Tempt Me at Midnight

by Maureen Smith

  Michael tenderly stroked his wife’s cheek. “You were amazing, sweetheart. And I can’t believe how composed you were when your water broke. You had to calm me and Lexi down.”

  “I know.” Lexi laughed, remembering the mad scramble to get Reese to Emory University Hospital, where she also worked. Her colleagues were going to spoil her rotten during her stay.

  She grinned at Michael and Lexi. “Haven’t I been telling you guys for months that I know what I’m doing?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” they humbly conceded, and Reese and Quentin chuckled.

  Lexi grinned wryly at Michael. “Your producer must be on cloud nine. I remember how ecstatic he was when you proposed to Reese on the show last year. He still hasn’t stopped gushing about how your ratings skyrocketed after that episode aired. Just imagine how viewers will respond to Reese going into labor on the show. I smell another Emmy,” she added in a singsong voice.

  Reese and Michael traded smiles. “In that case,” she said, “we’ll have to keep coming up with milestones to celebrate on the air.”

  Quentin grinned. “Savannah’s first step, Savannah’s first tooth…”

  Everyone laughed.

  “Where’s the family?” Lexi asked curiously. “Quentin and I thought we’d have to fight our way into the room when we got here.”

  Reese grinned. “Michael shooed everyone out so I could feed the baby. I think they all headed back to Dad’s house for a celebration dinner.”

  “The whole gang was here?”

  “Yep,” Reese replied. “My parents and Raina and Warrick. Dad and Asha. Mom and Grant flew in from Minnesota. Marcus and Samara brought the boys, who are very excited about their new cousin and can’t wait to play with her.”

  Lexi thought of Samara’s secret pregnancy and hid a smile. Soon enough, Matthew and Malcolm Wolf would have another playmate to get excited about.

  “I’m glad you’re both here,” Reese said to Lexi and Quentin. “Michael and I would like to ask a very special favor of you.”

  Michael smiled at them. “We want you to be Savannah’s godparents.”

  Quentin grinned broadly. Lexi gasped, so touched that tears sprang to her eyes. She and Quentin looked at each other, joined hands, then turned back to their friends and chorused, “We’d be honored.”

  Michael and Reese beamed with pleasure. “Good.”

  Lexi sniffled. “I need a tissue.”

  She’d barely gotten out the words before Quentin removed a handkerchief from his pocket, knelt in front of her and gently dabbed at her watery eyes.

  “Look at our feisty, tough-talking Lexi getting all sentimental,” Michael teased. “What have you done to her, Q?”

  Quentin smiled into her eyes. “What has she done to me?” he murmured.

  Lexi reached out and touched his face before she remembered that they had an audience. She glanced up in time to see Michael and Reese exchange quiet, knowing smiles.

  Flushing self-consciously, Lexi grinned at Reese. “May I please hold my precious goddaughter who upstaged me on her daddy’s show this morning?”

  The others laughed as Reese gingerly handed over the baby. As Lexi cradled the warm, swaddled infant in her arms, something melted inside her.

  “Hello, Savannah,” she cooed softly. “What a beautiful name for a beautiful little angel. You’re going to have your daddy wrapped around your finger. Mommy too.” To her delight, the sleeping newborn puckered her tiny lips. “Oh, guys, look—”

  Lexi glanced up and froze, arrested by the tender expression on Quentin’s face as he stared at her with the baby. When their eyes met, a deep ache of longing swept through her, squeezing her heart almost painfully.

  Glancing away, she kissed Savannah’s silky crown of curls, then gently passed her to Michael. “Here, Daddy. It’s your turn.”

  As Michael and Reese resumed cooing over their daughter, Lexi and Quentin smiled softly at each other.

  They left shortly afterward, promising to return the next day with the rest of the family.

  On the ride home they were unusually quiet, each absorbed in their own private thoughts. When they reached Quentin’s high-rise, where they’d already agreed to spend the night together, they rode the elevator to the twentieth floor in silence.

  Once inside the darkened penthouse, they removed their coats and hung them up in the foyer closet.

