Rage (20 page)

TAMMY COONS & MICHELLE PACE

malistic fervor. Unable to suppress his climax any longer, he let go and blissfully surrendered.

Hesitating to break the connection between them, he reluc-

tantly pulled out and collapsed beside her. For several minutes

they both struggled to steady their breathing. Scot rolled onto his side and ran his fingers down between her breasts. She turned to him, her eyes still dilated and heavy. He kissed her and gave her lower lip a nip.

“Let me know when you are ready for another go,” He

cocked his eyebrow at her.

“How about right now?” Cheyenne murmured, her wet

kisses traveling up his inner thigh.

Phillip had his head in his hands, his elbows on his knees.

His head felt like it would explode from the questions that

surged in it. His heart hammered as he tried to find his voice.

Images, memories, and what-ifs swirled like a cyclone inside

him. He felt Cedric sit beside him on the bottom step, and the

momentary sensation of another human being in close proximity

steadied him enough to stammer out a bit of communication.

“I just don’t understand. Why didn’t she tell me?” He

turned his dizzy gaze on Cedric.

Cedric simply shook his head. He still seemed stunned by

Phillip’s ignorance. “I have no idea. I’m so sorry. Dad and I left it for
her
to tell you. I suppose that was pretty idiotic of us.”

Phillip’s eyes narrowed. “Why the hell…wasn’t it mine?”

Cedric turned blazing eyes at him. “Of course it was yours.”

Phillip heaved a soul-wrenching sigh. “I don’t understand

how things went so terribly wrong.”

Cedric looked out at the dark ocean. “Phillip, Stephanie has

been monumentally broken since our mother died. When the go-

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RAGE

ing gets tough, she retreats. She doesn’t deal with issues, at least she didn’t until recently.”

“She’s never talked about your mum.” Phillip frowned as

the weight of his own statement sunk in. This was an unexpected

turn in the conversation, and he turned completely in Cedric’s

direction, starving for any insight into his former lover.

“They weren’t speaking at the time of our accident. Mom

and Dad were separating after twenty-five years of marriage, and Steph blamed my mom. Their break-up convinced Steph that no

one could ever stay together. Marriage became a trivial joke to

her after that. I’ve been all over the world and heard the confessions of thousands of people. My sister is still the single most jaded person I’ve ever encountered.”

Phillip tried to imagine Steph as a willful shrew of a teenage

girl and realized it wasn’t hard. It sounded like she’d stopped

aging emotionally after her mum’s death and had never pro-

gressed since.

“When we had the accident, I think it ruined Stephanie. The

last time they’d talked, Steph screamed at Mom. She told her she hated her and hung up on her. Steph was always willful and

bullheaded, but after the accident…” Cedric paused, as if choked up by the intense memory. “She refused to view mom’s body.

My father was far too distraught to make time to deal with Steph, so she sort of…imploded. And this happened completely unnoticed, with no guardian to step in and console her or counsel her.

She wouldn’t come to the visitation at the funeral home, and as

far as I know she never saw my mom’s body…she never had that

closure. I had to physically drag her to the gravesite. I’ll never forget her demeanor. Stoic is the best word I can use to describe her. It gives me chills thinking about it, even now. She just shut off all emotion like flipping a switch.”

“That’s a big burden for anyone to have to carry. Especially

a child.” Phillip conceded. He cringed at the thought that he’d

been so clueless about Steph’s formative years. So unaware of

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TAMMY COONS & MICHELLE PACE

such large aspects of her past that he could make such blunders

at every turn. “No offense, Cedric, but why am I just now hear-

ing all of this shite from you?”

“I don’t know. Why didn’t you get to know her before you

proposed? You know, before putting her on the spot in front of

both families so that she could feel like she was going to disappoint everyone if she said no. “

“I was madly in love with her. I wanted to shout it from the

top of a bloody mountain. I thought it was the right thing to do,”

he snapped.

“It was a very ‘rock star’ thing to do.” Cedric cocked a terse

eyebrow, pausing for emphasis. “It was a very Kevin-like thing

to do.”

It was as if Cedric had pulled out a gun and shot him in the

heart. Stephanie’s ex-boyfriend was an unbelievably successful

movie star and had lavishly proposed to her right after causing a huge scandal. He’d openly cheated on her while filming a movie

south of the border, and the story had been all the rage for the tabloids when Phillip first met Steph.

He tried to argue with Cedric…tried to grasp for a straw of

a comeback and had none. He’d royally fucked up. He cringed as

he recalled his choices since the proposal, as they played before his eyes like the world’s most embarrassing montage. The “Fire

Woman” video was a pretty big slap in the face. Especially now

that he knew she hadn’t been with Clive. And, he thought, at

least Kevin had the decency to propose in private. Steph had de-

served much more consideration from Phillip. He hadn’t thought

enough about her feelings when making plans for
their
future.

He stood.

“I have to go talk to her.”

On his way up the stairs he heard Cedric mumble, sounding

very much like Steph. “That’s long overdue. But you might want

to wait till she sobers up!”

He rounded up a driver and muttered some lame excuse to

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RAGE

Bret. All the way back to the pousada, he rehearsed what he’d

say to her. What he’d ask. He bribed the overnight clerk to give him her room number, and as he took the stairs two at a time, he started to consider her replies. He had his hand up to knock when he decided he’d better listen to Cedric this time. He wanted them
both
to be sober for this. His hand fell to his side, and he turned and walked away.

129

Steph woke to a tiny hand pinching her nose.

