“Babe?”
“Your man here. So what if the water he’s in is a little muddy? You aren’t marrying the guy.” Nan flicked her nail on the front page of the newspaper. “Have a little fun for once in your life. Have an affair. A man with his kind of sex appeal is hardly going to be a saint.”
I'm not a gentleman, Lexi. So don't make that mistake. The memory of Jesse’s voice washed over her. You couldn’t be a lily-white saint and walk on the wild side. Alexi shivered.
“Talk to me, Lexi. Surely you aren’t going to give up having sex, excuse me, great sex with a man who is equated in his professional field as being as innovative as Bill Gates just because of a newspaper article. One that, I might add, shows him kissing you like you’re the only women alive.”
Alexi bit her lip.
“At least see and talk to him. Don’t make the same mistake you did before. He can’t be as bad as the paper says.”
Nan’s doorbell rang and they both jumped.
“I bet he’s come back to see you,” Nan said, sounding as if Prince Charming was at her door.
Was it Jesse? Alexi’s heart kicked into high gear. For a second, she thought about dashing into the bedroom and pretending anything just so she wouldn’t have to face the prominent playboy who’d seduced…no that wasn’t fair. The sex had been mutual. She’d wanted it as badly as he did. Part of it had been because of the past, but most of it had been pure animal attraction and she’d gone for it. She squared her shoulders and stood. Whatever she decided to do about seeing, Jesse, she’d meet it and him head on. “I’ll go see.”
Looking through the peephole, Alexi gasped. It was her grandmother, accompanied by the family chauffeur, Davidson. Upon seeing him, Alexi realized for the first time that she’d have to buy her own car. Alexi opened the door. “Grandmother.”
“Alexandria,” Katherine Jordan nodded her head. “Davidson, you may await me here. I won’t be but a minute, and then Alexandria and I will be returning home.” Leaving the chauffeur outside, Katherine stepped inside and firmly shut the door.
“At least you had the intelligence not to move in with that lowlife. Go pack your things immediately. My lawyers have called the editor of the paper. They’ll either face a multi-million dollar lawsuit, or will print a full front page retraction of their hideous accusations that you are in any way involved with that cheap, lying—there are no words to describe so despicable a man.”
“Grandmother,” Alexi said, but Katherine kept on talking.
“I’ve fully explained that he forced himself upon you when you were quite upset over a family crisis. Once this has been settled, we'll make an announcement concerning your relationship with Roger. Perhaps all the boy needs is a little counseling. He may have had a moment of weakness and someone took horrible advantage of him. Violet and I have discussed it and we’re sure that Roger is sincerely heartbroken over you.”
“Jesse did not force himself on me and if you print anything that says so, I will personally go on a crusade to clear his name.” She shook her head at her grandmother’s stubborn refusal to face the situation. Alexi tried to be gentle but firm, despite her anger. “I’m one hundred percent sure that Roger is not heartbroken, but that doesn’t matter. I will not, I repeat, will not, have anything to do with Roger Holstead ever. And I am not moving back home. It is time I started living my own life and not the life someone else thinks is best. That includes you, grandmother. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but the time has come for me to find out what I want out of life, and that something may not be what you want.”
Katherine’s face flushed red and she held up a paper. “You’re choosing this…this whorish life over your own family?”
“No. I’m choosing my own life.”
Katherine turned as white as the paper she’d crumpled in her hand. “Then I have no granddaughter.”
“I don’t think either of us have a choice about that.” Alexi steeled herself against the bite of pain in her heart. Though her grandmother had never quite said those words before, Alexi had encountered her grandmother’s implacable will and emotional manipulations before. Katherine Jordan had a talent for turning any situation, no matter how simple, into a my-way or no-way choice. This time Alexi wasn’t going to bend. “Call me when and if you decide to change your mind.”
