Читать книгу Lone Star Wedding - Sandra Steffen, Sandra Steffen - Страница 11

“Look, Parker, there’s a paddleboat.”

Parker glanced at the contraption moored to the edge of the boardwalk that lined the San Antonio River. Yes, he supposed the apparatus floating on two plastic pontoons was in the paddleboat category. Why Hannah was hurrying toward it was beyond him. “Where are you going?”

She slowed down as she glanced over her shoulder, but he noticed she didn’t stop completely. “I heard they were going to try these out again along with the newer, motor-powered ones they’ve been using these past several years. Let’s take a boat ride. Hurry, before someone else beats us to it.”

Following her around a table of women who were lingering over desserts and iced teas along Paseo del Rio, or River Walk, a dining and shopping district in downtown San Antonio, Parker wondered if he was the only one who noticed that people weren’t exactly lining up to ride the leg-powered devices. He figured there was a good reason for that. It required energy, something that Hannah hadn’t run out of since they’d set off on their “little” walk an hour and a half ago.

It turned out he and Hannah had two entirely different approaches to walking. He’d expected a leisurely stroll down Smith Street, and had assumed that taking a walk involved walking. Hannah took flight. He’d planned to find a quiet table in a coffeehouse somewhere. Hannah had informed him that she didn’t drink coffee. It was the caffeine. It was bad for a person. When he got home, Parker was going to have to alert the press. If he had enough energy left to make it home.

She had more energy than she could contain.

She’d met him at the door wearing an airy brown skirt that rode low at the waist and stopped a few inches above her ankles. Once again, it wasn’t the color that drew his attention, but the fit and style. Her shirt bared her arms and part of her shoulders. It wasn’t tight, but it was cropped short at the waist. When she moved just right, he caught a glimpse of her navel. And the woman moved a great deal. If she ever found herself in need of another occupation, she could try her hand at modeling. Her mixture of wholesomeness and sensuality would undoubtedly sell everything from women’s jeans to lingerie.

He was imagining her in lingerie right now. A serious mistake for any man who needed to keep his wits about him.

Hannah stepped onto the paddleboat. The seat was wide enough for two people. It occurred to her that Parker wasn’t excited about climbing off the boardwalk and sitting on the other half of the seat. He appeared lost in thought, the same breeze that lifted the hair off her shoulders trifling with the collar of his knit shirt. “Are you coming?” she asked.

He slid his hands to his hips, peering first one way and then the other. “How far do you want to go?”

She stared up at him, remembering when he’d said they would have to arm wrestle to determine that. His gaze warmed at least ten degrees as it slid over her, letting her know he was thinking the same thing. Oh, no, he didn’t. She wasn’t touching that line.

“There’s a little ice-cream store just beyond that curve in the river.” She pointed to a series of lights upriver, but wound up waving at another paddleboat coming their way.

“I don’t recall seeing an ice-cream place in the area.”

“It’s been there forever. I thought you said you grew up in San Antonio.”

“My family wasn’t the type to go out for ice cream.”

This was the first time he’d mentioned his family all evening. She’d met his father, the legendary J. D. Malone, at Lily and Ryan’s party. She’d be hard pressed to say for sure whether she liked or disliked the man.

“My family didn’t always have a lot of money for things like going to ice-cream parlors,” she said. His eyes narrowed, and she threw up her hands. “My mother isn’t after Ryan’s money, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I didn’t say she was.”

“You didn’t have to. My brother’s an attorney. I know how your minds work. My mother may have been poor as a child, but there’s no disgrace in that. She and my father worked hard in the grocery store they owned back in Leather Bucket. There’s no disgrace in working hard, either. After my father died, my mother went back to college. She’s perfectly capable of earning her own living on what she makes as manager of special functions at the Willow Creek Hotel. She’s marrying Ryan because she loves him.”

