by Jamie Pope
There was so much love here. The entire town came out to board up businesses and save people’s homes. There was no place on earth that could compare with this. And there was no other man. He was good for her. He made life better. How could she risk that for a job?
“Say something.”
He opened his mouth to speak when a large crash reverberated through the building. He looked at her, into her eyes, before he shook his head and rushed out of the room without a word. Not a smile. Not a squeeze of her hand. Not a single clue that he was feeling what she was feeling. She had been so sure that he loved her.
* * *
Derek rushed toward the sound of the crash. He feared the worst, some sort of heavy object crashing through a window and injuring the people in the room. But he was relieved to see that the kitchen door had been forced open by the wind and smacked against the wall so hard that a shelf collapsed, knocking all the pots and pans to the floor. One of the police officers present sprang up when he heard the crash and together they pushed the heavy door closed again. The wind was still wild and howling, but the rain seemed to have slowed down substantially. Wind damage was bad, but it was the flooding Derek was more concerned with. Broken windows could be fixed. Extreme flooding would mean so many more problems.
“Thanks, Mike,” he said to the officer. “Would you mind calming everyone down for me? I’ll clean up in here.”
“I’m on it.”
“Is everything okay?” Nanny walked into the kitchen. She somehow managed to look elegant in the middle of a hurricane in her heather-gray cashmere loungewear.
“Yeah, just a runaway door. Everything is under control now.”
“You’re smiling.”
“Am I?”
“I guess you don’t need a reason to smile after closing the door that just scared the spit out of all of us, but one does wonder why you look so ridiculously happy right now.”
“She loves me.”
“Ava? Yes, dear. Anyone who has seen the way she looks at you knows that.”
“She told me she loves me. She told me she wants to make a life with me. Here on this island. We’re going to raise our family here.” He realized that he had left her alone in the room without responding to her earth-shattering statement. “I have to go back to her. I have to ask her to marry me.” He turned to go to her.
“Wait! You need a ring.” She slipped her beloved ring from her finger and handed it to him. “This is meant to be on her finger now.”
He looked at the ring that he knew Ava had loved and felt a moment of apprehension. The ring had rested on his grandmother’s finger his entire life. There were times, when he was a boy, that he caught his grandfather touching it as he stroked her hand, pride in his eyes. It seemed wrong to take it from her. It seemed like it was breaking the connection she felt with her husband who was no longer here. “I’m not sure I can accept this.”
“You don’t have a choice. This has been passed down through the males in our family for a century. If I don’t give this to you, his mother will haunt me for the rest of my life. And believe me—that woman could nag. I want Ava to have this ring. I knew the moment I met her that this would be hers one day. Besides, your grandfather was a very smart man. He got me a replacement one twenty years ago. I’m just glad I finally get to wear it.”
“Thank you.” He let out a breath. “This is perfect.”
“Go on. Go ask her. We’re going to need a reason to celebrate once this terrible storm is over.”
He nodded and took off toward Ava, but when he got back to the room where he’d left her, she wasn’t there.
In fact, she was nowhere to be found.
* * *
It was much harder to hide in the daylight. People in the community center were up early the next morning eager to see the damage that had been done to their homes and businesses. So when the first police officers went outside to assess the roads and damage, Ava slipped out, too. She couldn’t be around all those people. She couldn’t look anyone in the eye. She didn’t want to see Derek’s family, who were all there that night, because they would take one look at her and just know.
He had been gone for a long time last night, and for a while she waited, expecting him to come back and say something to her. Max was full of fake I-love-yous, but she knew Derek was the type of man who only said it when he meant it, and he hadn’t said it yet. He hadn’t said it to her once. She knew there had been no broken windows last night. The loud bang was just from a door that blew open. He must be thinking about what he was going to say to her. Something like: “I care deeply for you, but I’m just not ready to get that serious.”
She had probably scared him off. She couldn’t leave it at I love you. She had to tell him that she wanted to grow old with him, that she wanted to carry his children. He was a man who had never been committed to anyone. That should have tipped her off, given her the first clue that maybe it was because he didn’t want to be.
She stepped out on the street in front of the community center. Things didn’t look too bad. There were kids’ toys and patio furniture on the ground. Trash cans that escaped from their homes. A few cars had cracked windshields. Others seemed perfectly fine. As far as she could see, no trees had been uprooted, no power lines knocked down.
She might be able to walk home. The walk was just a bit more than a mile. She thought about calling her brother to get her, or maybe catching a ride with one of the people leaving this morning.
