Back for Seconds (13 page)

She trembled in his arms. Hearing those words whispered hotly into her ear turned her into putty. She was completely under his spell and completely at his mercy. “Then what are you waiting for?”

He pulled away to look her in the eye. “Are you telling me you want me to take you home?”

Her voice nearly cracked with need. “Maybe I am.”

His warm laugh danced across her nerve endings. “I’m not a man who responds well to maybe. You have to tell me what you want. Be direct, Joely. Say what you want. You never know,” he added as toyed with a lock of her hair, “you just might get it.”

For a long moment she stared up at him, at war with herself. There was nothing she wanted more than for him to take her home and complete his seduction at last. But the other part of her, the responsible part, the one who was still a mother, and a morally upright human being, one that hadn’t yet to succumb to the sins of the flesh like her wandering husband, was screaming at her to use caution, to make good choices. This just wasn’t respectable. It wasn’t ladylike. It was pure craziness. “Take me home, Xander.”

“I thought you’d never ask,” he grinned. He took her hand in his and led her from the dance floor straight out the door. He paused briefly to wave at Brian before he pulled her from the club.

Back at Fairway Oaks, Russell Morgan hovered over the outdoor barbeque, preparing some steaks for his kids. He had wanted to take them out to eat, to a nice restaurant he was sure Joely could no longer afford. But when Jena called at the last minute to cancel, he decided he didn’t wish to corral his rowdy children in a crowded public restaurant by himself. He wasn’t the disciplinarian of the family and never had been. He really wouldn’t even know where to start. And he knew better than to allow the children to find that little crack in the veneer.

Instead he rented a movie and bought all the fixins for a family barbecue, just like the ones they had shared all summer before their lives had all been blown apart. Though September was giving way to October, the weather was still warm enough they could enjoy the huge back yard that overlooked the golf course. The back yard had been one of the house’s finest selling points, with a large in-ground pool and spa, an outdoor fireplace and complete barbecue/smoker/wet bar underneath a smattering of twinkling lights. He watched his children from where he stood over the food. Hannah was floating in her inflatable seahorse, splashing in the water and giggling to herself. Kari kept an eye on her from the side of the pool where she sat in her bikini, legs dangling in the water. Nash had compromised. He sat outside, but he didn’t change into his swimwear and wouldn’t go anywhere near the pool. Instead he parked himself in one of the chaise lounge chairs and played with one of his infernal hand-held games.

It was a quiet way to spend a Friday evening. Had this been a couple of months before, Russell would have chalked it up to another perfect night with the family. The kids weren’t fighting or acting up. Joely wasn’t hovering over everything trying to find problems where there weren’t any just so she could have something to do by fixing them. And he was allowed to do exactly what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it. He bought the steaks he wanted, marinated them in the store-bought sauces she insisted were unhealthy and too salty. He even didn’t have to hear any nagging about the movie he chose, that it may have been too violent for the kids. Everything was exactly like he felt it should be.

So why wasn’t he happy about it?

He blamed Jena for throwing a wrench in their plans for the weekend. She had been a huge help during the kids’ last visit. She kept them entertained during the day, and him entertained at night. Unlike Joely, Jena was eager to make him happy. From the day she started working at his office, she catered to his every need with an unspoken enthusiasm. She never had any complaint. She never nagged. She never said no. Whatever he needed, whenever he needed it, she’d make it all happen with a smile on her face.

She had made him feel like a god. She was so fucking hot, with her ample tits, that tiny little waist and that sweet curve of her ass. Her legs were long and lean and her soft skin was still taut and smooth. Her big full lips always curved into a teasing smile whenever their eyes met, with sparkling blue eyes that mirrored his own.

She had been suggestive without being slutty, which made the chase more fun. Six months ago he finally caught her, and she had reminded him how satisfying sex could be. She was an eager partner who never shied away from any request, unlike Joely, who always looked like she was burdened by the chore of their lovemaking.

He couldn’t even remember where it started, but their love life flat-lined years before. She stopped wearing sexy nightgowns, opting to sleep in thread-bare T-shirts and formless pajama bottoms. She would scrub her face clean of any makeup and pulled her drab hair back into a generic ponytail that had always made him want to cut the damn thing right off.

And it never mattered how she looked anyway because anytime he got close to her she’d shut the light off so he couldn’t see her anyway. In recent years she wouldn’t even get undressed all the way. It was like she preferred sex as expedient as possible. She’d lain there like a dead fish, waiting for him to do his business so that she could get to sleep.

He stopped romancing her because he never had to. He’d just poke at her with an erection and she’d do her wifely duty. He’ d get off, but she never did. When he first made love to Jena, she had a multiple orgasm within minutes of his penetrating her. She thrashed around under him, clutching him tight within her body, telling him how fantastic he was and how good it all felt. With Joely, he could have been stroking for a solid hour and she always looked like she’d rather paint her nails or compose a grocery list.

He lost sight of who he was as a man with her, so of course he blamed her entirely for the fact he had to stray. He couldn’t muster a speck of sympathy for her, even when she had been crying and screaming at him the second she found out he’d been prowling around. Had she cared she wouldn’t have stopped trying to please him. Her heartbreak was her own damned fault. Did she really think she could stop tending the garden without a few weeds taking over?

He thought back to how she looked that night in that dress with a scowl. If only she had done something like that when they were still together, maybe they wouldn’t have had to blow the whole family apart. She had cut and styled her hair, with blonde highlights that made her look years younger. Her eyes popped with dramatic makeup she had never worn in all their years together. That silk stretched over her body like a second skin. He could almost see every pore, every freckle underneath. When she walked away, the jiggle in her ass even made him stir a little bit as he remembered what it had felt like to disappear inside of her.