Shock hit Katherine’s features and for a moment her severity slipped to reveal an old woman desperately fighting for what she believed was her granddaughter’s reputation. She obviously hadn’t thought that her ultimatum would come to fruition. Alexi could see it, but before she could reach out, Katherine turned and opened the door. “Very well.”
Alexi waited until her grandmother was almost out the door before she spoke. “Despite your sternness, I have fond memories of proper tea party etiquette lessons you gave me with my dolls and proud smiles at piano and dance recitals. Choosing to live a different life than the one you’ve envisioned for me isn’t a rejection of you. I hope you’ll be able to see that.”
Katherine didn’t turn and didn’t speak. She just nodded her head at Davidson and marched away.
Alexi closed the door and leaned back on it with her eyes shut. She felt as if she were stepping off a high cliff into thin air. She’d always thought that she’d stayed with her family because they needed her, but was there more to it than that? The step she’d taken last night and today were the hardest steps she’d ever had to take. Nan touched her shoulder.
“I don’t know how you do it.” Nan shook her head. “How can you be so calm and so strong? That woman makes me want to scream and throw something.”
Alexi blinked away her tears and smiled. Somehow the image of Nan screaming and throwing china didn’t fit with Nan’s nurturing nature. Not only was Nan an outstanding nurse, but she was the Dr. Doolittle of the plant world. She had to have hundreds of plants in her apartment and if anybody ever had a problem with a plant, they brought it to Nan to fix. “I’ve never really considered myself strong. I’ve always thought of you being that. At sixteen you supported yourself and your ill mother and then you worked your way through nursing school. I’ve always had it easy. Everything paid for.”
Nan frowned. “You call Katherine Jordan easy? To have dealt so kindly with her all of these years and to still deal with her that way after she said something so vicious is the height of strength. I couldn’t do it.”
“Yes, yes, you could,” Alexi said. “You’d just nurse your way through it. I’ve seen you deal with the impossible situations at the hospital. You charm those people right out of their bad moods and they never knew what hit them.”
“That’s different. I don’t have to live with them.”
Alexi shrugged. “It’s all the same.”
“I think it’s more, but we have more important things to discuss. Like Jesse. Are you going to call him?”
She had his business card with his cell phone number in her shirt pocket. She’d put it there after spending a very restless night reliving the day’s events and finding that her memory wasn’t enough. She’d almost picked up the phone to call him then she’d seen the newspaper and reacted like…like her grandmother? Alexi shuddered at the thought.
“Can’t you just call and talk to him?” Nan nudged
“Yes, but that’s all, just talk.” Alexi marched over to the phone before she could change her mind. Pulling Jesse’s card from her pocket, she dialed his number. He picked up immediately, too soon.
“Weldon.” His voice over the phone was as potent as when he’d spoken close to her ear as they stood before the mirror.
“Hi.” Her mind scrambled for something intelligent to say and failed. Miserably.
“Alexi?”
“Yes.” She felt like Bridget Jones trying to sing. Nan started mouthing words in slow motion. HOW ABOUT DINNER TONIGHT, JESSE?
“Hi,” Jesse said, sounding amused.
“Hi.” Her voice squeaked, nervously. Nan mouthed more words. DO YOU WANT TO SEE A MOVIE TONIGHT?
“I’m glad you called. I, uh, thought about stopping by--”
“I’ll be out a while. I have to get my luggage and do a few things then I’ll be back.” She spoke in a rush, and then wanted to find a hole to climb into.
“Why don’t I take you? I’ve got some free time.”
“That’s really n—”
Nan grabbed the phone. “That’s a great idea. Pick her up in an hour.”
Alexi could hear Jesse laughing before Nan hung up the phone. Alexi turned around and ran for the bedroom, mortified.
“Where are you going?” Nan called out.
“To drown myself.”
“Fine, but you had better add some of those fancy bath salts you bought me for Christmas to the water. The ones that make your skin like rose petals.”
