One Night With You

by Gwynne Forster

  He allowed himself a laugh that had the sound of a snarl. “What a joke! You’re not even in the league with some women, and remove your hands. It would give me the greatest pleasure to slap you, so don’t tempt me.” He brushed her aside and went into his apartment wondering what he’d ever seen in her.

  He didn’t need her back in his life, and he wondered if her arrival bore a relationship to the timing of his upcoming case against Brown and Worley. Somehow, he doubted it, but it paid to be forewarned. Suddenly, something akin to fear sent an electric-like charge shooting through him. Where did Myrna live? She had probably seen him go out of the building with Kendra, and she knew that he didn’t go far, and she had waited to see whether he would return home that night. Damn her! He threw off his clothes on the way to the shower. She’d eaten holes in him when his world fell apart, but she had no power over him now. The knowledge made his whole being glow, and as he showered he whistled, “When the Saints Go Marching In,” dried off and slid his naked body between the sheets.

  Kendra sat on the side of her bed musing over her relationship with Reid. Maybe it wasn’t meant for her to have a man like Reid: a loving, caring man willing to share life with her on an equal footing, a brilliant man with whom she could express herself fully and freely without being accused either of being highfalutin’ or of “talking down.” Just when she thought he would get down to business, his ex-wife torpedoed his mood and the occasion.

  She got ready for bed, but she knew she wouldn’t sleep. After wrestling with the sheets for half an hour, she sat up and dialed Reid’s number. “You mean you were asleep?” she asked when she detected grogginess in his voice.

  “Yes. I guess I was. Why? Can’t you sleep?”

  “Not so far.”

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart. Myrna busted up a precious evening. Promise me you won’t let her turn you against me.”

  “She couldn’t do that, but she can cause strain in our relationship. She did that tonight. I want her to go back to wherever she came from, but I have a feeling she’ll be around for a while.”

  “Not with any encouragement from me, she won’t. I don’t want her or any woman but you, and I want you to write that down. Do you love me?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “Then no one can get between us. What are you doing in the morning?”

  “I think I’ll go to church. Something tells me I’m going to need all the support I can get.” They talked awhile longer, but in spite of his reassurances, daybreak found her trying to get the first minute of sleep. She promised herself to go to bed as soon as she returned from church. However, Reid had other plans for them.

  She had been asleep less than an hour that Sunday afternoon when he called her. “How about riding over to Caution Point with me this afternoon to the building I designed for Marcus? He’s practically dancing a jig because the local paper wrote that the building adds to the city’s beauty and personality.”

  “I thought you said it was a factory.”

  “That’s true,” Reid said, “I didn’t design the exterior to resemble a factory, but a golf clubhouse, or some such thing.”

  She walked down the alley and entered Reid’s apartment by the door leading to his garden. “I’m parked in the garage,” he told her, “so we can take the elevator down and get the car there. It’s very convenient when the weather’s bad.”

  Or, she thought, when she didn’t want to be seen leaving or entering his building. But when the elevator door opened, Myrna stepped off. “Oh, there you are,” she said, ignoring Kendra. “I was just going to ask if you wanted to come up to my place for coffee and some of those cranberry popovers I always made for you that you loved so much.”

  “I’m sure that if I ate one of them or anything else you cooked, I’d be sick to the stomach within minutes. Excuse us.” He took Kendra’s hand, brushed past his former wife and closed the elevator door. “I see she’s planning to be a pain in the ass.”

  “Why didn’t you introduce us?”

  “Because she would have converted that into a moment of triumph. She never passes up an opportunity to advertise herself.”

  In Caution Point, Marcus met them at the factory. “Hello, Kendra. I’m so glad to see you again,” he said. “Reid has made me something of a celebrity in Caution Point. Would you believe one woman asked me if I would rent her the north end of the building for her daughter’s wedding reception?”

  “Did you?”

  “I was tempted, but Amanda said that if I did that I’d have to rent it to every person who asked or I’d make enemies. And a businessman doesn’t need enemies. Do you have time to stop by the house? Amanda’s made a slew of apple turnovers, and those things just melt in my mouth.”

