“Which is quite a feat for her since she looks exactly like you.”
He looked absolutely idiotic with happiness. “She does, doesn’t she? Can I touch her?” Such hesitancy from Hunter was out of character.
I realized then that Hunter had something precious. He had his wife and he had his daughter. If I didn‘t work some kind of magic on Anne, I‘d miss this amazing moment with my woman and my child. “She won’t break,” I said. “I suppose you could even pick her up if you want to risk waking her up. When she’s awake, she yells like a banshee. Anne and I could hear her out in the hall.”
That made Hunter hesitate but he went on staring at his daughter with this huge smile on his face. “Thank God Anne was there with you.”
“She mostly kept Liz calm…and me, too.”
“Oh, man you drove through a blizzard to get here. Good going, bro. I‘m in your debt.”
I did a little head bow. “My contribution was minimal but I was glad to be of service.” I hesitated and then, because this might be the only opportunity I had to speak to Hunter alone and even though I was convinced that I was never going to let Anne go, I said, “I’d like something cleared up, and I need to ask you a question.”
He’d gotten brave enough to touch his daughter’s tiny hand. I wasn’t sure he was listening to me, but I plowed ahead. “Did it really cost you five hundred thou to hire Anne Wentworth to go to Puerto Rico with me?”
“That was the figure we agreed on.”
“Are you serious? Why would you pay that much? I would have thought she could be bought off for a few thousand or so.”
I had Hunter’s attention then. “The money didn’t go to her. Her sister has leukemia. It all went to the hospital for her sister’s blood marrow transplant and to pay off her sister’s outstanding medical bills. Didn‘t she tell you?”
“No.”
“Well, I know for a fact that’s where the money went.”
I didn’t know whether to be furious with Anne because she didn’t tell me the truth, or furious with myself because I hadn’t been smart enough to figure out it had to be something like that.
“There you are.” Liz sleepily reached out her arms to her husband.
“My love. I’m so sorry I wasn’t here with you.” He bent over the bed and gave her a long, sweet kiss.
“Justin acted as your surrogate. He can get into practice. He’s having one of his own, you know.”
“Is he indeed?” Hunter turned to me with one eyebrow lifted.
“You need time with your family. I should go.”
I walked out of the hospital feeling like the proverbial heel. I shouldn’t have needed this information to harden my determination to get Anne Wentworth to say yes to me. And actually, after seeing Hunter with his daughter and his wife, I hadn’t needed it. But still, I was glad to know the truth.
Chapter 14
Anne
That night I had a little spotting and I was terrified I was going to lose the baby. I went to bed and lay very still, praying I wouldn’t have cramps. Like an idiot, I whispered to my baby, “Mommy and Daddy just had a little argument that’s all. That doesn’t mean we don’t love you and want you.”
I finally fell asleep and when I woke in the morning, I hadn’t had another occurrence. I was very much afraid that this was a warning sign, and that I probably shouldn’t go back to work pushing gurneys around. I supposed it was just as well since Natalie was coming home in a week. I could stay and care for her rather than have another nurse do it. But if I couldn’t work, I didn’t know what we were going to live on.
I went to my supervisor Carol Long that morning and explained my problem. “Anne, you have ten years of service in a post where, before you came, we had nurses swing in and out of it on a yearly basis. We could never keep anyone steady until you. Your service to this hospital has been invaluable. Why don’t I give you a position at one of the desks for now?”
Hello, good luck. All those years of being responsible had finally paid off. This was way more than I’d hoped for. I’d thought I’d be given a two week severance pay and that would be it. “I’d like that very much, Carol.”
“Good. Why don’t you take a week off to rest and if you don’t have any more trouble, you can start after the holidays. How does that sound?”
“It sounds wonderful. I can’t thank you enough.”
Carol Long was white-haired and tough as nails when she needed to be. But she could also be incredibly kind. She rose and extended her hand. “We have a deal then. We’ll see you on Monday. Now go home and go to bed.”
