Lorenzo: BWWM Romance (Members From Money Book 12)

by Katie Dowe

  “Ask me again.” His hand tightened on hers. “Ask me again what I want.”

  “What do you want, David?” she asked him softly.

  “I want to wake up in the mornings with you. I want to go to bed with you at nights and I want to make love to you over and over again until we both die of old age. I want to see my children growing inside you and I want us to get married, and I don’t want to be apart from you for a single day. I love you Janice, and it took my almost losing you to know that.”

  Janice felt the tears clouding her eyes and she had to blink them away. “Then it was a good thing I got shot,” she joked weakly.

  “Don’t say that!” he said sharply. He lifted her hand and kissed her palm causing the shiver to go through her body. “I want to find that son of a bitch and I want to strangle him with my bare hands. He hurt you and I cannot bear that. Janice baby, I almost lost you, I almost lost you!” To her shock, he started weeping, the tears coursing down his cheeks unchecked. She brought his head down against her and held him stroking his dark hair tenderly, amazed at the amount of emotions he was displaying.

  He eased up off her. “I am sorry,” he muttered, getting ready to move away.

  “Don’t!” she warned him. “You don’t get to do that again, David Hattori.”

  “I won’t,” he promised quietly. “I love you Janice, more than you will ever know.”

  *****

  He did not leave her, even when the doctors and nurses came in to check her vitals and even when her parents were there and Leah and Candace came in, hugging one another and talking all at once. He stood there in the corner of the room as if he was standing guard over her. Jake and Maggie came by for a visit bringing flowers and updating her on what was happening at the store.

  It was Tuesday afternoon and she could not believe that it was only yesterday that everything had happened.

  “How are you?” she asked Leah quietly. Her friend looked haggard and riddled with guilt, and even though she and Candace had told her that it was not her fault, she still had not accepted that.

  “Hanging in there.” She looked over to where David was sitting doing something on his laptop. He had gone home briefly to shower and change and refused to go into work and leave her, so he had carried his work with him and stationed himself inside her room. “I did not see it coming Janice, I did not see how unstable he was and he almost–“ She broke off in abject misery looking down at her clasped hands. “I am sure everyone hates me, especially him,” she whispered looking towards David.

  “David wants to strangle Lance, but he does not hate you.” She gripped her friend’s hands trying to transfer some reassurance to her and get her out of her funk. “Nobody saw it Leah, and you have to be thankful that it happened this way. It could have been you alone in that apartment and it could have gone another way.”

  “You are right.” She took a deep breath and tried to smile. “Candace said my leaving him brought the crazy out.

  “In her own Candace way, she is right,” Janice said with a smile. She glanced at the silent man in the corner of the room and her eyes softened with incredible love. “We cannot be responsible for someone else’s actions Leah, and we have to remember that.”

  “So he has finally declared his love huh?” she whispered.

  “He has. He asked me to marry him,” she said with a smile. “I said yes, of course.”

  *****

  She was released on Wednesday and he was the one who took her home. Her parents were behind them in their vehicle. Leah had gone to Candace’s apartment with her, where she would be spending a few days with her.

  He lifted her up and took her inside placing her gently on the sofa. “You do realize that I was shot in my arm and not my leg, right?” she asked him teasingly.

  Her parents came in just then. “If the man wants to spoil you let him,” her mother told her with a smile, easing up her daughter’s feet and placing them on the footstool.

  “I agree.” Her father clapped David on the shoulder and kissed his daughter’s cheek gently. “We almost lost you darling, so we are determined to pamper you.”

  “In that case, can I get all the money in your accounts?” she asked them sheepishly.

  “You won’t need it,” David told her quietly, coming to kneel in front of her. “I am going to give you everything you ever wanted. There is nothing in this world that you want that I will not give to you.”

  Her parents stood there looking down at the man kneeling in front of their daughter and felt the wonder and amazement at the love portrayed there.

  “All I need is you,” Janice told him softly, reaching out with her uninjured hand to brush back the hair from his forehead. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.” He captured her hand and placed it against his jaw, his eyes closed.

  Richard and Janet quietly left knowing that they had been excluded and the couple did not even realize that they had left so wrapped up in each other they were.

  *****

  He took her home to meet his mother. Julia Hattori embraced her fondly and welcomed her to the manor.

  “I should have known you lived in a mansion,” she teased him as he took her on a tour of the place. “What you must have thought when you spent time in my place.”

  “I loved your place because you are there,” he told her simply. They were in his suite of rooms and she was sitting on his huge king-sized bed while he changed out of his street clothes and put on sweat pants and a t-shirt. He had gone into the office for a couple of hours but not before he knew she had someone there with her. It was Friday afternoon and apart from going into the store for a short time, she was staying at home and recuperating. She was still wearing a sling, but her arm was getting better.

  “How about a December wedding?” He had come up on the dais and was kneeling in front of her.

  “You think we can plan a wedding in two months?” she asked him, her well-shaped brows rising.

  “I will hire a wedding planner and take away the trouble of the planning from you,” he insisted.

