The Librarian’s Secret Scandal

by Jennifer Morey

“No! I like him, that’s all.”

  “If you end up liking him long enough and want to have sex with him, you tell me first. I don’t want you getting pregnant.”

  “Mom, stop it.” May marched past her.

  Lily stopped her at the top of the stairs, taking her by the arm. “You haven’t told me where you were.” She smelled the air close to May. “Have you been drinking?” Lily was appalled.

  “No! What’s the matter with you?”

  “You smell like beer.”

  “I do not.”

  “How much did you drink tonight?” Lily demanded.

  May rolled her eyes. “I just had a couple of sips of beer. It was no big deal.”

  “No big deal?” Lily’s head spun. “First you get into a fight, now you’re going to parties and drinking beer. What’s next, May?”

  “I’m not doing anything wrong.”

  “Oh, really? That’s what you think?” Lily pointed her finger in front of May’s face, still holding her arm. “You’re fourteen years old. You lied about where you were going and you drank alcohol.”

  May let out a grunted breath.

  “You’re grounded.”

  “Mom!”

  “You’re grounded and you will not see that boy until I say you can. Do you hear me?”

  “Mom, don’t.”

  “No friends. No calls. You come home after school and that’s it.”

  Just then Wes walked in the door. Lily let go of May’s arm and turned. Seeing him was like a breath of fresh air, though he stole hers. May disappeared down the stairs, her angry steps loud, Lily was sure, on purpose.

  “Everything all right?” Wes asked.

  “Just having a teenager moment.” Disconcerted by how good it was to see him, she headed for the kitchen. “You’re home late.” She inwardly cringed because she thought she sounded like a wife.

  “Had something come up. I got a call to leave during dinner with Maisie. That didn’t go over well. She accused me of using it as an excuse to go home to you.”

  “Did you get a chance to eat?”

  “Not much.”

  “I’ll make you something.” Hearing him behind her, she poured herself a glass of milk and turned with the carton. “Want some?”

  “No thanks. I’ll just make myself a sandwich.”

  “I’ll make it for you.” She told herself it wasn’t because she felt like his woman. She was only grateful for his hospitality.

  “Thanks.” A long sigh came from him as he sat at the kitchen table.

  Taking out everything she needed to make him one of her favorite club sandwiches, Lily went to work. “What happened tonight?”

  “Got a call from a woman who said her husband was drunk and she was worried what he’d do. By the time I got there, he had already left. I caught up to him after he left the Corner Bar. Had to arrest him on DUI charges.”

  “I’m sure his wife was delighted.”

  “She decided to let him stay the night in jail.”

  “Can’t say I blame her.”

  Finished making the sandwich, she brought it over to the table and sat next to him. She wouldn’t be able to sleep right away anyway. It wasn’t because she’d missed him tonight and was happy to see him. It wasn’t.

  The warmth in his eyes made her smile.

  He lifted the sandwich and took a bite. “Mmm.” He chewed. “You make great sandwiches.”

  “You sure you don’t want anything to drink?”

  “Actually, a beer would be good.”

  But when she started to get up, he put his hand on hers. “I’ll get it. You wait here.”

  She felt inexplicably warm and tingly while he got a beer and returned. And she couldn’t stop smiling.

  He grinned. “I’m glad to see you, too.”

  Fighting a girlish blush, Lily looked down.

  When Wes’s hand slid over hers again, she looked up.

  “And I could do this every day,” he said.

  Every day. Lily felt herself fall into what she was afraid to call love.

  Chapter 9

  After three days living with May’s attitude over being grounded, Lily was ready for a break. She entered Kelley’s Cookhouse, leaving the cool chill of late September behind. Bonnie Gene was at the restaurant with her husband so Lily asked if she could spare a few minutes. Wes had called and said he was working late, and her dad had agreed to keep an eye on May.

