Carved in Stone

by Donna McDonald

  “I—I needed some time to think about the change in our relationship,” Jessica said.

  “Come to any conclusions yet?” Will asked, reaching around her and tugging her hips flush to his to remind her of just how much things had changed.

  “None at all,” Jessica replied, sighing. “I ran out of patience with myself and came to see you anyway.”

  “I swear I didn’t plant my ex-wife in the house to make it harder or to punish you for making me wait,” Will said, grinning even when his eyes were serious.

  “Good to know,” Jessica said, trying for a teasing smile and not really getting there.

  “Hey,” Will said, seeing her doubts as clearly as if she had voiced the words. “You know how it is between us. We talked about this.”

  “Well, I thought I did. Now I’m not so sure. I’m having a hell of time figuring it out after seeing your ex here. Got some way to convince me?” Jessica asked, not really teasing at all.

  “Not with Michael and Ellen watching, but if you take me home with you, I think I can put all your fears to rest. Mine, too. Have you had any dates this week I need to worry about?” Will asked, seeing the answer flash in her gaze even before she tilted her chin.

  He laughed at her irritation and pulled her closer. “Good to know we’re both being monogamous,” he said, tilting her back over his arm. “I’ve worked too hard today to do any competing.”

  Will put his eager mouth on hers, and her groan of satisfaction vibrated both of them. When he pulled away, Will moved them both from the line of sight of Michael and the patio door just in case Ellen was spying. He pressed Jessica against his statue which in turn pressed David 17’s marble penis into the small of her back.

  “Touch me,” he whispered. “Show me you want me so I can get through the next few hours without being inside you.”

  “Will? Do you realize what you’ve backed me into?” Jessica demanded, putting her hand on his dusty jeans and feeling him come instantly alive for her. As she stroked Will, she could feel the hard marble pressing against her back. She much preferred the real one, Jessica thought, stroking more firmly.

  Will laughed and leaned into her hand to enjoy the moment.

  “Yes. I only wish I could be that hard with you,” he joked.

  “If you get any harder, we’re going to end up shocking your son,” Jessica said, pressing her face against his dusty neck.

  “Okay, maybe you’re right,” Will said laughing. He couldn’t help noticing she didn’t mention caring if Ellen saw, but he was wise enough not to gloat about it. “Maybe you’re right about shocking Michael. Let go of me, woman.”

  “No, not yet. You started this. I need a little something for me now,” Jessica told him, sliding hands from the front of him to put them behind his hips and arch herself against him to rub until the arousal spread through her. “Yes, I definitely need you to come home with me. Clean up and meet me there in an hour.”

  Feeling her heat even through all the denim between them, Will rocked against Jessica. There was great relief to be in her arms again and to know she still wanted to be with him. Each day that passed without hearing from her, he had grown more afraid Jessica had opted to be in denial about it.

  “Can I come back tomorrow night too?” Will asked. “I don’t want to be here right now. The house is too crowded, if you know what I mean.”

  “Bring the bike and stay for the weekend,” Jessica said, pushing him away with her hands. “We’ll go for a ride Sunday and find someplace to have breakfast.”

  Will smiled at her willingness to take another bike ride with him and met her gaze levelly. He could already feel her wrapped around him, feel her sigh of pleasure against his back. It was the happiest thought he’d experienced in years. He fell the rest of the way in love with Jessica Daniels without any regret.

  “Better get ready to hear how I feel about you,” he warned her. “I’ve been looking all my life for a woman who liked to ride me and my bike.”

  Jessica was already shaking her head at his teasing. “Don’t push me, Will. I had a hard enough time coming over here. I still have the urge to run like hell from what you make me feel. Dealing with your ex did not make me feel better about things.”

  “You have no competition and I’ll see you in a hour,” he called after her, smiling at the white marks on the back of her jeans as she walked away.

  After Jessica had exited through the patio door, Michael leaned around his work and looked at his Dad, who was grinning again—thank God. As the eldest son, he didn’t care if he was being disrespectful or not, he just had to know if it was intentional.