I walked out of the hospital and got into my ancient car. Yes, there were the ever present gray clouds of winter, but for the first time in years, the gray clouds in my life were gone. I would be making money that wouldn’t be drained away by Natalie’s illness. I would be financially solvent. I would be able to support Natalie, the baby and myself without any help from Mister I-don’t-want-you Cameron.
When I returned to my little house, a sleek black Porsche sat in my driveway. I parked behind it and marched up to my door, ignoring the long lean man in the expensive overcoat who emerged from the car and followed me up my snow-covered driveway. In that overcoat with the collar pulled up around his neck, Justin was heartbreak material, a wintertime GQ model. And darned if my heart didn’t still pound liked crazy at the sight of him. Outside my door, I turned around. “Go away.”
He shook his head. “We need to talk. Do you think we could possibly go inside? It’s freezing out here.”
I unlocked the door and let him follow me in. I tossed my wrap on a chair and said most ungraciously, “I’d offer to take your coat, but you won’t be staying that long.”
He wrenched his coat off and tossed it on mine. It occurred to me that it was a confrontation with Justin that had brought on my spotting. I sat down in the old recliner in front of the TV, stretched out my legs and told myself to remain calm. Whatever he said could make no difference.
He began to pace back and forth in my little living room which was a feat in itself. Two steps and he had to turn around.
“We’ll have to get married.”
I sat looking at him as if he‘d asked me to get him a glass of water. “There’s a romantic proposal if I’ve ever heard one.”
“You know we do.”
No,” I said. “We don’t. And we won’t.” I was glad that I’d gone to see Carol before Justin arrived on my doorstep. I didn’t need his support. I could support myself, Natalie and the baby just fine.
He sat down and thrust his hand through his hair. “I know I’ve been an ass…but…I just didn‘t want you to feel you had any obligation to tie yourself to me.”
The baby, I thought. Stay calm. The baby. But as usual, Justin pushed all the right buttons. “That’s bullshit and you know it.”
That threw him. “It isn’t any such thing. And you don’t say things like bullshit.”
“I do now. You know darn well I love you to pieces and you’re so scared of accepting that love, trusting that love, that you’ll do or say anything to alienate me. Well, I’m tired of it. I can’t fight you anymore, Justin. I love you, you don’t want my love, okay. I get it, finally. You don’t have any obligation to me. If you want to see your child as he grows up, fine. I won’t stop you. You may know more about sex than I do, and you may have made love eighteen more times than I have, but you don’t know shit beans about love.”
“Shit beans?” That wonderful smile lifted his lips. “I bet I could come over there and kiss you and in two minutes flat, we’d be in bed.”
“You’re on, buster.” I held out through the first kiss, and even the second one, but by the third one, when he slipped his hand under my dress and into me, I was dragging him by his tie into the bedroom.
“Out, out, out,” I said. He stilled. “What?”
“Get out of those clothes. Why did you wear a shirt and tie?”
“I wanted to look my corporate best when I came to ask the
woman I love to marry me.”
“Corporate best be damned.” I’d stripped off my dress and under things and stark naked, fumbled with his belt buckle. I stopped suddenly and looked up at him. “Did you say the woman you love?”
“Yes.” He removed my hands and urged me down on the bed.
“You’re not just saying it because I’m having our baby?”
“No. I’ve probably had you in the back of my mind since high school. Why else would I have reached the ripe old age of thirty-two without committing to anyone?”
“Why indeed?”
“So. Let me make up for my inability to recognize the woman I loved when I saw her. A little entertainment for my lady.” Slowly, he took off his belt and draped it over the straight chair. With the same agonizing slowness, he pulled his shirt from his pants. It took that long for me to realize that he was stripping for me. Now the pants came off ever so carefully and were draped on the chair over the belt. He still wore his shirt and tie. The damned shirt had cuff links. Who wore cuff links these days? He removed the gold studs and laid them carefully on my dresser. Could any man look so wonderful wearing just a tie, his shirt tail out, his briefs showing and his feet in socks? I don’t think so. Watching me very closely, he slid the knot loose from his tie. Then one by one, painfully slowly, he unbuttoned his buttons and one sleeve at a time, shed his shirt. Now that he was down to his briefs, I jumped up from the bed.