  She didn’t know how she felt about the way things were progressing with Wes. She wasn’t even sure she wanted anything to progress, not in the direction of love. When he’d called, it had warmed her with affection. How sweet of him to think of her. But then she’d realized him thinking of her that way had too much of a domesticated feel. She was—in effect—living with him. He’d called to tell her he’d be home late from work. He didn’t have to do that.

  Not only that, her dad had begun responding to questions she asked him. He always shut her out when she tried to have a conversation with him, but things were improving. Was it because of Wes? Did he see how well he treated her? Did that make a difference? If she gave in to fantasy, she’d dream of staying with Wes the rest of her life, caring for her dad and raising May. It felt right. And then it didn’t. Most of the time it felt as if she were risking too much. If she allowed something to develop between them, how long before he started wanting someone younger? Would she find herself in her sixties facing life as a single woman again? She didn’t want that.

  No one had threatened her after the fire, and she was beginning to wonder if it was time to go home.

  She entered Kelley’s. People turned to look at her. She recognized a few of them. Mary and Jake Pierson were there, having dinner with Lucy Walsh. Mary saw her and something in the way she looked at her piqued Lily.

  She went to the table, feeling other glances on the way. Something weird was going on. What didn’t she know that they did?

  Mary stood from the table. “Lily, I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.” She hugged her. Lily felt every muscle in her body stiffen.

  Mary leaned back. “Are you doing all right?”

  “Yes. How are you?” She wanted to deflect whatever had Mary concerned, having a bad feeling about it.

  “I’m fine. Jake is keeping me out of trouble.” She looked back at him and winked.

  “That’s good. No one’s tried to come after you again?” Lily asked.

  “No. What a relief that is.” She met Lily’s eyes. “Look, if you ever need to talk…”

  Lily didn’t like her leading inflection. “Thanks,” she said abruptly. “I’m meeting Bonnie Gene today. Have you seen her?”

  “No, I haven’t.”

  “She’s over there, talking to some customers.” Jake pointed.

  Lily saw her the same time Bonnie Gene turned and saw her. Bonnie Gene smiled and waved and then said something to the seated couple she’d been talking to. Stepping away, she indicated a booth nearby.

  Lily looked at Lucy and Jake, and ended with Mary. “I’ll catch up to you later.”

  Mary nodded, sympathy still in her eyes.

  Oh, God. Lily couldn’t breathe. What had happened? What rumor was passing around town now?

  She saw Bonnie Gene and felt relief spare her. Her friend was like a beacon. A safe place to get away.

  But as she slid onto the booth seat, she saw the same look in Bonnie Gene’s eyes.

  “What?” Lily asked.

  “Oh, Lily. Everybody knows.”

  “Knows what?” But she didn’t have to be told. Tears of humiliation burned her eyes.

  “Gavin MacGregor told his mother. It spread from there.”

  “Who is Gavin MacGregor?”

  “He’s a junior at Honey Creek High. Levi Garrison is one of his friends. Levi and May were at the same party last weekend. Apparently they talked to Gavin.”

  May had talked. May told someone about what had happened to her? Her own daughter? Surely it hadn’t been on purpose.

  “They k
now you were raped. Some are saying May is your rapist’s daughter. Oh, Lily, I’m so sorry. I know how upset this is going to make you.”

  Lily could only stare down at her hand on the table.

  “I’ve told everyone I know that May’s father isn’t who they think it is.”

  Which was only going to make things worse. As soon as the details emerged—and they would—they’d know it hadn’t been that long after her rape that she’d slept with May’s father.

  Lily looked around. Almost every eye in the place was trained on her. Some looked away when she caught them, others didn’t. Some turned to talk with their tablemates.

  A tremble began in her limbs. She wiped a traitorous tear from her cheek.

  “Lily?”

  She wanted to get up and walk out of here, but that would mean parading in front of everyone. She felt like a rape victim again. Helpless. What was she going to do?

