by Marie Force
“I’ll drink to that.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, as we make our final approach into Jacksonville, we thank you again for choosing Southwest Airlines. Enjoy the weekend.”
Juliana looked up, surprised by how fast two hours had passed as she chatted with Michael. The thought of seeing Jeremy in a few minutes filled her with nervous energy and excitement.
“Are you ready?” Michael asked.
He had the bluest eyes she’d ever seen and a sexy smile that made her tingle all over when he directed it at her. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“I’m sure you’ll have a great time. Keep in mind that all guys suck on the phone. Paige is forever complaining that I never have anything to say.”
Juliana appreciated his attempt to bolster her confidence.
“How about you? Ready to put on your best party face?”
He laughed. “I don’t have much of a party face.”
“You’ve got five minutes to get one.”
“When do you go back?” he asked.
“Seven on Sunday evening.”
“Me, too!”
“We can compare notes,” she said, oddly relieved to know she would see him again.
“I’ll look forward to it.”
They gathered their bags and walked up the Jetway and through the terminal together. When she spotted Jeremy waiting for her, she looked over to say good-bye to Michael, who had made eye contact with his fiancée, a waiflike blonde with porcelain features and big blue eyes. She looked like she would break if hugged too hard and wasn’t at all what Juliana had pictured for him.
“I’ll see you Sunday,” she said to Michael.
“Have a good one,” he said, walking toward Paige as she went to Jeremy.
“Who’s that guy?” Jeremy asked when she reached up to hug him. He was eight inches taller than her and still built like the football player he had been in high school.
“Just someone I sat next to on the plane. How are you?” She looked him over for clues to what was troubling him lately, but he looked the same as he always did. He kept his curly blond hair cut short now that he was older, but when she met him it had been six inches high and unruly—a lot like he had been then.
“Fine,” he said, leaning down to kiss her.
She turned away from the scent of stale beer on his breath. “Have you been drinking, Jer?”
“Just a few beers with the guys after work,” he said with a shrug. “Your flight was late, so I had time to kill.”
Judging by the glassy look in his eyes, Juliana could tell that he’d had more than a few and was disappointed he had done that on the night she was coming to visit.
Holding hands, they walked by Michael as he hugged Paige.
Michael glanced up at Juliana, and the dismayed expression on his face made her sad for him.
Chapter 2
“Where are we going?” Juliana asked as she drove Jeremy’s Toyota SUV south from the airport and followed his directions past the exit for Jacksonville Beach where he lived in a small rented house with two of his co-workers from Baltimore. She usually stayed with him there when she came to visit.
“I have a surprise for you,” he said with a charming smile.
A rush of emotion reminded her of how much she loved him. “Really? Tell me!”
“No, you’ll have to wait.” He reached for her hand. “It’s good to see you, babe.”
“Is it?”
He looked over at her. “Of course it is. Why would you ask that?”
“You haven’t seemed all that happy to hear from me lately.”
“It’s been so crazy here. There’s a lot of pressure to meet the next deadline, and the install isn’t going well. We’ve had one setback after another. Everyone wants to get it done and get out of here.”
“Is that all it is?”
“What’s with you, Jule?” he asked, exasperated. “Where’s all this coming from?”
She focused on the road, annoyed that she’d had to do the driving. “Never mind. Let’s just have a good weekend.” These days, they were under so much pressure to make the most of the brief time they had together.
He let go of her hand to change the radio station.
They drove in silence for a while until he directed her to turn into the Sawgrass Marriott resort at Ponte Vedra Beach.
“What are we doing here?” The lush landscaping and manicured golf course were beautifully lit. A sign on the lawn pronounced the course to be the “Home of the PGA Players Championship.”
“I got a bonus last week and decided to splurge.”
She let out a squeal of excitement. “For real?”
Smiling, he glanced over at her. “Does that mean you approve?”
“Definitely.”
They checked in and were shown to a luxurious oceanfront room with a king-sized bed.
She nibbled on her thumbnail while he tipped the bellman. “This is going to cost a fortune, Jer,” she said when they were alone.
“Don’t sweat it, babe.” He pulled open the sliding door and stepped onto the balcony. “Come on out.”
The surf pounded in the darkness as she joined him.
He brought her closer to him and leaned in to kiss her.
They’d been lovers for so many years that he was home to her, no matter where they were. He ran his tongue along her bottom lip, and she wrapped her arms around him, wanting him desperately. She just wished he didn’t taste like stale beer and smell like cigarette smoke.
“I love you, Jule. I’ve missed you so much.”
“Me, too,” she whispered as his cell phone rang.
“Ignore it,” he said against her lips. When the phone rang again, Jeremy pulled away from her to turn it off. “Sorry about that.”
“What if it’s work?”
“They’re going to have to live without me tonight. I’ve got better things to do.”
“Do you mind if I take a quick shower?”
“As long as it’s quick, I’ll allow it,” he said with a smile.
