“May I come in?”
Phillip looked up from his perusal of a lengthy claim form and regarded Sylvie with a narrowed gaze. She was slim and long-legged, with hair he classified as red but that she called nutmeg blond. She returned his regard with wide eyes framed by tortoiseshell glasses. Funny, he couldn’t remember what color her eyes were. But he knew they weren’t brown.
He snapped his thoughts back to Sylvie. As always she was dressed for success in what she termed ultrachic office attire. She was fond of saying she shopped with an eye for colors that would complement her office decor. Phillip, privately, thought she must be color-blind, but he had to admit he’d never once seen her in anything less than appropriate. Whatever the occasion, Sylvie rose to meet it.
And he had a feeling that right now he was the occasion. “Since when have you bothered to ask permission to come into my office?”
“Since our secretary tacked a sign to your door that reads ‘All hope abandon, ye who enter here!’ ” Sylvie didn’t seem particularly worried, though, and proceeded not only to enter his domain but to slump into a chair and take off her shoes. “Do you realize, Phillip, that in one short month you have become the Mr. Hyde of Smith-Kessler and Dr. Jekyll Incorporated?”
Restlessly, he tapped a pencil against the edge of his desk. He knew, of course, he’d been a little irritable of late, perhaps a bit too demanding, but it wasn’t as bad as all that. “Am I out of favor with the office staff?”
“Oh, I think you can safely say that.” Lazily, she settled back in the chair. “Haven’t you noticed the terrified hush that descends whenever you enter a room?”
“Terrified? That’s overstating things a bit, even for you, Syl.” Phillip glanced at his watch. Still morning. Somehow that annoyed him more than his associate’s obvious good humor. But ill will would get him nowhere with Sylvie, and so he managed a half smile. “I thought it was merely respectful silence.”
Sylvie’s smile was dryly indulgent. “Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion, I suppose. But I do wish you’d work on your attitude, Phillip. You’re making us all crazy with your relentless pursuit of work and more work. If I didn’t know better, I might think you regretted throwing away the opportunity for some wonderful, attention-getting publicity in the art-forgery case.”
Phillip focused on the pencil in his hand. “Is that still bothering you?”
“More to the point, it’s still bothering Bernerd Thayer. I just had an interesting phone conversation with him, and he’s reconsidering the deal you made.”
Phillip slapped the pencil to the desk. “I got back his prized painting for him. He’s not getting the details just so he can give them to the media and draw national attention to his art collection. The public statement about the recovery of the stolen van Warner will have to satisfy him.”
Sylvie lifted her shoulder in a conciliating shrug. “All right, Phillip. It was your case, and if the insurance company was happy with the way you handled it, then why should anyone else complain?”
“Precisely,” he said. But his voice lacked conviction.
“After all, you did conduct a successful investigation and you have a perfect right to keep the details secret. There are no rules that say you have to take the credit for a job well done. And there’s certainly nothing in the investigator’s guidelines that says your Company can exploit the case to receive some well-deserved publicity. No, I agree with you, Phillip. You should not spend a minute rethinking your decision.”
“Sylvie,” he interrupted, with a patience he didn’t feel. “I’m not going to tell you the whole story either.”
“You can’t blame me for wanting to know. You’ve been about as congenial as a clam ever since you came back from Missouri.” With a grimace she retrieved her shoes and rose with the leather pumps dangling from her fingers. “The least you could have done was tell me why you didn’t bring her back with you. I can’t help but wonder, you know. It’s been pretty obvious all along that you were personally involved. You are personally involved, aren’t you?”
Bland amusement sparkled in her smile.
“You know that sign on my door?” he said smoothly. “Do you think if I added a skull and crossbones it would keep out those people who have nothing better to do than to carry on pointless conversations when I’m trying to work?”
Her brows arched behind the frame of her glasses, but her perceptive smile never wavered. “No need to bother with a sign. A few minutes in here is probably the best deterrent you could hope to find.” She walked to the doorway and, with exasperating aplomb, winked as she closed the door behind her.
Phillip sank back into his chair. Placing his hands at his temples, he rubbed the aggravating aches of tension. How long was he going to continue this charade? Sylvie might as well have asked the question aloud. He knew she’d been thinking it. And the idea that he was behaving like a first-class fool lingered in the room as if she had stated it loud and clear.
Or maybe he was simply running out of excuses, and the truth was at last gaining ground.
