Sparring Partners

by Leigh Morgan

  "Of course." William said. "Everyone needs an occasional chocolate cake."

  "You won't get any backers if you can't market the idea." Jordon said, raining on fairyland. "You need to apply what you want on a much greater scale to get any meaningful money. You should start with the mid-west and work your way toward the coasts. I could run a market analysis for you." Jordon said, matter of fact. He even made sense in a cold, analytical, profit minded kind of way.

  Reed wanted to make a difference in the quality of life of the local people she cared about. Going national had no appeal at all to her. She almost stuck her tongue out at him, but restrained herself since his family was present and she didn't know them all that well yet.

  "Unfortunately, before we can do any of that, we need to save enough money to pave the driveway and make the rest of the house handicapped accessible." Finn said from the shadows, drawing everyone's attention.

  Reed set down her glass. "Nothing like a dose of reality to kill the 'anything' fairy. You and Jordon really know how to zap the magic out of good clean 'what if' fun." Reed said, watching her aunt take the last empty seat at the table. She sat next to Henry who, as far as Reed could recall, said nothing since William and Lily arrived.

  "Someone has to keep your feet on the ground." Finn said.

  "William and Lily Bennett, meet my very practical aunt, Finn Mohr. Finn these are -"

  "Jordon's parents?" Finn asked.

  "Not exactly dear." Lily stuck out her hand. "I'm Jordon's mother, William is his uncle." Lily cocked her head at Finn. "You don't look much over forty. You're young to be Reed's aunt."

  Reed choked on her wine. Lily had an amazing delivery. She didn't sound offensive at all commenting on another woman's age. Finn, however, never spoke about her age and ate anyone alive who had the audacity to bring it up. Reed took another swallow and waited for the sparks to fly, knowing anything she said or did to try to stop it would only make Finn's reaction worse.

  Charlie, who teased Finn mercilessly when it was just the four of them, winked and threw Finn an empathetic smile as he handed her a large glass of white wine. Finn smiled back, surprising Reed and Jesse who seemed to be holding his breath until that moment.

  Finn took a sip. "Nice to meet you Lily and William." Her eyes flashed to Henry briefly before settling on Lily. "Thank you for the compliment. I was almost ten when Reed was born. My sister, Reed's mother, died when Reed was fourteen. Reed came to live with me when she was almost sixteen. I'm forty-seven. She's thirty-eight and our birthdays are coming soon." Finn raised her glass in salute.

  "I didn't mean to offend you." Lily said, sounding sincerely upset by the prospect that she might have.

  "You didn't offend. I doubt you could. I loved my sister a great deal. It hurt Reed and me very badly when she died, but we've made a family here and we take care of each other. I guess that makes us closer than some aunt-niece pairs." Finn looked at William. "But that must be true for you and Jordon too. I mean since you've worked so closely together for almost twenty years you must be very close."

  The mood at the table turned cold. Reed wasn't quite sure why Finn's observation would take the twinkle from William's eye, but it did. For a split second Reed read sorrow in those eyes and then it was gone, replaced by a veneer of civility that was a mirror of Jordon's stoic countenance. She suddenly wanted to spank them both. For such smart men, who obviously loved one another, they sure were acting like idiots.

  Lily must have thought so too because she stood and took Reed's hand in both of hers.

  "It was lovely to meet you, dear." She said, enveloping Reed in another wonderfully scented hug. This time Reed didn't pull away. "Forgive us for dropping in uninvited. I was so excited when William called with the news that Jordon married, I hopped on the first plane and made William bring me straight here. I'm staying in Lake Geneva at William's cottage for the next week or so, please come and see me if you have time."

  Lily kissed Jordon's cheek and said good-bye to the table before Reed could formulate a response. Jordon's mother left as gracefully as she'd come, leaving a faint trail of oriental musk and flowers in her wake. Reed jumped up to walk her and Jordon's uncle to their car, but Jordon waved her away. He probably needed time alone with them to explain why he married without even calling to let his mother know.

