He had spent the night at her place, and then she’d spent a night at his place. They’d been inseparable practically every night since, when he wasn’t traveling.
She would also admit that making the transition from best friends to lovers had its perks. With him, she could be herself, the JoJo she’d always been. And she could also discover who else she wanted to be. She’d found she could be brazen, shamelessly so, and, at times, Stern would blatantly egg her on. She totally and thoroughly enjoyed it when he did.
It was hard to believe two weeks had passed since their decision to become best friends with benefits. Tonight, he was taking her to a fund-raising dinner for heart research, and she was happy about going with him. They’d gone out to dinner a few times, attended movies and football games, but this would be the first evening where they would be seen together at a public event as a couple. She was rather nervous about it.
Which was why she’d looked at herself in the mirror a dozen times since she’d finished dressing. She loved her gown and thought she looked striking in it. Stern had picked it out and purchased it for her. She had been surprised and elated when she had received the huge box.
When she’d pulled out the very flattering white gown, she’d been in awe. The dress gave the illusion that the person wearing it was a goddess. Silver beads ran the length of the gown but were only visible when she walked. It definitely made a stunning statement and the feel of the soft georgette on her skin was fabulous. And to think that he’d known her body measurements to a tee!
Really, she should not be surprised. He seemed to love touching her. He would spend time just running his hands all over her body, and she loved when he did it. Her independent side had made her offer to pay him for the gown, but he would not hear of it, telling her to consider it an early birthday present. And because her birthday was next month, she had conceded.
Her heart jumped when she heard her doorbell and she couldn’t stop the smile that broke out on her face. After looking in the mirror one last time, she grabbed her purse off the table and moved toward the door.
The man she loved had arrived.
* * *
Aiden Westmoreland glanced over at his cousin. “JoJo looks simply breathtaking tonight, Stern.”
Stern nodded, refusing to let his gaze leave JoJo as she danced around the ballroom with Derringer. “Thanks. Yes, she does.”
He’d been in Los Angeles on business and had spotted it in the window in a boutique in Beverly Hills. As far as he was concerned, JoJo’s name had been written all over it so he’d bought it for her.
“So what’s going on with you, Aiden?” His cousin was the newest doctor in the family and had decided to do his residency at a hospital in Maine.
“Nothing, just hard at work. I needed this break.”
“Did you?” Stern asked, taking a sip of his wine as he studied his cousin. He could remember when Aiden and his identical twin, Adrian, and their sister Bailey and Stern’s brother Bane, were the terror of Denver. “So your being home has nothing to do with the fact that Jillian decided to come home this weekend, too?”
Stern inwardly chuckled when Aiden almost choked on his wine. He gave his cousin a couple of whacks on the back. “Wine go down the wrong pipe, Aiden?”
Aiden glared at him. “Did you have to hit me on the back so hard?”
“Yes, I thought it would knock some sense into you. I hope you know what you’re doing with Jill. If you’re trying to mess her over, then—”
“What do you think you know about me and Jill?”
“Only what I saw the last time you were home. I was out riding Legend Boy that morning you were supposed to take Jill to the airport. From what I’d heard from Pam, Jill was supposed to be there at five in the morning, which is why you had volunteered to take her. So I’m sure you can imagine my surprise when I saw you whip Jillian out of the car and into your arms that morning and carry her into Gemma’s house.” Gemma’s house stood empty because she had married and moved to Australia.
“It’s not what you think,” Aiden said in his defense.
“I’m not the one you need to be telling that to. All I’ve got to say is that you’d better hope Pam and Dil don’t find out what you’re up to.”
“I love her.”
“Then why the sneaking around?”
Aiden didn’t say anything for a moment. “You know Pam’s plan for Jill. After she finishes medical school in the spring, Pam hopes she’ll—”
“What does Jill want?” Stern interrupted to ask.
Aiden didn’t say anything for a moment and then he responded, “She wants us to be together but doesn’t want to disappoint Pam.”
Stern shrugged. “Either way, the two of you should come clean and let everyone know how you feel.”
“Like you’ve come clean and let everyone know how you feel about JoJo? I don’t see you standing on the highest rooftop shouting out anything.”
Aiden’s words stirred Stern’s gut because what his cousin had said was true. He hadn’t told anyone how he really felt about JoJo, not even JoJo, but then most who truly knew him were probably well aware that he was a man purely smitten. But still...
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that, man,” Aiden said. “Everyone in the family knows how crazy you are about JoJo. Look over me tonight. I’m in a bad mood about Jill right now because we argued earlier. I want to go to Dil and Pam and tell them the truth, but she’s against it. And that bothers me more than anything. I don’t like deceiving them, but I’m doing it anyway.”
“It sounds like you and Jill need to make some decisions.”
And it seemed, Stern thought, that he needed to make some decisions, too.
* * *
JoJo strolled out of the ladies’ room and walked right into someone blocking her way.
