Chance McCall (26 page)

“No,” Jenny said. “I already have an address. I just need directions. Here it is,” she said, and handed the scrap of paper out the window.

The man frowned, looked at Jenny and then back at the paper. “I don’t think you’ll be happy staying there, miss,” he said. And then he hesitated, obviously loath to criticize his own hometown, before his better judgment overcame his pride. “In fact, I’d like to ask you to reconsider your choice, miss. This place doesn’t exactly cater to your type of clientele. They go more for the ‘hourly’ customers, instead of the overnight ones, if you get my meaning.” He almost blushed as Jenny smiled.

“Thank you,” she said. “But I don’t intend to stay there. I’m just looking for a friend. This was the last address I was given.”

“Oh!” He nodded, satisfied that he’d given her sufficient warning, and handed back the paper. “Well, then you’ll be wanting to take a left at the next stoplight. That motel is about nine or ten blocks down on the left-hand side of Second Street. Good luck to you. And you owe me twelve-fifty for the gas.”

Jenny paid and drove away. Anticipation was mounting. She knew it might be a bad time to catch Chance. But she didn’t care if she had to wait all day. One way or another, she was going to see him…and soon.

Her excitement gave way to a growing fear that if and when she found him, he might be angry, even furious, that she’d followed him. But she didn’t care. She had the right.

The motel was exactly where the attendant had claimed it would be. And the reputation at which he’d hinted was obvious. She’d never seen such a seedy, run-down place. It was hard for her to believe that Chance had chosen it.

She turned in and parked by the office. There was a truck in the lot that looked just like his. Her heartbeat accelerated. She took a deep breath, grabbed her purse, and started toward the office, then turned back and locked her car. It was instinctive.

The row of dead bugs lying against the outside wall of the building did nothing to assure her that there were not countless live ones running about inside. She pushed the door open and walked up to the counter.

“It’s twenty dollars,” the desk clerk said. “It don’t matter whether it’s for an hour or all night. Twenty dollars.”

Jenny stared. She hadn’t seen horn-rimmed glasses in years. And that particular shade of peroxide-blond hair must have been painful. It was the only way to describe the translucent white fuzz teased in all directions. And then she remembered her manners.

“I don’t want a room. I want to know what room Chance McCall is in.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the clerk answered, “but we aren’t allowed to give out that information.”

Jenny’s eyebrows rose, and she stared, persistently, watching the woman’s gum that slipped from one side of her mouth to the other as she chewed.

The clerk fidgeted. She didn’t know how to argue with someone who wouldn’t talk. Finally she added, “It’s nothing personal, you understand. I’m sure you’re a real nice lady and all, but I have to answer to paying customers. They have a right to privacy, you know.”

Still Jenny said nothing. She stepped up to the counter, stared at the wall of keys hanging in plain view, and noted that only one was missing, twelve B. It was a place to start. If she had to, she’d knock on every door in the place until she found him. She’d been afraid for too long, and come too far to be stopped now.

“Never mind,” Jenny said. “I’ll find him myself.”

“Now you wait a minute,” the woman called. “I might just have to call the police.”

“Go ahead,” Jenny said. “Call them. And then call Chance McCall and tell him that you just had Jenny arrested. And then…I suggest you get out of town while you can. He won’t be happy.”

The clerk remembered the man in twelve B. She’d already been witness to his temper. She had no intention of suffering the same fate again.

“Fine,” she said, and turned away. “Just don’t blame me if something happens to you. That man ain’t friendly. Not one damn bit.”

Jenny smiled to herself. That was her Chance. He was still here. She hurried down the cracked walkway, searching the numbers on the doors as she ran. Some numbers were missing, some were hanging by a hint and a promise. One door was open…standing ajar. Twelve B! This was the one.

“Chance?” she called as she pushed the door all the way open.

For the longest time, she stood frozen, staring at the tall couple entwined in each other’s arms, one blond and female, the other dark and very familiar looking. A pain hung suspended just behind her heart, making it very difficult to catch her breath. Her legs began to shake, her eyes filled. But it wasn’t despair that erupted. It was anger. In pure, unadulterated, Tyler form.