The truth was he loved Elleny and had been making himself, and everyone else, miserable by not facing up to it. It was time to take a good long look at his matter of principle and admit that Elleny had been right when she called it a matter of pride.
From almost the first moment he’d been jealous of the happiness she’d known with another man. A man Phillip considered unworthy of having any claim to her love. And because he saw Mark Damon in such an unfavorable light, Phillip had wanted Elleny to deny that she ever had loved Mark in the first place.
It had been egotistical of him, Phillip realized, and very selfish. Elleny had put no conditions on her love for him. Why had he insisted on a change in her philosophy before he would offer his love and commitment in return? As she had tried to tell him, there was more than one way to look at life.
The thought that he had hurt her for no better reason than his own stubborn pride sent his fingers combing angrily through his hair. Well, he might be stubborn, but he wasn’t so proud he couldn’t admit his mistake.
With a glance at his watch – still early – he cleared his desk, phoned the airport and walked purposefully to the doorway of Sylvie’s office. “I’m on my way to Missouri, Syl.”
She looked up from the papers on her desk and adjusted the already perfect fit of her glasses. “Missouri?” she repeated in a voice that tried hard to sound surprised. “Following another hunch, Kessler?”
“Just going back to get something I forgot.”
“You don’t honestly expect me to fall for that, do you?” Sylvie shook her head in dire prediction. “And you probably shouldn’t expect her to fall for it either.”
Phillip couldn’t stop his slow, inexplicable grin. “Wish me luck.”
She did, with a fingertip salute off the tortoiseshell rims. “Don’t worry about the business, either,” she added unnecessarily. “I’ll cover for you. No problem at all. And save your thanks. I’m planning a suitable revenge.”
Laughter, the first he’d known in a long time, rumbled deep in his throat as he quickly left the office and punched the elevator button. Then he waited, his patience a thin veneer, his newfound hope a restless energy burning within him.
* * * *
It was late afternoon when he finally parked the rental car outside the bookstore. It wasn’t raining, and Phillip chose to regard that as a good omen. He could use a positive note in the wave of uncertainties that possessed him now. What if she wasn’t here? What if she was but wouldn’t listen?
He got out of the car and stood looking at the bookstore windows for a few courage-gathering moments. But each passing second only made him more nervous, more unsure of his newly discovered wisdom. Yet oddly enough, the sense of homecoming and the knowledge that Elleny was near calmed him. She might be angry with him, but he could deal with that. In fact, he thought he could deal with almost anything if he could just see her again, talk to her, touch her.
He walked to the door, opened it, and stepped inside.
“Hi, Phillip.” A.J. was perched on the counter, kicking the divider with one swinging foot while he buried his fist in a jar of jelly beans. “Where ‘ya been?”
Phillip smiled at A.J.’s matter-of-fact approach and glanced around the room in search of Elleny. She wasn’t there, but he noticed Mark’s painting had a new frame and was again adorning the wall. Somehow that made him feel more confident. Elleny wasn’t the type to hold a grudge. So maybe she would be willing to forgive him a blind spot in an otherwise sincere heart.
Turning toward A.J., Phillip moved to the counter and offered a handshake to Elleny’s son. “Hello, A.J. How have you been?”
A.J. considered the outstretched hand for a second before reluctantly placing a single jelly bean in the palm, “I’ve been at school,” he said, eyeing the candy.
Phillip hid a smile as he popped the jelly bean into his mouth and ruffled A.J.’s hair affectionately. “Thanks, buddy, I needed that.”
With a candy-coated grin, the boy stuffed a whole handful of jelly beans in his mouth and chewed vigorously. “I’m waitin’ here for Tessa,” he said, as importantly as it was possible to be with a mouthful of treats. “She’s takin’ me to her house so Mom can do the books.”
Phillip looked toward the curtained partition of the room. “Where is your mother?”
But A.J. had singled out a solitary red jelly bean at the bottom of the jar and wasn’t paying any attention.
There was a sound from behind the curtains, and Phillip caught his breath.
Elleny pushed aside the curtains. “We’re closed for the day.” Her voice and her ability to move trailed into a vast nothingness as she poised halfway through the doorway. Phillip. The frantic beat of her heart was the first sound she heard, followed by the breathy rush of air from her lungs.
Phillip.
His eyes held hers in a moment as soft as a song in the night.
His smile was slow, hesitant, and wondrously endearing. “You really should remember to lock the door, Elleny.”