  “Did you do that on purpose just now?” Michael asked.

  “Is there an answer to that question that you won’t harass me about?” Will asked in return, hurrying back to his table to put away his tools with the sound of Michael’s laughter echoing through the courtyard.

  He hadn’t put hand prints on Jessica on purpose, Will thought, but he wasn’t sorry about them either. He hoped Ellen saw them and knew what they meant. He didn’t want to have to explain it to his ex-wife, but he would if he had to.

  ***

  Later, Will was in such a rush to get showered, packed, and over to Jessica’s that he momentarily forgot Ellen was there. He walked from the bathroom to his bedroom with only a towel wrapped around him, an easy habit he had gotten into when there had been just Michael and him in the house.

  When he walked into the bedroom, he was suddenly wishing like hell he had gotten dressed in the bathroom. Ellen was sitting on the bed with Blue Blaze in her hands, turning it around as if it was puzzle she was trying to figure out.

  “Is this what she’s making for art now?” Ellen said, mildly disgusted. She put it on the bed beside her. “I guess it’s better than the rape art. Though I’ve got to say it looks too much like a woman’s private area. I suppose the colors are nice enough.”

  “It’s called a vagina, Ellen,” Will said. “You have a college degree. You’re allowed to use the right anatomical terms.”

  Angry at himself for engaging yet another time in an argument about art so similar to the other thousand they’d had over the years, Will turned his back to her. He went to his dresser and pulled out clothes to toss on the bed.

  “What are you doing in my room?” he asked fiercely, delving into another drawer for more clothes. He walked back to the bed and found Ellen sitting next to his clothes with one hand on top of them.

  “William, don’t go to her. You’re not making the woman happy. Haven’t you noticed the anxiety on her face when you’re around?” Ellen implored.

  Using an assertive move vastly familiar to both of them, she put her hand on Will’s hip and ran it down his thigh, sneaking it through the towel flap at the last minute. She stroked him and made sure he felt her polished nails lightly scoring his abdomen with every motion. A few seconds later she got the reaction she had hoped for and was accustomed to with Will. Her heart leapt at the thought of what it meant and she squeezed harder to reward him.

  “Nice move,” Will said coldly, staring into the surprised gaze of a woman he’d once thought he’d spend his life with until he died. “Now go back to Luke and use it with him. I’m not your husband anymore.”

  When her hand dropped away, Will immediately moved out of her reach. Uncaring any longer what she thought, he pulled off the towel and pulled on briefs while she watched. He tucked his now withering erection into place with no thought of sparing Ellen the embarrassment of his rejection.

  “I’m leaving Luke,” Ellen said softly. “He doesn’t appreciate me like you did.”

  “That’s your problem to work out with him,” Will said, not inclined to be supportive or caring in any way at all. In fact, he might never be supportive of Ellen again.

  He was stirred up and frustrated with her for trying to seduce him. He was angry at himself for letting Ellen get as far as she did, even if it was just a Pavlov’s dog kind of response brought on by thirty-three
years of marriage. Will hadn’t done anything he regretted in a long time, and now he felt ashamed of himself. He’d asked Jessica not to date, but then he’d let Ellen touch him, stroke him for pity’s sake. Why hadn’t he just smacked her hand away? He might have to shower again now to get over the feel of her hands on him.

  Will pulled on jeans and a blue T-shirt Michael had given him that said A Sculptor’s Life Is Carved In Stone on it. It was one of his favorite possessions. Not that he cared much about what he was wearing, his main priority at the moment was just to be dressed enough to go out in public. He needed to get out of the house and as far away from Ellen as possible.

  “Will, that woman can’t be better in bed than me. You and I can have all we had, and maybe even more because I would be more appreciative this time around,” Ellen said quietly. “At least think about us.”

  “No thanks, I’m just not interested,” Will said, meaning it. “I tried to reconcile with you after we separated—before you ever married. I might have been able to forgive you for Luke then, but not now. You’re a married woman, Ellen. You need to act like one and work things out with your husband.”