  It was a question she wanted the answer to as well, but not tonight. Tonight she wanted to savor what was left of the night without any more questions like what would you want if you could have anything?

  An image of Jordon naked under her willow tree flashed through Reed's brain. Instead of banishing it, Reed closed her eyes and held it close as she curled into her chair while savoring the rest of her wine. Jordon's words to her over dinner on the night she married him flitted through her head.

  "There is nothing I won't give you..."

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  "You'd better give that girl what she wants." William said, out of ear shot of the others.

  "I've never been a two-point-three-kid kind of guy, William. You know that. What exactly is it that you want from me? I did what you asked. I married before your deadline. Reed isn't an actress or a model. She's a real woman."

  "And she's got real feelings."

  "Don't you think I know that?" Jordon asked, more than a little irritated with William and his dictates and his aura of superiority.

  "Then don't piss all over her dreams by telling her she's a failure if she doesn't want to turn Potters Woods into a country wide franchise. She's interested in people, Jordon. I don't think she cares about profit margins, marketing strategies, or setting a new trend in elder care."

  "Well she'd better wake up. Without a firm understanding of marketing and profit margins she's never going to get Potters Woods out of the red. She can't even make a go of it with Irma's influx of capital."

  "If you keep talking dollars and cents, that woman is going to leave you in less than a year. How are you going to earn her love if you can't see what's important to her?" William said.

  Jordon fervently hoped it wouldn't take that long to get Reed to love him. William only gave him a month, but with William, the rules kept changing, and Jordon was getting tired of trying to keep up. He'd done enough for one week.

  "Someone's got to talk sense into Reed. I don't think Finn's going to manage it alone for very long." Jordon raked a hand through his hair, not sure what William wanted to hear, not sure how much he still cared.

  William opened the car door. "Do yourself a favor, Jordon. Make that woman happy. You just might find yourself again if you do." He got in and shut the door before Jordon could respond. His mother, ever the peace maker, kept her window shut during his exchange with William.

  Now that William was behind the wheel and the engine was running Lily must have felt free to open her window.

  "Come to the lake cottage, Jordon. Bring your family." She didn't wait for his response, but then she never did. Lily, like mothers everywhere, made her demand, no matter how sweetly, and expected to be obeyed. And he, like every child capable of feeling love and guilt, would obey. Eventually.

  Bring your family.

  To the cottage.

  Last week the closest thing he had to a family besides an uncle he'd rather forget he was related to and a mother he loved and knew he should see more often, was Henry. Now he had a hodge-podge, rag-time band of strangers he married into and a wife who wasn't sure she even wanted his name.

  It had been one hell of a week. And it wasn't over yet.

  Last week the 'cottage' was just that, a nice place to go when William held court as the country gentleman. This week the 'cottage' looked more like what it was, a twenty bedroom mansion on a Lake Geneva with a swimming pool on the roof next to the observatory. How in the world was he supposed to take his new 'family' there?

  For the first time in his adult life Jordon wondered, no matter how briefly, whether running B.H. was worth all the crap that came with it. The instant acid burning its way
through the tender lining of his stomach at the thought told him not to go there, dragons waited down that dark cave, and his elf stripped away and hid his armor.

  Jordon pushed thoughts of B.H. to the dark recesses of his mind, and the rolling acid in his gut began to neutralize, before burning yet another hole. Thoughts of Reed freshly scrubbed, curled on the patio chair in her ridiculous frog pajama bottoms and her cropped 'super foot' sweat shirt, sipping wine, her Mona Lisa smile concealing her slightly overlapping front teeth, made all the monsters go away.

  Even so, he was getting his armor back. Even if he had to frisk her for it.

