“Not something, sweetheart. You’ve seduced me so effectively, that as far as I’m concerned, you can have any or all of my possessions. They don’t matter. Tomorrow I’ll give you a list of every bank account I have if you wish.”
“Then what are we talking about, Jason? I’m not a mindreader. Apparently, there’s something still between us that we need to talk about.”
“Correction. Someone. David, to be more precise.”
“David?”
“That’s right,” he taunted. “Tell me, Morgan, does it make you feel good to be sleeping with two brothers. Is it some kind of kinky turn-on for you?”
She paled. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jason.”
“Don’t play the innocent with me,” Jason growled. “You forget. I’ve been to bed with you, Morgan. I know there’s nothing of the innocent in you.”
“I still don’t understand.” A hint of anger rose in Morgan’s voice. “If you’re talking about the uninhibited way I make love with you … that’s only with you. There’s no one else. I love you, Jason, only you.”
Jason walked over to her, grasping her by the shoulders and lifting her to him. Low and husky came his reply. “Oh, you don’t have to worry. The fact that you’ve been my brother’s lover doesn’t matter anymore. It can’t. I want you too badly, and, to my own great peril, I have found that I can’t possibly live without you.”
“J-Jason—”
“You can relax. You’ve won. But,” he warned harshly, “there’ll be no more David. That has to be understood … by both of you. It won’t be an ideal family unit, of course, but then very little in life is ever as perfect as we would wish.”
Morgan broke away from Jason’s hold, moving a little ways away and rubbing her skin where his bruising hold had gripped her. “Let me get this perfectly straight.” An awful calm had settled within her. No more panic. No more desperation. After all these weeks, she finally understood.
“You think that David and I have been lovers, that I lied to you when I told you—both in spoken words and the ones written in my letter—that there was nothing serious between David and me. And further you think that once I found out David was your brother, I slept with you just for the kick of sleeping with two brothers.” Morgan paused and drew a deep breath. “Does that about sum it up, Jason?”
His stony expression had changed imperceptibly, but he still nodded his agreement.
“I see.” Morgan escaped the room as quickly as she could. Sitting on Jason’s bed, she held the towel tightly to her, trying to instill strength into her wobbling limbs.
Her mind cast backward over the past few months, trying to reason out why Jason had received the impression he had. She kept coming back to the same thing, though. He couldn’t have jumped to that conclusion—not on his own. It was impossible. He must have had what he considered indisputable proof. But what?
David. David must have said something … in some unknowing way suggested … But how? Again, her mind replayed the events of the last few months, the months before she had flown to Martinique and met Jason.
Her thoughts halted. New York. David had gone to New York with her and they had stayed in the same hotel. David must have mentioned the trip to Jason and he had taken it for granted that she and David had slept together. It was the only answer that made any sense.
How could Jason even think such a thing of her? She felt like crying.
Instead, she picked up the phone and punched out Jerome’s number. He answered and she was exceedingly glad to hear a friendly, uncomplicated voice.
“Jerome? How long will it take you to come pick me up?”
He must have heard the quavering note in her voice, because he didn’t ask any unnecessary questions. “Where are you?”
“Jason’s.”
“I can be there in fifteen minutes.”
“Great. Make it ten and I’ll be down in front of his building waiting for you.”
“Morgan … are you all right?”
“No, Jerome, I’m not.”
Shedding the towel, Morgan found her coat in an untidy heap on a chair and put it on. It was the only thing she had in the way of clothes.
Moving slowly back out into the living room, Morgan ran shaking fingers through her hair, fanning the ash-blond strands over her shoulders. Jason was still there, standing where she had left him.
Mentally squaring her shoulders, Morgan said, “I’m going to tell you the facts one more time, Jason. So listen well, because after this, it will be up to you. The truth of the matter is that David and I were never lovers. It is true that David believed he was serious about me, but I never, in any way, encouraged him—and I think that when David gets back from wherever it is that you’ve sent him, he’ll confirm it.
“I’ve tried to figure out how in the world you got the idea that David and I were lovers, and since you assure me that your brother doesn’t lie, I can come up with only one thing. The last time I had to go to New York on a buying trip, David insisted, since he also had to go there on business, that we might as well go together. He felt that if we stayed at the same hotel, we would be able to dine together each evening. However, we stayed ten floors apart, and at no time did we sleep together.
“My only sin, as I see it, was being too soft with David, and of that I plead guilty. By trying so hard not to hurt his feelings, by thinking that given enough time, David’s crush on me would pass, I ended up causing myself more grief than I ever thought possible. Then, again,” she added cynically, “I never expected to fall in love with a man as untrusting as you.”
Morgan started toward the door, but then stopped and turned back. Jason’s eyes were on her and there was a curious look of grief on his face.
Unlike the evening before, Morgan could summon no sympathy for him. “And there’s one more thing you need to know. I’d get down on my knees if it would help, Jason. I love you that much. But I can’t force you to believe me and I’m sick and tired of playing games. I won’t be bothering you again.” She gave a sad little laugh. “It seems you weren’t the man I thought you were after all.”
