CHAPTER NINETEEN

“We did it,” Claire said as the locked the front door after the last customer had left. Many of the shelves and display areas were bare. “We did it! And we’re going to be in the newspaper thanks to Gray.”

The women squealed and joined hands. “Looks like we’ll be over tomorrow to make more products,” Lorraine said, still smiling.

“Especially BTS. Although my uncles scoffed at the idea, two of them purchased a jar. I think there’s going to be more test-marketing,” Brooke concluded with a giggle.

“Just because tonight’s sales were good doesn’t mean they’ll continue.”

Hamilton’s prediction put a pall on the celebration. They all turned to look at Hamilton, Brooke and Claire’s expressions showing their baffled surprise.

“Hamilton, not tonight, please,” Lorraine said, her voice a bit shaky.

“I just don’t want you disappointed when the store fails,” he said defensively.

“It’s not the store I’m disappointed in.” She turned away from him to Claire. “I’ll be over around nine in the morning and we can start restocking the inventory.”

Claire was well aware of Hamilton standing nearby, vibrating with anger. “If you can’t make it, I’ll understand.”

“I’ll be there. Good night.” Without a word to her husband, she turned and left. Hamilton hurried after her.

“Claire, I’ll follow you to the bank to make the deposit and then to your house,” Gray said.

Claire smiled. She couldn’t think of a more perfect way to end the night than in Gray’s arms. “Thank you.”

“I’ll see that Brooke gets home all right,” John offered.

“I can take care of myself better than you can,” she said, giving him a hostile glare.

“Then if there is a problem, you can protect me.”

Her lips twitched as she tried to keep from smiling. He could give as good as he got. “Don’t count on it.”

“I’d feel better if John followed you home,” Claire said.

Brooke’s first instinct was to disregard Claire’s attempt to help her accept John’s offer without appearing anxious for him to do so. She quickly changed her mind. She wasn’t afraid of him or any other man. “I’ll probably leave him in the dust.”

“Won’t be the first time,” he said with a wry twist of his mouth.

Brooke was unsure if he meant that sexually or physically. “Just remember that and keep your distance.” Spinning on her heel she went to get her purse.

“Give it a chance,” Claire said to Brooke as she unlocked the file cabinet and removed the bank deposit and their evening bags. “He’s a wonderful man.”

“He makes me so angry.” Brooke removed her key from a bag no bigger than her palm.

“Because he also makes you want to jump him.”

Brooke’s head snapped around. Laughter bubbled from her lips. “Girl, you are getting to be something else. Do you plan to do a little jumping of your own?”

“Of course.” Laughing, the women returned to the front of the store.

Gray immediately went to Claire. John stayed where he was. He was keeping his distance … at least until they were alone.

*   *   *

“Lorraine, please talk to me.” Hamilton hated to plead, but he didn’t have much choice. Lorraine had refused to speak to him after they left Bliss. She wouldn’t even look at him. “We have to talk if we’re going to work this out.”

Continuing to ignore him, she rubbed the fragrant peach moisturizer on her arms and legs. It hadn’t taken him long to figure out she was doing it to torture him. They hadn’t made love in weeks. He’d approached her once and she’d claimed she was tired. It had been the first time she had ever refused him. At first he’d been concerned, then once he’d realized her little performance had been to punish him, he’d become angry. His mother had used the same methods to bring his father to heel.

At least tonight she hadn’t left the bathroom door partially open so he’d see her as she bathed, dried herself and smoothed lotion all over her body—in places he wanted to touch. However her closing the door made him more concerned, just as the sight of her in a heavy silk nightgown instead of one in a lighter fabric that clung to her nipples and slid sensuously over her hips. “Lorraine, is that shop more important than our marriage?”

Her hand paused. He swallowed. He hadn’t meant to say that. He didn’t want to make her choose. He didn’t know anymore what her answer would be.

She turned in the chair that had replaced the vanity stool he’d seen tonight at Bliss and he tried to prepare himself for the worst. Seeing the sadness in her eyes almost made him tell her she could do what she wanted, just don’t leave him. He might have if he couldn’t hear in his head, over and over again, his father begging his mother and her laughter as she walked out on them and into the night without looking back.

“How could you embarrass me in front of my friends?”

“I’m sorry about that.” And he was. Putting his business in the street had been his parents’ way. Never his.

“I wish I could believe that.” She came to her feet and looked straight at him, seemingly to struggle with a decision. “I—”

“No, wait,” he said, going to her, taking her hands in his, holding them when she tried to pull away. “I’ve been thinking. Perhaps I was a little abrupt in my judgment. You and the others obviously have a product women are willing to buy.”

Seeing the hope in her eyes, Hamilton knew he was on the right track. He should have seen it before. All he had to do was bide his time. It would also be better if she didn’t remember that he had predicted Bliss’s failure when it went belly-up. “I won’t say another word against it.”

