by Leanne Banks
“Amy, this is Alisa Jennings, and she met Justin when he was—” Kate broke off, waiting for Alisa to fill in the blank.
“Probably around ten,” Alisa said, extending her hand to Amy. “I must congratulate you on getting a ring on Justin’s finger. He’s been antimarriage as long as I can remember, so you must be very special to make him change his ways.”
Amy’s stomach turned. Alisa obviously didn’t know the circumstances surrounding her marriage to Justin. “Uh, I’m not sure I—”
“—well, you know what a good woman can do,” Kate interrupted tongue-in-cheek and put a comforting hand on Amy’s arm.
Alisa smiled. “Yes, I’ve watched what you’ve done with Michael.”
Kate glanced at Amy. “See how smart she is? That’s why I wanted you to meet her.”
Amy couldn’t help smiling at their female camaraderie.
“Plus she has all these stories about Michael and Justin when they were kids.”
Her curiosity piqued, she met Alisa’s friendly gaze. “Really? What do you remember about Justin?”
“He always worked, sometimes more than one job. He worked with the cleaning crew at Granger until he was old enough to get a better paying part-time job,” Alisa said. “And he was the best money manager of any kid at the home. All the other boys would buy candy or sports equipment with their extra money.” Alisa shook her head. “Not Justin. He saved it. Everybody was always trying to hit him up for a loan,” she said with a grin. “But Justin set a limit of two bucks and he wouldn’t lend any more until the previous loan was paid.”
“Let’s move toward the picnic tables,” Kate said. “Did they call Justin a tightwad back then, too?”
Alisa’s face softened. “No. One year, there was this kid who wanted to visit his family for Christmas, but they didn’t have enough money for him to come home because his father was very sick. Justin paid for his bus ticket.”
Kate stopped with a surprised look on her face. “Really? I would never have thought—”
Amy’s chest grew tight at the image of Justin, as a child, sharing his very hard-earned money that way. Overwhelmed by a need to defend Justin, Amy had to interrupt. “I haven’t seen this tightwad side of Justin,” she blurted out, and bit her lip. “He describes himself that way, but I don’t believe it. He bought a piano for Emily two days after I made an idle comment about her wanting to take lessons. And the after-school program I run has just received an anonymous donation.”
Kate nodded in the direction of her husband. “Same thing happened with the home for unwed pregnant teenagers where I volunteer. When I asked Michael about it, he was evasive. Sometimes I wonder if the three of them have been doing something together, but whenever I start to ask, he—” She paused and smiled. “He distracts me.”
Alisa cracked a grin. “Isn’t that one of the qualities of a good husband? The ability to distract?”
“Perhaps,” Kate said. “Have you found anyone distracting lately?”
Alisa’s grin fell. “Not really.”
“Kate,” Michael called. “Your mom’s on the phone.”
“Oh, and there’s Dylan. Excuse me,” Kate said.
“I thought he wasn’t coming,” Alisa said under her breath after Kate left.
“Pardon?”
Alisa waved her hand in a dismissing gesture. “Nothing. Dylan and I were close as kids, but we’re not at all now.”
“Justin told me the two of you had a crush as teenagers,” Amy said. “He also said Dylan keeps trying to get your attention now, but you won’t have anything to do with him.”
Alisa’s mouth tilted in a sad, wry smile. “Justin always had a knack for pinning the tail on the donkey. The way I look at it is history has already repeated itself where Dylan and I are concerned, and it doesn’t need to repeat itself again. We met again in college and he—”
Amy could see Alisa’s eyes deepen with pain and even though she didn’t know the woman, she felt the hurt echo inside her. “It didn’t go well,” she finished for her.
Alisa met her gaze and Amy had the sense that she’d just made a new friend. “Right,” Alisa said and gave Amy a kind, but assessing glance. “I have a feeling Justin may have found exactly what he needs in you.”
