A Scandal So Sweet

Nine

Summer Wallace Steps Out With Billionaire Zach Torr!

“What the hell do you think you’re doin’, boy?”

Nick slapped a newspaper with the two-inch headline onto Zach’s desk, covering the blueprint he’d been studying.

When Zach looked up, Nick began to read him the article in a low, sarcastic voice.

“It seems the thirty-one-year-old actress known for her light comedy roles has revamped herself. Shortly after pirated film clips from Dangerous Man exploded all over the internet, Wallace was seen on Torr’s arm at the ground-breaking ceremony for his new casino. The couple has a scandalous history. She once charged Torr with-”

“What is this? Read-aloud time?”

Zach wadded the paper and pitched it into the trash. “I’ve seen it already. Read it already.”

And he’d been sickened to have the most beautiful thing in his life described in such cheap terms.

“You said you saw her again for the publicity, yes? Was her two-day sleepover a publicity stunt, as well?”

“That’s my business, and hers-not yours! And certainly not the damn newspapers’!”

“Then date another woman.”

Zach’s voice was meticulously polite. “Look, I intend to. In the future. Right now…I’ll be seeing more of Summer.”

No way in hell could he give her up now.

“Tell me you’ve got more sense than to start up with her again. You know as well as I do that she’s a liar to the core of her rotten soul, yes? You had to sneak around with her in high school because her step-daddy thought you was trash. Then look what they done to you, those high-and-mighty folks, first chance that they got.”

Zach remembered too well. He still wasn’t sure about what had been real back then between him and Summer. Hell, he wasn’t sure what was real now. But he wanted to find out.

“People don’t change, boy. She’s probably stepped on a lot more folks to get where she is. You gonna end this or not?”

Or not.

Since he couldn’t reassure Nick, Zach fixed his gaze on the blueprint. The tension between them built until Martin knocked on the door of the trailer.

“Pete’s here,” Martin said. “He thinks he sees a way to get what you want done and not go over budget.”

“Great.” Zach turned on Nick. “I’m busy as hell. I’ve got things to do here. The costs on a project in Houston are going through the roof, so I’ve got to fly home ASAP. You and I-we’ll catch up later, okay?”

“I’m not finished here, no. That little gal proved what she was fifteen years ago, yes. All that she ever worries about is what’s good for her. She don’t care about you. She never did. She never will.”

Flushing with dark embarrassment to have interrupted his boss’s personal conversation, Martin backed out of the trailer.

Zach’s face grew stony. “Look, Nick, I’ve dated a lot of women since Summer. Can’t a guy fool around?”

“Not with her, you can’t, no. You’re not just playing with fire. She’s nuclear.”

Zach clenched his fist around his pencil, letting go of it right before it snapped. “You’re right. You’re right.”

“Which is why you’re madder than hell, yes.”

“Stay out of this, Nick.”

Grabbing the blueprint, Zach stormed past Nick and out of the trailer.

“No! No! No! Earth to Miss Wallace!” Paulo, Summer’s stage director, was bouncing up and down as he bounded toward her, his face purple.

“You still haven’t got it! Quit thinking about your personal love triangle and listen to me!”

Summer blinked first. Then she blushed. She was sick of the ceaseless teasing she’d had to endure due to all the news stories.

“Sorry.” Rubbing her forehead, she fought to concentrate on what Paulo was saying.

Paolo was actually a very insightful, inspiring director, one of the rare ones who really understood actors. Still, it wasn’t easy for her to take direction. She was too worried about her fragile new start with Zach and about how she would tell him about the baby. She was concerned about how all the media attention impacted him, as well. Again, the sex had been glorious. Again, she’d felt she’d shared everything with him in bed. But once they’d separated and the stories about them had hit full force, he’d erected the old walls between them. So, she was no closer to feeling the time had come for her to confide in him.

He’d called her once, texted her twice. All three times her heart had leaped with joy. Even as his husky, but oh-so-controlled tone had made her remember all the thrilling things they’d done to each other-against the wall, on the floor, in the bed, on the chair-she’d sensed his emotional withdrawal.

