She slid over to the lounge chair that rested beside the boulder, stretched out and closed her eyes. She had to get herself together. “I can’t behave like those women,” she told herself. “It’s far too late for that.”
When at last she opened her eyes, she saw that Luther was walking toward her, and the booming palpitations of her heart frightened her. As if to slow down her heart, her right hand went to her chest. Mindless of all except the man approaching her, she wet her lips with the tip of her tongue. He took his time getting to her, and by the time he did, she had all but memorized his every moving muscle, from his biceps down.
“Why are you sitting over here alone?” he asked. “What happened to your breakfast date?”
Don’t show annoyance. He wants to bait you. “I have no idea.”
“There you are, Ruby,” the voice of Craig Murphy sounded from over her shoulder. “I looked everywhere for you.” She looked at Luther, fearing that he would act precisely as he did.
“Don’t let me interrupt anything,” he said, turned around and walked away.
“Did I mess up something?” Craig asked her.
“You did, but if it can’t be fixed, it wasn’t worth much.”
“Now wait a minute. If the guy means anything to you, you shouldn’t be so casual about this. No guy wants another one fooling around on his turf, and especially not with a woman like you. He seems like a nice guy.”
She sat up and wrapped her forearms around her knees. “He is a nice guy, but he’s giving me mixed signals.”
“Uh-uh. That guy’s no lounge lizard. He’s straight. You’re inviting mixed signals.”
“How do you know he’s straight. Do you know him?”
“I know a man when I see one. If he’s the one who was with you last night, I’d say he thinks a lot of you. You want him?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“Okay. This is my good deed for today. Get busy. It shouldn’t take you an hour. Good luck.”
“Thanks.” I was working on it when you showed up.
She locked her gaze on Luther, who seemed oblivious to her presence. He looked in her direction, stared down at the woman who was trying to wrap herself around him and then glanced back at her. She continued to look at him, willing him to come to her, but he didn’t move. He only gazed at her as if to say he knew she was there, but didn’t care.
The hell with it! She kicked off her shoes, flung off the skirt, raced over to the pool and dived in.
He was not a foolish man, or at least, he’d never thought so. Luther Biggens was sensible. Everybody said so. But there were times—such as right then—when he couldn’t overcome his stubbornness, not even when he knew that by not reversing his position he punished himself. Ruby wanted him to come to her, and she’d sent the great Craig Murphy packing in order to let him know it. He tried to focus his attention on the woman clawing at him, but his mind was on the seductive witch who reclined twenty feet away on a white lounge chair.
What the—She stripped off her skirt and exposed her nearly nude and luscious body. A gasp escaped him, and he pushed the woman away as Ruby dived into the water. He headed toward the pool, intent on giving her a tongue-lashing for hanging out her curves for all to see. Suddenly, he stopped. She hadn’t surfaced.
Forgetting that he couldn’t run and that he hadn’t swum since before the accident five years earlier, he raced to the pool and dived in after her. God help him if he couldn’t bring her up. His instincts kicked in, and he brought her to the surface.
“What’s the matter? What happened?” The voices around him served as reminders of what could yet be a tragedy.
“Get back, everybody, and give him room.” He heard Paul’s voice and was grateful for the man’s presence; if he needed relief giving her artificial respiration, Paul could provide it.
Silently praying, Luther opened her mouth, pinched her nostrils and began alternately to breathe into her mouth and count. After a minute, she spat out water and began to breathe.
She opened her eyes, looked at him and, to his amazement, her arms looped around his neck and then fell away as if she lacked energy. “How do you feel, sweetheart?” he asked her.
More alert now, she frowned. “What happened?”
“That’s what I want to ask you. Did you forget how to swim? You dived into the pool and didn’t come up.”
“Oh! I remember. I had a cramp in my leg. I guess I’d been lying here with my leg tucked under me, and I didn’t realize it was half asleep. Maybe that was the reason. I panicked when I realized I couldn’t come up.” She leaned against him, as comfortable as if she knew she had a right to do so. “Who brought me up?”
