by Carrie Elks
Trying not to wake Juliet up, he rolled to the edge of the mattress, and climbed out of the bed, pulling his shorts on. He padded down the wooden hallway in his bare feet, then down the stairs and into the kitchen, where he poured himself a glass of water.
The cold liquid soothed his parched lips as he emptied the tumbler, then refilled it, carrying it into the living room. Opening his MacBook, he clicked on the Internet, quickly searching for Within and Cross, the realtors who were trying to sell the wharf. He found them almost right away. The listing for the wharf was on their front page, and he clicked on the ‘more information’ link to see what they had to say.
Development Opportunity.
This old-fashioned wharf has been part of Shaw Haven since the 1760s. Originally a merchant port, this has now become the playground of the rich, and is ripe for redevelopment. With permission for a hotel and leisure complex, plus easy access to all major routes and to Baltimore Airport, we don’t expect this to be available for long. All enquiries to Within and Cross, by telephone, email or in person to our Baltimore offices.
He took another mouthful of water, trying to stem the anger he could feel rising up from his gut. Of all the things his father could sell, he must have known the wharf would be the one to rile Ryan up into a fury. Had he planned it that way?
Ryan grew up on that wharf, following his grandfather around, learning how to sail and fish. And when his grandfather had been dying from cancer in a sterile hospital room, Ryan had promised him to protect the wharf, to ensure Stan always had a job there, and to make sure the Miss Maisie never went anywhere else. Ryan closed his eyes as he remembered his teenaged self, gently holding his grandfather’s papery hand as he listened to his hoarse, old man voice. He’d agreed to protect it, to make sure it never passed into the wrong hands. Stupidly, he’d thought it was an easily kept promise. His mother had loved the wharf as much as he did – surely she wouldn’t let his father sell it.
He shook his head at himself. That was exactly what his father would do. When did he ever listen to his wife?
‘Are you okay?’ Juliet walked into the room. She was wearing his white T-shirt and nothing else. Just the sight of her was enough to stir him, filling his mind with the promise of her body. ‘I woke up and you were gone. I didn’t know where you were.’
He pushed the screen of the MacBook back down. ‘I couldn’t sleep, I came down to grab a glass of water.’ He pointed at the half-empty tumbler on the table in front of him.
She leaned on the back of the sofa. ‘What were you looking at on your laptop?’
She felt too far away. He needed her closer. Ryan reached for her, grabbing her hands and guiding her around the arm of the sofa, then pulled her onto his lap. She was facing him, her bare legs on either side of his. He felt the softness of her skin, the warmth of her inner thighs, and the need stirred inside him again.
‘I looked up the wharf listing.’ He ran his hands down her gorgeous hair, his eyes roaming her body as if it were a feast. ‘They’re offering it for redevelopment.’
‘What kind of redevelopment?’
‘The expensive kind, I guess. It’s prime real estate, close to the big cities, close to the interstate. The perfect place to build hotels or condos, for rich people looking to spend the weekend here. Add in the views and the river access, and it’s ripe for the picking.’
She frowned. ‘Why are they selling it? Hasn’t it been in your family for years?’
‘Generations.’ He nodded. ‘Pretty much as long as there’s been a Shaw in Shaw Haven, we’ve owned the wharf and the area around it. That’s how the Shaws built up their wealth, controlling what came in and out of the area. We all grew up with half a foot in the Chesapeake. That river is part of us.’
She ran her hands over his chest, tracing circles with her fingers. Just the sensation of her touch was enough to calm him.
‘Could you afford to buy it?’ she asked. ‘That way you could prevent it from being redeveloped.’
‘Not the amount of money they’re asking for it. I’d need to raise the capital, and I could only do that if I had a business plan. Which would mean redeveloping it, or thinking of something else we can do.’ He looked up at her. ‘Plus I’ll be leaving in a few months, I don’t need any more ties here.’
