Tempting Fate (54 page)

He stood in the doorway, filling it almost completely with his height, holding a towel that he'd wrapped around his broad shoulders with both hands.  He'd been working out.  That much was evident by the way his strong muscles along his chest and arms were pumped full.  Maggie let her eyes trail down the length of him, from his washboard stomach to his rock hard thighs.  

She swallowed hard.  “I didn't think you were home.”

His smile faltered.  “I don't always work.”

“Working out?”

“I have a small gym at the end of the hall.  You're more than welcome to use it whenever you like.”

Maggie tossed him a wry grin, gesturing to her figure.  “I'm not exactly in the condition for pumping iron.  But maybe after the baby is born.”

He nodded, his blue eyes staring at her in a way that made her inside spark to life.  He'd looked at her that way last night when she descended the stairway in her evening gown, and then again in the limousine. 

She brushed off the feelings.  It wasn't good for her to delve deep to find a hidden meaning in everything Jonah did or said.  It wouldn't change the fact that at the end of the year, she would be on her own again.

“Do you?” he asked, staring at her again.  His eyes quickly darted to the piano, then back to her face.

“Oh, I don't play.  I'm what you'd call a hacker.”

His eyebrows stretched high on his forehead.  “What's a hacker?”

“Someone who always wanted to play but never quite learned the proper way.”

Awareness dawned on him.  “I could teach you a thing or two if you'd like.”

I'll bet.  “Do you play?”

“You didn't think this monstrosity was just for show now, did you?”

She shrugged.  “I'm envious.  When I was real young, we had an old upright piano in our apartment.  I use to get yelled at a lot back then for banging on it.  I was the only one who ever paid it any mind, but I never learned to play.  It was old and mostly in the way.  We needed the room so my grandmother had it dismantled and hauled away.”

“That's a shame.”

She nodded as a bittersweet tug of emotion rose in the center of her chest.

“Come here,” he said.  Pulling out the bench, he sat down and pat the smooth leather seat next to him.

“You're going to teach me...now?”

“Unless you have something else planned.”

“No.  I was just going to read a...never mind.  I'd love to learn how to play a song, maybe something simply to play for the baby.  Do you know anything?”

Jonah pulled the towel from his neck and placed it on the hardwood floor beside the bench as she saddled up beside him.  He smelled of sweat, but not offensively so.  

“I know a few, mostly classics.”  His fingers were long and lean, she noticed as he began to play and music graced the quiet room.

“You play beautifully,” she said softly.

“Do you have any favorites?”

“I don't know much about classical music.”

Jonah's fingers danced on the keyboard, fiddling with a tune that seemed to go nowhere before he finally settled on a song that sounded oddly familiar to her.  He sat straight and tall next to her on the bench, almost completely engrossed in each note as he played, lost in the music.

“I've heard this song before.  I can't remember...”  Maggie let her voice trail off, not wanting to break into the spell of the song.  

Jonah didn't stop playing.  “It's a lullaby by a famous American composer, Aaron Copeland.”

“I don't know any composers,” she said, slightly abashed. 

Jonah was so worldly, not that knowing about music made him worldly.  It was just one more thing about the two of them that made them completely different.  He'd seen so much of life and the world.  She had never even left New England.

“Olivia Newton John sang it on one of her CD's.”

“Oh, that's right.” 

That's where she'd heard it before.  She knew next to nothing about classical music and had never heard of the American composer Jonah mentioned.  But she knew the song was a lullaby called
All the Pretty Little Horses
, one that she loved.

Excitement flared inside her.  “Can you teach me to play this for the baby?”

“Can you read sheet music?”

Maggie's shoulders sank slightly.

As if feeling her sudden disappointment, Jonah said, “I'm not asking you if you can play Rhapsody in Blue.  If you can read sheet music, it will make it easier for me to teach you.”

She shook her head, disappointment invading her momentary excitement.  “I told you, I'm a hacker.  I mostly played by ear.”

He puffed out a breath and ceased playing.  “This may be more involved than I anticipated.  How about if I set up some piano lessons for you, have someone come out to the house to teach you on a regular basis?  That way you'll learn to play the correct way and you can learn all the songs you'd like.” 

