Romancing Her Protector

by Mallory Monroe

  “Shay!” a voice said from across the lobby and she immediately looked over to see Jordy Lambert heading her way. And she beamed. He was much older now, but just like Matty he wore it well.

  “Girl, look at you!” he said jovially as he hugged her and lifted her up in a sweet whirl around.

  “How you doing, Jordy?” she asked as he sat her back on her feet.

  “Fabulous, honey, how about you? Miss Absentee.”

  “I’m good. I’m supposed to meet Matty.”

  “I know. He sent me down. But come on, girl, let’s get a drink in the lounge. He’s not quite ready yet.”

  “Still dressing?” Shay asked as they headed for the Club Lounge. She would be surprised if Matty was actually dressing up for her. It had been her experience they his work suits were his evening suits and he rarely changed up just to have dinner. He just wasn’t that kind of man. Or had he changed?

  “No, no,” Jordy said, “he’s handling some business, you know how that goes, Miss Magazine publisher. I was delighted when he told me you actually owned a magazine. Great for you.”

  “Not so great,” Shay admitted as they made their way to one of the tables. Jordy placed their drink orders as they sat down. “I’m on the brink of receivership if I can’t find an investor.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. You know Mr. Driscoll always has your back.”

  “Still Mr. Driscoll after all of your years of service to him?” Shay had always been bothered by Jordy’s solicitousness to Matty, but Jordy merely smiled.

  “I know. We’re best friends so why do I call my best friend Mr. Driscoll, right?”

  “Right.”

  “He’s also my employer, that’s why, and I take my job very seriously. When we’re alone, he’s Matty. Otherwise he’s Mr. Driscoll, my boss. When I get off of his payroll, that’ll be the end of that, but not before.”

  Shay nodded. “Understood.” Then she exhaled. This may be her only chance to know, so she decided to take it. “So tell me, Jordy, how’s he been?”

  “How do you mean?”

  “I mean, how things have been going for him, for his family, all of these years?”

  “Well . . .” Then he looked at Shay. “You don’t know, do you?”

  “Know what?”

  “About Alex and Clive?”

  “Alex and who?”

  “Well,” Jordy said, straightening the cuffs of the shirt underneath his suit, “it was awful, actually. The truth, I mean. I never liked her, never. But I never dreamed she’d be that calculating.”

  “Jordy, what are you talking about?”

  “Okay. I don’t know how much you know but the only reason Mr. Driscoll married her was because she claimed to have ALS.”

  “Yes, he told me,” Shay said, the pain still there. “She had Lou Gehrig’s disease.”

  “Well, that’s what she claimed. Her and her doctor.”

  Shay was stunned. “Get out! It wasn’t true?”

  “Not an ounce of it. That girl was healthier than a Clydesdale. She only told that lie to steal Mr. Driscoll away from you.”

  Shay leaned back in her chair, floored. “Wow.”

  “Wow is right. And the way it was uncovered.”

  “What happened?”

  “She and this doctor of hers, Clive Stewart, a one-time very reputable surgeon, concocted the lie. I mean, they had Mr. Driscoll believing there were this team of experts at Johns Hopkins confirming the diagnosis and everything. But the thing is, Dr. Stewart was Alex’s lover, and he was a very married man. One night, the wife of married man came home early from a business trip and caught hubby and Alex in bed together.”

  “This isn’t going to end well, is it?”

  “She shot’em both.”

  “For real?”

  “For real, yes, she did. Killed them both. It was during the autopsy that the truth was revealed. She no more had ALS than you and I do. It was just devastating all around.” Shay could only imagine the devastation, and how awful Matty had to have felt.

  “When did all of this happen? How long had they been married?”

  “Less than a year, girl. It all went down in less than a year.” Shay could hardly believe it. She stayed away from Matty, erased him from her mind, because she knew, despite her pain, that he was doing the right thing by marrying Alex. That was why she kept DeAndre as her secret. That was why she didn’t try to interfere in his life in any way. She didn’t want to add to his stress, to the burden she just knew he was bearing as the husband of a dying woman.