She licked her lips, trying to compose her features. ‘So why are they selling it now? Is the company in trouble?’
‘No, the last set of accounts I saw were healthy as hell. Plus I know they can raise money if they want to. They offered me enough to walk away from the company.’
‘They tried to buy you out?’ Her eyes widened with shock. ‘Why?’
‘Because they think I’m a liability. My father hates the fact that I’m a shareholder. There’s no love lost between us – there hasn’t been for years – and he just wants me gone.’ He pressed his face into her neck. She smelled of fresh apples. He was distracted by the sweetness of her skin.
She trailed her finger up his torso, her eyes following their progress. He could see her trying to work through his words, make sense of what he was saying. ‘But why wouldn’t you just take the money and go? You’ve already said you don’t want to stay here, that you’ll be leaving soon. So why have the hassle of being dragged into this when you don’t need it? You could sell up, let them do what they want with the wharf and never look back.’
He wrapped his hands around her lower back, pulling her closer until their chests were pressed together. He could feel her breasts beneath the fabric of his T-shirt, and the warmth of her against his skin.
‘I made a promise to make sure the wharf stayed in the family,’ he said. ‘And it’s not just about me, it’s about Charlie, too. He’s a Shaw and a Sutherland and I owe it to him to protect his heritage.’
Her lips brushed against his neck, her hair trailing over his shoulder. ‘That makes sense,’ she said. ‘It’s amazing the things we’ll do for our kids.’
‘Like stay in a town where we don’t feel as though we belong.’
He could feel her smile against his skin. ‘And the way we’ll put up with shit from other people just to protect them,’ she agreed.
She caught his earlobe between her teeth, gently flicking it with her tongue. The sensation made him gasp, tipping his head back, as he inclined his hips to press his hardness against her. She was driving him crazy, with soft touches and warm lips, and he was loving every minute of it.
‘Maybe that’s why this thing between us is so important,’ she whispered, her fingers trailing down his arms. ‘Having a little haven for the both of us. Somewhere we can escape from the assholes and the family and everything that brings us down.’
Is that what this was? An escape from reality? He closed his eyes as she moved her lips to his jaw, kissing and licking at his skin until he ached to kiss her back. She was soothing and arousing and finding every emotion in between.
Her legs were warm and soft as she straddled him, lifting herself up, and using her hand to guide him until he was exactly where he wanted to be. Pressing against her, feeling her desire, her need, countering it with his own.
He’d be her haven if she’d be his. He couldn’t think of anywhere he’d rather escape to.
They were sitting on the porch swing at the rear of his house, hidden from the road and the neighbours. Juliet was on Ryan’s lap, a blanket wrapped around them both, his arms encircling her beneath the wool. She curled into him as he used his feet to rock them back and forth, his movements slow and gentle, as though he was as exhausted as she was. She closed her eyes, breathing him in as she pressed her cheek to his sweater-covered chest, not wanting the moment to end.
‘What time is Thomas bringing Poppy back?’ Ryan asked. His voice held a tone that felt as wistful as her heart. It felt as though summer was coming to an end even though they were reaching the end of November. It was that aching last-day-of-holiday feeling, and it made her want to stamp her feet and cry.
‘In about an hour. The same time you h
ave to pick Charlie up,’ she murmured, her voice half-muffled by his chest. ‘I’m hoping she’s feeling as tired as I am, I’m going to need an early night.’
She felt his laugh, as his chest rose and fell against her. ‘So I did wear you out.’
‘We wore each other out. You don’t seem full of beans either, my friend.’
‘Yeah, well sex every other hour will do that to you. And maybe you’re right, I must be getting old.’
‘You’ll never be old.’
‘Tell that to my muscles. Right now they’re saying I’m beat, and that even if I wanted more sex – which I do, by the way – they’re not going to play ball.’
Her smile deepened. ‘I like playing with balls.’ When she looked up he was grinning at her. He was devastatingly attractive. Her golden man with the sexy smile.