His lips lifted to a slow sexy grin that suddenly made her abandon thoughts of learning to play the piano.  She could hear her heart thumping wildly in her chest like a timpani and wondered if Jonah could hear it too. 

“If I sit here next to you day after day I'm liable to get distracted.”

And so would I.

Maggie couldn't help it, but she actually felt heat creep up from her toes to the top of her hairline.  Her heart pounded wildly against her ribs.  “You don't have to go through all that trouble.  It's not like I'm going to have the opportunity to practice once the baby is born.  And like I said, the piano is gone at the tenement.”

A gray cloud masked Jonah's expression.  He still held his smile, but there was a tightness around the corners of his mouth that made Maggie think it was forced, as if what she'd said bothered him and he didn't want to show it. 

“Then you can take the piano with you, along with the gift of a visiting instructor who'll teach you how to play whatever songs you'd like.  Even rock and roll.”

Her mouth dropped open.  “You can't just give me the piano.”

“Why not?”

“Because...because then you won't have one for the times you want to play?” 

Lame excuse.  Jonah probably had more money than the US Treasury Department, or close to it anyway.  He could buy a whole symphony of instruments without putting the slightest dent in his bank account, including replacing the one he was offering to give her as a gift.

“Think of it as an early gift for the baby.” 

She dipped her gaze.  “It's very thoughtful of you, but I really can't accept it.”

Jonah's heart sank deep into the pit of his stomach.  He liked it when Maggie laughed and smiled.  Only moments ago, she'd been just like a child when he said he'd teach her how to play the piano.  Her eyes had grown impossibly wide, sparkling with light, like a child sitting on a park bench watching a fireworks display. 

He'd offered the simple gift without thinking.  Why it suddenly hurt so that she wouldn't accept this little piece of him to take with her after their time together was over, he didn't know.  But it did.

“Are you going to fight me on all the gifts I give you?”

She shook her head, cocking it to one side.  She spoke on a whisper.  “Jonah, I love that you want to give me such a beautiful present, but I don't have any room for it back at the tenement.  Once the baby is born, we'll need the extra space for his bedroom.”

Jonah drew in a deep breath, relief filling him completely.  It shouldn't matter, but he was suddenly extremely happy Maggie wasn't rejecting the gift he offered because it was a gift from him, only that it was impractical.  That much his ego could handle.

“Then we'll go pick out a new upright piano that will fit neatly in the corner of his room.”

“Great, then your son can blame you every time I make him practice.” 

Her laugh was quick, but just as fast she seemed to catch herself.  

She'd called her baby his son.  In the past month they'd been together she'd never once referred to the baby she was carrying as his child.  It was her child.  He was just a stand in dad to temporarily replace the father who wanted nothing to do with him.  He wasn't going to be a long term part of this child's life or Maggie's.  Hearing Maggie refer to him that way sent sparks of panic through Jonah.

When he'd first agreed to claim Maggie's child as his own, he reasoned his role in the child's life would be that of a long lost uncle, someone who dropped in every now and then to make sure the two of them were getting along and then he would breeze out until it was time for another visit.  He never really thought that this child would think of him as a real daddy.

He began to play the piano again, some old tune he knew from memory and had forgotten the name of.  He played, mostly to drown out the words echoing over and over in his head.  Your son can blame you...blame you. 

He didn't want any child of his to blame him the way he'd blame his parents for always leaving him alone at school.  Every time he'd gotten the news from Mary that his parents were detained in Egypt or Hong Kong or Madrid, he'd blamed them.  

Maggie said that she would eventually explain the truth to her baby when the time was right.  Even so, it was his face that would show up at the door and it was him that this child would blame, not his natural father.  Or would he blame Maggie for entering into such a farce of a marriage?  What had they done?   

Maggie.  He turned and found her peering up at him, her eyes wide and gray with sadness.  As if she'd been caught, her gaze dipped to the ivory keys.  But not before he caught the sheen of moisture glistening in her dark eyes.

