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“We had sex, Mark,” she said flatly. “No promises were made, no declarations given, no strings attached. Let me make this perfectly clear to you. I haven’t been sitting by the phone in hopes you’d call. I didn’t expect you to show up with flowers and candy and spouting love poems. It was just one night, Mark,” she said in a voice that sounded forceful. “I needed some comforting that night. It was nothing more.” She ignored his wince at her blunt word choice. She mentally put his expression down to a fragile male ego. Not that what she said might matter to him. That she might matter to him.
Mark leaned back against his chair, one arm draped along the back.
“Don’t ignore the truth, Nora. We had more than a one-night stand,” he said softly.
“I was grieving for a beloved relative,” she stated just as softly. “I was vulnerable.”
“Don’t try to say I took advantage of you.”
“I’m not saying that!” She paused and took a deep breath. “You’re off the hook, Mark.”
He shot to his feet so fast his chair fell backward onto the floor.
He blew up at her. “Off the hook? Who the hell said I thought something that ridiculous? Dammit, Nora! Can’t a guy just stop by to see a woman? Can’t he come over to see how she’s doing when she’s been through a rough time without her thinking the worst of him?”
“Are you saying you came by here without an ulterior motive?” She smiled when she saw the guilty flicker in his eyes.
Bingo!
“I was worried about you.”
His simple statement doused the fury still roaring inside her like a cold shower. Nora collapsed against the counter. Her hands gripped the edge so tightly the knuckles turned white from the strain.
“I’m fine,” she managed to say eventually but not convincingly.
“No, you’re not.”
She laughed. “Are you calling me a liar?”
“Only someone who’s lying to herself.” He walked over to her and gently pried one of her hands away from the counter’s edge. His thumb gently caressed the inside of her wrist in a manner that wasn’t the least bit intimate. “Pulse a little too fast. Pupils reacted a little quickly. Shallow breaths,” he recited. He smiled at her look of surprise. “Honey, you forget I’m a trained paramedic. I can recognize the signs of full-blown panic a mile away.”
She snatched her hand back. “I am perfectly calm.” That wasn’t panic in her voice, was it? She hadn’t counted on her emotions getting the best of her. “Dammit, Mark! Why are you here? We had a nice night, but that’s all it was. Afterward, you were supposed to go your way while I went mine. You weren’t supposed to return to the scene of the crime!”
He looked affronted. “I don’t recall doing anything illegal.” He screwed up his face in thought. “Well, maybe in some states people could consider that one thing…” He paused with a meaningful look.
“Stop it!” She didn’t care that his wince meant her shriek was less than pleasant to his eardrums. “Stop the jokes. Stop the ‘I wanted to know you were all right’ idiocy. Just stop it all!” She blinked furiously to keep the tears from falling. She was positive that at that moment she downright hated the man. The last thing she wanted was for him to see her cry. She took a deep breath to settle herself down and waited for Mark to crack one of the many jokes that resided in his memory bank. She was certain that he could come up with one that would fit the occasion.
Instead, he stood there and calmly looked at her as if she hadn’t just screamed at him. Silence stretched between them like a taut wire.
Mark moved a step forward. He lifted his hand to cup her cheek. She resisted the urge to lean into his touch. She closed her eyes against the tumultuous feelings welling up inside her.
“Please go,” she whispered, keeping her eyes closed.
“You don’t want me to go, Nora.” His breath was a warm caress against her forehead.
“Yes, I do.”
“Then open your eyes, look directly at me and tell me to go,” Mark murmured.
Her lips parted slightly. Whatever she was about to say was swallowed up by Mark capturing her mouth with his own.
A dizzying sensation she’d only experienced once before returned in full force. She gripped his shoulders as her knees gave way and the world spun crazily around her. She tasted the rich flavor of chocolate on his tongue, felt the hardness of his body against her. For one wild moment she wanted to crawl inside his body and just plain feel.
“Do you really want me to go, Nora?” he murmured against her ear.
She dragged her senses to the surface as her lips formed the word yes.
“No,” came out instead as she drew his mouth back to hers.
Mark didn’t need to be reminded where Nora’s bedroom was. Nor did he have to be forcibly dragged to the back of the house. He kicked the door shut and danced Nora toward the bed.
