“Jack, what’s wrong?”
“Look, I’ll explain when I get there, if it’s all right that I come?”
“Of course.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Okay.” She was going to hang up the phone when she heard him say “Oh—and, Beth...”
She pushed the receiver back against her ear. “Yes, Jack?”
“I’m sorry that I didn’t call you last night. I...uh...I got tied up.”
“Oh,” Beth said, her heart pounding in her throat. “What time did you finally get in?”
“Truthfully, I never made it in,” he said. “That’s what I want to tell you about.”
Beth’s heart sank to the floor.
Now she knew why she’d had all those dreadful—almost jealous—feelings during the night. Jack had met someone while he was out with Franko. Someone special enough to keep him away from home all night long, and somehow she had sensed it was happening.
And now he wanted to come by this morning and tell his good old friend Beth all about it. How lucky could she be?
Actually she had always suspected that this day might come sooner or later. But why did it have to be now, when she had other plans for him in the next couple of months?
Besides, just what did he think he was going to do with some other woman while he was married to her, for heaven’s sake? Had he even stopped to think about that?
But the truth was, Jack’s happiness was just as important to her as her own. If he’d finally met someone who somehow captivated his heart, she was going to smile and be happy for him. Even if it put a major kink in her plans. Even if she had to suffer in silence.
With that thought in mind, she forced a smile to her face. “Well, hurry up. I can’t wait to hear what happened to you last night.”
“You’re going to be so surprised, Beth, you won’t believe it,” he said.
“Oh, I bet I will,” she said, her stomach turning into knots. Because she was already convinced that she knew.
If only she could somehow convince her heart not to care that she did.
Jack arrived at her door twelve minutes and thirty-seven seconds later. He looked terrible. His suit coat and his tie were missing, and his white shirt looked as though he’d slept in it—which, of course, Beth immediately realized, was obviously wishful thinking on her part. He was unshaven and he looked exhausted.
“My God, Jack, what happened to you?” Beth asked.
“Could I use your bathroom to wash up?”
“Uh...sure.”
He went straight to the hall bath and closed the door. When he came out a few minutes later, he’d rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt. His hair was wet and Beth knew he’d splashed cold water on his face. She had already poured him a cup of coffee, so he sat down at her breakfast table and took a sip. Beth waited in silence, anxiously wanting to hear what had happened to him, and yet not wanting to hear it at all. He would tell her, she knew, in his own good time.
Finally he looked across the table at her. “Do you know why I didn’t call you last night?”
Beth’s gut knotted. “Well, you said you never made it home.”
“I didn’t. But do you know why?”
Beth held on tight to her emotions. “I can only suppose it was because you and Franko were having such a good time out on the town.”
He smirked. “Yeah, right. We had a time, all right. We spent most of it at the city jail.”
Beth gaped at him. “You got arrested?”
“I didn’t,” he said, taking another sip from his coffee. “But Franko and this other guy did.”
“What other guy?”
“The guy that slugged Franko after Franko made a pass at his wife.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Franko slugged the guy back and the next thing I knew, they were being thrown out of the restaurant. But that was only the beginning. The guy jumped Franko in the parking lot and then they really got into it. I finally broke them apart, but it was too late by then. The police had already been called and both of them were put under arrest. I had to go down to the station as a witness and tell my side of the story. Turned out Franko didn’t have any identification on him, so that became a problem. Our boss had to be called in, and now Franko is in trouble with his job, too. I’m telling you, it was a mess, Beth. I was just so glad you had already gone home.”
“Wow...” Beth said, relieved beyond belief to finally hear what had really happened to him last night. He obviously hadn’t slept a wink, but that was okay. He hadn’t exactly spent a romantic night in another woman’s arms, either. And that was something important for her to remember. “Where’s Franko now?” she asked.
“He’s still in jail.”
“Oh, Jack, you poor guy,” she said, reaching across the table and covering his hand. “To think you had to baby-sit all night long down at city jail for a grown man who knew better, but still chose to get himself into trouble anyway. Did you get any sleep at all?”
“No, but since Franko ended up being such an unexpected problem for both me and the company, my boss gave me the day off.” He glanced back in the direction of her bedroom. “In fact, I wouldn’t have a problem crawling into your bed right now and falling asleep.”
“You mean, here? At my house?”
He shrugged off her surprise. “It was just a thought. I didn’t mean it, Beth.”
“Well...” she said, actually giving his remark some added thought. “It probably isn’t such a bad idea, after all. You know, you just might have trouble getting some rest at your place. Once your co-workers find out what happened to you and Franko last night, they’ll be calling you, or coming by for details. It’s human nature,” she said with a shrug. “Unfortunately, everyone loves a juicy story. But, look, I’m going to be leaving for work soon anyway. Put your car in my garage so no one will know that you’re here, and the house is yours for the day.”
Jack grew thoughtful. “You know, that doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.”
“It’s a great idea,” Beth said, giving his hand one final squeeze before getting up from the table and heading toward her bedroom. “Now go and move your car inside my garage. I’m going to start getting ready for work. I’ll be in the shower, but I’ll be out soon, if you need anything.”
