Wanted: One Groom

by Pat Ballard

  And now Grandfather, the only person in the world who had ever loved her, was gone.

  And she had foolishly fallen in love with her husband. And he, obviously, only wanted her for her money.

  Lost in self-pity, Hanna didn’t hear the low idle of the motorcycle until a familiar voice said, “Hey, Beautiful, going my way?”

  Startled, she looked up to find Matt walking his bike along the curb beside her.

  Gladness at seeing him caused her heart to leap into her throat—until she remembered she was supposed to be angry with him.

  “Go to hell,” she said, turning quickly into the underground parking garage where her car waited.

  Hanna could tell by the increasing roar of the motorcycle that Matt was following her. She hurried to her car to try to get in before he caught her, and had her hand on the door handle, opening it, when his large hand covered hers.

  “Baby, don’t be mad at me. I wanted to call you, but you’ve just got to believe me when I say I couldn’t. I was just on my way home to try to explain to you.”

  The sincerity in his voice almost made Hanna believe him. His closeness caused a tremor to pass through her, remembering their night of lovemaking. How she wanted to go into his arms and forgive him, and believe whatever lies he might tell her.

  “I’ll see you at home,” Hanna said, trying to keep her voice cold, but feeling herself weaken. She had to get away from him before she fell into his arms and begged him to take her right here in the parking garage.

  Matt gave in and opened the door for her. But before he closed it, he leaned down and quickly kissed her.

  Driving toward Rockwell Place, with Matt following close behind on his bike, Hanna felt her previous tension and self-pity draining from her. How could she stay angry with Matt when she loved him so much? She would be back in his bed tonight if he asked. She felt her insides start to melt just thinking about it.

  The door had barely closed behind them when Matt reached for her and captured her lips in a hungry kiss that took her breath away.

  “I couldn’t wait to get back to you,” he whispered against her hair.

  “Well, that didn’t appear to be the case,” Hanna said, pulling slightly away from him, remembering the hurt of waiting up almost all night for him.

  “Did you wait for me?” Matt asked, hoping she had, yet feeling horrible about not being able to call her.

  “Until three o’clock,” Hanna answered, scolding him with her eyes.

  “Baby, I’ll make it up to you,” Matt promised, taking her lips in his again.

  “How?” Hanna asked, wanting more than anything to feel like a total woman in his arms again.

  “First, I’m going to kiss you here,” Matt said, gently touching each breast. “Then I’m going to kiss you here,” he said, slowly running his hand down her hip and cupping between her legs. “Then I’m going to touch you and hold you and love you until you forgive me for making you wait for me.”

  Hanna dropped her purse and the envelope on the hall table, and let Matt lead her upstairs to his room.

  Holding her hand as if afraid she would try to escape, he went around to each window and opened the curtains wide to let the bright sunlight flood the room. Then he turned to Hanna and started slowly undressing her.

  “I want to see you this time when I make love to you. I want to watch every inch of your body flush with desire. I want to watch your face when you reach that perfect place. And I want to watch as you doze in perfect contentment when we’ve finished.”

  “But Matt—” Hanna could feel herself already start to blush at the very thought of him looking at her nude body in this bright light, although his words filled her with such desire she already thought she might explode.

  Matt’s lips quieted her protests, and soon she was lost to all thoughts except the hot rushing desire that his lips and hands were arousing in her.

  They intermittently made love and dozed until afternoon dusk stole over the landscape outside. And each time they made love a scar from past hurts disappeared from Hanna’s soul, until she felt complete and whole, as if she had never been that unhappy little girl who always felt as if she wasn’t quite good enough to deserve her mother’s or anyone else’s love.

  She came slowly awake from the contented sleep she had drifted into after their last round of lovemaking, to hear the shower running.

  Feeling a sudden daring she had never felt before, she left the bed and went to the bathroom. She knocked timidly on the shower door, and asked, “May I join you?”

  “I thought you’d never ask,” laughed Matt, drawing her into the shower with him.

  They soaped each other down, and wound up making love again while the water poured over their bodies.

  “I just can’t believe this is happening to me,” Hanna said, throwing Matt a towel and using the one she had to dry her hair.

  “Why can’t you believe it? It had to happen sooner or later. A woman as sensual as you are had to eventually give in to someone and experience all you have to offer.”

  “I’m not talking about just anyone. I’m talking about you.” The newly found bravado made Hanna want to share her long time infatuation with him.

  “I—I used to fantasize about being a groupie for you when you were popular,” she admitted, feeling her face flood with color.

  “Really?” Matt’s surprise seemed genuine.

  “Want me to prove it?” Hanna asked.

  “Woman, you’re going to wear me down at this rate.” Matt held onto the shower wall to demonstrate his weakness.

  “No! I’m not talking about that! Come on.”

  Hanna led Matt to her room. After letting the towel she’d draped around herself slide to the floor, she slipped into a silk robe. Reaching into the closet, she pulled out all of the Matt Corbett collection she had saved all these years.

