****
Brenda sat on the table, holding her bodice up under her arms as best she could because she couldn’t reach the back to zip her dress. Jay zipped his pants but left the wrinkled shirt tails out. His hair was sticking up in several spots from the work of her busy fingers.
He appeared totally unkempt, yet sexy and masculine at the same time. It almost pained her to look at him because she wanted him again with such an acute level of need.
Her eyes darted to, and then quickly away from, her thong crumpled against the baseboard in the corner. The spilled tea had sprayed the bottom of two of the cabinets, and shards of glass lay scattered across the tile.
Jay cleared his throat. “I—”
“Don’t say you’re sorry,” she said quickly. “Because I’m not.”
His eyes remained on her, contemplating, assessing. “How do you feel?”
She ducked her head and rearranged the skirt of her dress. “I’m not sure, but it was almost inevitable, don’t you think?” They no longer had the wherewithal to resist the potent attraction between them.
“Yes.”
She lifted her eyes. She wanted to see his expression when she said the next words. “You’re Jenna’s ex-husband.”
A muscle in his jaw flexed. “That should have been enough to stop me, but it didn’t.”
“It didn’t stop me, either.” She made a failed attempt at a smile. Instead, her upper lip trembled. “Obviously what we did was spur-of-the-moment.”
“Obviously.”
Brenda smoothed the wrinkles in her skirt, her eyes pinned to the plush fabric. “Staying away from each other hasn’t worked very well,” she said in a low voice. The rain was still coming down and the sounds created a solemn backdrop to her words.
He didn’t respond, and she looked up at him again. The determination in his eyes was a response even before he spoke. “I can’t stay away from you anymore.” His jaw tightened. “I can’t do another twelve years.” His voice lowered as he came nearer. His eyes transfixed her, and they were so close she felt his breath on her face when he spoke. “I can’t do another year. I can’t do another month, I can’t do another day without you.”
He kissed her again. Moist, soft kisses, and she kissed him back.
“Ho bisogno di te,” he said against her mouth, looking down at her through heavy-lidded eyes. “Ti desidero.”
Her top fell away and he lifted one hand to cup her naked breast. He dropped a kiss on the soft skin. Then he picked her up from the table with great care. She tightened her arms around his neck and stared into his grey eyes. The pupils were dilated and the irises dark and stormy with desire.
“Bedroom,” he said.
Brenda nodded. “Yes. Yes,” she said in a shaky, breathless whisper. She needed more of him, all of him, knowing that she’d never be satisfied with anything less.
He covered her mouth again and strode with her in his arms to the bedroom.
Chapter Sixteen
The kind of loving they’d shared made Jay not want to move, not want to do anything but stay wrapped around her, their naked bodies spooning. To just lay here and smell her and bask in the fact that she was finally his at last.
Dawn hadn’t broken yet, but it was coming soon enough, and he wondered how Brenda would react when she had to face what they’d done in the daylight.
In the room’s ambient light, he examined her in detail—what he’d wanted to do for years. He pulled gently at the curls at the back of her neck. Soft, like her skin.
His blunt fingertips traced the line of her spinal cord. The terrain of her back was a mixture of browns—deep amaretto at the top that faded to a patch of medium brown above her bottom.
Two flat moles on the right below her shoulder blade drew his lips. He pressed kisses there and let his tongue savor the salty goodness of her skin.
Brenda came awake with languid stretches. As she moved, his hand slid over her hip and down to her thigh. He felt himself getting hard at the prospect of early morning sex.
“Do you regret it?” he murmured into her neck.
She didn’t answer right away, and he thought she wouldn’t answer at all.
Then, quietly, “No.”
He breathed easier and contented himself with nibbling the shell of her ear.
“We have to tell Jenna, and we have to tell Nick.”
At the mention of Nick, Jay bristled, recalling how Nick had rubbed their night together in his face.
“Nick will be devastated,” she said.
Not that Jay gave a shit. “You’re exaggerating,” he said against her shoulder. He rubbed his hand over her soft belly. Now that he had permission to touch her at will, he might never stop.
Brenda looked back at him. “I’m not.”
She rolled over onto her back, offering him a nice view with the colorful sheet twisted around her waist. Her breasts weren’t particularly large, but they were lovely to look at. Brown and smooth, with large, almost black nipples jutting up at him because she was partially aroused. He didn’t think he’d ever seen her more appealing than in that moment. It was probably his male ego, but with the tousled hair and the passion mark on her neck, she looked like a woman who had been ravished all night. Mentally he patted himself on the back. He’d been the lucky bastard who’d had the good fortune to do the ravishing.
He kissed the tip of each breast.
“Jay.” A finger under his chin lifted his gaze to hers. Her voice had been firm, but she was smiling. “He’s always been a little jealous of you.”
She pulled the sheet up over her breasts and he dragged it back down.
He frowned. “Why do you say that?”
“Some comments he’s made a few times make me think so. I thought it was in the past, but I don’t think so anymore.”
“We’ve had friendly male competition, yes, but…it’s not what you’re suggesting. It’s a man thing.”
