Back for Seconds (27 page)

When her eyes finally opened early that Saturday, she had to blink a number of times to get her bearings. She was completely naked, sprawled in red sheets on Xander’s king-sized bed in Xander’s spacious bedroom. Bright daylight filtered in through the blinds. The alarm clock on the night stand next to the bed announced it just was just after seven o’clock. She sat up as she glanced around. Xander was nowhere to be found, but she could smell coffee brewing down the hall. She grinned as she gathered the sheet around her body, before padding barefoot towards the kitchen. Xander stood over the stove, wearing the ridiculous apron he once purchased for her to wear in his kitchen, and precious little else. She laughed as she leaned across the counter. “I’ll have two eggs, sunny side up.”

He grinned at her. “You’ll have your eggs scrambled and you’ll like it, young lady,” he told her. He set the skillet aside and turned off the burner before he walked around the counter to take her into his arms. “Good morning.”

She kissed him long and slow. “It is now.”

He brushed her hair away from her face with one large hand. “Are you ready for today?”

She nodded and smiled. “I think so. I just have to go back home and figure out what to wear.”

He tugged the sheet away from her body, exposing her breasts. “Personally I think you look perfect just as you are. Sure to sell tons of cookies,” he added with a lascivious grin.

She laughed. “You’re ridiculous.”

“No, I’m right,” he corrected as he wrapped his arms around her waist. “Life would be so much easier if you’d just accept that as a given.” He captured her lips for another kiss. “I could make love to you all day,” he murmured happily.

Her eyebrow cocked. “I thought you didn’t make love.”

He chuckled as he pulled away. “You have a point.” She gasped as he ripped the sheet away from her body and plopped her up on the counter. He fit himself in between her legs and kissed her hard while his hands trailed over her skin, stopping to cup her generous breasts with either hand. She leaned back as he kissed his way down her body, to tease her sensitive nipples until she was begging for more. He tossed aside the apron before he plunged himself right inside of her, where she sat perched on the edge of the counter. Her eyes opened wide and he wore a victorious grin as he proceeded to fuck her silly. He didn’t stop until they were both unable to stand.

“Low blood sugar,” he joked before he prepared plates of cold breakfast food.

They made love again in the shower, where he soaped her thoroughly from top to bottom. Since his large shower stall had a seat, he perched her there while he disappeared between her legs and finished his intimate cleaning with his tongue. She was clawing at the glass door by the time he reached up and entered her once again.

They didn’t make it out of the house until close to ten o’clock, and Tish’s flight was due by noon.

He dropped her off at The Ranch, where she had left her car the night before. She drove home and changed into something more suitable for a nationwide talk show segment. As matronly as she tried to appear, inside she was all tigress. She had never felt as alive as when she was with Xander. It was like he had unveiled something she’d always kept hidden. Every time she looked at herself in the mirror, she knew she had been changed forever. She could never go back to the plain Jane doctor’s wife, who found comfort in the shadows just so she wouldn’t steal his spotlight.

Joely Morgan was ready for a little spotlight of her own.

She arrived at Lillian’s Place a little after noon. Her mother greeted her warmly. “Don’t you look like a superstar?”

Indeed she felt like one… at least until Xander arrived with his friend, Tisha Matthews. She was tall, slender, tanned and blonde, and Joely could tell she was a transplant from the west coast before she even opened her mouth. Her eyes were as blue as the Pacific and her teeth shone bright when she smiled. If she had to guess, Joely would have put her age around Xander’s. She quickly learned that she was right, that Tisha and Xander had gone to school together in London, which was where they met.

“You could say language brought us together,” she grinned as she sat together with Xander, Lillian, Granny Faye and Joely.

“Basically I heard her American accent and she couldn’t shake me after that.”

Everyone laughed, except Joely. “So did you date?”

Tisha and Xander shared a cheeky grin. “Off and on,” she finally answered. “But you know this one. It’s not like he’s one to plant roots anywhere.”

“Look who’s talking,” Xander teased with a playful nudge. “I’ve just been following in her footsteps. She moved to NYC, so naturally I moved to NYC. Then Miami, then San Francisco.”

“It was his idea to move to Texas, though,” she corrected. “Something about the Wild West that called to him. I probably wouldn’t have transferred to Dallas otherwise.”

Joely nodded. Despite their amazing night together, it dawned on her there was very little she knew about Xander. She certainly didn’t know that the person he had been pushing her to meet was an ex-girlfriend, one he’d followed all over the globe.

“But enough about us,” Tisha decided. “Tell me about you.”

Joely shrugged. “Not that much to tell.”

“She’s just being modest,” Xander interjected. “Her story is amazing. Left by her husband, turned out of her home with three kids, going home to mother,” he said as he gestured to Lillian. “And out of the ashes she rose just like a phoenix, creating this business from scratch. Literally.”

Joely shook her head. It wasn’t as impressive as all that. “As it turns out I wasn’t trained for any kind of job that would pay what we needed. I was so distraught that I started baking these cookies and pretty soon it became this quest, really. To get them right. To make them perfect. Mom’s the one who brought them to the restaurant and made them a hit. Right place, right time and all that.”

“Well, it sounds incredible. Xander has sent me some of your cookies and pastries and I have to tell you, they are as delicious as they are beautiful. I can’t wait to see how you do it.”

The group headed into the kitchen, where the cameras had been set up by Joely’s table. She and Tisha fitted themselves with aprons as they took their spots and the tape began to roll.  They taped it all, from mixing the ingredients to frosting the finished product. After they were done, Tisha and her camera man went back into the restaurant to talk to the customers who raved about the special cookies. Each one had a story to tell, how they had given cookies away for birthday presents or ‘just because.’

