“Yes, she’s fine. I, uh … we just need a little privacy. Do you mind?”
“Not at all. I’m due in the OR to scrub in and start the procedure anyway.” He cleared his throat as he passed to leave. “Lock the door and no one will disturb you.”
I set Delaine down on the couch after he left, but when I tried to pull away, she grabbed my arms and looked up at me pleadingly. “No, please don’t leave me.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Lanie. I promise. I’m just going to lock the door, okay?”
She nodded and reluctantly released her hold. I quickly went to the door and turned the bolt before stopping by the mini refrigerator to grab a bottle of water. “Here, drink this,” I said, removing the top and handing it to her.
She took a tiny sip and then set it on the table. I’d no sooner sat down beside her than she was crawling into my lap and laying her head on my shoulder. She was still shaking and quite visibly upset, and I had no idea how to calm her down.
“Shh, it’s okay, baby. Everything’s going to be okay now,” I said, rubbing her back and kissing the top of her head. “What’s got you so upset? Talk to me.”
“Oh, God, Noah, it’s not okay. She’s dying. Or at least she was dying, but now your uncle says they have a donor, and I was such a bitch to him at the ball. But all I knew was that she was dying and Dez came to get me and I had to get here, and I was scared to death that I wouldn’t get here fast enough. I didn’t want to leave you, but I had to. And I needed you here, but you weren’t because you ran away from me this morning and I was so pissed at you. I wanted to yell at you. I wanted to smack you upside your beautiful, stupid head and you weren’t there, but you weren’t here, either. And I still kind of want to yell at you and punch you, but I can’t because you’re here now and I just want to be in your arms. You left me. …”
She was hyperventilating and ranting incoherently at the same time, and the tears were back in full force, but I understood every word she’d said. She was upset and scared, and I hadn’t been there when she needed me the most. She was right: I was stupid. And she had way too fucking much on her plate to have to deal with my shit on top of it.
“I know, kitten. I’m sorry,” I said, and I fucking meant it. “I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere until you tell me you don’t want me here anymore.”
“Good. Because I swear to God, Noah Patrick Crawford, if you leave me again, I’m going to be the one holding you down while Dez cuts your balls off,” she said, and then there were more tears.
I sat there with her, rocking her back and forth while she got it all out. Her tears, her rants, her frustrations, her sadness, all of it. After a while she grew quiet, and at first I thought she’d fallen asleep, but then she looked up at me through swollen eyes and smiled. I kissed the tip of her little nose, tinged pink from her crying, before returning her smile.
“I’ve ruined your shirt,” she said with a hoarse voice.
“It’s only a shirt, Lanie. It’ll be fine,” I said, rubbing her arm. “I’m more worried about you.”
“I’m sorry I broke down on you like that, taking you hostage on board the train to Crazy Town. Not many people know this about me, but I take regular trips there, just so you know,” she said with an embarrassed shrug. She reached forward and grabbed a tissue out of the box on the table.
I chuckled lightly in response. “It’s not a secret. But I happen to find that trait very endearing about you.”
She laughed halfheartedly and dabbed at her tearstained cheeks. “How long have you been here?”
“Not long enough.” I took the tissue and finished the job for her. “Congratulations on having gotten a donor, by the way.”
“You did that, didn’t you?”
Looking at myself through her eyes should’ve made me feel twenty feet tall, but I knew the truth, and so should she. “I hardly have that kind of power, Lanie.”
“Bullcrap. You can do anything, Noah Crawford. You got Daniel to come, didn’t you?”
“I may have asked him to oversee your mother’s care, yes.”
“Then you’re her savior by default, because if he hadn’t stepped in, Mom wouldn’t have gotten that donor heart.”
I sighed and took her chin in my hand and looked into her eyes. “I’m no superhero, Lanie. But I’d take a speeding bullet for you, maybe face down a powerful locomotive with nothing but a raised hand in defense, or even leap tall buildings in a single bound to get to you. Anything it takes to make you happy … because I love you, and that’s all the reason I need.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered.
The blood in my veins surged and my heart swelled to the point I thought it might burst right out of my chest. She loved me. My million-dollar baby loved me.