“No, it’s not.” He could see her wrestling with the decision to share more. She gnawed the corner of her mouth. “He thinks you’ve lived an easy, maybe even a charmed life, because of your family’s wealth and…you know, all the women you’ve slept with.”
He reared back on an elbow to get a good look at her. “Are you saying you don’t want to tell him? I want to continue seeing you, Brenda. You and only you.” He had to make that clear.
“In all the years I’ve known you, you’ve only been in one serious relationship, and that was with Jenna. I don’t have any expectations.” She swallowed, a clear indication that she said what she thought he wanted to hear.
“I do have expectations. You’re different. You’re the one I want,” he said. The Italian Stallion comments had gone unchecked for years, but none of those women held a candle to Brenda. For her, he was ready to burn his player card.
Doubt surfaced in her eyes, but she offered a timid smile. “Okay, we can see where this goes—for now. But let’s keep it between us first, okay? Everyone doesn’t have to know, and Nick doesn’t even live here. He’s in Chicago.”
“We have mutual friends,” Jay pointed out. “I’m not sneaking around like a criminal. We’re not doing anything wrong.”
“I’m asking for a little time so I can tell him in my own way.”
“We’ll tell him.”
“Okay.”
She didn’t look convinced, and he didn’t see the point in pushing. Their togetherness was too new.
He took her hand and kissed the knuckles. “This was unexpected for me, too. Us, everything. But we have nothing to feel guilty about. Okay?” He stroked her soft cheek.
“Okay.”
They would continue to see each other. Any other course of action didn’t make sense. Not when there was so much passion between them, and not when they knew each other so well.
They agreed Jenna would have to be told first, so even Sophie couldn’t know yet. Jay suggested they wait until after the boys’ birthday party in October. He wanted to tell his ex-wife in person, an
d he’d do it when he traveled to Bradenton.
“Now how about some morning sex,” he murmured.
She giggled and opened her legs to welcome him.
****
They spent the next couple of weeks before the trip getting the property in Grant Park ready for sale. Jay donated most of the furniture to charity but saved a few pieces for the house in Alpharetta. It was his year to have the boys for the holidays, and he planned to have the house decorated in time for Christmas. With the help of Brenda and an interior designer, he selected homey, comfortable furniture for the dining room and great room.
The designer found a bedroom set at a high-end store in Midtown that they both loved. With the three rooms he’d use most often ready, Jay moved into the new house.
The night before he went to Bradenton, he and Brenda were both at the house. Jay reclined on the sofa and Brenda prepped dinner in the kitchen. His house already felt like a home with her spending so much time there.
He watched her come into the room. She wore tight-fitting jeans and a green cashmere sweater. She’d been quiet ever since she arrived, and Jay knew she worried about the weekend’s outcome after he told Jenna about their relationship.
He opened his arms. “Come here.”
She came to him and settled against his chest. She fit perfectly against his ribs, like she’d belonged there all along. He brushed her bangs from her face and kissed her forehead. Gently, he rubbed her back. “It’ll be fine,” he said.
“I’m glad you think so. After everything Jenna’s done for me…”
“You don’t owe her for the rest of your life,” he chided.
“She spoke to her father on my behalf, and he opened doors for me. I wouldn’t have this job today if it weren’t for the doors he opened. No one would have hired me as an assistant editor straight out of college. I had no experience.”
“Her father may have arranged an interview at the magazine in Chicago, but you impressed them in the interview. That’s why they hired you. And now you’re the entertainment editor for the ER. That’s all you—earned on your own merits.”
“Yeah.” She didn’t sound convinced.
He knew she had other concerns. Mostly that somehow her behavior would be seen as improper, similar to the way her mother often behaved.
“What’s the alternative?” he asked gently, stroking her hair. “That we sneak around? Or would you prefer that we stay away from each other for another twelve years? I don’t know about you, but I can’t live in that kind of torture again. Certainly not now. Not when I know what true happiness is.”
She lifted her head, and her expression softened. “You’re right, of course. Now that I know real happiness, I don’t want anything less, either.” She touched his cheek. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come, too?”
“I think having you there would make the situation worst. She’d think you were coming there to spend time with her, and then we’d blindside her with our relationship. It’s better this way.”
She nodded and looked thoughtful for a while. “Have you heard from Nick?”
“No, have you?”
“Once. He admitted he told you about the night in Italy and apologized. We only talked for a few minutes, and I haven’t heard from him since then.”
She rested her head on his chest again.
Nick would be next on the list, but for now, Jay wouldn’t worry about him.
Chapter Seventeen
“Thank you.”
Jay took the keys from the rental car agent at the Bradenton airport and found the Chrysler SUV in the parking lot. After stowing his bag and the gifts in the vehicle, he drove to the Holiday Inn where he’d stay for the next two days. It was several steps down from his usual travel accommodations but located close to his ex-wife’s home.
Jenna had grown up in Bradenton, a small city south of Tampa. During their relationship, whenever they’d had problems, she returned to this familiar territory where she had family and a small pocket of friends.
He called her from the hotel.
“Hi, Jay.” She already sounded tired from the amount of preparation involved with the boys’ celebration.
“I’m here,” Jay said, dropping his bag on the end of the bed. “The boys around?”
