Sinful Intentions

by Crystal Rhodes

  Sin answered a little too quickly. “All right, what about two weeks with no TV?”

  Nedra leveled him with a chastising glare. He knew good and well that except for cartoons, Gillian didn’t care much for television. Her brothers had taught her to read, and it was books that consumed her interest.

  “What?” Sin tried to look innocent as he avoided Nedra’s eyes. “I know that you don’t want to punish her by taking away her books. What kind of lesson would that be?”

  Nedra didn’t respond. The look on her face told him that he needed to come up with a better reprimand quick before she did.

  “All right, what about family hour? For two weeks she’ll have to go straight to her room right after dinner instead of joining us in the family room.” The look she gave him this time would have killed him dead if it had been a bullet.

  “I am not going to punish my baby by isolating her from the family, and you know it!” Nedra rolled her eyes at him and got up from the sofa. A tradition had been established in the Reasoner family in which after dinner, the family spent a minimum of two hours together no matter what was on everyone’s agenda. More often than not, they would put on their matching windbreaker jackets and take a walk on the beach.

  Sometimes they would gather in the family room and watch videos or play board games. At those times, Gillian would always take her place of honor on her father’s lap. This was a special time for all of them. The child would be devastated if she were excluded. Nedra knew that Sin was aware that she would never agree to punish their daughter in that way. She didn’t want to crush her spirit. She just wanted to abate the negative behavior.

  She glanced down at Sin sitting on the sofa looking smug. He wanted her to come up with a punishment so that he could get away clean, but she had a surprise for him.

  “I took Psychology 101 also, Mister. I’m sure we can come up with something together that we can both live with.”

  “Okay.” He sounded defeated. Looking past her, he thought of their child and what was important to her in her young life. He returned his attention to Nedra. “How about her trip to the amusement park with Sweet and his folks? Let’s tell her that she cango.” It hurt him to even say the words. This would break his baby’s heart, but his wife’s body language told him that he had to come up with something.

  “That’s more like it,” Nedra tossed over her shoulder as she moved away from him and toward the double doors leading to her spacious dressing room. She knew that the punishment would seem harsh to Gillian. She had been looking forward to going to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk with her best friend, Trent Plaine—whose nickname was Sweet. He was the son of a family friend who served on the board of directors of the foundation that Nedra administered. However, canceling the upcoming trip might get the point across that violence was not acceptable.

  Having reached the dressing room doors, she turned to see Sin’s morose expression. He hated punishing their children. They would be spoiled worse than they already were if it was left up to him. The responsibility of seeing that there was balance in their lives was up to her, and she resented it. She was always made to look like the villain, but at least he had come up with this solution, even if it was done reluctantly.

  Nedra started through the doorway into the dressing room, then, nonchalantly, turned back to Sin.

  “And by the way, Sharon is married. She’s Mrs. Winston Duncan now.” With that she closed the dressing room doors behind her, pleased by the look of shock on his face.

  Chapter 3

  Sharon lay curled up in bed, waiting to hear from her husband. He had promised that he would call her around midnight on her cell phone to tell her how much he loved and missed her. She knew he would. He was a man of his word.

  Winston Duncan encompassed everything she had ever wanted, ever dreamed of in a man—kindness, consideration and integrity. Looks had not been of any concern to her. She had been in love with a “pretty boy,” and it had garnered her nothing but disrespect. So she knew that the adage “beauty is as beauty does” was true. Yet, she had been doubly blessed. Not only did Winston possess all of the important internal qualities she had been seeking, but he was handsome as well. His honey-colored complexion was just a shade darker than her own. His dark brown hair was straight, with a slight wave and lightly sprinkled with gray. The square-jawed shape of his face reminded her of Jacob Belle and made him look stern, but his brown eyes were soft and caring, and when he looked at her they mirrored all of his feelings.

  She couldn’t believe her good fortune. Maybe it was hard for others to understand, but in two short weeks, she had fallen completely in love.