Chapter Ten
Jerome was waiting for her, the car idling at the curb. “Drive,” Morgan commanded, “and don’t stop until I say.”
Jerome took one look at her tear-stained face and did as she said. Speaking only of the unimportant matters that truly good friends manage to talk about in times of trouble, yet, at the same time, convey their complete support for the other, Morgan and Jerome covered all the trivia bases, from baseball and football to the weather and the shop. A couple of hours later, Morgan realized they must have driven the route around the city more than once.
“I think I’m ready to go home now. Besides, I imagine we’re just about out of gas, aren’t we?”
“We ran out of gas a few miles back.” Jerome grinned, unperturbed.
“Wonderful. Should I start worrying?”
“Nope. I’ve got this car on a rigid schedule. It’s trained to go from paycheck to paycheck without a fillup. It can even run on fumes if necessary.”
“That’s great, but your car’s schedule probably doesn’t include a marathon drive around the city. I’ve been so involved with Jason that I’ve forgotten when your next paycheck is, but I hope it’s soon because I don’t think we’re going to make it.”
In the end, Sami had to come pick them up in her vintage MG roadster. Because the car’s top didn’t work, Sami could only take it out when it wasn’t snowing or raining. Ordinary frigid Minnesota winter weather had never been known to stop her, though.
Tucking a heavy blanket around Morgan, just as if she were a patient in shock and had to be kept warm, Sami scolded. “I’ve been out of my mind with worry, Morgan. First you didn’t come home last night, which was really okay because I knew who you were with, and then Jerome goes to pick you up and the two of you disappear for hours. And anyway, why didn’t you call me to pick you up?”
“Because you never answer your p
hone.”
“That’s no excuse! You knew I’d be waiting to hear all about your date.”
“I think we need to look into a system of carrier pigeons,” Morgan proposed dryly.
“Pigeons I could relate to—telephones, on the other hand, are such cold, impersonal instruments.”
Morgan grinned. “As for my date, like the ABC sports announcer says, it was ‘the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat.’”
“What? There’s something wrong with your feet?” Sami didn’t watch television.
“Not my feet … my heart. I’ve told Jason that he won’t be seeing me again, and I meant it. The only problem is that I still love the rat.”
“That may not be such a problem.” Sami beamed. “Jason’s been pacing the floor of your apartment for a couple of hours now.”
Morgan looked at Sami. “Are you serious?”
“Never more so. And believe it or not, he looks worse than you do. That must have been some night the two of you had.”
“More like the morning,” Morgan mumbled.
#
She opened the door of her apartment with mixed feelings. Tired of trying to second-guess Jason, she was at the point where she wanted things between them settled one way or the other. She was exhausted and feeling hurt beyond belief.
He stood by the window. Sami had been right. He didn’t look well.
“Morgan! Where have you been? I’ve been so worried.”
As she closed the door her answer came out with an amount of pain that surprised even her. “What’s the matter, Jason? Were you afraid I had decided to take my life over you? You needn’t have worried, although I might have thought about killing you on occasion.”
“Morgan.” He crossed the room to take her hands in his. “We need to talk.”
“That plea sounds vaguely familiar. I wonder where I could have heard it?” She withdrew her hands from his. “At any rate, I’m not doing a thing until I get out of this coat and into some clothes. I seem to have lost my dress.”
Once again, Jason surprised her by blushing. “I’m sorry about that.”
She looked at him dispassionately. “I don’t seem to be the only one with a bag full of tricks. That blush of yours is very disarming.”
“I don’t do it on purpose, Morgan!”
“It doesn’t matter,” she murmured. Men! When you came right down to it, were they anything more than big babies? Right now she was in no mood to make allowances. “Make yourself at home. I’ll be back in a minute.”
In her room, she donned a pair of navy trousers and a pastel blue-green silk blouse. Taking the time to comb out the tangles that the winter wind had whipped into her hair, she also applied a softly tinted gloss to her lips.
Returning to her living room, she found Jason still standing, looking satisfyingly uncomfortable. Choosing her most comfortable chair, she sank onto its thick pillowed upholstery. “Okay, Jason. You’ve got the floor.”
There was a surprising uncertainty to his stance and a vaguely hesitant quality to his words. “I’m not sure if you’ll ever be able to forgive me, Morgan, but I know now that I’ve been wrong, terribly wrong.”
She returned his gaze levelly. “That’s very interesting, Jason. It’s taken you long enough to come to that conclusion. What’s changed?” She had to make sure of what he was saying and why.
A rueful smile twisted his mouth. “Everything. My mind, my heart, the whole way I look at life and how I want to live it.”
She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“I know. Just listen. Please.” He held up his hand. “Morgan, I fell in love with you so quickly and so easily, that maybe subconsciously I didn’t really trust what had happened to us. It all seemed so simple. Yet I had never known such happiness. I felt as if I could have flown back to St. Paul without a plane.