In Bonne Terre, after their night together, she’d felt so close to Zach. He’d seemed easy, open. But now he was unreachable. Really, she couldn’t blame him. He wasn’t used to life in a fishbowl. He’d said he’d hated the stories that had linked them for years.

Rehearsals were difficult during the best of times and trying to give birth to a character could be exhausting. Summer’s head, back and feet ached from the effort. Distracted by Zach and the media storm, she’d found the rehearsals this week to be sheer torture.

She would think about him and break character, lose her bearing. Another actor would say a line, and she would just stare at them, lost. The entire cast was out of patience with her, as she was with herself.

She needed to get a grip before she sabotaged the show completely. At night, when she was alone in her apartment eating takeout, her obsession was worse.

She would try to imagine living with Zach as an ordinary couple in a house with a garden and a picket fence, try to envision holidays with Gram and Tuck, dinners with friends, shared vacations, dark-haired children that looked just like Zach.

But, always, her vision would pop like a bubble as an inner voice taunted her.

Zach has his life and you have yours. You’re still keeping your secrets. He values his privacy, and you can never have total privacy. So-just enjoy what you have now.

An affair such as theirs couldn’t last long, not with her secret eating at her and the world interfering and them living so far apart, not with each of them working at all-consuming careers. Added to those obstacles, there would be no way for her to leave New York on the weekends once her show started.

She thought of Gram, who was always pressuring Summer to marry and have children, who now called constantly to express her pleasure at Zach’s renewed visitations and to express her concerns about how their story was playing out in the media and around Bonne Terre.

“You are running out of time for children,” she would say. “He isn’t.”

“Gram, please…don’t!”

Gram’s advice added unbearable pressure to Summer’s already fragile situation.

Until Zach, Summer had focused only on her career. Now when she thought of the possibility of little darlings and a more private life, she felt an eager wistfulness.

What if Zach wanted children but saw her career and all that went with it as obstacles too large to surmount? Since he was a man, he could simply enjoy her for as long as it was convenient and then move on. He could choose a woman young enough to bear his children.

An urge to see him again and to make love to him-to claim him in all the imaginative ways he’d taught her-filled her.

By Thursday night, when he hadn’t called her again, she finally weakened and picked up the phone.

“I’ve missed you,” she whispered the minute he answered, fighting to keep the tension out of her voice.

Oh, why did I say that of all things?

“I missed you, too,” he admitted, his tone polite.

“I’m sorry about all the press coverage.”

He said nothing.

“I saw where you were besieged in your Houston office.”

“I didn’t realize you were so famous.” He didn’t sound happy about it.

“Hey, you’re the handsome billionaire. I think your money and your looks are as big a draw as I am. It’s a huge part of the fantasy reporters are trying to sell.”

“Oh, so now it’s my fault, too,” he mused, but his voice had warmed ever so slightly. “When I couldn’t get into my building downtown for all the reporters, I wondered why the hell I’d ever gotten myself into this mess. It seems so cheap…what they write about us. Maybe we should take a break until all the fuss dies down.”

When he fell silent after dropping that bomb, her breath caught painfully. For a long second, the wound from his words seemed too hurtful to bear.

“Zach, I…I hope you don’t really want that. I know the press is a major hassle right now, and I’m truly sorry. But once my show starts, I’ll be too swamped to travel. You’ll get busy with other projects, too… And then we’ll…drift apart…” Her voice cracked on a forlorn note.

“I’ve lived in the spotlight for years. It won’t always shine this brightly or be this invasive. I swear.”

“That’s reassuring,” he said in a smart-aleck tone that somehow cheered her.

“My PR people spend a lot of time manipulating my brand. It’s all so false. The person you read about in those stories is not me. It’s this pubic person, the actress. The real me often feels lost in all the hubbub.

“But there is a difference. Last weekend, after the ground-breaking, was wonderful and true. I’ve never been happier in my whole life.”

“Me, too,” he admitted slowly.

“So, will you give us another chance?”

“Sweetheart, who am I kidding? Don’t you know by now, that no matter how much I hate the press, I’d go crazy if I didn’t see you again-and very, very soon. I need you, even though I hate needing you. But that doesn’t kill the need. It’s fierce, unquenchable.”

