Hayley paused. She took a bite of pizza to buy time. Did Joe tell her then? Ugh! This whole thing was getting ridiculous. “You must’ve,” she said with her mouth full. “How else could I know?”
Tori nodded and bit off the last of the stuffed crust on her piece. Then she laughed. “How’d he come up with that name, anyway? Superhero X. Not very creative, is it?”
Hayley chuckled. Names were the worst. Coming up with one that halfway described you and wasn’t lame and wasn’t already taken. Tori had no idea that Joe inherited the name. His dad was Superhero W; his son would be Superhero Y. Bummer for him.
Tori looked at Hayley expectantly. “What?”
“Nothing. It’s just…” It’s just that I’m great at lying to men, but I suck at lying to my best friend. I’m going to choke Joe. Wrap philodendron in layers around his neck and squeeze. Bring an unnatural spring to the oak tree in his front yard and wrap one of the branches around his chest until he cries uncle and tells her.
“Have you heard of him?” Tori asked.
“Well – I – uh, yeah, sort of. I’ve heard of him.”
Tori sighed. “I wish I understood more of this. I asked Superhero X how I could reach him. I think I’m going to try to get his help figuring out what to do.”
Hayley grunted. Yes, he should absolutely help you, the idiot.
“What? You think that’s a bad idea?” Tori asked. “I know I’m married, and I shouldn’t be hanging out with – actually, I have no idea if he’s single or married.”
Hayley started to comment when Tori paused, but then Tori plowed ahead before Hayley could form a reply.
“No, there’s nothing weird about it. I love Joe. I adore him! I would never do anything to endanger our marriage.” Her face fell a little. “Though all this crazy overtime isn’t helping. I haven’t told him yet, Hayley.” She stopped, as if waiting for a rebuke.
Hayley wasn’t sure what to do. She should probably press Tori as hard as she was pressing Joe. If one of them started the conversation, surely they’d both confess and be done with it. “Well, you’re right that the timing hasn’t worked out well yet.” Grudgingly, she admitted that maybe she could give Joe that much. “But you really need to tell him, sooner rather than later.”
“Yeah, I know, I know.” Tori took a sip of her Wild Cherry Pepsi. “He said that things should ease up after this week, that we’d get some down time together by the weekend.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll tell him then.” She looked Hayley in the eye. “I promise.”
“You better.”
“I will. I just have to figure out how to say it. I mean, I don’t want to come off all Amazon warrior woman–”
Hayley started laughing. Definitely not the way she’d ever pictured herself. She couldn’t imagine Tori that way either.
Tori laughed. “You know what I mean. I want to appear strong, not weak. I want to learn to help people, rescue people, you know? Just because Superhero X rescued me on Halloween, it was only because I couldn’t run in Lexie’s stupid high heels. And the other night, I was doing okay until…” She thought about it, then scrunched up her face. “Actually, I’m glad he showed up then.”
“Me, too!” Hayley agreed heartily. She’d read the report. Tori might’ve been killed if X hadn’t been there. “Being personally attacked sounds worse than accidentally walking into an armed robbery.”
Tori nodded. “I just don’t want Joe to think I’m the kind of girl who needs saving. I want him to admire me, respect me. And I don’t want him to be repulsed by me either.”
Hayley dropped her paper plate to her lap and leaned forward, her hand on Tori’s knee. “Tori Lewis Clarke, J–” Hayley cursed in her head. She almost screwed up. “Superhero X is not like your parents. First of all, he is a superhero so he’s not going to be repulsed by superheroes.”
“Right, I know,” Tori agreed. “But I was talking about Joe.”
Hayley wanted to slap her forehead. This was so confusing. “Yes, Joe. Well, he’s a great guy! You’ve told me so, right? So he’s going to love it!” That may or may not be a lie. She had no idea.
Tori looked up, her eyes bright with sudden tears. “I liked Joe from the moment I met him. I don’t want to say or do anything to lose him.”