In some far corner of her mind, Hannah was aware that Parker had taken the seat next to her, but she didn’t consciously acknowledge his presence until her voice had trailed away and the only sound was that of the water falling over the paddlewheel at the back of their boat. She glanced up at him. He was looking at her in silence, making no attempt whatsoever to hide the fact that he was watching her.

“Sometimes I get a little carried away defending the people I love.”

“I like a woman who gets carried away.”

Hannah knew better than to comment. She was becoming well enough acquainted with him to realize that Parker Malone rarely spoke without thinking. There were layers to what he said, hidden meanings, underlying messages. Cole was like that to an extent. Maybe all attorneys were. Her brother was good at what he did, and Hannah was proud of him, but Parker took innuendo farther than anyone she’d ever known.

“Let’s get this boat moving, shall we?” she asked, manning the steering lever between them.

At five feet seven, she’d always considered her legs long, but Parker’s were longer. He might have complained a little about the distance they’d come, but he hadn’t so much as broken a sweat from the exertion. His flat-front khakis and navy-blue shirt were the kinds of clothes hundreds of sharp, young executive types wore, but Parker’s hugged muscles that were obviously accustomed to a good workout. She wondered what drove him. She wanted to know everything about him, but she was beginning to realize that information of a personal manner was seldom forthcoming.

She steered around a paddleboat that was drifting slowly down the river, a Just Married sign on the back, the man and woman lost in a long, searing kiss. Once they were out of hearing range, Hannah whispered, “When my sister and I were little, we used to sing ‘first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Johnny pushing a baby carriage’ every time we saw a couple kissing like that.”

Hannah’s thoughts became introspective. There were fond memories of good times and shared secrets between her and Maria. A few.

“In five years,” Parker was saying, his deep voice drawing her out of her musings, “they’ll be fighting over who gets to keep the baby carriage.”

Hannah shook her head. “You’re a natural born romantic, Parker.”

“I’m a realist.”

“I don’t have my thesaurus handy. Is that another word for pessimist?”

“If it isn’t, it should be.”

They’d reached the landing area in front of the trendy ice-cream store. Parker stepped out and moored the boat to a little pier, but Hannah made no move to climb onto the lighted dock. “You make divorce sound inevitable.”

He brushed his hands on his thighs. “Fifty percent of all marriages in this country end in divorce. In other words, half of the people who have stars in their eyes when they come to you will be shooting daggers at each other by the time they come to me.”

She took the hand he held out to her and stepped onto the dock. His cynicism was more difficult to accept. “What about the other fifty percent?”

“I didn’t invent the statistics, Hannah. I’m only repeating them.”

The river swirled by, lapping at the paddleboat, splashing softly against the pier. Hannah was very aware of the color of the sky in the deepening twilight, of the warmth of Parker’s hand around hers, and the directness of his gaze. “Do you still want that ice cream?” he asked.

She shook her head. The ice-cream parlor had merely been a destination. Now, she wanted to make him understand. Better yet, she wanted to change his mind about his views on marriage. “All your statistics don’t seem to be slowing people down,” she said. “My day planner is full of names of couples who still believe in marriage. It seems as if I’m invited to a bridal shower every other week. I’d just come from one the first time we met. It was where I’d received that embarrassing little package of consolation prizes.”

He released her hand. As if by unspoken agreement, they started back toward Smith Street. “I thought those little numbers were only passed around at bachelor parties.”

“Men pass out condoms at bachelor parties?”

“It’s been known to happen.”

This was a subject that had always made her curious. “What else do men do at those things?”

“Telling you would require using obscenities.”

She looked up at him in silent expectation.

“I don’t talk dirty to a woman so early in a relationship.”

“We’re not having a relationship.”

“If you’d agree to come home with me, that would change.”

The deep cadence of his voice was as dusky as a whisper, as sensuous as a kiss placed ever so softly on her bare shoulder.

“Do you play chess, Hannah?”