She drew in a long, relieved breath because she felt the same way.

“I’m new to this, too,” she whispered. “I haven’t dated anyone outside the business before. Maybe we should only worry about how we are together…so that those on the outside don’t matter quite so much. What we have shouldn’t be about them or what they think. It should be about us. I want this piece of my life to belong to me and to you and to nobody else.”

He was silent for a long time. “We do live in the real world, you know, an intrusive world.”

A world that would devour them all over again if it learned all their secrets.

“I know. But I want to try to keep our relationship a personal matter. There are things I need to share with you… Personal things I’ve been afraid to share…”

“You sound very mysterious all of a sudden.”

“I can’t talk about it over the phone. So, about tomorrow… Do we still have a date?”

When he hesitated for a heartbeat, he put her in an agony of suspense.

“I can’t wait,” he admitted in that low, husky tone she loved.

Friday afternoon came at last, and she rushed to LaGuardia in a chauffeured car with a single bag. Hours later, when his jet set her down on a deserted airstrip several miles from the one Bob usually used outside Bonne Terre, she saw him-and no press-waiting beside his Mercedes at the edge of the dark woods. A wild joy pierced her.

Stepping off the plane, she told herself to play it cool. But at the bottom of the stairway, she cried his name and flew into his arms.

“I missed you so much,” she admitted ruefully as she flung her arms around his neck.

He pulled her to him, folded her close.

“You smell so good,” she whispered.

He slanted a look down at her and smiled. “So do you.”

Feeling the fierce need to taste him, she pulled his mouth down to hers. Then he kissed her with a wonderful wild hunger that turned her blood to fire, the ferocity in him matching her own. Suddenly, it didn’t matter that he’d barely contacted her last week or that he’d had so many doubts about their very public relationship. Even the unbearable weight of her secret felt a tiny bit lighter on her heart. There was truth in his kiss, in his touch, a truth he couldn’t hide.

“I brought you something.”

Soft white flashed in the darkness as he handed her a bouquet of daisies.

“They’re gorgeous.” She jammed her nose into the middle of their petals and inhaled their sweetness. “Simply gorgeous. I love them.”

“It’s a cliché gift.”

“I don’t care.”

“You’ve got gold dust all over your nose now.”

“Pollen, they call it,” she whispered as she dabbed at her nose and giggled. “All gone?”

“Not quite.” He dusted the tip of her nose for her.

Then he wrapped his arms around her and held her close in the shadows of the trees. After another kiss, this one brief and undemanding and tender, he said, “Let’s go home, sweetheart.”

The press corps waiting for them at his pillared mansion were held at bay by a team of security guards, so Zach drove around back where they could run inside without having to face questions.

Locking the door of the little sitting room where they’d entered, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her hard. So urgent were his kisses as they skimmed her lips, her throat, her breasts. She began to tremble violently. Then he lifted her skirt and found that soft place in between her thighs.

“You’re not wearing panties, I see.”

His tongue made contact and she gasped.

“No…”

She was wet and breathless and dying for more as he peeled off the rest of her clothes.

“Am I bad?” she whispered as he undid his belt and began tearing off his jeans and shirt.

“I like bad.”

When they were naked, he shoved her against the wall and held her close. “Wrap your legs around me, sweetheart.”

When she complied, he put on a condom and ground himself into her, scraping her back and shoulders against the wall in his eagerness. She didn’t mind. She cared only for him as he rode her fast and hard. Arching her pelvis to meet his thrusts, she cried out. Again, he took her to that strange, wild world that was theirs alone. Clinging to him fiercely, her heart pounded in mad unison with his.

Afterward, their bodies drenched in perspiration, they sank to the floor with their arms still wound around each other.

“I don’t know if I can ever stand up again,” Summer whispered breathlessly.

“Not to worry, sweetheart. You don’t have to.”

He lifted her and carried her through the house to the bed in the room she’d used that first weekend. Then he lay down beside her and stared at her hot, damp body gleaming in the moonlight.

When she was with him like this, she felt almost sick with pleasure and terror of losing him. She thought about her secret and how he might react when she confided in him. How, when could she tell him?