She called his sons and they came on the phone with excited voices. “Hey, Dad! You coming soon?” Marco asked.
“Where are you?” Arturo added.
Jay grinned, looking forward to the coming celebration and spending the next couple of days with his sons. “I’m at the hotel in Bradenton. I’ll be there in a little bit,” he promised.
Their excitement made him excited, too. He never took the bond with his sons for granted.
His marriage to Jenna may not have lasted, but he gave her credit for being an excellent mother. She seldom asked for anything and kept the boys grounded. The house he’d bought for them was a modest four-bedroom in a quiet neighborhood of middle-class residents, much lower on the economic scale than he could afford. But with the beach a short bike ride away and cousins aplenty in the same city, the boys always appeared happy, and for that he was grateful. He hoped when they moved to Atlanta they’d be equally content.
Less than an hour later, Jay parked on the street outside the nondescript-looking brick ranch. He stepped out of the car and surveyed the property. A big “Happy Birthday” sign adorned the door, and colorful balloons framed the top and sides. Before he even made it up the walkway, the door flew open and Arturo yelled over his shoulder, “He’s here!” before bolting across the lawn. Marco came rushing out behind him, and soon he was almost knocked to the ground as both boys flung their arms around him.
“Happy birthday, boys,” Jay said, grinning and wrapping his arms around their smaller bodies. He dropped kisses on top of their heads and patted their backs. “You having a good one so far?”
“Better now you’re here,” Marco said, looking up at him with a toothy grin.
Jay ruffled his blonde hair. “I’m better now that I’m here, too.” The hardest part of the divorce had been the lack of daily contact with his children. Summers and holidays were insufficient, and their Alpharetta move-in date couldn’t come fast enough. “Help me get your gifts from the car.”
The boys raced toward the rental—always running, those two—and retrieved the boxes from the back seat. Then the three of them walked to the front door, and he listened as they recounted their adventures for the day with their cousins, who had already arrived.
The birthday party attendees included the boys, Jenna, her widower brother and his three young children, Jenna’s mother Martha, and friends of the boys’. Their friends weren’t due for another hour, but the festive decorations were already on full display.
Streamers covered the entrance into the dining room, decorated with more balloons and party favors in blue, green, and white. Leading to the backdoor was a stockpile of neon water guns that glowed in the dark, for the nighttime “war” the boys had planned later.
“Dad, want to play the game with us?” Arturo asked. Their three cousins were sprawled on the floor in front of the television. On the screen, animated military figures crawled through the jungle with bullets flying overhead.
“Maybe later. I’m going to find your mother.”
“She’s in the kitchen with grandma,” Marco said, plopping down on the carpet.
The smell of food guided him toward the kitchen. Jenna had learned to cook authentic Italian meals, and his mother had even shared a few recipes with her. He already knew today’s menu: spaghetti and meatballs and shrimp alfredo, with heaping salads and plenty of artisan bread. If they were lucky, which he was certain they were, his former mother-in-law had baked a 7-up cake to go with the gelato Jenna had bought.
Almost to the kitchen, Jay ran into Dale and pulled up short. His presence at the party came as a surprise. Right away, he remembered him from their wedding.
He extended his hand and Dale took it. “How’s it going?”
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Dale’s hand grasped his. Clammy, probably from nerves.
Jay sized him up. He was shorter by a few inches and stocky. He’d aged somewhat, but they all had.
“Good to see you again,” Dale said. He laughed, a nervous titter that manifested as a grimace.
To put him at ease, Jay fixed his face into an easygoing smile. This wasn’t a pissing contest, at least as far as he was concerned. “Good to see you. It’s been a long time.”
“Sure has.” Dale rubbed his hands together and took a deep breath. “Listen, I wondered if we could talk privately for a few minutes. Man to man.”
“Sure.” Jay found the words man to man a little amusing, but he respected the guy for getting straight to the point. He followed Dale out to the back porch.
Dale ran his fingers through his blonde hair and smiled a little uneasily. “Look, I wanted you to know that I have no intention of trying to get in between you and the boys. I’ve known Jenna for a long time, but we’ve only recently become close. I’m divorced, too, and have kids of my own. I know how difficult things can get with someone else in the picture and trying to blend families and all the awkwardness that comes with that entire process. You’re their father, and I’m not interested in causing any problems.”
Jay raised his brows at Dale’s forthrightness, and the other man laughed.
“I wanted to get that out of the way so we could all relax,” Dale said. “You and Jenna have been divorced for a long time, and she assures me there’s nothing else between you.” Although it was a statement, the declaration sounded more like a question at the end.
“That’s right,” Jay confirmed. “There’s nothing else between us.” He had his eyes focused elsewhere.
Dale visibly relaxed and broke into a full grin. “I hope we can be friends,” he said, extending his hand.
Jay shook it heartily. This time, the clamminess was gone. “Absolutely. I want what you want. For us to get along.”
They went back inside and Dale sought out Jenna’s brother in the living room where a football game played, and Jay continued to the kitchen. He’d say hello, get a snack, and join the men watching the game.
An Unexpected Attraction (Love Unexpected Book 3) Page 13