Reckless Seduction, page 8
“Thanks, I’d love some. Sit for a minute.” It was their custom to have afternoon tea together.
“Haley, have you decided to do something about your feelings for Jon?”
“What makes you think I feel something special for him?”
“Who are you trying to kid? Since that morning when he came here to see you, I’ve known that he had turned you completely around. Oh, you put up a good front most of the time. But right now you’re hurting. Go home and call him. Tell him how you feel.”
“My dear Amy, if only it were that simple,” Haley said with feeling.
Lunch with Nels the next day brought her pseudo relief. It gave her the opportunity to think and talk about Jon without feeling shame or guilt.
“Haley, whatever you do, if you want Jon, play it absolutely straight with him. He won’t forgive you for less,” Nels said as they parted that afternoon.
“I don’t play games with men, Nels. I don’t even know how.” He considered that for a moment but didn’t respond. He simply kissed her on the cheek and then walked away.
Days later, lighthearted after a day of reasonable accomplishment at work, Haley went home feeling good. There, discovering that she needed milk and other food items, she put on a light coat and went to the supermarket. She returned home and was searching her purse for her keys when she heard a deep masculine voice behind her.
“Want me to hold that for you?” Stunned at hearing that voice, she dropped both bags of groceries, her purse and her keys, swung around and flew into Jon’s arms.
“Where’d you come from? I thought you were in Oslo. How’d you get here? Why didn’t you tell me you were coming? Oh, I’m so glad to see you!”
A stunned Jon had expected a welcome but none such as this. When he could get his breath, he held her away from him for a minute and studied her. Then he crushed her to him, groaning from the sweet joy, from the all-enveloping peace he knew at that moment just for having her in his arms. He kissed her eyes, her cheeks, her forehead and her eyes again. And then, as if he had tortured himself for as long as he could bear it, he put his mouth upon hers and loved her with all the fierceness of the passion that he felt for her. When he tasted the salt of her tears, he spoke to her at last. “What is it? What’s the matter, baby? Why are you crying? Have I held you too tight? I’m sorry.”
“Nothing’s wrong. I mean, you didn’t…you couldn’t hold me too tight. I’m so glad to see you I could scream. Why have you come back? It’s only been two months, and you said—”
“I came back because I just couldn’t stay away any longer. I had to see you. I have to go back, but I…I just needed to be with you.” He looked around. “Honey, we’re standing in the corridor. Don’t you want to let me come in?” She laughed, a joyous sound of happiness and relief. Together, they got the door open.
“I could come home to a welcome like that every day. The only person who’s ever hugged me when I walked in the door is my mother.”
He shrugged, but inwardly her reaction buoyed him and raised his hopes. “I got into JFK Airport about two hours ago and came straight here. My bags are downstairs. I didn’t know whether you were home.” She lifted the intercom phone.
“Mike, would you please send Mr. Ecklund’s bags up.”
“Sure thing, Dr. Feldon. Be up in a minute.”
She turned to Jon, feigning displeasure. “If you’d warned me to expect you, I wouldn’t look like such a mess.”
“Honey, you look better to me right now than anybody or anything I’ve ever seen. You’re beautiful. You don’t need any props. I missed you,” he said.
“I know you aren’t hungry, since first-class passengers are fed to death practically, but would you like a drink or something?”
“No, thanks. Actually, I don’t enjoy drinking when I’m tired.”
“Oh, that’s right. Nels said that you don’t drink much, anyway.”
“You’ve seen Nels?”
“We had lunch together today.”
“I see.”
“What do you see? You don’t object to my having lunch with Nels, do you? He’s like a brother.”
“That’s a good one. Nels Andersen like a brother to a beautiful available woman.”
“Yes. One with whom I spent the entire lunch talking about his best friend, Jon.” The doorbell rang, and she let Mike in with Jon’s bags.
“He must have changed a lot since we were schoolmates.”
He took her hand, sat on the sofa and beckoned her to join him. She didn’t know what to expect from him. First his sudden appearance and then, his almost nonchalant behavior. Jon Ecklund did not strike her as an impulsive man.
How should she respond to him? She wanted to be close to him, so she sat beside him and would have put an arm around him. But to her bemusement, Jon put his head in her lap and stretched out with his feet hanging over the sofa arm. Then he sighed and went to sleep.
Haley gazed down at the peaceful expression on his face. Would a man do that if he didn’t care deeply for the woman? She guessed she could stop worrying about how he felt. After all, he was there with her, and he could have been many other places. No, the old Haley whispered to her, she couldn’t relax her guard. Josh had done hundreds of things that convinced her of his eternal love, and how had he behaved? Could she trust her judgment? What choice did she have? She loved this man, and she wanted him.
She stroked his beautiful hair and, in response, he snuggled closer to her. Her heart skipped a beat and then thudded rapidly. His absolute trust disconcerted her. It was as if he’d said, “To hell with vulnerability, she has to take me as I am.” She leaned over and kissed his hair, then closed her eyes and gave thanks for the consuming peace that enveloped her.
