by Tamryn Ward
“What? Why would you doing the nasty with your electrician—and cheating on your fiancé—make me happy?”
“Because, silly. That’s just it.” Monica caught Jane’s wrists and pulled them away from her keyboard, forcing Jane to meet her gaze. “Jason’s not my fiancé anymore.”
Jane was both happy and confused. “What? You broke the engagement?”
“Yep.”
“Wait a minute…” Jane needed to make sure she understood what Monica had just said. She was almost one hundred percent sure she’d misunderstood. “You broke your engagement to Jason so you could sleep with Bill?”
“Yep.” Monica lifted her left hand and displayed her bare ring finger to illustrate. “See? The rock’s gone. I gave it back. I’m not much for rubies anyway. What’s your birthday?”
“That’s insane,” Jane summed up in two words the flurry of thoughts shuffling through her brain. “The sex was that good? Jason loves you. He’s a good man. Generous, loyal, kind—”
“I just couldn’t go through with the marriage. I told you I didn’t love him like I should. He deserves so much more. He deserves someone like you, who’ll appreciate him.”
“What about your grandmother?” Jane asked, recalling their conversation the night of the party.
“I’ll figure that out.”
“You need his money and you said you loved him.”
“I won’t use him. I can’t believe I even considered it. And I know I told you I love him, but I don’t love him like you do.”
“So what are you suggesting?”
“I want you to go for it. Call him.”
Jane couldn’t believe her ears. “I can’t call him. I don’t date my friends’ exes. That’s a surefire way to lose a friend. I learned that back in high school,” she said, recalling the one time she had dated a friend’s former boyfriend. In the aftermath, she found herself lacking both a date to prom and the best friend she’d had since kindergarten. Friendships didn’t come easy to Jane and through the past few months she’d come to appreciate the one she had with Monica. She didn’t dare risk it over a man.
“Well, we’re not in high school any longer, and I’m giving you my blessing.”
“You’ll change your mind. Now, quit with this. Okay? I appreciate the thought but it’s impossible. I need to get back to work.” She slid the mouse over her desktop to disengage the screensaver.
Monica caught her wrist and held it tightly. “Nope. I won’t quit until you agree to call him.”
“Besides, who says he wants anything more than friendship with me? In case you forgot, I don’t look like you. Look at me.” After extricating her wrist from Monica’s claw-like grip, Jane stood and did a quick pirouette. “I’m short, dumpy, chubby and plain. What would someone like him want with someone like me? He’s absolutely gorgeous. He could have any woman he wants.”
Monica rested her hands on Jane’s shoulders and gave them a soft shake. “That’s just it. He wants you. He just doesn’t realize it yet. Heck, he told me he was in love with you.”
“He said what?”
“He said he wanted to find the woman he’d fallen in love with.”
“That was you,” Jane reminded her.
“No. That was you,” Monica corrected. “You’re right for him. You want the same things, you like the same things. You’re like two pieces of a puzzle. You complete each other. I only hope to find what you have someday. Congratulations, Jane. You found true love. Now, are you going to be a wuss and run from it?”
“But…”
“No buts. I’ll kill you if you don’t call him. I’ll nag you every waking moment. I’ll harass you at work, at home. I’ll hide out in the ice cream aisle of the grocery store and hold every pint of Ben and Jerry’s hostage, whatever it takes until you listen to me.”
Jane wasn’t sure if she should laugh or cry. She didn’t know if she should thank Monica and confess the feelings she’d repressed for so long they were eating her alive or keep them to herself. And so she did the only thing she could. She nodded and said, “Okay.”
Content with her answer, Monica pranced away.
Jane rehearsed a dozen different greetings throughout the day, determined not to make the call until she had down pat what she’d say to him. But later that night, as the buzzing of the ring in her ear ceased and his familiar voice took its place, all words were lost to her. She quickly hung up the phone and stared at it, suspecting it would ring any second. Everyone had caller ID these days.