“You mean that, Hamilton? You aren’t saying that just because you want to make love?” she asked with her usual directness.

Since his arousal was jabbing her, he could hardly deny the obvious. His hand lifted to her face, dear and beautiful. He’d lie if he had to, but this time there was no need. He spoke from his heart. “You’re the love of my life.”

He expected that to be enough, but when he tried to pull her into his arms she resisted. “I’ve always trusted you, Hamilton, believed in you. If you take that trust away I’m not sure where that will leave us.”

He felt chilled. Unflinchingly, her dark eyes bore into him. She was warning him: Lie to her and it might be the end of their marriage.

“You can trust me,” he told her, then kissed her on the edge of her mouth, letting his tongue stroke the corner the way she liked. He felt her shiver, felt his own arousal grow harder.

“Hamilton,” she sighed.

“Yes.” Tonight he wouldn’t go to sleep hard and aching. He pulled the strap of her gown down to reveal her beautiful, firm breast. Her nipple was already hard.

“Hamilton.”

Aware that once his lips closed over her pouting nipple conversation would be over for both of them, he lifted his head. “Yes?”

“Just remember what I said.”

Stunned, he stared at her. She slipped the strap of the gown over her other shoulder and let the gown fall to the floor. She stood there before him in all her naked splendor. He licked his lips, then looked up into her sultry eyes.

“Remember. Because I won’t forget.”

“I’ll remember,” he said, reaching for her, forgetting the coolness of the porcelain tile. It had been too long, the constant fear of losing her too strong. He wanted her to remember this, their love, their passion, what they had always shared.

His hungry mouth moved from one breast to the other. His hand swept up the smoothness of her thigh. His probing fingers found her wet and hot. She cried out, arching against his hand.

Not yet. He moved down her body, his mouth kissing and taking tiny nips, lower and lower to the most intimate part of her. She cried out his name.

She’d remember and so would he.

*   *   *

Brooke had considered leaving John in the dust when she pulled out of the parking lot. She didn’t because it would be too humiliating if he saw her getting pulled over by the cops. Besides, she was determined that he remain oblivious to the way he made her body hum. She glanced into the rearview mirror at the headlights of his truck. A truck.

Randolph owned two expensive sports cars and he’d never come close to making her feel anything close to what John did. She twisted uneasily in her seat. She would not let herself be interested in a man who couldn’t give her the lifestyle she had come to expect.

Pulling off, she took the next corner sharper than intended. Her gaze automatically went to the mirror again. John appeared to be the same distance from her. Irritated, she started to press a little harder on the accelerator. Then she thought of what she was doing and tried to settle down.

She turned another corner and was never so glad to see her condo. Easing up to the black iron gate, she spoke into the security box. “Hi, it’s Brooke and a guest.”

“Hello, Ms. Dunlap. Welcome home. Have a good night.” Laughter followed. The steel gate, twelve feet wide and eight feet high, started rolling from left to right.

She recognized the voice as Helen Williams, a divorced mother of two, who had a wicked sense of humor. “He’s coming right back out.”

“Can I have him, then?”

The flash of jealousy was totally unexpected. Helen always carried on foolishness with Brooke when she manned the booth by herself. “Be my guest.”

“Since I like living I’ll pass.”

Even more annoyed with herself, Brooke drove through and parked in her designated spot. She waited as John parked in the visitor’s area. She tapped the toe of her red and black Jimmy Choo impatiently. He was certainly taking his time. She was about to go on without him when he came around a parked car and started toward her.

Her heart thumped. Damn him. He had no right to look so good. Against her will she remembered them locked together in the back of the store. It had been a mistake then, and it was a mistake to let him near her now.

“Nice place.”

“Thank you. You’ve done your duty. Good night.”

“Claire said I was to see you home. That means your front door.”

Her chin came up. “You’re not getting inside.”

“I don’t remember asking.”

His chin begged for her fist. Whirling, she pushed the elevator button behind her. For once, it opened quickly and she stepped on, then punched four. She took a deep breath, then another to calm herself, then abruptly stopped when she realized she was breathing in his scent. Heat rolled through her.

The gleaming iron doors opened. Brooke stepped out, her key in her hand. Her condo was at the end of the hall, allowing her a spectacular view of the Ashley River and harbor at night from her bedroom. Which the irritating man beside her would never see.

Opening the door, she turned. “I’m home. Goodnight.”

“I probably shouldn’t care, but why don’t you like me?”

She didn’t need to be asked twice. “Because you’re rude and crude. Unlike those women tonight fawning over you, I have higher standards.”

“Like the penguin in the suit.”

It took Brooke a moment to figure out he meant Rafael, her uncle. “Yes. He knows how to make a woman happy.”