“Nan. All I intended to do was to talk to him. After everything in the paper, I’m not sure I wanted to see him...yet.” She felt compelled to add the yet because, she was trying to be honest, and deep down she knew she would have called him. “Besides, I need to focus on getting my life together. I’ve got to find an apartment, buy a car, and, and, and I’m sure there’s a million things that I need to do—”
“You can stay with me. You can rent a car until you figure out what you want. And until you see Jesse and settle what you started with him, you’d only be doing those things to avoid dealing with him. Alexi, for once in your life don’t do all those things you’re supposed to do. Go relax and let yourself feel. You have my permission to be a woman who has just happened to find a man who turns her on. Did all that great sex you experienced yesterday disappear beneath that gossip article?”
“No.” Alexi sighed. Nan was right; Yesterday’s memories heated her blood to a bubbling simmer. But that didn’t mean she’d hop into the sack with the “prominent playboy,” again.
“Then go for it, Lexi. You’ve got a week off. Karin can take care of the art gallery. You said Jesse is on sort of a vacation. Spend some time with the man.”
“As my best friend you’re supposed to stop me from making big mistakes. Not encourage them.”
“I am. Can you tell me that it wouldn’t be the biggest mistake of your life if you didn’t see Jesse again?”
Heading for the bathroom and the rose bath salts, Alexi groaned and avoided looking at Nan because she was right. Darn her.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The doorbell rang and Alexi opened the door wondering what in the world she was going to say to Jesse. Did she talk about the weather first, did she ask about his Hugh Hefner reputation, or did she ignore the whole thing? She forced a smile.
He slid off his sunglasses and swore. “Don’t suppose there’s any chance you haven’t read the paper, is there?”
She raised her eyebrow, ignoring the way her heart hammered at the sight of his sea-blue eyes. Even his black eye only made him more appealing. A raven-haired angel, or a dark devil, He had to be one of the two. He was too good looking to be a mere mortal. He wore a pullover and jeans again, but that didn’t matter, anything that hugged his body would suit him—and her.
Rather than inviting Jesse in, she stepped outside and shut the door firmly. Nan had already gone to work and the empty apartment behind her loomed as a much too intimate a place. “Yes, I saw the paper, and since you brought the subject up, no, I didn’t expect to be on a long list of hot lovers.”
Jesse winced. “They made it sound worse than it is.”
“Really?” She walked towards Jesse’s car to escape the full effect of the pull his lean, muscular body had on hers. Dear heavens, one look at him was all it took to take her from simmer to boil. How could she be such a pushover? “What part?”
“What part what?”
Reaching the car, she turned to him. “What part did they make sound worse? The model in the fountain? The vampire? Or the two women, one wedding problem? That one has a familiar ring, but I guess in Roger’s case it would have to be four wom--”
“Don’t,” Jesse’s rough voice cut in. “Don’t compare me to Holstead.” He stepped closer and slid a finger under her chin, making her meet his gaze. “I didn’t date two women at the same time. Ever. I don’t lie to women either. They know where I stand before they ever come through the bedroom door. I’m not about to give you a blow by blow account of my past, other than to say that the military doesn’t leave much time for relationships. The model had been with a marine, a SEAL, and an Air Force jock and wanted to compare their lovemaking techniques. She thought I wouldn’t be able to resist her if she were naked. Michele Langford was a mistake. I got caught up in what her father expected and I think she did too, only instead of standing up to her father, she hired a woman to cause a scene at the wedding by claiming to be my girlfriend and then Michele eloped with another man. As for the vampire lady, she wanted to become Cinderella and tried to turn me into Prince Charming for a happy-ever-after. That didn’t work. Now, I don’t have anything else to say about that damned article, do you?”
She reached out and touched him, lightly putting her fingers next to his brow, and swallowing the emotion in her throat. Had she hurt him again by casting stones? She’d been just as ready to condemn him as her grandmother had. “No, I don’t have anything else to say about the paper,” she said softly. Then she did exactly what she’d planned to avoid. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Kissed him hard.
