He continued to shake her. “No, no. This can’t be happening.”
Unfortunately, it was.
Chapter 16
The Adams family argued nonstop over who all should head out to Italy. Sheldon regretfully backed out because of her budding tribe of rug rats.
Marlin didn’t see the point. “Joseph is a grown woman and is more than capable of taking care of herself.”
To show exactly what she thought of that statement, Michael twirled a finger at her temple and waved off her father. “Joseph is emotional. The only thing she is going to do is make a fool out herself in front of a man who doesn’t want her. She should just cut her losses.”
“Is this the same woman who had brow-beat, hog-tied, and dragged her man kicking and screaming to the altar?” Peyton joked.
“The last thing I want is for Joey to make the same mistake I made.”
Everyone’s eyes darted to one another, but no one spoke.
“I’m definitely going,” Michael added, not noticing the room’s sudden silence.
“Count me in,” Frankie said.
Flex folded his arms. “I’ve never been to Italy.”
The girls’ heads swiveled in surprise in his direction.
“Don’t you have to go back to Georgia?” Lincoln asked. “What about your job?”
“I still have a week left of vacation. How long will it take to club Joey over the head and drag her back home?”
Peyton turned her inquiring eyes toward her husband.
“What?” He frowned. “The house is finally finished.” He inched closer as he lowered his voice. “We haven’t finished christening the rooms.”
A few snickers rippled around them; but when Lincoln glanced back, everyone managed to straighten their faces.
Peyton pressed her body against him and encircled her arms around his neck. “You know, we could treat it like a second honeymoon.”
“We?” He blinked. “I have an art show to get ready for. I can’t just take off to Italy.”
“Then if you’re going to be busy, you’ll hardly notice I’m gone.”
“You’re going to go to Italy without me?”
Sheldon, Frankie and Michael glanced at each other and shook their heads.
“I’m sure you’re going to be just fine without me.” Peyton patted his chest reassuringly. “Just no wild parties while I’m gone.” She leaned up on her toes and planted a kiss against his cheek. “But when I get back...anything goes.” She winked.
“P.J., I’m still in the room,” Marlin mumbled under his breath.
For the first time since Joey’s disappearance, the close-knit family erupted with laughter.
#
Joey slept like a baby.
After two days of sleeping on hard benches or curled up against cold stone, her body surrendered to the bed’s plush, downy softness and her mind had just drifted away.
Shifting against the pillow, her face was suddenly bathed in rich sunlight. She stretched and moaned, and then moaned and stretched; she didn’t care to open her eyes. In fact, she had no desire to leave her safe cocoon any time soon until...
“Welcome to the land of the living.”
Ryan’s honey-coated baritone oozed into her head and elicited a soft smile, but she still made no effort to get up.
“Please tell me you don’t intend to lie there all day.”
“And what if I do?” she asked, finally peeking from behind her mesh of long lashes. “Are you going to have hotel security throw me out?”
“Now there’s a novel idea.” He crammed a cigar into his mouth.
Joey picked up on his irritation, but she refused to be baited by it. She felt too damn good and frankly, he was still looking pretty good in his robe. Her smile evaporated. What am I thinking?
Slowly she pushed herself up on the pillows. When she did so, the sheet slipped and exposed her apple-sized breasts, but she quickly retrieved it.
“Are we suddenly modest this morning?”
“N-no.” She flustered. “It’s just--”
“Things change with the light of day,” he finished for her. His eyes were hard and challenging.
She was the first to lower her eyes. “I’m sorry I fell asleep on you.”
“Are you?” He walked toward the foot of the bed and sat down.
Though she didn’t look up, the weight of his stare dragged her shoulder down a few more notches. “Maybe I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“But you are now?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re still in love with this Larry character?” His voice tightened, but she couldn’t tell whether it was with anger or annoyance.
“Yes.” To her surprise, he laughed. Joey glanced up. “What’s so funny?”
“You are.” He stood and continued laughing. “I guess it’s just human nature to want the things we can’t have. It seems I have the same dysfunction. His eyes pierced her and she quickly understood his meaning.
“But you don’t know me.” She clutched the sheet tighter.
“Calm down. I’m not looking for a lifetime commitment.” He snickered, shaking his head. “I’m thinking along the same lines you were last night.”
“A one-night stand?”
“Well, one that doesn’t include snoring.” He winked and zapped the seriousness out of his tone.
Joey’s smile returned. “Sorry about that. Did I keep you up?”
“Nah. I slept in the other room after a long--very long--cold shower.” He slid his hands into his robe and mumbled. “So much for ending my dry spell.”
If nothing, Joey had perfect hearing. “What dry spell?”
Ryan blinked, realizing what he’d said aloud. He quickly became flustered. “Uh, well. Nothing. It’s nothing.” He couldn’t help it, but he squirmed beneath her stare. “Room service is bringing up breakfast. I’ll let you get dressed.”
“Wait.” Joey scrambled to climb off the large bed, while gathering and wrapping the bedding’s top sheet around her body.
It didn’t completely work; Ryan caught a flash of her left butt cheek as she stood up.
“There’s something you’re not telling me.”