Hayley laid her hand on Tori’s arm, at a complete loss as to how to help her. Infatuation she understood. She knew the danger and the attraction of lust. But Tori seemed to be genuinely in love. Hayley didn’t know what to do with that. But she did understand about losing people.
“And you’re afraid your husband might hate superheroes like your mom. So you think you can’t tell him that you are one.”
“Hayley, I force people to do things. And I don’t even realize it! How does that not scare you? Aren’t you afraid I’ll try to force you to do something?”
“Tori, you’ve been my best friend since the second grade. If you force me to do something I don’t want to do, I’ll kick your butt.”
Tori let out a burst of relieved laughter.
Hayley wasn’t sure she’d even realize it if Tori was “making her” do something. Could a person tell? Could they fight it? But at least Tori was smiling again.
Then Tori gasped and dropped her plate. “Oh nooo!”
“What? What?” Hayley tossed her plate on the floor and grabbed Tori’s hands.
Tori shook, trying not to cry. “Oh Hayley! I just thought of something horrible!” And then she broke down into a sobbing mess.
It took Hayley a minute or two to get Tori to stop blubbering and say what she was thinking in words that made sense. All she got out of it was “so in love” and “Thanksgiving” and “marry me.” Hayley already knew they were so in love that Joe proposed at Thanksgiving, less than a month after they’d met. Crazy kids. But what was Tori so upset about? She was crying so hard that sympathetic tears washed down Hayley’s face as well.
“Tori, calm down, I can’t understand you.” Hayley handed her a clean napkin, dabbing at her own face with another.
Tori wiped her eyes and took a couple of shuddering breaths. “The day before Thanksgiving, we were having such a great time together and I was just dizzy in love with him and I just – I just–”
“Don’t cry,” Hayley begged.
She took another sobbing breath and said, “I just blurted out, ‘Marry me, Joe!’ Hayley, what if I made Joe marry me? The next day he had a ring and told our families and everything!”
Hayley sat in shock for a moment. Could Tori really do that? That was way bigger than “put down the gun.” We’re talking making a permanent change in a person. Joe still acted like he loved Tori nearly two months later! That was crazy. Could a power like that really come from God?
She tried to focus on her sobbing friend. She patted Tori’s back and said, there, there, of course you didn’t, you just go home and talk to him, all the time wondering if her friend’s marriage might be over almost before it started.
TORI picked up groceries on the way home from work, planning a special dinner with Joe tonight. She had a half-thought-out plan to seduce him and then try to find out if he’d never intended to propose. It’s not like she had much experience in that department, but she was hoping that if the seduction was successful, Joe might, at worst, say, funny, I never meant to marry you but I’m so glad I did!
Ugh. What was she thinking? Would that even work?
But there’d also be the really nice dinner. Isn’t that what they said? The way to a man’s heart? Surely that would give her bonus points. And maybe, just maybe, if the whole thing went off without too much of a hitch, it’d be the perfect segue into, oh and by the way, honey, I’m thinking about becoming a superhero.
After the sex, in case it was their last time before he left her.
Last night, Hayley insisted she was wrong about Joe not wanting to marry her. Did she, Tori, know how her power worked? How long the effects lasted? Whether the person ever realized what had happened? No, no, and no. She didn’t know the
answer to anything! Hayley’s point somehow being that Tori shouldn’t worry about it.
That sounded comforting last night. Now, with the possibility that she was living the last few hours of happily married life, Tori wasn’t so sure.
So while she cooked, Snickers winding around her ankles, she hoped that somehow her friend was right and her impulsive words so many weeks ago weren’t the only thing keeping her and Joe together. At the same time, she resigned herself to the knowledge that tonight might be the last night she lived with the man she loved.
By the time Joe arrived, dinner was sizzling and double-fudge brownies cooled on the counter. Tori waited for him to put his briefcase down before she kissed him. Afraid it might be one of their last kisses, she ate him up like dark chocolate on a warm day.
“Oh…well…mmm,” Joe murmured as he slid his hands under her shirt and around her ribs, pulling her closer. Warm lips and hot tongues collided as Joe released the catch on Tori’s bra, sliding his thumbs under it until he got what he wanted.
