Love Becomes Her (14 page)

“S
o Ron and his crew are working out?” Michael asked Barbara.

“Yes, they’re doing an incredible job. I can’t believe how much they’ve done in just a few weeks. We can’t thank you enough for the recommendation.”

“Not a problem. I’m just glad it’s working out.”

Barbara stretched out on the bed, hugging the phone to her ear. Michael had been gone for nearly a month, the longest stretch of time they’d been apart.

“When will you get another break?” she asked.

“I wanted to surprise you, but since you asked… I’m downstairs.”

She sprang up in bed. “Don’t play with me.”

He chuckled just as her doorbell rang. “Answer your door.”

She darted past her mirror, stopped and doubled back. “Grrr.” She hadn’t had time to go to the hair-dresser. She smoothed her hair back into a ponytail. The bell rang again. She tossed down the phone and
ran to the door, thankful this time that the damn front door was still broken. She pulled the door open and her insides sang in delight. She leaped up into his arms and he spun her around like those heroes in musicals.

“Hey, baby,” he crooned before claiming her lips for a long-overdue kiss.

Barbara sighed against his mouth, realizing how much she’d missed him, missed the feel and taste of him.

Reluctantly he set her on her feet. “Good to be back.” His eyes roved over her like a hungry man ready to feast. “You look great.”

“You need glasses.” She giggled, took his hand and pulled him inside. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

“I wouldn’t have been able to surprise you, baby, if I’d told you.”

“Very funny.”

“How long will you be here?”

“A week.”

She pouted. “That’s it?”

“For now. The exhibition season starts in three weeks, so I have to get back.”

She nodded then turned to him with a wicked look in her eyes. “Guess we’re gonna have to squeeze in a bunch of fun stuff in a week.”

“I just love how you think.”

Barbara grinned. “Have you eaten? Can I get you anything?”

“No, thanks. I ate a little something before I got on the plane. But…I’d love a hot shower.” He winked.

“Ohhh, really?” Slowly she rose, pulling him up with her. “Well, let me show you where the bathroom is. As a matter of fact, why don’t I help you get out of all those clothes.”

She started with his sweater that she pulled over his head and tossed on the chair as she backed her way toward the bathroom.

They left a trail of clothing en route to the bathroom. Michael turned on the shower until the room filled with steam.

Barbara and Michael played with each other in the steamy confines of the room. The hell with her hair, she thought as he nibbled on her ear and stroked her neck with his lips.

This time Barbara vowed to let go of the last of her inhibitions and be the aggressor. She wanted to see what that kind of power felt like. She eased Michael back toward the commode, flipped the cover down with her foot and made him sit down. A slow grin spread across his mouth.

“Oh, it’s like that,” he said.

“No, more like this.” She took him slowly into her mouth and he actually gasped and grabbed her shoulders, sucking in air through his teeth. She slid
her tongue along his length, memorizing the texture, the pulse.

“Welcome home,” she whispered as she slowly rose to stand above him.

He gazed up at her through dreamy eyes. “If coming home is going to be like this…”

“The best is yet to come.” She eased herself down onto him until he filled her. Resting her head against his shoulder, she sat perfectly still, embracing the feel of him. Then ever so slowly she began to move in rhythmic circles. His body shuddered as he pushed upward, but Barbara kept the pace slow and steady, letting it build.

Michael cupped the fullness of her breasts in his hands, flicking his thumbs across her nipples until she whimpered, then took one then the other into his mouth.

Barbara felt light as air as she finally relinquished control and let him move at will, bouncing her up and down on his shaft.

Somehow he managed to slide his hand between her legs and massaged her clit as she continued to ride him. Lights exploded behind her lids as one delicious sensation after another shot through her.

A strangled cry rushed from her throat as she climaxed so hard she was sure she’d blacked out for a moment.

Michael caressed the curve of her spine then
clamped her behind in his large hands, holding her firmly in place as he pushed and erupted inside her.

They clung to each other, the only sounds the rushing water and the rapid banging of their hearts.