The long, lonely years without him had taught her what loss felt like, and she dreaded anything coming between them again. But something would. All it might take was her confession about the baby.

She’d been young when she’d loved him before. People like Thurman, who’d been wrong in all the advice they’d given her, had told her she’d been lucky to have lost their baby girl, lucky a lowlife like Zach was out of her life, lucky that she could start over. They’d said she would meet someone else, someone respectable, have another baby, that all would be just fine.

She’d learned better. Thurman had been wrong about almost everything, but he’d been especially wrong about how she felt about losing Zach’s baby and about losing Zach himself. Yes, she had her career, and she’d enjoyed national, even international, acclaim. But never once in all those years had she felt this alive.

Zach was special. When she’d been a foolish, naive girl, he’d lived in a shack. He’d been considered beneath her by the kids at school, and she’d still thought he was the one. Until Thurman and his cohorts had twisted and turned their love into something ugly and sordid and had driven them apart.

Now Zach rolled over, took her hand and interlocked his fingers with hers. When he looked at her, her blood beat with a mixture of desire and fear. When she kissed him, she realized she was going to take the easy way out…at least for now. They could talk in the morning. The happiness she felt was simply too precious to risk.

That night they made love several more times, but early Saturday morning, when they might have talked, Zach had to go to the site because his contractor had encountered a new challenge. Then he wanted to see Nick. He said they’d had a minor quarrel earlier in the week and he wanted to make things right on his way home.

“I hope you didn’t quarrel about me.”

His eyes narrowed, and she knew that they had.

“I see. Okay, then,” she agreed, feeling a little relief at the reprieve, deciding it was probably best for him to handle Nick as he saw fit. “You’d better stop by. Last week I was terrible in rehearsals, so I really need to go over the script.”

But no sooner was he gone than her whirling emotions centered on her secret and him and she was unable to concentrate. Her need to confess made her as uncertain as a young girl in the throes of first love, and she could do nothing except worry about what Nick might say against her.

Hours passed. Unable to focus, she stared at the daisies and her script.

Her phone rang. When she saw it was Gram, she answered it, glad of the distraction.

“I’ve got some news. I was calling to invite you and Zach over to dinner. I could tell you then.”

“I’ll ask Zach… See what he says.” If they went out to dinner, it would be more difficult to find the perfect moment to confess.

“Tell Zach I’m cooking chicken and Andouille gumbo, crawfish étoufée and a shrimp salad. Oh, and those chocolate-chip cookies he loves so much. Maybe after dinner we could play Hearts.”

When Gram hung up, Summer remained as unfocused as ever, even as she comforted herself that it was all right not to work, that sometimes procrastination was part of any actress’s process.

Finally, Zach’s car roared into the drive out back. Jumping up, breathing hard, she ran to a tall window where she stood until she saw a reporter. Only with the greatest effort did she tiptoe back to the table, pick up a pen and sit down before her script. But when Zach walked through the front door and called to her, she answered with her next breath.

“In here! Working!” She giggled at that last.

He strode inside the kitchen and kissed her. “Sorry it took so long. I hope you got something done.”

“I tried,” she said evasively.

Her frustration must have shown because he ran his knuckles up the curve of her neck. “Sounds like somebody needs a holiday.”

“Right… It’s your fault I couldn’t work. I was thinking about you the whole time you were gone.”

“Ditto.” He swept her into his arms and devoured her mouth in a dizzying kiss.

As eager as he, she tore off her clothes while watching him do the same. They ended up making love on the kitchen table-but only after she’d removed the precious daisies for safekeeping.

“Oh,” she said, while they were dressing afterward. “I almost forgot and Gram would have killed me…”

“What?”

“She said she had something to tell us, and she invited us over for dinner tonight.”

“It must be nice, having family to share things with,” he said.

She realized it was, even if Gram had her own ideas about how Summer’s life should be and never stopped pushing for her own agenda.

“I take it that’s a yes,” she said.

Zach would never know exactly at what point that night he knew for sure that no matter what she’d done in the past, no matter what the masses believed, Summer was the one woman who was essential to his happiness. Nothing spectacular happened; it was simply a very special evening.

