Hold Me Tight: Heartbreakers (14 page)

“Sex? You think I had sex with Alexi? Am I wearing a label or something?” Willow had perfectly described Jessica’s problems. She studied Willow, who had often spoken about Alexi, how nice he was. “He’s…interesting. Are you interested in him, Willow?”

“He’s been around, in the shop and at the resort,” Willow
stated cautiously. “Alexi seems interested in me. I hope that doesn’t bother you. I wouldn’t want my best friend to feel… well, jealous. Do you? I mean, just because you had sex with him doesn’t mean that—”

“Of course not.”

When Willow grinned, Jessica pushed away that slight burning emotion that she wouldn’t call jealousy; Alexi might want another woman, and there was no lasting commitment between them.

Or was there? Her senses told her that their bond as lovers went deeper. Jessica sipped the tea Willow had just poured. Her plan to have Alexi investigate the danger to Willow may have backfired.

Or Alexi could genuinely be interested in Willow.

Jessica’s body tightened, remembering Alexi’s fierce possession. “If he is interested, he’s a darned good—”

“What, Jessica?” Willow asked.

“Nothing.” She noted the cardboard taped over Willow’s window. It was new; the other broken window was in the shop. “Did you ever find out who broke the window?”

Willow shrugged, but she’d turned her telltale face away from Jessica. “Kids, probably. Probably threw a rock and it accidentally hit my window. They were probably too scared to come tell me.”

Concerned for her friend, Jessica placed her hand on Willow’s. “Willow, I’m worried. You said someone was calling, breathing heavily. You’re here alone. You could be in danger.”

“It was probably someone who just got the wrong number.”

“And took a few minutes breathing heavily? I don’t think so.”

“Jessica, they dialed the wrong number, and when they heard my voice, it took them a moment to regroup. That’s all.”

“It’s someone you know, isn’t it? Someone is threatening you and—”

“And I do not want trouble,” Willow finished briskly. She turned to Jessica, studying her over the rims of her small glasses. “We both know that Alexi has only one woman on his mind. Last week, when you were in Seattle, he had the
lonesomest look. And he’s the first man to interest you. Are you going to grab this chance or not? Does Howard know? I do not like that guy. He’s a bully. You should separate completely from him.”

“I can’t. He’s Robert’s son. Robert asked me to protect Sterling Stops, but also to understand that he’d never given Howard the father he needed. Robert felt guilty about that, and I promised him that I’d watch out for Howard.”

On a visit to Sterling Stops’ corporate office, Willow had experienced firsthand Howard’s jealousy, his anger and his need to possess Jessica. A simple lunch date between friends had infuriated him—especially when he invited himself and Jessica preferred Willow’s company over his. Alarmed that Howard could be stalking Willow, Jessica asked, “Has Howard called you? Has he come here?”

Willow’s expression tightened and she crossed her arms, leveling a look at Jessica. “Honey, that was over four months ago. He knows you and I are close and wanted me to get you to play ball on some deal or another. I kicked him out. He made a pass at me—it was like, ‘gee whiz, she’s a woman, and I’ve got some spare time. I’m doing her a favor.’ Look, dear heart, I detest the guy and I can protect myself against someone like him.”

Infuriated at the lengths Howard would go, Jessica placed her cup into the sink. “You should have told me. I’ll see that Howard doesn’t bother you again.”

“I can handle myself—with some jerk like him anyway. He was limping when he left. I believe his crotch was hurting. He won’t be back. But what about you? Are you going to stop him from bothering you, too?”

“I’ve been stopping it for years.” But Alexi had just upped the ante because Howard would consider him to be a poacher.

“So you spent the night with Alexi and now you’re set to go right back where you were—killing yourself with work and guilt. That’s what you plan to do, isn’t it?” Willow asked. “And if I didn’t care, I just might let you do that. But I do care, and I want you to take some time to deal with what you need as a person, as a woman—to find yourself and what you
deserve. You do not owe anyone anything. You’ve already paid too much—first of all to that family, and then to that idiot you married before that. I know you loved Robert, but now it’s time to move on—and if I weren’t your friend and didn’t love you dearly, I wouldn’t be telling you that it’s time to deal with your life and your feelings.”

