Promise of Paradise

by Rosemary Hammond

  “Helen,” the Senator said, “as I told Jessica this morning, Luke headed the investigation into Paul’s crash.”

  “Oh, really?” Helen said. “Then you’ve worked at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, too.”

  “Yes, quite often,” was the bland reply.

  Helen darted a quick glance at Jessica, but blessedly kept her mouth shut. Jessica steadfastly avoided meeting her eye, but colored deeply at the obvious inference Helen was making. She knew there was no hope of hiding the flush that she felt spreading over her face, and took a quick sip of her martini to cover it up.

  Mrs. Grimes appeared in the doorway just then, and with an inner sigh of relief, Jessica set her drink down and rose to her feet. “I think dinner is ready,” she said.

  Somehow she got through that awful meal, picking at her food and making halfhearted attempts to join in the conversation, which centered almost exclusively on Luke’s exploits.

  Helen was obviously smitten, hanging on his every word and casting wistful yearning glances in his direction throughout the interminable meal. Finally it was over, and the two men retired to the library for brandy and cigars.

  As soon as they were gone, Jessica laid her napkin down and jumped to her feet. “Well, I think I’ll make an early night of it. I have some letters to write and...”

  “Sit down a minute, Jessica,” Helen said, dead serious now. “I want to talk to you.”

  Jessica sank slowly back down in her chair, dreading what was coming, but seeing no way to avoid it.

  “He’s the one, isn’t he?” Helen said.

  “What makes you say that?”

  Helen gave a dry laugh. “I may be an inexperienced old maid, but I can still put two and two together and get four. Don’t think I didn’t notice how careful you were to avoid him, or how he kept looking at you with those hungry green eyes. And when it seemed likely that you must have both been in Pensacola at the same time, it all began to fit.”

  Jessica stared down at the table, biting her lip, unable to speak. Helen reached across the table, and put a hand on her arm.

  “Does he know?” she asked softly “About the baby?”

  Jessica’s head jerked up. “No!” she exclaimed. “And he must never find out.”

  “But why? I mean, doesn’t he have a right to know?”

  “Luke Fury has no rights at all where I’m conceded,” Jessica replied stoutly. “The moment he suspected I might be counting on some kind of future with him, he simply disappeared without a word, and I never heard from him again. Not to mention the fact that he detests children.”

  Helen gave her a puzzled look. “Then why did he even come here if it wasn’t to find you?”

  “I have no idea,” Jessica replied, rising to her feet again. “And I don’t really care.”

  Jessica made her excuses early that night, as soon as she decently could. The Senator and Helen both seemed so enamored of Luke that they wouldn’t miss her, and shortly after the men came back, she retired to her own room, pleading a headache.

  Her one thought was to avoid him during his visit, which she prayed fervently would be short. In the meantime she’d stay away as far away from him as possible. Although he’d given her a few meaningful glances, which even Helen had noticed, he didn’t seem particularly anxious to talk to her alone either.

  There was still the mystery of why he’d shown up in the first place. It surely wasn’t for her sake. As far as she knew, he hadn’t even been aware she’d left Pensacola, much less returned to her old home. Could it be he was hoping to achieve some purpose of his own from her father-in-law?

  Although the Senator wielded enormous political power, she couldn’t imagine what Luke could possibly want from him. He was so self-contained, so independent, and guarded his freedom so fiercely, that she couldn’t conceive of him ever obligating himself to anyone by asking a favor, especially a political one.

  In her room she went straight to bed. She tried to read for a while, then switched off her light at eleven o’clock, just as she heard the others coming upstairs. She lay there in the darkness for a long time, wide-eyed, staring up at the ceiling, unable to sleep.

  In spite of her distress over Luke’s unexpected appearance, his arrival had awakened insidious visions of him as she’d known him during their short, ill-fated affair. Luke swimming in the sea, Luke laughing at one of the absurdities he was always finding in daily life, Luke sitting quietly next to her listening to music—and worst of all, Luke hovering over her in the darkness, his naked body pressed against hers, his emerald eyes gleaming down at her...

  “No!” she groaned aloud. She must not think about the past. It was over, done with. Oh, why did he have to come back! she agonized, pounding her fist on her pillow and burying her head under the covers.

  She must have slept, because when she opened her eyes again it was pitch dark outside and the clock on the night table read three o’clock. She tried to lull herself back into unconsciousness, but she’d had just enough sleep to make that impossible.

  Finally, with a weary sigh, she got out of bed, slipped on a robe and made her way downstairs through the dark and silent house to the kitchen. Maybe a cup of cocoa would help, or a piece of Mrs. Grimes’ chocolate cake. She’d been too upset at dinner to eat much, and her stomach was now rumbling ominously.

  She had just put the milk on the stove to heat and was about to cut herself a slice of cake when she heard the sound of footsteps coming up behind her. Whirling around, the knife still in her hand, she saw Luke standing in the doorway. He was bare-chested and had obviously just pulled on a pair of worn jeans.

  “You going to use that thing on me?” he asked, pointing at the knife.

  She gave him a tight smile, determined not to let him get a rise out of her. He had a way of using any emotion, even rage, to suit his own purposes.