With that, she turned and went down the hall.
Jack stood up from the breakfast table and watched Beth head toward her bedroom. How he loved that woman—only, not in the way that a man loved a woman, he corrected himself quickly. But as a best friend. Her pampering ways had a healing effect on him.
In fact, the idea of spending the day alone in her house, sleeping in her soft bed, tucking her sweet smelling pillows under his head was, indeed, a pleasurable thought. One he had no intention of passing up.
Placing his empty coffee cup in the sink, Jack strolled outside to put his car in her garage. Instinctively he knew that he was heading straight into more trouble than he could possibly imagine with her, but he couldn’t see how he could turn back now.
Nor, if truth be told, did he really want to.
Chapter Seven
Beth was out of the shower in five minutes. After drying herself off and wrapping her wet hair in a towel, she slipped on her blue cotton bathrobe.
She still thought the idea of having Jack stay at her house today in order to get the rest he obviously needed was a good one, and she was glad she had thought of it. In fact, she now realized that she should have thought of getting the guest bedroom ready for him before showering. He could have been asleep by now. But since she hadn’t thought of it until this moment, she just hoped that he hadn’t fallen asleep while waiting for her at her kitchen table. She would hate having to wake him up, when she knew that he would only be going right back to sleep again.
Securing her robe by tying the belt at her waist,
Beth walked out of the bathroom. Her plan, of course, was to go straight to the kitchen where she thought Jack would s
till be sitting, no doubt waiting for her to get out of the shower so she could help him get settled in her extra bedroom. But as she passed the foot of her bed, she suddenly realized that Jack was lying across it. She came to an abrupt halt and gaped.
He was sound asleep. Just like that. While she was in the shower. She could tell he was out cold by his low, steady breathing. Not only was that a dead giveaway, but he hadn’t moved a muscle since she’d spotted him. He was lying flat on his back, his arms thrown out, his legs hanging over the side of her mattress. His feet were placed flat on the floor. Obviously he’d lain across her bed, waiting for her to come out from the shower, and had gone out like a light instead.
Now what was she going to do with him? Beth wondered. There was no way she could carry him into the next bedroom. Not by herself. Besides, she would wake him up if she tried, and she didn’t want to do that. Poor guy, this was the first shut-eye he’d had in over twenty-four hours. Not to mention the fact that he was still trying to recover from jet lag.
Besides, this was her house, wasn’t it? She could allow him to sleep anywhere she wanted. The fact was, he wasn’t hurting anyone by being in her bed. She wasn’t even going to be home while he slept.
Should she just leave him sprawled out on top of her mattress like that? she debated. At some point, wouldn’t he get chilled, or perhaps get a cramped muscle?
Did she dare try to move him, though?
His shoes, she thought suddenly. The least she could do was remove his shoes. Stepping forward, Beth dropped to her knees at his feet. In the next moment she removed one shiny black loafer from his foot, then his black sock, and then his other black loafer and sock. Now he was barefoot, and she felt almost certain he was more comfortable. She rose from the floor and smiled to herself.
Then her eyes skidded over his sleeping form.
His belt, she realized a second later. She needed to loosen his belt, too. No doubt he would breathe easier and, therefore, rest better. She quickly leaned over him, bracing herself on one hand while she worked the buckle until it finally gave way, causing his belt to relax around his waist.
Straightening up and breathing a sigh of relief, she was certain he was going to be much more comfortable now. And it was time she finished getting herself ready to go to work. She had another early appointment this morning for a potential sale on a house. The couple involved wanted to meet with her at eight forty-five. That was less than two hours away.
She was turning to go back into the bathroom to blow-dry her hair when for no particular reason, she caught sight of his bare feet...his bare toes. Only this time, she didn’t think they were going to be okay. In fact, she became somewhat concerned. With her central cooling unit pushing cold air into the rooms of her house all day long, those bare little darlings might very well end up getting cold. She stood there, eyeing them, while she twitched her mouth back and forth, debating whether or not she should put his socks back on.
Instead, she came to another conclusion. One along the same line of thinking, only on a much larger scale. It wasn’t just his feet that needed to be protected against the cool environment of her home, but his whole body. He needed to be under the covers on her bed. But how could she make that happen? She couldn’t exactly pull the covers over him when he was lying on top of them, still wearing his pants and shirt. Not only would his clothing be a complete hindrance to him while he slept under the covers, but they would end up being even more of a mess than they already were. She was a stickler about things like that. Just how difficult, she wondered, would it be to get him undressed down to his shorts and then get him under the covers of her bed?
She would never know unless she gave it a try.
She decided to start with his pants.
Then she quickly decided to remove his shirt instead.
Beth crawled on the bed alongside him, breathed in deeply and began to unbutton his shirt.
She did it carefully, slowly remembering the evening only two nights ago when she and Jack had gone out to Wilibee’s pond. He’d taken his shirt off that night. So had she. Swallowing hard, she fumbled with the last button that held the shirt together and then slowly dragged the two sides apart. Her breath locked in her throat. Heaven help her, but he was so beautiful.