“Where the hell have you been?” Derek grabbed her shoulder and spun her around to face him. He was furious. More angry than she had ever seen him. His nostrils were flared, his body was tight, his eyes full of fire. She tried to back away from him, but he grabbed her shoulders, preventing her flight. “Do you have any idea how worried I was?” he roared at her. “I looked for you all night. I thought you did something stupid and walked home in the middle of a hurricane. I called your cell phone a hundred times.”
“I’m not stupid enough to walk home in a hurricane.”
“Why did you leave?”
“Why do you think I left? Because I didn’t want to see you!”
“Why not?”
“Why not? Why not! I tell you that I love you. I spill my guts to you, and you say nothing. Not a damn thing. Do you know how hard it was for me to trust again? Do you know how stupid I feel for falling in love with another man who doesn’t love me back?”
“Are you insane? Have you lost your mind? Seriously, Ava. You are spoiled. You are used to getting what you want when you want it. My town was being hit with the largest storm we have ever seen. There was a loud explosion. I’ve got a hundred people here that I’m accountable for, so excuse me if I needed to go make sure no one was being crushed while we were sharing a tender moment.”
“No one was being crushed. It was a damn door! You were stalling for time, trying to figure out a way to let me down easy.”
“I can’t believe this is the woman you sent me!” he said to the sky. He grabbed her hand and pulled her back inside. The building was full of people milling about; the smell of pancakes had begun to waft through the air. “Excuse me, everyone. Can I please have your attention?”
“What the hell are you doing, Derek?”
“Proving a point.” He looked back to the crowd, which had suddenly gone silent. “I’m afraid that this woman standing next to me doesn’t realize that I’m in love with her.”
“Of course you’re in love with her,” someone said from the crowd.
“Thank you,” Derek responded. “This woman challenges me. She gets under my skin. She makes me want to pull my hair out.”
“You’re no day at the beach yourself,” she retorted.
“But I love her,” Derek said firmly. “I’m insanely in love with her. So much so that I was and am willing to give up living on this
island and being your mayor to be with her.”
“What!” Ava said as she heard groans of dismay. “You are not leaving this island. I wouldn’t let you.”
“You wouldn’t have a choice. If you leave, I will follow you. If you take a job halfway across the world, I will be there to hold your passport. You were meant for me, Ava, and there is nothing in this world I wouldn’t do to be with you.”
“I would never ask you to leave your home, you idiot.” Her eyes filled with tears.
“And I would never ask you to give up a dream job to be with me.”
“I’m not giving it up for you. I’m giving it up for myself because my life would be too empty without you in it every day.”
He got down on one knee. “Finally, we agree on something.” He pulled a ring out of his pocket. His grandmother’s ring. The one she had admired so much. “I want you to be the mother of my children. I want to grow old with you. I want to wake up every day for the rest of my life beside you. So, I’m asking you in front of the entire town to be my wife. Will you marry me?”
She was stunned silent. All she could do was look at him, her eyes so filled with tears that she could barely see him.
“For God’s sake, Ava, put the man out of his misery and say yes.” She turned at the sound of her twin’s voice. He was standing just behind her; in fact, her entire family was standing behind her.
“How?” she asked Derek.
“I called them when I couldn’t find you this morning. They came right down. Now, can I have my answer, please?”
“Yes!” She collapsed on him. “Yes, yes. Of course yes. Yes.”
“Good.” He exhaled. And when he kissed her, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from PLAYING WITH DESIRE by Reese Ryan.
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Playing with Desire
by Reese Ryan
Chapter 1
Maya stepped inside Nadine’s Seafood Restaurant. The first blast of frigid air from the restaurant was a welcome contrast to the hot, sticky sea air outside, but now a chill seeped into her skin.
She scanned the waiting lounge. Her half sister, Kendra, wasn’t among the patrons waiting to be seated. Nor was she answering her cell. A knot tightened in Maya’s belly. Kendra was a stickler for punctuality and her cell phone was practically an appendage.
Something isn’t right.
Maya rubbed her arms, covered in goose bumps. She resisted the urge to adjust the strapless bodice of her dress. A birthday gift from Kendra, the thigh-skimming, baby-doll dress was shorter than anything she’d buy for herself. This was her last birthday as a twentysomething, so she’d agreed to wear it. After tonight, it would go to the back of her closet, where it belonged.
She was twenty-nine now and curvier than she’d ever been. Five years of marriage, two beautiful daughters and a nasty divorce did that to a girl. Better to keep her imperfections under wraps.
“Hello, ma’am. Do you have a reservation for this evening?” The hostess’s cheery voice dragged Maya out of her daze.
She cringed. Two hours of prep and makeup and she still couldn’t avoid being called ma’am. “Yes. Under the name Kendra Williams, I think.”
A frown formed on the hostess’s thin lips. “Sorry, I don’t have a reservation for Kendra Williams.”