  “Do you think you deserve it?” she asked lightly.

  She turned to finish slicing the cake. The milk was warm by now, so she took down the can of cocoa and stirred some in. It took enormous effort to remain calm, to ignore his potent presence behind her, but somehow she managed to carry her cake and cocoa over to the table, sit down and calmly begin to eat.

  “Mind if I join you?” he asked at last.

  “No, of course not. I think there’s enough cocoa for another cup, and this cake is really delicious.”

  He pulled out a chair, turned it around, and sat straddling it, his arms resting over the back. “It wasn’t cake and cocoa I had in mind,” he said gruffly.

  “Oh?” she said, with the raise of an eyebrow. “As a matter of fact, I’ve been wondering just what you did have in mind by turning up here at all. It hardly seems like the decent thing to do.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t know much about your kind of decency,” he said shortly. “I’m a roughneck, remember? No polish, no breeding.”

  “You know that’s not what I mean.”

  “No?” He gave her a dubious look. “Well, to answer your question, I’m here because the Senator asked me to come.”

  Jessica had to fight to keep the sudden rush of dismay from showing on her face. So, she had nothing to do with his being here! He hadn’t even realized she was here until he’d seen her that afternoon in the library.

  Somehow she managed to swallow the last bite of cake and finish her cocoa. Then she carried her dishes to the sink and after rinsing them out, she dried her hands, tied her robe more tightly around her waist, and turned back to him.

  “Well, good-night,” she said, moving toward the door. “Make yourself at home. There’s beer in the fridge and some cold chicken left over from...”

  As she passed by his chair, he rose up and grabbed her by the arm. “Jessica,” he said in a low voice. “We’ve got to talk. It’s true the Senator asked me to come to discuss his son’s death, but I really came to see you.”

  Jessica stood staring down at the floor, her head a whirl of confusion. Just the touch of his hand on her arm over the silk
robe was enough to set her pulses racing and make her knees feel like water. She was sorely tempted to believe him. But she didn’t dare. She couldn’t forget the way he’d dropped out of her life without a word of explanation or farewell. All she could hope for now was to salvage a vestige of the pride he had wounded so wantonly.

  She looked up at him. “I really don’t think we have anything to say to each other, Luke,” she said calmly at last. “And would you please take your hand off my arm?”

  He dropped it immediately. “How can you say that?” he growled. “After what we were to each other.”

  She arched an inquiring eyebrow and gave him a cool glance. “And what was that? What were we to each other, really?” She gave a brittle laugh. “After all, when you disappeared without a word I didn’t complain. I didn’t try to track you down. Why must you harass me this way?”

  “Harass you!” he exploded. “I’ve come three thousand miles to say my piece, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to back out of it now!” He ran a hand over his tousled hair, scowling in obvious frustration. “Listen,” he went on in a calmer voice. “It didn’t take me long to realize I was wrong to just vanish that way. I’m sorry. It was not only unfair to you, it was stupid.”

  He paused then and looked at her, as though waiting for some response, but she remained silent. She would listen, she thought, but she wouldn’t help him out.

  “I took the job in Australia because—well, because I just needed to get away,” he went on at last. “Don’t you see? It was wrong to stay away, I know that now, but at the time my feelings—about you, about us—were so confused I didn’t know whether I was coming or going. You’d got under my skin like no other woman ever had, and frankly, I couldn’t deal with it.” He reached out a hand toward her, but she backed away from him.

  “Yet Commander Perkins told me you were back from Australia.”

  “Yes, but only for a day. They needed me for an emergency in Chicago. One day wasn’t enough time to get things settled between us. Then when I came back and found you gone, I was frantic. Jess, I know I behaved badly. Won’t you let me try to make it up to you?”

  Watching him now, listening to him, knowing what it had cost him to come here at all, to tell her these things, Jessica felt a small flicker of hope. Oh, Luke, she agonized inwardly, if only...

  If only what? He’d said he’d come here for her, but hadn’t uttered one word of love. Besides, it was too late now. Once he found out she was pregnant he’d be out of here like a shot, and she couldn’t bear to lose him again. His work meant everything to him. He’d said it himself. While there might be room in his life for her, he’d never accept a child.

  No, she thought, steeling herself. Better to send him away now, not knowing, than see the horror on his face if she told him. He must never know.

  “But, Luke, there’s nothing to make up,” she said at last. “We had a good time together. No promises were made—on either side. Now you have your life, and I have mine.”

  “Your life!” he ground out, waving a hand in the air. “Here? In this mausoleum? With all your committees and good works? I thought you were so determined to escape all that.”

  “Well, I changed my mind,” she stated flatly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really must go.”

  “So, it was only a game with you all along,” he snarled. “The lady of the manor fooling around with the hired help. Tired of your tame society boys and wanting a little rough trade for a cheap thrill, was that it?”

  “No!” she snapped. “That was not it, but you can believe whatever you like. You always have. Now I’m leaving, and if you have any sense of decency at all in you, you’ll finish your business with the Senator and just go away.”