  She didn’t know. She only knew she was lost and afraid. The front door opened and Wes walked in. Her heart overflowed with need. She needed him so much right now and he was here.

  He searched the restaurant until he found her. His face was set and grim.

  He knew. She needed him. He’d known, and he’d come for her.

  Another tear rolled from her eye and more followed. There was no stopping them now.

  Wes strode toward her, all purpose and brawn heading her way. It was the most beautiful sight in the world to her.

  “Oh, my…look at him,” Bonnie Gene said.

  Lily’s emotions overwhelmed her. He was going to rescue her. That’s what it felt like. Unless she was wrong and he had another reason to be here. But she doubted that, especially when he reached the table and extended his hand.

  “Come with me,” he said.

  She wiped her cheek again and gave him her hand.

  “Bonnie Gene,” he said.

  “Wes. Your timing couldn’t be better.”

  “I tried to catch you before you got here,” he said to Lily.

  She let him put his arm around her and escort her toward the door. He must have called home again, after learning what was going around town, and worried she was in the middle of spectator hell. She was. The restaurant was quiet as they passed, all the way to the exit.

  Maybe moving here had been a mistake after all.

  Wes opened the door for her and she got into his SUV. He shut the door and moved to the other side. When he sat behind the wheel, he looked over at her. After a minute, he started driving. But just outside of town he pulled off the road onto a side street and parked along the side of the dirt road.

  She looked over at him, wondering why he’d stopped.

  His face was intent as he hesitated. “I’m sorry this is happening, Lily, But I have to ask. Why, after fifteen years, do you still need to keep a secret?”

  Bowing her head, she stared at her clasped hands in her lap. “You know why.”

  “It wasn’t your fault.”

  “Yes, it was. I picked him up at a bar. I did that all the time.”

  “You were young.”

  “I should have known better. Things weren’t great at home, but taking personal risks wasn’t the way to fight back.” She lifted her head and turned toward him. “I hurt myself more than I hurt my parents. That’s what I was trying to do. Hurt them. And look what it got me.”

  “You have to stop blaming yourself, Lily.”

  “I’m over it. I am. It’s just…with Brandon’s release and all…it set me back, that’s all.”

  “Yes, it set you back, but there’s more to it than that. You’ve kept this buried too long.”

  “You think I shouldn’t mind if the whole town is talking about me…about that?”

  “No. I don’t think anyone would like that. I think you should stop blaming yourself.”

  She did blame herself. She’d never thought of it that way, but now she realized she did. Sleeping around the way she had, it was hard not to hold herself accountable. But she hadn’t set out to get raped. No woman deserved that, no matter how debauched her lifestyle.

  Yet again, Wes had done something incredibly sweet. He cared about her. He’d rescued her. He was still rescuing her. Helping her heal. Never before had she trusted a man this much.

  Removing her seat belt, she leaned over the console. His face was close to hers now.

  “Don’t stop holding your head high,” he said.

  She slid her hand along the side of his face and ran her fingers into his rich, brown hair. He didn’t make a move, which only sweetened the moment more.

  She pressed her lips to his. He let her have control. He responded to her kiss, but didn’t push further. She parted her lips and pressed harder.

  He answered her.

  Soon his arms were around her and she was arching toward him. It felt so good. And safe. He was the first man in fifteen years who made her feel that way.

  She broke away to unbutton his shirt. When she slid her hands over his chest and pushed the material off his shoulders, he put his hands over hers.

  “Lily.”

  She looked up into his impassioned eyes. “I want this.”

  “Not here.”

  Yes, here. It was a rush to feel like her old self again, only this time she was in control. This time she wasn’t doing anything to rebel against her parents. This was real. It meant something.

  Climbing into the backseat, she sat and patted the space beside her. Wes had twisted to watch her, and now he hesitated.

  His hesitation only made her want him more.

  “Come here.”

  “Lily…”

  “Please.”