Hoping to avoid interrogation, Ryan turned and strolled toward the door. Though her legs weren’t as long as his, she managed to catch up with him before he crossed the threshold.
“C’mon.” She caught him by the arm. “Give. I told you everything. Why are you holding out? What dry spell?”
“It’s nothing,” Ryan said again. His eyes didn’t quite meet hers.
Joey laughed as she guessed. “Don’t tell me a well-to-do director like you hasn’t had sex in a while?”
“No…it’s not like that. I mean...”
“Models, actresses, groupies--the world is your oyster,” she reasoned, but her gaze kept him under tight scrutiny. “No. You wouldn’t have a problem getting a date. So that leaves...”
“It leaves nothing.” He pulls back his arm and then immediately sighed with relief at the light tap at the door. “Ah, breakfast. I don’t know about you but I’m starving!” He sprinted toward the door.
Joey wasn’t fooled.
Ryan opened the door and greeted room service with a boisterous “hello” and literally became as animated as a cartoon character as he gestured their stunned waiter into the room.
“Ah, everything smells delicious.” Ryan dramatically inhaled their breakfast’s aroma and glanced back over to her. “Heavenly, don’t you think?”
“Heavenly,” Joey echoed as she continued to clutch the sheet around her body and leaned into the bedroom’s door frame.
With his smile still too wide to fit his face, Ryan produced a money clip seemingly from thin air and tipped their waiter.
Joey just watched and waited until they were alone.
“Care to join me?” he asked, once the suite’s door closed.
She crossed the room with her own smile widening. “Sooo. Have you thought about Viagra?”
“No,” h
e lied forcefully. “Because there is nothing wrong.” He straightened his shoulders. “It’s true that I’ve been under a great deal of stress--but that is all. You know, I was at full salute last night.”
Her brows dipped dubiously. “Me thinks thou protest too much.” She inched closer to him. “How long has this dry spell been exactly?”
“I’m through talking about this.” He lifted a silver lid off their breakfast to reveal his requested fluffy buttermilk pancakes.”
Joey closed in until there was barely an inch separating them. Enjoying a power she’d never experience before, she slowly walked her fingers up his arm. “Sooo...last night, was that the first time you were at, ah, full salute in say, two months? Three months?”
Though his thick terry-cloth robe covered his arms, Ryan’s body still reacted to her touch as though they were still cuddled together before the fireplace.
“Four months?” she continued to guess.
What harm will it be to tell her the truth, Ryan asked himself. Maybe if he were honest, she would break him off a little somethin’-somethin’.
“Six months?” she asked, amusement seeped into her voice. “Surely no longer than that?”
“Actually, Ms. Adams.” He turned toward her, attempting to mask his embarrassment. “It’s not important how long I’ve had my little problem but only that it seems to go away every time you’re around.” His hungry eyes feasted on her ethereal beauty.
Despite the fact he hadn’t made love to her last night, she still wore that sexy, mussed-up look that begged him to sweep her into his arms and carry her back off to bed—Rhett Butler style.
As Joey stared up into Ryan’s gorgeous eyes, her body’s alarm system went haywire. Her knees weakened, every limb tingled and her breasts hardened like marbles.
“What about you?” he asked suddenly.
“Me?” she croaked, and then licked her dry lips. “What about me?”
“Do I affect you in any way?”
She swallowed thickly, but the frog in her throat refused to budge. “N-no.”
Ryan’s eyebrows knitted together. “That’s funny because last night--”
“I had too much to drink.”
“You only had one glass--”
“I have a low tolerance.”
“You didn’t even finish--”
“Look, Mr. Donovan,” she stressed, as her smiled turned plastic. “I admit last night I was feeling a little vulnerable and you were saying all the right things.” Joey drew a deep breath. “But the fact of the matter is that I’m still in love with Larry--I mean, Laurence. He’s the one I want...not you.”
Doubt telegraphed across his handsome features. “Now who doth protest too much?”
For a few seconds Joey couldn’t volley a smart comeback. Instead, she swirled on her heel and marched back to the bedroom--completely forgetting that her butt was still exposed.
While standing at full salute, Ryan had never seen a more glorious moon than the one that was storming away from him now.
Chapter 17
Laurence feared he’d made the biggest mistake of his life. Why else was he seeing Joey’s face everywhere he and Carlina traveled? Sometimes she was a face in a crowd or a woman racing by a store’s window front. And honest to goodness, one time she was a pair eyes peering at them through some shrubbery at the hotel.
With his wedding looming, he wondered if these wild imaginings weren’t his mind’s way of telling him something. Or perhaps he was just simply suffering from cold feet.
Laurence took another sip of his morning coffee and flipped open the last Hollywood tabloid paper that Carlina requested to be specially delivered to her door. And just as they had hoped there was a picture of them on the front page with the caption: Carlina Takes a Groom?
Laurence turned the picture this way and that, a little annoyed that photographer had snapped his bad side. It wasn’t the first time his name had appeared in the tabloids—a few celebrity patients praised his work here and there--but this was the first time his picture was splashed across a major publication.
He liked it. No, he loved it.
He’d landed the perfect trophy wife. And soon, being married to Hollywood’s “it” girl was going to rake him in some serious Benjamins at the office.