Hmm. Her steps slowed and her breathing deepened. She was trying to follow the course the conversation was taking, really she was, but a young woman with dark hair and a skintight dress drew her attention. Why, it almost looked like Maria.

“Or are you more the arm-wrestling type?”

What would Maria be doing in San Antonio? She never came to the city anymore. Hannah’s heart beat a little harder. She loved her younger sister, and she ached for a glimpse of her. She wanted so much more.

“Hannah?”

“Hmm?”

“Is everything all right?”

She glanced up at Parker, and then back at the sidewalk across the street. She’d lost the young woman in the glare of headlights. Hannah surveyed the entire area. There were other dark-haired women out and about, but the woman in the brightly colored dress was nowhere to be seen.

“I’m fine,” she told Parker. “I thought I saw someone I knew.”

She told herself it couldn’t have been Maria. Surely there were a lot of women in San Antonio who bore the dark, exotic traits of their Apache and Mexican parentage. And Maria certainly wasn’t the only girl in Texas who had a walk she claimed measured seven point five on the Richter scale.

“An old flame?”

She tried to recall how the conversation had gone from bachelor parties to old flames. They’d reached an intersection a few blocks away from The Pink Flamingo. Waiting for the crossing signal, she studied Parker’s profile. His nose was straight, his chin was well defined and set at an angle that was the epitome of smugness. He glanced down, his gaze homing in on hers.

“Not an old flame. My sister. But it wasn’t. Either of those things. An old flame, I mean, or Maria.”

Hannah wondered when she’d become daft. While she was at it, she wondered when she’d been so drawn to a man she had no business being drawn to. She was so caught up in what was happening between her and Parker that she didn’t notice the voluptuous redhead until she’d sauntered up to Parker, ran a long, bloodred fingernail along his cheek, and slipped something into his pocket. She wiggled her hips, winked, puckered up her painted lips and kissed the air near Parker’s cheek.

With a quirk of her eyebrows, Hannah watched her saunter away. Oh, no, Maria most definitely did not have sole rights to provocative moves and gestures.

The Walk signal came on. Ignoring it, Hannah reached blithely into Parker’s pocket, pulling out a skimpy pair of panties. “How sweet.”

“That isn’t what it looks like.”

Hannah lifted her gaze to his. “This isn’t a pair of silk, thong bikini panties?”

“Silk? Really?”

She batted his hand away. “It’s white, but in this case I doubt it’s virginal.”

Parker regarded the item in Hannah’s hand. She was right. Paula was definitely no virgin. “All right. It’s what it looks like, but it isn’t what you’re thinking.”

“Then, she isn’t a friend of yours?”

“A client, actually. A former one. Paula’s just trying to show her appreciation.”

“For what, pray tell?”

The unusual combination of vitality and sarcasm in Hannah’s expression made it difficult for Parker not to smile. His heartbeat sounded in his own ears as they started across the street, hurrying at the prodding of a car horn.

Reluctant to release her elbow even though they’d reached the other side, he said, “I won her ten thousand dollars a month, the summer place, the winter condo in Florida, and if I remember correctly, the family poodle.”

“What did the husband get?”

“Let’s just say he’s never slipped a pair of his Jockey shorts into my pocket.”

“I’m relieved to hear it. Tell me, Parker…never mind.”

“What do you want to ask me?”

“It’s none of my business.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

They’d reached the sidewalk in front of The Perfect Occasion. She stared up at him, but she didn’t finish her question. He answered as if she had. “No, I don’t, Hannah.”

Her eyes must have shown her surprise, because he said, “That’s what you wanted to know, wasn’t it? If I sleep with my female clients?”

Some would call her a fool for believing him, but her instincts told her he was telling the truth. After all, he might have jumped to the wrong conclusion when they’d first met, but he hadn’t taken her up on what he’d thought she was proposing.

“Or were you wondering if I sleep with every woman who slips her underwear into my pocket? Why don’t you try it and find out?”

“That isn’t my style.”