She couldn’t help herself. She ran the tips of her fingers lightly over his taut skin, feeling his rib cage, the flatness of his abdomen, the tightness of his nipples. His belly button was peeking out above the waistline of his pants, and Beth got the sudden naughty urge to kiss him there.
She broke out in a cold sweat instead. The kind that had a way of making her realize how close she had just come to making a complete fool of herself. She couldn’t believe she’d actually thought of doing something that scandalous to Jack. For heaven’s sake, what had she been thinking?
She quickly refocused on her task, turning her attention to the waistband of his trousers, and quickly unfastening it. Then, fumbling her way down to his zipper, she began tugging lightly on the pull tab.
Suddenly her wrists were encircled in a viselike grip.
Startled, she sucked in a deep breath and cut her eyes to look at Jack. He was staring at her. “What in the hell are you doing?”
“I...uh...I...was putting you to bed.”
He blinked twice and then stared at her blankly.
She glanced down at what she’d been trying to do—dear Lord, she had him all undressed—and then looked back up to meet his expression. She was lucky he was her best friend. Otherwise, he might have misconstrued her intentions. “I...uh...was trying to undress you without waking you up so I could get you under the covers.” She frowned. “I guess I goofed, huh?”
It seemed to take him a moment to absorb everything she said, but when finally he did, he smiled and began to methodically move her into a position where she ended up sitting on top of him, her legs folded under on each side of him. “There,” he said, apparently pleased with where he had her.
She was sitting on his stomach.
Hot, naked skin against hot, naked skin.
The thought of it took her breath away.
And then he untied the sash at her waist and opened up her robe until she was completely naked to his viewing.
Beth’s breath locked in her throat. “Oh, no, Jack, now I know we shouldn’t be doing this.”
“And I shouldn’t have caught you undressing me, but I did,” he countered. Then he reached out and caressed her breasts, and Beth thought the top of her head would explode from the crazed emotions surging upward through her body.
“This is insane, Jack,” she said breathlessly.
“I know,” he replied in that deep, gruff-sounding voice of his. He pulled her to him and kissed her hungrily between her breasts. “But do you honestly want me to stop now?” he asked, pulling away and looking deep into her eyes.
Beth was in a tug-of-war with herself. Of course, she didn’t want him to stop. Not ever. Having him touch her like this was pure heaven. But not stopping him had serious consequences. Consequences that they might not be able to live with tomorrow. This moment wasn’t just about sex, and they both knew it. This was about need...and abandonment...and something else that went much deeper than they would ever admit. It was about desire and a deep down hunger that was eating at her soul. This was taboo territory for her—for them, no doubt about it.
She had been right a moment ago. This was insane.
Suddenly Jack rolled over and now was on top of her. He began kissing her breasts, her neck, her lips. He used his tongue...his mouth. He rubbed the side of his face against one of her breasts. It was rough...exciting...sexy. Beth was on fire. She wanted him. She wanted all of him.
“Jack...please...wait...” she said, fighting for control. “I have to get to work on time.”
“I could get you pregnant right now—this very minute,” he whispered near her ear. “Just think about it, Beth. All you have to do is say the word.” His hand slipped between her legs, and Beth thought she would sur
ely die from the sheer pleasure of his touch.
She wanted it all so bad—him... a baby. “But we’re not married yet,” she heard herself say.
Abruptly he stopped the delicious things he was doing to her body and gazed deeply, meaningfully into her eyes as only her dearest, most trusted friend would have done. “Does having a marriage certificate first really mean that much to you?”
Beth knew the answer to that one. It had been a part of her soul for too long for her not to. “Yes.”
“And would you regret it later on if you decided to break your own rules?”
“Are we talking about what’s happening between us right now?” she asked, wide-eyed.
“Yeah,” he said gruffly. “We’re talking about what’s happening between us right now.”
Beth turned her face away from him. She needed a moment where she wasn’t being completely influenced by his penetrating gaze. Finally she nodded. “Yeah, probably.”
For a brief second, he didn’t move a muscle. Then, suddenly, he lifted himself from on top of her and said, “Okay, then. That does it. We wait.”
A sudden splash of cold, harsh air rushed over her nakedness. Having moved to the foot of her bed, Jack gazed down at her and said, “I can’t believe I just said that.”
Finally, though, after apparently coming to terms with it, he grinned. “Go on. Get out of here, Beth, and go to work before I change my mind about this whole matter and get back into bed with you. I’d sure hate for you not to be able to live with yourself if we did something rash. Besides,” he continued, that smile of his easing all the way across his face, “I thought you said I could get some rest around here. Where’s all the quiet you promised me?”
Beth pulled her robe closed and gaped at him. “Look, if you’re trying to imply what just happened was my fault—”
He raised his hand to calm her. “I didn’t say that. But just who was caught undressing who when I woke up?” he said smugly.
Beth sat up at the end of her bed. “I wasn’t undressing you, at least not for the reason you think.”
Jack came closer and lifted her chin until she was looking at him. Then he smiled into her eyes. “I know why you were undressing me, Beth. And thanks.”
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