She really should be feeling very angry. She certainly had every right to be furious with him. In the long, lonely days of the past month, she had taken turns hating him and worrying about him. Did he think she’d let him waltz back into her life without so much as a hello? Elleny released her hold on the fabric curtain and sighed. The humiliating part was that she didn’t feel at all angry. She was simply glad, very glad to see him.
“I’ll lock it, Mom.” A.J. jumped flat-footed to the floor and raced to the door, breaking the suspended silence into fragments.
“What are you doing here?” Elleny held her ground and injected a cool distance into the words.
“I left something behind and had to come back for it.”
She looked away, looked back. “If it’s taken a month for you to miss it, it couldn’t be anything important.”
“Oh, I’ve missed it since the day I left, but I thought I could get along without it. I can be kind of pigheaded at times. Or at least that’s what I’ve been told.” He stepped to the end of the counter, stopped, acted as if he was about to reach for her, but didn’t. “I guess it must be true because it’s taken this long for me to learn I can’t live without you.”
Her gaze flew to his in search of confirmation; the pulse in her throat fluttered wildly. “Am I supposed to be flattered?” she asked.
“Flattered?” A wistful smile tugged at his mouth. “No, but I did hope you’d be forgiving. I was wrong, Elleny. Not about Mark, but in the way I tried to change you. Everything I discovered about him was in complete contrast to what I was discovering about you, and I couldn’t bear to think he had ever made you happy.”
The doorknob rattled with A.J.’s unsuccessful attempts to turn the lock, and Phillip’s eyes met Elleny’s. “Maybe this isn’t the best place for this discussion.”
She looked at A.J.’s blond head bent in concentration and thought her world was finally, miraculously beginning to come together. But it was a bit too soon to ease Phillip’s conscience. “I don’t believe he’s interested in anything we say at the moment. And besides.…” She lifted her shoulder in a dismissing shrug. “Mark was A.J.’s father.”
Phillip frowned, but Elleny couldn’t decide if it was due to her remark or a reluctance to continue the conversation.
“There’s a part of me that resents that fact, Elleny. Maybe I’ll never completely get over the jealousy I feel. But I’m making progress. At least now I recognize the emotion for what it really is. I’ve been jealous of the happiness you shared with another man. I wanted to be the only one in your life – past, present, and future – and that was selfish. My biggest mistake, though, was in not understanding you and in not accepting that love is a reflection more of the person who gives it than of the worthiness of the one who receives it.”
She didn’t know how to reply or what to say, but Phillip took away the necessity of doing either. He narrowed the distance between them and placed his hands on her shoulders. “I’m sorry, Elleny. What else can I say?”
“I love you might be nice.” Sliding her hands over the tweed lapel of his suit jacket, she allowed her heart to delight in his nearness and the possibilities. Oh, the glorious possibilities! She tilted her chin to look up at him. “Are you too pigheaded to admit that?”
“I love you, Elleny. I. Love. You.” He drew her to him with an urgency that robbed her of breath and spun enchanted circles around her thoughts. His lips came to hers, claiming her with a desire born of tenderness and fired by long-denied passion. And Elleny wanted to forget that there had ever been any other moment in her life worth remembering, but there was a reminder in the sudden absence of noise in the room. She pulled away from Phillip with the utmost reluctance, pressed a fingertip caress to his mouth. “I love you, too,” she whispered. “But I think my son has developed an interest in our ... conversation.”
Phillip looked over his shoulder into judgmental blue eyes that refused to accept a plea of innocent. “Hold my place,” he said to Elleny, before moving to stoop down and share A.J.’s point of view. “Can we talk, A.J.? Just the two of us. Man-to-man.”
The boy nodded, and Phillip wondered what to say next. Under the heading of talking to children, he knew his vocabulary was sadly lacking. Inspiration dawned with necessity, and he straightened, pulled a quarter from his pocket, and knelt again. “I have a little problem here, A.J., and I think you might be able to help. You see, I’m in love with your mother, and I’d like to marry her.” Realizing he had left room for disagreement, Phillip rephrased the statement. “I’m going to marry your mother, if she agrees. I think the three of us, you and your mother and I, will be very happy. In fact, I’m sure of it. But you see, I have to ask her first, and it would be nice if you’d pretend you weren’t listening. You could sit right over there.” He indicated the carpet squares on the floor. “You could look at a book for a minute or two. Do you think you could do that?”