It was nearly five o’clock in the afternoon before they wrapped it up. Lillian insisted that they stay for dinner, which of course they did. She sat at the table, with a wide, phony smile, as she listened to the escapades of Tisha and Xander. Every now and then he would send her a knowing wink, but other than that, their relationship, such as it was, was effectively buried.

It made her feel lonely, even at the crowded table.

By the time Tisha was ready to leave, Xander pulled Joely to the side. “I’m going to take them back to the house.”

“They’re staying with you?”

He nodded. “Much more comfortable than a hotel,” he said. “Besides, Tish and I don’t get to catch up much anymore.” He stared down at her with hungry eyes. “I’m going to miss you tonight, though.”

“Are you?” she challenged softly.

He smirked as he whispered near her ear, “Can you still feel me every time you sit down?” She shuddered in spite of herself. “Thought so. Now stop pouting or you’ll earn yourself another spanking.”

She couldn’t help but grin. “Promises, promises.”

“Oh, I deliver,” he assured as he discreetly swatted her behind. She gasped and he grinned. “Now be a good girl and dream about me.”

She watched him as he herded Tish and her camera guy, Frank, out of the restaurant. Lillian walked up beside her. “I tell you what. That man is trouble. Walking, talking, bona fide trouble.” She glanced at Joely. “Be careful.”

It was all she needed to say to acknowledge the inappropriate nature of Joely’s relationship with the man who was essentially her boss.

Joely nodded, but feared that ship had already sailed. Right or wrong, wise or foolish, she was crazy about Xander Davy. She went back into the kitchen to bake away any residual insecurities she might have had that he was spending that night with another woman.

Tisha didn’t leave until Sunday evening. By then, Joely’s kids had returned home and their opportunities to relieve their sexy Halloween celebration reduced significantly. They were back on the treadmill. She was baking like a fiend and her sales were growing. She juggled at least four customized orders that week in addition to the daily output she managed to keep up for Lillian’s Place.

She used her heavy workload as an excuse to return to Lillian’s Place almost every night around closing. Xander would lock the door behind the departing employees and turn Joely into a heated embrace, which was getting harder and harder to withhold during the week. Despite how crazed they were for one another, he insisted that work came first. It was almost sexier to have him watch her from his upstairs office while she toiled away on her orders, knowing that when she was done, he’d be in that office chair waiting for her.

That office chair had become the seat of their passion almost every night that week. She’d straddle him where he sat and they’d furiously tear away each other’s clothes until they were once again united skin to skin.

She barely got any rest and by Saturday it showed. The weather had turned, bringing cold rain to the region. Kari was the first to get sick, Nash and Joely soon followed. Everyone was homebound so they wouldn’t infect the entire staff, including Granny Faye, whose advanced age made her more vulnerable to illness.

Xander showed up with a vat of chicken noodle soup from the restaurant by Sunday. He took turns in between them, giving them soup, bundling them in blankets and tending to their needs.

There was nothing sexual about it as he stretched out on the bed next to Joely, where she lay miserable and feverish. But she still worried about it anyway. “The kids can’t see us like this,” she protested weakly.

“Why not?” he asked at last. “You know it’s the worst kept secret at Lillian’s Place, right? So why hide it?”

She shook her head. On this issue she would not budge. She wasn’t even sure where her relationship with Xander was going. It seemed pointless to involve the kids.

But he was undaunted as he nursed her back to health. He was bathing her face with a dampened cloth when Hannah crept into the room to join them. “Hannah, baby, you can’t be in here,” Joely muttered.

Xander jumped off the bed to herd her back outside. He dropped to one knee to address her. “You don’t want to get sick, do you? Not so soon after you got well.”

She shook her head. “But I have medicine. It’s a magic medicine,” she said as she pulled a bottle from her pocket and handed it to him.

His brows furrowed as he read the label. “Where did you get this, Hannah?”

“Lilah. But she says it’s a secret. I’m only supposed to use it if my tummy hurts again, but it hasn’t hurt yet. Maybe it can work on Mommy.”

He offered a bright smile. “I’ll take care of it. Why don’t you go play with Xander-bear and I’ll bring you some ice cream in a little while.”

She liked the sound of that. Her head bobbed with agreement before she dashed back down the hall into her room.

Xander let himself back into Joely’s room. “Hey, we have a problem.”

“What? Is it Hannah? Is she sick?”

He shook his head as he sat on the edge of her bed. “She gave me this.” He handed her the bottle. She read the label but it was all Greek to her. “What is it?”

“Medicinal marijuana,” he answered simply.

“What?” she exploded as she bolted up in bed so fast it made her head swim. “Where did she get this?”

“Lilah,” he answered.

With a groan Joely collapsed back on the bed. “My God.” Her eyes widened as she glanced back at him. “She hasn’t taken any, has she?”

He shook his head. “She said it was for when her tummy started to hurt again, but it hadn’t yet.”

“Thank God,” she breathed. She couldn’t imagine what might have happened if her baby had taken any of it. She said as much to Xander.

“It’s a concentrate,” he said. “So it’s pretty strong. But still, it’s pot. No one has ever died from an overdose.”

She glared at him. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

He shook his head. “No, I guess not.”

“I just don’t know how Lilah got ahold of something like that.”

“You said she had cancer, right?” She nodded. “Maybe they were treating her with it.”

“But that’s illegal,” she said.

“Not if you’re desperate,” he answered.

They waited until Joely felt better to talk to Mason and Chrisopher about it. They drove over to their house to speak to them privately while the girls were in school. When Joely handed the bottle over to Christopher, Mason covered his mouth with his hand and turned away.

“I am so sorry,” Christopher said at once. “We are normally very careful about this. For obvious reasons.”