“I may not have all kinds of pretty words to express it like you do, but—”
“Hey,” I said, stopping her rambling before she got going again. “That’s all I need—to know you love me.”
Lanie closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. When she opened them again, she looked into mine and said, “Noah Crawford, I love you so much sometimes it’s like I can’t breathe because my heart is smothering my lungs.”
That did it for me.
Slowly leaning forward, I nipped at her bottom lip before taking it between my own for a sensual kiss. She fisted my shirt as I pulled away slightly and then kissed her again and again, each time deepening it a little more. It wasn’t enough for her, and truthfully, it wasn’t enough for me, either. Thankful the door was still locked, I maneuvered out from under her so she could lie back on the couch before settling on one bended knee between her legs. Just as anxious as I, Lanie tugged on my shirt, pulling me down to her until our chests were flush.
We were making out like a couple of teenagers on the couch in my uncle’s office, and I felt so alive. My hand traveled up her thigh and under the hem of her dress, and I stopped abruptly when I got to her hip. Something was very much out of place.
I hooked my fingers under the elastic band there and snapped it. “What the hell is this, Miss Talbot?” I asked against her lips.
“Panties,” she answered breathlessly and then started a trail of suckling kisses down my neck.
“I know that. What are they doing on your body?” Panties had been expressly forbidden after Lanie had decided to throw a bitch tantrum and destroyed the very expensive collection of undergarments I had purchased for her. True, she had done it because the shop owner was my ex-lover and Lanie had been jealous of her, but the no-panties rule had remained in effect.
“Polly brought them to me along with the dress.” She cupped my ass and pulled my hips into hers.
“But you didn’t have to put them on,” I said, cupping her ass as well—her bare ass. Well, at least it was a thong.
She cursed and arched her back when I nipped at her neck and sucked languidly. “No, but you left me, and even though I didn’t really think you’d get a chance to see them, in my head, I’d gotten a little bit even. Besides, you ripped up the contract.” Her breathing was ragged, just like mine.
“Contract be damned, you still belong to me,” I said, grinding against her center and eliciting a moan from her to prove my point. “And you’ve been a naughty little girl, Delaine.”
She wrapped her legs around my hips. “Mmm, I love it when you get all possessive and threatening.”
This was what I loved about our relationship. We’d just confessed our undying love for each other, and there we were, about to get all kinds of kinky in my uncle’s office.
“Kitten, I would love nothing more than to dole out your punishment, but we have to stop before we get carried away,” I said, pulling back.
Lanie sighed and let her head fall onto the armrest, unwrapping her legs from around my waist. “You’re right.” With closed eyes, she took a deep breath to calm herself. Without warning, she huffed, shoved on my chest, and then scrambled into a sitting position to right her clothes. “See? This is the kind of stuff
you do to me, Noah Crawford. You come in here and get me all riled up, knowing that we can’t do anything about it, and my mother’s right down the hall, about to go into surgery. I have half a mind to tell my father all about how you’ve taken advantage of his sweet, innocent little girl and turned her into a walking poster for teenage hormones.”
She stopped abruptly. “Crap! Mack!”
I laughed. “What about him?”
“How am I going to explain you to him?”
“How about ‘Dad, this is my very rich, very hot boyfriend. He’s got a colossal cock and a wicked tongue’?” I licked my bottom lip to tease her, but she grabbed my tongue to stop me and narrowed her eyes at me.
“I’m serious, Noah.”
Pulling back, I made to nip at her fingers until she finally released me. “So am I, and I think I’ve already proven the validity of that statement, but I can always refresh your memory,” I said with an evil grin and a waggle of my brows. I slid my hand up the inside of her thigh, prepared to do that very thing.
“Noah!” She slapped my hand away and stood to pace the room. “My father thinks I’ve been away at college, not Noah Crawford’s House for Daughter Deflowering. How am I going to say we met?”
With a shrug, I offered up the most logical solution. “I’ll leave. That way he doesn’t have to know anything about me.”
She stopped dead in her tracks and turned on me with a finger aimed in my direction. “You’re not going anywhere! I swear, Noah. I can’t even think about—”
“Okay, calm down,” I said, cutting her rant off and throwing my hands up in surrender.