When they had been good, it had been great.

Now it was over.

Or was it?

She was dressing up for a new reason now, and Russell was quite curious to know exactly what that reason was.

He waited until after the movie, when Nash had disappeared into yet another video game, and Hannah had gone to sleep, before he cornered Kari to get the skinny. He found her in the kitchen, putting dishes in the dishwasher. He stood beside her to help.

“So what’s the deal with your mom and her makeover? Is she dressing like that a lot now?”

Kari spared him a curious glance. “Not really. I mean, she’s dressing up more because of her new job and everything, but this was the first time she’d dressed to go out.”

“Your mom has a job?”

Kari nodded as she rinsed off another plate. “She’s making cookies and stuff to sell at Nanna’s restaurant.”

His brow furrowed. “Why would she dress up to work at the restaurant?”

“She doesn’t work at the restaurant, exactly. She makes everything at home and they sell it at the restaurant. She’s doing pretty well,” Kari admitted. “Xander thinks she can turn it all into a legitimate business.”

“Who’s Xander?”

Kari didn’t even look at her father. She couldn’t. She suspected he’d see too much. “He’s the new manager at Lillian’s Place.”

“I didn’t know your grandmother had hired anyone to run the place.”

Kari nodded. “And he’s brilliant,” she started, but abruptly stopped. “Anyway, he and Mom have been working pretty closely to launch
Back for Seconds
, that’s what they call it. He’s worked at restaurants all over the world so if anyone can make this a success, it’s Xander.”

“I see,” Russell said. “So you think she was going to see him tonight?”

Kari chuckled. Her dad could be so funny sometimes. “It’s not like that,” she said. “He’s way too young for Mom.” Young hot guys like Xander, who wore designer clothes and expensive cologne, who drove sports cars like a bat out of hell and listened to alternative rock and the rap music she liked could never go for anyone as stuffy and square as her mother.

No
, thought Kari. He was waiting for someone a little more exciting – like someone eleven years younger. That was what she was hoping anyway.

None of what she was saying made Russell feel any better. He could see what Kari couldn’t see. Her mother was on the hunt. “So she hasn’t met anyone else?”

Again Kari laughed. “Where? She’s working all the time with the cookies. She rarely leaves the house.”

“She looked like she was going somewhere tonight.”

“She’s going out with Auntie Novi,” Kari informed him. Russell’s scowl deepened.

He had resented Novanna Barton-Lytle for more years than he cared to remember. Though she was the wife of his best friend, they had nothing in common. From their politics to their religion, to the very way they decided to live their lives, Novanna couldn’t be more different from Russell if she tried… and he often suspected she might have been doing that very thing.

She didn’t want kids, which made no sense to him. He had told David for years that the clock was ticking. If Novanna didn’t want to provide him a family, there were scores of other women who would, women who weren’t such ball-busters and so damned hard to like. David would always shake his head, saying that he was happy with Novanna, with or without kids.

Russell suspected that was all bullshit, and had called him on it more than once.

Ever since he learned that it was Novi who ratted on him to Joely, in effect lighting the fuse that blew their whole existence apart, Russell had gotten a little sneakier to boot Novanna from his best friend’s life. He had enlisted Jena to find someone more compatible, which led to hiring twenty-four-year-old Amy Overstreet. She was the opposite of Novanna in every possible way. She was tall, blonde and fair, coming from a rural town that prided itself on traditional values. She transferred to their church, where she did volunteer work in the nursery. She had no outrageous ambitions like Novi, who wanted to fix the world and everything she found wrong with it. Amy was happy to clock in to work every day, doing what she was told with an even temper and good humor.

All David had to do was see what a gold mine he had right in front of him day after day and Russell could completely cut Novanna Barton-Lytle from his life at last. It was the last thing he’d have to clean up from his decades’ long tour of duty as Joely’s husband.

Knowing that Joely was out with Novanna right that second only made his hatred for both of them burn even brighter. No doubt it was her idea to parade Joely in front of him, dressed like some ridiculous sexpot, trying to rub what he no longer had in his face. He decided that wasn’t going to work. His life was better, and happier, without Joely in it.

All he had to do now was wait till Hannah turned eighteen and he’d never have to see her again. He made a mental note to call his attorney on Monday, to go ahead with the divorce proceedings he had thus far postponed. He knew the marriage was over the minute she had thrown her wedding rings at him during The Event. Instead of feeling shame for being caught, he had been relieved. He hadn’t been happy with Joely for a long, long time. Her learning about his affair liberated him because he no longer had to hide it. He no longer had to play the perfect husband. He could send her on her merry way and spend his time with women who really enjoyed his company.

But that night, as he lay in bed, he couldn’t help but think of how tempting she looked in that dress. If Novanna was trying to get her BFF laid, that was the outfit to do it. Even Russell found himself stirring a little bit when he remembered how supple she looked in that sexy black dress. When he thought about where she might be, and what she might be doing, it actually hurt to think of her lying under another man. She hadn’t been a virgin when they met, but after nearly twenty years together, Joely had been his in all ways that mattered. He had groomed her to be his partner in every way that mattered. He didn’t know if even Joely herself would know who she was without being Mrs. Russell Morgan.

From the change in her appearance to the strut in her walk, she had shown him that night that she was no longer that person. Someone had brought something out in her that he never could. The thought kept him tossing and turning until midnight, where fell into a fitful sleep, watching Joely make love to a man he couldn’t quite see.

And for that phantom lover she came often, loudly and well.

It was twelve-twenty-three when he woke with a start, with a raging hard-on and a torpedoed ego. He solved the problem with a bottle of aged Scotch he now kept by the bed because he could. Only the empty space next to him now haunted him.