The bell over the door jangled as he entered and Devon, standing at the glass display case that doubled as a counter for the register, looked toward him. Her beautiful gray eyes widened slightly in surprise. “Geoff!”
Ralph Morin looked up. “Hi, Jack.” And then he glanced at Devon and frowned “Or should I call you Geoff?”
Jack shrugged “Geoff’s a nickname,” he said, improvising. “Either will do.”
Ralph nodded, obviously not understanding, but apparently judging the incident too unimportant to bother pursuing “I’ll be with you in a moment, Jack.” With a distracted air, the proprietor returned to what he was doing: installing a new battery into the remote starter for Devon’s Jeep.
So he hadn’t been her reason for coming, Jack realized. He noticed her quizzical expression. “I thought maybe I should get a computer,” he explained.
“Oh, of course. I thought...” Taking notice of an interested glance from Ralph as he followed their exchange, she broke off.
Jack studied the slight flush on her cheeks. She was flustered and he could almost read her thoughts. I thought you’d followed me He had, but damned if he’d admit it.
“So...what kind of computer are you planning on getting?”
Jack thought about that but came up empty. He didn’t know the first thing about them. “What do you suggest?”
Almost an hour had passed before Jack and Devon emerged from the store. The notebook computer he’d ordered would be in tomorrow morning, shipped by courier from a store in Vancouver. Taking Devon’s advice into consideration, he’d decided not to purchase a desktop model computer. Since he didn’t know what the next few days or weeks were going to hold for him, portability was a key feature The notebook computer with docking station that Ralph had demonstrated looked as though it would have everything he needed and suit his requirements. He hoped.
“Are we still on for seven then?” Devon asked.
“Of course.”
She nodded The awkwardness was back between them Two strangers, who shouldn’t have been strangers, feeling their way along the path of getting to know each other. “Well, I’d best get back then. See you later.”
“Sure ” Jack got into the Bronco and watched her leave. He was looking forward to the evening more than he would have thought possible. Starting his truck, he glanced at his watch. Holy...! It was ten minutes to five! He had roughly two hours to get home, put together a decent meal, and take a shower before Devon got there. Thank God for microwaves. Just to be on the safe side though, he’d better stop at the supermarket and grab one of those bags of ready-made salad. He might not have time to concoct one.
Chapter 5
Devon pulled up at Geoff’s place at five past seven She’d planned to be a couple of minutes early rather than late, but she’d been stalled in the hallway of the bed-and-breakfast by one of the other guests, intent on conversation. Now she looked at the door to Geoff’s cabin and tried to prepare herself for the evening ahead. As much as she would prefer to avoid contention, tonight would be the time for her to broach the subject of the divorce again. She needed to get home to spend Christmas with her family, and thus far she and Geoff had spent more time revisiting the past than they had talking about Devon’s purpose in coming here in the first place.
She’d called home upon her arrival at the bed-and-breakfast, of course. The children, on Christmas break from school at the moment, were staying with her parents It had been good to speak to them, she’d needed to hear their voices. She’d also told her parents and David about Geoff’s situation. The conversation with David had been the most difficult
He hadn’t wanted her to come to Northridge in the first place. His suggestion had been for her to keep her distance and to simply have Geoff—alias Jack Keller—served with divorce papers. But Devon hadn’t been able to do that. After more than thirteen years of marriage, she needed closure in her relationship with Geoff, and she couldn’t have found that without a face-to-face meeting. The fact that she’d begun to wonder over the past hours if perhaps David hadn’t been right, hadn’t made it any easier to defend her position when she’d spoken with him.
David had made it very clear that he wanted her to come home immediately—with or without Geoff’s agreement to sign the divorce papers. In fact, he’d been rather adamant about it. She understood his motivation. David quite naturally felt threatened and he was jealous. He didn’t want her spending time with Geoff. And, to be truthful, were the situation reversed, she’d probably feel much the same. Still, remembering their rather tense telephone conversation, David’s peremptory tone rankled. Partially due, no doubt, to her own illogical anticipation of the evening ahead.
