“Then I signed the papers,” he whispered, “and joined the Marines.”
“When I came back, you were gone.”
The distance between them evaporated and he brought her into the warm circle of his arms. “I’m sorry, Katie, for doubting you.”
“I’m sorry for failing you.”
“We failed each other.”
“I loved you so much,” she whispered and her voice cracked with the depth of emotion.
“Not a day passed for five years that I didn’t think about you.”
His kiss was soft and sweet, reminiscent of those they’d once shared. An absolution, forgiveness for being young. For not trusting, for allowing doubts to separate them as effectively as her parents had once done. For giving in to their fears.
“If only I’d known,” he whispered. His lips grazed her cheek, seeking her mouth a second time, and Katie tried not to think about this other woman Jase was about to marry. But when he kissed her again, any guilt she might have experienced died. She turned her head in an effort to meet his lips, expecting him to kiss her with the hunger she felt, the hunger he’d fired to life with the first kiss. Instead, his mouth simply slid over hers in moist forays, back and forth, teasing, coaxing, enticing.
Excitement began to build, fires licking awake the tenderness of what they’d once so freely shared.
After what seemed like an eternity, his mouth settled completely over hers and he kissed her in earnest. Jase groaned and wrapped his arms around her, lifting her from the floor, grabbing hold of the fabric of her suit, kissing her with a hunger that was so hot she felt the heat emanating from him like the warmth coming from a roaring fire.
“All these years, I believed…”
“So did I.” She wept and laughed at the same moment.
“I loved you so damn much.”
“I’ve always loved you…always.”
He kissed her in a frenzy of hunger and breathless passion. When his tongue broached her lips, she was ready. Her lips parted, welcoming the invasion, greeting him with her own.
He groaned again.
His hands unfastened her suit jacket, slipped it from her shoulders, and let it fall to the floor.
She twined her arms around his neck, panting, breathless with wonder and shock. “Jase, oh, Jase, what are we doing?”
Chapter Three
“We’re finishing what we started ten years ago.” Jason repeated Katie’s question without really hearing the words. He slanted his mouth over hers and devoured her lips with a hunger and need that had been buried deep inside him all these years. He sank his hands deep into her hair, loving the feel, the taste, the sense of her.
“Jase, oh, Jase.”
She was the only person in the world who’d ever called him Jase, and the sound of it on her lips was more than he could stand. He took possession of her mouth before he could question the right or wrong of what was happening.
Her hands struggled with the buttons of his shirt while he fumbled with the openings to her blouse. They were a frenzy of arms, tangling, bumping against each other in their eagerness to undress. The raw, physical desire for her all but seared his skin. He sighed when he was finally able to peel the silky material from her shoulders and capture her breasts with both hands, fondling them while kissing her lips.
Their kisses became desperate as their hands caressed each other. Jason was never sure how they made it into the bedroom. He didn’t stop to turn on the light or shove back the covers. He’d waited ten years for this moment and he wasn’t about to be cheated a second time.
Their clothes were gone, disappeared, evaporated like the early morning fog over the bay. All that existed in that moment was their overwhelming love and need for one another.
He gently placed Katie on the mattress, then joined her, kneeling above her. She wrapped her bare, sleek legs around his thighs and raised her hips in unspoken invitation.
Through the haze of his passion, he saw her stretch her arms toward him, silently pleading with him to make love to her. In the dim light of the full moon, he watched as the tears rolled from the corners of her eyes and onto the bedspread. Her tears were an absolution for them both, for the hurts committed against them, for the long, lonely years that had separated them.
“Love me,” she whispered.
“I do. God help me, I do.”
His entire body throbbed with need as Jason eased forward, penetrating her body with one swift upward thrust. Katie buckled beneath him, sobbing with an intense pleasure as she buried her nails in his back. Her heels dug into his thighs as she rocked against him, meeting each pulsating stroke, riding him, pumping him.
He cried out hoarsely at the explosion of his climax, rearing his head back, blinded by the pure, unadulterated pleasure, breathless with the wonder and the shock.
He loved Katie. He’d never stopped. If anything the years had enhanced the emotion. He didn’t speak as he gathered her in his arms. He was grateful when she didn’t feel the need to discuss what they’d shared. If they stopped to analyze what had happened, they might find room for regrets and Jason experienced none of those now.
He eased next to Katie, keeping her wrapped protectively in his embrace. Her head was on his shoulder, her legs entwined with his. He stroked the silky smooth skin of her back, needing the feel of her to admit this was real. She was in his arms the way she should have been all those years ago. He dared not think beyond this moment, or look into the future for fear of what he’d see. Eventually he felt his mind drifting toward the mindless escape of sleep.
Katie woke when Jase stirred at her side. She rolled her head and read the illuminated dial of the alarm clock on the nightstand. It was three minutes after two.
“Are you cold?” he whispered, kissing her neck.
“A little.” She assumed he meant for them to pull back the covers and started to climb off the bed.
His hand stopped her. “No.”
“No?”
“I’ll warm you.”
He’d already done an excellent job of that, and seemed intent on doing so again, this time without the urgency or haste of the first.