  She pushed away the hair from his forehead and met his intense dark eyes. “I want us to be honest with each other. Why do you want to marry me?”

  He looked at her in surprise. “I want to marry you because I love you and I cannot see my life without you. I let my pride and my guilt get in the way before and I almost lost you. I never loved Eileen, baby, and I have come to grips that it did not matter if she was still alive, I would not love her still. I love you and you are the only one I want and it’s as simple as that.”

  “In that case, a December wedding it is,” she told him with a catch in her throat leaning down to capture his lips with hers.

  “Janice, your arm,” he protested.

  “I need you,” she told him huskily, tightening her hand around his neck. “Now please, it’s been too long.”

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said hoarsely, standing up and carefully putting her to lie on the bed. She was wearing denims and a short thick sweater and he carefully undressed her lingering over the lace underwear she was wearing before taking them off. He undressed before joining her on the bed, passing his hands over her naked body. He bent his head and flicked his tongue over her nipple causing her to arch her body towards his. He drifted down to her pubic area and dipped his fingers inside her slowly at first and then eagerly. He took her lips with his tenderly, his tongue entering her mouth slowly as his fingers thrust inside her. Janice felt the fire burning inside her and she wanted more, she wanted him so much that she found it hard to stay still.

  His kisses were slow and drugging, infusing her body with warmth and she felt it down to the very core of her. It was as if he was trying to transfer his very soul to her and she felt herself molding to him, her body one with his, their hearts beating at the same tune. He took his fingers out and slid on top of her, careful not to touch her left arm. He entered her slowly, suspended over her and not moving as he gazed down at her, his dark
eyes turbulent. “Let me show you how much I love you,” he murmured. He started moving inside her and as she wrapped her legs around him, her arms tight around his neck, her body lifting and moving against his.

  Making sure he was not touching her injured arm, he thrust inside her urgently, the buildup of feeling inside him. He felt as if he was bursting with need for her and he knew he was not going to last long. He pulled out of her slightly and she murmured, moving restlessly against him. “Hush baby,” he muttered, entering her again, his eyes closed and his teeth gritted as her tightness closed around him. She pulled his head down to hers and claimed his lips with hers as she felt the sensation rising from the bottom of her belly straight up and she stiffened and went rigid as the orgasm rushed through her like a tunneling wave! He came with her, his thrusts becoming more urgent and the force so frantic that he felt as if he was falling from a cliff! He could not believe that such feeling was possible and he tore his mouth away from hers and cried out, his throat hoarse and parched with the need of her. His body shuddered against hers, and she held him against her trembling and spilling his seed inside her as if he would never stop!

  He wanted to move off her, but he could not move. “Am I hurting you?” he asked her huskily, resting his head on hers, his breathing raspy.

  “No.” She ran her hand down his back slowly, still feeling the shudder of his body against hers. “I want you to stay this way for a while.”

  “If I do I am going to make love to you again,” he told her huskily. “I really think I should make you rest.”

  “We have not seen each other for three weeks, and during that time I got shot in the arm, so if you make love to me again then I am not going to complain,” she murmured.

  “When you mention being shot so casually it makes me crazy,” he told her stiffly. “I want to kill him for hurting you, Janice.”

  “So I won’t mention it again.” She brushed the hair from his forehead. “You have to remember that I am still here David, and we have to focus on that.”

  “I know,” he said with a sigh. He rolled off her and to her surprise he picked her up gently.

  “Where are we going?”

  “I am going to give you a bath.” He kissed her lingeringly on the lips. “A very long one.”

  *****

  He finally relented and went to the office, insisting that she stay at the manor where there were servants and his mother there to look out for her.

  “You changed his life,” Julia commented, putting blackberry jam on the toast for her. She had come downstairs with David and he had kissed her lingeringly before he left, telling his mother to take care of his girl. “He told you about Eileen?”

  “Not in a lot of words,” Janice said with a smile. “You know David.”

  “Don’t I,” his mother said with a grimace. “A man of few words. We forced the marriage, his father and me and Eileen’s parents. We were friends for a long time and we thought it would be a good match. He did not want to do it, but we convinced him that it would be okay and Eileen was already in love with him. Even the day before the wedding, he voiced the fact that he did not think it was a good idea because all he felt for her was a certain fondness like a brother would feel for his sister but I told him the love would come eventually. I was wrong.” Julia sipped her coffee contemplatively. “He was never going to love her and it only made both of them miserable. He was too much of a gentleman to ask for a divorce, and if she had not died, he would have still be trapped into a loveless marriage and I tortured myself about that so many times.” She reached out and touched Janice’s arm. “You changed his life in a way that I never dreamed possible. I have never seen him so happy and I want to thank you for bringing him back.”

  “He has changed my life too,” Janice said blinking away the tears. “I have never felt this way before and sometimes it is so overwhelming that I wonder if I can handle it.”