And she was anticipating it. Despite the knowledge that her planned meeting with Geoff would undoubtedly include a good deal of friction, Devon found herself looking forward to it because... well, she didn’t know why precisely but it had to do with the fact that Geoff was cooking, and Devon had always loved the break from eating her own less creative concoctions. That at least was familiar. He’d always loved to cook—usually fattening Italian dishes laden with cheese
Now, she got out of the Jeep, smoothed the fabric of her black skirt and made her way to Geoff’s door. A strange expectation coupled with pure nervous tension coiled in her abdomen The feeling was strangely akin to the excitement and uneasiness one might feel on a first date, and yet this was not a date and could not be even remotely construed as one. The man she was meeting, although certainly a stranger to her in many ways, was her soon-to-be ex-husband. And her purpose here was not romantic. In fact, it was pretty much the opposite. So she didn’t understand why she should feel this way.
But she did.
“Hi,” she said, as Geoff opened the door in response to her knock. He was once again wearing black chinos, but this time, instead of the black turtleneck, he wore a green silk shirt. And he looked...wonderful. Distressingly so.
“Come in,” he said.
Devon thought maybe she should head for home as fast as the Jeep could take her Instead, she smiled and stepped inside, allowing Geoff to take her coat before she removed her shoes. The cabin was warm and homey. A fire blazed in the fireplace and delicious smells wafted from the kitchen. “Mmm,” she said, lifting her nose appreciatively “What did you make?”
“Grilled chicken breasts with honey-mustard sauce, stuffed potatoes, and broccoli with cheese.”
He was watching her intently, so Devon was careful to school her expression. “Well,” she said, “it sounds like you’re still a better cook than I am ” The change, though, lay in the fact that Geoff had never cooked anything but Italian cuisine prior to his disappearance Of course he wouldn’t have wanted to subsist for two years on nothing but the Italian pasta dishes that had been his specialties, so it made sense that he’d learned to cook other dishes. She didn’t know why she should feel surprised. “I guess you must have grown tired of fettucine and lasagna and bought yourself some cookbooks,” she added with a smile.
Without returning her smile, he continued to study her intently for a minute, his olive green eyes seeking answers to questions not yet voiced Then he said, “I used to cook a lot of Italian food, and that’s what you were expecting tonight.” It was more statement than question—a conclusion already drawn.
“Well, yes,” Devon hedged, “but don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not disappointed in the least. I’m not fussy. That’s my problem ” With a self-deprecating grin, she patted her hips.
He studied her a moment more, as though weighing the veracity of her statement, and then nodded. “Good,” he said simply. “Because I didn’t know I had an Italian mother, and I never tried cooking much in the way of Italian food. I’ll have to give it a shot and see how much comes back to me,” He paused. “Why don’t you come on into the kitchen.”
“Can I help with anything?”
He shook his head. “I’ve got everything under control Just have a seat.” He waved a hand vaguely in the direction
of the table which already held a huge bowl of salad and a basket of fresh dinner rolls. “I’ll join you in a moment.”
As Devon watched him move about the kitchen, his darkly handsome countenance so much more solemn and intense than the man she remembered, she couldn’t help but be reminded of the conversation she’d had with Eva Wright earlier in the afternoon when she’d asked Eva if Jack Keller was her neighbor.
“Why, yes, he is,” she’d responded. “Do you know him?”
“We’ve met,” Devon hedged, not wanting to go into explanations that would make no sense to a stranger in any case.
Then Eva grinned conspiratorially. “He’s very handsome, isn’t he? Though I must confess that he frightens me a bit.”
“Really? Why?” Devon asked, although she had to admit that she herself had felt almost frightened, for a brief moment, in the presence of the new intense Geoff she’d encountered.