He seemed to be assessing her statement. “Your style of panties? Or your style of invitations?”

She fought a valiant battle not to smile. And lost. “Neither.”

“Pity.”

The streetlight cast a white glow over Parker, deepening the blue of his eyes, making his smile appear stark and white and oh, so inviting.

“I like what you’re thinking.”

She closed her gaping mouth. Could the man read her mind?

“I want to see you again. Say you’ll have dinner with me tomorrow night.”

She shook her head, fitting her key into the lock. “We’re complete opposites.”

He took the key from her hand and opened the door. The man had smooth down to an art form. “Opposites attract.”

She chided herself for falling into that one. “This is a good place to end our walk, Parker.”

“I can think of a better place.”

She was on the first of two steps that led to another door, which ultimately led to her apartment above the boutique. “I’m not looking for a fling. I’m not into casual sex.”

“There would be nothing casual about the sex we’d have.”

Her breath came out in a rush. “You’re presumptuous.”

“I’m honest.”

“So you’ve said.”

“I honestly want you, Hannah. But I’ll settle for getting to know you better. For now. Invite me upstairs.”

He was standing so close she could feel his breath on her hair. Hannah loved summertime. She loved the heat, the intensity, the vibrancy of it; she didn’t even mind the humidity, but suddenly, she felt too warm. She couldn’t seem to come up with the word no, couldn’t seem to think, couldn’t seem to move.

Parker had no such problem. He tried another key, and opened the second door. “We can discuss the party, have a cup of—that’s right, you don’t drink coffee, it’s the caffeine—decaf. I can invite you to dinner, you can say yes, and then you can kiss me.”

Before she knew how it had happened, she was raising her face to his, and kissing him, exactly as he’d said. He hadn’t coached her about touching him, so that must have been her own idea. What an idea it was. He felt like a dream, but he was solid, hard, real. His shirt bunched in her fingers; heat radiated outward from his chest, his arms, his shoulders, warming her hands everywhere she touched.

One minute they were standing on the stairs behind a closed door; the next thing she knew she was sprawled on top of him on the stairs, a tangle of arms and legs, hearts racing, breathing erratic, mouths joined. His hand inched between their bodies, covering her breast. She arched toward him, passion rising up in her, clouding her brain.

She couldn’t control her gasp of pleasure at the feel of his mouth at her breast through the thin fabric of her shirt and the lace of her bra. She grasped his head, and whispered his name, only to groan slightly when the corner of the step jabbed into her back.

“Let’s go upstairs.” His voice was a husky murmur, at one with the tremor he’d started deep inside her. He rolled her on top of him, so that she straddled his legs. The level of intimacy in their positions was about to go through the roof.

She had to stop.

She wanted him to kiss her again. She wanted to feel his mouth on her naked skin.

“Hannah?”

Her head was spinning, but she heard herself say, “No, Parker.”

He went very still.

“We don’t even know each other,” she whispered. “And we just can’t do this. I just can’t do this.”

She felt the change that came over him. He stiffened. Not with anger, but with quiet acceptance. “I know I should apologize, but that felt too good, and I’m afraid I’m just not sorry.”

He’d said he was honest. Tugging at the hem of her shirt, she stood. He climbed to his feet much more slowly. She noticed he didn’t ask her to invite him upstairs again, but he wanted to. It was there in his eyes, in his deeply drawn breath and the grim set of his jaw.

“We never got around to discussing that party you mentioned this afternoon,” she said conversationally.

He quirked an eyebrow in her direction.

She shrugged. “I was trying to take your mind off it.”

To his credit, he didn’t say, “It?” But he might as well have. Hannah made a valiant effort not to smile.

Parker’s heart was still racing, his breathing was still deep. No wonder. He was still in the throes of a strong, swirling passion, and her “barely there” grin wasn’t helping. It wasn’t like him to lose control. Hell, he was thirty-one years old, not eighteen.