  “William,” Ellen said, her voice rising with her agitation. “Stop thinking like a man for a minute and at least try to be logical. Being a rape survivor, Jessica Daniels probably has a list of things she’s unwilling to do with you in bed that is a mile long. My friend Susan’s husband left her because she just couldn’t get past the other men abusing her. You’ll be bored with the Daniels woman before a year is done.”

  “No, I won’t be bored. If Jessica and I ever had a problem, I’d go to therapy with her to try to work it out. If that was ever the case—which it is definitely not at the moment. You never did understand the healing power of art, Ellen. You didn’t get it for the whole thirty-three years we were together,” Will told her sadly. “But it would be damn helpful to both your sons if you could just open your mind and try to get it—even a little bit. Your sons are artists. You need to start accepting that art is both their career and their life, even if you never accepted that it was mine.”

  Will pushed all his clothes into a backpack. Then at the last minute, he scooped up Jessica’s art piece.

  “See this? Jessica’s art has gone from rape scenes to a celebration of what is wonderfully feminine. Jessica Daniels healed herself long before I came along. In thirty years of relationships with men on her terms, she’s had more lovers than I can bear thinking about. Frankly, I had to stand in line to get a damn date with her. Even this weekend, I had to literally chase off a man ten years younger than me,” Will said, liking the shocked look on Ellen’s face. “That’s how much I want that woman, and I still do. Now that I have my chance with her, I’m putting everything I am into making it work.”

  Will added the art piece to the contents of his backpack, afraid to leave anything of Jessica’s in the house while Ellen was there. He zipped the pack shut and clipped the security fasteners he almost never used. The extra precaution just seemed necessary.

  Then he walked out and left Ellen sitting on the bed.

  At the end of the hallway, Michael was coming out of the kitchen with a glass of water.

  “Blue Blaze is coming with me until your mother moves out,” Will told him. “I don’t want her turning it into a door stop while I’m gone.”

  Michael raised his eyebrows. It was a reference to his mother’s typical reaction to receiving a piece of art from her sons. And it was an ancient argument between his parents.

  “It’s not ensured yet,” Michael warned, not worrying about its safety so much as he was his Dad’s state of mind. “Don’t go wrecking your bike today.”

  “Trust me,” Will said loudly, looking back down the hall and seeing Ellen walk out of his room. “Jessica Daniels’ vagina is always going to be safe in my hands.”

  Michael sputtered and coughed as the water went down wrong. His mother rolled her eyes and shook her head as Will slammed the front door after him.

  Chapter 14

  Will coasted the bike to a stop on the street in front of Jessica’s house. When he got his helmet off, he saw her sitting on her window ledge, leaning out and smiling down at him.

  “Pull the bike into the driveway,” she directed. “I’ll be right down to let you in.”

  Will backed up the Harley and rode it into the driveway just as Jessica came out of the house. She was smiling hard and almost laughing, reminding him of what she had been like the first time they went out. He had wondered if he was ever going to see that level of happiness in her again.

  “You look good on that black monster,” Jessica told him. “Cars never did it for me, but I get a flutter just thinking about riding around with you on the bike.”

  “You know, my son Shane told me to shave my head, get an earring, and ride around on the bike to pick up women. I guess you’re proof that it works,” Will said, reaching out to tug her to him by the front of her shirt.

  Then Will turned her sideways and maneuvered her to sit in front of him on the ample seat. “Kiss me, Jessica. You have no idea how much I need it right now.”

  “Kiss you in broad daylight in my driveway?” Jessica asked, amusement lifting the corners of her mouth.

  She felt lighter suddenly, lighter and happier now that Will was with her.

  She felt lighter still when she realized Will had forgotten again to be careful with her. One hand was in her hair tugging her head back for a soul-stealing kiss. The other unerringly found her breast to squeeze and lift it, effectively making her groan into his mouth at the pleasure of his touch.

