Justin leaned back in his chair and studied Davia for a moment. He could tell that the answer was important to her and it deserved to be addressed honestly.
“Would Katherine Miles like you?” He echoed reflectively. With a deep sigh, he leaned forward and looked her straight in the eyes. “No, she wouldn’t want to like you. But it doesn’t matter, because I like you very much.”
A smile crept across Davia’s face. “What do you know, an honest man. You and I might be able to make a go of this.”
Justin returned her smile. Reaching across the table, he took her hands into his and massaged them gently. “Ms. Maxwell, I know we will.”
A few hours later Justin parked the car in front of Davia’s house and turned off the ignition. It was the end to a long and eventful day, but he sensed that it wasn’t over. He was right. Davia had been silent during the ride from the restaurant. He knew that she was exhausted, but it was obvious that there was something else on her mind. So he waited. It was a short one.
“I think that my daughter would have liked you, Justin. Her name was Stephanie Renee, and she was fifteen years old when she died.”
Justin was taken aback. There it was again, information delivered out of the blue, unrelated to any conversation. She was a master at it, and if catching him off guard had been the intent, her words were successful.
He had wondered about Gabby’s mother. Davia had never mentioned her and he had never asked. He had trusted her to tell him what she wanted him to know, when she wanted him to know it. He had been right.
“I was only fifteen when I had my daughter—a child having a child. I didn’t know how to be a mother. I had only seen what mothering was on television or in the movies. My cousin told me that my own mother died when I was four years old. I don’t even remember her.”
Pausing, Davia shifted her attention from the distant past back to the present. She looked over at Justin. “I never knew my father. Phyllis said that no one knew who he was.” She waited for his reaction to her words. There was none. Justin sat stoically, holding her eyes. His silence urged her to continue.
“Like I told you before, I was raised by my cousin, Phyllis. I think she was my mother’s first cousin. She really never made that clear. All I know is that somehow she got custody of me—for the welfare check, I’m sure—and she never mentioned any other relatives. She never showed me any love or affection. I don’t think that she knew how. Surviving was all she knew and that’s what she taught me to do—survive. For the first half of my life, that was my code. Having a relationship was something foreign to me. It was difficult for me to express emotion even with my own child, who loved me without conditions.”
Davia’s eyes misted. “Stephanie was a beautiful child, inside and out. She had this cute little round face, with incredible brown eyes.” She paused, remembering the child that she had adored. “She loved to tell me her little made-up stories. I couldn’t get enough of her, but there never seemed to be enough time for us to spend together. When I moved to Atlanta, I never asked help from anybody. I got through school with loans and by working two, sometimes three, part-time jobs. I worked even harder when it came to financing my business and making a go of it. There was just never enough time in the day.”
Closing her eyes, she fought the tears that threatened to flow. She had shed so many tears in her lifetime that she was surprised that she had any left. Justin moved to hold her in his arms and she accepted his offer of comfort as she continued.
She told him how her teenage daughter had hidden her pregnancy from her. Racked with guilt and with her body shaking with sorrow, she confessed how she had been so busy trying to build a life for the two of them that she had not noticed the change in her own child’s body. She recalled the nightmare of Gabby’s
birth, relived the terrifying ride in the ambulance to the hospital and how her daughter—who’d had no medical care during her pregnancy—hemorrhaged. By the time they reached the hospital, Gabby had been born and Stephanie was dead.
She didn’t know what to expect from him when she finished her story. She didn’t think that there was anything he could say to her that could ease the unbearable pain, guilt and sorrow. She was a woman who had sacrificed her child’s life for her own success. What could be worse than that?
When she quieted, Justin tenderly wiped her tears away. He kissed her brow. His words of comfort were simple.
“Forgive yourself.”
It was exactly what Davia needed to hear.
CHAPTER 12
Davia sat at her desk at the Small Sensations office staring at sketches of the latest designs for Teen Sensations, her company’s expansion into the country’s adolescent market. The effort was less than a year old, and the clothes were flying off the shelves of every retail outlet carrying her product. Orders were pouring in. Over the past three months her ability to meet obligations at home and at the office had been stretched to the limit. Yet, somehow, she found the time for Gabby and for Justin.
He had become a very important presence in her life. Each time they were together, the two of them continued to learn more about one another. With each passing day they grew closer.
Justin seemed to accept her in every way, and once she let down her guard she found that trusting him became easier. He wasn’t perfect, but neither was she. Justin was kind, warm, sensitive and quite demonstrative. The latter took some getting used to. He had no reservations about giving her a kiss or a nibble in public, and while she resisted his efforts initially, she had to admit that once she had grown accustomed to his overt displays of affection, she had begun to enjoy them. What a change! She had transformed from a woman who couldn’t stand to be touched by a man, to a woman who craved the touch of only one man—Justin. It was wonderful. He was wonderful.
The ring of the telephone and a knock on the door tore Davia from her musings. Picking up the receiver, she pushed the blinking button on her private line, simultaneously granting permission to enter. Justin’s voice greeted her on the other end of the phone line, just as Leroy entered her office.
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