Amy looked across the yard at Justin, her husband. Her stomach dipped at all he was and wasn’t to her. What if fate was involved between them in some strange, crazy way? What if this was about more than custody and the kids and Justin’s deal with God? What if somebody somewhere had put them together because they were meant to be married?
The wayward thought danced lightly through her mind like a butterfly, but the implication hit her like a two-by-four. Fate? Meant to be? Those terms sounded awfully close to fairy tales, she thought, and she had given up on Cinderella before she hit twelve years old. Plus there was her history of non-romance.
But what if there really was a man in this world for her, and what if it was Justin?
Amy closed her eyes. Then heaven had better help them both.
The evening was a companionable time filled with children’s chatter, lots of food, and threatening storm clouds. The sky finally burst open, and the group went scurrying toward the house.
Nicholas glanced back, pointing at the table in horror. “The cupcakes! I didn’t get one!”
“I’ll get them.” Amy darted back to rescue the cupcakes, but Justin beat her and snatched the plastic container. Grabbing her hand, he tugged her out of the downpour to the closest dry spot next to the house.
Justin’s hair was plastered to his head, raindrops dripped off his chin.
Amy shook her head and laughed. “You’re so wet.”
“And you think you’re not?” He shook his head and sprayed her.
Amy lifted her hands to shield her face and laughed again. “Stop!”
She pushed her drenched hair away from her face and looked up to find his gaze lingering on her breasts. Glancing down, she saw that she was just as wet as he was. The rain had turned her T-shirt nearly transparent as it molded faithfully to her breasts. Embarrassed, she crossed her arms over her chest. “Oops.”
His gaze met hers with a trace of something that looked very close to possessiveness. “Yeah. If there was a wet T-shirt contest, you would definitely win, but I don’t want anyone else seeing you like that.” He pulled his shirt over his head and transferred it to her.
It was such a chivalrous, protective gesture that she didn’t know what to say. With the rain pouring down just two feet away, she stood there staring into Justin’s eyes and a dozen feelings rose within her. Bare-chested because he’d just given her his own shirt, this was the same man who had survived the Granger Home for Boys and had given his money to a kid so he could visit his parents. This was the same man who always knew the bottom line, and this was the same man who had made love to her with a force stronger than the rain. Her husband.
Unable to stop herself, she stretched up on tiptoe and kissed him. She slid her arms around his neck and with her kiss, she tried to tell him things she wasn’t able to articulate to herself let alone to him. She tasted his surprise and desire, and she felt the familiar insistent urge inside her for more.
He pulled back and studied her with hooded eyes. “What was that for?”
Speechless while her body hummed, and her mind and heart raced, she tried to make her brain work. “A thank-you,” she improvised. “For giving me the shirt off your back.”
He paused again, pushing her hair behind her ear. “Maybe you can return the favor sometime.”
Later that night after the kids were tucked in, Justin found Amy downstairs looking out the window at the full moon. “I wondered if you’d come tonight. You’ve been pretty busy with your stock charts.”
“It’s getting near the end of the trading season,” he told her, but he knew he’d been avoiding her. As he looked at the way the moonlight glimmered on her hair and he remembered the provocative image of her nearly naked breasts, he wondered if he s
hould be avoiding her again tonight.
She looked at him curiously. “Trading season? I thought the stock market was open year-round.”
“It is, but there’s a theory that the best time for trading is between October and May. Since it’s almost May, I keep a close watch on my short-term positions.”
“What do you like most about trading?” she asked.
He enjoyed being the object of her feminine curiosity. “I like the illusion of control. I have no control over the market, but if I study stocks and apply different theories to the charts, then I find my percentage of wins goes up.”
“Do you celebrate when you win?”
He shook his head. “Not usually.”
She studied him for a moment. “You don’t usually celebrate when you win because you win all the time.”
“More often than not,” he said.
She pushed away from the wall and pointed her finger at his chest. “If you’re so good the stockbrokers want you to come talk to them, then ‘more often than not’ must be an understatement.”
