When You Were Mine (Adams Sisters) (20 page)

              One, two, three orgasms shot through her and slammed her down and still her body begged for more.  Either the second or the third condom popped, but the forth and fifth held strong.

              Sometime before 5:00 a.m., the lovers fell into a deep slumber, but Ryan internal clock woke him at 6:00 a.m. and reminded him he had a film to direct.

              “Where are you going?” Joey asked with one eye at half-mast and the other closed.

              “I have to go to work.”  He pried himself from the long chaise and wondered briefly how they’d moved so far from the bed.

              “You have to go now?” She forced herself to stand, and then lazily looped her arms around his neck.

              They’d both been sexed up and spit out, but one look at her beautiful naked body and Ryan’s soldier was ready for another salute.

              Joey glanced down.  “You can’t go to work like that.”  She took him by the hand and led him back to the bed.

              “Well, maybe just for a few more minutes...”

Chapter 23

              By the time Franklin Adams Casey sat down to dinner, it was ice-cold...and she was still alone.  Another day meant another excuse why George couldn’t make home for dinner. 
Why am I surprised?

              She tossed down her fork.  A migraine exploded when it clanged against her good china.  Fifteen years of marriage, and more nights than she cared to admit she slept alone.

              She wasn’t so sure she could say the same thing for her husband.

              Thoughts of hiring a private detective flittered in and out of her mind, but what would she do if her worst fears were true?  Would she divorce George--give up the life of which she’d come accustomed?

              Worst of all, could she go back to being single?  She was already staring down the barrel at forty, and just seeing what Peyton and Michael went through and what Joey was still going through was enough to give her nightmares.

              Maybe it was okay to be married in name only.  Maybe she should just hang on a little longer.  Maybe.

#

              “So what do you think is going on with Michael?” Peyton asked Sheldon as she bounced one of her nieces on her hip.

              “There’s no telling with Mike.  She may always be quick to jump into our business, but she’s always been pretty tight-lipped when it comes to sharing details about her own life.”

              “You think something’s going on with her and Phillip?”

              “I’d be surprised if there wasn’t.”  Sheldon pulled the last baby from the tub and bundled her up in a bath towel.  “I mean, look how long it took to get him to the altar.”

              “But they’ve only been married, like, a year and a half.”

              “And she’s been acting funny for the last six months.”  Sheldon led Peyton to one of the children’s room and continued to get the children ready for bed.  “I don’t suggest we press her, though.  She’ll tell us when she’s ready.”

              Peyton nodded, but she remained troubled.  It was odd to think of Michael not in control of something.  From her job at the bank to organizing family reunions, Michael was the glue that kept the family together. 

On one hand, it just didn’t seem right to wait until the glue eroded before they offered to help.  However, she suspected Sheldon was right.  Michael was pretty bullheaded and wouldn’t want her sisters wiggling their noses in her affairs.  It was hypocrisy with a capital
H
, but what could you do?

Minutes later she and Sheldon kissed the children good-night and went downstairs to collapse on the sofa.

“I don’t see how you do it,” Peyton huffed.  A day with Sheldon and the kids left her more exhausted than the eighty hours she put into her art agency.

“It’s hard at first but once you get yourself on a schedule, it’s smooth sailing.”  She laughed.  “And if you buy that I have some swampland out in Florida I want to sell you.”

Peyton laughed and the squinted at the television.  She recognized the show
Entertainment Tonight
, but was stunned by the picture the show flashed.  “Hey, isn’t that Joey’s ex?”

Sheldon followed her gaze and picked up the remote.  “I think you’re right.”

“Source says that there may be trouble in paradise for actress Carlina Leoni and her new fiancé, Dr. Laurence Benson.  Witnesses have spotted the couple arguing around the set of Carlina latest picture,
La Belle Vida.
”

“You don’t think Joey has anything to do with this?” Sheldon asked.

“I’d be surprised if she didn’t.”

“While one engagement maybe in trouble on the Italian set another one is brewing.  Sources are saying the once confirmed bachelor and director Ryan Donovan may also be tying the knot with this mystery woman...