For a brief moment, he didn’t respond and then he caught fire, backing her up to the sun-heated car and pressing the granite length of his body against hers. In seconds, his solid thigh slid between her legs. His jeans rubbed the inside of her thighs until he reached her sex and then he pressed home until her feet came up off the ground. She groaned and squeezed her legs together, feeling him oh-so close to her need.
“Damn, Lexi. I woke up this morning wanting nothing more than to slide into your soft, hot body, and I can’t think of anything that I want more right now than to take you home and to do that until neither of us have a brain in our heads.”
She wanted the same thing and that was a problem. She moaned and pushed against his chest. She couldn’t get swept up in his passion again, not so quickly. “I already feel as if I don’t have any functioning brain cells.” She laughed, trying to ease the hair-trigger sexual tension between them. “My suitcase first and then I have to stop by my art gallery. There are a couple of things I need to check on about the art auction and after that, I’ve got to go to the hospital and see someone.”
Jesse stepped back from Alexi, feeling as if she’d just poured ice water in his lap. Suitcase, art gallery, hospital? She obviously wasn’t as hungry for him as he was for her, and that made him feel a little off balance. Then the last of her words seeped into his brain. “Is someone sick? Your father or grandmother? Did something happen after the upset last night?”
Alexi sighed. “No, my family is fine, too much vinegar in their veins to get sick. There’s a little girl in the hospital that I have to go see. Karin, her mother, is my main assistant at the art gallery and told me Lucy was really worried about me. The publicity of my cancelled wedding has her confused.”
“I bet the article had something to do with it, too?”
“It didn’t help.”
“They fried my ass.”
“I hope it doesn’t get worse. My grandmother stopped by earlier, threatening to sue the newspaper unless they print an apology to me and state that you had forced yourself on me. I let her know that I’d personally lead a crusade to clear your name.”
“You did?” He looked harder at Alexi, wanting to see beneath her sleek beauty. Would she have really done that for him? Here she’d be given an opportunity to clear her name from a scandal and she hadn’t taken it. “Why? Why didn’t you have your grandmother fix it for you?”
She blinked with surprise, as if the answer was two inches in front of his face. “Because it would have been a lie.”
Jesse nodded and opened the car door for her to give him a moment to think. Experience h
ad taught him that very few women would pick the truth over painting themselves white. She got in the car and he went around and slid into the driver’s seat.
“Thanks,” he said finally as he started the car engine. “It means a lot that you would do that.”
Her brow furrowed. “You’re thanking me for being honest?”
He put the car into gear. “I guess I didn’t expect it. After sabotaging the wedding, Michele told a gossip columnist a false spiel about my supposed affair. Truth wasn’t a priority.”
“You’re welcome then, but why prejudge me because she—“
“Why did you categorize me with Roger?”
“Ouch. You’re right.”
Jesse wasn’t sure what he liked more, that she readily admitted she’d done the same as he had, or the cute lines of consternation between her brows. Wake up, Weldon. Cute lines between her brows have nothing to do with sexual attraction. Forget them.
“The reporters shouldn’t be much of a problem from now on,” Jesse said. “I had my company’s lawyers call and threaten every gossip publication in the south with a lawsuit.”
“Thanks. I can’t imagine what life is like for the people who have to deal with the press’s intrusion more often than I do. Usually, my name only shows up in the paper in association with fundraising events and never front page news.”
Jesse winced, wishing he hadn’t brought up the newspaper subject again. They rode in silence for a little longer and he searched for another subject. “Lucy Taylor,” he said, recalling what his mother had told him earlier about Alexi involvement with a little girl at the hospital. “That’s the little girl you want to go see, right?”
“How did you know?”
He shrugged. “My mother mentioned how good you were to Lucy. But I don’t recall what the little girl’s problem was.”
“It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got time.”
He drove as Alexi delved into Lucy’s story. “Her health is rapidly fading. She has to have a kidney transplant soon.”
Wild Irish (Book 1 of the Weldon Series) Page 10