She wondered if he realized what he’d insinuated. It sounded pretty much like he had every intention of continuing their affair. And since he didn’t live in Denver did that mean he planned to come visit her at some point for pleasure rather than business?
Before she could ask him about what he’d said, his cell phone rang. After he checked the ID, Megan heard him let out a low curse. “I thought I told you not to call me.”
“You didn’t say you would sic the cops on me,” Jeffery Claiborne accused.
“I didn’t sic the cops on you. I wanted to check out your story. I have, and you lied. You need money for other things, and I’m not buying.” He then clicked off the phone.
Megan had listened to the conversation. That was the second time he’d received a similar phone call in her presence. The thought that he was still connected to some woman in some way, even if he didn’t want to be bothered, annoyed her. She tried pushing it from her mind and discovered she couldn’t. A believer in speaking her mind, she said, “Evidently someone didn’t understand your rule about not getting serious.”
He glanced over at her. His gaze penetrated hers. “What are you talking about?”
“That call. That’s the second time she’s called while I was with you.”
“She?”
“Yes, I assume it’s a female,” she said, knowing she really didn’t have any right to assume anything.
He said nothing for a minute and then. “No, that wasn’t a female. That was the man who used to be my father.”
She turned around in her seat. “Your father?” she asked, confirming what he’d said.
“Yes. He’s called several times trying to borrow money from me. He’s even called Savannah. Claims his life is in jeopardy because he owes a gambling debt. But I found out differently. Seems he has a drug problem, and he was fired from his last job a few months ago because of it.”
Now it was her time to pause. Then she said, “So what are you going to do?”
He raised his brow and looked over at her. “What am I going to do?”
“Yes.”
“Nothing. That man hurt my mother and because of him Jess lost hers.”
Megan swallowed tightly, telling herself it wasn’t any of her business, but she couldn’t help interfering. “But he’s your father, Rico.”
“And a piss-poor one at that. I could never understand why he wasn’t around for all the times that were important to me while growing up. His excuse was always that as a traveling salesman he had to be away. It never dawned on me, until later, that he really wasn’t contributing to the household since we were mostly living off my mother’s trust fund.”
He stopped at another traffic light and said, “It was only later that we found out why he spent so much time in California. He was living another life with another family. He’s never apologized for the pain he caused all of us, and he places the blame on everyone but himself. So, as far as me doing anything for him, the answer is I don’t plan on doing a single thing, and I meant what I just told him. I don’t want him to call me.”
Megan bit down on her lips to keep from saying anything else. It seemed his mind was pretty made up.
“Megan?”
She glanced over at him. “Yes?”
“I know family means a lot to you, and, believe it or not, it means a lot to me, too. But some things you learn to do without…especially if they are no good. Jeff Claiborne is bad news.”
“Sounds like he needs help, like drug rehab or something.”
“Yes, but it won’t be my money paying for it.”
His statement sounded final, and Megan had a problem with it. It was just her luck to fall in love with a man who had serious issues with his father. What had the man done to make Rico feel this way? Should she ask him about it? She immediately decided not to. She had enough brothers and male cousins to know when to butt out of their business…until it was a safe time to bring it back up again. And she would.
Fourteen
“Mr. Claiborne, Ms. Westmoreland,” Dorothy said, reluctantly opening the door to let them in. “My daughter told me you called. We’ve told you everything, and I’m not sure it will be good on my grandmother to have to talk about it again.”
Rico stared at her. “Just the other day you were saying you thought it would be good for her to talk about it.”
“Yes, but that was before I saw what discussing it did to her,” she said “Please have a seat.”
“Thanks,” he said, and he and Megan sat down on the sofa. “If your grandmother isn’t available then perhaps you won’t mind answering a few questions for us.”
“I really don’t know anything other than what Gramma Fanny told me over the years,” she said, taking the chair across from them. “But I’ll try my best because my grandmother hasn’t been herself since your visit. She had trouble sleeping last night and that’s not like her. I guess breaking a vow to keep a promise is weighing heavily on her conscience.”
For some reason Rico felt it went deeper than that. “Thanks for agreeing to talk to us.” He and Megan had decided that he would be the one asking the questions. “Everybody says your grandmother’s memory is sharp as a tack. Is there any reason she would intentionally get certain facts confused?”
The woman seemed taken back. “What are you trying to say, Mr. Claiborne?”
Rico sighed deeply. He hadn’t told Megan everything yet, especially about the recent report he’d gotten from Martin while she’d been sleeping. “Stephen Mitchelson was not the one who survived that fire, and I’d like to know why your grandmother would want us to think that he was.”
The woman look surprised. “I don’t know, but you seem absolutely certain my grandmother was wrong.”