Willow paused to take a deep breath as if unloading a huge burden. “He came after you, didn’t he? And you came here to see him, didn’t you? Gee whiz, it doesn’t take a brainiac to figure out there is something cooking between you. Go for it, Jess.”

“Are you finished?” Jessica asked, shocked because Willow had always been so careful not to voice her very definite opinions about her friend’s life.

“No. There’s this.” Willow stepped close and hugged and rocked Jessica. As if firmly resolved, Willow stepped back. “I needed that. Because I’m terribly afraid.”

Jessica took her friend’s hand and smoothed a tightly waving strand back from her forehead. “I told you. I’ll see that you’re protected. I’m not leaving here without some safeguard in place for you.”

Willow’s fingers tightened on Jessica’s. “Jess, I’m a busybody and shouldn’t interfere, but we’re best friends. Aren’t we?”

“Of course. How did you interfere? The soap you sent to the office? It was lovely. My secretary wants to order more for her friends—”

“I had good motives. Don’t hate me.”

“But I could never hate you. You’re the only person I’ve ever trusted with how I feel, with my life—”

“You might hate me after this,” Willow muttered as if to herself. After taking a deep breath, her words rushed from her. “I set this up. You said that your relationship with Robert—wasn’t sexual, though you loved him. Now you seem to be locked in to that business. I knew you’d stay in that office, working yourself to death, and that deadbeat, Howard, would be leering at you. Someday, when you’re tired and down, he’ll probably catch you and—”

Willow paused and looked at her wristwatch. “Oh, shoot. I was supposed to pick up Patience to take her to the clinic and then drop by to take Frank to the grocery store, and then go back and pick up Patience. Oh, wait a minute, before Patience, I was supposed to… It’s my day to shuttle everyone around and I forgot. I was worried about you and a shipment of supplies was due and—”

Jessica placed her fingertip in the center of Willow’s forehead, effectively stopping the flow of Willow’s schedule. Jessica sensed she wasn’t going to like whatever was coming next in her friend’s plot to get her to Amoteh. “Let’s get back to you worrying about me not managing my own life. I was tired and rundown and Howard was bothering me…. And?”

Willow threw up her hands and shook her head. “I think you’re a great match for Alexi, and you weren’t taking my hints so I had to act. I knew you’d come here and stay, to protect me. Since I played summer theater—”

“I knew I wasn’t going to like this.”

“You’re looking all dark and mad… Like when you think something isn’t my business, but it’s bothering you—like resolving your family stuff—and I think you should get it out and talk about it…. And besides, it might actually be true that someone is stalking me. But it isn’t…. Okay, well. My motives were well-intended. Just don’t hate me…. Oh, I just hate it when you get that scrunched-up look like when I paid that guy to dance with you—I really did think he was a good match for you and you needed to feel like a woman instead of a machine…. Um, would you like me to make you some fudge? I’ll cancel everything and close the shop. It’s going to rain today. We can watch movies and eat chocolate and—”

“You faked danger to yourself because you knew I’d get involved with Alexi? You did that? Does Alexi know?
Does Alexi know?
”

Willow’s hands raised to rub circles on her temples and she frowned at Jessica from between her little fingers. “I knew you’d get all worked up. I can’t do everything, you know. I’m supposed to give this little talk to some ladies on retreat at the Amoteh about soap-making. One of their grandmothers actually
made her own and she’s basically called me out to prove that I’m a fake, that real soap-making is done with fat, lye and a kettle. It’s a duel, Jessica, and I have to turn up. The ladies are afraid they’ll fall in the mud, so I have to go to them. I stand to get some big orders out of them. I forgot about the appointments I had to transport the elderly, and you’re just going to have to help me out.”

“Oh, I am, am I?”

“Yes, you are. Because you’re my friend and I’m yours, and I know that you had good sex last night, because you’re glowing.” Willow picked up a pad and pencil and started sketching a map.

She handed it to Jessica. “You’ll help me, won’t you, Jess? Please, please, please? I love you, Jessie, and the marked Xs are pickups with the names and times,” she singsonged.

“Give me that and never call me Jessie again,” Jessica ordered without anger as she snatched the map. How could she possibly be angry with a friend who had given her so much, who was almost the sister she’d wanted for a lifetime?

Jessica leaned away from Willow’s kiss on her cheek and said, “Okay, but you’re pushing it. But don’t think that I’m done with you, or with Alexi. I’m not happy that you set this up, and if he has any idea of what you’ve done, I’m going to teach him a lesson.”