She left him with one last kiss and took her bag into the bathroom. After she showered, she stood in front of the mirror brushing her long dark hair until it fell in soft, shiny waves down her back. The ivory silk nightgown she bought just for this weekend with Jeremy made for a striking contrast with her olive complexion. As she brushed her hair one last time, Juliana suddenly thought of Michael and the strange look on his face when he greeted his fiancée at the airport. She wondered how his weekend was going so far.
Emerging from the bathroom, her heart raced with anticipation and desire. She couldn’t wait to make love with Jeremy after so many weeks apart. But when she saw him sprawled out on the bed fast asleep, the disappointment hit like a fist to the belly. He’d had enough beer to knock him out for the night, and she knew from experience that there was no point in trying to rouse him.
Juliana ventured onto the patio and curled up on one of the lounge chairs to listen to the pounding surf. Filled with frustration, she hoped Michael’s evening had gone better than hers.
The bright sunlight streaming into the room woke her early the next morning. Stretching out the stiffness from a night in a strange bed, she glanced over at Jeremy.
Before this interminable separation, they had lived together for four years. People often asked her why they hadn’t gotten married, especially after they marked their tenth anniversary together. The only answer Juliana could ever give was that he hadn’t asked her. More than one friend recommended an ultimatum, but Juliana had never seen the need for threats. What they had was special, and it always had been.
Jeremy transferred into her high school at the beginning of their junior year, and tugged her out from behind the dark clouds of life with a needy, alcoholic mother to life with him in the sunshine. With his quick wit and talent on the football field, he fit in right away with kids who had been indifferent to Juliana for years. Before she knew it, she’d been elevated from obscurity to half of a couple who
se names were mentioned together so often that JeremyandJuliana took on the same easy cadence as peanut butter and jelly.
After graduation, she pursued a career in cosmetology while he studied electrical engineering at Johns Hopkins. When all the couples they knew in high school either edged into marriage and families in the suburbs or broke up during college, they continued on with just an occasional discussion about marriage. Until he had been transferred to Florida for this endless year, they hadn’t spent a night apart in four years. And even though they had never actually taken the vows, Juliana considered them married in all the ways that mattered most.
They had also discovered there was a lot more to making love than what they’d done as fumbling teenagers overwhelmed by a love they were too young to fully understand and hormones they were powerless against. Back then Jeremy lived with a single mother who worked second shift as a nurse, so they took full advantage of the ample opportunity to work on getting it right.
Juliana ran a finger down his chest, and he gathered her closer. She kissed his shoulder and snuggled up to him.
When he finally opened one blue eye, he winced at the bright light and seemed to realize all at once that he was still dressed in yesterday’s clothes. “Oh my God,” he groaned. “I totally conked out on you.”
“Yep.”
“I’m sorry, babe. Are you pissed?”
“No.”
He ran his hand up and down her silk-covered back. “Disappointed?” he asked with a cajoling smile.
“A little.”
Nuzzling her neck, he said, “Let me hit the bathroom, and then I’ll make it up to you.”
Having shed his clothes in the bathroom, he came back a minute later, slid into bed, and reached for her. “I’m sorry I fell asleep.” He brushed the hair back from her face. “All I thought about all week was being with you.”
“I know. Me, too.”
“I’m sorry I blew it,” he said, capturing her mouth in a long, slow kiss flavored by toothpaste.
“I forgive you,” she said, already breathless. “I’ve missed being able to touch you.”
He tugged at the sheet to uncover her and cast an appreciative glance at the ivory nightgown. “Wow, look at you.”
Juliana buried her face in his soft chest hair. She remembered that chest before the light dusting of golden blond hair took up residence.
He tilted her chin up and brought his lips down on hers.
His kiss was among the most familiar things in her life—the way his tongue sought out hers to tease and entice until she was drowning in him. He hooked his thumbs under the nightgown’s spaghetti straps to ease them down and filled his hands with her breasts. “So, so beautiful.”
Juliana wrapped her arms around him, trying to move him to where she wanted him most.
“Mmm, not yet,” he whispered.
“Jer… I want you.”
He teased her until her nipples were hard and pulsing. “Don’t you miss this, babe? Don’t you miss being able to do this any time we want?”
“Yes,” she sighed. “I miss it so much.”
He sucked hard on her nipple, and Juliana cried out.
“Mmm, so hot. So sexy.” He kissed his way to her belly and beyond. With his hands on her knees, he urged her to spread her legs and settled between them.
Juliana quivered with desire.
Trailing a finger through her dampness, he avoided the spot that throbbed for him.
“Jeremy…”
“What?” he asked in a teasing tone.
“Come on!”
“Are you in a rush?”
She moaned.
He replied by pushing two fingers into her.
Gasping, she raised her hips to take him deeper as her climax began to build.
He dipped his head and added his tongue. After all the years they’d spent together, he knew just how to please her.
Her legs falling open in surrender to his skillful tongue and fingers, the orgasm ripped through her with shattering speed.
“I love that,” he whispered, shifting over her. “I love the way you let go.”
Her body was still pulsating when he buried himself in her. “Only for you.” She wrapped her arms around him and brought him in for a kiss.