Appeased, Lanie dropped her hands to her hips and started chewing on her bottom lip. If she didn’t stop doing that, we weren’t going to make it out of there without fucking like bunnies. I stood and crossed the room, forcing her to release the meaty morsel from between her teeth and then cupping her face. “I’ll think of something. Just go back to your mother’s room and find some way to tell Polly and Dez to meet me here without your father knowing.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know yet, but I’m sure if the three of us put our heads together, we’ll come up with something believable.”
“Okay.”
I gave her a chaste yet soft kiss and walked her to the door.
“Hey,” I said, stopping her before she left. She turned to look at me. “I love you.”
The smile she gave me was so electric it could’ve powered the entire city of Chicago. “I love you, too.”
3
HORS D’OEUVRES
Noah
We had a plan. It took us four hours to come up with it, but we finally had one. Of course, some of that time was spent waiting on my cousin Lexi, because Polly had decided we needed reinforcements.
“You’re a disgusting pig, you know that?” Lexi said to me after having sat through the explanation of why we needed her there.
Normally, I wouldn’t let anyone get away with talking to me like that, but this situation was different. Even if it hadn’t been, one chose their battles with my cousin carefully. To the public eye, Alexis Mavis was a business savvy lady who garnered much respect from men and women alike among society’s upper crust. But to those of us who knew her best, she was still that tomboy climbing trees and wading through dirty creek water in her white Sunday best to catch a toad. She said what was on her mind when it was on her mind, and she didn’t give a rat’s ass who liked it or not.
“Yes, I do,” I agreed, because it was true, but it was also irrelevant at that moment. “Regardless, it’s not like that now. I love her and she loves me, and she’s sitting in there with her father, unwilling to let me leave because she doesn’t want to have to go through all this shit by herself. Nor do I want her to. Now, are you going to help us or not?”
“Yes,” she finally agreed, and then gave me her signature bitch look. “But I’m only doing this for her because you obviously took advantage of the situation. She doesn’t deserve to go down in flames for something that you’re equally as guilty of, you enabler.”
I was fine with that, because she was right.
Lexi was actually the one who came up with the ingenious plan. I had no contribution to make because I couldn’t get the thought of Delaine wearing panties out of my head. It was a blatant disregard for my rule, a cheap shot, and she had to be punished—soon. I was looking forward to it.
“All right, team, let’s get out there and bring home the win,” Dez said. But when I made as if to leave the room, she blocked my way. She had the whole intimidating stare-down thing going on. “You and I still need to have a little chitchat, don’t you think?”
I might have been a tad afraid, because Dez looked like she’d eaten the head off a prison guard or two in her day after having fucked them stupid, praying-mantis style. Plus Lexi was poised for the tag-in.
“Can it wait? I don’t want to spend another moment away from Lanie.”
“Aww, how sweet are you?” she asked, her tone saccharine. I didn’t fall for the trick because I was a smart guy. Dez narrowed her eyes. “No, it can’t wait. You hurt her. I don’t care who you are or how much money you have—you shouldn’t be allowed to get away with that. Lanie loves you, though, so my hands are tied.” She stepped into my personal space, coming nose to nose with me. “But make her cry again and I will set fire to your testicles.”
I heard the flick of a lighter and immediately looked down to find she’d somehow managed to pickpocket and use my own damn lighter to drive her point home. I jumped back and grabbed my boys to make sure they were okay. Dez laughed, closing the lid on my lighter and slapping it to my chest.
“You should’ve seen your face!” Dez turned around and high-fived Lexi, aka my traitor of a cousin. Obviously blood was not thicker than water. Despite that, I was happy Lanie had someone else who would fight tooth and nail to protect her.
We finally made it out of Daniel’s office and were on our way toward Faye’s room when Dez sidled up to Lexi and linked arms with her. “So … sports agent, huh? You must have a lot of connections. Any chance you can get me into the Gators’ locker room? It’s sort of my lifelong dream. Okay, so maybe not my lifelong dream, but hello? Locker room, big manly men, nakedness … so my thing.”