“Not enjoying the show?”
I reached into the little white case I had on my dresser where I kept a few dollar bills for emergencies. I plucked out a dollar bill and putting my fingers against his hard abdomen, I slid the dollar into his briefs.
“Only one dollar?” he murmured and brought me up on my toes to kiss me, his hands cupping my buttocks.
“I might be inclined to pay a bit more…depending on the rest of your performance.”
“Oh, I’m ready to perform all right.” He pushed me back onto the bed where I sat to enjoy the rest of the show. He stripped off his briefs and the dollar fluttered to the floor. Socks vanished as well. He was definitely ready to perform. He was huge, hard, and beautiful. But I matched him. I was as wet and receptive as he was hard. He took me by the shoulders and laid me down on the bed. “Ready to be dripped on?”
How far he had come if he could joke about it. My heart leapt with joy. In answer, I reached for the box of tissues I kept by my bed. I spread a tissue over my chest. “We nurses are like boy scouts. Always prepared.”
“Except when it comes to getting pregnant.”
“Well, yes. That was a slight miscalculation.”
“Is that what you call it?” he murmured as he slipped into my wet and ready body.
“Nobody’s perfect,” I said.
What bliss it was to make love with him like this, to be able to see his face and watch him close his eyes at the pleasure he felt with me. I was on fire with wanting more. I lifted my hips, encouraging him to go deeper.
“I won’t…hurt the baby, will I?” he said, his voice husky with desire as he gave in to his uncontrollable need to go as deep inside me as he could.
“No. Baby’s too little. And baby likes it when Mommy and Daddy make love to each other.”
“Anything to please the baby.”
“We’re spoiling him already,” I said, and Justin stopped my words with his mouth and then leaned back from me in the throes of his climax. I soon joined him.
We lay in bed together but I always kept the heat down in my little house to save money so I pulled the covers up over us.
“Good thing we enjoyed ourselves naked in the tropics. It’s too damned cold here.”
I leaned up to kiss him and the tissue fell off of me. After a very satisfying kiss, I tossed the tissue away. “We didn’t even need this.”
“Don’t throw it away. We might need it next time.” He watched me to see my reaction to his words.
“Is there going to be a next time, Justin?”
“You know there is, sweets. Many, many more next times. At least until it’s too uncomfortable for you.” He pulled me on top of him. “Have I earned that dollar yet?”
“No.” He wasn’t quite hard, but I knew the cure for that. “Did I hear you say you loved me somewhere back there?”
I scooted down his long length, and with the devil dancing in my eyes, I took him in my mouth.
“My God. Do you expect to think while you’re doing that? I know one thing. You’re a hell of a fast learner.”
I lapped and loved him until he brought me up and went inside me to find all his favorite places.
Afterward, we lay side by side, my leg stretched over his. “I suppose we should go find something to eat,” I said. “I haven’t been to the grocery store since I got home but I think there might be a can of beans in the cupboard.”
“Would those be shit beans or another more palatable kind?”
“Oh, Justin. You are just so…”
“Wonderful?” he said helpfully, grinning wolfishly.
How I had missed that grin. “Intelligent. You remember things I’ve said. Do you know what an aphrodisiac that is to a woman?”
“I didn’t. The things I’m learning. I know one thing. With our two brains, the kid will be a genius.” He planted a smack on my nose. “But right now the little bugger is probably looking up and saying, ‘Mommy, I’m glad you had so much fun with Daddy, but I‘m starving. When are we going to eat?’”
“See?” I said. “I said you were intelligent. That’s exactly what the little guy is saying.”
We ended up getting dressed a great deal faster than Justin got undressed.