He wasn’t absolutely certain, but he was sure enough, thanks to the information Martin had dug up on Mitchelson, especially the man’s prison photo, which looked nothing like the photographs of Raphel that the Westmorelands had hanging on their wall at the main house in Denver.
He knew Megan was just as surprised by his assertion as Ms. Banks’s granddaughter. But there was that gut feeling that wouldn’t go away. “It could be that Clarice lied to her about everything,” he suggested, although he knew that probably wasn’t the case.
“Possibly.”
“But that isn’t the case, and you know it, don’t you, Mr. Claiborne?”
Rico turned when he heard Fanny Banks’s frail voice. She was standing in the doorway with her cane.
“Gramma Fanny, I thought you were still sleeping,” Dorothy said, rushing over to assist her grandmother.
“I heard the doorbell.”
“Well, Mr. Claiborne and Ms. Westmoreland are back to ask you more questions. They think that perhaps you were confused about a few things,” Dorothy said, leading her grandmother over to a chair.
“I wasn’t confused,” the older woman said, settling in her chair. “Just desperate, child.”
Confusion settled on Dorothy’s face. “I don’t understand.”
Fanny Banks didn’t say anything for a minute. She then looked over at Rico and Megan. “I’m glad you came back. The other day, I thought it would be easier to tell another lie, but I’m tired of lying. I want to tell the truth…no matter who it hurts.”
Rico nodded. “And what is the truth, Ms. Fanny?”
“That it was me and not Clarice who went to Wyoming that year and got pregnant. And Clarice, bless her soul, wanted to help me out of my
predicament. She came up with this plan. Both she and I were single women, but she had a nice aunt in the East who wanted children, so we were going to pretend to go there for a visit for six months, and I would have the baby there and give my baby to her aunt and uncle. It was the perfect plan.”
She paused for a minute. “But a few weeks before we were to leave, Raphel showed up to deliver the news that Stephen had died in a fire, and Raphel wanted me to have the belongings that Stephen left behind. While he was here, he saw Clarice. I could see that they were instantly attracted to each other.”
Rico glanced over at Megan. They knew firsthand just how that instant-attraction stuff worked. “Please go on, Ms. Fanny.”
“I panicked. I could see Clarice was starting something with Raphel, which could result in her changing our plans about going out East. Especially when Raphel was hired on by Clarice’s father to do odds and ends around their place. And when she confided in me that she had fallen in love with Raphel, I knew I had to do something. So I told her that Raphel was really my Stephen, basically the same story I told the two of you. She believed it and was upset with me for not telling him about the baby and for allowing him to just walk away and start a new life elsewhere. She had no idea I’d lied. Not telling him what she knew, she convinced her father Raphel was not safe to have around their place. Her father fired him.”
She paused and rubbed her feeble hands together nervously. “My selfishness cost my best friend her happiness with Raphel. He never understood why she began rebuffing his advances, or why she had him fired. The day we caught the train for Virginia is the day he left Forbes. Standing upstairs in my bedroom packing, we watched him get in his old truck and drive off. I denied my best friend the one happiness she could have had.”
Rico drew in a deep breath when he saw the tears fall from the woman’s eyes. “What about the baby? Did Clarice have a baby?”
Ms. Fanny nodded. “Yes. I didn’t find out until we reached her aunt and uncle’s place that Clarice had gotten pregnant.”
Megan gasped. “From Raphel?”
“Yes. She thought she’d betrayed me and that we were having babies from the same man. Even then I never told her the truth. She believed her parents would accept her child out of wedlock and intended to keep it. She had returned to Texas after giving birth only to find out differently. Her parents didn’t accept her, and she was returning to Virginia to make a life for her and her baby when the train derailed.”
“So it’s true, both her and the baby died,” Megan said sadly.
“No.”
“No?” Rico, Megan and Dorothy asked simultaneously.
“Clarice didn’t die immediately, and her son was able to survive with minor cuts and bruises.”
“Son?” Megan whispered softly.
“Yes, she’d given birth to a son, a child Raphel never knew about…because of me. The baby survived because Clarice used her body as a shield during the accident.”
Fanny didn’t say anything for a minute. “We got to the hospital before she died, and she told us about a woman she’d met on the train, a woman who had lost her baby a year earlier…and now the woman had lost her husband in the train wreck. He was killed immediately, although the woman was able to walk away with only a few scratches.”
Dorothy passed her grandmother a tissue so she could wipe away her tears. Through those tears, she added, “Clarice, my best friend, who was always willing to make sacrifices for others, who knew she would not live to see the next day, made yet another sacrifice by giving her child to that woman.” Ms. Fanny’s aged voice trembled as she fought back more tears. “Because she believed my lie, she wasn’t certain she could leave her baby with me to raise because I would be constantly reminded of his father’s betrayal. And her aunt couldn’t afford to take on another child after she’d taken on mine. So Clarice made sure she found her baby a good home before she died.”
