Big Easy Temptation (12 page)

Timeless moments later, he dropped against her, completely spent.

She held him tight, panting from one breath to the next. “Are you sure that’s not
why they call you Captain Awesome?”

Dax laughed. “Nope. That was all for you, sweetheart. And don’t think there isn’t
more where that came from.”

He rolled to his side and kissed her again, determined to prove his point.

*   *   *

D
ax’s mood was contemplative as he walked up the flower-lined path to his mother’s
house. Earlier, Holland had headed into work, but he had the day off. He’d planned
to ask some questions, poke around a bit, shake some trees. But he and Holland now
had a deal. She would be leading the investigation. He would follow. It wasn’t comfortable
exactly, but she was right. She had more experience with crime. And he trusted her
to do the right thing.

Especially after last night. He’d made love to her over and over again. She’d felt
perfectly right in his arms. In the morning light, he had to think about the repercussions.

Could he ask her to give up her career? Or give up his? It was naive to think that
a long distance relationship could work for them. She wouldn’t know where he was most
of the time and he wouldn’t be able to call or talk. That wasn’t a life she wanted.
It wouldn’t make her happy. More than anything, that’s what Dax wanted to give her.

Their relationship was just starting out and despite the fact that they’d obviously
wanted each other for years, he had to accept that sharing their feelings was new
and what lay in their hearts was fragile. It could be easily broken.

“Good morning, son.”

His mother’s familiar voice jolted him out of his thoughts. Dax smiled and jogged
up the big wraparound porch to join her. She sat in a rocker, a cup of coffee in her
hands. Despite the earliness of the morning, she was already perfectly dressed in
slacks and a silk blouse, her hair and makeup done with an expert hand.

“Were you waiting for me?”

She set the cup down on the saucer and placed them on the table beside her. “It wouldn’t
be the first time I waited up for you. I have to admit, sending you to boarding school
saved my sanity. I can’t imagine how I would have worried during your high school
years.”

He grinned and took the adjoining seat. “It was for the best. How are you this morning?”

The smile on her face didn’t reach her eyes. “Lovely. Your friends are fun companions.
Augustine arrived last night and the four of us had a very nice dinner before she
adjourned upstairs to unpack. Gabriel and I played backgammon. He’s such a nice young
man.”

“And Mad? Did he go out?”

His mother sighed. “No. I believe he turned in early.”

He was going to beat the shit out of Maddox, who was very likely not sleeping in his
own fucking bed. “I’ll handle the situation, Momma.”

“Don’t you dare. Augustine has always been a spirited young lady. She’s smart. She
knows what she’s doing.”

So did he. Gus was doing Mad. “She should have a little more respect.”

His mother frowned, chiding him with soft brown eyes. “Respect for what? For my tender
feelings? I’m not an idiot, son. I know that Augustine has run through most of the
men in this town, and god only knows what she’s been doing in D.C. Maddox is a lively
young man who looks as if he knows what he’s about. I’m not upset with Gus, just a
little envious. She has a career she loves and she’s good at it. She does what and
who she likes, when she likes, and she doesn’t answer to anyone. I wish I’d had that
freedom when I was younger.”

He hadn’t thought of it that way. “I’ll ask them to keep it down.”

His mother waved a hand. “Gus will likely tell me all about it when she gets up this
morning. We’re quite close, you know. I listen with a good ear. Would you like to
talk about your night? Did you finally properly make love to Holland? You better have
treated her right, Dax.
She’s a dear friend and I don’t believe she’s had any sexual relations lately.”

His jaw dropped and he couldn’t help but stare at his very genteel mother.

She reached for her porcelain cup once more. “Oh, wipe that shocked expression from
your face. I’m not a prude. And I’m not foolish. I know why you’re really here. I
was hoping Holland would distract you, but you’ve brought her into your little investigation,
haven’t you?”

He forced his mouth closed and whispered a curse. “How did you know about that?”

She sighed. “I always knew you wouldn’t let it lie. It’s not in your nature. I doubt
Gus has, either, though she’ll go about it differently. I don’t like to think about
it much myself. I wish you would concentrate on your relationship with Holland. She’s
such a nice woman. She would make a perfect wife for you.”