Capturing her hand in his, he lifted her impertinent finger to his mouth and gently nipped it, watching her eyes widen. “There’s a fine line between confidence and overconfidence in trading. The difference can cost you a fortune. The reasons I’ve been successful are that I know the difference and I focus on the discipline and process of trading.”
He darted his tongue out to taste and soothe her forefinger. As her gaze locked with his in sensual expectation, Justin wondered what it would take for a woman like Amy to fall for him. He wondered what life would be like to have a woman like Amy loving him. Dangerous thoughts. It was the kind of thing he’d never allowed himself to wish. He was pretty damn sure it wouldn’t be wise to start wishing now.
She stepped closer so that her body barely brushed his every time she breathed. “You’re like a book I never thought I wanted to read, but once I opened, it was hard to stop. Every time I learn something about you,” she said in a low, husky voice tinged with frustration, “I want to know more.”
She was so inviting she reminded him of a flower waiting to be plucked. In the corner of his mind, he remembered how she’d reacted the time they’d made love, but he allowed himself a kiss. Gently pushing her back against the wall, he lowered his mouth to hers, and she immediately responded by opening her lips and twining her tongue with his.
Her instantaneous, sensual response affected him like an intimate stroke. Aroused, he played with her mouth, tasting her and allowing her to taste him. With each stroke of her tongue over his, a visual formed in his mind of her kissing her way down his body. Her hair skimming over his bare skin, her hardened nipples taunting him with random touches in her movement down to his thighs. Even now, he could feel the tips of her on his chest.
His hands itching to touch her, he slid his hand under her T-shirt and cupped her breast. Her sexy sigh in his mouth was too irresistible an invitation and he slipped his other hand underneath her shirt so that he touched both breasts.
Amy moaned and undulated against him. Instinctively he pressed his arousal between her thighs and when she opened her legs, Justin began to sweat. He knew how she felt, how she tasted.
He felt one of her hands circle the back of his neck, urging his mouth against hers, as if she were hungry for him, as if she couldn’t get enough.
The notion sent a firestorm throbbing through his blood. He rhythmically slid his tongue into her mouth and she suckled him in the same way her body would squeeze his hardness if he were taking her.
She moved restlessly against him and he felt her hand slide down to touch him intimately through the fabric of his shorts. He couldn’t withhold a groan. He wanted her naked. He wanted her mouth on him. He wanted her.
“Touch me,” he urged in a low voice against her sexy open mouth.
With unsteady hands, she unfastened his shorts and cupped his aching masculinity in her hand. The touch of her caresses made him feel as if he would burst. Looking into his gaze with eyes dark with desire, she rubbed the honey of his arousal with her thumb and lifted it to her tongue.
The sight was so erotic it nearly made him crazy. “I want to take you,” he told her. “I don’t care much where or how. I just want to take you now.”
Everything about her was one big delicious, inviting yes. Justin slid his hands down to her hips. It would be so easy to push down her shorts and find her wetness. It would be easy to lift her and wrap her thighs around his hips. It would be so decadently easy to thrust inside her tight wet femininity.
His mind and body throbbing in anticipation, he took her mouth as he began to unfasten her shorts.
Distantly he heard a high-pitched sound outside the room. He was so intent on Amy that he let it slide. However, he heard it again. A child’s broken sob.
Despite his raging arousal, the sound tugged at him. It cost him, but Justin pulled back to listen.
“Aunt Amy,” Nicholas cried from the top of the stairs. “I had a bad dream.”
Justin ducked his head and inhaled deeply. He could feel her body humming with the same need he had. He took another deep breath. “You need to go,” he murmured.
Ten
An hour and half later after a chilly shower, Justin still burned for her. But he wouldn’t go to her. Prowling his small room, he felt caged. As much as he wanted her, his wife was an incredibly complex creature. Bold and shy, she somehow also managed to be both fearless and vulnerable. Justin didn’t want her running out on him again. When he made love to her again, he wanted her waking up beside him.