“Your high beams are on,” he said, nibbling her neck as he ran his thumbs over her nipples.
“Oh, sorry, you want me to turn them off?” Tori couldn’t help but grin. So far, the seduction scene was playing out even better than she’d hoped.
“Nuh-uh!”
They laughed and continued their play. Lips, tongues, hands, thighs coming together as clothing continued to drop off. The sound of water hissing and spitting brought Tori halfway back to her senses.
“Oh, the potatoes! Hang on. Honey!” Tori giggled up a scale of notes, Joe's hands playing tantalizing music on her skin.
“You have ten seconds to get everything turned off or turned down, then you’re mine.”
“Joe!” Tori wriggled under his touch. “It’ll ruin everything if I just turn it all off.”
“How long until it’s done?” He unzipped his zipper, inch by tantalizing inch.
“Fifteen minutes.” Tori watched his zipper slide down, feeling her body temperature creep up. Maybe she needn’t have started a fire when she came home.
“Set the timer. We’ll be done in fourteen and a half.”
Joe slapped her behind as Tori giggled again and raced topless to the kitchen. She turned down the heat on the boiling potatoes, checked the roast in the oven, and set the kitchen timer.
“Unless you want to do it right here.” Joe snuck up behind her and started to unfasten her slacks.
“No!” Tori giggled. “I haven’t mopped the floor and these are new pants.” The idea of doing it on the kitchen floor and finding crumbs in her panties later wasn’t particularly titillating. Another thought – that things were heating up just as she had to let him go – zoomed through her mind, but she pushed it out. Tears would be even less sexy than crumbs.
“Then you better take me where you want me,” he growled in her ear.
Tori backed up a step from the heat of the stove to find the heat of her husband with one hand. She rubbed against him, then faced him and unzipped his pants.
“Well, there aren’t that many rooms in the house.” She unbuttoned the top button on his shirt. “Where haven’t we done it?” She pushed him so he walked backward, his hands massaging her breasts.
“A big, strong man like you would break the dining room table.” She kissed his chest while she undid another button.
“The shower will take longer than fifteen minutes.” She pushed him toward the living room.
“Our big, strong, hard” –she used her hands to emphasize each word, causing Joe to catch his breath– “couch is right here.” She gave him a little push and he fell back into a sitting position, exposed and ready to play. Snickers jumped down and ran to hide. Good cat.
“You want me?” She took off her slacks and trouser socks, dropping them to the carpeting with the rest of her clothes.
“Uh-huh.”
She pulled his pants off and kicked them away along with his socks. “How much?”
Joe tossed his boxers onto the floor as well and settled back on the couch. “Why don’t you come find out?”
“Not until you tell me if you like the new lace underwear I bought just for you.”
Joe leaned forward and kissed her belly button, trailing kisses down over her underwear until Tori was gripping his shoulders to stay upright. Then he slowly pulled them down, over her hips, past her knees, lifting her ankles one at a time, and tossing the panties in the pile.
“I like them,” he said, looking at her, not the lace. “Now come sit on my lap.”
When the kitchen timer went off twelve minutes later, the exhausted, sated couple gave each other one more kiss. Then Joe smacked her bottom and said, “Woman, get me my dinner.”
As Tori prepared their plates, she wondered how she should bring up the subject. Honey, would you like to be married to someone else? Sweetie, why did you marry me? Darling, I love you so I’m packing your bags and letting you go.
Yeah, none of those were going to work. She’d have to think about it some more during dinner. After she recovered from the great sex.
They ate naked on the living room carpet, dinner plates on the coffee table, backs against the couch, thighs and shoulders touching. If this were a regular, happy marriage, it’d be – well, perfect. Maybe she could just pretend for a few minutes. Let Joe watch the news in peace before she…well, whatever it was she came up with as a plan.
Her words to Hayley came back to her. Tori wanted to be a woman Joe would admire for being able to handle any situation. Fine. She would be. Even if their marriage was practically over before he saw it.