  As Kendra had suspected, Amanda had prepared more than apple turnovers, and invited them to a wonderful late-afternoon meal.

  “My mother is the best cook in the world,” Amy said to Kendra. “Everything she cooks is good. I’m not going to learn to cook, because then we wouldn’t eat her cooking. We’d eat mine.”

  “I don’t think we have to worry about that for a few years yet,” Marcus said to his daughter, his eyes beaming with obvious love.

  Kendra couldn’t help remembering her first impression of that family as a unit where a very deep love abided. When she and Reid were en route home, she told him as much. “It’s true,” he said. “She gave Marcus and his daughter so much love that he fell head over heels for her. He practically worships her. They have three children, one of his, one of hers and one of theirs, but no one would guess that all of those children didn’t come from Amanda and that Marcus isn’t their father.”

  “She told me that she was forty when she met Marcus, and I found that very encouraging.”

  “Say some prayers,” Reid said, and she wondered what he meant, though she didn’t want to ask. “Our day will come, and soon, I hope.”

  So do I, she thought, and decided to move the subject away from herself. “That building looks like a beautiful, oversized country cottage,” she said of Marcus’s factory. “Yet he said it’s everything he’s ever wanted in a factory.”

  “I’m glad he’s so pleased. It does enhance its neighborhood, but I wasn’t thinking of that when I designed it.”

  She saw Myrna as soon as they turned onto Albemarle Heights. “Look at that,” she said to Reid. “It looks as if she’s pitched camp right here on Albemarle Heights.”

  “Who?”

  “Myrna. Isn’t that her in that pink miniskirt?”

  “Yeah. That’s Myrna. I wouldn’t put anything past that woman if she thinks she can worm something out of me. I wonder where she’s staying.” He parked in front of the apartment building, cut the motor and waited. “Myrna eventually shows her hand. She’s up to something, and I want to know what it is.”

  Don’t bother to get angry, she told herself, although anyone well acquainted with her would have known from her deep breathing and narrowed eyes that she was fuming. Myrna walked directly to the car.

  “I see you’re back,” she said. “I was wondering when you could go over our divorce papers with me. There seems to be something irregular.”

  He got out of the car, walked around and opened the passenger door for Kenya. “Your papers are identical to mine, and there is nothing irregular in my papers. If you’d like, I’ll have the district court judge review my papers and let you know if they contain any irregularities. Are you still Myrna Pickett?” She nodded, but Kendra could see that she’d become less assured. “The judge will mail you the result. What is your address?”

  “Uh…right here…Same as yours. I sublet apartment 5R.”

  His eyes narrowed, and she thought his cheeks began swelling. “Don’t ever knock on my door again,” he said, “and if you’re smarter than you used to be, you’ll stay away from me.”

  “There’s not one thing irregular about my divorce papers,” he said to Kendra. “She thought she’d trick me into going to her apartment.”

  �
��I’ll look them over and send her a letter if you wish.”

  “If she persists, I’ll ask you to look at them.”

  “If she persists with this annoying behavior, you can get a restraining order. In fact, you should indict her for harassment.”

  “I’d hate to do that. I’d rather find some other way of calling her off. She’s pathetic. Besides, a court case at this point would call the attention of Brown and Worley to my presence here. They know I’m here, but in a trial of that sort, I’d have to lay out all my business. Brown and Worley are not yet aware of some of my crucial plans, and I want them to get some surprises.”

  “When will that airline terminal in Caution Point open?”

  “Not until next year. The builders have completed the structure, but the interior fittings will take a while.”

  “I can’t wait to see it.”

  “Does that mean you’ll go to the opening with me?”

  “Of course I will, if you ask me. I may call you later. I have to study a couple of cases that are on my docket for tomorrow morning. Thanks for the pleasant afternoon and the visit with the Hicksons.”

  “Any time I spend with you is precious time,” he said.

  At that moment, she glanced toward the front door and saw that Myrna sat with legs crossed in the lobby waiting for Reid. Oh, what the hell? she said to herself. Let him handle her.

