"Oh, what a good idea, darling!" Sami exclaimed, and turned to Jennifer. "Why don’t you two do that while Daniel and I put the babies to bed? Then we can all go in and eat." She stood up. "Daniel, could you come get Cary? Jerome, make sure Jennifer doesn’t run away. Eugene, you go see if Frankie needs any help."
Eugene made another growling noise that had Jennifer jumping again. Samuel patted her knee in a comforting manner, Eugene went to do Sami’s bidding, Jerome sank onto the couch beside her, and Daniel, the ultra-distinguished lawyer, scooped his son up into his arms and started talking baby talk.
Once relieved of the baby, Jennifer slumped back against the cushions. It seemed Sami had the men in her life trained to do exactly as she wished. Including Jerome.
The evening was just beginning and already she was tired. She was even more weary just a scant ten minutes later when dinner was served.
It was a lively affair, incongruously informal in the elegantly appointed dining room. The children, Jennifer was told, usually ate with the adults, but tonight they would be eating in the kitchen so that everyone could get to know Jennifer.
Eugene served, along with a dark-eyed, petite French woman, who, in Jennifer’s view, ordered the big man around with total disregard for her life, calling him, "Oo-jhene", and spewing out streams of incomprehensible French. Whether Eugene understood her or not was debatable, but with his growls and her French they seemed to have some sort of communication going.
"They adore each other," Sami told Jennifer after one particularly heated, unintelligible conversation.
"If you say so," Jennifer returned disbelievingly. Actually the whole night was one of disbelief. There was such an aura of all-encompassing love surrounding these unexpected and exceptional people that she found herself feeling quite sad. Seeing Jerome so totally at ease, basking in and returning their love, she was torn between her feelings for him and her heartache. She was afraid that he could never feel the same for her. Would he ever allow himself to open up to her as he had opened himself up to these people? Would she ever have a loving home, such as this one, with Jerome? She didn’t have the answer to her question, but she did know that she wanted it very much.
Jerome, in his seat next to Jennifer, jokingly responded to a sally from Morgan. But his every nerve was tuned to Jennifer. Sliding his hand underneath the skirt of her dress, he rubbed her knee, wanting to convey to her that he was still there for her and that despite the presence of his powerful and eccentric friends, she was still first in his thoughts. What an understatement, he thought wryly as he felt her hand briefly cover his, returning his caress. Since she had come into his life, she was first, last, and always in his thoughts. He was deeply happy here in Sami and Daniel’s home, and with the rest of his close friends, but it didn’t touch the ecstasy he felt when he and Jennifer were alone, behind closed doors, and she was lying in his arms.
Sami spoke. "That’s a gorgeous dress, Jennifer. Did Jerome buy it for you?"
"Sami!" Morgan remonstrated.
"Yes, as a matter of fact he did."
"Sami," Daniel said gently, "you’re embarrassing Jennifer. Why don’t we change the subject?"
"Now, there’s an idea whose time has come." This last came from Jerome, and Sami threw him a sparkling glance.
"Jerome, you’re positively diabolical. You know I’m dying to know everything."
"And I have no doubt that one way or the other you’ll find out," Morgan commented wryly, "but why don’t we go a little easy with Jennifer. After all, we want her to come back, and I’m afraid she must feel a trifle overpowered."
"No, really, I don’t mind." Strangely Jennifer didn’t. She hadn’t been with this group of people longer than five minutes before she sensed the love they had for one another. Sami was enchanting, and it was clear that Daniel adored her. The same was true for Morgan and Jason. Both women had good, solid marriages. Whatever jealousy she had felt toward Sami before she had met her was now gone.
"You see, Morgan, she doesn’t mind. Now, why don’t you start at the beginning and tell me how you and Jerome met?"
"But first," Daniel interjected, "why don’t you eat something, Sami. You haven’t touched your vegetables yet."
"Yes," Jerome agreed pleasantly. "With your mouth full, maybe you won’t be able to talk quite so much."