  Their eyes met.

  Without a word passing between them, Lexi took Quentin’s hand and led him upstairs to his bedroom. They undressed each other slowly, then fell across the bed in a tangle of limbs. Moonlight poured through the wall of windows, cascading over them as they rolled around, mouths searching, hands caressing and exploring each other’s bodies as if they hadn’t already memorized every detail.

  Rising over him, Lexi pushed Quentin down to the bed and straddled him. Gripping the thick base of his shaft, she positioned him and sank down. She heard his breath escape in a slow hiss, heard her own moan as her inner muscles tightened around his penis. He steadied her hips with his hands as she began to move on him. Finding a rhythm, she let her head fall back and surrendered to her body’s instincts, rocking, riding up and down his length with long, deep strokes. He groaned and fondled her breasts, arching his hips to meet every downward pump of hers.

  They came together, shuddering and crying out each other’s names. Lexi’s heart soared as Quentin spent himself inside her, spurting liquid heat into her womb with violent pulses.

  As their gazes locked, Lexi wondered if she was the only one who hoped they’d just created a new life.

  Chapter 18

  “What an amazing turnout!”

  Lexi glanced up at the heavyset, middle-aged woman who had appeared at her table as the last customer left, armed with an autographed copy of Lexi’s debut cookbook.

  “I think it went pretty well,” Lexi agreed.

  “Pretty well?” the bookstore manager echoed incredulously. “You had a line wrapped around the corner and you sold out in an hour!”

  Lexi smiled, undeniably pleased by the successful outcome of her book signing. Yesterday’s event, the first of her two-week book tour, had gone just as well. Not only that, but her cookbook had debuted on a major bestseller list and was already headed for a second printing, according to her editor.

  As if those weren’t reasons enough to celebrate, she was in love. Deeply, madly in love with a wonderful man who also happened to be her best friend in the world. For the first time in years, Lexi could honestly say that life was good.

  “Can I get you anything, Ms. Austin?” the bookstore manager asked, eager to accommodate. “More Perrier? Hors d’oeuvres?”

  Lexi smiled, rising from the table. “No, thank you. I’m meeting some friends for lunch—”

  “The ones who were here earlier with cameras and big signs?”

  Lexi chuckled. “Yes. And one of them is pregnant,” she said, referencing Samara, “so I’d better not keep her waiting much longer.” She shook the woman’s hand. “Thanks so much for your hospitality.”

  “Thank you. It was a real pleasure to meet you, Ms. Austin. I wish you the best with your cookbook.”

  “Thank you! I appreciate that.”

  As Lexi headed from the large chain bookstore, she pulled out her cell phone and felt a pang of disappointment when she saw that there were no missed calls. She’d hoped to hear from Quentin by now. After attending her book signing yesterday, he’d left for Washington, D.C., to tend to some business matters at the law firm’s other office. Since becoming Marcus’s partner, he’d had to take on even more responsibility, which meant more travel. He’d be gone for a week, and Lexi honestly didn’t know how she’d make it that long without him. Last night she’d slept in one of his T-shirts, which was so big on her it could have been a muumuu. She’d buried her face in it, inhaling the wonderful, familiar scent that clung to the fabric.

  Smiling, she sent him a text message. I miss you.

  “Alexis?”

  She
glanced up. A man had appeared directly in her path. Medium height and build, with stooped shoulders and deep lines carved into his pockmarked brown skin. Sunken cheeks and bloodshot eyes rimmed with heavy bags hinted at a life of hard drinking.

  As recognition dawned, the ground tilted beneath Lexi’s feet and she staggered back a step, staring in shock.

  It can’t be.

  But she knew it was.

  Ray Austin. Her long-lost father.

  “How ya doing, baby girl?” he said, greeting her as though they’d just spoken the week before. “Looks like I’m too late for your book signing. Real sorry about that. I’d hoped to—”

  “What are you doing here?” Lexi whispered, the words forced out through dry lips.

  Her father frowned. “I just told you. I came for your book signing. I saw you on TV last week—”

  “You saw me,” she repeated scornfully. “You haven’t seen me in over thirty years!”

