Sparring Partners

by Leigh Morgan

  "I've missed you too."

  Jordon pulled back and looked into her eyes. She saw longing there and a need to believe her, but there was something more. He was holding something back. Before she could probe any further, she was sitting on the grass and he was standing beside her.

  It took no time at all for him to disrobe. He took a step back, giving her time and distance. She supposed it was to decide if she really wanted this. If she really wanted him. He was even more powerful naked, standing before her like an offering from the Gods. Maybe he was. She certainly wanted him to be...to be what she wondered? Then it hit her with a clarity reserved for those few decisions in life that make us who we are.

  Hers.

  She wanted...she needed...him to be hers.

  Reed moved to him on her knees. She reached up and guided him to her mouth. He was hard and full and she had trouble taking him to the hilt, but that didn't stop her from trying. He tasted of salt, soap, and musk that was solely Jordon, and Reed loved it. She licked up and down. She sucked and savored, and in the end, when he tried to push her away, she held tight, taking as much of him as she could possibly take.

  Jordon shuddered, pumped, and collapsed next to her, pulling her on top of him as he went. He said nothing, just held her. Reed reveled in the small spasms that he couldn't control and the rapid beating of his heart.

  She fell asleep with a smile on her face, and a warm, thick, need between her legs.

  ...

  Jordon didn't sleep. He couldn't. Irma's words combined with his need to keep Reed close, when all he wanted to do was run away, had him so tied up inside he was beginning to wonder why he chose this path. It would be so easy to just tell William to get stuffed.

  All he'd have to do is give up everything he'd worked so hard to achieve.

  All he'd have to give up is his dream. A dream he'd nurtured his entire adult life.

  All he'd have to do is walk away before Reed got seriously hurt and never see her again.

  His arms tightened around her as acid scorched its way through his intestines on its way to the ulcer beginning in his stomach. Bile made its way up his esophagus burning the back of his throat leaving a coppery taste in his mouth. He forced it back, willed his stomach to calm, and concentrated on regulating his breathing.

  It worked. He only felt mildly nauseated now.

  Damn his mother, and her damned invitation. He had no interest in having Reed see the world he lived in, let alone the people who populated it. She wouldn't fit. She was too real. Too ordinary. Too t-shirt for a black tie world. His mother spent a week with her, she ought to know that. William had probably put her up to this. It was just the kind of perverse thing that would get the old man off. Watching Jordon squirm. Knowing he only had two weeks left to prove to William that Reed loved him.

  And then, once William crowned him king of B.H., Jordon would leave her. He'd have to. There was no room in that life for a wife and a family. There was no room for fishing and naked afternoons sleeping in the sun. His talents were being wasted making Potters Woods profitable. What did one alternative elder care experiment have to do with making the world a better place?

  Not much from what he saw, so far.

  Reed and Finn's plan was too expensive to market globally, and too inefficient to help more than a handful of people at a time. Potters Woods could turn a profit, because he'd done enough leg work to make it happen, but its owners would never be rich, and they'd have to work their tails off to keep earning a marginal income.

  He didn't belong in this world and Reed would be gobbled up in his.

  Jordon looked down at Reed's sleeping form curled into his side, half on top of him. So trusting and free with her body every time he asked. She was smiling in her sleep, lightly snoring, dead weight on his chest. Jordon brushed a lock of curly red hair away from one rosy, lightly freckled cheek. When he first met her, he thought she'd be prettier if she covered some of those freckles. Now he was glad she didn't wear make-up and powder.

  She was real. No illusion. No pretense.

  And he was a fraud.

  When she woke up he'd tell her the truth about why he married her and what he needed from her. She deserved that much. She sighed heavily and rubbed his chest, making him smile. Her lower body arched against him seeking relief and he could feel her wet heat warming his thigh. She was still smiling.

  "I love you."

  Her words were barely audible, but they reverberated like Big-Ben through his brain. Clear. Distinct. With a vibration that sang through his body and danced with his soul.