“I did.”
“B-but you aren’t supposed to…Won’t your prosthesis come off?”
He shook his head. “No. But I wouldn’t have cared. You’re safe, and that’s what matters to me.” The crowd moved away, though Opal and Amber remained beside them.
“Do you think she should see the house doctor?” Opal asked Luther.
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea. He can check to see whether her lungs are clear, but I think she’s all right.”
“In that case,” Amber said to Ruby, “I guess you feel like putting on some clothes. You look as if Michelangelo painted you and forgot the fig leaf. I’m not even that daring.”
Ruby stared down at herself, saw that she still wore what passed for a bathing suit and let out a long breath. “Your name should have been Drama,” she told her youngest sister. “Where’s Pearl?”
“She and Wade haven’t come down yet,” Opal said. “I’ll call them when the waiters begin serving the food.”
“Thank you for bringing me up, Luther. I wish I hadn’t jumped in. I know you don’t swim anymore and I made you risk your life unnecessarily.” She took his hand and looked steadily in his face. “You can’t possibly know how sorry I am. If anything happened to you, I don’t know how I could have handled it.”
He saw the pain in her eyes, pain for him, but did that mean she accepted him as he was, or had today’s happenings reinforced her misgivings about him?
“You’re safe, and so am I. That’s what matters, Ruby.”
“You’d better make an appointment with the hairdresser,” Amber said. “Half the women here will want their hair done if they get into that pool.”
“You’re right. I’m going to get a shower and change. I can’t stand that chlorine on my body for long,” Ruby said.
When Ruby stood, he detected wobbliness. “I’ll go with you,” he told her.
Her withering look brought a raised eyebrow from him. “That’s what started all this,” she said. “I’d better go by myself.”
“But you’re not quite steady,” he told her, understanding now that when he didn’t kiss her, and maybe when he didn’t even make love with her the night before, he had annoyed her to the point that she’d decided to show him a thing or two.
“I’ll go with her,” Amber said to him. “Tell Paul I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“He wanted to bring you up to your room,” Amber said, her tone more like of a mother than of a younger sister. “Why didn’t you let him?”
“I know you mean well, Amber, and maybe Luther does, too, but I have to figure these things out for myself.”
“Don’t forget that with all those big-shot athletes there, Luther’s the one who jumped in after you, although he wasn’t the closest to you. I didn’t know he could run, and I suspect he didn’t either. Be careful, hon. Don’t wait too long to do your figuring, and don’t forget to make an appointment with the hairdresser.”
She returned to the pool room and looked around. “Where’s Luther?” she asked Paul, hoping she hadn’t hurt him by refusing to allow him to walk with her to her room.
“He had to change.” Paul’s eyes sparkled and his grin suggested more than he said. “He’ll be back in a few minutes. How do you feel?”
“Fine, except all of a sudden, I’m starving.”
<
br /> “That’s a good sign. They’ve just begun serving food.” He turned to walk away, looked back at her and said, “Stay out of mischief, now.”
It had been years since Luther had felt so triumphant. He was as good as any man. At least eight of the country’s top athletes had stood between him and a drowning woman, but it was he, a thirty-five-year-old amputee, who’d had both the presence of mind and the ability to rescue her. Only God knew what would have happened if he’d stopped and thought about it. But he hadn’t, he’d gone in, and he’d made that leg remember when he’d dived for the fun of it, when he was whole and could swim with the best of them. He felt like shouting it to the whole world.
At least he got to tell his parents when his dad called.
“How are you, son? How’s the party?”
“The party’s fine. What’s up?”
“Nothing special. Your mother had one of her premonitions, and she said there’s danger around you, so I called to see how you are.”
“Tell her I’m fine.” He related to his father the events of the past hour and said, “How does Mom do this? Doesn’t it make you nervous?”