To elude the paparazzi, he had a pair of doubles drive away in his Mercedes so he and Summer could slip out the back to the dock and take his airboat. As they sped along the glassy water, laughing like children, the sun glowed like gold in the cypress trees, turning the bayou into a gilded ribbon of flashing darkness and light.

Summer’s hair whipped back from her pale face, and her heavily lashed blue eyes shone every time she glanced at him as if she were as exhilarated by his nearness as he was by hers. She wore a navy dress with tiny white buttons and held the filmy skirt down with hands pressed against her knees.

Why had he thought he couldn’t get beyond their past and her fame? Despite the betrayals, when they were together, he forgave her everything and felt as comfortable around her as he had as a kid. Upon reaching Viola’s rambling old plantation house, he followed Summer around the yard as she stooped in the tall grasses to pick wild violets for the dinner table while amusing him with tales about her funniest roles. In turn, he talked about all the various disasters that could befall a construction project.

“I can’t believe a giant crane costing millions can actually topple over,” she said, sounding amazed.

“Yes, we were so lucky nobody was killed, we didn’t even care about the money.”

They smiled and laughed together. Holding hands, they carried armfuls of violets into the house, which was redolent with the smell of Cajun spices. Together they looked for a vase and finished setting the table while Tuck followed them around like a lost puppy.

“Tuck’s very good at looking like he’s doing something when he isn’t,” Summer whispered when steaming dishes needed to be carried to the table and her brother chose that moment to say he had to go to the bathroom.

“He’ll grow up. You’ll see.”

“We keep hoping…”

Zach enjoyed the simple dinner party. When Viola started tapping her crystal goblet filled with ruby-red wine, Zach felt Summer tense beside him.

“Careful, Gram. Mama’s crystal,” she chided.

Gram shot her a look. “I’m always careful with dear Anna’s crystal. I was only trying to get your attention, dear.” She took a deep breath. “And now that you’re all listening-I have something to tell you, something I couldn’t be more thrilled about.” Her sharp blue eyes sparkled like a naughty child’s.

“Oh, no, now what have you gone and done?” Summer asked.

In the flattering candlelight and in her soft gray dress with those sharp, mischievous eyes dancing, Viola looked years younger than her age.

“Well, your Gram has bought herself a condo in Plantation Alley.”

“Without even telling me,” Summer said, shocked.

“I told you I was thinking about it, didn’t I? It was such a good deal. I had to snap it up. Besides, you’re never here, dear. If you lived closer, maybe I’d form the habit of confiding in you.”

“Well, I’m here now,” Summer said. “I’ve been here all weekend.”

“I wouldn’t dream of disturbing you, child,” her grandmother replied innocently, slanting a pointed glance at Zach. “And you didn’t drop by…not till I invited you.”

“Zing,” Summer murmured in Zach’s ear.

“Stop whispering, you two! I want to hear everything that’s said at my table.”

He squeezed Summer’s hand.

“Do you want to hear about my new condo or not?” Viola asked peevishly.

“We want to hear,” Summer soothed.

Viola brought them a folder that contained a colorful brochure spelling out the amenities of the complex as well as a contract and a copy of the deposit she’d put down. Then she described the condo she’d bought in detail. Several of her friends already lived in the complex, so she’d have lots of company for playing Hearts. The clincher was that Silas approved. He simply adored the cozy window with the view of the bayou where he could sit and watch birds.

“The girls and I sort of thought that if we lived in the same complex we could look after each other, call one another every day, you know.”

“The girls are her Friday Lunch Bunch,” Summer explained. “They eat together every Friday at a restaurant another friend owns. That’s where they hatch their mischief, which mainly has to do with thinking up schemes to meddle in my and Tuck’s lives.”

“We do not!”

Zach picked up the contract and scratched a few things out, added a sentence or two, explaining why he’d made the changes.

“I’m not sure I understand,” Gram said.

“Just take this to Davis first thing Monday. Tell him I sent you. He’ll take care of you.”

Gram nodded. “It has three bedrooms, so there’ll be room for you and Tuck to stay anytime.”