She glanced at Joe, then back at the TV screen. “Have you ever seen a superhero?” She hoped having a non-plan worked as well as a real plan.
“Mm-hmm…” He was completely engrossed in the sentencing of an actor in L.A. who’d apparently bought drugs for another underage actor.
Ah, the beginning of a plan. If she talked to him while he was watching TV, maybe he’d give up some useful information without even knowing it. “Have you ever met one?”
Joe grunted.
In their twenty-eight days of marriage, Tori hadn’t yet decided if grunts were always “yes” or always “no.” Perhaps non-yes-or-no questions would work better.
“How many have you seen?”
A commercial came on. Tori waited for Joe to give her his attention. But this one was for that video game he wanted. The one she bought at the mall earlier this week.
She sighed. What would she do with their wedding presents? And they’d already had a party. How would they explain to their friends and family that they weren’t married anymore?
“Have you seen more than two?”
He admired a sleek BMW motorcycle on the screen. “I’ve gotta get one of those.”
Tori looked askance at the husband she wanted to keep. Alive. “You must be joking,” she said, veering off course for a moment. “You don’t even know how to ride one, do you? And I don’t want to be a widow.” Of course, she didn’t want to be a divorcée madly in love with her ex-husband either.
“It’s not that hard. Two what?” Joe changed the subject.
Tori lost him for a second, deep as she was in contemplating the rest of her lonely life. “Oh. Superheroes.”
“I guess.”
“When? Where did you see them?” She tried to keep her voice light. Maybe he liked superheroes. That would be good. So long as he didn’t mind too much a superhero forcing him to do something, and so long as he was happy with the outcome…maybe this could all work out.
He finally looked at her. “What?”
Tori met his eyes for a moment and turned away, as if the question weren’t important. “I just wondered how many there are. I’ve only seen a couple in my whole life. Hayley’s seen two. I wondered how many you’ve seen.”
“Hayley said she’s seen two superheroes?”
Tori felt the weight of Joe's stare. He seemed remarkably interested now that she wanted him not to be engag
ed in the conversation. It’d be easier to grill him for what he knew if he were still focused on the TV. She waved her hand in a nonchalant manner and succeeded in knocking her fork to the carpet.
“Yeah, I’m not sure up close or what,” she said, stacking their plates and piling all the silverware on top. “She said she’s seen them on the news, but that’s not what we were talking about at the time.”
Joe narrowed his gaze on her. “Did you tell her about the one you saw?”
“Well, she knows about the one that stopped the mugger on Halloween.” Tori stalled. Was there anything wrong with admitting she’d told Hayley? This was where a good plan would’ve come in handy. Now she was going to have to do this by the seat of her pants. Only she wasn’t wearing pants.
Joe frowned as he waited for her reply.
The hairs on Tori’s neck were prickling.
The news came back on and Joe turned to watch. How could she tell him now? A frown didn’t bode well. She needed him to be in a good mood so he’d be more accepting of this unlikely situation. I mean, really, how many people find out after they get married that they’ve just married a superhero? She felt like crying again, but she reminded herself that she could handle this. She could handle anything.
“Would you like some dessert?”
Joe grunted, still watching the news. Tori blew out a sigh as she spooned ice cream on top of two brownies. It’s hard to think of a plan for something you don’t want to do. As she walked back into the living room, all naked and bouncing body parts with absolutely no acknowledgement from her husband, Tori thought maybe she should just come out with it. Deal with the consequences later. She’d ruined their perfect evening anyway.
A reporter stood interviewing a young family as their house burned in the background. Firefighters worked to keep the fire from spreading, but this house was history.
“Now why wasn’t a superhero there to help?” Tori mused aloud as she gave Joe his brownie.
“They can’t be everywhere,” he said, digging into his dessert. “Half the time it’s dumb luck, being in the right place at the right time.”
Tori prayed for the family. Even if she’d been there, she couldn’t have done anything. She couldn’t just demand that the fire stop burning.
Unexpected Superhero (Adventures of Lewis and Clarke Book 1) Page 18