  Maybe there was more to having a wife than bizarre in-laws, community property laws, and dinner at the cottage.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  The evening grass was wet on Finn's feet as Henry pulled her through the woods to her workshop. Her thin halter dress and strappy canvas sandals weren't much protection from the damp ground or the juniper bushes scraping her skin along the path to her workshop. The path was lit by solar powered lanterns that emitted a soft coppery glow, so there was no need for Henry to pull her so close to the bushes, he could clearly see his way.

  Of course, Henry probably would have found his way with no light at all given how determined he seemed to pull her arm out of its socket. Since she couldn't pull away, Finn ignored him and the stinging of her skin and concentrated on the magic of the evening.

  Maybe then she'd calm down enough not to kill every Bennett within a hundred mile radius. Maybe not.

  Focus on the flowers. Ignore the assholes.

  The planting beds around the shop contained the sleeping plants and the waking night blooming flowers Reed planted to surprise Finn after Finn sold one of her giant flying pig sculptures, for a hideously ridiculous amount to a Chicago art gallery. Dusk had blossomed into night. The time of fairies had passed for the evening, now was the time all the tricksters came out to play.

  That was okay with Finn. She felt tricked enough by Jordon and William and Jordon's beautiful mother, not to mention Henry, who thought he had some kind of right to drag her through the woods.

  Screw them. Screw them all. Screw them twice and may the tricksters play havoc with their immortal souls and their digestive tracts. It was the least they deserved.

  Henry stopped abruptly causing Finn to crash into him. "What's so damn funny? I don't see anything funny in the way you treated Jordon's mother. Lily is a wonderful woman. Just what's going through that demonic head of yours?"

  "Actually I was hoping you and every Bennett here tonight got as sick to your stomachs as I got the second I recognized William."

  Henry ran a hand through his hair, ruffling the spiky pieces above his neck. They went right back to where they had been so Finn didn't see much point in the exercise, but she noticed he did it whenever he really didn't know what to say. He took a deep breath and turned his mist colored gaze toward her. Their color was wasted in the moonlight. All Finn saw was black pupils set in a frustrated face, softened by something she couldn't identify. It was almost like Henry was willing himself to calm while at the same time willing her to understand.

  "No way." Finn said, pushing Henry away.

  "No way, what?"

  "No way am I going to stand here and listen to you make excuses for lying to me."

  "I never lied to you." Henry said, sounding like he believed it.

  "Yeah? Whattaya call not telling me that my niece married the nephew of the richest man in America. An oversight? No, let me guess, you forgot?" Finn yanked her arm free of his grip the second Henry loosened it and headed for her shop and the shotgun she kept behind the door.

  Henry was on her in a second. Damn the man. He moved more silently and quickly than anyone Finn had ever met. She'd been intrigued by him before. Now she just wanted him gone.

  "Hold on a second. I want to talk to you."

  "I don't want to talk to you. Get off my property."

  "Well as you so tactfully pointed out it's not strictly your property anymore is it? Jordon has control over at least half of Reed's half."

  "That half of a half isn't anywhere near my shop. In fact, I think that quarter of the property is under the pond. Why don't you go wait there. I'll find you in the morning."

  Henry moved to grab her again. Finn managed to wiggle away from him and make her way through the shop door. She almost had it slammed shut when Henry stopped it with his foot.

  "Damn it." He said. "That hurt."

  Finn grunted and let go of the door, taking a good deal of satisfaction from his obvious pain. She was pissed and had no intention of letting one over-sized-sex-oozing-misty-eyed menace of a man talk her out of her pique. That settled, she stepped away from the door and Henry charged through, slamming it behind him. He leaned against it so she couldn't escape.

  Finn didn't need to escape. She'd simply shoot him if she needed to.

  "You are one stubborn woman."

  Finn didn't respond.

  "Childish too, for someone of your advanced years."

  Finn's eyes narrowed and her lips pursed but she remained silent. The rushing in her ears wasn't silent though. It whooshed with the force of a hurricane.

  Advanced years? My tight ass.

  Her narrow-eyed frosty smile begged him to continue even as volcanic heat scorched the tips of her ears making her blush all over.