It didn’t ring in five minutes, or six, or ten, or twenty, or thirty.
He wasn’t going to call her back. Monica had been wrong. Jason Foxx had no interest in plain-Jane Jane Brown. He was probably having a good, long laugh.
Stupid, stupid, stupid! Her face hot, her back sweaty from nerves, she pushed open the French doors, stepped out onto the balcony, and looked up at the stars. There were a few bright enough to be seen, even this close to the city. The night was frigidly cold. Very still and quiet. The distant freeway traffic was light, sending the occasional rumble of a semi-truck to her ears.
To think it had all begun like this. A Monday night when she’d been looking up at the stars, though not as cold. Had it been a one-shot deal? She hadn’t thought to give it another try.
“Star light, star bright. First star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.” She closed her eyes and before she could stop herself, she said, “I wish Jason was here with me now.”
She waited a few minutes before opening her eyes, hoping she’d hear his voice any moment.
The only sound she heard was the distant tinny blaring of someone’s car alarm. Disappointed, but not surprised, she opened her eyes and looked down, expecting to see a car with the telltale flashing lights in the parking lot below her window. Morbidly curious but not seeing the car emitting the obnoxious round of whoops, sirens and buzzes, she leaned over the railing to see if it was one of the cars parked in the closer spots.
Something touched her back and, caught off guard, she jerked away, lunging forward and nearly toppling over the weak wooden railing. Her arms flailed until one hand caught hold of the decorative finial on top of a support post. No doubt the source of nutrition for millions of carpenter ants and termites, the wood snapped and Jane’s weight flew forward. The balls of her feet rolled over the edge of the porch and instinctively, she threw her arms forward and closed her eyelids, expecting to hit the ground within seconds.
A pair of strong hands gripped her waist and pulled her backward. “Oh no, you don’t. I did not go through this hell to have you kill yourself now.”
Instantly recognizing the voice, she spun around and wrapped her arms around his waist. Her own heartbeat still hammering in her ears, she pressed one side of her head against his chest and waited for her racing heart to find its normal rhythm. Then she remembered what—or rather who—had caused that near-fatal accident and she tipped her head up to look at him. “You darn near killed me,” she teased, loosening her grip but not releasing him. It felt too good being in his arms. Sinfully good. She realized her heart rate was picking up again, for entirely different reasons. “I was just fine until you touched me.”
“Sorry. I wanted to surprise you.”
“That you did.”
“What were you doing hanging over the edge like that?”
“Being nosy,” she admitted, pointing toward the street. “Someone’s car alarm was going off. Despite the relative warmth and safety she found in his arms, she released him and ventured toward the edge again. “Looks like it stopped. Hopefully the owner disengaged it and not some hoodlums. Speaking of hoodlums, how’d you get in? Did you pick the lock?”
“Didn’t have to. You left the door unlocked. This isn’t the worst neighborhood but it isn’t the best either. You should lock your door.” Looking a little nervous, he reached forward and pulled her away from the edge again. “Better stay back here until that banister gets fixed.”
&nb
sp; “I do lock my door…I mean I did. I’m positive…” she said as she followed him inside. As they walked toward the living room, she eyed the front door with suspicion. Had another wish come true? Had a little fairy flown from Neverland or somewhere and unlocked her door? “Not to be rude, but what’re you doing here anyway?”
“I’m not sure to be honest. I’m still trying to figure that out.”
“Did…you drive here?”
“Of course I did. My car’s down in the parking lot.”
She giggled at her own silliness. “Of course. It’s just that…well, I made another wish and I thought since you said you weren’t sure what you were doing here that you literally didn’t know what you were doing here… Does that make sense?” She knew she was blabbering, but the way he was looking at her, she either blabbered or she stopped breathing. She figured nonstop yammering had to be better than having her drop cold in a faint.
“You made a wish?” His expression intense, his gaze fixed to hers, he stepped closer. “What did you wish for?” he whispered.
