Something Better

by Gail R Delaney

  Chapter Eighteen

  "You're amazing, and I want to know just how amazing. And you're ten kinds of sexy. I think the better question is why wouldn't I want to be with you."

  Andi glanced sideways across the cab of David's car, using her sunglasses to her advantage to watch him drive. Desert hills flashed by past his profile, but they were a blur. She studied him... the line of his jaw sprinkled whiskers too long to have been shaved this morning. Perhaps he hadn't bothered after returning to his house. She shifted her gaze over the firm set of his lips and the ridge of his brow over his sunglasses. He was beautifully made. She almost smiled, but suppressed it because it might give her away.

  He tilted his head, checking his mirrors to pull around a car in front of them, and she watched the way the muscles along his neck flexed with the action, and the way his throat moved when he swallowed. He had on a dark shirt, and it made her think of the tee shirt he'd worn that day in her trailer when he'd asked her to go to dinner. When he'd told her he wanted to be with her.

  Andi drew in a long, slow breath so she wouldn't draw his attention. On a day like today, she was glad he was a silent driver focused on the road. It gave her the chance to think.

  This was the car he'd driven when they went to dinner. The car he'd walked her to with the energy around them so intense it'd practically sparked a mid-summer wildfire. A thousand butterflies took flight low in her stomach as she remembered that evening in exquisite detail.

  David leaned into her, his hips pressing hers back into the car and she let her hands shift from his sides to his back beneath the jacket. It fell open further and he stood so close the warmth trapped inside warmed her arms. Andi couldn't catch her breath, and knew her heart pounded so hard he had to see the jump of her pulse at the base of her throat. He bent his neck and the tip of his nose brushed the side of her neck, his breath hot on her chilled skin.

  "Andi..."

  The word reverberated against her and his lips brushed her skin when he said her name, his voice rough like gravel and honey. Her fingers curled impulsively into his shirt and she moaned low in her throat. Her knees liquefied and she slumped back against the car, but his arms came around her as his mouth pressed to the bend where her shoulder met her neck.

  His mouth on her skin wasn't enough and she pulled at his shirt, bringing him closer and at the same time pulling away from him to find his mouth with hers. Then he was kissing her so deep the only thing she could do was open her lips to him and kiss back with the same need and intensity. His hands held her head, cushioning her against the edge of the car.

  She couldn't touch him enough, couldn't pull him close enough, couldn't feel enough of him and when his hips pushed hard against her, she groaned into his mouth and the pitch of the kiss amped up another degree. One hand cupped her head, his fingers laced into her hair, and the other slid down her body to her waist and around to the small of her back, yanking her hard against him.

  Andi wanted... that was all her mind could process. She wanted more... wanted to have him closer, wanted to kiss him deeper, wanted to taste him and breath him and feel him.

  "Are you plotting?"

  David's question snapped Andi out of her thoughts and she jumped. He chuckled, shifting his attention only momentarily from the road to look in her direction. Or, she assumed he looked in her direction since he had on sunglasses just like her.

  "Kind of," she answered.

  "New book?"

  Andi smiled. "Maybe the best love story ever told."

  "Science Fiction?"

  "Well, the whole plot is pretty implausible." His eyebrows quirked, and she imagined his expression of interest behind the glasses. Andi smiled, enjoying the sense of calm that had settled over her since talking to Theresa and the sense of warmth that had wrapped around her since they left the attorney's office. She was still afraid, but it no longer smothered her and stole her ability to breathe or think or live.

  She shifted so she was partially turned toward him, her back against the door, and drew up her left leg to set her foot on the edge of the seat. The car was compact inside, but because of the low profile, it made it easy to practically fold herself up in the seat. Not so practical for midnight make out sessions.

  David's lips quirked up in a grin. "Must be a good story. Based on that smile."

  She let it spread, and pulled her lower lip through her teeth. "I'll let you know how it turns out."