  She had been standing at the rail of the cruise ship when Winton’s deep, masculine voice caught her attention.

  “Excuse me, Miss, but I’d like to introduce myself.” He did so, and she told him her name. That night they had dinner together and afterward went dancing. They saw each other every day after that, attending ship functions and going sightseeing together whenever they docked. They spent every waking hour with each other, and on day ten of their fourteen-day cruise, they engaged in one night of incredible passion. It was after that Winston suggested that they make the arrangement permanent.

  “I’m not an impulsive man,” he explained as Sharon lay in his arms still reeling from the effects of their lovemaking. “Believe me, I don’t do much without putting a lot of thought into it, and I’ve thought about nothing else but us from the moment I saw you.” With Sharon still wrapped in his arms, he rose to lean against the headboard. “I’ve fallen so deeply in love with you that I can’t stand to live the rest of my life without you. I won’t do it. Marry me, Sharon, become my wife.”

  She had been so shocked that she couldn’t answer him at first. She thought that it was a joke, but his demeanor negated that notion. Winston was serious, and her heart told her that she was serious about him. She had fallen in love, and once she realized that, she didn’t hesitate. She said yes to his proposal.

  They left the ship in Acapulco where they were married. After spending their honeymoon in that beautiful city, they flew back to the United States to break the news of their marriage to their respective families.

  When Sharon made her shocking announcement, everyone’s reaction was predictable. Everything at the dinner table stopped. For what seemed like an eternity, no one spoke, and then Carla—as Sharon expected—was the first to break the silence.

  “What do you mean by you’re married?” She didn’t try to hide her astonishment.

  Sharon repeated her announcement, adding, “He’s a lawyer and lives in San Jose.” She turned to a stunned Nedra, who sat with her fork suspended in midair. “So I’ll still be able to take that job as Director of Social Services at the foundation. I’ll just be commuting.” The plan had been for her to stay with the Reasoners while she looked for an apartment on the Peninsula. Her things had been shipped from Oakland to Carmel and put in storage before she left on vacation.

  She waited for a reply from Nedra, but she still seemed too shocked to speak. Carla had no such problem.

  “You’re telling us that you went on vacation for two weeks and came back married to some stranger?”

  Sharon tried not to be offended by Carla’s accusatory tone. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. I met him on board the ship.”

  Nedra’s fork fell to her half-empty plate with a clang. It was then that Colin, in his wisdom, spoke up.

  “Come on kids. Let’s go for a walk on the beach.”

  The other children got the message, but Gillian protested. She didn’t want to miss one minute of what she knew would be an argument. Regardless of her objections, Colin gathered the children and left the dining room to the adults.

  Jacob tried to make his escape.

  “Hold up,” Carla said. “Your opinion is needed here.”

  “My opinion is not needed and it wasn’t asked for. Sharon says she’s married and that’s it.” He turned to the woman whom he thought of as
a sister. “All I can say is congratulations. I hope you’re happy and that your husband knows what a prize he has.” He kissed Sharon on the cheek and left the dining room under his wife’s angry glare.

  Sharon had been grateful for Jacob’s support. However, gaining that of her two sister friends had not been as easy. The ring of her cell phone interrupted her thoughts.

  “Hello,” she answered.

  “I love you.”

  Winston’s words brought her close to tears. “I love you, too,” she whispered. “Just as much.”

  She had never felt like this before. What she had felt for Carla’s older brother, Richard, had been more of an obsession. On the surface, he appeared to be everything a woman could want in a man. Other women envied her for having him. They didn’t know that he was a cheat and a liar who she allowed to abuse her psychologically, emotionally and physically. Her time with him had been one of the darkest periods in her life, but because of that experience, she had ascended into the light. She had healed in body, mind and spirit. She now demanded the best that life had to give her. The man on the other end of the telephone line was the very best.