When she peeled her dry eyelids open, Liam’s curlicue grin

greeted her. “Beep, Tee tee!”

“Morning, Liam Sebastian.”

“Hungee,” he replied, jumping up and down on the bed.

Steph was amazed at her lack of a hangover. Ah, beer. Her drink

of choice paid off, yet again.

“Are you hungry?” She saw it was nearly ten o’ clock.

She threw a white sundress over her head and applied a

thick layer of sunblock. After gooping Liam up with tons more

than she’d allowed for herself, she decided she could not take

one more day of her ankles being gnawed on by borrachudo

mosquitos. She sprayed on so much insect repellent she thought

she might asphyxiate them both. As a final barrier she tossed on her custom-made red cowboy boots. She remembered how Phillip had once called them ‘a legendry aphrodisiac,’ playing into

his boyhood fantasies about being a cowboy in Texas. She al-

most yanked them off and tossed them over the balcony, but they

were her favorites and she couldn’t bear to part with them. She

carried Liam down to the dining area and was mildly surprised to see Nathan and Saffron sitting alone sipping mimosas and dining

on Eggs Benedict.

“Morning, Stephanie.” Saffron greeted her cheerfully, as if

she were a third grade teacher greeting her students. It may not 130

RAGE

have seemed as odd, had she not been wearing a black dress that

looked like it was made of latex. Steph nodded to the odd couple and sat Liam in the seat across from Nathan. Saffron sashayed to the bar for a refill, and Stephanie watched the giddy expression Nathan tried to mask as followed her cat-like movements in a

predatory manner.

“Oh, my God, Nathan! You’re in love with her, aren’t

you?” Stephanie gasped in a hushed tone as she slapped him

across the arm. Nathan glanced at her and back at Saffron with

an unrepentant grin.

“Alright. So sue me.” Nathan conceded, his green eyes

dancing as he flipped his overly long bangs out of the way.

“She’s a dominatrix, Nate. Not to mention a professional

groupie. I know for a fact that she’s been following different

bands for half a decade. What the f—” Steph started, but Nathan

simply silenced her with one hand, his expression serene and

uncompromising.

“Don’t.” It was more of a request than a demand. Stephanie

paused, took a drink of her orange juice, and nodded.

“Okay.” Who the hell was she to judge what worked for

them? Hadn’t her first major relationship been a twisted anti-

romance with a kinky wannabe dominant? Though she hadn’t

seen him since college, Pace had been her go-to guy after Kevin

left her, and she’d even tried to use him as a rebound after she saw the “Fire Woman” video, but that hadn’t worked out so well.

Pace Turner had been in law school when they met. Stepha-

nie was a junior in college at the time and bored to tears; she’d been sewing her wild oats. Pace’s cocky brilliance had drawn her to him immediately—not to mention his ridiculous good looks.

He’d been old for his class, having dropped out of med school

before they met. Even his money was old, as old as one’s could

get when that person was African-American. Pace had as much

of an ego as Steph did, so their
arrangement
worked well for months. Like all good natural disasters, they’d burned out their 131

TAMMY COONS & MICHELLE PACE

relationship before it took on too much real steam, but they still exchanged dirty holiday cards and the occasional email until she started dating Phillip.

A couple of weeks after she saw the “Fire Woman” video

for the first time and told Cheyenne about the baby, Steph ended up on a shoot in New York. Pace lived in Boston, which was

only a few hours away, and she figured his charms would do her

a world of good. So she called.

“Hey, Red.” His deep Barry White voice sounded as if he

were in the next room. “I heard you broke up with your rock

star.”

“Ya don’t say?” Steph had been ambushed in Heathrow the

week before by reporters from
The Star
. When asked “How does it feel to see the “Fire Woman” video?”, she ignored them. When

she heard the follow-up question. “How does it feel to see Phillip act out your sex life with Joslyn James?”, Steph stopped and

glared into the video camera.

“Well that was obviously play-acting since she seemed to

be enjoying herself!” she’d shouted, and it now seemed to be the sound bite of the year.

Pace’s laughter ripped her back from her revived anger. “I

was wondering if I should expect a visit.”

“You sound tired, Pace. Solicitor life got you down?”

“I’m prepping for
the
court case. You remember—the one I went to law school for?”

“Shit, Pace. That’s fabulous news.” He’d finally had the

opportunity to take down his “big white whale” so to speak, and

she was pestering him for a booty call. She felt small and insignificant in his world for the first time
ever
.

“So when do I get to see you?” he asked, his tone as eager

and aggressive as ever. This was one man who saw sex as the

ultimate stress reliever, not some sort of a chore.

“I’m at my apartment at
The Dakota,
” she replied huskily.

If anyone could help her forget about Phillip for a while, it’d be 132

RAGE

Pace.

As it turned out, he couldn’t. She and Pace had always had

a sexual chemistry worthy of an epic poem. What transpired up-

on his arrival in New York was anything but. They’d started

their usual rough and dirty foreplay and to Steph, it felt awkward and forced. They had even managed to get into her bedroom and

into the act, when while changing positions, he noticed her scar.

“Where did this come from? Did you get in a knife fight or

something?” he teased, and she surprised herself by bursting into tears. Embarrassed, she willed herself to stop, but the more she tried, the more hysterically she sobbed.

Pace looked both concerned and alarmed as he rolled off of

her and ran out of the room completely nude. Steph would have

laughed at that, had she been able to regain control of herself. He returned with a box of tissues and two bottles of beer. It was the most romantic thing he’d ever done for her in the entire history of….them.