  Matt’s eyes grew larger as he watched the growing accumulation of cassettes, CDs, posters, several shirts with his picture on them, and a leather jacket just like the one he used to wear. He knew she had the life-size poster and he’d heard his songs playing the day he’d come into her room, but he had no idea she was this much of a fan.

  Suddenly a thought struck Matt that rocked him back on his feet. Was this marriage just staged so the poor little rich girl could have one more thing she wanted? Did Will really just accidentally stumble upon him in a drunken stupor that night, or had they been stalking him?

  He could feel the hair on the back of his neck prickle at the possibilities. But it was too late now to change things, especially since he was irrevocably in love with Hanna.

  “I think my lo—infatuation for you is what kept me from getting involved with anyone all these years.” She had almost said “love.” How embarrassing that would have been! She mustn’t let him know she was in love with him. She wanted him to feel free to walk away from her when the time came and he felt he needed to. She didn’t want him to feel obligated to stay because he thought she loved him.

  “I would fantasize about you picking me out of the audience and asking me to go with you on one of your tours, then you would fall in love with me—then I would remember that a man with your looks and talent would never be attracted to someone like me.”

  “So you arranged to marry me. That was the only way you thought you could have me, is that it?” Matt couldn’t believe he had actually spoken his suspicions out loud.

  “What?”

  “Hanna, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “What are you talking about? What did you mean?”

  Realization dawned on Hanna as she looked at the stack of incriminating evidence lying around her. Matt thought she had been so obsessed with him she had arranged to marry him. It had been a horrible mistake to show him her collection.

  Then anger flooded her. How dare Matt accuse her of trapping him into marriage!

  “Excuse me? I’m not the one who misappropriated your funds. I’m not the one who got the IRS after your
butt. And I’m sure as hell not the one who got you drunk and got you to sign those papers agreeing to marry me. In fact, I laughed Will out of the house when he told me you had agreed to marry me. And this damn marriage could have been avoided, anyway, if I’d only known then what I found out today. I would have let everything go to Grandfather’s favorite charity like he threatened, and I would have just ridden off into the sunset and wouldn’t have had to have worried about any of this crap.”

  “Hanna, please,” Matt tried to calm her down.

  “Just go, Matt. I need to clean this mess up. In fact, I’ll just toss it in the dumpster! That way maybe you won’t be worried about my obsession with you.”

  “No! Hanna, I was wrong to say what I said. I was wrong to even think it, but hell, being in the entertainment business screws up a person’s mind. We have to start watching everything that goes on around us. Being suspicious of everyone and everything. You know what happened to me because I trusted my manager too much. I was wrong, but I won’t let you shut me out. And this isn’t junk. You’ve saved it all these years so it’s special to you. You need to save it to show our children.” Matt knew he had slipped up as soon as the words escaped his lips. But maybe Hanna was too angry to notice.

  “Come on,” he hurried, “tell me what you found out today.”

  But Hanna just stared at Matt. Had he really said “our children”? She was beginning to feel nauseated from the roller coaster of emotions she was on.

  “Hanna, don’t be angry with me. I really am sorry. Don’t shut me out. Come on, baby, talk to me.”

  “Follow me,” Hanna said, heading downstairs to get the papers she’d brought from the bank. Matt followed her, still wearing nothing but the towel he’d draped around himself when they left the bathroom.

  Just as she reached for the manila envelope the phone rang, and she picked it up.

  “Just a minute,” she said into the receiver, then, looking puzzled, she handed the phone to Matt.

  “Matt Corbett,” he answered. “Molly? I thought I told you not to call on this phone!” Anger ripped through his voice. “I don’t care! You’re supposed to use my cell phone.

  “Tonight?” He asked after a long pause. “Molly, I’m exhausted. Can’t this wait until tomorrow?”

  Finally, slamming the receiver down, Matt turned to Hanna. “I’ve got to—”

  “I know, I know. You’ve got to go,” she interrupted him. “Fine. This can wait. It wasn’t important, anyway.”

  “Yes, it is important! But there’s a problem at the stu—there’s a problem that I have to take care of.” He caught himself before he said “studio.”

  “I’ll call you later,” he promised as he dashed upstairs to dress.

  “Sure,” Hanna said under her breath, feeling sure she wouldn’t hear from him tonight.

  Picking up the envelope, she headed for her grandfather’s office. She’d put the envelope in his safe until she needed to produce its contents.

  What was she going to do about her mother and Will? Could she really turn them out into the cold, even knowing that neither of them was legally entitled to any of her inheritance? She really didn’t think she could turn them away with nothing, but one thing was for sure, she would let them know she was aware of the circumstances. She would make sure Will knew he wasn’t a Rockwell, and that anything he got was from the goodness of her heart. Oddly, that thought didn’t make her feel any better.

  Warm memories washed over her as she entered Grandfather’s office. She hadn’t been here since his death. It was almost as if he were sitting in the large leather chair behind the huge oak desk. His beloved books lined the bookshelves, and she felt tears swelling in her eyes, just knowing his hands would never again open and gently hold those books while his eyes pored over the words he loved so much.