  Ray grimaced. “Well, now, I can explain—”

  “You don’t need to explain anything. I have no interest in anything you have to say.”

  He took a step forward and she instinctively retreated, heart knocking painfully against her ribs. Glancing around the busy bookstore, she met the curious stares of several onlookers and realized that she was causing a scene.

  “Excuse me.” With a curt nod at her father, she sidestepped him and hurried from the bookstore. Once outside, she sucked in deep lungfuls of air. She felt as if she were suffocating, having one of her panic attacks.

  Ray followed her out of the store. “I know I haven’t been there for you like I shoulda. But—”

  She whirled around. “But what? All these years without so much as a birthday card or a phone call. And you show up here out of the clear blue, expecting me to—what? Welcome you with open arms? Call you Daddy?” She raked him with a look of scathing contempt. “You wasted your time coming here.”

  He had the nerve to scowl. “Don’t I have a right to be proud of my daughter’s accomplishments?”

  “You gave up that right when you walked out on us! And I think we both know that pride has nothing to do with why you’re here today.”

  His eyes shifted guiltily from hers.

  Lexi felt sick to her stomach. “Just as I thought,” she mocked bitterly. “You saw me on TV, and now you think you can weasel your way back into my life to cash in on my newfound success. But you’re sadly mistaken. If you think you’re getting one red cent out of me, think again!”

  “Baby girl—”

  “Don’t you dare call me that! I’m not your baby girl. And if you ever try to contact me again, I’ll take out a restraining order against you. Stay the hell away from me!”

  As she spun around and hurried across the parking lot toward her car, he called after her, “Ask your mama why I left. She knows!”

  Lexi hurled herself into her car and slammed the door. Her heart was pounding so hard she thought it would explode. She was supposed to meet her friends for lunch, but as she raced out of the parking lot, she had only one destination in mind.

  She found her mother sitting in her favorite armchair in the living room, surrounded by a thick, noxious cloud of smoke as she puffed away on a cigarette. On the television, a rerun of The Golden Girls blared loudly. As Blanche launched into a spirited discussion of one of her sexual escapades, Carlene cackled and slapped her thigh.

  Lexi strode purposefully into the room and shut off the television.

  Carlene protested, “Hey, I was watching—”

  “We need to talk, Ma.” Brimming with fury, Lexi paced up and down the floor.

  Her mother watched her for a moment, then took a long drag on her cigarette and shot a stream of smoke from the corner of her mouth. “How’d your book signing go?”

  “Great,” Lexi snapped. “By the way, so nice of you to show up.”

  Carlene arched a brow. “Why should I go to your book signing? I don’t need an autographed book from you—you’re my daughter.”

  “Exactly! I’m your daughter, and just once it would be nice if you could show a little support.”

  “Is that what’s got you so upset? Because I didn’t come to your damn book signing?”

  “No, Ma,” Lexi jeered. “I didn’t expect you to come, so how can I be upset that you didn’t?”

  Carlene’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t take that tone with—”

  “However,” Lexi rudely cut her off, “it might interest you to know that while you couldn’t be bothered to show up, someone else did.”

  “Who?”

  Lexi looked her in the eye. “My father.”

  She watched as the color slowly leached out of her mother’s face. Carlene’s hand trembled as she tapped her cigarette into an ashtray on the table beside her, muttering darkly, “What did he want?”

  “What do you think, Ma? He wanted money. He saw me on Michael’s show, so he figured he’d come hit me up for cash now that I’m supposedly rich and famous.” A nasty, mocking smile twisted her mouth. “Isn’t that what he used to do, Ma? Wait until me, Colby and Summer were at school, and then sneak over and hit you up for money?”

  Carlene was toking furiously on her cigarette. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

  “Oh, yes, I do!” Lexi shouted angrily. “I knew every time he’d been at the apartment. The cash in our rainy day jar would be gone, and you were always in an especially foul mood after you’d seen him.” She shook her head in grim disgust. “I used to wonder why he never stuck around long enough to see his own children. And I used to wonder why on earth you’d give him money after everything he’d done to you. It was almost like he was blackmailing you.”