It was probably a good thing one of them had kept their wits about them. Probably. He bent one knee in an effort to ease the fit of his pants. It was going to take him a couple of minutes to get himself completely under control.

“I’ve always heard it’s helpful to think about negative things.”

Under other circumstances, there would have been something enchanting in her humor. “Unspent desire is negative,” he said.

She smoothed a hand down her skirt, and sat again, patting the space next to her. As he lowered to a sitting position on the steps, she said, “Perhaps it would be better to think more along the lines of a cash flow problem, or maybe the inflation rate, or world hunger, maybe, or family difficulties.”

He scowled.

Aha, she’d hit a nerve. “Tell me about your family.”

“There’s not a lot to tell.”

“There’s always a lot to tell when it comes to family. Everybody thinks their family is the only one with problems, but I think pretty much every family has its eccentricities.”

He cleared his throat. “I wouldn’t know where to begin.”

“Come on, Parker, give it your best shot.”

His sigh was long and loud. “I grew up in your basic bitter, all-American dysfunctional family. One father, one mother, one sister. There was a lot of yelling, a lot of doors slamming, a lot of accusations and recriminations. My parents divorced when I was eight. I lived with my father, my sister lived with our mother. And everyone nurtured the bitterness for all it was worth.”

“Time hasn’t helped?” she asked.

“My sister hasn’t spoken to my father since my mother’s funeral, five years ago. Even then, it wasn’t pretty.”

“What about you?” she asked. “Do you ever talk to your sister?”

She felt his shrug near her own shoulder. “Not often. She’s stubborn. Won’t accept my help. I guess you could say Beth and I aren’t close.”

“My sister and I aren’t close, either.”

“Ah, yes, the ever-elusive Maria.”

Hannah’s strained relationship with her only sister was her greatest sadness, greater even than the loss of her big, burly, gentle father ten years ago. For a moment she’d let her guard down, forgetting that Parker put as much thought and effort into obtaining divorces for his clients as she put into planning weddings for hers. His description of Maria reminded Hannah that she and Parker weren’t on the same side when it came to her mother’s marriage to Ryan. Parker was Ryan’s divorce attorney. She was Lily’s wedding planner.

“My parents were happily married, Parker. They were living proof that marriages can survive obstacles, heartaches, hard times, and that the two people involved can grow more deeply in love over time.”

That’s what she wanted. To love, honor and cherish the man she eventually married. Until death. Apparently, Parker didn’t believe in love or in marriage. She remained pensive, deep in thought.

“Tell me,” she said quietly sometime later. “Have you always felt this way about marriage? Or has your profession tainted your view?”

He slid his palm over the fabric covering his knee. “It has nothing to do with being tainted. People are born. For the next twenty or thirty years, they’re single. They get married. Ultimately, they get divorced. Eventually, they die. Some people repeat a couple of those steps. Once was enough for me.”

She turned her head fast, but the implication rendered her speechless. He’d been married? Once? When? Was he still married?

He caught her looking at his left hand. “I’ve been divorced for almost four years. But you’re right,” he said, glancing into her eyes, and then at her lips. “Talking about the negative side of life has done the trick.”

He moved fast, but she still should have seen the kiss coming. His lips moved over hers swiftly, intensely, masterfully, but only briefly.

“Although that,” he said while her mind was still spinning, “had the potential to reverse some of the progress. I’ll call you tomorrow. We can discuss our plans for dinner then. Good night, Hannah.”

She rose to her feet, then stood perfectly still. Her heart pounded an erratic rhythm. It came from trying to keep up with a man as sharp and witty as Parker. It came from trying to listen to every word he said, no matter how quickly he said it. It came from the fact that he’d been married. Once, he’d said, had been enough.

She sat back down on the step, landing with a heavy little thud about the same time the outer door closed behind him.