A
t seven o’clock, the night was quiet and moonlit outside the Stepanov Furniture Shop. Unable to stay in his home and pursued by images of Jessica, by her scent, Alexi had come to work on the desk. He had started it during the week Jessica was in Seattle. Now, he didn’t want to go home to find her gone, so he had stayed away.

He ran his hand over the smooth unfinished walnut of the small secretary desk. In the plain, sturdy style of Stepanov Furniture, the desk was large enough for a laptop and a small printer. The cubbyholes and narrow drawer would serve well for necessities.

He’d designed the functional desk to suit a woman like Jessica—strong, intelligent, elegant, confident and smooth to the touch, to enjoy touching. The reddish grain running through the dark walnut reminded him of her hair—

Alexi traced the wood with his finger and thought of how her hair had looked, vivid against her pale skin. He hadn’t seen Jessica since that morning and ached to hold her in his arms, to let her scent comfort him, arouse him—

Something else brewed between them, a tenderness and intimacy that seemed fresh and clean. Could he trust that bond?

Was Jessica still emotionally married to her deceased husband? Did her heart still belong to him?

Alexi turned off the sander and began using sandpaper. He was usually a patient man, but now he waited anxiously for each word of Jessica. He needed his hands busy, anything to distract him from how Jessica’s silky skin had felt beneath his touch, those soft purrs, the rise of her hips to meet his….

Willow had called, serving him a warning that Jessica might be detained a bit by helping the elderly run errands—but Alexi was definitely on Jessica’s hit list.

Jessica hadn’t left Amoteh; her BMW had been collected by Willow. Mikhail had said that Willow had parked the expensive vehicle in the resort’s parking lot and had delivered her soap program to the ladies’ retreat group. Willow had been thrilled with the orders she had taken, and she had mentioned that Jessica was delivering the elderly to different appointments in Amoteh.

Alexi grimly pushed the sandpaper across the already-smooth top of the secretary desk. It couldn’t compare to Jessica’s elegant office desk, but he wanted to give her something unique, made by his own hands and heart.

The door to the furniture shop crashed open and Fadey walked in, grinning and bold, carrying a picnic basket. “My wife, your aunt, she worries for you, little boy. She sent you food.”

Jarek and Mikhail followed him inside, and the men placed the containers they carried onto the workbench. They stripped off their coats and began setting the food out.

“So you’re hiding out here. Jessica is hunting you,” Mikhail stated as he began to slice his wife’s freshly baked bread. “She came to the Amoteh and used the complimentary business suite to make calls.”

Alexi frowned slightly; he knew his cousin was baiting him and he wouldn’t be too anxious to ask about Jessica.

Would Jessica want to stay with Alexi?
She was a powerful woman and he was asking her to stay with him, assist him and
live in basic conditions. Maybe Jessica was right—he could be punishing her for the damage another woman had done.

Jarek opened the pie container and cut the pie, sliding a big piece onto a plate that Fadey had placed beside him. Fadey tapped another plate, indicating he wanted a piece of the pie. Mikhail took the slice that Jarek had placed onto a plate, and began eating.

“That is
my
wife’s cherry pie,” Jarek stated darkly.

With the air of an older brother challenging a younger one, Mikhail asked, “So?”

Jarek frowned at Mikhail and placed a slice onto another plate. “Jessica has been at the Seagull’s Perch and at Willow’s.”

Alexi breathed deeply; he knew his cousins well. One anxious word about Jessica and they would be teasing him.

Was Jessica saying her goodbyes to her friend?
Alexi pretended he wasn’t listening. He tossed the sandpaper aside and picked up the pie pan, stuck a fork into the remainder of the cherry pie and started eating. “The house is coming along. I got a good section of the roof braced up. By the time the weather is better, we can shingle.”

“Shakes might be better for that house. It rambles on too much to be an upright saltbox design and it isn’t quite ranch style. But we have time to think about roofing. We could make the shakes here,” Mikhail noted, always the practical businessman.

“But did she like the bathroom? Women like kitchens and bathrooms,” Jarek stated with experience.

Alexi thought of Jessica soaking in her bubble bath, the way she leaned her head back against the rolled towel and closed her eyes—that little sigh of pleasure. His pleasure was in just looking at her. He placed the pie aside. “She liked it.”