  “You need to leave this alone,” Carlene warned in a strained voice.

  “Leave what alone? The dark secret that’s been eating away at you for as long as I can remember? Is that what I should leave alone? Well, I can’t!”

  “Don’t you have better things to worry about?” Carlene sneered. “Like keeping that man of yours in check?”

  Taken aback, Lexi stared at her. She hadn’t told her mother about Quentin because she hadn’t wanted to subject herself to a bitter diatribe about cheating men.

  “You thought I wouldn’t find out?” Carlene taunted, a mocking gleam in her eyes. “Last Sunday in church I overheard Quentin’s mama telling the pastor’s wife that her prayers had been answered, because Quentin had finally realized he was in love with his best friend from college.” Carlene smirked. “Obviously she wasn’t talking about Michael, so the only other best friend she could be referring to was you. I left before they caught me eavesdropping, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re already planning your damn wedding.”

  Lexi swallowed hard, but said nothing. She didn’t expect her mother to understand the powerful connection she and Quentin shared. She didn’t expect Carlene to admit that maybe, just maybe, Lexi had lucked out and found the real deal: a man who truly loved her and wanted to be with her.

  Because deep down inside, her conscience whispered, you don’t completely believe it either. Not yet.

  “I thought you were smarter than that,” Carlene muttered, crushing out her cigarette in the ashtray. “After everything Adam put you through, I can’t believe you’d be foolish enough to get involved with yet another man who has a wandering eye. I guess some chicks just never learn.”

  “You’re one to talk,” Lexi shot back.

  When her mother flinched, she felt a stab of guilt.

  She should have known the retaliation would be swift.

  “I don’t know how long you and Quentin have been dating,” Carlene said with malicious satisfaction, “but I should tell you that I saw him going into Wolf’s Soul with another woman two weeks ago.”

  Lexi snorted derisively. “Is that the best you can do? Quentin always takes new clients to Wolf’s Soul for lunch meetings, male or female. But if he really wanted to sneak around behind my back, do you honestly think he’d be stup
id enough to take his mistress to Michael’s restaurant, of all places?”

  Carlene faltered for a moment, then shrugged. “Maybe he knows Michael would cover for him, the way they did for each other in college. Or maybe he just doesn’t give a damn. Rascals like him usually don’t. I’m telling you, he and that woman looked mighty cozy together.”

  “I don’t believe you.” But Lexi hated herself for the kernel of doubt that whispered through her mind, hated the fact that she thought of Jocelyn and her topless photos.

  Carlene’s eyes narrowed spitefully. “Mark my words. Quentin Reddick’s gonna make a damn fool out of you, just like Adam did. And when he does, don’t come crying to me, expecting sympathy and support. ’Cause I’ve tried to warn you that the man’s no good, but you refuse to listen! You keep choosing the same type of men—the wrong men. And that’s why you’re never gonna be happy!”

  “No! You’re wrong!” Lexi shook her head vehemently, resisting the childish urge to clap her hands over her ears to block out her mother’s taunting words. “You don’t know Quentin the way I do. He loves me. He would never—”

  “Ask him,” Carlene dared her.

  “I’m not asking him anything!” Lexi cried, her voice breaking because she knew her mother might be right about Quentin, and she couldn’t bear it.

  “What are you so afraid of?” Carlene jeered. “Ask him about that woman he was with!”

  “No! I won’t dignify your ridiculous accusation by repeating it to him. And I know exactly what you’re doing. You’re deflecting, trying to change the subject so I’ll forget about my father. But it won’t work. I want answers from you, Ma.”

  Carlene’s expression hardened. “You need to go.”

  “I’m not going anywhere until you answer my questions! My father told me to ask you why he left us. Why did he say that?”

  “Your father is a worthless—”

  “What is he holding over you?” Lexi roared.

  Pushed to the limit, Carlene exploded. “The fact that I almost killed you!”

  Stunned, Lexi stared at her, feeling the blood drain from her head.