‘I know you do, London.’
Funny how she’d bristled at that nickname when he’d first used it. Now she loved it. It was like a little secret only the two of them knew. She wanted to cover it in bubble wrap and keep it safe, protect it from the harsh winds of the outside world. Because right then everything felt fragile. Like a wisp of smoke blowing on the wind.
‘What are you going to tell Charlie if he asks what you’ve been doing?’
‘Ah, I’ll probably say something like “sailing, eating … spending some time in London”.’
She sat up on his lap, slapping him on the arm. ‘Stop it!’
He shrugged. ‘Charlie’s not going to care what I’ve been doing. He’ll be too full of his sleepover and the movie to ask me how I’ve been. And that’s how it should be, he’s a kid. He doesn’t need to worry about his old man.’
He was staring at her, making her body react in that old, familiar way. Her chest tightened, her thigh muscles ached. She couldn’t get enough of him. ‘Poppy will definitely want to know. That girl can smell a lie from a mile away.’
Ryan brushed her hair from her face, his hands gentle as he trailed them against her cheeks. ‘So what are you going to tell her?’
‘Well, nothing about this, of course.’ Her eyes widened at the thought. ‘I guess I’ll tell her about clearing the shop out, and making plans for the holiday displays, hopefully that will get her excited enough to stop her asking any more.’
‘What if Charlie tells her we went sailing? He was in the car when I asked you, remember? I told him we were going out on the boat.’
‘You did? Damn.’ She pulled her lip between her teeth, biting hard enough for it to hurt. ‘Ugh, I’m such a terrible liar. She can read me like a book.’
He was laughing again, pulling her into him, wrapping the blanket around them snugly. ‘Hey, calm down, it’s not that bad. And so what if Poppy finds out? Is that the end of the world?’
She stiffened in his arms. ‘Only if she tells Thomas … ’ She trailed off, not even wanting to think about it.
He tightened his hold on her. ‘Poppy won’t think to tell him, and neither will we. So we’ll be fine.’ His voice was reassuring.
She looked up at him, blinking rapidly, his face obscured by her lashes. ‘We will?’ She wanted to ask him what he meant by ‘we’, but the question died on her tongue. She wasn’t supposed to be thinking about the future.
‘Sure. Look, it’s not long until Christmas, the kids will be going crazy for the holidays, the school’s going to send them crazier still. And it’s not as if I’m going to be marching into your kitchen at tea time while the two of you are eating and kiss the hell out of you against the stove, is it?’
Her breath caught at the image. Why did that turn her on so much? ‘Um, no?’
‘Well, at least not when the kids are around. But if I catch you on your own, or bending down planting some flowers on a day Poppy’s not here, then I can’t be held responsible for my actions, okay?’ He grabbed her hair, pulling it into a thick ponytail in his palm, then slowly tugged, until her face was inclined to his. ‘Because if I catch you alone, London, I’m going to have to kiss you.’ His mouth brushed against hers. ‘And if I kiss you, I’m going to have to take your clothes off,’ he whispered into her lips. ‘And if I take your clothes off, I’m going to have to have sex with you.’
‘I don’t know if that’s a threat or a promise,’ she replied, her words mumbled against his mouth.
‘It’s both, beautiful. It’s both.’
18
Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again
– Romeo and Juliet
‘Momma, did the Native Americans really cook turkey for the Pilgrims?’ Poppy frowned, colouring the page with her brown pen. ‘And where did they buy it from? Was there a Whole Foods at Plymouth Rock?’
Juliet was staring out of the window at the house on the other side of the yard. Was it only five hours since she’d been there? ‘I don’t know, honey,’ she said, not actually hearing Poppy’s question. ‘Maybe we should Google it.’
‘Nicole doesn’t like turkey. She says eating meat is cruel. She’s a vegetable.’
Juliet stifled a laugh. ‘You mean a vegetarian.’