“Well, well, if it isn’t the grease lady. You can take the woman out of the auto repair shop but you can never really get the grease off the lady. I’m sure there’s grease somewhere on that body of yours.”
Anger sliced through her. His insulting words were deserving of a slap to the face, but she refused to make a scene tonight like she’d done at the Punch Bowl. Besides, Walter Carmichael wasn’t worth it. Deciding to ignore him and move on, she tried to walk past him. He reached out and grabbed her arm with force, jerking her to him.
“You embarrassed me that night at the Punch Bowl and you also straight out lied about your relationship with Westmoreland. Best friends, my ass. There’s more going on between you two—anyone can see that. And I’m going to make sure you pay for being a tease.”
“Get your hands off me before I knock your eyeballs out of their sockets.”
He immediately let her go and she quickly walked off without looking back. She tried not to fume, but Walter had her riled. When she reentered the ballroom, she met Stern heading toward her.
“You okay?” he asked her in a voice filled with anger.
She studied his features. “Yes, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Lucia said she saw a man grab for you when you came out of the ladies’ room. I figured it was Carmichael since I saw him earlier. What did he say? What did he want?”
She thought about mentioning the threat Walter had made but decided against it. The man was all bluster, and the last thing she wanted was to ruin Stern’s night like Walter had tried to ruin hers. Besides, she had handled it.
“Nothing and nothing. At least nothing worth mentioning. I shut him down. It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay. If he manhandled you, then—”
“I took care of it,” she said. “I don’t need you handling my business.”
He stared at her for a long minute and then asked softly, “Has it ever occurred to you that your business is my business?”
She shrugged. “No, because I do
n’t recall that being part of the deal when it comes to being best friends with benefits.”
“Then maybe we need to discuss just what our relationship entails,” he said.
JoJo detected anger in his voice, and she couldn’t understand why. Was Stern missing his role of ladies’ man? He didn’t seem to be, but she couldn’t help but wonder, especially when she saw women vying for his attention. He’d always said that he enjoyed the chase.
She would admit she was a little annoyed at the number of women who had tried to make a pass at him tonight. Some so brazen it was ridiculous, going so far as to approach him as if JoJo wasn’t there. Maybe some of them assumed she and Stern were still nothing more than best friends, but even when he’d placed his arms around her waist in a more intimate gesture and introduced her as his date, most gave her a haughty look as if to say, “Good luck trying to hold on to him.”
“JoJo, are you listening to what I said?”
Honestly, she hadn’t been. She did recall he’d said something about them needing to discuss what their relationship entailed. “If you think we need to talk, fine. But when it comes to Walter Carmichael, I can handle myself. I don’t need you to fight my battles.”
She then walked off.
* * *
Somehow Stern held his anger in check for the rest of the night, but he couldn’t help noticing that things between him and JoJo were strained. She barely said anything on the drive home.
As soon as the door closed behind them at her place, he knew they had to talk. “What’s bothering you, JoJo?”
She looked at him with fire flashing in her eyes. “Nothing’s wrong with me other than the fact that you have some brazen ex-girlfriends. I’ve never met women so disrespectful.”
He was well aware that jealousy had driven a few of those women tonight. They’d wanted to get a rise out of her. “I hope you didn’t let their behavior get to you. When I saw what they were doing I did set them straight, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did, but...”
“But what?”
“Nothing.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “You’ve used that word a lot tonight, don’t you think? And I know you. When you say ‘nothing,’ most of the time there is something. So come on, let’s talk.”
He tugged her over to the sofa and into his lap. “Now tell me.”
She didn’t say anything for a moment. “Before, you liked women. Lots of women. And you enjoyed the chase. Now you’re stuck with dull little me. You must miss your old lifestyle.”
Stern looked at her for a long moment, knowing she didn’t have a clue. What she’d just said didn’t come close to being factual. So maybe it was time he told her the truth. “I love you, JoJo.”
She waved off his words. “Of course you love me and I love you, which is why we’ve put up with each other all these years and—”
He placed a hand over her mouth to stop her from talking. “Listen to what I’m saying for a second. I love you. I love you the way a man and a woman love each other.”
Stern was certain JoJo would have fallen out of his lap if he hadn’t been holding her so tightly. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open as she stared at him. She then shook her head. “No, you can’t love me that way.”
“Why can’t I?”
“Because that’s the way I love you.”
Now it was Stern’s turn to be stumped, and he was speechless. He shifted JoJo’s position so they were facing each other. He wanted to look into her face while they were talking. “Are you saying that you’re in love with me...the same way I’m in love with you?” he asked her.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. What way are you in love with me?”
He knew she hadn’t asked to be funny but truly wanted to know. “I’m in love with you in the way where I think of you all the time, even when I’m at work. In the way where I think I smell you even when you aren’t there. I’m in love with you in the way where you are the first person on my mind when I wake up in the morning and the last person on my mind before going to bed at night. In the way where having sex is now making love. And in the way where whenever I’m inside of you I want to go deeper and deeper because I want to be consumed by you and you by me. No matter what, I will always be here for you, even during those times when I know you can take care of yourself. Loving you makes me want to take care of you anyway.”