I know this is going to sound really stupid, but I’d never been out on a dinner date with a man. A movie here and there occasionally, but no guy had ever fed me.
Justin took me to an Italian restaurant where we were seated in a booth toward the back, very private. Justin knew the owners, of course. We ordered spaghetti and lasagna with lots of crusty bread. When I reminded Justin I couldn’t drink, he ordered sparkling water for both us.
The waiter went away and I told Justin I’d never been on a dinner date.
“Ah, a dinner date virgin. Maybe that‘s why I enjoy being with you so much. There are so many things you‘ve never done with a guy.” The bread came and Justin broke off a piece, buttered it and offered it to me.
“Maybe the reason you enjoy being with me is because you love me.”
“That’s a possibility. Though not a likely one. I think I love you because you enjoy being with me.”
“I’m not sure I understand that, but I’ll take it.”
“I’m giving you spaghetti and lasagna. Now you want a declaration of love?” He did it quite nicely, the fake incredulity, the raised eyebrow. “You are one demanding woman, Anne Wentworth. Dragging me in to the bedroom by my tie. Scandalous.” His look changed to one of blatant sensuality. “And may you never change.” He raised his glass of sparkling water to me and we toasted, knowing we both remembered the incredible excitement and closeness we’d shared, knowing it was only the beginning.
He fed me some of his lasagna, I fed him spaghetti and told him I loved him even with a spaghetti strand hanging from his chin. I fed him a crust of bread, he fed me an olive. And all the time, I couldn’t believe that this was happening to me.
Outside, it was no longer snowing but the temperature had to be in the teens. I shivered and pulled my blue coat up around my throat.
We were inside the car when he said, “You’re coming home with me.”
“Oh no. It’s almost Christmas. Your mother’s there, and the rest of your family will soon converge to see Liz and Hunter’s baby and celebrate the holidays. I’m not going to roost with your family like some groupie who’s followed you home.”
“I don’t want you staying in that house. It’s cold and it’s ancient and for all I know there’s asbestos in the pipes and mold growing in the walls. There always is in a house as old as yours, Anne. Trust me,
I know. Do you want to expose our baby to that?”
That jarred me. I hadn’t thought that the house I had bought so cheaply might be harmful to my baby. Was it possible it did have asbestos and that was what had made Natalie sick? The thought chilled me. “I can’t come and live in your family home with you. I’d feel…awkward.”
“All right. We’ll get married. We’ll have to get a license and wait three days, but we can get married in a registrar’s office. Until then I can put you up in a hotel.”
“Your family will have a fit and fall in it if we marry in a registrar’s office.”
I thought he’d argue with me, but he said, “Crap, you’re right. We’ll get married at the house on Christmas Day. Mother can arrange it.”
What was there to say to that but yes?
Chapter 15
Natalie was released the next day and she felt well enough to help me pack her things as well as my own. We took our shabby little suitcases and our shabby little car and drove up to the entrance of the Residence Inn where Justin had made reservations for us to stay. He had also arranged for us to check in early. Sometime after lunch, Justin came to see that we were settled in. As he lounged in the outer sitting room, he cut a glance at Natalie and then at me. I knew what he was thinking. We had a chaperone.
Natalie was a joy to have back home again. She acted the way a teenager should act, ebullient with good nature. She sat down next to Justin and in sixteen seconds, charmed the socks off him.
“I can’t wait until you’re my brother-in-law. Anne and I haven’t gone shopping for our wedding dresses yet, but we’re going to go tomorrow.”
“Liz says she wants to come along and bring the baby. Hunter says over his dead body,” Justin told her, hitching up his trousers to cross one knee over the other.
“I love Liz,” Natalie said. “It would be wonderful if she could come with us, but it’s probably better if she stays home.”
“Probably. You do know that you’re going to come and live with us after we’re married, Natalie. It will mean you’ll have to change schools.”
Wooing Justin: The Cameron Family Saga, Book Two Page 9