  “I feel like driving to the Peninsula right now,” Winston declared in a tone that transmitted his need and desire for her. “If I hadn’t had to make this stop in San Jose, I would have come straight to Carmel from the airport. Nothing could have stopped me.”

  “But it was important to tell your daughter about us in person,” said Sharon, feeling that same need to be with him. “We’ll see each other in a few hours.”

  “I can’t wait.” They said simultaneously, and then laughed. It seemed lately that everything evoked laughter between them, no matter how silly or insignificant. The whole world was filled with laughter and sunshine since they had come into each other’s lives.

  Winston sat on his bed with his back propped against two pillows as he talked to his wife. The grin on his face just wouldn’t go away. He wanted to pinch himself. He actually felt giddy. How was this possible? He was a man in his forties with a twenty-four-year-old daughter and was way past the stage in his life when a woman made him feel tingly. Yet, it was happening. He was grinning, blushing, gushing—doing and saying things that he never thought were possible. He was head over heels in love, and it was a humbling experience.

  He had heard people talk about this kind of love. He had seen movies and hummed love songs about it, but he never really believed such a thing was possible. The words were written to sell products and not to record real-life experiences. He was wrong! Sharon was that love for him. She was every sunset and sunrise he’d ever seen. She was the sound of the rain replenishing the earth, a gentle breeze from the ocean on a hot summer day. She was the air he breathed.

  He wanted her from the moment he saw her leaning against the ship railing—her hair blowing in the wind—waving farewell to whom he later discovered was no one particular. Subtly, he had moved down the deck to stand beside her and say hello. When she turned those limpid gray eyes on him and smiled, he felt as though he had been hit by a battering ram. He had yet to recover.

  The practical side of him said that it was impossible to fall in love with a woman he didn’t know. The newly emerged impractical side of him said that it was already too late.

  “How did your daughter take the news?”

  The words brought him out of his musing. He tensed as he remembered Rhonda’s angry reaction.

  “She survived the shock.”

  “Is she happy for you?” Sharon sounded hopeful.

  “If I’m happy, she’s happy for me.”

  Sharon heard the reservation in his words, but chose to ignore it. “Well, I can’t wait to meet her.”

  “What about your friends? How did they take the news?”

  “Well, Carla was Carla.”

  You have got to be out of your mind!

  “And as always, Nedra was the reconciling minister.”

  I hope you know what you’re doing.

  “They’re looking forward to meeting you.” Actually, Carla had threatened to track him down if she didn’t get to meet him soon. “What time will you be here tomorrow?”

  Winston smiled. “As soon as the sun rises I’m leaving here to come for you.”

  His words wrapped around her heart. Sunrise couldn’t come soon enough.

  * * *

  It was six o’clock in the morning when Mrs. Lucia unlocked the front door of the Reasoner house. Disarming the alarm, she ambled toward the kitchen, planning her morning routine as she did so. She had just taken her sweater off when the front door chimes interrupted her train of thought. She scowled.

  “Who could that be this time in the morning?” she mumbled as she moved back through the spacious house to answer the door, but before she could reach it, a blur of silk and satin rushed past her.

  “It’s for me!” Sharon informed her breathlessly. Reaching the front door, she rubbed her sweaty palms against her robe, unlocked the door and swung it open. Winston stood on the other side.

  Confused, Mrs. Lucia watched as the couple stood for a second studying each other, and then, in the next instant, they embraced. She could feel the blush creeping upward as they engaged in a kiss so torrid that it caused her to raise a brow. Of course she knew Ms. Mays, but who was this stranger?

  They broke the kiss and the man swept Sharon up into his arms. She pointed the way to the guest bedroom in which she was staying and along the way made the introductions.

  “Mrs. Lucia, this is my husband, Winston Duncan. Winston, Mrs. Lucia.”

  Winston nodded politely in acknowledgement in passing as his eyes stayed glued on Sharon. Mrs. Lucia returned the nod as the couple disappeared around the corner toward their intended destination.