“Are you gonna kiss?” A.J.’s little-boy grimace showed a lack of concern for the crucial points in the man-to-man conversation, and Phillip decided to give up on diplomacy and go for out-and-out bribery.
Leaning forward, he pressed a quarter into A.J.’s hand. “Now, what do you say?”
A.J. answered with a big grin. “I can’t read.”
“Tessa should be here in a minute,” Elleny said, stepping forward to Phillip’s intense relief. “Why don’t you step out on the sidewalk and watch for her?”
The idea seemed to appeal to him, and with the quarter clutched tightly in his hand, A.J. skipped to the door and stepped into the sunshine outside, miraculously shutting the door behind him. Phillip turned to Elleny, only to find his conscience weighted by an unfamiliar, but nagging, responsibility. “Will he be all right out there?”
Elleny laughed. “He’ll be fine – for about two minutes, which is as long as he’ll stay outside anyway.”
“We’d better make our plans fast, then.”
“What plans?”
“The plans for our wedding. Didn’t you just hear A.J. tell me I could marry you if I paid him a quarter?”
“I didn’t hear him say that.”
“Your son and I have an understanding. It’s somewhere between bribery and affection at the moment, but we’re making progress.” Phillip ended the teasing in the short stride it took to reach her. “Marry me, Elleny. Let me share your life. Let me share the happiness of being with you, of loving you, of loving your son.”
“I shouldn’t make this easy for you, Phillip.” She braced her palms against his chest to allow room for discussion. “After all, you didn’t call even once during the past month. You just sent that awful letter about the painting and how it had been returned.”
“I wanted you to know that I kept my promise and that there wouldn’t be a public announcement of Mark’s connection with the theft. There might be a few rumors in certain art circles, but nothing that will affect you or A.J.”
“Thank you, Phillip. That means a lot to me. Especially because Jesse doesn’t know anything at all about the van Warner. We’ve had some pretty emotional discussions these past few weeks, and I understand him so much better now. He feels guilty because he didn’t stop Mark in the beginning. Jesse believed that his paintings were the only ones Mark ever tampered with, and he thought if he didn’t paint anymore that Mark would be forced to stop.”
“So Jesse’s disability was invented as the reason he couldn’t continue working?”
“Oh, no. He’s been battling arthritis for years, but he could have been getting therapy all along. When he discovered that Mark was forging and even stealing his work, the disease became his ally. He took refuge in the handy excuse it provided and didn’t have to confront Mark or his own disillusionment.”
“What a waste. Jesse has such a tremendous talent.”
Elleny nodded in agreement. “I think he’s almost convinced that it’s too late now, but the doctor told him about a clinic that sounds wonderful. He’ll get the treatment he needs, plus a good dose of motivational therapy. At the moment he’s still being stubborn, but I think it’s mostly habit.”
“We’ll have to convince him.” Phillip tightened his arms around her and pulled her closer. “Maybe telling him about our wedding plans will turn the trick.”
“You’re very sure of yourself, Phillip. Especially considering I’m still angry with you.”
His hands cupped her face as if he didn’t believe her and she slid her hands to his shoulders as if she hadn’t quite convinced herself either.
“Let me make amends,” he murmured against her lips. “Let me –”
“Mom, Tessa’s here. Bye!” The door opened to allow A.J.’s announcement.
“A.J., wait!” Elleny pulled away from Phillip. “Come in and get your jacket.”
With a definitive stomp of his foot, A.J. gave in to authority and dashed across the store. He grabbed a bright orange coat from behind the counter and started to run back to the door, but paused in obvious afterthought. Taking Elleny’s hand, he tugged her down for a goodbye kiss, and then with a great deal of hesitation, he turned toward Phillip. They eyed each other in silence, and Elleny watched, a smile teasing her lips, a loving warmth coating her heart.
After a few seconds of indecision, A.J. gave Phillip’s leg an awkward hug. Then he raced outside to Tessa. A curious expression held center stage in Phillip’s dark eyes as he moved to close – and lock – the door before returning again to Elleny.
“He hugged me,” Phillip stated in a low voice full of disbelief.
“And you didn’t even have to offer him a quarter.” Elleny laughed her delight and curved a palm to the rough-soft skin of his cheek. “You’re getting quite a family for only twenty-five cents, you know.”
A smile, half wonder, half uncertainty, appeared slowly on his lips. “I’m sure that’s only the first installment.” He broke off, struck by the realization of what she’d said. “Does that mean you are going to marry me?”