  Jordon rolled over and sank inside her before she fully woke. She was warm, wet, and welcoming, matching his pace that had nothing to do with finesse and everything to do with need. Need to capture her and hold tight, knowing she was like smoke. There, surrounding him, but elusive.

  He plunged deep and held her there as he felt her contract around him. She opened her magnificent peacock blue eyes and traced the wetness on his cheek. She brought one dampened finger to his lips, wetting them with his tears.

  "You're crying. What's wrong?"

  He didn't answer. He couldn't. He didn't know why or how or what caused the tumult in his chest, it simply was. Instead, he bent and kissed her, tasting his tears on her mouth.

  Jordon rocked forward, allowing his seed to release inside her as she held him.

  At least for this moment he didn't want to let her go.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  He meant to tell Reed the truth, he really did, but as the weekend from hell inched closer, Jordon just couldn't bring himself to do it. He took comfort in rationalization instead, nearly convincing himself it would be better for Reed not to know what a scum-bag he was before she faced his family and some of the most influential people in the country.

  It wouldn't do his plan, to convince William she loved him, any good if he told her the truth right before the big event either.

  And there was the rub. Even though she was asleep when she said 'I love you', and she hadn't said it again since, Jordon was ninety-seven percent sure Reed really did love him, or if not, she'd done a pretty good job of convincing herself she did. Jordon needed her conviction to convince William that he could pass every one of William's damn tests, and that he had what it was going to take to lead B.H. as a world force in personal investing. The force to see the world through the economic nightmare it became.

  Jordon glanced at his watch. It was literally hours before he and Reed and the rest of their motley crew were supposed to arrive for the family dinner as a prelude to the weekend's festivities.

  Lily planned similar weekend gatherings in the past, and for most of them Jordon had been able to conjure up a business reason, most often real, to excuse himself after the first day. Not this time. This time he had to convince William his marriage was real, not the sham it started out to be, and that his wife truly loved him. At least William didn't mandate that Jordon love Reed in return. He wasn't sure he could pull that one off no matter how motivated he was. Jordon just didn't have that in him anymore. His heart was still scorched earth, nothing grew there anymore, not even resentment.

  Jordon threw a change of clothes into his overnight bag and headed toward the back door as quietly as possible. He had some shopping to do before braving the Bennetts en-masse.

  Finn caught him at the door.

  "Cutting and running before the big event?" She asked, leaning against the door jamb leading into the laundry room. He really needed to hire someone to do the laundry. It took too much of Finn's and Reed's and on occasion, Charlie's time that could be better spent with programming that actually generated income.

  "If only I could."

  "Are you dreading it that much?"

  "More than you know."

  Finn straightened and pushed away from the doorway, suddenly tense. Her shoulders shot up and back, and the frown on her face gave her away. She worried about Reed, that much was evident by the lines etched permanently into her brow, lines
that did nothing to detract from her movie-star beauty.

  "This weekend isn't going to break Reed's heart, is it?"

  The weekend won't but eventually I will.

  "No."

  He must have been getting better at lying, either that or Finn was learning to trust him, because she sighed heavily and lowered her shoulders, visibly relaxing as she took him at his word. Suddenly he felt like shit.

  "Good, because I won't be there to pick up the pieces."

  Jordon gave a small, but heartfelt laugh. "I can't see Reed falling to pieces."

  "I wasn't talking about Reed." Finn smiled. "I meant the pieces of your family and friends she'll leave in her wake." She said lightly.

  Jordon was enjoying the easy camaraderie of the moment, the first he'd had with Reed's aunt since he came to Potters Woods. He wasn't sure what had changed Finn's opinion of him, and he wasn't about to ask and destroy the moment. He also wasn't looking forward to having her look at him with suspicion and accusation again. Jordon had no doubt though that she would when she found out he married Reed solely to keep his job.

  Acid started burning his throat, making Jordon cough. He changed the subject. "You're not coming to Lily's 'meet the Bennetts weekend'?"