He agreed Holland would make a perfect wife if they could figure out their issues,
but he had a job to do, too. He’d never meant to discuss this with his mother. Not
until he’d cleared his father’s name. “You think he was guilty, don’t you?”

He couldn’t not ask the question. He needed to know. They’d sidestepped the issue
so many times he couldn’t count anymore. It was finally time for the truth.

She looked away for a quiet moment, and Dax wondered if she’d go silent on the subject
again. Finally, she set her cup aside and turned to him. She patted his hand with
her own. “I loved your father. We were so in love in the beginning. But sustaining
love can be difficult, son. Years go by, and one day you realize that you’ve changed.
Your spouse has changed. You’ve grown apart.” She sighed. “Do I believe your father
raped that girl? No. He didn’t need power over someone else to feel big and he didn’t
have that sort of violent streak. Do I believe he could have been mistaken about her
age and gotten into a situation he shouldn’t have? Yes. I do believe that because
he’d done it many times before.”

Dax felt his gut twist. His father?

“Dax, I’m not trying to disillusion you or make you think less of your father,” his
mother said quietly. “This is something I wish you never had to know. He was human.
I know he seemed like he was larger than life and so heroic, but he was flawed like
the rest of us.”

“Are you saying he cheated on you? And you knew it?” He could barely fathom that.
His father had been a good man. Dax had built his whole life on the fact that his
parents had been good people who loved each other and their children.

“Not at first. At least I don’t think so. But sometime after he hit forty, things
changed. He had an eye for the younger ladies. He had several affairs, though they
never lasted very long. I found out because one of the women contacted me. It was
the only time I nearly divorced your father. He was careful, you see. He usually chose
women who didn’t want more than a good time and some nice gifts. But this particular
woman decided she wanted more. She wrote me and explained the situation. I sought
a lawyer and threatened divorce. Your father talked me out of it. You were in college
at the time. Gus had just started graduate studies at Harvard. A divorce could have
derailed you both, so I stayed. I often wonder if that incident was what sent him
to prostitutes.”

He felt as if he’d been kicked in the gut. He scrubbed a hand over his face. “You
can’t know that or blame yourself.”

“If I’d ignored it or perhaps if I’d followed through, he might be alive today. He
might not have walked into that seedy motel with that girl.”

He gripped his mother’s hand. “Momma, none of this is your fault. He was the one with
the problem.”

Obviously more problems than Dax had imagined.

“I wish everything had been different,” she murmured, and sipped her coffee again.

Yeah, him, too.

They fell silent until a Benz pulled up, stopping in front of their house.

His mother patted his hand. “That’s my friend Gloria. We’re going to have a nice brunch
and then go to afternoon bridge club. I’m so sorry I had to tell you that, Dax. I
simply don’t want you to chase after some vindication only to get your heart broken.
I love you very much.” She stood and he watched her school her face as she waved.
“I’ll be back this evening. We’re having a lovely roast and the housekeeper made pecan
pie. You bring Holland if you like. I know Gus would love to see her.”

Dax watched his mother stride down the walk to join her friend. He sat there, his
whole world shaken.

The glow with which he’d started the day seemed a bit dimmer than before.

Had he really been so blind and naive? How had he never known his father had cheated?
His father had lied, broken his vows, and left his own wife crushed.

Dax stood, feeling inexcusably weary. He needed a drink. God, it wasn’t even nine
o’clock and he was going to have a Scotch.

He stepped inside. He could hear the housekeeper humming to herself in the kitchen.
He avoided her. That wasn’t where they kept the good stuff anyway. The expensive Scotch
was in his father’s office, that shrine to a man he now wondered if he’d ever really
known.

Well, at least the booze had been stored there until his friends had shown up.

When he sauntered in, Gabe was sitting in the dining room, a cup of coffee beside
him, tapping away on his laptop. He looked up, his tawny brows rising. “Welcome home,
Captain. Did you visit a new port last night?”

He flipped his friend off and continued to the stairs.