“It’s a gift, and it doesn’t make me nervous. That gift’s been a blessing more than once. She’ll be happy to know you were able to surface after diving into the deep end of a full-sized swimming pool. Sometimes I think you and Ruby ought to get married.”
He nearly dropped the receiver. “What? Why do you say that?”
“Well, she always worshipped you, and she didn’t even have to whistle when she needed you, because you were always there. Her father and I used to say that nothing and nobody would separate the two of you, and I’m beginning to think we were right.”
“We were children, Dad.”
“I know,” Jack Biggens said. “And now that you’re adults, nothing has changed. By the way, did you know Ruby called Charles and chewed him out because he’s taking you to court?”
“You can’t be serious. She did that? That’s more than I did. I’m so used to coddling him that I haven’t given him the tongue-lashing he deserves. How’d he take it?”
“She shamed him thoroughly,” Jack said. “He’s not so sure about it now. We’ll see.”
Luther stopped, dumbfounded, as he entered the pool area later. Applause erupted and every person stood. But he saw only one.
Ruby smiled at him, and frissons of heat shot through his veins, excitement washed over him and he had a sudden feeling that the world had stopped turning. He tried to smile, to encourage the warmth he thought he saw in her eyes, but he felt as if he’d become frozen in time. As if she knew he needed a jolt, she reached up and kissed his cheek. He laughed then, laughed to express the happiness that enveloped him.
“How’s your leg?” Ruby whispered.
“It’s okay. I think maybe I’ll start swimming again.”
“Be careful,” she said. “Maybe you’d better check with your physical therapist.”
“Humph. That brother doesn’t know past sit-ups and push-ups. Who’s going to the gala with you tonight?”
She seemed surprised by the question. “I thought you were.”
Maybe she’d intended for him to accompany her, and maybe she hadn’t. Her apparent surprise confirmed nothing. Females of the human species were born actors, and from birth to death, they exploited that God-given talent whenever it suited them.
“In that case, I’ll knock on your door at seven.”
Her right eyelid lowered slowly in a seductive wink. “I’ll spend the afternoon anticipating that,” she said, giving his heart a jolt.
Ruby answered his knock on her door at seven o’clock exactly and sucked in her breath as she stared at the picture of masculinity energy that loomed before her, mesmerizing her. In that black, satin-lapelled tuxedo, white-silk ruffled shirt and royal blue accessories, she thought he put all other men to shame.
“Like what you see?” he asked her with a grin that made her blood race.
“Absolutely,” she said, embarrassed that she’d let him see her reaction to him. Reaching for levity, she added, “If I’d realized you were so doggone good-looking, I’d have had my way with you long ago.” She meant it as a joke, but he didn’t laugh.
“You still have plenty of time,” he said. “I always knew you were beautiful, but the Ruby I’m looking at right now is…” He threw up his hands. “You look…so lovely and so…beautiful. I’m proud to be with you. And we’d better be going—you’re temptation personified.”
She noticed that, as they entered the ballroom, Luther put her arm through his, and she knew he was signaling territorial rights. Fine with her; that was precisely what she wanted him to do. Candlelit tables for two lined the room and, except for Paige and Lyman, couples could sit where they chose. An orchestra occupied one end of the great room, and a bar stood at the other end.
Luther chose to sit in the center of the room, and she was glad, because she enjoyed the glow from the massive, intricate chandelier that hung above them.
Before dinner Craig Murphy, resplendent in an Oxford gray tuxedo with red accessories, stood to introduce the engaged couple and to toast them. Ruby’s gaze followed Craig back to his table where he joined the only blue-eyed blonde in the room. She didn’t realize that her private laugh would be evident to Luther.
“Let me in on it,” he said.
She told him, “I laughed because it didn’t surprise me. I think he’s probably a nice guy, but…well, I suppose he sees himself as exceptional.”
“He’s the big man these days, now that Jordan’s retired. He obviously knows a pretty woman when he sees her.”