“You must be real desperate, honey.” She enunciated with venom in every syllable. “It’s not even Saturday night and you’re already at it.”

Her accusation sent the couple spinning around, surprised by the sound of a woman’s voice. Victoria stepped back in shock at the sight of a furious woman standing in the doorway. But Chance grinned. He started toward Jenny with arms outstretched.

“Jenny! How did you—”

“None of your damn business, Chance McCall. How dare you? How dare you run off without a word? How dare you do this to—”

Chance caught her and pulled her into his arms. He mashed her face against his chest and began to laugh. “I missed you, Jenny. I don’t know how in hell you found me, but I’ve never been so glad to see anyone in my entire life.”

Victoria watched the couple’s greeting with a trace of envy. She knew that she’d just met the woman who’d claimed her brother’s heart, and it was up to her to smooth out this misunderstanding before it got worse. Chance had suffered enough at the hands of her family. If she had to, she’d spend the rest of her life making certain that it never happened again.

“Damn you, Chance! You left me. You didn’t even have the guts to tell me you were going, you just left.” Jenny’s words were muffled, her voice accusing. She was struggling hopelessly against the firm grip in which she was being held. Her fists hammered against his chest. “And now, I find you wrapped in some floozy’s arms. Why is it always someone else? Why do you—”

“I’m sorry,” Victoria said, as she walked up beside the couple. “I think it’s my time to make an exit. Please,” she said, gently touching Jenny’s back. “It’s not what you think. He’s my brother!”

Jenny’s struggles ceased. “Brother?”

“I guess so,” Chance said softly, and pressed a kiss on her forehead. “I have to take her word for it. Just like I took yours, Jenny. Do you understand?”

Jenny’s breath exited her body in a whoosh. Suddenly the adrenaline that had sent her flying into the room in a frenzy left her weak and shaking. She nodded. It was then she realized that he still had no memory.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Chance. And Jenny…I look forward to meeting you when we’re all under less…stress?” Victoria smiled. “I’ll see myself out.”

The door shut behind her. And then they were alone. Jenny was right where she needed to be. In the arms of Chance McCall.

14

Jenny began to cry
. Not loudly. Not at first. The tears slid out of the corners of her eyes and down her face. It was Chance’s groan of regret that sent a sob bubbling up. When he wrapped her in his arms and lifted her off her feet, she finally gave in to the pain.

“You left me,” she sobbed, pounding weakly against his chest with her fists.

“I know, baby,” he said softly. “And if I had it to do all over again, I’d bring you with me.”

“You didn’t call. You didn’t write.” She tried to push away from him, but his grip tightened. She gave his chest one last thump and then collapsed into his arms.

“I know, Jenny,” he answered. “If I could change that, I would. But I can’t. All I can do is ask you to forgive me. Okay?”

She moaned as he pressed against her, reminding them both that their bodies were awakening to a deeper need.

“Please, Jenny. As God is my witness, I did it for you. For us. I couldn’t think of a way to tell you how I felt without compromising you with a past I didn’t remember. Do you understand?”

“No,” she said. “But I’ll accept it as long as you promise you’ll come home with me.” Her voice lowered, her hands touching him constantly as she continued. “I nearly didn’t survive this stunt, mister. I can’t bear another.”

There was something about the way she said it that made Chance know there was more to her statement than just physical longing. He tilted her face up and stared deeply into her eyes, for the first time since her arrival really looking at the woman in his arms. It was then that he saw the tiny cuts and scratches on her face, and the healing bruise on her lip. His stomach turned. Something had happened to Jenny and he hadn’t been there to help. She’d been hurt and suffered…alone.

“What in hell happened to your face?” His voice was dark, his tone ominous. He pinned her against the wall, turning her face in first one direction and then the other, searching the surface for every telltale mark.

Jenny shrugged. She felt his body tensing, and knew it would only be a matter of moments before he got it out of her. She’d never been able to keep a thing from him.

“What happened, sweetheart? Did you have a car wreck?”

She shook her head and tried to bury her face in the curve of his shoulder. He grabbed her by the chin and turned her, firmly, but gently, back around to face him.