As their eyes met, she was filled with contentment. Looking up to find him there, where he had been for so long, was like coming home. But she saw sadness mixed with the desire and love in his eyes. The sadness was new. Before she could process the discovery, he began to move faster.
“Come with me, Jule,” he whispered in her ear. “Come with me.”
Juliana closed her eyes and soared.
“I’m starving,” he muttered against her chest a few minutes later. He gave her a quick kiss and rolled over to get up. “Join me in the shower?”
She stretched and took in the glorious sight of him prowling naked around the big room. “In a minute.”
“Don’t be long.”
Juliana heard the shower go on just as Jeremy’s cell phone rang. Wondering why he had bothered to turn it back on and who would be calling him so early on a Saturday, she reached for the phone on the bedside table. “Hello?”
Silence.
“Hello?” Juliana said again.
When there was still no answer, she closed the phone to check the caller ID.
“Jule! Come on.”
Juliana walked into the bathroom. “Jer?”
His hair full of shampoo, he pulled the curtain aside. “What?”
“Who’s Sherrie?”
Chapter 3
Paige pounced the moment she and Michael were in her champagne-colored Mercedes coupe.
“Whoa!”
She wrapped herself around him as best she could in the tiny car. “Kiss me, Michael.”
Michael glanced at the people getting into the car next to them. “Not here.”
“One kiss?” she pouted.
That pout rendered him defenseless, and she knew it. He leaned in to kiss her and was hit by a surge of lust. The only area of their relationship that never gave them any trouble was their ability to fire each other up with just a touch, a look, or in this case, a kiss. When her eager tongue wound around his, he groaned and tore himself away. “Hold on, honey.”
Her hand landed in his lap. “If you insist,” she said with a saucy smile.
He grabbed her hand just as it reached its destination. “Paige! Stop!”
She flopped back into her seat. “What’s your problem, Michael? We haven’t seen each other in a month, for Christ’s sake.”
“And whose fault is that?”
She started the car and backed out of the parking space with only the briefest of glances behind her. “I’ve been busy planning your wedding. I can’t just come up there any old time you want me to. Besides, the last time I was there you were so busy with work I hardly saw you.”
“If you hadn’t moved down here, we wouldn’t be having this discussion, now would we?”
Fuming, Paige handed a five-dollar bill to the parking attendant. “Here we go,” she muttered.
Her two-carat diamond engagement ring sparkled under the lights of the tollbooth. As it occurred to Michael yet again that he would be paying for that ring for the next three years, he couldn’t help but wonder if the marriage would last that long. The thought startled him. When exactly had he begun to have all these doubts?
They drove north on Interstate 95 in silence.
After a while he reached for her hand and was relieved to feel her fingers tighten around his. That blew over faster than usual. He truly loved Paige. She could be so sweet and generous, but just as often she could be a spoiled brat. He was seeing more and more of that side of her as they planned their wedding. Unfortunately, his family had seen just enough of it to give them serious reservations about his plans to marry her.
Resting his head back, he realized how exhausted he was. The trial preparations were kicking his ass, and the idea of spending the weekend with the
Admiral, Mrs. Simpson, and two hundred of their closest friends sucked what little energy he had right out of him. What he really needed this weekend was sleep.
Paige took the exit for A1A on the way to Amelia Island where she lived with her parents in a six-thousand-square-foot home so sprawling they’d installed an intercom system so they could find each other. Raised with three sisters in a six-room ranch house, Michael thought the Simpson’s home was obscene. Nearly everything about their lifestyle offended him, but since he and Paige would be living far away from her parents after they were married, he didn’t care how they chose to live.
“I’m sorry,” Paige said softly. “I don’t want to fight this weekend.”
He kissed her hand. “Neither do I, but I’m really fried, hon. The trial has me by the balls.”
“How’s it going?”
That she bothered to ask told him she was trying. “It’s getting close. I’ve got to write my opening at some point this weekend.”
“Not while you’re here! We’ve got so much to do. We’re picking invitations and registering tomorrow before the party. Then there’s brunch on Sunday. You can’t work!”
Michael took a deep breath. He never should have agreed to this weekend, but it was too late now. “I’ll fit it in.”
After a thirty-minute ride, they arrived at the two-story taupe monstrosity surrounded by lush landscaping with artful lighting hidden among the palm trees, crepe myrtles, and flowering hibiscus bushes. The autumn evening air was thick with humidity and cricket music. Michael steeled himself for his audience with the Admiral, who pulled some strings to get Michael the job with the Baltimore City state’s attorney and never missed an opportunity to remind Michael he owed him one.
They were waiting in the spacious great room when Michael and Paige came in through an elaborately tiled foyer the size of his parents’ entire house.
“Hello, Michael,” Eleanor Simpson said, brushing a polite kiss over his cheek. As always, she looked as if she just stepped out of the beauty parlor. The thought reminded Michael of Juliana.
“Mrs. Simpson, Admiral.” He extended a hand to the imposing older man. When Admiral Simpson shook your hand, your hand knew it.