“Jase,” she whispered, unsure if they should continue. Her head, her judgment, had been clouded earlier, but she was awake now, prepared to put aside whatever emotion had driven them earlier. “We should talk first…we need…”
“Later. We’ll discuss everything later.” He captured her nipple between his nimble lips and sucked gently.
Katie sighed and curled her fingers into his hair as the sensation sizzled through her. It didn’t seem possible that he could evoke such an intensity of feeling from her so soon after the first lovemaking.
He loved her with a slow hand and an easy touch, whispering erotic promises as his lips explored the sensitive area behind her knees, then moved up the small of her back, eventually making his way to the nape of her neck. Shy and a little embarrassed, Katie couldn’t keep from sighing. Again and again he coaxed a response from her, insisting she participate fully in their loveplay. She hesitated, reluctant, fearing recriminations in the morning on both their parts, but she held back nothing, including her head and her heart. She was his and had been from the time she was seventeen. His in the past, the present, always.
“I’ve dreamed of us like this,” he whispered between deep, bone-melting kisses. “Some nights I’d wake and feel an emptiness in the pit of my stomach and realize I’d been dreaming about you.”
Katie ran her fingers through his hair. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
“Believe it, Katie, believe it with all your heart.”
He entered her then and the sweetness, the rightness of their love was almost more than she could bear. Locking her arms around his neck, she clung to him on the most pleasurable ride of her life.
Eventually they did fall asleep, but it was from sheer exhaustion. Jase shoved back the sheets and they lay, a tangle of arms and legs unwilling to separate for even a moment. She’d never known
happiness like this. She should have realized, should have expected it to be fragile. She just didn’t know how breakable it truly was until the phone jarred her awake.
The piercing shrill sliced rudely through their lazy contentment.
Apparently jolted out of a deep sleep, Jase jerked upright and looked around as if a fire alarm had sounded.
“It’s the phone,” she murmured, only slightly more awake than he.
Blindly, he reached for the telephone, nearly throwing it off the nightstand. It rang a third time, the loudness causing Jase to wince.
Katie looked at the clock and groaned aloud. It was nearly nine and she was due to meet with the vice president of Grand National Bank, Roger, and two other bank executives at ten. She couldn’t be late.
“Elaine.” Jase shouted the other woman’s name and glanced guiltily toward Katie. “Sweetheart. What time is it?”
Sweetheart? He spent the night making love with her and he had the gall to refer to Elaine as Sweetheart?
“It’s nine, already? Meet your Aunt Betty and Uncle Jerome for lunch? Sure. Sure. Of course…all right, all right, I’ll say it. I love you, too.” He rubbed a hand down his face and ignored Katie.
Katie didn’t know if she could listen to much more of this without getting sick to her stomach. Tossing aside the sheet, she climbed out of bed and headed for the bathroom.
Slapping cold water on her face, she stared at herself in the mirror and didn’t like what she saw. Her reflection revealed a woman who’d been well loved. Well used. She wasn’t the woman in Jase’s life any longer. Elaine was. Jase was engaged to marry the other woman.
A sick sensation assaulted her. She’d always been a fool for Jase, and the years hadn’t changed that. But she wasn’t about to become embroiled in an affair with a married man, or a near-married man.
“Katie.”
Feeling naked and shy, she looked around for something to cover herself and grabbed a towel. Securing it around her torso, she walked back into the bedroom with her chin tilted at a regal angle.
“Mornin’,” he murmured, yawning loudly. He sat on the edge of the mattress, a sheet wrapped around his waist, studying her. The appreciative look in his eyes said he wouldn’t be opposed to starting the morning over on a completely different note.
How dare he act as if nothing had happened. “That was your fiancée?”
His face sobered and he nodded. At least he had the good grace to lower his gaze. “I’m sorry about that…”
“Not to worry—it’s well past time I left.” Doing her best to conceal her nakedness, she reached for her blouse, jamming her arms into it without bothering to put on her bra.
“What are you doing?” he demanded, as if it wasn’t evident.
“Dressing.” She glanced at her wristwatch and groaned. “I have to be in a meeting by ten. If I hurry I can get home, change clothes, and make it into the office before then.”
He looked stunned. “Don’t you think we should talk first?”
“I don’t have time.” She found her skirt and stepped into it, hastily tugging it over her hips and sucking in her stomach to fasten the button.
“Like hell. Make time.”
“I can’t. Not this morning.” Then, realizing he probably had a point and that they did need to talk, she sighed expressively and suggested, “Meet me this afternoon.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“My brother and his wife are arriving. Later I’ve got the wedding rehearsal and a dinner.”
An unexpected pain momentarily tightened her throat. “That says it all, doesn’t it?”
“Don’t do this to me, Katie. We made love. You can’t just walk out of here. Not now, especially not now.”
“You’re marrying Elaine.” She made it a statement, unsure of what she wanted. They were different people now, not teenagers. He had his own life, and she hers. By clouding their heads with the physical they’d stepped into a hornet’s nest.
“Elaine,” he repeated and plowed all ten fingers through his hair, holding his hands against the crown of his head as if that would help him sort matters through. “Hell, I don’t know what to do.”