JoJo had tears in her eyes. “I’ve never heard a declaration of love stated so beautifully.” She swallowed. “When did you know?”
“To be honest with you, I’m not sure. I might have loved you forever. My family suspected I did, but it’s only been revealed to me lately. Your fascination with Carmichael made me realize what you meant to me.”
She nibbled on her bottom lip and then said, “I was only fascinated with Walter because of you. I thought I needed him.”
Stern lifted a brow. “I don’t understand. What do you mean? You needed him for what?”
He tensed and she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I noticed I was becoming attracted to you when we were together at the lodge in the spring. It was more than attraction, really. I knew I had fallen in love with you and it scared me because I’d never been attracted to a man before...and especially not to you. You were my best friend, and I couldn’t fall in love with my best friend. So I came up with what I thought would be the perfect plan.”
“Which was?”
“To find someone else to fall in love with.”
A smile touched Stern’s lips. “I don’t think it works that way, JoJo.”
“That’s what I found out.”
Stern didn’t say anything for a moment. “So are you telling me that this whole Carmichael thing was a plan you concocted because you’d fallen in love with me and were trying to fight it by trying to fall in love with another man?”
“Yes. Sounds crazy, huh?”
Stern chuckled. “No crazier than the fact that I’ve been denying loving you, even when Zane called me out on it.”
“He did?”
“Yes, more than once. Riley called me out on it, as well. You and I did admit at the lodge that we were attracted to each other, but what we should have done was come clean with our true feelings.”
“Yes, we should have. So let’s do it now. Stern, I love you as my best friend, my lover and the man I will always want in my life.”
A smile curved his lips. “And Jovonnie ‘JoJo’ Jones, I love you as my best friend, my lover and the woman I will always want in my life.”
“Oh, Stern, I was afraid if you found out how I felt that I could lose you altogether. And with all your brothers and cousins getting married, I was worried about you falling in love and that woman not accepting our close relationship and forcing you to cool things between us.”
He nodded. “That crossed my mind, too, when you seemed so obsessed with Carmichael. I was afraid he would come between our friendship, and I couldn’t let that happen.”
Both of them were quiet for a few moments and then Stern said, “I wish I had leveled with you about my feelings before now, but maybe things happened as they should have for us.”
She stared at him. “You mean becoming best friends with benefits?”
“Yes. But now we know the truth. What I need you to understand is that loving someone means caring for that person, comforting that person, being their protector and their strength whenever they need it. I know all of your skills as a marksman, a karate champ and an archer, but that doesn’t eliminate my desire to look after you. To want to protect you. And those times that I do want to protect you, just humor me, okay.”
She smiled. “Okay.”
He then leaned forward and kissed her with a hunger and need he felt throughout his body. The connection with her was different now because he knew how she felt and she kn
ew how he felt. When she quivered in his arms, he tightened his hands around her waist.
Moments later, he pulled back and forced air into his lungs before taking her mouth again in a kiss that was hungrier than before. Then, suddenly, the need to make love to her was fierce. Intense. Extreme. Powerful.
Stern stood up from the sofa with her in his arms. His destination was the bedroom upstairs, but he only made it to the wall near the staircase and pressed her against it. “I can’t go any farther,” he moaned, taking her lips again.
He put his hands everywhere, but mostly underneath her gown. When he’d first seen the gown he’d liked it, but now there was too much of it. He finally found the zipper in the back and with practiced hands slid it down. Then he shifted his body away from her just enough to grip the gown at her shoulders and quickly yank it off her.
He heard her suck in a deep breath. “Stern, can you slow down? You’re going to ruin my dress.”
“No, I can’t slow down and I’ll buy you another one.”
He went still when he saw what she was wearing beneath her gown. A sexy white lace garter belt set with matching thong and back seam stockings. Stern was convinced he’d never seen anything or anyone so sensual in his entire life. “Nice,” he said on a tortured moan.
“I’ll be sure to let your cousins and sisters-in-law know how much you appreciate it. Just another thing they talked me into buying when we went shopping earlier this month.”
“I’ll make sure they take you shopping more often. Now, I’m taking it off you.”
“I think that was the idea.”
In no time at all, Stern had removed every stitch of her clothing. Not to be undone, JoJo stripped him naked, too. Beginning with his tux jacket, which she shoved off his shoulders, she removed all his clothes. “Now, we’re even.”
“If that makes you happy,” he said, lifting her off her feet and pressing her back against the wall once more. He smiled up at her. “I so enjoy getting into you.”
She returned his smile. “And I so enjoy you getting into me.”
Brenda Jackson The Westmoreland Collection: ZaneCanyonStern Page 49