Poppy frowned. ‘That’s what I said. Anyway, she thinks Daddy should be one too. He said maybe he’d try it out some time.’
‘He did?’
‘Yeah, and then when Grandpa cooked burgers on Friday night, Nicole and Daddy had vegetable ones.’
Juliet pulled her gaze from Ryan’s house, staring at her daughter. She waited for the pain to set in. Hearing about Thomas and his girlfriend was usually like a fist to her gut, but instead of feeling sick she felt … nothing.
It was disconcerting.
‘What about you, what did you eat?’ Juliet closed up the dishwasher and pressed the buttons. The machine began to whirr as it took in water.
‘Oh I had a burger, and a hot dog, too. Grandpa burnt the sausages, but it was still okay.’
‘Sounds delicious.’
Ryan’s back door opened, and he walked out onto the deck. He had his camera in his hands, and leaned on the railing while he aimed it at the trees behind the house. He was oblivious to her stare, concentrating hard on whatever it was he’d seen in the leafless branches. She watched as he took his photographs, his face serious, his arms flexing, his hair falling over his brow. There was something undeniably sexy about his absorption, and the way his camera seemed like an extension of him. Poppy continued to chatter at the table, her attention taken by her colouring book, and Juliet answered her without thinking, her eyes still trained on the beautiful man from the house next door.
In an agonisingly slow movement, he turned the lens from the tree, until it was pointing straight at her window. He reached out to adjust it, as if zooming in, and she felt herself freeze as she stared at him through the glass.
Her breath caught in her throat as she saw him smile, a soft curve of his lips that made her ache inside.
Ryan turned from his spot on his deck, and walked back through his back door and into his kitchen. She stood for a minute, hoping he’d come out again, and somehow they’d be able to communicate from a distance.
The next moment her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out, staring at the screen absentmindedly.
You look beautiful in that dress, London.
Oh. Her hand fluttered to her chest. She could feel her heart hammering beneath her ribcage in response to his words. Black letters on a screen were no substitute for the real thing, but he was thinking about her, and that knowledge filled her with joy.
Still smiling, she quickly tapped out a reply.
What were you photographing?
It only took a moment for him to send a message back.
A red cardinal. It was hiding in the bare branches.
She thought again about his absorption, and how attractive it had been. For a moment she imagined herself travelling with him, watching him catalogue the beautiful scenery, the animals, the people. She bet it was something to see.
Can you send me the picture?
I took it with my SLR. I’ll develop an extra print for you.
Another thing that enticed her. His love of the whole process of photography. Though he’d told her he mostly used his digital camera when he was on a job, she knew from his description that it was his old-fashioned camera he loved best.
Thank you. BTW I miss you.
I miss you, too. I keep fantasising about
climbing up through your bedroom window.
She smiled at his suggestion, picturing him calling up to her like Romeo wooing Juliet on her balcony.
What are we, high schoolers?
I feel like a high schooler when you’re around.
Fancy hitting some bases with me?
You want to play baseball?
Won’t that wake the kids up?
You have a lot to learn, London.
Then teach me.
Oh, I plan to.
Another promise veiled as a threat. She was getting used to those.
‘I’ve been expecting you.’ Ryan’s father sat back in his tall leather chair, his hands steepled in front of him. The sleeves of his expensive wool suit showed just a hint of his white cufflinked sleeves. His office was spotless and paper-free. Everything was carefully in place, the way his father liked it. Even as a young child, Ryan had known how much his father hated mess. Every night, half an hour before his dad was due home, his mother would run around the house picking up toys and books, then drag Ryan into the bathroom and make him scrub his face and clean his teeth. Anything less than perfection wasn’t allowed.
He stared at his father for a moment, trying and failing to fathom him out. ‘Then you’ll know what this is about.’ Ryan hadn’t been able to get it out of his mind since Thanksgiving. He’d been stewing on it for days.
‘I was hoping you’d reconsidered my offer for your shares.’