Sighing, he smiled in contentment. Yet, seconds later, Joey reemerged from the back of his mind. In hindsight, maybe he should have kept her as his mistress. He closed the paper.
Maybe it’s not too late.
#
Sitting outside on the Presidential suite’s terrace, Ryan swallowed the last of his morning coffee while stealing coveted glances at his “guest.” She sat demurely across from him doing a lousy job at pretending he wasn’t there.
The hotel had cleaned her jeans and underwear, but had been unsuccessful in removing the questionable stains in her t-shirt. As a solution, Ryan volunteered one his shirts. He claimed there was nothing sexier to a man than to have a woman wearing his clothes.
“I’ve been thinking,” he said out of the blue.
Joey glanced up, but eyed him suspiciously. “Should I call someone? The media perhaps?”
“Very funny.” He leaned back in his chair and studied her. “I think I’m going to help you win your Larry back.”
“Laurence.”
“Whatever.” He waved off the correction. “It’s clear to me that planning isn’t one of your strongest attributes so I’m going to help you,” he announced triumphantly and then waited as if he expected her to shower him with gratitude.
“Why would you want to help me?”
“Why not?” He shrugged. “I’d like to think that we’ve become pretty good friends in the last week, wouldn’t you say?”
“No.”
His face collapsed in calculated disappointment. “You wound me.”
“And you insult my intelligence.” She crossed her arms. “I say that makes us about even.”
“Even? Haven’t I proven myself trustworthy by now? I’ve rescued you from a man’s restroom window, whisked you away from VIP, punched your fiancé out for humiliating you--”
“You punched Laurence?”
“No need to thank me. Where was I? Oh. I rescued you from the streets of Milan, fed you, let you have a hot shower, had one serious bout of foreplay and provided shelter. I say, what’s one more favor?”
Joey shifted in her chair. “Well, when you put it like that.”
“Is there any other way to put it?”
Drawing a deep breath, she thought it over. “What’s your plan?”
“We play his game.”
“What game?” she asked, crossing her arms. “Larry--Laurence isn’t into head games.”
Ryan’s head rocked back with laughter. “You’re kidding me, right? Everyone plays head games. It’s part of the chase.”
She straightened in her chair. “I don’t play head games.”
Ryan pinned her with a look.
“Much,” she added.
“And last night?”
“I told you, I had too much to drink,” she declared, her neck heated with embarrassment.
“Right. Right. I remember now.” He rolled his eyes and retrieved a new cigar.
“How can you stand those things?” She shook her head in disgust.
“These little babies--” He chuckled as he gazed lovingly at the thick cigars “--are better than sex.”
“Spoken like a man who hasn’t had sex in what--eight months?” She winked.
“It certainly hasn’t been for lack of trying,” he conceded. “In fact, I’m willing to bet that after I help you win poor Larry--”
“Laurence.”
“Whatever. My bet is, when he’s groveling at your feet, wanting you to take him back, you won’t want him.”
Joey laughed and folded her arms against the late morning chill. “Okay. I’ll bite. Why wouldn’t I want him back?”
“Because you’ll want me,” he answered with a straight face.
“Come again?”
“What part did you miss?”
“The part where you banged your head--on something hard.”
“It’s a harmless bet.” He shrugged. “If I lose, you get your darling Laurence back, and if I win, I get you.”
She laughed again but her stomach fluttered with nervous butterflies. Judging by the intensity of his dark gaze, Joey concluded Ryan was serious. The crazy part--she was actually thinking about taking him up on his offer.
After all, what do I have to lose?
“And you think you can actually help me win Laurence back?”
“Absolutely.”
“How?”
“Do we have a deal?”
His cockiness worried her, but logic contradicted his claim. There was no way she would ever want him. Well, last night she wanted him¾but she would never want him the way she wanted Larry—Laurence. That much she was certain. “All right. You have yourself a deal.”
#
The Adams minus Sheldon and Marlin had no problem discovering where to start looking for their emotionally charged sibling. Thanks to a front-page splash on a cheesy tabloid newspaper.
Carlina Takes a Groom.
“He’s engaged to an actress?” Frankie flared up. “Does Joey know this?”
“She knows,” Michael confirmed, shaking her head at the picture. “That really is his bad side.”
“How come you know more about this than we do?” Peyton accused. “The last I heard, he dumped her on Valentine’s Day. Joey said nothing about him marrying someone--oh.”
“What?” Frankie stomped her foot. “You know something, too.”
“Well,” Peyton lowered her voice as they paid for the paper and walked away from airport newsstand. “Joey said that she found a receipt for a ring. An expensive ring. Goes to say that if he didn’t present it to her, then--”
“He gave it the world’s most overexposed actress,” Frankie concluded. “Poor Joey.”
“If she knows he’s engaged why did she fly--the voice message.” Peyton snapped her finger. “He said that he was confused and that he still loved her.”
“Oh, he’s good,” Michael marveled. “I can’t wait until he goes home.”
“Okay. Now you’re just not making any sense,” Frankie said as they rejoined Flex at their gate.
When You Were Mine (Adams Sisters) Page 11