Pure Lust: The Complete Series Box Set

by Parker, M. S.

  “Good.”

  Chapter 12

  The sound of that voice was like an icepick jabbing straight through my ear all the way into my skull. Hunching my shoulders, I tried to pretend I was invisible, tucked away in a dark, quiet corner as I worked on a project. It was one I’d been working on, polishing up, rewriting for a good year now.

  I knew I should scrap it, but I loved it and I’d never been any good at letting go of things.

  When Claire Bouvier’s voice drew closer, I feverishly pounded away on the keys.

  Busy busy busy! Go away! Didn’t she read body language? I had a feeling that even if she did, she didn’t care.

  “There you are, Gabriella.” She sailed into the study and stood a few feet away, staring at me. “Didn’t you hear me calling you?”

  Doing my best impression of the absent-minded, genius writer type—I had one in the project I was working on so it wasn’t too difficult—I looked up at her and blinked, like I was coming out of some sort of trancelike state, the stereotypical kind known to genius writers and other artistic types.

  “Oh, hello, Claire. I was caught up in work. I’m sorry. I get that way when I’m involved.” Or trying to ignore you.

  “Hmmm…” She nodded and arched a perfectly pale eyebrow at my laptop. “What are you working on?”

  “One of my projects.” I closed the computer with a snap and set it aside. “We didn’t have anything on the schedule for today.”

  “No.” She swept a hand through the air and turned around. She was still a beautiful woman. Not quite sixty, she moved with the grace of somebody who knew she was still beautiful and expected to be that way for quite some time. “I thought today would be an excellent day to go out and look for your wedding dress.”

  My neck went hot even as a tidal wave of glee swept through me. I had to make sure she didn’t see how pleased I was to deliver this news. “Oh. Well, about that.”

  She stopped in mid-stride, turning to face me. For the merest blink, there was a gleam in her ice blue eyes, something that spoke of avid happiness.

  Then I spoke. “I already bought my dress.”

  “You did…what?” she asked, her voice coldly polite, the tone doing nothing to hide the anger in her eyes.

  “I bought my dress.” I lifted my chin as I stared at her. I wasn’t going to let her keep running me over. I just wasn’t going to do it. I’d be nice to her because she was Edward’s mother, but that was all I was going to do. The more time I spent with her, the thinner my patience grew. “Kendra and I went shopping. It’s the kind of thing I would’ve done with my mom and sisters if I’d been back home. Since my family can’t get up here, I took my best friend.” Then I shrugged and added, “I sent my mother a picture though. She loves the dress.”

  Claire’s nostrils flared out as she sucked in a breath. “I suppose it did not occur to you to extend me the same courtesy. We are paying for the wedding, after all.”

  “I paid for my wedding dress.”

  “Some rag off a discount rack won’t do for a Bouvier—”

  “It’s not a rag.” I curled my hands into fists to keep from yelling at her, my nails biting into my skin. “Kendra knows a designer in the fashion district. She’s just starting out and since Kendra knows her, the woman is giving me a decent deal on the dress. It’s one of a kind and it fits me almost perfectly. It has to be fitted, but it’s perfect…and it’s me. Since it’s my wedding, I wanted to find the dress that was right for me.”

  “I see.” Claire stared at me, her eyes hard and cold. “Very well. Perhaps you could deign to show me this…” she sniffed “…designer dress.”

  I jerked my phone out of my pocket and pulled up the gallery of photos, showing her all of the images Kendra had snapped.

  Oddly enough, Claire had no cutting remarks to make. She sailed out of the study and I saw her climbing into the back of her car a few minutes later, the driver shutting the door behind her.

  Slumping against the carved paneling of the window, I watched the car as it disappeared down the long, curving driveway.

  To myself, I muttered, “Wait until she finds out about the invitations.”

  ***

  Sometimes, Central Park was the best place in the whole world, or at least in all of New York City. Other times, it left me feeling rather melancholy.