“Let me make the decision easy for you. Elaine. Sweetheart. Of course I love you.”
His face tightened. “I’m in San Francisco for my wedding. I told you that.”
“I know.” She sounded like a jealous shrew, but she couldn’t help herself. Although it was painful to say the words, one of them needed to. It hurt, but it was necessary. “It’s too late for us, Jase,” she whispered, unable to disguise her misery. “Far too late.”
“I suppose you’re going to marry Roger,” he accused, tossing aside the sheet and reaching for his pants. He jerked them on, stood, and yanked up the zipper. “He’s perfect for you. Did your father handpick him?”
It was so close to the truth that Katie gasped. “Roger is generous and kind and caring and—”
“A pompous ass.”
“I’ve never met Elaine but I know exactly the type of woman you’d marry,” she cried. “She must be a simpering, mindless soul without a thought of her own.”
Jase’s eyes narrowed into thin slits.
“Let’s just end this here and now,” she shouted, throwing the words out at him like steel blades. Stuffing her bra, pantyhose, and shoes into her arms, she headed for the door.
“You’re not walking out on me. Not again.”
“Again?” she challenged. “That’s the most ludicrous thing you’ve ever said to me.” Turning her back on him, she took a great deal of pleasure in hurrying out of the suite and slamming the door.
“Katie! Don’t you dare leave. Not like this.”
As far as she could see, she didn’t have a choice. Jase was marrying Elaine. He loved the other woman—she’d heard him say so only moments earlier. It was too late for them. Spending the night with him was quite possibly the worst mistake of her life. What a deplorable mess they’d created. She hadn’t meant what she’d said about Elaine. She didn’t even know the woman, but his fiancée certainly didn’t deserve this. Katie was so furious with Jase and herself that she wanted to weep.
Despite the fact that her underwear was crunched up in her arms, she hurried down the hallway toward the elevator.
“Katie. For the love of heaven, stop.”
Katie groaned aloud when she realized Jase had followed her. Barefooted, and with no shirt, he caught up with her at the same time the elevator arrived.
“Jase, please, just leave it.”
The doors glided open and a middle-aged man wearing a pin-striped suit and carrying a garment bag stared openly at them. A blue-haired lady in a pillbox hat, who held a small dog under her arm, inhaled sharply.
Her dignity lay in a pool at her feet. Nevertheless, Katie stepped into the elevator and silently pleaded with Jase to let her go. He returned her glare and joined her.
“We’ve got to talk,” he whispered heatedly, standing next to her as if nothing were amiss.
“It’s too late for that.”
“Like hell.”
The two other occupants of the elevator moved as far away from them as possible. Fully aware of her state of undress, Katie wanted to crawl into the nearest hole and die.
“Jase, it’s over.”
“Not by a long shot. We’ll discuss what happened now or later, the choice is yours.”
“You’re getting married later, remember?”
The elderly woman huffed disapprovingly.
Jase turned and glared at her. “Do you have a problem?”
The dog barked.
Never had it taken an elevator longer to descend to the ground floor. Katie was convinced she’d die of mortification before the doors opened to the opulent hotel lobby. The two other occupants left as if escaping a time bomb.
“We need to sort this out,” Jase insisted in low tones.
She offered him a sad smile, and with as much dignity as she could muster, which a
t this point was shockingly little, she stepped out of the elevator.
“You’re walking out on me again,” Jase shouted, calling attention to them both. “That’s what you’ve always done, isn’t it, Katie?”
“Me?” She whirled around and confronted him, her voice tight and raised. “You’re the one who abandoned me. You’re the one who left me to deal with everything.” Then, swallowing a sob, she turned and ran out of the hotel.
Chapter Four
Jason resisted the urge to slam his fist against the polished marble column when Katie literally ran out of the lobby. It was obvious nothing he said was going to convince her to stay and sort through their predicament.
Defeated and depressed, he walked back into the elevator and punched the button for the twentieth floor. Luckily he had his room key in his pants pocket or he’d be locked out of the suite, which at this point would have been poetic justice.
Once inside his room, he slumped onto the sofa and leaned forward, placing his elbows against his knees. It felt as if the weight of the world rested squarely on his shoulders. The last thing he expected Katie to do was run out on him. To prove how completely unreasonable she was, her parting shot was that he was abandoning her. That made no sense whatsoever. He didn’t know how she could even think such a thing.
Fine, he decided, if that was the way she wanted it. Good riddance. He was better off without her. But he didn’t feel that way. He felt the same empty sensation he had the night they’d eloped and her parents had literally ripped her out of his arms.
Although he comforted himself with reassurances, Jason didn’t believe them. He’d loved Katie as an eighteen-year-old kid and God help them both, he loved her now. Nothing had changed. Except for one small, minute detail.
He was scheduled to marry Elaine on Saturday.
Elaine. Dear God, how would he ever explain how he’d spent the night with another woman? He didn’t even want to think about it. Until now, Jason had always thought of himself as an honorable, decent man. He’d have to tell Elaine—there was no way around it.
Almost Home Page 35