“Let me show you what I can do,” she said suddenly, waving his hands away from the keyboard.

“I thought you said you didn't play?”

“I said I was a hacker.  There's a big difference, you know.”

He eased back on the bench to give her ample room over the keys.  The heat from her bare thighs seeped into his, and he found himself wondering if the hairs on his legs would tickle against her silky smooth skin if they were entangled together.  Desire surged straight to his groin with the thought of Maggie locked in his embrace.

She rubbed her hands together and flitted her gaze to him devilishly before looking back down and placing her hands on the keyboard.  She mimicked him by straightening her spine and leaning forward, carefully holding her expression serious.  Yet, Jonah could tell she was anything but.

Her fingers hammered into the keys, and he burst into laughter.

“See?  I told you I could play,” she said laughing.

“Heart and Soul?”

“A hacker's dream song.  Come on, play it with me.  I can only do the rhythm.”

He leaned into Maggie, becoming dangerously close, peering over her rich brown hair to see the keyboard.  Immediately he was invaded by the magic that was sheer Maggie.  Ten years of piano lessons and never once had he had this much fun just fiddling with a song.  As she pounded out the rhythm, he improvised, having a little fun with a bluesy tag.

“Oh, there you go upstaging me, big shot,” Maggie teased.  They continued to play for a few bars until they both broke into uncontrollable laughter. 

Maggie's giggles were infectious.  Jonah couldn't remember a time he'd ever felt so drugged with laughter just having a plain old good time.

Something had changed in him.  Some gaping void had been filled by this delightful woman laughing with him.

Tears were in her sapphire eyes, overflowing the brims and sticking to her thick dark lashes.  He reached over to wipe away the moisture.  It was just a soft brush of his thumb across her cheek.  An innocent move in many respects.  But the spark of energy that one bit of contact sent bursting through him rivaled electric shock.  Heat burned through him, settling deep in the pit of his belly, sparking a fire even lower. 

It was an innocent move.  One that should have been over and done with in the span of a second, yet Jonah let his fingers remain on Maggie's face, brushing the deepening color of her cheek with his thumb, allowing his fingertips to graze her silky skin, warm and soft and moist to his touch.  Her bright eyes deepened in color reminding him of a cloudless sky at dusk, and the little gold flecks of light sprinkled in her irises of her eyes were like stars dotting the sky. 

His gaze drifted to Maggie's full lips, a rosy pink color all on their own.  Last night they were ruby red to match the provocative dress she'd worn to the charity dinner.  She'd stolen his breath away with the mere sight of her.  He'd seen the way Cameron had looked at her and immediately he felt the need to claim this woman as his own, despite the fact that the only claim he had was legal, not emotional. 

But right now his emotions were running as wild as his body.  With the quick flick of her tongue, Maggie moistened her lips and he knew he had to kiss her.  He would definitely kiss her.  Because the thought of doing anything else at that moment seemed outrageous.

He bent his head, looking into her eyes to gauge her response, to see if she'd pull away.  Instead, her eyes drifted closed.  She tilted her chin up, parting her waiting lips just slightly, and he took the offer.  She tasted of sugar and smelled of apples and fresh soap from her morning shower.  Her lips were soft and full against his, hungry and greedy all on their own. 

He dug his hands into her hair, pulling her closer to him in a desperate need to feel her body pressed against his.  He'd wanted to kiss her last night, both when he'd seen her glide down the staircase wearing that incredible red dress, and again later in the limo.  And now she was in his arms, pressing against him until he thought he'd die with need.

As if reading his mind, knowing he needed more of her, Maggie reached up and wrapped her arms around him, lacing her fingers behind his neck.  It would be so easy to lift her up and gently place her in his lap, let her know the growing desire swirling through him, achingly hot and painful. 

But he didn't do it.  He held himself back because somewhere in the back of his mind was a nagging doubt that maybe he shouldn't be kissing Maggie this way.  Maybe having her in his arms, delving his tongue deep into the sweetness that she was offering would only crumble the very neat and tidy walls they'd constructed at the onset of their relationship.