  Realizing where they were, and how fast things were getting away from his control, Will moved his hand from her breast to her back where he could slide her hips more intimately between his legs.

  “You know,” Jessica said, pulling her mouth from his. “I have a perfectly good house with a king size bed. We could take this inside.”

  “I thought you’d never ask,” Will said, boosting her up to standing with a hand under her rear.

  “You’re a very physical man, aren’t you?” Jessica said on a laugh. “Though I have to say you seem to have turned manhandling into an art form.”

  Will climbed off the bike and looked at her with concern. “Do I scare you?”

  “No,” Jessica denied irritably, walking off and leaving him to follow her up the sidewalk. “It scares me that I’m starting to like your macho side. I’ve spent most of my life avoiding the kind of man you are.”

  Will frowned, thinking about that a moment. “What kind of man is that?”

  Jessica looked at him and shrugged as they stepped through her door. “The kind of man who’s big enough and strong enough to do pretty much anything he wants. I learned that early on with you, remember? I almost had to hurt you to break your hold on me.”

  “Have I done anything since then to make you feel that way again?” Will asked, setting his bike helmet on a well-used wooden bench in the hallway with several pairs of shoes lined up under it. He put his backpack next to the helmet and unzipped his jacket.

  Jessica opened a closet and took out a hanger. “Hang your jacket on the pegs above the bench. Leave it there. I like the way it looks next to the helmet.”

  She waited until Will was hanging up the jacket to answer his question. “I don’t know,” she said flatly.

  “What?” Will asked, his face a puzzled frown.

  “I don’t know if you’ve done anything that has bothered me as much. I can’t think of anything, but you definitely make me feel nervous and a bit on edge,” Jessica said honestly.

  “Do I make you anxious?” Will asked.

  Jessica waited a few heartbeats. “I guess that’s a fair description.”

  Damn Ellen for being right, Will thought. Damn her for planting doubts in his head.

  Jessica walked up to Will and ran her fingers over his lips. “That doesn’t mean I want you to change anything you’re doing. If you stop being yourself, I will never figure it
out. Then we both lose by not knowing how it is between us. I’m being honest with you because I’ve taught myself not to put up fronts. Now kiss me so I can lure you to bed.”

  Will picked up his backpack and took the one giant step into her that covered the remaining empty space between them. He didn’t touch her other than to press his lips to hers. It was Jessica who groaned, grabbed his T-shirt with two hands, and deepened their kiss.

  Will ended up laughing against her mouth when he got his tongue back.

  “You know, I’m not the only aggressive one in our relationship. You do your own share of grabbing, lady. Don’t forget to factor that into your thinking,” Will told Jessica, putting his mouth back on hers with a little more aggression this time.

  Jessica pulled free and tugged on his hand. “House tour later,” she said. “Bedroom is upstairs. Come with me.”

  “Best offer I’ve had all day,” Will said, laughing, letting Jessica tug him along behind her.

  Will followed Jessica up a set of antique wooden stairs and into a room with airy curtains and layers of covers on the bed along with pillows of every size. Most of the furniture was worn and fragile, too feminine for Will to feel completely at ease. Fortunately, the bed seemed like the sturdiest piece in the room and it was the only one he cared about at the moment.

  “You’re way more girly than you look,” Will said softly, setting his backpack down. He unzipped a side pocket and pulled three condoms out. “Now the lacy lingerie makes complete sense.”

  Grinning at the condoms and his comment, Jessica pulled her shirt over her head revealing a pink lace demi-bra that barely restrained her breasts.

  “Do you ever wear plain cotton?” Will asked, tossing the condoms on the bed and walking to her.

  “Not if I can help it,” Jessica said, closing her eyes and leaning into Will’s hands when he lifted her breasts and brushed the ends with his thumbs.

  They stood like that at the foot of Jessica’s bed, weaving with the arousal building between them. Jessica had her eyes closed in bliss, and Will couldn’t look away from her face.