“It’s just sore, AJ. You had nothing to do with hurting me.” She leaned over to kiss the brown skin that he had in such abundance.
“Still, I shouldn’t have—”
“Sh,” she put a finger to his lips. “I’ll take a whirlpool bath in the morning and it’ll be fine.”
“You have a whirlpool – in your bathtub?”
She had to smile. Leave it to a man to be awed by gadgets over the thought of her being naked in a bath. “Do you want to join me?”
“I think I was given the wrong room. Maybe I’d better move in here.”
She would have been disappointed, but his gaze swept over her before settling on her face, and his softly drawled words, added to the heat from his gaze, caused her need to burst into flames. “Besides, the view in this room is nothing short of spectacular.”
* * *
Chanti woke to bright sunshine. Looking at her bedside clock, she saw it was nine o’clock. Nine? Good Lord, she never slept that late. And it was Monday besides. She’d be late for work.
She had been sleeping so soundly it wasn’t until she swung her legs over the side of the bed and a pain shot out from her knee that everything came back to her in a rush. She fell back onto the bed with a smile. She didn’t feel guilty about last night. In fact, she felt wonderful. In the past, well the very few times she had gone beyond the dinner-movie-date thing, she had always felt guilty. For her, sex was the ultimate intimacy and there was no way a couple should have lies between them. AJ knew who she was; she wasn’t hiding anything from him and he had made her feel so very special last night.
Chanti took a long, hot shower without the brace on her leg, which AJ had so gently removed before massaging her sore muscles. She definitely could get used to his attention. As she dressed in wool slacks and a sweater, she thought of all she had learned about herself in the last month. Mostly, she found she didn’t mind being taken care of, despite her protests of being an independent woman. The difference was that AJ knew she could run her business, and even tell him what to do on their project, but he still always treated her with respect and deference. He took care with her, opening doors or helping her with her coat. She sighed. It was the best of both worlds, but was there a future for them?
She caught sight of AJ just as she neared the top of the stairs. “Will you help me?” she called down to him.
He took the stairs two at a time, swung her up in his arms and descended, holding her tightly against his chest. Just as he put her down in the entryway, he kissed her ear.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine,” she replied, looking up at him. “I really didn’t need your help. I just wanted to feel your arms around me.”
He grinned. “I like a woman who knows what she wants.” He tugged her to him, kissing her gently on the lips. “How’s the leg? You’re not wearing the brace.”
“It’s not as sore as I thought it would be after last night,” she said then blushed furiously as AJ laughed out loud. “I didn’t mean because of that,” she tried to backpedal. “I meant because I didn’t sleep with the brace on.”
“I know,” he whispered, his voice so sexy when he let his Texas drawl seep through. “I was there.” He was so close, and smelled so good; Chanti began to wonder what it would be like to see him in her house on a daily basis, forever.
And then she remembered he was from Texas and didn’t like the cold.
“Are you ready to drive me to work?” She needed to focus on her job, not the hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach at the thought of AJ going home.
“No, ma’am,” he said, taking her hand to lead her through the living room to the kitchen.
“What? AJ, you know we only have a week.”
“I understand, sweetheart,” he said, holding a chair out for her at the breakfast nook.
Chanti glanced over to see Wilma and George grinning widely. She shook her head, deciding there was no help for it. They were all conspiring against her. She noticed AJ check his watch just as the front door bell rang. George excused himself to answer it.
“The great thing about today’s business world,” AJ said nonchalantly as he settled across from her with a cup of coffee, “is that technology allows you to have satellite offices, teleconferencing, or set up remote access.”
Chanti had just processed his comments and started thinking of the possibilities when Annie and Jake followed George into the kitchen, laughing and chattering like a couple of teens.
“We brought everything you needed, AJ,” Jake said as he dropped his coat on a stool, heard Wilma’s harrumph, and flushed as he picked it up and clutched it against his chest. “We left it in the dining room.”
“Good. Have some breakfast and we’ll get started. I told Wilma there’d be four of us and it looks like she thought I said forty.”
“Young people have to eat,” Wilma protested, and Chanti watched her put a bowl of scrambled eggs on the counter next to the bacon, hash browns and pancakes. George was getting juice and milk out of the fridge.
She looked around her busy kitchen; aware for the first time how empty it had always been before. It wasn’t that three more people filled it up so much. It was more the energy level and feeling of closeness – almost like family – that AJ inspired with his casual takeover of her life. She thought to protest, but realized she didn’t mind at all.
“How’s your leg, Ms M?” Annie asked, still formal even without the four walls of the office.
Chanti glanced at AJ, who gave her a tender smile. “I’m being well taken care of and it’s healing nicely, thanks.”
* * *
After breakfast, AJ and Jake set two laptops up in the dining room while Chanti and Annie had another cup of coffee. By the time she hobbled through the swinging door, AJ was searching his databases and Jake was printing off invitations.
“With the small number of invites we’re doing,” he said, “I didn’t send this project through the printing department. Now, it’s a good thing I didn’t since I can just print as needed.”