He wondered how their relationship might have progressed if they hadn’t married for the reasons they did. He tried to picture dating Amy, but it was damn difficult with three kids, as good as they might be. He wondered again what it would be like for her to give her heart to him.
His chest grew tight at the thought. He’d never wanted a woman’s heart before. Her body, her attention, maybe, but not her heart. That got messy. But hell, marriage was about as messy as a man could get. The problem with wanting Amy’s heart was that he suspected if she gave her heart, she would want him to give his in return. Justin would almost rather give his wallet.
“Have fun,” Amy called after Justin as he left for the stockbrokers’ dinner. He looked almost as good in a tux as he did naked.
He made a face. “I’m speaking.”
She shrugged. “Well, then break a leg.”
“I’ll try not to. Later,” he said and the door closed behind him.
Amy immediately turned to the kids. “I’m going out tonight, so a sitter will give you pizza.”
“Woo-hoo pizza!” Nicholas yelled.
Emily was more reserved. “Who’s the sitter?”
“Jennifer Stallings. I think you’ve met her. She lives down the street and she’s very nice and experienced.”
Emily nodded hesitantly.
Concerned, Amy bent down and gazed at her niece. “What is it, sweetie? Do you feel sick?”
Emily shook her head. She hesitated again. “You won’t get in an accident, will you?” she asked in a low voice.
Amy’s heart twisted and she pulled Emily into her arms. “I have every intention of not getting in an accident. I know it’s hard not to feel scared, but we can’t lock ourselves at home. Not you or me.” She pulled back and gazed into her niece’s pensive face. “I tell you what. I plan to be home by around midnight at the very latest, and when I get home, I’ll pop in and give you a kiss. Okay?”
Emily relaxed slightly. “Okay. Where are you going?”
“To surprise Justin,” Amy whispered.
Emily’s eyes widened. “Is it his birthday?”
Amy chuckled. “No, but he’s giving a speech, so I’m going to surprise him by showing up to listen to him. Could you keep an eye on your brothers while I get ready?”
Emily nodded, and Amy raced to her room and jerked open her closet door. Her clothing selection for a dinner party was dismally limited since during
most of her life she dressed like an elementary school teacher. Fanning through her hangers, she finally chose a black sleeveless sweater-and-skirt combination. With heels and her trendy new faux pearl necklace, she should pass muster.
She didn’t want to embarrass herself or Justin. Doubts niggled inside her. What if he wasn’t pleased to see her in the audience? What if the reason he had discouraged her attendance was something other than boredom? Like a more experienced woman. Her stomach knotted at the thought.
Nerves rising to the surface, Amy dressed and applied make-up, smearing her eye shadow and reapplying. Horrified when a blob of mascara fell beneath her eye, she quickly blotted it, then approached her hair which balked at every effort she made to tame it.
“Why don’t you put it up on top of your head like you did for the wedding?” Emily asked from the doorway.
Amy shook her head at herself and smiled at Emily. “Out of the mouth of my favorite girl. Perfect solution. What would I do without you?”
Emily beamed beneath her praise. “Do you want me to pick some flowers in the backyard?”
“Dandelions,” Amy murmured picturing the backyard. Not weeds. She spritzed her hair with water, then scooped it up off her neck and began to pin it in place. “Thanks Em, but I have a few sparkly bobby pins I might use instead this time. Maybe you can help put them in?”
Emily did indeed help with the pins and Amy would have to say the five-year-old had far steadier hands than she did tonight. After giving the sitter instructions and kissing each child twice, Amy left.
The meeting was held at an exclusive club in downtown St. Albans. Amidst the luxury automobiles, she handed her car keys to the valet driver who looked at her car askance. Nerves and irritation bubbled inside her. “It’s a classic,” she said with a smile. “Make sure you take care of it.”
She walked into the opulent lobby decorated with chandeliers, statues, and fountains and she located Justin’s dinner party. Almost all the round tables of eight, including Justin’s table, were filled. After a thorough search, she found one spot at a table near the center of the room and sat down.