  I’d been that way when I’d arrived, bringing a notebook and some pens, some snacks in my bag and bottled water, determined I’d get some work done and put the incident with Claire out of my head.

  Instead, I found myself at one of my favorite spots, near the castle. Belvedere Castle rarely failed to make me smile and for a few moments, my mood did indeed lift. But it didn’t last. As I stretched out on the green grass, notebook in my lap, I made the mistake of looking up at the sound of laughter.

  It was a couple of kids, along with their parents and grandparents.

  The kids were running around. Tag. We’d played tag a lot growing up. Tag. Hide and seek. Baseball. Anything that was cheap—or better yet, free. The two girls and a boy ran around and tried to make it to their grandma who was supposedly base.

  My phone buzzed and I picked it up, looking at the message without really seeing it for a moment.

  Then I focused and tapped on it to read a message from my mother.

  I’ve got something blue for you.

  I opened the picture. I studied it, puzzled, reading my mother’s delicate, neat cross-stitch. The date…

  “Grandma’s birthday,” I murmured and read the next message.

  It’s from the dress she was wearing when Grandpa asked her to marry him. She kept it all those years in one of her trunks. A local girl here from church got married and had a piece of her dad’s uniform sewn into her wedding dress. I thought you might like the idea. Do you?

  I dashed away a tear and then traced the delicate heart-shaped piece of blue-fabric with my finger. I didn’t even have to think about my reply.

  I love it. Mama, I miss you.

  ***

  Dinner had been wonderful, but I couldn’t eat much. I was all but holding my breath, because I was sure Claire had called Edward and told her what a miserable, ungrateful woman I was and how he really should reconsider marrying me.

  But he hadn’t said anything.

  Over a glass of wine, I said, “How did your day go?”

  “It’s much better now.” He brushed his hand down my hair, then slid it under the heavy weight to rest it on my neck. “After all, I’m here with you.”

  I smiled at him, even as I wished he could be more specific, share more than generalities with me. Wasn’t that how a couple was supposed to behave?

  “Yours?”

  I looked up at him, confused, until I realized he was asking about my day. “Oh, well, I’m working on a project. Revising a lot of it.” Shrugging, I sipped my wine and stared into the fire. Then, because I was so tired of beating around the bush and hiding and worrying, I looked back over at him. “Your mom came over.”

  “Did she?” He frowned. “If she needed to see me, why didn’t she come to the office?”

  “She wasn’t looking for you.” Blowing out a breath, I said softly, “She was looking for me. She wanted to start looking for wedding dresses.”

  “I thought you and Kendra…”

  I stared at him and that look must have told him everything he needed to know.

  Edward put his wineglass down, then reached for mine and set it aside as well. I found myself pulled into his lap. Curling up against his chest, I rested my cheek on the hard curve of his shoulder and sighed.

  “I know how my mother can be, darling. Please don’t let her get to you. I’ll–” he hesitated, one hand coming around to trace up and down my spine as he thought through his words. “I’ll speak with her. But don’t feel bad or be worried because you wanted to have a friend with you when you bought your dress.”

  When he lifted my chin so we could see eye to eye, he was giving me what could only b
e described as an indulgent smile.

  For some reason, it rubbed me wrong. I knew he was trying to make me feel better. The problem was I did feel bad and I had no reason to. I felt bad because I didn’t want to cause any problems between him and his mom and I felt bad because she was so hostile toward me. But, hell. That wasn’t the only problem. I hated that he felt like he was indulging me when he supported me.

  Slipping off his lap, I stood up and went over to grab my phone. I pulled up the image my mother had sent me and took it back to him, sitting down next to him on the couch. “You know that old saying about brides? Something old, something new…?”

  “Ah, yes. Something borrowed, something blue.”

  “Mama has my something blue.” I showed it to him and described where she’d come up with the idea. “I already talked to the designer. She’s going to adjust the hem on the dress, tuck it in a bit. She said she can take care of this too.”

  Edward turned the phone over to me. “It’s a lovely idea.”