An hour later, neither of them had moved. She feasted her eyes on him. And as she bent to kiss his cheek, he opened his eyes and looked at her. What she saw in his eyes made her shiver. The naked hunger, raw need and desperate longing shook her to the very core of her being. Forgetting her caution, she hugged him closer to her and spread kisses all over his face.
Slowly, Jon disengaged himself and sat up. He wanted her so badly. Things just couldn’t continue as they were. While she’d thought he was asleep, she had been so sweet and tender with him. She hadn’t resented his inattentiveness, because he was tired. Instead, she’d stroked and soothed him. He gave her a piercing look, deciding on one more gamble. “I think I’d better go on to my apartment. I’m beat. I’ve been up for twenty-six hours.”
“You may stay here, if you’d like. I have a guest room.” Her flaming face betrayed her embarrassment. She couldn’t invite him to share her room and her bed. He’d never asked her for that level of intimacy.
He remained silent, trying to decide how to put her at ease.
“I know you’re too tired to go across town and into an apartment that you haven’t seen for over two months. So stay here,” she said in a rush.
He raised one eyebrow. “And if I’m not tired?”
“Oh, honey! Let’s not banter like this. What do you want to do?”
“Sweetheart, we’d better not discuss what I’d really like to do. Thank you for offering to put me up tonight. The truth is, I would very much like to stay here with you. And your guest room will be fine. Tomorrow, we’ll talk.”
She showed him to his room and busied herself turning back the covers, opening the windows, giving instructions about the alarm clock, the bathroom, the soap, the towels and everything that she could think of to cover the awkwardness of the situation and as an excuse not to leave him. She looked up from her newly found task of fluffing his pillow and saw his gentle, tender smile.
He walked over to her and draped his arm across her shoulder. “Sweetheart, stop fussing. I want to sleep in your bed just as much as you want me to be there, but tonight isn’t right for us. Our time will come—and soon.” With that, he kissed her, popped her affectionately on her bottom and pushed her out the door.
Haley wasn’t certain how she got into her bed that night. Even after she lay down, she continued to tremble uncontrollably. In the past seven years, since the fiasco with Josh, she had cried twice—when she had finally told her mother about it a few weeks back and after she hung up on Jon. Now she wanted to lie in his arms so badly that she was tempted to go to him.
“You’re a big girl, Haley, and you can’t have everything you want when you want it,” she told herself. “Give him a chance.” With that thought, she curled up with the pillow tight in her arms and slept.
Jon lay in the darkness. He knew that Haley was distressed, because from time to time he heard sounds that suggested she was thrashing in bed. But he also knew that if they were to have any chance together he had to control his urge to go to her. If he went into that room, all would be lost. He was perspiring so profusely that his bedding was wet. He moved over to the other side of the double bed, but he could not find peace, either. After a while, he turned on the light and looked for something to read. When she went into his room to awaken him with a cup of coffee the next morning, she found Jon asleep with a copy of Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow cradled in his arm. He awakened to her feathery kiss on his lips.
“Hi, sleepy eyes,” she whispered, smiling as he lifted his lashes and gazed at her.
“I get coffee in bed? Honey, you’d better be careful, I spoil easily.”
“Fear not. I’ll keep score and make sure that your spoiling is properly rationed.”
He savored the coffee. It was hot and strong just as he liked it, with only a touch of sugar.
“How did you know how I like my coffee?”
“I just paid attention. I’m going out so you can get dressed. Meet you in the kitchen in seven minutes.”
“Why seven and not six or eight?”
“You’d have made a great lawyer.”
“So they say. Okay, scat. Now I have only six minutes.” The vision of her sitting on the side of his bed awakening him with a kiss made him want to sing. “Haley, you make me happy,” he said as she began to leave the room.
She looked at him for a long minute, and he knew she realized that, in greeting him as she had, she’d made a statement to him, and he had read it correctly. Perhaps without consciously intending to do so, she had committed herself to him.
Haley went quickly out of the room and closed the door. Nels’s words came back to her: “If you want Jon, play it absolutely straight with him.” She wouldn’t fold up. She was a woman, no longer the foolish, idealistic girl who had swallowed Josh’s hype and lies and who had allowed herself to feel diminished because Josh’s parents proved to be racists. Shrugging off worries with a jerk of her right shoulder, she walked swiftly to her room. Changed and laughing, she headed for the kitchen. Jon joined her a minute short of the ultimatum she’d given him.
“Ecklund, you didn’t give me a proper good morning kiss,” she said playfully.
“You’ve got to be kidding. If you thought I was going to kiss you in that bed after the night I had…have pity, woman.” He grinned and kissed her on the nose. “I don’t want an early death, and a few more hours like those and you can start sending out black bordered announcements. What do you usually do on Saturdays?”
“Things around the house, nothing special. Why?”
He reached across the table and stroked the back of her hand. “I came back here to see you. But I think I ought to try and spend a couple of hours at least with DuPree. He’s managing the shop here.” He looked at her intently. “Can you handle that?”
