Infamous (9 page)

• • •

Jessica sat in the shade of the back porch with her laptop open on the table in front of her. Kinsey and Rachel had been home from swim practice almost two hours. They had raided the refrigerator, disappeared into Kinsey’s room for almost an hour, and then headed right into the pool here. Both girls were excellent swimmers, but she still liked to be where she could see them when they were in the water. The pool was downhill from the house and she had a good view of the girls from the porch.

Eventually, she was going to have to get some writing done. Not right now, though. Right now she was working on the Morgan problem.

She picked up her phone and dialed the number of a very exclusive lingerie and adult novelties shop in Los Angeles. The proprietor had been a junior assistant in the wardrobe department of one of her father’s production companies before she had gotten smart and struck off on her own. If there was someone who knew more about the sex lives of Hollywood males than herself, it would be Kate. Jessica intended to pick her brains. She had referred a fair amount of business to Kate and considered her a friend. She had never gotten even a smidgen of gossip for her books out of her, though. Kate knew the value of discretion to the super rich and super famous.

A few minutes later, Jessica put down the phone with a bemused grin and a rather staggering bill against her credit card. A courier had been dispatched to deliver her purchases by the end of the day. Props and costumes weren’t her normal style, but neither had she ever done battle with a lover before. She hadn’t grown up on dozens of movie sets for nothing. Staging was everything if you wanted to make an impression.

The phone call had also jump-started some ideas for her current book. A little comic relief wouldn’t come amiss. Kate never dropped names, but she always had a few good anecdotes about her sales. Jessica started her word processor and settled down to incorporate what she had just learned into her next chapter. She had just enough time to make a good start before she needed to drive Rachel home and start supper.

She looked up when she heard a new voice drift up from the pool deck. She had forgotten the maintenance company was coming to clean the pool today.

The girls were climbing out of the water, but they didn’t come up to the house. Instead, they arranged themselves on loungers next to the pool. Okaaay. Then the pool man came back around the side of the house.

She grinned. More like pool boy. He had to be in high school or maybe just home from his first year of college. He was blond and tan. In his board shorts and tank top he looked like any high school girl’s dream. No way was she going back inside while he was down there with Kinsey and Rachel.

She watched while the kid tested the water and skimmed leaves from the surface with a long net. Kinsey and Rachel applied sunscreen and settled in for a break. They were studiously ignoring the hunk, but she noticed they had positioned themselves so they could watch him from behind their sunglasses.

He was worth looking at, she acknowledged as he leaned over the water to fish out another piece of debris. Tan muscles rippled. She had always been a sucker for a nicely defined back. He didn’t make her toes curl like Morgan did, but she could appreciate a bit of eye candy. She shifted her chair a little so she could keep watching without being too obvious.

Before she knew it, she had drifted into a little daydream. Instead of the blond hunk, it was Morgan leaning over the pool in a pair of trunks and a tight tank top.
Mmmmm, pool boy fantasy
. She really was becoming a desperate housewife.

Even the fantasy Morgan did more for her than the hunk, though. She licked dry lips and reached for her ice water.

“Hard at work?”

She jumped. Morgan was looking down at her and she blushed guiltily. Apparently the heat didn’t affect him like normal mortals, because he looked cool and composed in his suit, the yellow tie still knotted to perfection. He looked nothing at all like her pool-boy Morgan, but she felt her pulse speed up a little anyway.

“I like to be able to see the girls when they’re in the pool.”

“Really?” He looked pointedly at the two girls on the loungers and the hunk dumping chemicals in the water. It was obvious the pool was going to be off-limits for a few hours.

“What are you doing home so early? I thought you had a lot of catching up to do.”

“We had a productive day. I decided I could bring most of it home with me. You’re right, I haven’t seen much of Kinsey recently. I figured we could all go out for an early supper and I can finish up from here later tonight.”

She hesitated. She had been looking forward to cooking supper for Morgan. It was a skill she hadn’t possessed four years ago. During that time, he had laughingly told her that “salad days” wasn’t supposed to be taken literally. She was never going to be Cordon Bleu, but the seared sesame tuna and wilted spinach she had planned was miles beyond the packaged salads and take-out they had shared in those days. Still, Morgan had come home early just to take her out …
Kinsey
out, she corrected herself.

“Sounds great,” she said. “If you want to get a little work done before we leave, you have plenty of time. I doubt Kinsey and Rachel are ready to come in just yet.”

Morgan spared another glance down at the pool.

“You can’t be serious. They’re way too young to be flirting with that kid.”

“Maybe. No harm in looking, though.”

Morgan’s brows drew together, but she forestalled him. “Relax, Morgan. They really are just looking. He’s very nice to look at. As far as I can tell, he hasn’t done anything to encourage them.”

“What about you,” he challenged. “Were you just looking?”

Her lips curved when she remembered just what she had been thinking about when Morgan interrupted her.

“He’s a little young for me, don’t you think?”

Morgan reached out and wound a piece of her hair around one finger. She waited for his reply. When it came, it was not what she expected.

“Did you get the credit cards I left for you?”

“Of course. I’ve been putting the household expenses on them. You didn’t have to bother, though. I could have used mine.”

“As long as we’re combining expenses, why don’t you go ahead and have your bills forwarded to me?”