Her heart was pounding hard. She had fought for him so hard, and it seemed for so long.
“But when I got home and David started telling me all about this wonderful girl he was in love with and was going to marry, I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t completely until you walked in his office door and he took you in his arms. And unfortunately, he had already mentioned the New York trip. Probably the only reason I hadn’t heard about you before was because he and I had been going in different directions for the last few months, and when we did get together, we only had time for business.
“When he finally did tell me, I’m afraid blind jealousy took over my common sense, coupled with a sincere worry about David. I told you, I’ve felt a responsibility toward him for a long time now, and we’re very close.”
“Poor baby. You were so crushed about me that you immediately made a date with Melinda whats-her-name.”
“Melinda Johnson is a very nice lady and an old friend of the family.”
“She didn’t look that old to me,” Morgan observed spitefully.
“Ah-ha!” Jason pounced. “So you were jealous, too.”
Squirming in her chair, Morgan hedged, “Not really. She just didn’t seem to be your type, that’s all.”
His eyebrows quirked. “My type being?”
“Me.”
Jason’s voice softened. “Morgan, she’s in love with David and has been for a long time. I was simply trying to comfort her because she had found out that David had gone away and why.”
“And did you? Comfort her, that is?”
“I told her where to find David. I’m sure by now that Melinda has been able to console David and he’s realized that it’s been her all along that he really loves. I expect we’ll be receiving some happy news from them soon.”
“I’m just a sucker for happy endings.”
Ignoring her sarcastically mumbled sentence, Jason lifted her from the chair and into his arms. “Well, then, have I got a happy ending for you.”
His kisses covered her face and lips, and when at last he drew away, both of them were left breathless.
Morgan pulled back. “You haven’t told me why you’ve decided you believe me. You do believe me now, don’t you?”
Not letting her escape his hold altogether, he answered, “I believe you. Deep down, I think I’ve always known there had to be a logical reason why your story and David’s story didn’t match. But there were so many emotions and conflicts fighting inside me: My love for David, my jealousy of David, my fury that you might have lied to me, my grief that I couldn’t have you—but most of all, my love for you.
“You kept telling me to remember. The problem was I couldn’t forget. And in saner moments, I was already beginning to doubt my judgment. There’s a startling purity and innocence that shone out of you, Morgan, even when you were doing all the perfectly outrageous things that you were doing.
“I knew the minute you walked out the door this morning that you weren’t lying. The only reason I didn’t fully realize it before was that I was a blind fool.”
She gave him a half-smile. “I’m not about to argue with that.”
“I love you, Morgan. There were times when I thought I wouldn’t survive being apart from you, and of course, your aggressively feminine seduction of me didn’t help matters any.”
“You deserved it,” she told him righteously.
“Maybe,” he replied, amused. “At any rate, there’ll be no more resistance on my part. Seduce away.”
“Gosh” —Morgan was picking at a button on his shirt— “that will sort of take the fun out of it.”
“Want to bet?” he teased, then returned to a serious tone. “Please forgive me, Morgan. If you will, I promise I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
“Wellll …”
“I know a perfect place for a honeymoon,” he prompted.
“I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it. I’ve sort of become partial to one particular Caribbean island.” Morgan’s blue-green eyes glittered with love.
“Funny. That’s just what I was thinking. Does that mean you’ll marry me?”
&nb
sp; “Why of course, Jason,” Morgan replied meekly, “if you insist.”
#
Martinique enjoyed a beautiful spring that year, and Morgan and Jason spent their honeymoon in a cottage on the Frontenac Plantation. And if Roger and Serge thought it was strange that their two favorite guests didn’t emerge from their cottage for long periods at a time, they didn’t say a word.
The End
Fayrene Preston Ebooks Now Available:
Originally published by Loveswept
The Seduction of Jason
For the Love of Sami
Mysterious
Silver Miracles
www.FayrenePreston.com
…
Another hot story from Fayrene Preston …
An excerpt from
For the Love of Sami
#
“Lady, do you really want to wear a dead animal around your shoulders?”
Lying on her back as she was, blocking the front door of the exclusive St. Paul furriers, Sami Adkinson had an exceptional view of the woman to whom she was speaking. However, the woman, amply proportioned to the extent that she could barely see her own feet, hadn’t noticed Sami.
She stepped back, startled. “I beg your pardon!”
Sami raised herself on her elbows, and her long, honey-colored hair trailed to the hot sidewalk beneath her. “Did you know that the owner of this store is associated with a chain of international furriers who actually condone the killing of baby seals so they can sell their pelts?”
“My dear young lady,” the woman intoned righteously, “I don’t see what that has to do with me. I assure you I would never buy the furs of any animals that are on the endangered-species list.”
Sami sat up. Her great golden eyes were framed by a double thickness of dark brown lashes. “Don’t you see? It’s a matter of principle. People should boycott this man’s store until he agrees to disassociate himself from those terrible people. We’ve all got to try to help stop the senseless killings of those defenseless animals.”
The Seduction of Jason Page 14