Nora was left awash in sheer sensation as she reveled in Mark.
A faint scent of lime was on his cheeks, the taste of chocolate on his tongue and the sound of seduction as he whispered in her ear.
Clothing fell to the carpet a piece at a time. Sheets rustled their own story as they dropped onto the bed.
She arched up under his touch as he reacquainted himself with every inch of her body. Lightning zigzagged through her body as he pressed his mouth against her nipple and gently suckled. As if he wasn’t making her crazy enough, he started moving farther down, dropping soft kisses along the way.
“Mark!” she wailed, blindly reaching for him. She was greedy for all he could give her.
“Just wait. It will get better,” he promised, pausing long enough to drop a kiss on her belly button before moving farther downward.
Nora threw back her head as she laughed. The sound that emerged was thin and high-pitched.
“Promises, promises. Ah!” she gasped as his forefinger brushed against the ultrasensitive nub of flesh.
She felt shock waves course through her as his fingertips brushed it again. Before she had a chance to recover, she felt his warm breath. After that, she knew nothing as she rode each cresting wave. Even then, Mark didn’t allow her to catch her breath before he moved up and over her.
“Open your eyes, Nora,” he ordered. His hips rested comfortably against her as if they were made to be together.
Except she noticed they weren’t exactly together. Not that there was any hesitation on his part. There was no doubt he was very interested. She could feel the proof against her. She didn’t want him merely nuzzling against her, she wanted him inside her.
“Mark!” She wiggled her hips against him.
“Look at me!”
She opened her eyes and looked up into eyes that were such a bright color, she felt as if she were drowning in a white-hot blaze of blue. Her hands had been gripping his shoulders. Now they reached up and cupped his face.
“Show me the world, Mark,” she murmured, bathing his lower lip with the tip of her tongue.
His smile flashed white as he bent his head to kiss her deeply at the same time as he thrust into her. Her hips arched up at the same time.
Mark not only showed Nora the world, he flew with her into the outer reaches of the cosmos.
Chapter Three
“Something is going on and I want to know what it is,” Ginna insisted.
Nora buried her nose in the newspaper. She couldn’t believe it. Her friend had been in the salon for barely ten minutes and she already sensed something. If Nora hadn’t had a full day booked she would have stayed home no matter how much she wanted to see Ginna.
“Did you know scientists found a dinosaur egg in an ice cave and they were able to successfully hatch it?” Nora reported in a bright voice. “And everyone thought those movies were fiction.” She gave an unladylike little snort.
“Nora!” The paper was snatched out of her hands. “You always make fun of those papers.”
She looked up with guileless eyes. “Do you mind? I’m studying for my next appointment. Mrs. Crockett loves to discuss the latest tabloid headlines. This way I can hold my own in the conversation.”
Ginna lowered her voice. “Mrs. Crockett also believes little green men visit her once a month and on Arbor Day. They go out for brunch and come back to her house for bridge.”
“That’s because they love her lemon tea cakes.”
Ginna dropped into the chair beside Nora. The women were relaxing in the well-appointed break room set up for the employees of the Steppin’ Out Hair Salon and Day Spa.
When Ginna had walked inside the salon that morning she’d gone over to Nora, studied her face and hugged her hard.
“You better tell me what is going on,” she’d whispered in her friend’s ear just before she released her.
Nora had been able to avoid any private conversation with Ginna all morning thanks to a heavy schedule. Zach showed up to kidnap Ginna for lunch. Now she was back with a little too-pleased brightness to her smile and stalking Nora with single-minded intent.
Nora’s time was up. She carefully folded the paper and set it down.
“Let’s see. You had a beautiful wedding and an even more beautiful honeymoon. You have a husband who adores you and two stepchildren who are absolute dolls. I am happy that you’ve found your true love in Zach, I really am. Yes, I’m a little envious, but I know you understand and forgive me for that envy.”
“You’ve been through a lot in the last month, sweetie. I saw your sorrow and I wished I could have been with you. But what I see in your eyes now isn’t all grief,” Ginna murmured. “I see confusion in there too and I don’t think it has anything to do with your grandmother’s death. Does it?”