Sami forked a succulent piece of asparagus into her mouth, chewed it carefully, then swallowed. "So, Jennifer," she said sweetly, "what are your intentions?"
"I give up," Jerome said with a groan.
"I sympathize," Daniel laughed at him. "But you should have known."
"I’ll make you a deal, Sami. You haven’t given Jennifer a chance to eat much either. I’ll tell you all you want to know if you’ll shut up and eat."
"What a splendid idea," Sami popped another forkful into her mouth and looked at Jerome expectantly.
"Okay," He sighed heavily. "Here goes. Jennifer and I have known each other for only a very short time. I met her the night before Daniel was to fly to Washington this last time."
His voice suddenly trailed off as something made him glance at Jennifer. She was sitting there, so slim and straight and, to his mind, so terribly open to hurt, and he realized that he had no right to go on. It should be Jennifer’s decision and hers alone whether or not she wanted the traumatic details of her recent past exposed, he thought. The people gathered around this table might be his family, but to her they were virtual strangers. Reaching for her hand, he threaded his fingers through hers. "I’m sorry. I’m out of line."
Jennifer understood. He was clearly leaving the decision to her. Lightly she squeezed his hand, letting him know that she appreciated his sensitivity. But she had already made up her mind that she didn’t mind his friends knowing. She loved Jerome and he loved Sami and Morgan and their families. All together these people generated a love and warmth that clearly encompassed everyone they came in contact with, which now included her.
She took up the story. "We got to know each other,"— she neatly skated across their beginning— "and Jerome found out that I was in trouble."
"Trouble!" Sami said.
"But what kind of trouble?" Morgan asked with sincere concern.
"I’m a widow." Forks stilled and sounds of condolences were murmured around the table. "I lived with my brother, Richard, until just recently. But"—she looked briefly to Jerome for reassurance, and found him there, just as he had been right from the first—"I recently found him murdered." This time there were gasps of horror, then complete silence. Expressions around the table were grave as they listened intently. "I arrived at the murder scene while the killer was still there. So I ran and had been on the run for two days when I met Jerome."
"My God, Jennifer, how terrible!" Sami and Morgan exclaimed almost simultaneously.
Sami jumped up and hurried around the table to Jennifer and enveloped her in a gentle, violet-scented hug. "What a terrible thing for you to have to go through alone! I’m so glad you found Jerome."
Jennifer smiled at Sami, grateful for her understanding. She was comprehending more and more how a young, street-hardened Jerome could have been so easily blind-sided by Sami and had his life changed forever. "Yes, I was very lucky."
Morgan laid her hand on her husband’s arm. "We’ll help in any way we can."
"What do the police say?" Jason asked. "Have there been any leads?"
"Well. . . actually we haven’t been to the police, because Jennifer’s life is in danger," Jerome informed them. "There seem to be two groups of people after her, and we haven’t decided whom we can trust yet."
"But the police must be on the case. After all, there’s a crime," Daniel reasoned. "Someone must have reported it."
"Not really," Jennifer said.
"What?" chorused all parties at once.
"There’s no body." This was the hardest part for her to tell. She was grateful when Jerome released her hand and put his arm around her shoulder, shifting in his chair so that he was clo
ser to her. "And there’s been no mention of it in the papers."
Jennifer could sense the speculating looks she was receiving from Jason and Daniel, and hearing herself tell the story, she didn’t blame them much. She knew all too well how improbable it sounded. Jerome gave her a light hug, and she rested her hand on his thigh. Just the touch of him sustained her.
"This is terrible! Why didn’t you come to us for help?" Sami demanded, rounding on Jerome.
"At first, I wanted to try to keep you all out of it if I could. But now we’re sort of at a standstill. We made an out-of-town trip to a bank where Richard had rented a safe deposit box. The box held an envelope of perfectly ordinary pictures, but we’re betting that our answer is in that envelope someplace. A friend is analyzing it for us."
Voices started up, everyone talking at once, but one overruled the rest. "Well, it’s clear to me what we have to do." Everyone quieted and looked at Sami expectantly. "Edward. Edward will help us."