  "No. Someone has to take care of things here."

  "I thought Charlie was going to stay."

  "We decided he should go. Better for your family to get to know the live-in ex-husband than the live-in aunt. Besides, I think I offended your mother enough already."

  "It's harder than you think to offend Lily Bennett. My mother wears an invisible teflon cloak. Everything negative rinses away with the first wash. Don't let her scare you away though, for all her pushiness, she really is a caring woman." Jordon cocked his head and raised his eyebrows in mock seriousness.

  "She's just like you."

  Finn threw her head back and let out a deep laugh. No wonder Henry fell so hard for her.

  "I don't know whether to kiss you, hit you or throw your sorry ass out the door."

  "I'll take the first and last ones." Jordon looked at his watch. "I've got a flight to catch and I don't have time for any broken bones."

  "Does Reed know you're leaving?"

  "She's still asleep, and this is kind of a last minute thing. Tell her I'll call later."

  Finn eyed his overnight case. "When are you coming home?"

  Home.

  The word hit Jordon like a bolt of lightning when Finn said it. Potters Woods truly was beginning to feel like his home. He shook himself, trying to throw off the invisible mantle of belonging he'd fooled himself into wearing.

  "I'll be back in the morning in plenty of time to drive everyone to the lake cottage." Jordon picked up his case from where he'd dropped it when he saw Finn, crossed to her and kissed her on the cheek before she had the time to ask where he was going. She hugged him in return and said something like be safe as he pushed his way out the laundry room door into the garage where he parked his new vehicle, a bright blue handicapped equipped minivan.

  He made it all the way to I-94 before noticing his hands were shaking.

  ...

  Jordon didn't call.

  Finn said he said he'd call. He didn't.

  Reed checked her cell phone for the eighth time in ten minutes. No, she didn't have any missed calls. No voice mail messages. Nothing. She adjusted her ringer to the loudest setting and set the phone next to the lamp on the bedside table. She checked the clock again, just to make sure the time on her phone was accurate. 11:17 p.m., and still no call. She pulled out the latest Nelson DeMille book, another six-hundred page hardcover job, and began to read.

  She passed the four-hundred page mark as dawn broke. She fell asleep somewhere around page 410, just as DeMille's smartass hero was doing something really stupid that was likely to get him shot.

  Even though DeMille described his hero as a blue-eyed blond, all Reed's mind saw was mahogany hair, golden-cinnamon eyes rimmed in green, and a slow smile that made her stomach turn to jalapeno jelly.

  It was a good thing Finn wouldn't let her keep any guns in the house, or her own smartass hero would soon find himself shot, if only in his smart ass. She wasn't giving him four-hundred pages to explain.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  Thursday morning arrived with little fanfare for such a momentous occasion. Lily planned a family dinner as the kickoff to the weekend 'reception' they'd all been eagerly anticipating. Well, Charlie was eager.

  The atmosphere at Potters Woods wasn't the usual joyous panic of another day of planning day activities for the wellbeing of mind, body and spirit of their clientele. The air wasn't light and scented with organic tea and tofu. In fact, as Jordon walked through the door, tired and loaded with uniforms for everyone for tonight and the rest of the weekend, the atmosphere was decidedly cool and heavily laced with 'where-the-hell-have-you-been'?

  All eyes around the breakfast table followed him silently as he took his packages into the family room, except the ones he needed to see the most. Jordon dropped his load on the couch in an attempt to keep the ninja cats and the three canine stooges from tearing apart their contents, at least until he'd had coffee, assuming that Henry at least had the decency to make some. He was never going to get used to herbal tea as a pick-me-up.

  Jordon walked back into the well lit sun room that housed the giant wooden picnic table where everyone except Reed and Irma gathered.

  "Coffee?" He asked to the room in general.

  Henry nodded toward the kitchen. "It's organic, but fully leaded."