Nora took a deep breath. She should have known Ginna’s sharp eye would pick up on her unsettled emotions.
Since the morning she’d woken up beside Mark again, she’d asked herself why she’d invited him back into her bed. She knew she couldn’t blame him. He’d taken his cues from her. She couldn’t lie to herself that she didn’t know what she was doing. Because she did know what she was doing and it was eating her up inside.
Making love with Mark transcended anything she’d ever experienced before. The two nights she’d spent with him were a pure sensual joy she could easily find herself addicted to. It had been a month and she still recalled every moment they spent together.
She was already addicted to that joy and craved more. Except that meant adding Mark to the equation. That was a dangerous combination.
“I miss Grammy Fran. I miss our nightly talks on the phone, her visits down here every Thanksgiving through Christmas and my visits up there every summer. I miss her advice,” Nora replied. “But I feel her spirit with me all the time and that helps. That’s probably what you see.”
Ginna leaned forward, propping her chin in her cupped palm as she stared at her friend. Nora resisted the urge to fidget under her piercing gaze. She’d forgotten Ginna’s eyes were the same brilliant-blue color as Mark’s. All the Walker family shared the identical eye color.
Except, while Ginna’s examined her with a disconcerting thoroughness, Mark’s eyes seduced her.
“Anyone I know?” Ginna asked softly.
Some kind of temporary insanity tempted me to make love with your brother, not just one night but two. The man is a genius in bed. He had me practically screaming with pleasure. Is that what you wanted to know?
“Nora, Mrs. Crockett is here.” A tall willowy woman in her early twenties seemed to float through the doorway. An off-the-shoulder peasant-style blouse in a creamy white topped a handkerchief hem skirt in the same color. Decorative embroidery in reds, yellows and greens highlighted a color that would have normally been boring at best. Black hair was skimmed back from an oval face that could have easily graced an antique cameo. Tan leather strappy sandals graced narrow arched feet with toes tinted the same red as the embroidery in her skirt and blouse. An equally narrow waist was cinched with a soft leather belt.
“Thank you, Paige,” Nora said, grateful for the interruption.
“She is so different from Renee,” Ginna commented, mentioning the receptionist who had worked at the front desk until just before Ginna’s wedding.
Nora nodded. “Paige is twenty-three and a graduate of Vassar who’s trying to decide what to do with her life. Her father is a producer at Warner Bros. and her mother designs jewelry that starts at five figures and she’s a close friend of the spa’s owner, CeCe. Paige’s ancestry goes back five generations in this state. Her great-great-grandfather was a senator and an aunt a couple generations back was in the Ziegfeld Follies. The woman later married a railroad magnate,” Nora replied. “CeCe said Paige needed to find her true self and she would be able to do it here. She’s a real sweetheart, to boot.”
“Good thing I snagged Zach before he got a look at Miss Way-Too-Good-To-Be-True,” Ginna said dryly. “Otherwise, I would have had to kill him to make sure he didn’t talk to her.”
“I doubt that would have happened. He was hooked from the first second he saw you. He even admitted it.”
Ginna grinned. “Yeah, I did look really good that day.” She waved her hands at Nora. “All right, escape to your client. I’ll corner you later and find out what’s happened while I was gone.” She heaved a theatrical sigh. “It’s not fair. I go away for a few weeks and I miss out on all the fun.”
“Somehow I doubt you thought about any of us while you were gone,” Nora teased as she fled.
For the next hour, Nora was relieved only to have to listen to her beloved client’s stories about past alien abduction.
“I know you think I’m cuckoo, dear, but I don’t mind.” Mrs. Crockett patted Nora’s hand after Nora finished styling her snowy-white hair. “My friends certainly think that, although they’re nice enough not to say so out loud. I appreciate you being so sweet and listening to me prattle on.”
“You don’t prattle. You use such vivid imagery when you tell me about your adventures, I think you should write about them,” Nora urged her. “There are magazines out there that would publish your stories.”
Mrs. Crockett’s eyes twinkled merrily. “Actually, I have written a few tales,” she admitted in her whispery-soft voice. “In fact, I would love it if you would read one of my little stories.” She dug into her briefcase-size black purse and pulled out several sheets of paper.