  David took his hand from the steering wheel and curled it around her raised knee, his thumb stroking the denim. Warmth spread from the touch and Andi inhaled. She laid her head on the back of the seat, no longer trying to hide the fact that she watched him. She ran her fingertips along his bare forearm, enjoying the feel of tiny, crinkly hairs beneath her fingertips.

  "Do you want to go eat? We could swing over to--"

  "No," she answered, gently cutting off his suggestion. "Let's just..." Andi drew a breath. "Let's just go back to your house. I'll call Maggie and tell her what's going on. I'm just not hungry right now."

  David nodded, his fingers squeezing her knee gently. They fell into silence again as he navigated the city highways. It wouldn't take long to get back to his house since it was barely on the outskirts of Los Angeles, but the Saturday afternoon traffic was thick enough to slow them down. Andi let her mind drift again in the companionable silence. Driving from David's house to the lawyer's had be a strained silence, with Andi fighting just to breathe. Now, she was more angry than anything else. Angry at Lawrence for -- even for a few hours -- convincing her that he had the power to take away her happiness. Angry at herself for letting him.

  She didn't realize she'd reached out to touch David until her fingertips slipped through the shorter hair behind his ear and he turned. He just smiled and went back to his driving. For just the briefest moment, Andi's thoughts flashed back to the early years of her marriage to Lawrence. When they first married, he was affectionate within the walls of their apartment. Outside, he said it was inappropriate and once actually scolded her in the hallway of a business associate's home because she'd reached for his hand. As time went on, she learned to keep her hands to herself. It was difficult at first because despite his coldness, she'd loved him and wanted his nearness. She told herself he was right and she had to learn to school her actions. As time went on, touching Lawrence never crossed her mind.

  The thought of ever touching Lawrence Bonherre left a bitter taste in her mouth. Andi focused instead on the man beside her... a man who had never once moved away from her touch.

  "I want to be with you, Andi. Just with you. Around you. Near you. I want to touch you all the time. I want to hold your hand. I want to feel your skin. I want..."

  The smile David gave her curled heat in her stomach, and at that moment she wanted to kiss him more than she'd ever wanted to kiss him. Just the thought of his arms around her and his lips on hers made her breath catch and her skin flush. She glanced out the car windows to determine where they were. He'd gotten on the 405 without her noticing, but it took her a few moments to figure out just how far they were from Mulholland. The way her blood skimmed beneath her skin, it wouldn't be soon enough.

  By the time he pulled through the security gates at his home and parked the car, Andi had plotted half a dozen ways to kiss him between the car and the front door. After that, she was pretty much open to any surface he chose. She could almost hear Mags in her head. "You've turned into a hussy! I'm so proud." Andi curled her lips between her teeth to hide her snicker.

  David parked the car in the wide driveway, not bothering to put it back in the garage. He turned it off and pulled the keys, turning with his lips open as if ready to say something. Instead, a synthesized rendition of Hello, Dolly filled the small space and whatever David intended to say disappeared on a huff. He opened the door and climbed out of the car, simultaneously unclipping his phone from his belt.

  "Hi, Ma."

  Andi opened her door as he came around to her side. He offered his free ha
nd and helped her from the car, smiling at her as he held the phone to his ear. He nodded his head, humming in affirmation to whatever his mother might be saying on the other end.

  "Ma, I told you I'd talk to her."

  Andi tilted her head and he winked at her, drawing her against him with his free arm to place a kiss on her forehead. Not what she wanted, but it was a start. David huffed, a sound intended to sound exasperated but it was laced too strongly with his smile to be convincing.

  "Okay, Ma. Okay." He tilted the phone beneath his chin so his mother could hear him, but he wasn't speaking directly into it. "I know it's a good month away, but my mother wants us to go there for Thanksgiving. Maybe stay until the weekend. I told her we'd have to talk about it but she's being pushy." He said the last directly into the phone, but again any edge to his voice was lost in his grin.