“What else can I do? After all, A.J. hugged you and I just happen to love you.”
“Even though I can be pigheaded and stubborn?”
“But you have such a wonderful memory.” She stood on tiptoe to whisper suggestively close to his mouth. “You remembered to lock the door. That seems like a promising start to me.”
It seemed like a wonderful place to start, and Phillip wasn’t slow to follow the invitation with a kiss that began in innocence but melted swiftly to burning awareness. She was pliant in his arms, pressing against him with a desire he matched effortlessly.
By the time Elleny led him through the curtains into the work and storage area in back, he didn’t know how he had managed to control his need for her so long. There wasn’t time to think, though, as she began pulling at his jacket while her tongue created tantalizing sensations against his lips.
Passion controlled his trembling response, but tenderness guided his hands as, item by item, he undressed her. And when her beauty was naked before him, he cherished the blush that tinted her cheeks as much as he adored the perfect curve of creamy breasts and the silken slant of tiny waist into slender hips. His love for her welled like an eternal fountain, and he gathered her close to drink his fill. But Elleny resisted, and the seductress in her took command. Her boldness surprised and delighted him and became a caressing, breathtakingly sensual baring of his body to her.
Through an agony of exquisite longings, Elleny traced her fingertips over his muscular form, touching, kissing, learning about this man she loved so deeply. His hands in intimate exploration were a source of aching pleasure and hot spiraling need. Her breasts came to the dark covering of curls on his chest with the intention of teasing, but she soon found the sensations aroused by the contact too intense to bear. She wanted to savor this beginning, and yet she couldn’t wait to possess him, to be possessed by him.
In perfect accord they sank to the couch she had placed there long before for practical reasons. But now there was only one practicality that slipped through her mind and then was forgotten in the strength of her heart’s commitment. Whatever the future might hold for her, she would share it with Phillip. He was her future, and she drew him down to her in sweet acceptance.
She moved in harmony with him, building the passionate chords to sweeping heights of ecstasy, experiencing a total blending of thought and emotion, of movement and desire. Elleny had never known anything so beautiful, so intensely satisfying as the love she knew at that moment. Wild and demanding. Gentle and giving. The beginning of a lifetime of beautiful moments ... with Phillip. Always with Phillip.
When the fierce urgency of passion had yielded to a comfortable contentment, she lay sheltered in his arms. The couch was narrow and offered a lovely excuse for clinging to every muscular angle of his body. She loved the feel of him, loved the way he held her, loved ... him.
“We’ll have to move, you know.” His voice was a rough vibration beneath her cheek,
She sighed ever so softly. “I know, but right now I think I could stay like this forever.”
He chuckled and adjusted their positions so he could look into her eyes and press a quick, very necessary kiss to her parted lips. “I meant move, as in changing your place of residence. My business is in Boston. My house, too. It isn’t as big as the one you live in now, but I think we can be comfortable there. There’s room for Jesse, too, if he wants to come along. And there’s a school nearby for A.J.”
“You don’t have to convince me, Phillip. I’ve moved more times than I can count. I’m willing to go anywhere with you, although I would like to come back here for occasional visits. I love Cedar Springs, but I know I’ll love Boston, too. Funny, that’s one place I’ve never even seen. It will be a new experience for me.” She teased him with a smile. “Of course, even an old couch becomes a new experience with you.”
“What about A.J.? Will he mind moving?”
Elleny braced herself against his chest with a caressing hand. “A.J. will be fine. Security depends on the people you’re with, not on the place you’re in. Everything will be wonderful, Phillip, you’ll see.”
His dark eyes met hers to pledge a lifetime of love, a world of new discoveries to make together. “I’ve never thought of myself as a family man, but now I can’t see myself any other way.”
“Isn’t it amazing what you can get for a quarter?”
“Amazing,” he agreed, and pulled her down to his arms, warmed by the soft glow of love, enchanted by the possibilities before him.
No doubt about it, Phillip decided. He was getting the best of the bargain.
Copyright © 1985 by Karen Whittenburg
Originally published by Dell (0440164052)
Electronically published in 2013 by Belgrave House
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No portion of this book may be reprinted in whole or in part, by printing, faxing, E-mail, copying electronically or by any other means without permission of the publisher. For more information, contact Belgrave House, 190 Belgrave Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94117-4228
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This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.