Nora took them from her. “I’m flattered you’re asking me,” she said honestly.
“You don’t have to be kind with your critique, dear.” The elderly woman patted her arm. “But I would be interested in your response.”
“I’ll read it before I see you next week,” Nora promised.
She watched the elderly woman walk toward the front of the salon where an equally elderly man sat on one of the soft-cushioned couches. His wrinkled face lit up in a smile as she approached him. The two walked out together, arm in arm.
“I thought Mrs. Crockett was a widow,” Ginna commented, following the direction of Nora’s gaze.
“She is. That’s Harold, her boyfriend,” she explained. “She told me she likes to call him her boyfriend because he makes her feel seventeen again. It seems they were high-school sweethearts, had a fight back then and they broke up. They didn’t run into each other again until a few years ago. Both spouses are gone and they decided to give it one more try.”
“How adorable! Did she ever say what the fight was about?”
Nora chuckled. “He wanted them to be intimate, she told him no. Sixty years later, they’re living together. She said she hasn’t told her mother she’s living in sin. The woman would be horrified.”
“You mean her mother’s still alive?”
“She’s ninety-eight and going strong. She lives in Leisure World in Laguna Niguel.”
“And now Mrs. Crockett is writing stories about her alien visitors?” Ginna eyed the papers with curiosity.
Nora nodded as she held up the papers. “For the past sixty years they’ve met for brunch at one of the hotels in Newport Beach. She’s never said which one.”
“Since your next appointment is here and I have a free hour, may I read the story?” Ginna’s glance focused on the papers.
Nora handed them to her. “Don’t tell me the ending.”
As she worked that afternoon, Nora found herself looking toward the front every now and then. Did she expect Mark to walk through the door and declare that she was the only one for him? Was that why she’d spent the past few nights picking up her phone every now and then to make sure it was working? Or looking out the window every time Brumby gave one of his rumbling barks? She was furious with herself for these feelings of expectation.
After all, she was the one who’d told him that what they had was nothing more than sex. She didn’t want any ties between them. She didn’t want to expect more and have him fail her somewhere down the road. She had pretty much told him she would prefer he didn’t come back.
“I am such a hypocrite,” she muttered to herself as she stood in the supply room selecting hair color.
“Nora!” Ginna ran into the room. The papers Nora had given her were in her hand.
Nora turned and noticed her friend’s high color. “What’s wrong?”
Ginna carefully folded the papers in half then half again. “I suggest you stand in a cold shower when you read this.”
“What?”
Ginna laughed. “Trust me, Nora. This stuff is so hot it’s downright sizzling. Mrs. Crockett didn’t just write about her alien visitors, she wrote about their sexual practices. This makes the Kama Sutra sound like a grade-school textbook.”
“Their what?”
Ginna nodded. Her blue eyes danced with laughter. “We aren’t talking about little green men here either. We’re talking about guys with huge orange—” She gulped. “I can’t go on. The thing is, she writes an incredibly believable story. It doesn’t read like a joke.” She lowered her voice. “It reads like the truth.”
Nora took the papers from her and tucked them into her skirt pocket. “No offense, Gin, but I think you honeymooned a little too hard.”
“After I read her story I wanted to call up Zach and tell him to be ready, because I was going to jump his bones big-time when I get home,” Ginna admitted as she walked back to the door. “If she gives you any more stories, I want to read them!”
Nora shook her head in disbelief. “Oh yes, the woman had way too much honeymoon,” she muttered under her breath.
“HEADS UP, little brother.”
Mark looked up at Jeff, who held out a can of beer. He accepted the icy can. “I just finished three straight games of dodgeball with twenty million kids. I’m discovering I’m getting too old for those games.” They were at their parents’ house for the family weekend barbecue.
“You volunteered to be their first target,” Jeff reminded him. He dropped into the patio chair next to him. “So who are you looking for?”
“Your hot-stuff wife. Who else?” Not for anything was he going to admit who he was really looking for.
Mark knew Nora had a standing invitation to attend the weekend barbecues and any other party thrown by the Walkers. She’d still shown up once in a while even after they had broken up.