“That’s what I heard from my wife. Jessica and Ellie talked briefly,” Mikhail said softly. Just another nudge in the cousins’ teasing, Alexi decided.

Then he gave in to his curiosity. He tried to shield his excitement. “Did she say anything, Mikie?”

“You know I don’t like that nickname.” Mikhail shrugged and answered obliquely, “Woman talk. Things.”

“Like what, specifically?” Then Alexi caught the knowing smiles passing between Mikhail and Jarek. “Stop,” Alexi ordered darkly. “There are things that I know about you, cousins, that your wives would like to know.”

He could still taste Jessica, still smell that exotic, feminine scent, still want her….
Was she gone? Would she think of him tonight as she lay in her luxurious bedroom in Seattle?

Fadey circled the little desk. “Good. Good, clean, sturdy. A woman would like this. You put the same hardware on it as what Mikhail used for Ellie’s sewing machine. A little touch to please a woman.”

“Jessica delivered groceries to Mrs. Maloney and took a prescription to Tiny Morales on Willow’s behalf. Looks like she’s keeping busy. Ryan had to help her jump-start Willow’s old van. She asked him about regular transportation services for the elderly or housebound in Amoteh.”

“Neighbors usually help. Willow seems to have taken charge of anyone who doesn’t have help.” Alexi slathered butter over a slice of warm, thick bread. “There’s nothing to keep Jessica here—”

The door swung open and Jessica, a worn, knitted scarf around her head, covered in mud, stepped inside. She slammed the door shut. Her eyes locked on Alexi and narrowed dangerously. “Stepanov, I’ve been looking all over for you—”

“Which one?” Jarek asked, smothering another smile.

“I smell food.” Jessica frowned and she sniffed delicately. Obviously her hunt had been sidetracked.

She stared at the container of stew that Fadey had just placed on the workbench. “Can I have some of that?”

While Mikhail gallantly helped her out of her coat and seated her, Jarek began placing food on the door across two sawhorses that served as a table. Alexi leaned back against the workbench and folded his arms across his chest. He didn’t like feeling vulnerable and uncertain.

He studied the tie-dyed T-shirt over her long-sleeved, expensive sweater and the love beads around her throat, an in
dication that she had visited Ed and Bliss. Willow had said Jessica knew about the deception and would be coming to question him. The option was Alexi’s: he could either deny that he knew Willow was faking danger to herself, or he could admit his suspicions.

When Jessica began devouring the food placed in front of her, Jarek waved his hand in a low, sweeping invitation for Alexi to sit next to her. Fadey, Mikhail and Jarek stood back against the workbench, leisurely enjoying their food. They watched Alexi ease into the chair next to Jessica.

Alexi frowned at the other men; they looked as if they were set to enjoy good theater. “So how was your day?” he asked Jessica as casually as he could.
Are you staying here? With me?

He buttered the warm bread and placed it on her plate. Jessica was still eating quickly. Alexi ate a few bites from his plate and then asked, “Did you eat today?”

“No time,” she said around a mouthful of stew.

He unwound the long, knitted scarf from her throat and touched one of her braids. “That’s a new hairstyle.”

“Mrs. Olaf was showing me how she braided her daughter’s hair. I mentioned I had mine braided as a girl and, naturally… It’s called French braiding. It’s very tight. I may be squinting. There are little tight strands catching at the nape of my neck. I just haven’t had the time to undo it.” She turned her attention to the food. “Gee, this is good.”

Alexi eased away the elastic hair band from one braid; his fingers began to loosen Jessica’s hair from its confinement. At a sound, he turned to see his cousins and uncle all grinning.

“It is really tight,” Alexi stated defensively, because he wanted to tend Jessica, to hold her, and they knew exactly how he felt.

“Got to go,” Mikhail stated abruptly, as though Alexi’s gestures reminded him of a task he couldn’t wait to do. “Jessica, do you want the resort’s housekeeping staff to warm your suite a bit? Maybe ready the fireplace?”

The shop was suddenly heavy with silence. She stopped
spooning stew into her mouth and looked blankly at Alexi. “I haven’t had time to think…. I might—”

In that heartbeat, Alexi had everything he’d needed all day—Jessica wanted to be close to him. She’d thought of him through her busy day and she’d needed him. She might want to sort out the facts with Alexi—but she wanted to be held close by him.