At that point, Lyman walked out to the center of the dance floor holding Paige’s hand and knelt before her. Ruby couldn’t hear his words, but she knew what he said, and because she couldn’t stand to watch the hot kiss that Lyman gave his bride-to-be, she lowered her gaze.
Luther’s hand grasped hers, and her heart pounded furiously. “Look at me,” he ordered. She tried, but couldn’t, and she knew that he could see her lips tremble. “Why can’t you look at me, Ruby?”
Don’t let him see how you feel. His finger beneath her chin urged her, and she forced herself to look into his mesmerizing gaze, into eyes that burned with hunger and need. When she gasped, he stood and walked around the table to her, extended his hand and said, “Dance with me.”
She’d been so focused on him that she didn’t know the dancing had begun; indeed, the only music she heard was the tune that flowed wave on wave from him. Somehow, she managed to stand, and then she was in his arms.
“You’re holding me too close,” she said.
His grip tightened. “I’m not holding you close enough,” he said, and began to sing softly the words to Luther Vandross’s song, “Here and Now.”
She missed several steps, but he didn’t care. He was in a mood to let it all hang out. If she didn’t know what they could mean to each other, he did, and he meant to open her eyes in any way he could.
“What will people think?” she said, but he got the feeling that she was pretending.
“Ruby,” he said stepping back a bit and looking her in the eye, “I don’t give a damn what anybody thinks. Other people don’t know what goes on inside of me, and they can’t heal me when I’m raw inside. To hell with what they think.”
This didn’t sound like the Luther she thought she knew, but still, when he brought her close to him again, she relaxed in his arms and enjoyed the contentment she felt. Inhaling the scent of his cologne and enjoying it, she stopped herself as her lips moved toward his neck.
I must be losing my mind. I don’t act like this in public, she said to herself. The music stopped and she walked with him back to her table as the reggae music drew half the crowd to the floor.
“Man, do you mind sharing this beautiful lady for one dance?”
She looked up at Craig Murphy and considered telling him flatly no. Craig grinned a grin that she suspected usually gained for him whatever he wa
nted. “I deferred to you yesterday after she let me know that she was more interested in you than in me. How about it?”
“It’s up to her.” Luther looked at her. “I should dance once with the bride-to-be anyway, and I didn’t want to leave you here alone.” He looked at Craig and showed a grin that didn’t reach his eyes. “Don’t get comfortable with her, man.”
The reggae ended, and she was thankful that she didn’t have to dance a rollicking number with Craig. It would have seemed unfair to Luther, who could only dance one-and two-steps. The man used good judgment and didn’t hold her close.
“Where’s your girl?” she asked him.
“Dancing with one of my teammates. What’s wrong with these people? Not one woman has said a word to her.”
Ruby wondered if Craig didn’t understand black women. “If I was with a white man, would you do your best to make him feel comfortable? When some of these good-looking brothers get rich, where do they spend it?”
“Touché. She and I have been together since before I was famous or rich, and I sure as hell don’t plan to abandon her to please a bunch of idiots.”
“Good for you. Why don’t you marry her?”
“’Cause my mother would have a stroke.”
“She won’t do any such thing. If your wife is warm and kind to her and behaves like a daughter, your mother won’t care what color she is. Quit pussyfooting around and do what’s right.”
The music ended and he walked her back to the table. Craig shook hands with Luther who arrived there at the same time. “Thanks, Ruby. I’m pretty certain that I’ll take your advice. I suspect I only needed the right kind of encouragement.”
“You’re going to explain that, aren’t you?” Luther said after Craig left them. She did, and he looked at her a long time before replying. “You gave him good advice. Sometimes it’s easier to give it than to apply it in one’s own life.”
He said no to the waiter who brought drinks for the nth time. “There’s a closed balcony off the third-floor lounge, more like a veranda. Want to go up there for a while? I imagine it’s a bit quieter. But if you’d rather stay here—”
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