“Did you fall…or have you…?” Suddenly a thought occurred, and it was one he didn’t like. One that sent cold chills through him.

“Jenny, look at me! Did you ride that goddamned horse?”

She didn’t even have to answer. He could see it in her eyes. “What were you trying to do, kill yourself?” She hesitated a fraction of a second too long for his peace of mind. He held her, desperate for her denial. “Tell me that’s not the truth! Tell me I didn’t do that to you! Please…Jenny!”

The torment in his voice shamed her. She threaded her fingers in his hair, pulled his face down to hers and whispered, “I promise, Chance. I wasn’t intentionally trying to hurt myself. I was just at my wits’ end. I didn’t think. I just reacted.”

“My God!” he whispered. “If anything had happened to you…”

He took instant possession of her lips, smothering her sigh of relief. She was soft, compliant, and at the same time on fire. He could feel it as she moved beneath him, giving him access to any or all of her that he desired. It was so giving, and so loving a gesture, he didn’t even try to resist.

“I want to make love to you, Jenny. If I’ve learned anything these past few days, it’s that I don’t have to have my memory back to know I love you.”

A sob caught in the back of her throat. She’d waited a lifetime to hear those words. “Thank God for small favors,” she whispered. And then Chance descended.

They tore at the clothing that lay between them, buttons, snaps, zippers…unbuttoned, unfastened, undone. A sob drifted through the quiet, and then a whispered endearment, a gentling of the emotions that had flared.

Jenny had one swift moment of panic, knowing that there was still a secret between them of which Chance was not aware. He thought that they’d been lovers. In Jenny’s heart, it had been so. But their bodies had never shared what was about to happen. Jenny had no intention of revealing prematurely what would soon be obvious enough. By then, she hoped and prayed that Chance would be too far gone to care.

Chance slipped the blouse from her arms, letting it fall to the floor below. His fingers slid across her skin and then around, unfastening the catch on her bra with one smooth, slick, snap. He held his breath as her breasts spilled into his hands, willing himself not to think about the growing passions of his own body. Jenny was driving him into a need he couldn’t control. She sighed and moved beneath his touch and sent his senses reeling.

“Jennifer Ann, I’m about to love you in a way you’ve never known. In a way you’ll never forget.”

You have no idea how true your words are, Chance
.

The last of their clothes fell to the floor. Chance lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed. He laid her down and then almost lost what control he had left as she coiled herself around him like the tendril of vine. Her arms and her legs, her hands and her mouth…they encompassed and completed him.

Chance moved across her body, pressing her down into the mattress, reveling in the feel of silky skin and body heat, the moans of satisfaction as his mouth moved across her face, her neck, her breasts, and then her stomach. His hands began a foray at the back of her knees and around, sliding up and down, around and behind, slowly, sensuously, seeking, touching.

And then his mouth and his hands met at the core of Jenny and she felt the need to tell him, to say that the joy he was giving her was more than she’d dreamed, and still not enough. But coherency was impossible. Her body moved of its own accord, a puppet to the sensuality that Chance had unleashed. She moaned, she begged. She arched up to meet the touch, and then dissolved as her nerves came alive beneath the strokes of his fingers. His name became a chant, a cry for completion.

Chance couldn’t think. He could only feel. Jenny’s body was hot beneath his mouth and hands. She moved against him in a fevered need. His blood thundered, his heart pounded. Every muscle in his body was rock hard and tense. She slid her hands downward and grasped his shoulders to urge him up. His breath came in thick, tortured gasps as he tried desperately to control himself as he moved above her.

“I love you, Jenny. Never forget…”

What she did next drove everything else from his mind. There was nothing left but sensation…and Jenny.

Her hands caressed his hard aching manhood as she opened beneath him. She guided him down, and then lifted herself up, an offering he could not refuse.

He plunged…and then froze. For a heartbeat he thought he’d imagined the resistance. But the swift look of pain that came and went on her face told him he hadn’t imagined a thing.

“What the hell…?”

There was no time for answers. Jenny began to move beneath him, and he forgot the words. He forgot everything but the wild, wet heat and her hands on his back. The feel of her mouth and her legs wrapped around him. And then Chance…and the bed…and the world rocked on its axis.