  Reid followed Kendra’s gaze, saw his ex-wife waiting for him in the lobby of the apartment house, got back into his car and drove into the garage. Aware that she couldn’t see the elevator from where she sat in the lobby, he managed to circumvent her, went into his apartment and flopped into the chair nearest to the door. Please, God, don’t let her make me lose my temper. When I think of the pain that woman caused me…

  He jumped up and raced to the phone, thinking that Kendra was his caller. “Hey, man,” he said to Philip. “What’s up?”

  “Where’s that ebullience you’ve had since things developed with you and Kendra?”

  “Don’t ask me, man. I opened my door a few nights ago, and who’s standing there but the Wicked Witch of the North. And the worst of it is that she sublet an apartment in the building I live in. She wants back in, and it will never happen.”

  “You mean your ex-wife? Get rid of her! She’ll ruin your relationship with Kendra. Found an office yet?”

  “Nothing’s going to interfere with my relationship with Kendra if I can help it, but Myrna will definitely try. I’ve found an office in Edenton, about twenty-five minutes from here by car, but I’ll work out of my apartment until I can renovate it and furnish it. How’s everybody there?”

  “Fine. This is the best time of the year here.”

  They spoke for a short time and promised to stay in touch.

  In spite of his considerable efforts to avoid her, Myrna managed to appear whenever Kendra was in his apartment or when she was with him in the vicinity of the building in which he lived. He concluded that Myrna spent her days and half of her nights monitoring his comings and goings. He also concluded that Kendra was near the breaking point, for they had no privacy; whenever they were alone in his apartment, Myrna rang the doorbell. If he didn’t answer it, she achieved her goal of disturbing them nonetheless. When they were in Kendra’s house, the telephone would ring, and when Kendra answered, the caller would hang up.

  “I think I’ll go visit Claudine,” Kendra said one evening, when she’d become exasperated.

  “I know it’s wearing on you,” he told her. “It’s still too cool to go to Cape May, but if you can take Friday off, maybe we could spend a long weekend down at the estate. It’s beautiful there this time of year.”

  “I’d like that. It’s not a solution by any means, but at least we can enjoy being together.”

  “Myrna’s like a leech,” he told Philip that Thursday night as they sat together at the edge of the pool. “She has no pride. She’ll suffer any insult in order to get back into my good graces. She’s insufferable, and she’s going to force me to indict her for harassment.”

  “You should have done that already.” Philip held up his left hand, palm out. “I know you think it’s unseemly to mistreat a woman who was once your wife, but you’re not required to be a gentleman with anyone who behaves as your ex does. If you’d marry Kendra, your problem would be solved.”

  “Yeah, I’ve thought about that. Indeed, I was within minutes of asking her when Myrna knocked on my door that first time. Seeing that treacherous woman destroyed my mood. In fact, it ruined what had been a perfect evening.”

  Philip let his toes dangle in the pool. “Are you ever going to ask Kendra to marry you?”

  “I’m a cautious man, Philip. I’ve learned that nothing is certain but death. I have a fantastic contract and consultancy. The consultancy alone would take care of me and a family for several years, if I didn’t get foolish with money. But I haven’t seen one penny of this sudden wealth. I want Kendra to know that I’m solvent, able to give her the home she wants and where she wants it.”

  “You were solvent as an assistant architect with Marks and Connerly. Surely, you are not going back to the three-car-garage style?”

  “No. I couldn’t stand myself if I did. Besides, Kendra wouldn’t tolerate such conspicuous consumption.”

  “I didn’t think so.” Philip dove into the pool, swam its length and got out on the other end where Kendra was talking with Arnold, his father.

  “I was just telling Kendra that she isn’t her usual ebullient self,” Arnold said to Philip.

  Philip patted her hand. “Go slowly, Kendra. Reid was just telling me of his problems with his ex, and he’s worried mostly about how it affects you.”

  “I’m thinking of putting in a request for my vacation. What I need is a long respite from this. It’s getting to me.”