He hoped that her sparkling eyes reflected the happiness she felt. “Just be here properly dressed by seven o’clock this evening.”
Was she really as understanding as she seemed? Jon wondered. First, last night he’d fallen sleep with his head in her lap and now this. He remembered how agreeable Karen had been before he married her. But Karen had never been as compassionate as Haley. Anyway, why the hell was he standing there looking a gift horse in the mouth? He’d promised himself that he was going to trust her.
“Why seven o’clock? Are you partial to the number seven?”
“No, I’m not partial to that number. I like to eat shortly after that, and I’m inviting you to dinner tonight.”
“Are we going out?”
“I want you to know, Mr. Ecklund, that I’m a good cook. And since you’re such a skeptic, come prepared for a gourmet meal.”
“Tell you what,” he offered. “I’ll check with DuPree, and then we’ll make plans.”
Jon went to the room she’d given him and sat on the edge of the bed. He phoned Jason DuPree and arranged to see him at three o’clock. He called a taxi and headed for his apartment, eager to shorten the day.
Haley leaned against the door jamb of her pantry and thought of all that had happened during the past twenty-four hours, from her luncheon with Nels and his prophetic admonishments regarding Jon, to Jon’s unanticipated visit, their strange evening and, most of all, what might happen that evening when he returned.
She felt herself more able to cope with the dizzying changes in her life than she had ever been. And it occurred to her that her faith and trust in Jon, her certain knowledge of his strength and of his need for her were as much responsible as her own strength.
Suddenly, she began to falter. The telephone rang and, because she didn’t want anything or anyone to intrude on those precious minutes, she walked past it. But thinking that it might be Jon, she turned back and picked up the receiver.
To her relief, she heard her mother’s voice. “Hessy, what’s wrong? I can barely recognize your voice.”
“Nothing, really. I’ve just got a lot on my mind just now.”
“Haven’t you heard from Jon?” She could always rely on her mother to get right to the point.
“Mama, Jon’s here. He showed up yesterday evening saying that he had to see me.”
“Where is he now?”
“Over at his apartment.”
“Haley Feldon, are you crazy? Why isn’t he with you?”
“It’s all right, Mama. He just went to look after a few things. He’ll be back. We’re spending the evening together.”
“I should hope so. Remember what I told you.”
“I remember. Oh, Lord, I’m glad you called just now. You have an uncanny way of knowing when I need to talk to you. I had begun to doubt myself just as the phone rang, but I’ll be fine now.”
“He’s your man. Forget everything that has happened before with any other man. I’ll be thinking about you, dear.”
Humming and singing songs that she loved, Haley prepared for an evening that would change her life. To save time, she ordered groceries and flowers by phone. She set her table with fine linen, silverware, crystal and porcelain, added candles in silver candle holders to complete the centerpiece of calla lilies and tea roses. She put two bottles of wine in the refrigerator.
Maybe she was overdoing it, but she wanted to show him that he deserved the best she had to offer. Get real, she advised herself. You know that you are about to change your life, and you want to do it in style. What would he be like? How was she going to feel when he was finally inside of her?
Damn her inexperience! She wanted to be everything to him, but if she made mistakes, he would know that she was trying and that her heart was in the right place. She just prayed that that would be enough.
She had planned a meal that wouldn’t require her to spend any time in the kitchen after Jon arrived. She looked at her watch and realized that she’d better hurry. After a shower, she washed her hair and sprayed her favorite scent all over her body. Then she patted herself dry, applied a body lotion of the same scent and left the steamy bathroom. As she passed the mirror, she wondered if he would like the way she looked. She knew that she had a good figure, but not every man liked a woman with a full bosom and squared shoulders. Well, she was what she was, and that was that.
She slipped on a pair of mauve-pink silk lace bikini panties and a matching bra that gave minimum support and covered nothing. It was six-thirty. She brushed her long black hair until it shone, applied pink lipstick and put on one of her favorite dinner dresses, a mauve-pink silk jersey floor-length sheath with a slit up to the middle of her left thigh. Satisfied with the results, she put on some music, Mozart for dinner and, after that, soulful love songs. The doorbell rang. She waited in front of the door for several seconds before she opened it.
“Can’t I come in? Why do I always have such a heck of a time getting into your apartment?” As his facial expression melted into a smile, she reached up and kissed him lightly on the lips. “Hi. You look wonderful.” She was acutely aware of him. The sight of him made her mouth water.
“You knock me out, looking like this for me alone,” he teased, trying to keep it light. She knew that she seemed self-conscious avoiding his eyes and caressing her sides as though they were cold, but actually she wasn’t self-conscious; she was on the verge of losing her battle with self-control. She wanted to wrap herself around him, to disappear inside of him. And she didn’t know what to do about it. When she closed the door, he handed her a box of two dozen red roses. She turned to get a vase, but he pulled her to him and kissed her hungrily. Reaching behind, she laid the flowers on the table, then wrapped her arms around him and let him have his way.
“I love this color on you. Hell! I love you,” he said after ending the kiss.