“Well, that’s a relief. I’m glad you’re not kicking me out,” Tuck said.

“You won’t have to move out on your own, until you’re ready, dear. And, Zach, you’re always welcome. Silas is so fond of playing Hearts with you.”

“Gram! I’m sure Zach’s had enough of Silas’s opinions for one evening,” Summer teased.

“Well, who’s going to speak for him, since dear Silas won’t speak for himself?”

“Exactly,” Summer said.

Tuck hadn’t said much during dinner, but he’d come to the table with his hair combed and had answered all Zach’s questions about his classes. The small changes in him pleased everyone since he was mildly enthusiastic for a change.

The gumbo and spicy étoufée were delicious.

All in all, it was one of those rare, pleasant evenings, a family evening, the kind of evening Zach hadn’t experienced since his Uncle Zach’s death. He felt like he belonged-with Summer, with all of them. Suddenly, the past and its pain didn’t matter quite so much.

Suddenly, he wanted nothing more than to start over with Summer.

Realizing that thanks to Tuck’s misbehavior, they had already started over, Zach took Summer’s hand, turned it over in his own, drew it to his lips. For a second he caught a haunted expression in her eyes, but when she flashed him a dazzling smile, he forgot where he was. He would have planted a quick kiss on her cheek if he hadn’t caught a very pleased Gram watching his every move. Not in the habit of public displays of affection, he let go of Summer’s hand in the next instant.

When dinner was over, they retired to the card table where Gram’s three guests conspired to let her win more than her fair share of the games.

“It was a perfect evening,” Gram said after they’d helped her clear the table. As they stepped out onto the porch, the black, misty darkness was filled with the cloying scent of honeysuckle and the glorious roar of cicadas. They were saying their goodbyes, and Summer’s beautiful face was aglow beneath the porch light.

He loved her, Zach realized.

Love. He hated the word. He’d sworn never to fall under its dark power again, but here he was, lost in its grip. After everything she’d put him through, it was stupid of him, terrifying for him, but he wanted to claim her-to marry her.

When her beaming grandmother read the emotion in his eyes, she closed the door and wisely left them alone. Like a fool, the minute they were alone, he wanted to get down on bended knee in the damp St. Augustine grass and propose.

Luckily, he caught himself, opting to proceed with caution. If this new relationship with Summer was to work, he’d need to reorganize his business, his entire life. He’d need an office in Manhattan for starters. That was okay. He’d worked all over the world; he could work anywhere.

He would have his people contact several knowledgeable Realtors in Manhattan. He’d tell them he wanted to shift the focus of Torr Enterprises, that they were to start searching for opportunities in the northeast. He’d buy Summer a penthouse with a view of Central Park.

Not that he would want to live there all year. But surely she’d meet him halfway by living in Houston or even Louisiana for at least part of the year.

As they sped home across the black, glassy waters of the bayou, Zach seemed quieter, more withdrawn, and yet content.

Their speed wasn’t as fast as it had been earlier, since it was dark now and there were patches of ground fog, but there was no way she could speak to him over the roar of the airboat.

Arriving home without incident, she watched as Zach secured the boat quickly and efficiently with the easy expertise of a man who knew exactly what he was doing. Nick had taught him all of that, she thought.

Then Zach pulled her close, and they walked across the lawn holding hands in the moonlight with no paparazzi to spoil the exquisite, shared moment.

He paused beneath the long shadows of the live oak trees to kiss her. She thought his kisses were different somehow, sweeter, and they filled her heart with joy.

Everything felt so right, so perfect-the way it had felt when they’d first fallen in love. It was as if they’d reclaimed their lost innocence and faith in one another. For the first time in years, it was easy to imagine them belonging to each other forever. A knot formed in her throat as she thought about the little girl she’d lost. She had to tell him. But when?

For Summer the evening had been magic. It had been nice to bring Zach to Gram’s, so nice to share this man she cared about with her family, especially since her controlling stepfather used to force her to sneak out to see him.

Summer had learned not to stand up to Thurman. It had seemed smarter to maneuver around him. Still, she’d felt like a spineless wimp not taking up for Zach. But if she had, Thurman would have gone ballistic. He would have stopped at nothing to destroy her relationship with Zach.