  But to have it all exposed as a lie, and exposed in such a horrific fashion, and less than a year after the marriage, was unimaginable.

  “Poor Matty,” she found herself blurting out.

  “Indeed,” Jordy said, as if he, too, was still feeling Matty’s pain. Then he hesitated, and looked at her. “He looked for you, you know. Afterwards, I mean.” Shay looked at Jordy. “He did?”

  “Hired a private eye and everything. And they looked for a good solid year. But it was as if you had dropped off of the world. They knew you had dropped out of school the same day Matty broke up with you, and they knew at one point you went back to your hometown and stayed there a few months. Then your trail went ice cold. They turned up nothing. So he stopped trying, figuring you had gone on with your life and didn’t need to be encumbered with him, anyway, especially the emotional state he was in.”

  “He was in a bad way?”

  “A terrible way.”

  “He’s recovered?”

  “Not fully, no. I don’t know if you ever, quote-unquote ‘recover’ from something like that. But he’s putting one foot in front of the other one and moving right along.” That didn’t exactly sound like living to Shay. “So after a year he called off the search.”

  “Yes, he did. I think he was afraid he’d drag you down, too, I don’t know. But that was thirteen, fourteen years ago when he stopped looking. Didn’t hear a word about you until here recently, when we found out you published some magazine we’d never heard of, and that you hadn’t moved to Antarctica, after all, but lived just a mere hundred miles away.”

  “Initially, I did move far away. Not out of the country, I couldn’t afford that, but I ended up working at a small newspaper in a tiny town in Texas. I actually enjoyed it. I didn’t move to Baltimore until I got a job as a writer with a magazine there. The magazine folded, but I liked the business so much that I started my own little rag. Destiny Magazine, because I felt it was my destiny. If he would have still been looking for me then, I’ll bet he would have found me.”

  Jordy nodded. “I know. But life’s that way, isn’t it? As soon as you think it’s over, it’s not.”

  He reached for his cell phone, looked at the caller ID, and immediately answered.

  “Yes, sir?” he said, and then proceeded to listen. Then he closed his phone. “He’s ready for you,” he said, standing to his feet. Shay stood, too. “He’s still tied up on a conference call and can’t come down. You don’t mind going up, do you, Shay?”

  “No, not at all,” she said, although she knew, deep down, as they headed for the elevators, that it probably wasn’t the wisest move she could have made.

  THIRTEEN

  After Jordy deposited her inside of the suite and left, Shay could hear Matty in an intense conversation in the back room.

  “Is that you, Shay?” he yelled out in a voice that bespoke familiarity. It almost sounded comforting to hear him call her that way.

  “It’s me.”

  “Have a seat, sweetie. I’m just wrapping up.”

  Then he continued his intense conversation before she could respond. Shay was thrown by his term of endearment. It was almost as if time had stood still and they were still that wonderful couple from all those years ago. All those wonderful years ago, until, of course, that morning when he left her.

  Oh, well, she thought, walking over to the window overlooking the magnificent Philadelphia skyline. It was probably
just something he’d say to anybody, like the maid, his secretary, Jordy.

  She moved over to the sofa and sat down. She was tired, once again, and knew she couldn’t continue working this hard. But until Destiny was out of danger, she knew she had to keep pushing it. But she couldn’t forestall the tiredness that was attempting to overtake her.

  She attempted to sit more comfortably, as she leaned back with her arm on the armrest. Before long, she closed her eyes-just to rest them, was her plan. Before long, by the time Matty entered the room, she was asleep.

  Matty stood there, watching her, and his heart squeezed with the kind of compassion he thought had long since left him. After that craziness with Alex, and her tragic death, he didn’t think he would trust another woman even if she personified trustworthiness.

  But it was different with Shay. He knew that for certain now, looking at her. She didn’t have to prove a thing to him. She was one woman, the only woman, he would trust with his life.