  “Oh, Grandfather,” she sighed, sinking into the chair and burying her face in her folded arms, letting the tears flow.

  Hanna didn’t know how long she cried, but when her tears were spent, she leaned back in the chair and felt amazingly better. Almost as if she’d had a long talk with Grandfather. And somehow, she knew her life was going to be okay. That all would be well.

  She stood and went to a book entitled Keys to My Kingdom and took it from the shelf. Just as Grandfather had shown her several years ago, the combination to the safe was written in code on the last page.

  Taking the book, she went to a grouping of oil paintings on the wall and pushed one of the frames aside to expose a hidden safe. Soon she had the door open. She was about to insert the envelope when she saw another envelope in the back of the safe. Another surprise? Another secret? Or just another sweet memory from Grandfather?

  With trembling hands, Hanna reached for the envelope and took out the contents. As she examined them closely, her pounding heart caused her ears to feel as if they would explode.

  She was looking at a police report stating that her father’s brakes might have been tampered with on the night of his death, and that her mother and Henri had been called in for questioning, but nothing had ever been proven.

  Chapter 9

  As if this information were too horrible for her to comprehend, Hanna crammed the contents back into the faded envelope and shoved it, along with her new information, back into the safe and quickly locked it as if afraid the information would escape into the universe for the world to see. She put the book back on the shelf and hurriedly left the office.

  Back in the safety of her own room, Hanna sat and stared out the window. She understood why Grandfather could never tell her of his suspicions. He would never put that kind of thought into a child’s mind if there weren’t sufficient proof. And yet she was certain he’d left the information in the safe for her to find. Why did he want her to know? Did he really think her mother and Henri could do such a dastardly thing?

  If Grandfather believed Henri could be in on murdering his only son, why would he have kept him in his employment all these years?

  “Because he knew if he fired Henri, Mother would go with him, and he would lose me.” The truth was as clear as crystal. “He loved me enough to endure the people he believed had killed his son,” she mused aloud.

  Suddenly, what her grandfather had given up for her, and the heritage he had left her, flooded in on Hanna and almost drowned her in an ocean of love and gratitude. And she was about to sell it all to a stranger. All of her memories. The home grandfather had worked so hard to have, and to keep.

  Glancing at the clock, she realized it was too late to call the Realtor, but she would do it first thing in the morning.

  She listened until the wee hours of the morning, but Matt didn’t come home. When she finally fell asleep, she dreamed of Matt making love to someone named Molly.

  The next morning, Hanna reached for the phone as soon as she awoke.

  “I want to take my house off the market, today,” she directed the voice that answered the phone at the real estate office.

  “I’m sorry,” the voice answered. “Everyone was in the office yesterday, and the papers were signed. Houston Couch signed by proxy for you. He said you’d directed him to sell the house. The new owner wants to take possession in two months. Houston said he’d let you know of the transactions.”

  “Why didn’t you at least call me and make sure I hadn’t had second thoughts?” Hanna glared at Houston Couch from across his desk. She had wasted no time in heading for his office as soon as she got off the phone with the real estate broker.

  “Hanna, you told me to sell the house. You said I wasn’t to argue with you. Remember?” Hanna couldn’t understand the casual smile on Houston’s face. He was usually more concerned about her feelings than he seemed to be today.

  “Is there anything we can do to head the transactions off?” she asked. “Some kind of grace period or something?”

  “No. I’m afraid not. I just wish you’d have listened to me when I tried to talk you out of putting your home on the market.”

  “
Yeah, me too,” Hanna agreed, resignedly turning to leave the office.

  “Hanna,” Houston’s voice stopped her. “Things aren’t always as they seem.”

  “What’re you trying to say?” There was definitely a difference in Houston Couch today.

  “Just keep that in mind for the next few weeks. You’re going to be okay.”

  “Bye, Houston,” Hanna said, shaking her head in bewilderment as she left his office.

  As she pulled into the garage back at Rockwell Place, she saw Matt’s motorcycle.

  A sudden thrill shot through her, only to be replaced by a hollow space. She had to talk to Matt. She had to tell him the house was sold, and that they needed to make plans accordingly. She needed to ask him who Molly was, and if she was who he was spending his nights with.

  Just inside the door of the house, she came to a sudden halt.

  Roses filled the foyer and trailed into the living room. Rose petals covered the floor, making a carpet that led into the living room. There she found Matt sitting on the couch. His head was at an angle, and she knew instantly that he had fallen asleep, waiting for her.

  Love flooded her, shaking her to her toes. He had been waiting for her to come home. That, more than the roses, swept away all the hurt and anger she’d been feeling. She had never loved anyone like this before. How could she stay angry with him when she loved him so much? Still—there were some questions to be answered.

  She leaned over to smell a single rose in a vase by itself.

  “You like them?” His low, sleep-deepened voice was like a caress.

  “They’re beautiful,” she answered, going to him and kneeling down in front of him.

  He took her face between his hands and pulled her toward him. She came willingly and nestled between his legs. Her lips parted slightly to accept the gentle probing of his tongue. But before their desires overcame them, she pulled away and stood up.