Finally, when she was certain she had enough strength in her legs to stand without falling, she slowly stood up.

“Guess we’ll be needing that shower now,” she said, breathless and satiated.

They made a game of drying each other off then wrapped themselves in towels and went into the kitchen.

“So what is your role going to be in this endeavor?” Michael asked as they worked together in the kitchen, fixing a light after-the-loving snack.

“Well, I’ll be administering the massages and working with the clients on the various machines, taking blood pressures. Making sure they are in good shape. Doing some processing of applications. A lot of what I’m doing now.”

Michael grew silent.

She gave him a curious look as she sprinkled some grated cheese on their salad. “Something wrong?”

“Naw,” he said. He took up the salad bowl and walked over to the table.

Barbara shrugged, tossing the odd behavior aside. “And I also have to select the equipment.” Her face
brightened. “Since you’re here, maybe you can go shopping with me tomorrow to pick some things out.”

He put some salad in a bowl and poured much too much dressing on it. “Yeah, sure.” He kept his gaze averted, intent on his salad.

Barbara put her fork down. “You want to tell me what’s suddenly bugging you?”

“I said nothing!”

She jerked back from the force of his words. “Fine.”

They ate in silence.

“Look, I need to go. I haven’t even checked into my hotel and I have some things to do. Coach wants to be sure he can get to us if necessary.” He got up from the table and practically tossed his bowl in the sink. He stalked out back into the bedroom and got dressed without saying a word.

Barbara stood in the doorway watching him as he got dressed. “You’re acting very childish. How can I know what’s going on if you don’t say anything.”

He turned on her as if she’d cursed his mama. “What? Childish?” He sputtered a nasty laugh. “I was wondering how long it would take for that to come out.”

“Mike, what in the hell is wrong with you?”

“Like I said, nothing is wrong. And if you think I’m childish then so be it. I’m out.” He brushed past her and was out the door before she could blink three times.

She shook her head in disbelief. What had just
happened? One minute they were making love like wild rabbits, the next he has his jockstrap twisted in a knot.

Sighing, she began picking up her clothing from the various places off the floor, then put them in the hamper in the bathroom. She went into the kitchen and started cleaning up, going over the events of the evening, trying to pinpoint where things had taken a wrong turn. For the life of her she couldn’t figure it out.

By the time she settled down for bed it was nearly 1:00 a.m. She was sure she would have heard from Michael by now, apologizing and explaining his erratic behavior. As she stared up at the darkened ceiling, listening to the minutes tick by, the phone never rang.

The first thing she did the following morning was check her phone to make sure it was working. It was and there were no messages she’d missed. She dug in her purse for her cell phone. Again, not a word from Michael. She didn’t even know what hotel he was staying in, or for that matter, if he was still in New York. If he could suddenly shift gears like that there was no telling what he might do on the spur of the moment.

That whole notion disturbed her as she fixed a breakfast of wheat toast and scrambled egg whites. From the beginning it was Michael who pursued this relationship. It was Michael who insisted that it
would work out between them. He was gung ho. With great reluctance and a great deal of prodding from her friends she’d given in. As wonderful as things were between them, in the back of her mind she still had some reservations about their age difference. By the time he was forty she would be in her sixties. Where she had been married, he never had. And she knew that at some point he would want to settle down and probably have a family.

She sighed as she spooned her food onto a plate. She had to be realistic. This relationship, as eye-opening and liberating as it was, had a limited life span. And if his odd behavior last night was any indication of what a future with him would be, maybe the life span would be shorter than they’d both anticipated. One thing she’d learned in her forty-nine years was that she’d developed a low tolerance for crap, and the older she got the less crap she was taking.

“Just out of the blue he got all funny acting?” Elizabeth asked as she and Barbara walked through the sporting equipment supply outlet.

“Yes.” She snapped her fingers. “Just like that.”

“Hmm. Well, one thing I learned and learned the hard way is that if you don’t have communication you are in deep trouble.”