  Andi smiled, chuckling softly at the easy teasing she'd seen before when David talked to his mother. She hadn't met Dolores Masters yet, but based on her children, Andi imagined already that she would like the woman. "I... I think so. I mean--" The words 'I don't know what Lawrence will want' stuck in her throat.

  David nodded and shifted to take her hand, leading her toward the house. "We're going to work on it." Pause. "Ma, that's all I can say. We don't know."

  He let go of her hand to dig out his keys and unlock the house door, pushing it open to let Andi enter first. The house was still, the light subdued with the blinds partially shut in the huge living room that encompassed three-quarters of the main level. Andi understood the concept of the house, but hadn't been any further than the main level. Most often, David preferred coming to her house in Santa Clarita. He'd never explained why, or actually said as much, but whenever plans were made he wanted to be there instead of his house in Hollywood. The house was several decades old, and spoke of Classic Hollywood from the outside despite its unique architecture. The inside was more modern, bright and clean. The kitchen ran along the back of the house, with doorways entering it from the open living room space. To the left of the kitchen area was an open staircase that led downward to the bedroom levels. He'd told her briefly once that the lower level was divided. Half was set up with two guest bedrooms and bathrooms with another sitting area. The other half was his bedroom. A second staircase in the opposite back corner of the house -- not readily visible from the front door -- led to the master bedroom.

  David was still talking to his mother as he shut the house door. He motioned toward the kitchen and tipped his hand to his mouth, asking her if she wanted a drink. She shook her head, smiling as he walked to the desk along one wall.

  "I'm trying to find it, Ma. Hang on."

  Andi smiled, remembering the evening she eavesdropped on him talking to his mother in his driveway. "Yes, Ma. She's a nice girl. A very nice girl. And beautiful."

  Andi leaned against the back of his couch and tried not to dwell on earlier that day. She'd come here with such resolve -- and such a broken heart. In hindsight, she had panicked at Lawrence's threats. She'd let him once again intimidate and manipulate her.

  She curled her fingers into the couch back. Never again.

  "I can't find it. I think it's downstairs." David looked over his shoulder at her and pointed toward the stairs. "I'll be right back, sweetheart."

  She nodded and watched him go. His conversation with his mother continued until his voice faded down the staircase. Andi strolled slowly around the open space, letting her fingertips run along the back of the couch and along the edge of photographs he had on display along the fireplace ledge. Pictures of his family -- his mother, his sisters, his two nieces now that Caroline had given birth a few weeks before -- some together, some individual. Some he was in, some she thought perhaps he was the photographer. She stopped at the window and looked back at the couch. Her body flushed hot again when she remembered an evening here, just a few weeks before, when their kissing and cuddling had accelerated so fast that they might very well have made love right there on the couch. Clothes hadn't come off, but David's warm, gentle but strong hands were inside her sweater and had caressed her body until she had been ready to scream.

  That night, it hadn't been David who stopped them. That night it had been her.

  She remembered now the cold panic that had cut through the languid heat his touch had created. She hadn't asked him to stop, but David had stilled over her, and she knew the tension in her body had said more than anything she might have said. He'd apologized... he'd actually apologized... for letting it go too far. Andi had been angry then, and she was angry now, because she knew the real reason.

  No matter how much she fought it and wanted to deny it, Lawrence Bonherre had infiltrated every aspect of her life. Even down to her relationship with the man she loved... a man she wanted to be with forever. In every way.

  "Having sex with you is like screwing a rag doll!"

  "... how long do you think a man like David Bishop will stay once he takes you to bed?"

  "If you couldn't keep me, what makes you think Bishop will settle when there's so much more satisfying fish in the sea. You're just a convenient diversion."

  Lawrence's words buzzed in her head every time she came close to that final step of intimacy with David. She wanted to be with him, not just to relieve some primitive itch, but because she loved him. Just like he'd told her more than once -- she craved David's touch. She craved being near him and with him and beside him, and just... part of his life. She loved that he knew Jake got an A on his last science project, and that he had been the one to help Jake make a 3D model of an ocean ecosystem. She loved that when he looked at her, he always smiled. She loved that he wanted to do things right... forever.