"Thorsson!" Jerome exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "I’d forgotten about him."
Sami grinned at Jennifer. "It would seem the lady has a peculiar effect on your memory, Jerome."
"You don’t know the half of it, my love," he returned ruefully, and his hand tightened momentarily on Jennifer’s shoulder as a private message passed between the two of them.
"Who’s Thorsson?" she ventured after her heartbeat returned to a more normal rhythm.
"It’s best not to know too much," Jason advised calmly.
"Eugene," Sami called down the long room. "Could you get hold of Edward? We need him to find a body for us."
"No problem," the hulking man said softly.
#
The elevator door swished closed and began ascending to the floor on which Jerome’s apartment was located.
"So what did you think of my friends?" Jerome asked, his body propped against the back wall of the elevator and turned toward Jennifer.
"They’re quite remarkable. All of them. But especially Sami."
"I’m glad you liked them."
He sounded happy. It made her glad that she had swallowed her jealousy, misplaced as it had turned out to be.
"And then there’s Eugene." She laughed in a way that sounded to Jerome like bells of smoke ringing across a velvet night. "Sami’s bodyguard/ butler/nursemaid."
"Eugene used to work for Edward Thorsson, but years ago, Thorsson gave Eugene the job of guarding her, and ever since, he’s refused to leave her. He adores her, and now her children as well."
He edged closer to the corner where she stood. She smelled so damn good, he mused. Her scent lingered everywhere in his life: in his kitchen when he was trying to cook, in his bathroom, where sometimes he would come upon her stockings that she had rinsed out and hung up to dry. In his bed at night. She nearly overwhelmed him.
"Does she actually need guarding?"
"Oh, yes. She’s an extremely important and wealthy woman."
"Her?"
He laughed at her disbelief. "Yes, her." He flicked open the ties of her cape, watching as it fell back to expose her throat. "Between Euguene and the people Daniel has hired, Daniel makes sure she and the children are always guarded. They make prime kidnap victims, plus you wouldn’t believe the trouble Sami can get into if she’s left on her own. Ask her sometime how she met Daniel."
He hadn’t planned it, yet his hand went out to touch her. Just then, though, the elevator door parted, and he forced himself to check his action. But with all his senses in high gear he knew he would have to restrain himself only a short while longer.
Silently they entered the softly lit apartment. The wide uncurtained windows beyond offered an exciting blend of night and stars and city lights.
Jennifer walked to the window and looked out over the city. "I’m glad I went tonight. It gave me the opportunity to discover a few things about you."
"What?" He came up behind her and slipped the cape from her shoulders.
She felt the weight drop away from her, then cool air on the bareness of her shoulders, soon replaced by the warmth of his hand against the side of her neck. At first she didn’t answer him. She just wanted to feel. To feel the way his touch on just one part of her body could heat all the remaining parts of her so wonderfully.
"Jennifer?"
"It showed me that you can … care about people."
He took his hand away. "Are you wondering if I care about you?" His voice sounded vaguely troubled.
She nodded, placing her hand where his had been, capturing the heat.
"I care. I care very much. It’s just. . ." He paused. It had always been so damned hard for him to articulate why he was the way he was. But for this one special woman he had to try. "It’s just that because of the way I had to grow up, I sometimes feel it’s left a giant-size hole in me. I’m not sure I’m capable of love."
She pivoted to him, and her dress swirled out around her in a blur of emerald green. "I don’t believe that. Tonight I saw you surrounded by love, and you were soaking it up as if it were the most natural thing in the world."
"I told you with Sami I never had a chance. And with Sami came everyone else."
She sighed. She didn’t want to argue with him, but. . . something was pushing her. He had given her so much, but she found herself wanting more. "You truly and openly love those people. But me, that’s another matter . . . although I know I shouldn’t complain." Her hands smoothed the lapels of his jacket, seeking comfort from the solid feel of his body beneath. "I realized when I told you I loved you that you couldn’t return it. I guess I’m still not sure you’ll ever be able to."