Lexi chuckled. “Is that even a real question? Those college kids all think they’re the next big thing, so they’re usually champing at the bit to get me to visit their locker room. And FYI, they have no shame, but they do have teeny, tiny towels. So yeah, I can get you in. We should make a weekend of it.”
Dez covered her mouth with her hands and gasped. “You shut your dirty whorish mouth.”
“I will not,” Lexi laughed. “Brad isn’t keen on me making those trips without him. Not because he’s insecure, but because he knows they’re ogling what belongs to him and he’s a stingy little boy who doesn’t like to share his toys. Doesn’t matter, though, because he doesn’t get to tell me what to do. Tell you what. Since I really like you and all, I’ll set it up and give you a call. The whole trip will be my treat.”
“Alexis Mavis, from the bottom of my fatherfucking heart, I want to have your babies,” Dez said, completely serious. “No way am I going to get my hoohah all distorted to do so, but I’m pretty sure we could pay a doctor enough to make it so that I can push one out of my asshole for you. We could name him, her, it, whatever … Asstasia, or Buttford, or Derrierick,” she said, flaring her hands out with each name as if they were spelled out in lights on Broadway.
“Or you could just have a C-section,” Polly offered. All three of them burst out into a fit of giggles, drawing attention from the nurses and orderlies at the nurses’ station.
“Shh,” I hushed them, because we were nearing Faye’s room. “Okay, Lexi, go do your thing,” I said, putting my hand on the small of her back and giving her a push toward the door.
“Wait a minute, asshat!” At least she whispered it. Lexi turned on me and thumped me on the forehead. L
ucky for her, she was family. “Delicate shit like this takes finesse and preparation. You can’t just go rushing in without looking the part. Polly? Dez?”
I sighed in defeat and watched as Polly scurried off toward the water fountain with a paper cup. Lexi turned toward Dez, who started bunching Lexi’s clothes up in her hands while Lexi pinched and smacked at her own cheeks. When Polly returned, she drew her arm back as if to hurl the contents of the paper cup at Lexi, but Lexi stopped her. “Jesus Christ, Polly Pocket! I’m supposed to look like I’ve been rushing, not like the winner of a wet T-shirt contest!”
“Oh, right. My bad,” Polly said with a sheepish grin.
“Okay. Now …” Lexi mussed her hair, threw her shoulders back, and then lifted her chin. “Drizzle me, baby. Make me sweat.”
There were about a million rude and crude things I could’ve said in response to that comment, but the short-lived satisfaction from the zing wouldn’t have been worth it in the end. Lexi was the reigning queen of a very long game of guerrilla wordfare, a game in which verbal assault was our weapon of choice. We’d been playing it since we were kids, so I knew she would most definitely get her revenge and we didn’t have time for that. Plus, I was pretty sure Lanie would’ve tied me to a car bumper, stomped on the gas pedal, and dragged my ass down the middle of the street until my balls had a thorough case of road rash for insulting her friend. The thought of picking tiny pebbles out of my sack with tweezers for the next year of my life was not the least bit appealing, so I let it go.
Polly dipped the tips of her fingers into the cup and flicked them toward Lexi’s face, neck, and chest until she looked, very convincingly, like she’d been rushing around in a panic. Afterward, Lexi breathed in and out rapidly until she was practically panting. Then she turned toward the door and yanked it open with a purpose that perfectly mimicked the plan we had set in motion.
Lanie
The wait was excruciating; sort of like waiting to see if the little white stick you just peed all over was going to show one line or two after a drunken one-night stand where the person you ended up going home with was a scrub with no job, no money, and no control over their bodily functions. Okay, so I didn’t really know anything about that, but I had an imagination and I watched a lot of cable television. My mother was in surgery, my father was sitting patiently beside me as he read the local newspaper, and Noah was somewhere in the building concocting God only knew what sort of plan to explain his presence in my little corner of the western hemisphere. My fingernails couldn’t withstand the torture my gnawing teeth were putting on them for much longer, and I was pretty sure that if you put a lump of coal between my ass cheeks you were going to get a diamond the size of a baseball.