“I’ll take her home,” he said quietly.

Fadey clapped his hands and, with his arm looped through Jarek’s, began a brief, stomping, circular dance. He clapped again and grinned. “That’s good. You make me happy. You take her home, boy.”

“Pop,” Mikhail warned quietly when Jessica put her head down, obviously shielding a blush.

“I am only joyful for my brother, Viktor, you know. Not for me,” Fadey stated adamantly. Then his eyes lit. It was an expression Alexi had seen when Fadey talked of the grandchildren he wanted. “Yes, I am joyful, too. So what, little boy?”

“We’re working on it, Pop. Less than two weeks and you’ll have another grandchild. Mom says Ellie is in her nesting mood.”

Fadey’s expression was concerned and almost comically contrite, his shoulders lifted, his hands outstretched in a plea. “But my brother, Viktor, you know. He is younger, but without little ones.”

“Uncle,” Alexi cautioned quietly. Jessica hadn’t seemed to notice the exchange, but Alexi’s body tightened almost fiercely as he thought of how they had made love, and the child that could be—a little girl with green eyes and braids. He’d heard of the primitive urge to hold his own child, but he hadn’t really experienced that deep need with one special woman.

When Heather was telling him how she had used him to mark time—“until someone better came along”—she’d also included a bare fact that she’d previously hidden. “I wouldn’t think of having children. It would ruin my figure.”

Alexi studied Jessica’s clean-cut profile. She might not want children, either. It didn’t really matter now. He knew little
about her—except that he ached to hold her, to make love to her.

Mikhail sighed and said his goodbyes. Jessica was still looking down and Alexi couldn’t resist running his fingertip over her hot cheek, enjoying that delicious little shiver. “Tired?”

“Very. I have a surprise for you.”

“I can’t wait.”

Her hunger satisfied now, Jessica yawned. When Alexi finished loosening her other braid, her head nodded and her head drooped. She leaned slightly toward Alexi and all his unrest settled into a gentle flow of tenderness for her. He eased her from her chair and into her coat, wrapping the knitted scarf around her head. With a quiet look to Fadey and Jarek, Alexi guided Jessica toward the door.

Jessica awoke in Alexi’s bed. Alone, she lay in the heavy warmth of the quilts, inhaling his scent. She ran her hand over his pillow and remembered how he had carried her into the house. When he had placed her on her feet, Jessica had swayed and then leaned fully against him. Alexi had chuckled, the sound deep and rich against her cheek. “It must have been some day.”

“I had to jump-start Willow’s van. Then I drove it into the nearest garage and had them drop a battery in it. On the trips, someone was baby-sitting their grandchild and the girl was carsick and that wasn’t pleasant. Ed and Bliss and I chased their goat. I slid down a hill.”

“But did you get the goat?”

Alexi already knew Jessica’s answer. “Yes.”

She’d fumbled in her pocket, determined to give Alexi her present. “Here. A worry stone from Ed. Bliss is worried about your chakras. She said they have been out of alignment for too long. And I think you need this, too.”

Jessica watched the firelight flickering on the ceiling and remembered Alexi’s soft, pleased smile as she’d placed her love beads over his head. “Don’t worry anymore, Alexi. I’ve taken care of everything.”

“Have you?” he asked, amused as he gently washed her face with a cloth.

The wind howled outside and water dropped from the ceiling into the bucket, but Jessica never felt more safe. She remembered his big, callused, warm hands running gently over her nude body, a comforting gesture that told her she had come home—where she belonged, with Alexi.

Never in her life had she been so safe and cherished. After a childhood of uncertainty and neglect, an immature marriage and her second with Robert—because already ill, Robert had needed protection from his son’s greed and cruelty—Jessica had fought to keep him safe, to keep Robert’s dream safe.

She stretched and sighed and luxuriated in this tiny moment—before she would tell Alexi what she had done.

And ask him if he knew about Willow’s playacting.

Now, turning in his bed alone, Jessica frowned slightly. She realized that the cool sheets beside her body hadn’t been warmed by Alexi’s. She listened to the slight splashing sounds in the bathroom and reached for her wristwatch, which was lying on the table beside the bed. “Two o’clock is a strange time to be taking a…bath. Hmm. Alexi seems more like a shower man.”