The only reason Zach had stayed in Bonne Terre that year after his graduation was to wait for her.

Her memories merged with her present need to find a way to tell him about the baby. But when he pulled her close and slanted his hard mouth over hers beneath the shadows of the oak, she sighed and wrapped her hands around his neck to better enjoy the kiss.

Time stopped. There was nothing but the two of them. Their bodies locked as they surrendered to each other in the magical pine-scented darkness. There was no Thurman to stop them now.

She could have kissed him forever, but she began to feel him, hard and swollen, pressing against her thighs. She opened her eyes and met the burning urgency of his gaze.

When he spoke, his voice was rough. “Let’s get the hell inside.”

Quickly, he took her hand and they ran to the back entrance. When they were in the house, and he’d locked the door, he kissed her again even more fiercely than before. Then he lifted her into his arms and carried her up the stairs into the enveloping darkness of his bedroom.

“Now, where were we, sweetheart?” Zach demanded as he set her on his bed. His eyes were intense as he began to undo the tiny white buttons on her dress.

“I can’t believe you want to make love to me after a big old dinner like that.”

“Well, I do. We played cards for an hour, didn’t we? Besides, do you have a better idea?”

“We could sit outside on the upstairs veranda, enjoy the moonlight and talk…maybe about the past.” About our baby…

“The past…” He frowned. “I’m in much too good a mood to want to go there. Trust me. We’re better off making love, enjoying what we have now. We deserve some happiness.”

“But aren’t we hiding from things we need to think about and resolve?”

“You expect me to care about what’s over and done with, when you’re so damn beautiful I hurt?”

But she felt so close to him right now, close enough to tell him everything… Even tell him about the baby. It would take more than a single conversation, she knew. But she felt a profound need to share everything with him. He had to know the worst.

She wanted him to listen, to hold her, to forgive her, to grieve with her and then to make love to her. Had she been wrong about their special bond tonight?

He grazed her lips with his mouth with such infinite tenderness he soon sparked a wild conflagration.

But he was a man, and he was aroused. So, now wasn’t the time to talk after all.

They could not get their clothes off fast enough. Then they took their time exploring each other. He took his turn kissing and touching her, and then she broke away and started kissing him everywhere, her tongue running down his body until she found his manhood, which was thick and engorged.

She took him into her mouth. He was too close to the edge to endure this for long. Soon he moved on top of her and slid inside.

That was all it took for her to explode.

He thrust deeply and then shuddered, too.

Afterward, as they lay in the darkness, while he held her close, she gathered her courage again. “Wouldn’t you feel better if you knew exactly what happened to me and why I might have failed you years ago?”

“What?”

Perspiration glistened on his brow as he rolled over to brush his hand through her tangled hair. “I can’t believe you’re bringing that up again. Now.”

“I just think we should talk. It’s a perfect time, after our lovely evening.”

“No. Let’s not tarnish tonight.”

He sat up so he could stare down at her. “Look, I’m not blaming you for the past any longer, if that’s why you want to talk about it. On Viola’s porch that first day we reconnected, I felt this terrible lingering sadness in you. It made it impossible for me to continue blaming you for everything. That’s all the explanation I need about the past. I hurt you, too. I know that.”

“But…”

“It’s over. I’m trying to forget it. I suggest you do the same.”

“But there’s something I really need to share…”

He ran a finger around the edges of her lips and shushed her. “Don’t ruin what we have right now. It’s too special. I want to hold on to it. We can talk later. I promise.”

When she frowned, he pulled her close and kissed her.

But he was so adamant, and she wanted this time with him so much, she let him have his way. So, when she left on Sunday, she still hadn’t told him about what happened in New Orleans.

“Why don’t I come see you next weekend, for a change?” he said as he put her on his jet. “It just so happens I have a few things to do in New York.”

“That would be wonderful.”

“I’ll come up on Thursday, rent a suite at the Pierre and take you anywhere you want to go.”

“So, you intend to spoil me hopelessly?”

“Absolutely.”

“Lucky me.”

“No. Lucky me,” he said as he kissed her.