  He walked to the sofa and hovered over her. She appeared to be sound asleep with that wee snore he had come to know so well. If only he could have seen through Alex’s lies. If only he could have agreed to help her, but only with the condition that Shay would remain in his life. If only he was the kind of man who could have dismissed his long, drawn-out history with Alex and selfishly choose Shay, instead. If, if, if. His heart ached with ifs.

  He sat on the edge of the sofa beside her. The urge to touch her, just to touch her smooth skin again, was almost too overwhelming. So he did it. He reached out and touched her smooth, gorgeous face. His hand felt seared by the touch.

  Shay’s eyes opened at the feel of his touch. And as soon as she realized it was Matty, and his eyes were aflame with the kind of passion she used to crave, she smiled.

  She couldn’t help it. “Hi,” she said to him.

  But Matty couldn’t say a word. He was too overcome with emotion. Too filled with feelings that were bubbling to the surface like a tsunami overtaking him. They stared into each other’s eyes, without moving, without attempting to talk their feelings away.

  Those feelings ran too deep. Their eyes showed too much regret. And when he leaned over and kissed her, just a tender kiss was all he was after, she leaned ever so slightly into him and allowed the kiss. And time did stand still, because the passion they once shared became as real to them as if sixteen years of their lives had not come, and was long since gone.

  “I never thought I’d see you again, Shay,” he said as he pulled her into his arms.

  “I never thought we could ever---”

  “I know,” she replied, her deep, hidden emotions surfacing too.

  He held her, caressing her back, unsure where this moment would lead. Then he looked at her again. He wanted to see that sparkle in her eyes again. And, once again, he kissed her. Only this time it wasn’t tender, it wasn’t simple. It was complicated and hard. Their lips met, their tongues intertwined, and their kissing became more passionate, more forceful, more desperate, the longer they continued.

  They stopped, both now breathing heavily, as their foreheads met. Then Matty sat erect, and again placed his hand on the side of her face. “Shay,” he said, “I’ve relived this moment in my mind for so many years. And I still don’t know how I can tell you how sorry I am about what happened. I should have chosen you--” Shay took Matty’s hand and held it. “I understood why you did it, I really did. If I was in your position, I might have done the same thing. Was I hurt? Yes, of course I was. I was devastated. I was angry with you for the longest time. I understood it, but it still hurt, you know?”

  Matty nodded. “I know.” He looked at me. “Could you ever forgive me?” He was searching her eyes now. “Could you ever find it in your heart to forgive me, Shay?” Shay looked down, at their interlaced hands, and then she looked back up, in his worried, deep blue eyes. “Yes,” she said. “I forgave you a long time ago, Matty.” Matty pulled her into his arms. “I had to,” Shay continued. “You can’t live with hate and bitterness in your life. Besides, I had a . . .”

  She caught herself. She had been about to say that she had a son to raise and therefore couldn’t live with hate and bitterness. But Matty didn’t realize any slip. He was too busy loving her, thanking her for forgiving him, and putting his hands on the sides of her face. “Oh, Shay,” he said, and kissed her again, kissing that quickly escalated into the passion that used to define them. Then they stood to their feet, he took her by the hand, and walked her into the bedroom.

  Shay was racked with so many contradictory feelings that she didn’t know how to handle them all. In her mind she was screaming no, she couldn’t go down this road again, not again. But her heart was ruler this night. And although she saw the pitfalls, she couldn’t stop herself from going, once again, down what she just knew would be yet another long, winding road with Matty.

  Matty was so pleased that she didn’t shun him, that she didn’t tell him that he’d hurt her once, never again, that he had to purposely slow himself down. He laid her on the middle of the bed, got onto the bed with her, and continued to kiss her. It was long and it was sweet and it was as if their entire bodies were burning with fire. And when he removed her blouse and began to kiss her neck, her chest, her breasts, and she removed his shirt, and began kissing his powerful chest, they fell, once again, into each other’s arms, embracing with the caress of two long lost lovers, that knew better than to start this again, but were unable to pull back.