Megan wiped tears away from her own eyes, looked over at Rico and said softly, “So there might be more Westmorelands out there somewhere after all.”
Rico nodded and took her hand and entwined their fingers. “Yes, and if there are, I’m sure they will be found.”
Rico glanced back at Fanny, who was crying profusely, and he knew the woman had carried the guilt of what she’d done for years. Now, maybe she would be able to move on with what life she had left.
Standing, Rico extended his hand to Megan. “We have our answers, now it’s time for us to go.”
Megan nodded and then hugged the older woman. “Thanks for telling us the truth. I think it’s time for you to forgive yourself, and my prayer is that you will.”
Rico knew then that he loved Megan as deeply as any man could love a woman. Even now, through her own pain, she was able to forgive the woman who had betrayed not only her great-grandfather, but also the woman who’d given birth to his child…a child he hadn’t known about.
Taking Megan’s hand in his, he bid both Banks women goodbye and together he and Megan walked out the door.
* * *
Rico pulled Megan into his arms the moment the hotel room door closed behind them, taking her mouth with a hunger and greed she felt in every portion of his body. The kiss was long, deep and possessive. In response, she wrapped her arms around his neck and returned the kiss with just as much vigor as he was putting into it. Never had she been kissed with so much punch, so much vitality, want and need. She couldn’t do anything but melt in his arms.
“I want you, Megan.” He pulled back from the kiss to whisper across her lips, his hot breath making her shudder with need.
“And I want you, too,” she whispered back, then outlined his lips with the tip of her tongue. She saw the flame that had ignited in his eyes, felt his hard erection pressed against her and knew this man who had captured her heart would have her love forever.
Megan wanted to forget about Ms. Fanny’s deceit, her betrayal of Clarice, a woman who would have done anything for her. She didn’t want to think about the child Clarice gave up before she died, the child her great-grandfather had never known about. And she didn’t want to think of her great-grandfather and how confused he must have been when the woman he had fallen in love with—at first sight—had suddenly not wanted anything to do with him.
She felt herself being lifted up in Rico’s arms and carried into the bedroom, where he placed her on the bed. He leaned down and kissed her again, and she couldn’t help but moan deeply. When he released her mouth, she whispered, “Let’s get wild again.”
They reached for each other at the same time, tearing at each other’s clothes as desire, as keen as it could get, rammed through her from every direction. They kissed intermittently while undressing, and when all their clothes lay scattered, Rico lifted her in his arms. Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around him. The thickness of him pressed against her, letting her know he was willing, ready and able, and she was eager for the feel of him inside of her.
He leaned forward and took her mouth again. His tongue tasted her as if he intended to savor her until the end of time.
He continued to kiss her, to stimulate her to sensual madness as he walked with her over to the sofa. Once there, he broke off the kiss and stood her up on the sofa, facing him. Sliding his hands between her legs, he spread her thighs wide.
“You still want wild, I’m going to give you wild,” he whispered against her lips. “Squat a little for me, baby. I want to make sure I can slide inside you just right.”
&nbs
p; She bent her knees as he reached out and grabbed her hips. His arousal was hard, firm and aimed right at her, as if it knew just where it should go. To prove that point, his erection unerringly slid between her wet folds.
“Mercy,” he said. He inched closer, and their pelvises fused. He leaned forward, drew in a deep breath and touched his forehead to hers. “Don’t move,” he murmured huskily, holding her hips as he continued to ease inside of her, going deep, feeling how her inner muscles clenched him, trying to pull everything out of him. “I wish our bodies could stay locked together like this forever,” he whispered.
She chuckled softly, feeling how deeply inside of her he was, how closely they were connected. “Don’t know how housekeeping is going to handle it when they come in our room tomorrow to clean and find us in this position.”
She felt his forehead move when he chuckled. His feet were planted firmly on the floor, and she was standing on the sofa. But their bodies were joined in a way that had tingling sensations moving all over her naked skin.
He then pulled his forehead back to look at her. “Ready?”
She nodded. “Yes, I’m ready.”
“Okay, then let’s rock.”
With his hands holding her hips and her arms holding firm to his shoulders, they began moving, rocking their bodies together to a rhythm they both understood. Her nipples felt hard as they caressed his chest, and the way he was stroking her insides made her groan out loud.
“Feel that?” he asked, hitting her at an angle that touched her G-spot and caused all kinds of extraordinary sensations to rip through her. She released a shuddering moan.
“Yes, I feel it.”
“Mmm, what about this?” he asked, tilting her hips a little to stroke her from another angle.
“Oh, yes.” More sensations cascaded through her.
“And now what about this?” He tightened his hold on her hips, widened her legs even more and began thrusting hard within her. She watched his features and saw how they contorted with pleasure. His eyes glistened with a need and hunger that she intended to satisfy.
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