“Then it’s under my name, Maya Alvarez.”
“Ah...there you are.” The hostess grinned. “Happy birthday to you, Ms. Alvarez. I’ll seat you as soon as the rest of your party arrives. If you’d like to have a seat—” the girl gestured toward the bank of leather sofas beneath a window spanning the front of the restaurant “—or perhaps you’d prefer to wait at the bar.”
Climb onto a bar stool in this dress? Not happening.
Maya thanked the girl, then surveyed the available seats. On one sofa, a sliver of space remained between two women chatting in what sounded like rapid-fire Chinese. An end seat remained on another where a couple was seated with a wailing infant.
The final sofa had a single occupant, a man wearing a charcoal-gray suit that fit his long, athletic frame like a well-designed glove. A patterned tie, in nearly the same deep shade of red as her dress, punctuated his crisp white shirt. One leg crossed over the other, the man stroked the neat beard that crawled along his strong jawline, connecting with a thin mustache. His deep tan hinted at long days spent at the beach, rather than in a tanning bed. The sides of his hair were cut low, but the crown had just enough length that it curled into dark, thick ringlets. She shivered at the brief sensation of running her fingers through them.
She licked her lips, a tingle crawling up her spine. The man glanced up, his penetrating gaze meeting hers. Maya’s heart raced.
How long had she been gawking at him like an idiot?
The corners of his sensual mouth curled as he gave her a quick nod of acknowledgment.
Maya nodded in return and sank into the cushion at the opposite end of the leather couch. When she crossed her legs, the hem of her dress rose, exposing more of her brown skin, glistening with shimmering body oil. Uncrossing her legs, she tugged at the fabric and placed her small clutch in her lap.
Her spine stiffened. Aware of the man’s stare, she glanced over at him. Lips curled into a lopsided smirk, he averted his gaze. Maya’s cheeks flooded with heat. Two minutes exposed to in-the-flesh suit porn and she’d made a complete fool of herself. Twice.
The supple leather clung to her thighs as she leaned against the arm of the couch, maintaining maximum distance from the man.
“I don’t bite.” His velvety voice startled her. He had an accent. British, maybe. She hadn’t expected that. Draping his arm over the back of the empty seat between them, he leaned closer. “Not usually, at least.”
Maya stared at him with wide eyes. How the hell was she supposed to respond to an opening line like that?
The man’s playful smile deepened.
“This seat taken?” An older man stood over them. His gaze shifted from Hot Suit Guy’s face to hers before landing on her cleavage, enhanced by the strapless dress.
It figured that the one day she wasn’t dressed in her usual soccer mom getup, she’d encounter a viejo pervertido—a dirty old man.
“No,” they responded nearly simultaneou
sly. The man’s voice was reserved. Hers barely masked her disappointment. Their lack of enthusiasm didn’t faze the ogler. He wedged his girth between them.
“Hello, beautiful.” A lecherous grin slightly parted the older man’s dry lips. “Dining alone tonight?”
Kendra’s ringtone sounded from her clutch. Perfect timing. Maya forced a polite smile and held up one finger. Though not the one she wanted to hold up. She fished out her phone. “Hey. Everything okay?”
“Afraid not.” Kendra heaved a sigh. “Honey, I can’t make it tonight. Kai fell down the stairs after I dropped him off at my mom’s. I had to turn around and take him to the hospital.”
“Is he all right?” Maya pressed a hand to her chest.
“Knocked out his two front teeth. He needs stitches and emergency dental surgery. We’re at the hospital now.”
“Which one? I’ll meet you there as soon as I can.”
“Don’t you dare.” Kendra’s tone was firm. “It’s bad enough I’m bailing on you at the last minute. There’s no way I’m letting you spend your birthday in the emergency room. You at the restaurant?”
“Yes.” Maya turned her body away from the ogler’s.
“Good. Dinner is still on me. Get the lobster, drinks, the works. I’ll reimburse you. I feel so badly about this.”
“I don’t mind sitting with you guys, really. You’ve sat with me through worse.”
“No. I’m serious, Maya. This is your first birthday without the girls since the divorce. I wanted to be there for you tonight.”
Maya tugged her lower lip between her teeth. Her daughters were in Puerto Rico with their dad. Tomorrow afternoon they’d be flower girls when he wed the new and improved Mrs. Carlos Alvarez—a fresh-faced, barely legal coed. The one weekend of the summer his family church was available happened to be on her birthday weekend. She would never deny Sofia and Gabriella the chance to spend time with their dad. So she’d put on a brave face and watched them board a plane with their father two days ago. She’d been sulking ever since. “I miss them.”