There was exhilaration in Parker’s step as he left Hannah’s building. He’d gotten the last word, and he’d gotten the last kiss. Hannah had been so surprised she’d failed to turn down his invitation to dinner. Earlier, she’d been the one with all the exuberant energy. She’d turned that energy on him, and frankly, he could hardly wait to give her the opportunity to do it again.

He’d rounded the corner and was heading for his car when he noticed a woman hiding in the shadows. Probably in her mid-twenties, she seemed nervous, jumpy. Guilty? He didn’t get a good enough look at her face to make that kind of determination because she spun around the instant she noticed him, her feet carrying her away quickly.

She disappeared down a narrow alley, leaving behind a hazy impression of dark hair and a brightly colored, skintight dress that reminded him of a neon sign, garish and gaudy. In comparison, Hannah was all subtle nuances and sultry sighs, as inviting as deep evening shade.

Maria Cassidy placed a hand slightly above her flat stomach and breathed deeply. Holding very still, she listened for the sound of footsteps behind her. All was quiet.

That had been a close one, she thought, letting out a long breath. She’d nearly panicked when she’d seen Hannah coming toward her a little while ago. For a second there she’d been afraid her older sister had recognized her.

Maria’s lips thinned. Hannah thought she was so smart. Boring, that’s what she was. All her life, all she’d done was lecture Maria about the importance of studying and furthering her education. Hannah didn’t know how to have fun. She didn’t know how to dress, that was for sure. Maria couldn’t begin to fathom what the man with the impressive biceps, long, lithe legs and interesting face saw in Hannah. Her sister usually only attracted computer geeks and nerds.

When she’d first seen Hannah and the man disappear behind closed doors, Maria had thought that maybe Hannah had changed. She should have known Miss High and Mighty wouldn’t know how to keep a man busy for more than five minutes. She was probably still a virgin, for God’s sake.

Not Maria. She’d always known what a woman’s body was made for. She had breasts to die for. Men used to tell her that all the time. It had been a while since she’d heard it. Oh, how she missed it.

Lately her life had gotten out of control.

Why couldn’t things just go her way for once? Nothing ever did. And she was so tired of working, so tired of living in that awful trailer in Leather Bucket. So tired of people who refused to take her seriously.

Just look at her. She was only twenty-three. She should have been having fun. She’d found the perfect way to get ahead and make those uppity Fortunes give the Cassidys their due. Her mother had refused to listen. So had Cole and Hannah. So Maria had taken things into her own hands. It had been a good plan. Brilliant. But then things had gone wrong. So wrong.

Now she was stuck in that dingy trailer in the dowdiest town in the country, working two menial jobs to make ends meet. And when she wasn’t working, she was taking care of the baby. Life had been so much easier when she was a child.

She’d felt a tiny pang of homesickness when she’d first happened to glimpse Hannah. For a moment she’d wanted to go to her older sister the way she had when they were kids. Back then she used to give in to the loneliness and unhappiness that had dogged her whole life and knock on Hannah’s door. Good old boring Hannah was usually studying, but she always smiled at Maria, and invited her in. Sometimes, Hannah would brush Maria’s hair for a long time. Maria would stare at her reflection in the mirror, mesmerized, smiling only when Hannah told her she was pretty.

“But remember, Maria,” Hannah used to whisper. “Pretty is as pretty does.”

Maria rolled her eyes all these years later. What did Hannah know?

Maria was the one who was going to have the last laugh. She was! Her plan to present the Fortunes with an offspring had gone awry. She had spent months trying to get into one of the younger Fortune’s bed in order to get pregnant. It had all been for nothing. She’d been forced to go to a sperm bank for what she’d needed. It hadn’t been fun, but she hadn’t done it for pleasure. She’d done it to ensure that at least one Cassidy got what she deserved: a portion of the Fortune dynasty.

At last it had seemed as if something had gone right. She’d know that a certain Fortune bachelor had donated to a sperm bank years before, and she had asked for just the right donor profile… All she’d had to do was have her baby, and wait for the right time to present the Fortunes with another heir.