He trapped her hands against him and temporarily she stilled. "There are all kinds of love, Jennifer. Sami and Morgan gave me a love that was unrestricted, without ties, without problems, at a time when I needed it badly."
"You mean their love didn’t threaten you." Even though all she wanted was to be lying beneath him, feeling his weight pressing against her, she somehow couldn’t leave it alone. She was scatter-shooting, she knew, and she had no idea what she would hit, or if she would hit anything at all.
His tone grew cautious. "Perhaps—if you want to put it that way."
"So you stayed."
"Yes, I stayed." His voice was beginning to show irritation at her persistence and he stepped away from Jennifer, leaving her feeling bereft. "Because of Sami, really. In her I saw someone who was filled with as much pain and fear as I was, and for the first time in my life, I saw someone who needed me."
"I need you. Quite desperately, actually."
He cursed softly and dragged his fingers through his hair. He didn’t like this one damned bit. All he wanted to do was pull her to him and make love to her until she was incapable of talking. But instead, he reluctantly voiced the fear that he was only now allowing himself to acknowledge. "Yes, you need me. For now. You’re in trouble, with no one else to turn to, and I can help."
She wasn’t certain what he was getting at. She cast him a suddenly puzzled look. "It’s true you can help me. So?"
"So what’s going to happen when all this is cleared up and you’re in no more danger?"
Her smooth brow pleated. Had she just hit something? "What do you mean?"
His brooding gaze went to her lips, full and soft and devoid of any lipstick, and a stab of longing jolted through his groin. "Once you’re out of trouble, there’ll be nothing to keep you from going back to where you came from and picking up the threads of your life again."
"So that’s it," she murmured. Could it be that he was actually afraid she would leave him? Could it be that he was afraid of coming to need her too much? Well, she supposed she couldn’t expect his fears to disappear overnight. And in the meantime there were all kinds of need, just as there were all kinds of love. She fixed her dark brown eyes on him. "Why don’t we talk about something else?"
He regarded her warily. In spite of the control he was trying to use, the look in her eyes was exciting him to the point that he might have
to walk away before he embarrassed himself. He knew she wanted to talk, but damn it all, what was he to do when just a look from her could heat his blood past boiling? "What?"
"Wanting," she said surprising him. Stepping out of her shoes, she kicked them aside while her hand reached up behind her and slowly began drawing the zipper down. "You want me. You want me so badly that at times even your bones ache with it." The dress fell away in a silken mist of emerald, and she was left standing in only the briefest of panties, the most fragile of garter belts, and the sheerest of stockings. She wore no bra. "Even after all we’ve been through together, even though you may not be completely sure of everything you feel for me yet, you still want me."
He cleared his throat, trying to break through the haze of passion that had descended upon him, making thinking impossible. "Jennifer ..."
She bent to unhook the stockings. "What, Jerome? What do you want to tell me?"
In a surprising and graceful movement she sunk to the floor in a sitting position. Raising her leg, much as a dancer would, she glided the stockings up each of her legs and off, tossing them over her head. "I read how much you want me in your eyes every time you look at me."
With her stockings in a frothy puddle some feet away, she lay back onto the soft white carpet and looked up at him, unconsciously moistening her lips. "It’s no secret I want you too. Every bit as much as you want me." Her voice was throatily sensuous. Raising her hips, she whisked off the garter belt and panties. "The difference is, I love you."
Jerome looked down at her. Her hair spilled in shining disarray around her. Her pink-tipped breasts rose toward him, then fell; her hips were inviting him with their hidden depths and ripe curves; her long smooth legs were parted.
With slow deliberation he dropped to his knees, one knee on either side of her. Even as he watched her breathing increased.
"But I’m not worried," she said softly, "because one day soon– "
"Sssh," he murmured. "Another time we’ll talk about this. But not now. Now is for other things."
He unfastened his belt, then his pants. Hooking his thumb into the bands of his pants and his briefs, he pushed them down around his thighs, and he saw her eyes lower to his hard-muscled erection. "Now, Jennifer, is for wanting you more than I’ve ever wanted any other woman. In fact, I can’t seem to stop."
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