  She started to swish past him. If she didn’t get out of there fast, she knew she’d be lost, burst into tears, scream, faint dead away at his feet.

  “Not so fast,” she heard him mutter, and his hand shot out again to clamp around her arm, barring her way. This time his grip was like steel, his fingers digging into her soft flesh so hard that she couldn’t quite stifle a low cry of pain.

  “Luke, you’re hurting me,” she protested.

  He twisted her bodily around to face him. “Good!” he bit out. “It’s what you want, isn’t it? Play around with toughs like me and what else can you expect?”

  She stared up at him, looming over her, an angry flush on his face, a bitter twist to his mouth, his eyes like green slits as they bored into her, and a little thrill of fear clutched at her heart.

  The next thing she knew he had pulled her roughly up against his bare chest and his mouth came down, grinding against hers in a long punishing kiss. She began to struggle, but the harder she fought him, the more tightly he held her.

  As his tongue pushed past her lips, filling her mouth, the pressure forced her head back, so that all that held her upright was the large strong hand splayed against her back. With his mouth still. grinding against hers, his other hand slid down to cover her breast, clutching at it, first one, then the other.

  Then, suddenly, his touch gentled, the kiss became less invasive, sweeter, more seductive, and as his lips played with hers, the hand at her breast moved down to fumble with the tie of her robe. When it was undone, and she felt his hand gliding sensuously up over the silky fabric of her thin nightgown, she simply went limp.

  The hand slipped inside the low-cut bodice to stroke the bare flesh beneath it, his fingers making circles around each erect peak, an unmistakable indication of a response she couldn’t possibly hide.

  Under the hypnotic spell of those slow caresses, her head began to spin crazily. She couldn’t think. The only reality was the feel of his mouth on hers, the smooth skin of his bare chest under her seeking hands, his heart pounding against hers, his own hard arousal pressing against her thigh.

  When his mouth came down to nuzzle at her breast and the hand slid lower, over her abdomen and down to her thighs, a spark of sanity finally pierced through her whirling senses, and she knew that in another second it would be too late. She’d be lost.

  Summoning up all her willpower, she twisted out of his arms and took a step away from him, clutching her robe shut, her breath coming in great heaving gasps.

  “No!” she cried in a low voice that still throbbed with emotion. “It won’t work, Luke. Not anymore.”

  With a dazed look, he reached out for her again, but she shrank away from him before he could touch her.

  “I want you to leave,” she said, and although she could still hear the tremor in it, her voice was clear, her tone stern. “Out of this house and out of my life.”

  She turned then and walked away from him, intensely aware with each step of those emerald eyes burning into her back.

  When she reached the foyer, she stopped for a moment to catch her breath, then raced up the stairs to her own mom. It wasn’t until she had locked the door behind her and flung herself across the bed that the dam burst and the tears began to flow unchecked.

  The next day he was gone. She’d slept late, and was just choking down a piece of dry toast and a cup of coffee at nine-thirty when Helen came to tell her. Apparently he’d risen early, said his good-byes to her and the Senator, then just driven off. While Helen related all this, her whole manner was so critical that at the end of it, Jessica felt she had to defend herself.

  “You act as though it’s my fault,” she protested. “That somehow I drove him off.”

  “Well, didn’t you?” Helen plumped herself down on a chair and eyed her critically. “You should have told him about the child.”

  “Oh, Helen, I already explained about that.”

  “Well, I still think he has a right to know.”

  “No. He doesn’t. He has no right at all where I’m concerned. You don’t seem to understand, Helen. The man just up and left me flat, without a word of explanation.”

  “But he came back.”

  “Oh, Helen, you said it yourself. He came here because your father asked him t
o. If I had anything to do with it at all it was only that he may have hoped to start up with me again on the same old dead-end terms.” She shook her head vigorously. “I’ve had all of that I need. I couldn’t take any more of it. Now please, can we just drop the subject?”

  Although she continued to try to fit into the Trent life-style, it became clearer to her with each passing day that it just wasn’t going to work out.

  She was simply bored out of her mind with what seemed more and more like a pointless existence, a constant round of meetings, cocktail parties and luncheons. Just seeing Luke again had brought back all the joys, the deep sense of satisfaction she’d experienced during her stay in Florida.

  Finally she made up her mind. She couldn’t stay. The baby wasn’t due until March. She wouldn’t even begin to show for another few months. She wanted to go back to the place where she’d been happiest. With Luke’s crammed schedule there was no danger of running into him, nor would she have to work at the base. Now that she had some experience, she could surely get a job at one of the restaurants in Pensacola.

  But first she had an unpleasant task to perform. She wanted to start out on a clean slate, with no skeletons in the closet, no lies to cover up. She had to tell the Senator the truth, about her pregnancy and Paul’s death.

  That very evening, Jessica went to the library door, stood there for a moment, hesitating, then gathered her courage and knocked.

  “Come in,” the Senator called.

  Jessica stepped inside. He was sitting behind his massive desk, piled high with papers. He looked tired, and it dawned on her for the first time what a tremendous responsibility he had in the government of the country, and how capably he filled it.

  “Jessica,” he said, smiling broadly. “What a nice surprise.”