It wasn’t until today that Mark realized Nora hadn’t been out here for some time. For the past couple of years, he’d been able to put her out of his mind. Mainly because it was easier that way rather than constantly wondering what went wrong between them. It was only after the first time they made love that he’d found himself looking for her. Not that he asked about her. Privacy about one’s love life wasn’t an option in the Walker family. If he asked about Nora, his mother would want to know if they were dating again. There was no way he’d admit they’d slept together. Cathy Walker would be making noises that it was time for her baby boy to get married. Then Jeff and Brian would join in on the chorus…and Ginna. Hell, Ginna would just plain make his life miserable. She’d done more than her share of that right after he and Nora broke up.
He’d always felt Ginna’s accusations about his being a scuzzball were unfounded. After all, he’d been the injured party in the relationship. All he knew was that they’d gone out for the evening, at some point she had turned a little surly, and by the end of the night she had told him not to call her anymore. When he’d demanded a reason, all she’d said was that she finally saw him for what he was and she didn’t like it. When he’d asked her exactly what she meant, she’d coldly informed him that he, of all people, ought to know. He’d left her house confused, angry and just plain hurt. He had called her, wanting to know what went wrong, and she had refused to even speak to him. Finally, he’d pushed his hurt deep down inside and went looking for any woman who would assure him he was still a stud. He’d never admitted that his mega-dating spree hadn’t helped one bit.
To this day, he still had no idea what he supposedly did wrong that night. And he still wanted to know.
Come to think of it, he’d add to that interrogation by asking Nora why she pretty much threw him out of her house that second morning. Some hostess she’d been. The last time, she didn’t even offer him coffee.
“Like hell you’re looking for my wife,” Jeff said amiably, stretching his legs out in front of him. “Admit it. Abby terrifies you.”
“Yeah, she does have that scary quality, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like looking at her. Your wife is one hot-looking babe. Ow!” He clapped his hands on top of his head where he’d just been delivered a painful thump.
“Ingrate,” Abby Walker informed her brother-in-law with a shark’s smile. She stepped around him and dropped into her husband’s lap. She looped her arm around Jeff’s neck as she studied Mark. “No wonder you can’t keep a girlfriend. You always look like a fugitive from a Jimmy Buffet concert.”
“I give you a compliment and this is what I get in return?” Mark grumbled.
“Be grateful you didn’t get worse.” Abby stared him down.
“Fine, you’re an old crone.”
Which everyone knew was untrue. Not when Abby was blessed with California-blonde good looks. As a mother of three small children, she should have looked tired and worn out. Instead, she was the picture of energy and health in a pair of pink floral-print capris and a solid-pink tank top that bared her flat midriff. Her sun-golden blond hair was pulled back in a complicated braid he knew Ginna had created that morning. At the moment, Abby looked more like a college cheerleader than a thirty-something mom of three young children who kept her constantly running.
Until recently, Mark hadn’t bothered to consider how lucky his older brother was. Now he looked at Jeff and saw more than a guy who had lost his freedom on his wedding day. Now he saw the father of twin girls and a boy who was starting to walk, a loving husband to a woman who was drop-dead beautiful. He remembered when his brother seemed to have a girlfriend for every day of the week. Then Abby flew into Jeff’s life with hurricane force and Mark’s big bad brother had fallen like a ton of bricks for the energetic blonde.
Mark watched Brian on the other side of the yard talking to their dad. Brian had been something of a party animal too. Then Nikki, their baby sister, put Brian’s picture and personal information on the Steppin’ Out’s Blind Date Central bulletin board and Dr. Gail Douglas chose him to accompany her to a dinner. Instead, they were carjacked, kidnapped, dumped in the middle of nowhere, caught in a rainstorm and, after spending the night in an abandoned house, almost arrested for trespassing.
Gail was an uptight, no-nonsense pediatrician and Brian was a laid-back, easygoing guy. Who knew they’d end up together along with a baby girl conceived on that memorable night?
Mark suddenly felt a tightening in his throat as he looked around at his family that seemed to be growing at a steady rate.
His oldest brother had the kind of family Norman Rockwell painted.
His other brother was well on his way to having Hallmark’s idea of a perfect family.
One sister was now married with two stepchildren who fit right in with the Walker clan.