The air crackled between them, like tiny sparks of electricity were leaping back and forth from her to him and him to her. The hairs on her arms stood up and a tingle tiptoed up her spine. “I wished…that you were here with me.”
“Why would you wish that?” he asked, taking another step closer.
“Isn’t it obvious?” she asked, gasping for a breath. Why wouldn’t her lungs work? And why was he torturing her like this? Maybe her wish had brought him here. She’d probably never know. But it wouldn’t keep him here. He was doing that on his own. What did he want? His gaze suggested something she wasn’t sure she dared believe. “What would you wish for if given the chance?”
“I don’t make wishes.”
Despite the sober tone of his voice, she didn’t believe him. Both this time and the last, he was too…defensive. “Never? You never wished for something? Not even as a little boy? You can tell me. I promise I won’t laugh.”
“There was one…” Although he didn’t move, he seemed to be withdrawing.
This was a moment she knew could change both their lives. “What? Please tell me. I want to know. I want to know everything about you, your weaknesses as well as your strengths. Your failures as well as your successes. Your fears and dreams and wishes.” Stepping forward, she touched his face, allowing her fingertip to trace the strong line of his jaw.
He visibly swallowed. “I wished my father would come home and stay home. That was the only thing I wished for and it never came true.”
She knew it had been difficult to share that, and knowing he’d trusted her enough to admit something so personal touched her deeply. Her heart broke for the boy he’d once been, craving the two things his father’s money couldn’t buy—time and love. At the same time, her heart soared. She had his trust. He’d admitted something to her he had probably never even admitted to himself. The problem was, she had no idea what to say.
“Silly, I know,” he said when she didn’t respond.
She gripped both his arms in her hands and squeezed. “Oh no, not at all. You were a child. You needed love and attention from your father. He was all you had left. I’m sorry he couldn’t give it to you. It’s the least a child deserves from their parents, the one thing so many children crave. Ironic, it’s free yet so often ignored.”
He nodded. “I won’t do that to my children.”
“I know how it feels. Although I didn’t go to foreign boarding schools or have jet-setting parents who shopped in Milan or Japan, I was alone too as a kid. I learned to be very self-sufficient and responsible.”
“You have to when you’re your own parent. So, are you the woman I met the night I had Monica’s car repossessed? Was that really you on my front porch?”
She nodded. “If you can get yourself to believe in something you probably consider impossible, you know the answer. I was the one in the hot tub, and at the dance club, and at the apple orchard…in the poison ivy. I was the one eating roast beef and ice cream and talking about family and marriage. Can you believe, Jason?”
He smiled, the expression warming her insides until she could do nothing but sigh. “I forgot to mention one other wish,” he confessed. “I wasn’t a little boy when I made this one.”
That was a surprise. Intrigued, she asked, “Are you going to tell me what it was?”
“You weren’t the only one making wishes the night of the meteor shower. I did too. I wished Monica would become the woman of my dreams.”
Not sure how to take that, she said, “Oh? So did your wish come true?”
“In a way. I had to see beyond her outward beauty to finally accept that she wasn’t the woman I could love. I was stuck in a rut, created by my own stubborn determination to make my relationship with Monica work even when I knew it wouldn’t. I had to experience Jane Brown to know what true love was like. I guess I had to learn to believe in the impossible.”
“Oh?” she squeaked. Did he just say her name and love in the same sentence? “But what about Monica?”
“We had a long talk about grandmothers and nursing homes, electricians, car payments. We settled a lot of things, stuff that should’ve been settled a long time ago. She’s one hundred percent with us on this. She wants us together. She believes we’re perfect for each other.” He gathered her into his arms and she sighed. This had to be a dream! Jason Foxx couldn’t have just told her he wanted to be with her!
“What do you believe?” she asked, tipped her chin up to look at his face.
“I believe…that wishes come true.” He lowered his head slowly and her breath caught in her throat as she closed her eyes and awaited his kiss.