  Henry took a step closer.

  Finn jutted her chin up and took two steps closer to him. Close enough to slap him if he opened his mouth again.

  Something in her eyes must have given away her intent because Henry smiled openly. His shoulders relaxed and he heaved a sigh of relief. That annoying twinkle was back in his eyes as well. Finn's hands itched with the need to fist at her sides. She forced herself to relax instead, since he seemed to gain satisfaction the angrier she became.

  "Go ahead, baby. Hit me. Get it out of your system."

  "If I hit you, you wouldn't be smiling like the Cheshire cat."

  Henry trailed the back of his hand lightly across her jaw until his thumb found her lower lip. "If it would make you smile again, I'd stand here and let you hit me all night."

  "Spoken like a man who has no appreciation for the danger one woman can wield when properly motivated."

  "Spoken like a man who'd do just about anything to motivate you."

  Finn's eyes turned cold, as cold as her heart. "Like lie to me?"

  Henry had her against him, holding her face in both his hands quicker than any viper was capable of striking. "Look at me, Finn. Really look."

  His expression was earnest enough, but then Finn had seen earnest before. This time there was more there. An expression flitted across his face that was more than sincerity, more than honesty, it was pain mixed with need and a longing so deep Finn felt the ice around her melt. She tried to speak, she even opened her lips, but she couldn't get past the swelling in her throat or the inexplicable need to blink back the warm wetness in her eyes.

  "It wasn't my truth to tell. It was Jordon's. I have one job. One job I do extraordinarily well. I protect Jordon. I don't think for him. I don't lie for him. I keep him safe. That's what I do. That's who I am. For the record, I was against hiding the truth from the time Jordon asked me to find Reed's ring size. I..."

  Finn put her fingers to Henry's lips, stilling his words. "Shut up big man and kiss me before I take you up on your other offer. Right now I'd like to hit you almost as much as I'd like to see you naked."

  "Weren't you with your teenage painter earlier today?"

  "Does that matter to you?"

  Henry's eyes widened and something in them flared before he became more rueful. "Yeah, surprisingly enough it does."

  "Why?"

  Henry shook his head, the smile on his face sad and small. "I don't want to go there. Not yet. Maybe never."

  The thump in her heart forcefully reminded Finn she could and did feel more than just that which was safe. Henry wasn't twenty-five with nothing to offer but a good tim
e and a warm bed when she wanted one. Henry wasn't someone she could brush off with a wave and a smile when he got too close. Henry wasn't safe. Safe kept her numb. Tonight she wanted, needed to feel.

  Alive.

  Vital.

  Close.

  She swallowed past the lump in her throat and moved forward, taking Henry's hand in hers. He didn't pull away. His hand was warm, hot even, stilling some of the trembling in hers she couldn't control.

  "Would it matter to you to know I haven't slept with Pete in weeks? That part of our relationship, such as it was, ended. Pete and I are collaborating on a mixed-media project. It's kind of hush-hush right now, but it could make us players in the field. We're talking our own shows in Milwaukee and Chicago. It's big."

  "Yes."

  "Yes?"

  "Yes. It makes a difference."

  Henry moved closer. Finn could feel the heat coming from his body. He was so tall he made her feel fragile but not afraid. He wasn't pushing her. He wasn't using his size as a threat. He was surrounding her with warmth and a sense of need she could taste and smell but couldn't see. Even the air around her hummed with his energy.

  Inviting.

  Intriguingly filled with the promise of instant gratification.

  Irresistible.

  "Dark chocolate."

  "What?" He asked squeezing her hand gently.

  "You smell like homemade hot chocolate laced with Kahlua on a snow covered night mixed with wood smoke from a roaring fire." Finn closed her eyes. "I can almost taste you."

  Henry laughed, a full rich sound that caused Finn's eyes to fly open, startled by the sound. Before she could react further, he swept her off her feet like she weighed no more than a toddler, an unusual experience for Finn who was used to towering over most men.