A picture of Joey, splendid in a floor-length white gown, flashed onto the screen, and both Sheldon and Peyton screamed in recognition.

“Oh, my God!” Sheldon gasped.

“Shhh.  I want to hear the rest of this,” Peyton said.

“We may not know the name of Donovan’s new lady love, but a person would have to be blind to miss the rock on her finger.”

At the end of the report, the two sisters turned to each other with wide eyes and opened mouths.  Before either of them could put voice to their stunned thoughts, Sheldon’s phone rang.

“Michael,” they said in union and they raced over to the phone. 

Sheldon placed the call on speakerphone.

“You won’t believe what I just saw on
ET
tonight.”

“We saw it,” Peyton and Sheldon answered.

“I knew we should have gone to Italy,” Michael huffed.  “Joey has gone off and done something stupid!”

“Now, now.  We don’t know that,” Sheldon said, trying to calm her down.

“They’re saying she’s engaged—to a man she couldn’t have known more than five days.”

“They could be wrong,” Peyton reasoned. 

“Did you not see all those diamonds around her neck and her ears...and Mary Hartman said something about a big rock on her finger.” Michael continued to be agitated.  “I hate being left out in the dark.”

“Well, look on the bright side,” Peyton said, shrugging.  “At least she’s not coming back home with that jerk Laurence.”

A silence buzzed over the line for a few seconds.

“You know, P.J.,” Michael said.  “When you’re right, you’re right.  I just wished we knew what the hell is going on.”

#

Carlina Leoni was pissed.  In the two days since Ryan started showing off his fiancée, all anyone talked about was the size of the ring he’d place on the woman’s finger.  Another bee in her bouquet was the fact Ryan had unapologetically stood her up the other night.  And to add insult to injury, he now allowed the hussy to hang around the set.

“I want a new ring,” Carlina snapped at Laurence through her cell phone as she stormed into her set trailer.  “Everybody is making a big deal about that big nobody’s engagement ring.  No one is saying anything about mine.”  She huffed and paced back in forth.  “I know we’ve been over this.  We’re going over it again.  I want a new ring or the wedding is off.”  She snapped her phone closed, pitched it to the other end of the small trailer, just missed her assistant’s head by a few inches.

#

Laurence slammed the phone down while his blood pressure threatened to explode.  His once sweet, submissive fiancée had turned into a self-absorbed, egomaniac.  “Buy her another ring,” he mumbled under his breath.  “She must have fell and bumped her head.”

For the past two days, he and Carlina did nothing but argue.  And when their arguments reached the tabloids, they sulked more and more inside their suite.  When Carlina announced this morning she wanted to postpone their nuptials until they returned stateside, Laurence knew his engagement was on the rocks.

He paced their suite like a caged lion while his perfect plans for his perfect future crashed against the sharp edges of reality.  More and more, he realized he proposed to the wrong woman.  It didn’t help that every time he turned around, whether it was shopping through Centro Bonola, or wondering through Musei del Castello, Ryan and Joey were already there.

Each time he ran into Joey, everything about her glowed.  And that bastard Donovan acted as though he couldn’t keep his hands off of her.  Actually, it was pretty sickening to watch their public display of affection.  It wasn’t like they didn’t have a room where they could carry out that sort of thing.

Though Laurence stopped pacing, his mind still raced with thoughts and memories of Joey.  Though she was a low rung on the Hollywood ladder, she never allowed herself to get caught up in the rat race.  Family was the most important thing to her; she never made bones about it.  The reason he easily dated other women was because Joey never once tried to suffocate him or install a Lojack on his pager.

She trusted him¾and then he betrayed that trust.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid.”  There had to be something he could do¾some way he could win her back.  Yet how could he compete with the likes of a big mover and shaker like Donovan?

“There has to be some way.”

#

“I have to hand it to you,” Zach thundered, slapping Ryan across the back.  “When you set out to win, you go balls out.”

The two friends met during a brief break near the set’s catered buffet.

“Keep your voice down,” Ryan hissed, glancing around and tugging him aside.  “Someone might hear you.”