  * * *

  “Daddy! Daddy!” Gillian shot out of her seat, ran through the patio doors into the kitchen and leapt into her father’s outstretched arms. She was followed closely by Trevor and the twins. Before he knew it, Sin was engulfed in children—one in his arms, one wrapped around his waist and a twin attached to each leg. He laughed heartily, delighted at the assault of the little people.

  Gillian gave him a juicy kiss and leaned back in his arms. “Guess what, Daddy?”

  “What, baby?” He squeezed his precious girl to him affectionately as he returned her kiss, and then bent to kiss Trevor and the twins. Gillian palmed his face between her two small hands, assuring her of his full attention.

  “This big boy, he was messing with Trevor and I came to my brother’s defense. Aren’t you proud of me?”

  The well-rehearsed speech was delivered with a toothless grin, guaranteed to melt any heart. The twins added their support of her heroics with claps of approval and praise—“Way to go” and “Yeah, Gillian”—were tossed in for good measure.

  “His friend was holding me, Daddy, or I could have taken care of all of them.” Trevor added solemnly, “She’s a real hero.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Sin fought back the laughter as Gillian’s three cohorts shook their heads in mutual agreement.

  By this time, Jacob was hiding behind the morning paper shaking with laughter. Carla had joined him. Mrs. Lucia had given up her attempts not to laugh out loud and left the kitchen. Nedra was the only holdout, biting her bottom lip in her attempt not to be amused by the children’s effort to help Gillian. She spoke up.

  “Good morning, everyone.” The children answered her with a chorus of greetings. She turned to her precocious daughter. “So, Gillian, you’re a hero, huh?”

  The child turned her considerable charms on her mother and gave her a toothless grin as she bobbed her head up and down. “Uh huh, I defended my brother’s honor.”

  Nedra tried to ignore the guffaws coming from behind the newspaper that hid the faces of both Jacob and Carla. She continued. “I see, and what do the words defend and honor mean exactly?”

  The question was met with a wide-eyed look of surprise from Gillian and stunned silence from her small group of supporters. Four
pairs of eyes slid toward the patio where Colin was sitting. He seemed to have acquired a sudden interest in reading the back of a cereal box.

  Sin and Nedra exchanged knowing looks. Kissing his daughter’s soft cheek once again, he placed her on the floor. “We’ll talk about this later,” he assured her as he watched his two youngest children scurry back to the patio, followed by the faithful twins. Colin cut his eyes at his defeated troops as they took their seats. His look told them that this was the last time he would work with a bunch of amateurs.

  “Good morning, Colin,” Sin greeted his son cheerfully. The kid had been busted and he knew it. “Happy birthday.”

  “Hi, Dad, Mama. Thanks.” Colin returned the greeting, as the cereal box continued to hold his fascination.

  Sin and Nedra joined Carla and her husband in the breakfast nook. Jacob lowered the paper and smirked at Sin. “As an attorney, all I can say is that the strategy was ingenious—gather the forces, rehearse the lines, feed them to the most gullible target and use him to beat the wrap.” Jacob paused dramatically. “Sucker!”

  The entire table burst into laugher, including Nedra.

  “They tried hard,” said Sin. “I’ll give them credit for that. They know I’m the weakest link, that’s for sure.”

  “But Mama is on the case.” Nedra winked at Carla and Jacob. “If not, those kids would get away with murder. And don’t call my husband a sucker. He’s just a soft touch, that’s all.”

  “Jacob can’t talk. The twins have him wrapped around their grimy little fingers, but in Gillian’s case, you should give her a break. Like she said, all she did was try to stick up for her brother.” Carla speared a piece of fruit and popped it into her mouth.

  “So she’s lined up her aunts to help her get out of trouble, huh?” Nedra asked, raising a suspicious brow.

  “I don’t know about Sharon,” said Carla, “but I wasn’t approached as a potential ally. I simply figure the girl did right by her brother. And speaking of Sharon, where is she anyway?”