  Jordon poured himself a cup, brought the pot in, and re-filled Henry's mug. Surprisingly, Finn held hers up for a refill as well. Seeing the purpling under her eyes, he didn't even raise a brow, he just poured. Setting the remainder of the pot on top of an unread Journal Sentinel, Jordon grabbed a space on the bench across from Henry.

  "What's up with the bakery?"

  Henry looked at him over his steaming mug and shrugged. "It was the best I could do on short notice." He gestured toward a particularly unappetizing dark brown muffin-like thing with small twigs sticking out. "Try an organic cranberry bran and flax seed muffin. They're yummy."

  Jordon lifted one, determined it weighed about three pounds and set it back down. "Coffee's great. Thanks."

  Jordon glanced at Jesse and knew something was really wrong. Was it possible that they were all pissed at him for leaving unexpectedly and forgetting to call until it was too late, given the time change in Paris? Hell, he hadn't slept more than four hours, and that was on the plane. Jordon stood quickly, jarring the bench with Charlie and Jesse on it in the process.

  "Where's Reed?

  Finn put a hand on his and looked at him with tired, concerned eyes. "Reed's in her room, asleep. She was up most of the night worried about you."

  Jordon started to pull away from Finn but she held tight, and the look in her eyes told him there was more than a gentle scolding going on.

  "Reed's fine, just exhausted. She fell asleep about two hours ago. She doesn't even know yet."

  "Know what? So help me Finn, you're not too old to spank."

  Finn just gave a small sad smile which made Jordon worry even more. She pulled her hand away and pushed a legal sized manila envelope across the table to him. Jordon didn't move to open it, he just looked at it like it was a coiled snake ready to strike. In his experience, manila never contained anything good.

  Henry, who knew he had little tolerance for being in the dark, quickly jumped in. "Irma contacted her attorney yesterday just after you left. He came to see her, spent an hour, and these were couriered over two hours later."

  Henry simply restated facts. There was no inflection in his tone, although Jordon watched as he grabbed Finn's hand and placed it in his lap before continuing his report. The gesture seemed unconscious, but it spoke volumes to Jordon.

  "Irma left instructions with me that you were to receive that envelope as soon as you returned." Henry paused, glanced at Finn, and then skewered
Jordon with his gaze, telling him more with his expression than his words. The hair on Jordon's neck stood on end.

  "Then she told me to take her to the hospital. I did. Her doctor checked her in, told me she was stable and I was not to be concerned. He said this kind of thing was bound to happen with how progressed her disease is, and I would probably be taking her home this morning after they ran some tests and pumped her full of fluids."

  Jordon's hand fisted on top of the envelope and a slow tidal wave began rushing in his ears.

  "We got the call an hour ago. She's slipped into a coma."

  ...

  Jordon made it all the way to the pier before the tidal wave in his ears and the pounding in his chest made his legs collapse. Thankfully, he made it to the bench before he fell down. It squeaked under his weight and he scraped the back of his calf, on one cast iron leg as he became one with the bench.

  The envelope wasn't sealed, merely held closed by two metal tabs. His fingers shook, and one of the tabs sliced open the pad of his thumb. He wouldn't have noticed except for the creepy reddish brown mark his blood left on the formaldehyde laced yellowed paper. Not a good sign.

  He brought his thumb to his lips, sucking away the blood with brutal efficiency. He didn't want to stain the white sheets inside. Satisfied that he'd stemmed the bleeding for now, Jordon pulled out a packet of documents he recognized immediately. He'd filled in similar forms before his last trip to Japan.

  The first was Irma's 'Health Care Power of Attorney', naming him attorney in fact, or in plain English, her plug puller. The second document was a 'Durable Power of Attorney', giving Jordon power over everything the 'Health Care Power of Attorney' didn't cover, including Irma's finances and everything she owned; from her house to her safety deposit box.

  Jordon stopped reading after that, stuffing the remaining documents, as well as the POA papers, back in the blood stained envelope.