She didn’t have long to wait. His lips moved slowly over hers in a kiss that curled her toes and sent all kinds of giddy, happy emotions exploding throughout her body. As his tongue dipped inside her mouth, she thought she just might die right on the spot from too much excitement. Surely her pulse had to be up in the stratosphere somewhere. Her brain couldn’t be getting adequate oxygen. That could be the only reason for her feeling as if she was floating… Breaking the kiss, she looked down and realized her legs were not under her.
Cradled in Jason’s arms, she lifted her hands to his face. Her fingertip traced the lips that had only seconds ago been doing the most amazing things to hers. She could imagine them doing amazing things to other parts. “This is happening so quickly.”
He stopped before the couch and slowly lowered her onto it. “I can stop at any time. Tell me you don’t love me as I love you. Tell me you haven’t been suffering the same frustrations I have whenever we’ve been together and I’ll leave right now.”
“I can’t. I never believed in love at first sight…until I saw you. Some people might think I’m crazy, but I know I love you. I…want you.”
His response was a crushing kiss that curled her toes and set her blood ablaze. It was as if all the pent-up passion inside him had broken free. Now, as Jane lay below him, it was pressing upon her in the form of a trembling, tense mass of all-male, all-sexy flesh. Anxious to feel all of his weight on top of her, Jane gripped his shirt in her fists and pulled him closer, closer, closer until his hips were nestled between her legs and his chest was grazing her breasts.
Their breaths mingled as their mouths joined, their tongues swirling and tasting in a wild dance. Jason’s hands slid up her hips and over her stomach before finding the swell of her breasts. They kneaded and caressed, pinched and squeezed, until Jane could do nothing but moan.
The sound of her voice echoed inside her own mouth.
Jason broke the kiss but didn’t stop his thorough exploration, beginning at the base of her jaw and working down. Between licks and nips, he murmured her name, repeating it over and over as if he couldn’t hear it often enough.
His hands slipped inside the deep V of her T-shirt and fingertips tiptoed down the crest between her breasts. Thanks to the fact that she was wearing no bra, her nipples were readily available and he
took advantage, tracing slow circles over first one then the other.
Jane couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so overcome by need and emotion and wanting and desperation. Every part of her trembled, from her feet to her eyelids, awaiting Jason’s very gentle, very thorough touch. And he clearly didn’t wish to disappoint. On his journey down her neck, he didn’t miss a fraction of an inch. When he sucked, she shivered. Goose bumps rose over her arms and chest. When his tongue swirled over her skin, leaving a path of cool, damp skin, she shuddered. Heat blazed through her body in waves, from the deepest parts of her body out to her fingertips and toes.
“I want to make love to you but I won’t if you want me to stop,” Jason said in a deep rumbly voice that made goose bumps rise up on top of goose bumps.
“Oh yes. Please do!” she said just before he scooped her up and carried her to the bedroom.
Chapter Eighteen
Undressing Jane was like unwrapping the most precious gift he’d ever received. Her wide-eyed gaze was focused on his face the entire time as he slowly removed first her oversized T-shirt and then her baggy sweatpants. Underneath the bulky, sloppy clothes, he found the most exquisite female body—soft, curvy, delicate. His need to have her burned so fiercely he feared he’d go too quick. This would be the first of a lifetime of nights spent lovemaking. He was determined to make it a night she’d remember forever.
He could tell already, as she looked up at him with round eyes and kiss-swollen lips, tonight would be the ultimate test of his self-control.
Keeping his clothes on would prevent things from escalating too quickly. He held himself over top of her with outstretched arms. His hips were strategically placed beside hers on the bed, rather than on top. If there was one thing he wouldn’t be able to endure it was another moment of that seductive grinding she’d performed in the living room.
Of course, her little moans and whimpers as he kissed her neck and shoulders were doing their damage to his fragile self-control. A powerful aphrodisiac, the sounds made blood rush straight to his groin. His erection was painfully engorged and his body demanded release, already.