  At last he climbed into the back, his big body not fitting between the seats as well as hers had. He sat beside her. She crawled onto him, straddling his thighs.

  He put his hands on her hips.

  She kissed him.

  “I don’t have anything,” he said.

  “Diseases? Good,” she teased, kissing him some more.

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  She laughed because she already knew that, pushing his shirt down his arms. “It’s okay.” He shrugged out of his shirt, still looking uncertain. Pulling her long-sleeved white T-shirt over her head, she dropped it on the seat beside her, loving how his gaze fell.

  When his eyes lifted, she unbuttoned his jeans. He didn’t look so uncertain anymore.

  Climbing off him, she took off her jeans and removed her underwear. The sound of his breathing was an aphrodisiac. On her knees, she waited for him to get naked. When he left his jeans and boxers on the floor, she climbed back onto his lap, positioning herself on the length of his erection, but nothing more. She needed a little more time.

  Kissing him, her pulse grew heavier as his hands roamed. She tipped her head back when he put his mouth on her breasts. His hands kneaded her butt, moving her against him. The slow and steady grind against his hardness heated her. She moved with him. He groaned and found her mouth, kissing her deep.

  She continued to move with his coaxing. Urgency made her ache unbearably for him.

  Now she was ready.

  Raising up on her knees, she reached down and put him where he needed to be, and then let her weight slowly draw him inside. He fitted her perfectly and let her keep the pace.

  But she was clumsy in her movements, as if it were her first time. In a sense, it was. She’d started her life over after her ordeal. The sex partners she’d had since then had been all wrong. Stiff and unpleasant. This was the opposite. Right. Warm. Exquisitely pleasurable.

  Wes held her hips and began to thrust his own upward. She put her hand on the roof to keep her head from hitting it. Tingles of ecstasy sailed through her. An orgasm grew, rapid and out of control. She shouted when it burst over her. Wes rammed his erection into her until a sound from deep in his throat told her he’d reached the same peak.

  Sagging against him, she laid her head on his shoulder and basked in the wonder while her pulse slowed and her b
reathing came back to normal.

  It had been beyond her hope ever to feel like this again. But somehow Wes had overcome that obstacle. How frightening to realize the significance. How frightening to realize the significance of him. Wes. Could he really be hers?

  A long-buried part of her cried, yes.

  Lily didn’t come down from Wes’s room until late the next morning. He’d already left for work. She’d barely awakened when he’d leaned over the bed and kissed her. But now the memory of that and of what had transpired after they’d come home last night had her floating inside.

  Seeing her dad and May at the kitchen table, she was a little embarrassed. If either one of them had gone upstairs, they’d know where she’d slept.

  Her dad and May stopped talking when she neared.

  “Don’t you have to work today?” her dad asked.

  He was actually talking to her? “I have the day off.” Thank goodness. She couldn’t have woken up early after last night. She turned to May, “Why aren’t you in school?”

  “I told her she could take the day,” her dad said.

  “What gives you the right to do that?” Lily snapped.

  “I wanted to talk to you,” May said.

  Lily went into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of iced tea from a pitcher that Wes kept in his refrigerator. She was still upset with May and hadn’t decided how to deal with it.

  “Keeping things bottled up is never a good thing,” her dad said. “Neither is moping in your room all day.”

  She turned and looked from May’s somber face to her father’s. May must have told him everything. “I wasn’t going to stay in there all day.”

  “You should have told us what happened back then.”

  “You and Mom? What would you have done?”

  “Helped you. Something.”

  “Really?” She couldn’t subdue her animosity. “I doubt you’d have done anything but blame me.” Her parents had never really been there for her. She’d never felt as if she could turn to them. And while she’d moved here to mend that relationship, the reminder that the whole town was gossiping about her rape put her in a foul mood.

  Her dad looked annoyed. “You made it hard for us, Lily, with all your gallivanting. But we wanted the best for you.”