  I nodded and then turned to him, determined to say what I needed to do. “I want to go back home for a few days, maybe a week. I miss my family.”

  “Gabriella.” His eyes softened as he stroked the back of his hand down my cheek. “Is this why you’ve been so down tonight?”

  “Yeah, mostly.” I shrugged, my eyes still on the little blue heart. “I saw this family playing at Central Park. It just made me think of home.”

  “I thought this was your home.”

  I looked up at him, then reached to touch his cheek. “New York is home. But there will always be a part of me that thinks of Tennessee when I think of home. It’s where I grew up, where my family is.”

  “I think I can understand that.” He nodded, leaning forward to kiss me, his lips warm and soft.

  “Can you come with me?” I asked against his lips. “I want my family to meet you before the wedding.”

  He pulled back and reached up, brushing my hair from my face. “I’d love to meet them, but I can’t take a week off now, not when we’re taking off three weeks for our honeymoon in October.” Eyes narrowing thoughtfully, he slowly added, “I think I could come for a few days at the end of the week, if I move some things around. Would that work? You could go on down and I’ll join you.”

  “Yes.” I smiled, some of the weight inside me lifting away. I went to hug him, but the look on his face stopped me.

  “Would you consider taking one of my brothers with you? I don’t like the idea of you traveling all that way alone.”

  All that way? I almost laughed. I’d driven up here—all that way—in a car that had practically fallen apart almost as soon as I crossed the state line. I’d ended up having to sell it to a junkyard because I couldn’t afford to fix it or garage it. But I’d made it up here just fine, just as I’d managed to put myself through college just fine. I thought I could manage to buy a plane ticket and fly home, get a rental and drive to my parents’ house just fine, too.

  But he looked so thoughtful, so sweet and earnest. And he was just looking out for me, like a good fiancé should.

  “Sure. I think Cody would love my family.”

  ***

  It wasn’t until I was pulling up in the driveway that it hit me just how far apart my world was from Edward’s…and Cody’s.

  The big, old farmhouse had belonged to my grandparents until they’d sold it to my parents after my grandfather’s stroke. He hadn’t been able to take care of it anymore, or even walk up and down the stairs from the porch, so they’d decided it was time to find some place smaller.

  A year after that, the second stroke had killed him.

  Grandma was gone a year later.

  I still missed them. Grandpa had been gone seventeen years now, Grandma sixteen. My younger brother and I barely remembered them. My youngest sister didn’t at all. She’d been born only a month before Grandma’s heart attack.

  I had a thousand happy memories tied up in the house that towered over us, but the house needed a fresh coat of paint, new windows…new everything. The car in the driveway had seen better years, but it was paid for and that was all my mother cared about.

  As I looked over at Cody to say something, the front door opened.

  My sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews all came spilling out. Apparently everyone had come home to see me. Whatever I’d planned to say, there was no time for it now.

  Nerves seized me, but I forced myself to climb out of the car anyway.

  Jennifer was the youngest and looked the most like me with red hair and brown eyes. The others all favored Dad in coloring. Jennifer didn’t, however, act like me. She had absolutely no qualms about staring at Cody with interest evident in her eyes.

  “Hello,” she said, smiling and displaying the dimple in her cheek.

  Cody held out his hand. “Hi there.”

  “Jennifer,” I said, catching her attention. “You flirt, you’re wasting your time. Cody’s gay.”

  She rolled her eyes and Cody clapped a hand over his heart, shooting me a look. “Being gay doesn’t mean I don’t want a pretty girl flirting with me.”

  “She’ll take any positive response as a sign to keep going,” I warned him.

  That came from my mother, a woman who looked remarkably like me and Jennifer. If I looked as beautiful as she did at her age, I’d be very happy. Moving around the car, I rushed to hug her, tears burning my eyes.

  “Mama.”

  Her arms came around me and I tucked my face into her neck, feeling everything else melting away for those few seconds. The worry about the wedding, the guilt and anxiety about Flynn, even my lingering reservations about Edward.