Eva shrugged, looking a bit uncomfortable. “He’s just so big, with all those scars and everything It makes him look so ..violent.”
“Scars?” Devon echoed. With the exception of the one on his eyebrow and the other on his stomach, she hadn’t seen any scars.
“His back you know. It looks like he was pretty badly hurt at one time,” Eva said with a delicate shiver And then, before Devon could pursue the topic further, she had firmly changed the subject.
Studying him now, Devon cringed to think of the kind of pain he must have endured if his scars were as extensive as Eva had intimated. And, now that she thought about it, she couldn’t help wondering how Eva had come to see Geoff’s scars in the first place. Perhaps at the beach during the summer?
“Here we go,” Geoff said, interrupting her thoughts as he placed a plate of delicious smelling stuffed potatoes surrounded by chicken breasts smothered in sauce and garnished with parsley sprigs onto the table.
Devon’s mouth watered. “It looks wonderful.”
The remainder of the evening passed relatively smoothly. They ate good food, drank good wine, and talked about the good times they’d once shared. Or rather, Devon talked and Geoff listened, occasionally asking questions.
Now, as the evening began to draw to a close, Geoff could tell that Devon had something on her mind and a curious tension began to tighten his chest. Devon had known the man she’d been married to so well that she had expectations on almost every level. And it seemed that, on most of those levels, Jack failed to meet expectation. More than once this evening she’d said to him, “You’re so much more” something, “than you used to be.” More serious and laconic. More willing to learn new things. And more dispassionate
Since he couldn’t very well argue her assessment, Jack accepted her statements. But, now he wondered if whatever was on her mind had to do with these perceived changes in his character. Finally, as the tension continued to mount, he decided he was going to have to ask. It didn’t look as though she’d ever get round to broaching the subject on her own. “What’s on your mind, Devon?”
She jumped slightly and her gaze flew up to meet his. Guilt? Whatever it was, she knew he wasn’t going to like it Must be the divorce subject again. She cleared her throat and rose from the table to look out the patio door at the snow-blanketed lake. “I spoke with David earlier today,” she murmured quietly.
He expected that she would have “And?” he finally prompted her when she didn’t go on.
“He wants me to come home. Despite the extenuating circumstances surrounding your...um, condition, he feels that we can accomplish the divorce through a third party.” She didn’t look at him.
Jack rose to approach her, trying to see her expression. “And what do you feel?”
Her slender shoulders shrugged beneath the fabric of her teal blue blouse. “I don’t know what to think anymore, Geoff. We need to come to terms on this.”
“Didn’t you offer to reintroduce me to my life—to our children—even if I agreed to a divorce?”
She nodded “Yes. Yes, I did.”
“We can’t accomplish that through a lawyer. Can we?”
She turned to look at him and seemed surprised to see him standing so close. “No, I don’t suppose we can. And I will still do that for you despite David’s feelings on the matter. I feel I owe you that much. But, as I said before, Geoff, we needn’t delay the divorce in order for me to do that. I need to get on with my life and...well.. since finding you, I feel as though I’m stuck in limbo again.”
Join the club, he thought. Aloud, he said, “The only thing I have that you want is the divorce, Devon. And I’m not prepared to give you what you want until I have what I want. If you can’t accept those terms—” he shrugged “—well, I guess you’ll just have to sue me.”
Her eyes widened as she stared at him incredulously. “You don’t trust me!”
“I don’t trust anybody,” he returned. “It comes with the territory.”
She swore softly, despairingly, beneath her breath. “What is it, exactly, that you want, Geoff” Her beautiful dove gray eyes, brimming with emotional anguish now, fastened on his face and he wanted nothing more than to enfold her in his embrace. To hold her and protect her from all misery. But he couldn’t, and he didn’t.
“I want my life back, Devon. The way it used to be, if I can get it back.”
“With me in it?” she asked in a shocked tone.