“Wow, touchy. I wouldn’t go up there if I were you. Sorry, but Gus couldn’t be convinced
it was a bad idea. Believe me, I tried.”

“Does Mad have the Scotch?” That was all he cared about at the moment.

“Yeah, but . . . Whoa. Scotch at this hour? What the hell happened?”

Dax didn’t know how to answer so he kept walking up the stairs and right to the room
his mom had given Mad. The door was closed. It was almost too quiet at first but then
he heard whispering. “I know you’re in there, Augustine. I don’t give a damn. I want
the Scotch. Mad, you better not have drank it all or I’ll expect that replaced. This
morning.”

After a bit of shuffling, the portal opened and Mad poked his head around the door,
looking somewhere between wide eyed and worried as he passed over the crystal decanter
and what looked like a clean glass. Not that it mattered at that point. “Uh, Dax,
it’s early.”

“Like that matters.”

“It doesn’t to me. It does to my very staid and buttoned-up Naval captain friend.
He doesn’t drink at inappropriate times anymore. He also very politely ignores the
fact that I’m sleeping with his sister.”

“Hooking up.” Gus yelled from inside the room. “
Sleeping with
makes it sound important, Crawford.”

“She wounds me,” Mad said with a pout. “Give me a minute and I’ll get dressed.”

“Don’t bother.” He grabbed the Scotch and glass and strode off again. He knew exactly
where he wanted to go and now he wished his friends hadn’t come. He needed to be alone,
and there was no way they’d let that happen.

But they didn’t know about the balcony off the upstairs library. It was hidden by
heavy curtains that no one opened because in the afternoon the sun heated everything
up to a broil. At this time of the day, he could hide away and drink and think about
the bombshell his mother had dropped.

He made his way to his hidey-hole and shut the curtains behind him before pouring
himself that much-needed drink. He swallowed it down as he looked over the back gardens.
He’d romped there as a child. He and Gus had played hide-and-seek and when their father
had been home, he would chase them all over, calling them his little monkeys. He would
catch Dax and his sister in huge hugs. He’d always felt safe in his father’s arms.

Had everything been a lie?

Had his mother and father begun their marriage with all the good intentions in the
world only to see everything crumble? Would that happen to him and Holland?

He took a drink and slumped into one of two chairs that graced the balcony. This had
been his quiet place as a child. When he would come home for the summer, he’d often
hidden here when he needed to be alone.

He heard a rustling behind him and sighed because he should have remembered even back
then, a certain sister of his had rarely left him in peace.

“Hey.” Augustine stepped out. She’d donned pajama bottoms and a tank top, sans bra,
her feet bare and her hair all kinds of sexed up. From Maddox Crawford’s hands.

“Shouldn’t you go play with my friends? Gabe looked like he hadn’t fucked anyone today.”
Dax was feeling mean.

Gus simply chuckled. “Wow. That was low, especially for you. What happened? Usually
that sort of hypocrisy takes time. I at least get a ‘how’s it going, Gus’ before you
start in on me.”

What was she talking about? He turned, watching as she sat in the opposite chair.
“Hypocrisy?”

“Yes, Scotch-at-nine-in-the-morning guy. I called you a hypocrite. How many of my
friends have you slept with? I’m betting given the fact that you’re still in last
night’s clothes you slept with one very recently. What’s up with the tear in your
slacks? Holland get a little rough with you?”

“It’s not the same. I’m serious about Holland.”

“Were you serious about my sorority sisters? Because you plowed through them.” Her
voice dropped. “I’m sorry I called you a hypocrite, Dax. My feelings got hurt and
I lashed out. You’re right. I’m not serious about Mad. The only people who should
be serious about that boy are doctors who should try to solve the mystery of how he
hasn’t contracted a sexually transmitted disease yet. We used protection, by the
way. He’s not touching me without a glove. The trouble is, he’s really good in bed.
And he doesn’t fall in love with me. All the rest of them do. That’s what I like about
your friends. They’re realists.”

God, he hadn’t meant to make his sister feel bad. “I’m sorry, Gus. Though I would
like to point out I’ve been way more circumspect about sleeping with your friends.
I think Momma knows what you were doing.”