  “It’s only as bad as you let it be,” Philip said. “She won’t get Reid, and she can only achieve her other goal if you let her. She doesn’t plague you with anonymous phone calls because she wants Reid. She does that to drive a wedge between you.”

  “Right,” Arnold said, “and this is the wrong time to take a vacation unless you and Reid take a vacation together. And he can’t, because he’s assuming new responsibilities just now. We saw him close-up day in and day out for six years, Kendra, and I’ll tell you he’s a man worth any woman’s investment. That’s what his ex-wife learned after she walked out on him, and it’s why she’s tucked in her pride and is trying to get him back.”

  Philip’s smile seemed almost sorrowful when he said, “It isn’t for nothing that he’s my best friend, Kendra. He’s my best male friend, the closest friend I’ve had in my thirty-eight years. That ought to tell you something. He loves you, and I can see that you love him. Myrna left him when he was in trouble and needed her desperately. He needs you with him now. I won’t say more.”

  “But you shouldn’t forget, either,” Arnold cautioned, “that you’re a prize for any man, and it won’t hurt to find subtle ways of reminding him. I’m telling you what I would tell my daughter. You’re loving well, but don’t forget to love wisely.”

  “Thanks, Arnold. I appreciate your concern.” She looked at Philip. “You were blessed to grow up with such a wonderful father.”

  “Reid’s sitting over there alone, which means he’s in deep thought. I’m going over there.” She discarded her first inclination, which was to swim the length of the pool, decided that she didn’t want wet hair and strolled along the side of the pool, slow and leisurely, to give him time to enjoy the sight of her walking toward him bedecked in the tiniest of bikinis.

  He stood as she neared him. “You know how to give a guy the sweats,” he said, exposing his white teeth in a wicked smile. “Why don’t I get us a couple of margaritas and let’s drink them in your room?” The smile had been replaced by an intense gaze that she recognized as a reflection of raw need. And as he stared, desire blazed hotter and hotter in his eyes.

  She heard the awkward, scared tumble o
f her heartbeat. “Oh, darling,” she said, leaning against him. “Do we really need the margaritas?”

  He sucked in his breath, apparently unable to answer, and merely grasped her hand and headed for her room. She pushed the door open, and he picked her up, stepped in and kicked the door shut. “Shouldn’t we lock it?” she asked him.

  “Nobody’s coming in here tonight,” he said, and set her on her feet, threw back the bedcovers and stood staring at her. “It’s been so long since I was inside you that I…I need you so badly, and I’m afraid I’ll mess things up. It may not work for you the first time, but trust me, I’ll make it right later.”

  “I don’t want finesse, love, and I don’t need skill. All I want is to climb that mountain where you always carry me and to come alive in your arms.” She let her hands slide down to his swimming briefs and inch toward the target but not touch it. He dragged her swimming top over her head, pitched it aside and locked her body to his. She parted her lips and he plunged into her, twirling and dipping, kissing her as if he’d been starved for the taste of her.

  She put his left hand on her breast. “I need to feel your mouth on me.”

  He bent his head, sucked her nipple into his mouth, pulling and feasting like a hungry man. She sank her hands into his briefs and pressed his buttocks to her, wiggling against him for the friction she needed.

  He stopped kissing her and gazed down at her, his eyes pools of brown heat. “Do you want me?”

  She squeezed his buttocks. “You know I do.”

  He picked her up, placed her on the bed, and rolled the bikini bottoms over her hips. She lifted her body toward him, unable to control it, and he tumbled onto the bed.

  “Woman, you do something to me.” He locked an arm around her shoulder and brushed kisses on her forehead, eyes and cheeks before he inserted his tongue between her lips and began stroking and pinching her nipple. She didn’t want all of that; she wanted him inside her.

  “Get in me, honey,” she moaned. “I’m just as starved for you as you are for me.”

  But that seemed to heighten his determination to do it his way. Her body stiffened when his tongue began swirling around in her navel, for she knew what would come next. He parted her legs and let her feel the tip of his tongue.