“I am so glad I promoted you,” Chanti said, giving him a smile. She really meant it. In less than a month, Jake had been more help to her than Tillman had in all the years he’d been with the company.
“What do I need to do?” she asked the group at large.
“Nothing,” Jake said.
“Rest,” AJ piped up at the same time.
“I will not,” Chanti retorted. She pointed a finger at Annie, who had just opened her mouth. “And don’t you add to their nonsense. We’re all in this together, and it’s my leg that’s bummed, not my brain or my hands.”
“Here’s the latest letters,” Annie quickly soothed her ruffled feathers. “I was going to open them so AJ can input the information directly since I don’t have a computer to work on, but if we split the pile, it’ll go faster.”
“And you can go sit on the couch with your leg up while you do it,” AJ said.
She could tell by his tone of voice that it wasn’t a command, but he would be hard pressed not to make it one if she didn’t obey. Instead of arguing, she gave him a sweet smile and walked to the couch. Annie put a small pillow on the coffee table and helped Chanti get settled.
“Don’t encourage him,” Chanti said under her breath.
Annie just grinned. “But don’t you just love it when they take charge?” she returned in a whisper. She suddenly seemed to remember her place. “I mean…that is…”
“It’s okay, I do understand, and yes, sometimes it’s very nice to be taken care of.” Chanti put a finger to her lips. “But it wouldn’t do to let them know that. It will just make them puff up their macho chests more than they already are.”
Annie nodded, then returned to the mail tub on the table to grab a batch of letters for Chanti to read. “It’s a good thing the number of letters has dwindled,” Annie said. “With the contest closing Thursday, we hardly have time to get invitations out before the party on Sunday.”
�
��Speaking of,” Chanti said, taking the letters from Annie, “we need a committee meeting this week to make sure everything’s on track.”
Annie nodded. “I can make those calls and set something up. What day?”
Even though it was Chanti’s business, and the party was her idea, she found herself inadvertently glancing at AJ. She had come to depend on him not just for the emotional relationship they had developed, but for day-to-day things she had once handled herself,
and that made her frown. He would be leaving for Texas in too short an amount of time.
“I have to take you back for your check up on Wednesday,” he said as if he had always taken care of her. “Besides, you have no car. So, would it work if Annie set your meeting up for Wednesday afternoon?” He smiled at her, and his gaze told her that everything would be all right if she would just trust him.
He was letting her make the decision, with his help, of course, but Chanti loved him all the more for knowing just how much he needed to be involved. Holding his gaze with her own, she said, “Annie, you heard the man. I’m bedridden until Wednesday.”
His gaze warmed at the word bed, and Chanti could feel her face flush. She quickly glanced down at the stack of letters on her lap, grabbing the letter opener and turning over the first of the group. She unfolded the single sheet of paper and read to herself.
“Dear bitch. Messing with your car didn’t work. If you don’t send one hundred thousand dollars to me in cash at post office box 497, next time I’ll go after you more directly.” It was signed Santa’s elf.
Chapter 13
AJ watched Chanti suck in a breath, the color draining from her face. She dropped the letter she was reading onto her lap as though it burned her.
“AJ,” she whispered but he was already up and moving, his chair clattering to the floor behind him.
“Sweetheart, what’s wrong? You’re as white as a sheet.” He dropped to a knee beside her, grabbing her hands in his larger ones.
She didn’t, or couldn’t, answer him, but just shook her head, tears coursing down her cheeks. He picked up the letter she had been reading and quickly scanned it.
“Son of a bitch,” he growled, springing to his feet. “Have there been others like this?” he hollered and watched Chanti shrink back against the couch, frightened.
“Annie! Have there been threatening letters before?” He watched the young woman glance nervously between Chanti and him, but she answered, even though he wasn’t her boss.
“Only one that I know, demanding money.”
He turned back to Chanti, who was still staring at him in wide-eyed fright. He took a deep breath, held it, then softly blew it out. It wasn’t the first time he had run into threats and coercion against the people he worked for, but this was Chanti, the woman he loved. He paced across the living room to the front windows, trying to get his anger under control before he spoke again. Rage coursed through him, not even at whoever had sent the threatening letter, but at himself because at the moment he was powerless against the unknown threat.
When he felt he could speak without shaking, he walked back to the couch and dropped down beside Chanti, circling her shoulders with one arm and tugging her close. All work had stopped as Jake and Annie both sat silent at the table, waiting for him to solve this latest problem.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked quietly. He felt the tiniest of shrugs.
“I thought it was a prank and I had no intention of paying it.”
“Did you keep the first letter?”
She shook her head. “Who would do something like this?”
“Baby, if I knew, I’d string him up by his b—” he caught himself, realizing there was no need to get vulgar in front of the women, even though what he wanted to do to anyone who threatened Chanti would get him hauled off to jail. “I spoke to the police this morning and there are still no leads on your car. Maybe with this,” he nodded to the letter he had tossed on the coffee table, “they can get somewhere.”