  But Matty did, because this wasn’t enough. He stood to his feet, unbuckled his belt and then unzipped his pants, his penis throbbing for her touch. When he stepped out of his pants, and his boxer’s, Shay’s eyes slid down his still ripped body, to his almost bursting with energy manhood, that hung as big and thick as she had remembered it. And she thought about Matty, about all of the pain he had endured, and she made the next move.

  She got off of the bed, too, slid off her heels and then her pants and panties as well, and walked up to Matty. When she got on her knees, Matty almost pulled her back up. But he couldn’t. He wanted her too completely.

  She licked first the tip of his penis, causing his head to roll back in the sheer pleasure of it, and then she took into her mouth as much of him as she could.

  “Oh, Shay,” he said, his body shaking with joy, his hands rolling through her silky hair as her mouth licked and sucked and gave him the kind of pleasure no other woman had been able to give him. Not with the intensity of Shay.

  It became so intense, in fact, that he knew he had to stop her or he’d be coughing it up right into her mouth and her pleasure, which was even more important to him, would be seriously delayed.

  He stopped her, and stood her to her feet. He placed his hands on both sides of her face, and smiled. “You’re still my baby, Shay, you know that? I know I don’t deserve you, I know I can have no claim to you, but you’re still my baby.” Shay wanted to tell him that he was still hers, too, but the terror in her throat stopped her cold. Would he be able to handle the fact that he had a sixteen year old son?

  And what about Dre? Would he be able to handle the fact that she had lied to him, that his father wasn’t dead, that the decision she made all those years ago was the absolute wrong move?

  But Matty didn’t wait for any response from her, anyway. He lifted her back onto the bed and laid on top of her. His mouth kissed her neck, her chest, and his tongue flickered around her nipples, and kissed her breasts, and his fingertip found its way inside her womanhood.

  Now it was his time to pleasure her. And he moved down the length of her, opened her legs as wide as they could go, and kissed and bit and slurped her so intensely that Shay got on her elbows, dropped her head back, and opened her mouth to holler, but no sound came forth.

  And when he moved back up, and his now massive penis entered her, ready to super-cure the ache that was now between her legs, she did scream, not some primal scream, but his name, over and over and over.

  When she screamed his name and
then arched her pliable little body, Matty lost it then. He entered deep inside of her and began gyrating with the kind of skill that made him amazed that he could have stayed away from this all of these years. It was beyond intense. And when she met his movements, with movements of her own, her skill now a complete match for his, he lost all restraint. He began pounding her, wanting no-one else but her, unwilling for this feeling, this euphoria, to ever end.

  But theirs was a kind of euphoria that had to end, least it would be the end of them. The climax came, beyond intense it came, and they both released into a surge of happiness, pain, and fear that when it was all over, when they were at the peak and about to come back down, even that was like a rush.

  They collapsed into each other’s arms.

  ***

  For hours they slept the sleep of the truly exhausted, until they slowly began to show some signs. When Shay looked over at Matty’s Rolex on the night stand, and saw that it was nearly one in the morning, she panicked. She never stayed out all night on a business meeting or a date or anything that DeAndre could declare as improper. She knew she had to leave.

  “No, stay,” a still sleepy Matty said, pulling her back into his arms. “Please don’t leave me, Shay,” he said.

  Shay felt his pain, it was impossible for her not to feel it, and she allowed herself to move back into his arms. But it would have to be only temporary. She did not spend nights away from home, away from DeAndre, and she wasn’t about to start now.

  Besides, this night with Matty was such a mistake, and she knew it. How in the world were they going to pick up the pieces and go forward when there were too many pieces to pick up? Not to mention that big, fat secret of hers that could tear the whole thing to pieces again.

  That was why, as soon as Matty was asleep again, she slid, ever so quietly, out of his big, warm arms, and took herself home.

  FOURTEEN

  The next day, Shay and Tasia were in Shay’s office going over the latest editorial page.