  “My love for his father was a comfortable one, nothing compared to what you two share.” Julia nodded her thanks to a uniformed maid who set a bowl of fruits in the middle of the table. “Yours and David’s is indeed something special and I am glad you found each other. Now to more pressing matters,” she said with a bright smile. “We have a wedding to plan.”

  *****

  “He seems to be quite a nice young man,” Janet commented.

  She and Richard were at home enjoying a quiet evening together. They had finished having dinner and were enjoying the fading light of the sun as they sat on the newly renovated porch wrapped up in a warm blanket.

  “He seems to be very much in love with our daughter,” Richard said thoughtfully. “I told him that I wanted to stay with her for a little bit when she was in the hospital, but he told me point blank that he was not leaving.”

  “He is a billionaire at that,” Janet said in wonder. “I know of his company and that place has been in operation for a number of years.”

  “And he wants to marry her.”

  “Why wouldn’t he?” she retorted. “She is an exceptionally beautiful girl.”

  “I am so happy for her,” Richard said with satisfaction. “I am so glad that you finally decided to take me back. I was devastated when I thought you would not.”

  “I strongly doubt you were,” Janet said dryly.

  “Do you have any idea how much I love you woman?” he asked her gruffly, turning her around to face him.

  “I think I can guess,” she told him softly, reaching out to touch his cheek.

  “I spent years thinking that I could manage life without you and for a minute I did until reality struck and I realized that it had to be you,” he mused. “We spent so many years together and I should have realized that spending so many years with a person meant that it would not be so easy to do without them.

  “Remember the first time we met?” he asked her fondly.

  “When you bumped into me at the farmer’s market?” she said with a laugh. “You knocked over my tomatoes and squashed two of the plumpest ones and insisted on buying me back a whole pound.”

  “You looked at me as if you wanted to hurl the rest at my face,” he said with a grin.

  “I almost did,” she said wryly. “And then you had the gall to invite me for coffee.”

  “You turned me down flat,” Richard remembered. “And I saw you the next week at the same place waiting and you had tomatoes in a basket and how could I say no to that face?”

  “It started right there,” he murmured. “I wanted to take you home then and there and ask you to marry me.”

  “Why didn’t you?” She angled her head and looked at him.

  “Because you were a terrifying woman,” he admitted ruefully. “And I was afraid you were going to turn me down.”

  “I waited on you to ask me and I was starting to get frustrated,” Janet told him.

  “You did huh?” He tilted her chin and looked at her familiar beautiful face, not quite getting why he had left in the first place. “You will never have to be again,” he said softly, bringing his head down for a kiss.

  *****

  Leah stepped inside the apartment tentatively as if she was expecting to see Lance pop out of a corner and confront her. It was the first time she had been back since the awful incident. She had been spending the time with Candace and her friend had insisted that she spent some more time there, but she had to get on with her life. Lance was locked up. He had regained consciousness and had asked to see her, but she had not gone to see him, she could not bear to see him after what he had done. The blood had been wiped clean, but she knew it was still there seeped into the floorboards, his blood as well as Janice’s. She shuddered and dropped down on the sofa. One minute they were there chatting and laughing and the next minute they were facing the barrel of a gun that had almost taken their lives. He had been unhinged and she knew he would have killed them and killed himself. What makes a person go from being normal to becoming unstable like that, she thought sadly. He had reminded her of the happier times
and in fact they had been happy in a tiny apartment, the newness of love surrounding them and the excitement of the plans filling their every conversation. They had made love every chance they got and had been eager to see each other when they got home from work. She remembered when they had had separate shifts and how mad they had been about the separation. They had gone to picnics and took strolls in the park when they were off and ate from each other’s plates at the dinner table. It had started to go wrong a year into the marriage when he had seen her talking to a doctor and laughing with him. He had accused her of trying to trade him in for someone with a higher pay grade and even though she had tried to convince him that he was wrong, he had gotten progressively worse until she had stopped talking to people at work just so she could have peace of mind.

  The last straw had been when he had grabbed her arm in public when she had waved to a guy she knew from some time ago. She had realized that there was no way that love was going to flourish in an environment like that and it was best that she walk away from it.

  With a shudder, she buried her head in her hands and let the tears fall.

  Chapter 12

  Her parents were getting married in a private ceremony and a small dinner was going to be held at their home right after. It was November and the sky looked bleak and the trees stark.

  Janice had gone back to the store and there had been a succession of weddings she had made floral arrangements for. She had been staying more at David’s than at her house and she had told him that she was going to be sleeping at her own place tonight and he was welcomed to join her. It was Saturday afternoon and the ceremony was over within an hour and they left for the house.

  Janice had gone there with Maggie and Jake to decorate the place. She had closed the store for the occasion and had placed her mother’s favorite bluebells all around the living room where they were going to have dinner. It was set for three o’clock and her friends, David and his mother and Maggie and her husband and Jake and a few friends and neighbors were already there. Her arm was on the mend with just a little twinge of pain every now and then, but she tried not to mention it to David or he would not stop hovering. She adjusted the straps of her dark blue chiffon dress before going to adjust the floral arrangements on the table.