“Speaking of trouble, how are things working out with you and Matt?”

Elizabeth sighed. “It’s in the lawyers’ hands now. The upside is, the house is in my name and my name only. We never had it changed. So, the house is currently on the market. And the way real estate is going these days, it could be sold in a matter of weeks.”

“Wow.”

“So I’m really hoping that the contractors will at least be finished with the electrical and plumbing soon so that they can get started on the top-floor apartment. I don’t want to move in with the girls, and threesomes are not my thing,” she added, giving Barbara a wink.

“Very funny. After we finish here we’ll go over to the house and see how things are going and talk to Ron about some realistic guesstimates.”

Elizabeth smiled.

“Give you a chance to see Mr. Front Cover again. As a matter of fact, as your best friend in the world, I’ll let you do all the talking.”

Elizabeth giggled like a teenager. “Any excuse works for me.”

“Girl, I’ve never heard you talk like that,” Barbara said, tickled for her friend.

Elizabeth turned to Barbara, resting her hip against a workbench. “You know, I think that for at least the past ten years I’ve been sleepwalking through life.”

Barbara checked the price on a massage table.

“Everything was routine. No excitement, nothing out of the norm.” Elizabeth shrugged. “I convinced myself that I was content.” She drew in a breath. “Maybe I can’t blame Matt. He was probably feeling the same way. Somewhere along the line we forgot to be the people who fell in love with each other. We stopped talking, stopped doing anything that wasn’t connected to the house or the girls.”

“But you always seemed so happy.”

“Looks can be deceiving. I had all the trappings of a successful marriage. And I convinced myself that it was a success. But day by day it was eroding and I was too blind to see it or maybe I didn’t want to.” She shrugged again. “That’s why I’m saying to you, if you have communication problems now, nip them in the bud, they can only get worse.”

Barbara thought about it as she placed an order for three massage tables, storage cabinets and blood pressure cuffs, and knew that her friend was right.

N
ow that she was officially unemployed, she couldn’t very well sit around all day in her pajamas, Stephanie thought as she exited her bedroom for the first time that day.

She padded into the kitchen to scrounge around for something to nibble on. She’d made an appointment to meet with Raquel and the twins at two to work out the promotional campaign and it was already noon. She had some ideas, but with Ellie’s girls and Ann Marie’s daughter now on the team she wanted their input.

Interesting, the dynamics between Ann Marie and her daughter, Stephanie thought as she popped two pieces of bread into the toaster. Something was going on between them, for sure. Ann Marie had barely mentioned her daughter in the years that they’d all known each other, but now Ann Marie and Raquel seemed to have made some kind of connection. Maybe that even accounted for Ann Marie’s sudden change from bitch to human being. Whatever it was,
she hoped it lasted. Ann Marie could certainly use some humanity in her life.

She buttered her toast and sat down at the kitchen table just as the phone rang. She pushed up from the table to get the phone and couldn’t have been more stunned if she’d been smacked by a complete stranger.

“Annie? What’s up?”

“I just received the paperwork in the mail to incorporate Pause for Men, and…uh, I was thinking that since you aren’t…working, well, you, uh, mentioned something about doing your own thing….”

Ann Marie was a lot of things, Stephanie thought as she listened and wondered where the conversation was going, but hesitant about what she had on her mind wasn’t one of them.

“Yes?”

“Well, I thought that maybe, if you were interested, of course, I could help you get your paperwork in order.”

Stephanie pinched her thigh good and hard until she wanted to yelp. Nope, this wasn’t a dream. “Say what? You want to help me?” She tossed her newly done weave over her shoulder to make sure not a word was muffled.

“Hey, maybe it wasn’t a good idea, just a thought. Forget it, mon.”

“No, wait. I’m sorry. It’s just that…let’s be honest for a minute, Ann…you and I have been like oil and
water for years. You get on my last nerve and I get on yours. So, to say that this offer of yours is a surprise would be an understatement, that’s all.” She paused, swallowed her pride and decades of bad feelings. “So…what were you thinking?”