  She loved that he fought for her.

  She loved that she knew he would have done anything to keep her son with her.

  And she loved him because nestled amongst all the photos of his family was a new photo. David sat with his arms extended on either side of him, with Andi on one side and Jake on the other. It was on her couch at home, and she now vaguely remembered Maggie taking the picture. He must have asked for it from her. Andi blinked and smiled.

  She loved him for loving them.

  Andi touched the photo, then walked with purpose across the living room to the camouflaged staircase he'd disappeared down minutes before. Taking a deep breath, Andi took the first step.

  His voice was distant, so she didn't expect to find him when she reached the bedroom. The stairs opened directly into the room and she recognized parts of it from the webcam conversation they'd had weeks before while he recovered from his on-set accident. The bed sat against the interior wall, made but not meticulously so, with pillows tossed haphazardly against the padded headboard. She stopped one step short of reaching the floor, which was a light bamboo just like upstairs with a large rug in rich brown rolled out beneath and around the bed. To her left was a sliding door that opened onto a large patio with an amazing view of Hollywood. The sun had begun to set, daylight just dim enough to let her see the lights of the city.

  Ahead of her was a wall with built in bureau storage spanning half the length, with a large mirror set up in the center. To the left appeared to be the entrance into an open bathroom with a partial glass-block wall. The right end of the built-ins had a desk where David crouched with his phone wedged between his ear and shoulder while he shuffled through one of the desk's file drawers.

  "Okay, here it is," he said, pulling something from the desk as he straightened his head and held the phone properly. He stood and bent over his desk, reading whatever paperwork he'd just found. Andi couldn't help but admire the view. He rattled off a number. "Caroline can just reference that number when she calls. They'll tell her. Right. Okay, I'll talk to you later. Love you, too."

  He turned as he hung up the phone, and Andi knew the moment he saw her because he immediately smiled. "Hey. Sorry about that."

  "Everything okay?"

  David tossed his phone on the bed as he passed the corner. "Yeah. I ope
ned a college savings plan for Abigail, and Caroline wanted to get some information. Are you okay?" he asked.

  "I am now," she said with a firm nod. "I was scared before -- I still am -- but I'm not running scared."

  "Did you call Maggie?"

  "Not yet. I will. In a little while." Andi smiled, leaning her hip against the stair railing. "I love how much you care about your family."

  David crossed the room to stand at the foot of the stairs, resting his hands on each rail. Standing on the bottom step, she was slightly taller than him and he tipped his head back to look at her. He smiled, the slow sexy smile she loved that always tugged up one corner of his mouth and then the other. David leaned into her so his chest brushed her stomach, and Andi raised her hands to run her nails through the hair at his temples.

  "Is that the only thing you love about me?" he asked with a grin. David turned into her touch, kissing the heel of her hand.

  "Well, it doesn't hurt that you're desired by women all over the world," she said with the most serious expression she could muster... given the position and circumstance. Which wasn't all that serious, she figured. She slid her fingertips from his temples down the side of his neck until she could toy with his collar. "It's quite the rush to my ego, you know, that you're here with me. Can't help but love that."

  David chuckled, one of his hands sliding around her hips to pull her against him. His chin was level with her breasts, and despite the cooler weather, Andi wished right now she were in one of the lighter, thinner sundresses he preferred. Partially because she wanted less between her body and his -- tempt fate a little, as he liked to say -- and partially because her skin was so hot and flushed her sweater smothered her.

  "Well, you know..." His hand slipped beneath the hem of her sweater just enough to brush the skin at the small of her back. She nearly groaned. "I consider myself pretty lucky. I've got the hottest novelist on the planet in my arms."

  "And in your bedroom..." she whispered. Any louder, and she knew her voice would crack.