  “I’ve missed you, Gabby,” she said, stroking a hand down my hair.

  I sniffed, afraid to say anything for fear of what she’d hear in my voice. Moms, they always knew.

  A loud, boom of a voice caught my attention and I pulled back, dashing away the tears and grinning sheepishly at her. “I’m going to turn into a water faucet.”

  Then I looked over to see who’d called my name.

  A broad smile splitting his face, a tall, lean man was striding my way, with a leggy blonde moving at his side. The blonde looked vaguely familiar. She should have looked out of place, with her pretty, pale green sundress and shoes that looked as expensive as some of the ones Edward had taken to buying for me.

  But she didn’t cringe away from the farm. She held the hand of the man coming my way.

  It was the grin. The grin on his face that made my mouth fall open.

  “Shit.” The word slipped out of me and my mother lightly swatted me on the side of the head.

  “Sorry, Mama,” I said automatically, still staring at the man. “Jackson? Is that you?”

  His response was to grab me around the waist and swing me around. My feet left the ground and I hugged him around the neck as he squeezed me, swinging me around in a quick circle.

  “Oh, my goodness!” The word came out of me in a delighted, somewhat breathless gasp. “What happened to you?”

  When I’d last come home three years ago, he’d still been a teenager, a long, almost painfully skinny stick. Just as tall as he was now, but all arms, legs, knees and elbows. Now…he set me down on my feet and I blinked up at him. My baby brother had up and turned into a seriously good-looking twenty year-old.

  “Gabby.” He grinned at me, obviously delighted with the reaction he’d caused. Then he reached out a hand to the blonde at his side. She slid her hand into his and moved in closer. “Do you remember Amber LaRocque?”

  A face danced into mind. Skinny—all arms and legs—watching Jackson with love struck eyes. Only to look away anytime he said anything. She’d been terribly shy. Sweet, but shy.

  “Hi.” I went to offer my hand, only to notice her left one. And the ring.

  “You…” I stopped, then cleared my throat and tried again. “Are you two…um…what I mean is…”

  “Last night.” Jackson pulled her in close and hugged her. />
  Amber closed her eyes, blushing, but the smile on her face was almost dazed with pleasure and when she lifted her lids, her gaze went straight to my baby brother.

  The two of them stared at each other as though nothing else in the world existed.

  It left me feeling oddly…hollow.

  Did Edward look at me like that?

  Did I look at Edward like that?

  I pushed aside the thought as I turned to greet my three older siblings and their families. I had eight nieces and nephews to spend quality aunt time with.

  ***

  “Now why did that beautiful brother of yours have to be straight?”

  Cody flung himself down into the plastic Adirondack chair next to mine and stared up at the sky. A sigh of satisfaction escaped his lips as he lifted a bottle of beer to his lips, tipping his head back after he’d taken a drink. It was the cheap beer my dad had been buying from Wal-Mart for years, but Cody hadn’t batted an eyelash when Frank Baine had offered him one.

  Impulsively, I reached over and caught his hand, squeezing it. “I’m so glad you’re here. Thank you, for everything.”

  “Hey, I’m happy to be here. I haven’t had a vacation in too long.” He squeezed my fingers and let go, sliding down farther into the seat and closing his eyes.

  Looking around the backyard with its bare spots and the vegetable garden that filled nearly a third of the space, I laughed. “I wouldn’t call this a vacation, Cody.”

  “Hey, what’s not to enjoy? Your mom is a seriously excellent cook.” He opened one eye, a grin canting up one corner of his lips. “You know I’ve never had homemade fried chicken?”

  I frowned at him.

  He popped open the other eye and sat up, staring at me. “You think that’s something Claire Bouvier would let be served in her house?” He snorted. “And mashed potatoes with gravy? Shit—” Immediately, his eyes went to the house and he winced. He’d seen Jackson’s hand get rapped with my mother’s wooden spoon for letting that particular word slip.

  “Relax,” I said wryly. “You’re safe from the spoon. You’re a guest.”