She saw her mistake the second after the challenging words left her mouth. John swooped in like an avenging angel. If he had been rough, his mouth not so inventive, she might have stood a chance of resisting. With a little whimper, her arms went around his neck.

Dimly, she realized he had picked her up, holding her easily against his hard length. His strength sent another thrill of pleasure surging through her, but not as much as his saying her name between heated kisses that threatened to fry her brain.

“I did it again. I’m sorry.” He lowered her until her feet touched the floor.

Brooke’s mouth was searching for his, her hands tugging his shirt from the waist of his pants when his words finally penetrated her brain. She froze, then stepped back with as much dignity as possible. She tugged up and pulled down her dress. At least they were inside her apartment with the door closed.

“I just wanted to talk. No, that’s not entirely true. I wanted to see if this would happen again,” he said with as much bewilderment in his voice as she felt. “I don’t even like you.”

Since she felt the same way about him, she wasn’t offended. “I don’t like you either.”

He nodded as if he expected as much. “How about grabbing a burger and a movie Saturday night?”

Randolph had flown her in a private jet to a movie premiere in Los Angeles. Afterwards they had been invited to the home of the producer. They’d been served a scrumptious buffet of smoked salmon, beluga caviar and champagne. “Pick me up at seven. I’ll let security know.”

“Goodnight, Brooke.”

“Goodnight, John.”

The door closed softly, and then it hit her. This was the first time they had called each other by their first names.

Damn!

*   *   *

Claire opened her front door and invited Gray inside. “Would you like coffee?”

“Just the usual.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her breathless.

“Thank you for coming tonight, inviting the reporter, your grandmother and aunt.”

His arm around her waist, they went to the sofa and sat down. “They would never have forgiven me if I hadn’t told them about the pre-opening.”

“It was a great idea.” She snuggled in his arms. “I can see why Livingston Catalogue is so successful. Your grandfather was right to pick you to run the company.”

The corners of Gray’s mouth lifted. “I think I won by default. My father loved teaching at Morehouse, and my aunt is more interested in shopping from a catalogue than trying to find merchandise to put in one.”

“What about your sister and your aunt’s three children?” she asked him.

“My younger sister found her career in publishing. My cousins found their niche in other avenues of business.” Absently he played one of her curls. “From the moment I stepped into the warehouse I was fascinated. I never wanted to do anything else. I have a feeling you’ve discovered your calling.”

She actually laughed. “I have to admit I enjoyed myself tonight … after the first scary moments, of course. More than I ever did while working at Middleton and Zexxis. It’s a good feeling knowing women enjoy the products I make, knowing that I could accomplish so much.”

“I knew you could do it. The bank deposit tonight proves it.”

“We did, didn’t we?”

“You did it.” He leaned over to kiss her cheek, but the little gasp she gave caused his eyes to go to her mouth. His mouth closed on hers. Her mouth softened beneath his as it always did. As if she’d waited a lifetime for the kiss.

He wanted to savor the moment, to savor her. He’d come to expect the quick rush of need, the uninhibited response of her body that drove him close to the edge of control. Her skin tasted like sweet cream. He inhaled the unique scent that clung to her and lured him. “You feel and taste so incredible.”

“It’s … it’s the beauty products.”

Gray took her mouth again. Claire was with him all the way. He was breathing heavily when he lifted his head. He stared at her kiss-swollen lips, the glazed passion in her eyes, and wanted very badly to take her to bed. “I better go.”

Claire didn’t want him to. “Can’t you stay a little longer?”

“Not without taking you to bed.”

“Then stay,” she said softly.

“Honey.” He pulled her into his lap and hugged her. “We’d probably already be in bed by now if I didn’t have to go out of town tomorrow for a few days.”

“Oh.” Her stomach rolled then settled.

His finger lifted her chin. “I want you, Claire, but I can’t make any promises of forever. Can you handle that?”

She felt the proof of his desire beneath her hips. The dreamer in her wanted him to love her forever just as she knew she would always love him. Her practical side accepted that it might never be. She could have his body, but perhaps never his heart. The idea hurt more than she thought she could bear.

Was she that bold or that stupid to even consider being intimate with a man when she knew it could lead to nothing except misery. She had wanted a family. If she let Gray go, would she find another man to love? A man who made her heart soar and ache at the same time? She looked into his face and realized the decision had been made long ago.

“I’m not asking for forever.”

Gray’s eyes closed and he pulled her to him. “You should, but I’m bastard enough to take you any way I can get you.” His mouth found hers in a boldly erotic kiss that spoke more loudly than words that she would be missed as well. “I’ll call.”

Her smile was tremulous. “Take care.”

With one last touch of her cheek, he was gone. Claire pulled her legs beneath her and leaned her cheek against the back of the sofa, missing Gray already.