He turned to Annie. “Ask Wilma for a plastic bag of some sort, will you? There’s no sense getting any more fingerprints on this letter, although I doubt the blackmailer was dumb enough to leave his.
“Chanti, would this have anything to do with your company? Say a possible take-over?”
She shook her head. “We’re privately owned.”
He looked at the three people around him whom he had come to respect and admire for their dedication and determination; and the one he had come to love. They were a week away from the party and he had to make sure it was a success because it made Chanti happy. But he also knew he had to step in and take over the investigation, with or without police permission. He had the resources and people to do it. In the meantime, he wasn’t letting Chanti out of his sight.
* * *
AJ’s arm was comforting and Chanti would have liked to stay snuggled against him for the rest of the day, but she knew better. Besides the fact there was too much to do, she told herself she was stronger than that. To prove her point, if only to herself, she struggled off the couch and limped to the kitchen for more coffee.
“Are you alright?” AJ had followed her through the door. As she poured herself a cup of coffee, he gently rubbed her back. She arched into his hand, loving the feel of his touch.
With a sigh, she turned. “Better, with you here.”
He stepped closer. “That’s my girl,” he whispered just before his lips found hers. It wasn’t a kiss of passion, although Chanti felt her body heat all the same, and longed for them to be alone again. Thinking about Annie and Jake waiting for them in the other room, she reluctantly pulled away.
“Do you suppose those two think it’s strange that you and I are…well, that you…” She found she didn’t exactly know how to put their relationship into words.
“That I call you baby and sweetheart, and that I have to touch you constantly?” He whispered against her neck as he nibbled, apparently not content that she broke the kiss.
All she could do was nod.
“Honey, they probably had us figured out even before we did.” He nibbled on her earlobe and her legs grew weak.
“Damn.” He backed away and at first Chanti thought she had done something wrong, but he pulled his cell phone from the waist clip and flipped it open.
“Hello, darlin’, what’s up?”
Chanti narrowed her gaze at him. Who was he calling darling? She tried to step around him, but he pinned her in place, his hips on one side and a strong hand braced on the counter on the other. As he casually talked on the phone--to someone named darling--he slid his hips against her side, and when darling was talking, he continued to nibble on her neck.
She could elbow him in the ribs, she thought, or stomp on his foot with her heel. She could tear his hair out, or yank the cell phone away from his ear and tell darling that he was taken. Instead, she absorbed the heat radiating from his body, swayed against him as he caressed her hip to pull her closer, and decided she would wait to kill him until after she found out who he was talking to.
“Who was that?” she asked the instant he flipped the phone shut.
“Jealous?” He grinned at her.
There was no sense denying it, and he might as well know she had no intentions of sharing what she had discovered in his arms last night. “Yes.”
Her answer seemed to surprise him before pleasure transformed his features. “I’m sorry. We tend to say darlin’ a lot down in Texas, especially when we know someone well.”
“And?”
He laughed outright at her jealousy. “It was Becky, my secretary. You remember talking to her?”
Chanti did, but that didn’t mean anything. She wanted to ask AJ if they had history, if there was anything between them, if…Suddenly she realized that if she had learned anything at all about AJ in the past month, it was that he was innately honest and trustworthy. She didn’t need any more answer than that.
“How is Becky?” she asked instead of all the original
questions that had bombarded her brain.
AJ kissed the tip of her nose, apparently realizing the crisis was over.
“She’s fine, and says hi. She remembers you very well. Anyway, there’s news on one front at least. We’ve managed to locate Mabel Johnson’s daughter.”
“Oh, AJ, that’s wonderful!”
“Well, maybe and maybe not. Chanti, you have to remember that some people who are adopted either don’t know it, or don’t want to have anything to do with their real parents. They sometimes feel anger at being abandoned.”
“I know, but the least we can do is see whether her daughter knows she’s adopted and if so, if she wants to meet her biological mother. Can we do that?”
AJ nodded. “Actually, the daughter lives in Chicago, too. Her name is Noel Stephens.”
Chanti jerked in surprise. “Noel? She’s one of our models!”
“Are you sure?”
Chanti had a moment of doubt. “Noel isn’t that common of a name, and her age would be about right. I can have Annie call personnel to get her actual birth date.” She threw her arms around AJ. “You are wonderful! Won’t it be exciting to see them reunited?”
“Chanti, remember what I said.”
She silenced him with a kiss. It was Christmas time, and that meant miracles could happen. She sincerely believed that.
* * *
They had the rest of the letters entered into the database by lunchtime, and AJ was running a search for the last group of addresses. Wilma had made a huge pot of corn chowder and homemade bread, of which he and Jake ate a whole loaf between them, and then they were back to work.
Chanti visited with Noel on the phone, and they had agreed to meet Wednesday afternoon. AJ was happy that Chanti hadn’t told Noel exactly why they were meeting, as this type of thing really needed to be done face to face.
“AJ, Mrs. Langford has a problem,” Annie called to him in the middle of the afternoon. She had been setting up the committee meeting for Wednesday.
It took AJ a minute to remember the name. “Martha Langford?”
If Wishes Were Magic Page 12