As she listened to Ann Marie her excitement grew. The idea of running her own business had been an idea she’d been toying with even before her abrupt resignation. But to hear someone, especially Ann Marie who had so much business savvy, say that she believed in the idea meant more to her than she could have ever expected.

“…and to cut down on overhead, at least until you get too big, and I can’t stand you again, I thought it would be ideal if you worked right out of the house. Remember the room…”

Stephanie’s mind was running at light speed. She could see it all as plain as her hazel contacts. The location was perfect, she’d have the chance to meet all manner of potential clients and wouldn’t have to worry about rents or leases, at least for a while.

“I love it,” Stephanie said. “I’m convinced.”

Ann Marie laughed. “I could sell you your own damn panties and make ya t’ink they was new. I’m good, girl.”

Stephanie heard a lightness in Ann Marie’s voice, a playfulness that was foreign to her ears. And for once she wasn’t offended by Ann’s off-color comment.

“So what do I need to do?”

“Pick a name for one t’ing. I’ll do a search and make sure it’s not taken, and then we fill out the forms for incorporation.”

“Ann?”

“Yeah…”

“Thanks. I mean that. I’m not sure if you fell on your head recently, if it’s holy intervention or if Phil’s been hitting all the right spots lately, but…”

“There’s no more Phil.”

“What? Why? I thought he was the one.”

“So did I.”

“Well…if you, uh, ever want to talk about it…”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” She pushed out a sigh. “Gotta get back to work. Me chat wit’ ya lata.”

“Sure. Thanks.” She slowly hung up the phone, still in shock over Ann Marie’s one-eighty. But it was all good.

No more Phil. Wonder what happened with that, and Ann never did say why Raquel and Earl split up. She shrugged it off. Everyone had their issues and she had enough to sink an ocean liner. But no time to dwell on things she couldn’t change at the moment. She had to focus on what she could handle, the rest would have to wait.

Stephanie got dressed, packed up her trusty laptop and headed out, only to run smack into Conrad, who was standing outside her door.

“What are you doing here?”

“I want to talk to you.”

“We have nothing to talk about.”

She tried to walk past him but he grabbed her upper arm.

“Steph, please, hear me out.”

She glared down at his hand on her arm. He removed it and took a step back.

“You have two minutes starting right now.”

“I want you back.”

“You have lost your mind.”

“Maybe I have and that’s why I was acting like such a fool. I’m sorry—for everything.”

“Great. Now I have to go.”

“I didn’t mean the things I said in the office.”

She looked him square in the eye. “Of course you did, Conrad. You never say things you don’t mean.”

“I did that day. I swear it. I was angry and quite frankly surprised.”

“Surprised that I finally stood up for myself and stood up to you?”

He hesitated. “No. Surprised that you would leave. You’re good at what you do. If nothing else, the firm needs you.”

“I’m sure you’ll find someone else to fill my shoes in no time.”

“That’s not possible.”

She was tired of the conversation. “Your two
minutes are up. I have to go.” She walked toward her car.

“What are you going to do for money? Where are you going to go and get the kind of clientele you’ve been dealing with since you’ve been with me?” he called out to her back in a last-ditch effort.

She used the remote and deactivated the car alarm. She opened the door.

“I love you, Stephanie.”

She nearly stumbled.

“There, I’ve said it. I love you. I’ve made some awful mistakes. But I don’t want to lose you. I’ll make it all up to you I swear.”

Their time together flashed through her head. The fun, laughter, the great sex, the hurt, the humiliation, the assault. She spun toward him. “I don’t love you, Conrad. Maybe I did once. But I don’t now and never will again.” She opened the car door and got in, shutting it solidly behind her.

She watched him through her side-view mirror, standing there looking broken, the puff in his chest deflated. She had an instant moment of angst, a flash of possibility. The light turned green. Her new future lay ahead of her, the past behind.

She drove off and didn’t look back. But in a corner of her mind she knew she hadn’t heard the last of Conrad.