“Maybe,” he said quietly. “If there’s anything left to reclaim between us, I want it And if not, who knows—” he shrugged “—we might find something new.”
“Oh, Geoff.” She closed her eyes briefly, then turned back to the patio door, shutting him out as she stared blindly out at the night. “I’ve got David in my life now.”
“Do you love him?”
“Yes.. of course.” But her answer had come too quickly, and Geoff sensed that she had been asking herself the same question. There was uncertainty in her voice.
He placed his hand on her arm, gently turning her to face him. When she looked up at him, her eyes luminous and wounded, her lips soft and trembling, something clenched deep in his gut and he knew he couldn’t let her go. Not yet “I’ve got news for you, Devon. You’ve got both of us in your life now And I don’t plan on getting out of it anytime soon ”
Devon froze as Geoff raised his hands to her shoulders, she felt curiously fragile beneath his touch His thumbs found their way inside the collar of her blouse to trace the contours of her collarbone, skin against naked skin A tingle raced through her, tightening her nipples Her breasts swelled. Her breathing quickened. She trembled and saw something primitive and triumphant flare to life in his eyes as her involuntary reaction communicated itself to him.
This couldn’t be happening.
He moved his hands down her arms then, capturing her wrists and lifting them, wrapping them around his neck as he brought her body up against his. Devon swallowed. She should put a stop to this right now. She should grab her purse and walk away. She should go home. But a part of her wanted this moment more than she would have thought possible A part of her revelled in the feel of Geoff’s arms around her again A part of her remembered the love she’d had for this man. And that errant piece of herself held reason hostage to desire.
He bowed his head then, to press his lips to hers, increasing the force gradually until, with a soft sound of protest and surrender, she opened to him. And then, as though her surrender was some sort of signal, his embrace tightened until she felt every ridge and plane of his hard chest against her swollen breasts. His kiss deepened until she felt consumed by its feral power. His hips rocked against her until she felt the evidence of his desire boldly pressing against her.
And yet, despite the intense sense of familiarity, the feeling of having come home, the strangeness of this Geoff made itself known even now. She felt a savagery at his core, as though the primal instincts of man’s distant past were closer to the surface in this man than they had been in the husband she remembered. They called to all that was female within her, commanding her
body to life, inducing a primal passionate madness she felt helpless to resist, demanding her submission. She couldn’t ever remember feeling quite this intense a loss of control. Not in Geoff’s arms, and not in David’s.
David!
She pulled out of Geoff’s embrace, stunned that she’d forgotten her fiancé’s existence for even so short a time. What was happening to her? She stared at this new strange Geoff, trying to perceive what it was about him that gave him such power over her. But whatever it was, it was camouflaged. “I have to go,” she murmured. Turning away from him, she found her purse on the floor and draped its strap over her shoulder. “If you’re not going to agree to a divorce no matter what I say, then I have no reason to be here ”
“What about your promise to help me get my life back?”
She stiffened. “What about it?”
“I have a computer arriving tomorrow morning that may help me regain more of the memories I need, but I need your help, Devon. I need you to prompt my memory Promise me you’ll stay in Northridge one more day while I finish making the arrangements to leave,” Geoff said behind her. “Please! On Thursday morning we can leave for Kelowna together Then, with your help, I can start getting my life back.”
“Thursday is Christmas Eve.”
“I know. But...please. Think of it as your Christmas gift to me. I’ve spent two Christmases alone. I’d like to spend this one with my family.”
Devon closed her eyes and sought the inner strength to refuse him. But this man was her husband. He had been through hell in the last twenty-eight months—they all had—and he needed her help. Slowly, she nodded. “All right. One more day. But...”
“But what?” he asked, his slightly rough baritone caressing her, intoxicating her with its magnetic power. Silk-on-sandstone and cognac.
She swallowed. “What was between us is over, Geoff. Please let it go.” Yet part of her knew that she was saying it as much as a reminder for herself as it was a warning for him.
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