“Engaged.” Zach chuckled.  “I predicted it, but I preferred a
real
engagement over a fake one.”

Carlina was strolling toward the buffet for a bowl of fruit and an iced bottle of water when Zach Griffin’s words halted her.

“What do you mean you didn’t know the news would hit the papers?” Zach whispered conspiratorially.

Carlina ducked behind a set prop and leaned in closer.

“I’m a director, not a headline-hungry actor where every move I make is scrutinized by America’s desperate housewives.”

“Then you shouldn’t have bought such a stunning ring.”

“
You
bought the ring.”

Zach shrugged.  “I can’t help I have good taste.”

“Very funny.” Ryan thought about it and withdrew a cigar.  “It is a nice ring.”

“See?  Don’t I always look out for you?”

“Let’s not get delusional.”

Carlina’s eyes grew wide as silver dollars. 
A fake engagement?
  She was suddenly giddy as a schoolgirl.  Ryan Donovan had pulled a classic Hollywood stunt.  It all made sense. 

She turned around and sprinted back to her trailer.  All was not lost.

Zach chuckled.  “I hear you, I hear you.  I’m still working on your financing.  I should hear something in the next few days.”

“Famous last words.”

“But tell me something, man.”  Zach’s voice lowered.  “How long are you going to keep this pretense up?  You got what you wanted out of the deal, right?  It’s cost you a pretty penny so you had to have hit it by now.”

“Don’t talk like that about Joey.”

Zach frowned.  “I’m confused.  This was an act, right?”

Ryan’s gaze dropped, his words lodged in his throat.”

“Oh my God.  You’ve really fallen for her, haven’t you?”

“So what if I have?” he asked defensively.  “It’s not the end of the world.”  He straightened his shoulders.  “Besides, wasn’t it you who said that it was time that I settled down?”

“Oh my God.”

“Stop saying that,” Ryan snapped.

“I don’t know what else to say,” Zach stammered.  He looked like he needed to sit down.  “You always said that you didn’t believe in holy matrimony.”

Ryan shrugged.  “A man can change his mind.”

“The phrase is ‘a woman can change her mind.’  Men just surrender.”

“Fine.”  A grin spread wide across his face.  “I happily surrender.”

Chapter 24

              Joey escaped back to Ryan’s suite to get a jump on preparing for another glorious evening out.  She didn’t know where they were going, but she was certain they were going to have a great time.  They always had fun.

              Last night they did nothing more than race nude in the suite’s private swimming pool.  Ryan might have more muscles, but she was a natural fish in the water.  Of course, the highlight of the night was making love in the pool, the Jacuzzi and the Turkish bath.  They’d also made out in each of the three bedrooms, the formal dining room, on top of the piano and at last on the terrace.  In a roundabout way, she finally had the full tour of the place.

              “Impotent, my ass.”  She laughed and wrapped on a robe.  Smiling and humming, she crossed the room to head toward her closet but stopped by the phone.  She really should call home, yet just the thought of Mike’s tongue-lashing made her shy away.

              However, she had to call before the whole brigade rammed down her door, knocked her out and dragged her bloody body back home.  She chuckled under her breath, and then stopped when she realized that the scenario had possibilities.

              Joey picked up the phone and decided the safest sister to call was Peyton.  Unfortunately, Peyton was bound by certain obligations and after first checking to see if she was all right, switched to a second line to call Frankie who called Sheldon who at last called Michael.

              “Whoa. Whoa.  Calm down.  Calm down,” she said, to no avail.  The line hummed with threats and notes of concern.

              “I ought to kill you,” Michael started in.

              “We were worried about you,” Sheldon chastised.

              “Joey, we did call the police,” Frankie added.

              “I’m fine.  I’m fine,” Joey assured.  “I know I shouldn’t have run off like that, but...I needed to handle something on my own.”

              “And how does that include getting involved with a big-time movie producer?” Sheldon asked.

              “Director,” Frankie corrected.

              “And the word is
engaged
,” Michael also corrected.  “You want to explain that?”