She looked up at him in surprise. “Why? I told you I put most of the household stuff on your cards.”

“Consider it a perk, a little service I’m willing to do for my wife. If you want, I can review your portfolio while I’m at it. I’m supposed to be rather clever about these things.”

“Sure, I’d love not to have to worry about it. I’m pretty happy with the results I’ve been getting, but it never hurts to have a second opinion.”

Morgan used the strand of hair to tug her head forward for a quick kiss.

“Okay, then. I’ll be in my office for the next few hours.”

• • •

Late that night, Morgan sat at his desk and tried for the third time to read the report in front of him. He hadn’t finished half the work he intended this afternoon. Instead, his eyes had kept going to the window where he could see Jessica on the far end of the porch. She had given up any pretense of work, propped her feet on a chair, and stared down at the pool while she sipped her water.

He glared at the tie he had flung onto the file cabinet earlier — the stupid yellow tie that he had worn this morning because she had asked him to. After all his brave words about not staying home for her, he had left work hours before planned to get home to her. And what was she doing while he was gone? Ogling the pool boy.

The kid was blond, tan, and muscled — the quintessential California sun god. He seemed like a boy to Morgan, but he wouldn’t really be that much younger than Jessica. An image of Knight’s golden curls came to his mind. Did Jessica prefer blonds? The kid hadn’t needed to offer to balance her portfolio to get her attention. She had practically been drooling over him. Morgan had felt old and overdressed as he stood next to her in his suit and tie.

Now she was affecting his work. He was sitting in his office, ostensibly reviewing the business plan a potential new client had submitted. Instead, he was thinking about Jessica waiting for him in the bedroom. He remembered her soft moans as her body had yielded to his the night before. It had been a battle to hold himself back, to make sure that he remained in control right to the end. She already had him wrapped around her little finger. He needed just one area in their relationship where he felt in control, where he could make her want him as much as he wanted her.

It still almost hadn’t been enough. He remembered her arms wrapping around him this morning, pulling him back into the bed, and he had almost succumbed. It was frightening how close he had come to staying. Only the thought of his clients, who counted on him to keep them afloat, had gotten him out the door. Twice during his morning staff meeting he had asked his P.A. to repeat herself. His mind had been on Jessica, still curled up, warm and naked in his bed. He had completely blanked on the matter at hand.

He remembered the mornings his father had been late opening the shop. The business had always had a slim profit margin, even before those last terrible years. Opening late was bad business, he had told his father on more than one occasion. The other man would ruffle Morgan’s hair and tell him not to worry so much, some things were more important than business.

In the end, the business had been important enough to suck every bit of life out of the old man. All those years, he had never understood the way his father had indulged his mother, letting her make sentimental decisions about the business and showering her with gifts that declining profits couldn’t support. Now he had Jessica and he could understand it all too well. If he let her, she could disrupt every aspect of his life. He couldn’t allow her to have that much control over him.

Morgan forced his mind back to the computer screen. It wasn’t the same, he told himself. He could afford to buy Jessica all the jewelry and shoes she wanted. It was unlikely that she was going to be able to bankrupt him. That had never really been the issue. As long as he kept a clear head on his shoulders, everything would be fine.

He stayed in his office for another hour until he felt he had a firm grasp of the proposal in front of him. He would go over the details with his staff tomorrow. There was nothing more that he could do tonight. He leaned back in his chair and stretched. There was no reason for him not to go to bed now.

He imagined Jessica, already in bed. Would she still be up? He remembered her sitting against the pillows the night before. She had been wearing something soft and silky that dipped enticingly in the front. His mouth had gone dry when he stepped through the door. He hadn’t even been able to speak as she folded back the sheets.

He shifted in his seat. Resolutely, he shut down and backed up all his work. Then, just to prove he was completely in control, he programmed a virus scan and scheduled several software updates for the computer to finish in the night. He was not ruled by his hormones. He would follow the routines he had established for himself. Finally, he got up, turned out the lights and headed for bed.

At the bedroom door he paused. Despite everything, he could feel his heart thudding in anticipation. If she was asleep, he told himself, he wouldn’t wake her. It felt like a lie, but he repeated it to himself anyway. He took a firm grip on the doorknob and stepped into … . Into … . His thoughts stuttered to a halt, unable to come up with an adequate description.

He shook his head and blinked his eyes, but the scene stayed the same. The lights were all out, but candles flickered and danced throughout the room. They gave off a heavy incense that turned his familiar bedroom into something dark and forbidden. Music played softly from the speakers in the ceiling. Not classical, or even pop, but more basic — a tribal sound with a drum beat that echoed in his blood.

Jessica was curled like a cat in the center of the bed. When the door opened, she unfurled herself and stood up. The pagan goddess was back. She was dressed in veils that fluttered around her as she swayed toward him. Her eyes were ringed with kohl. A beaded headdress covered her hair. Bracelets at her wrists and ankles jingled softly as she walked.

She stopped just in front of him and executed an elegant bow. “I’ve been waiting for you.” Then she was touching him, placing soft, open-mouthed kisses along his skin as she unbuttoned his shirt, kneeling gracefully in front of him to open his pants.

It was an ambush, he thought. But he couldn’t take his eyes off her. When her mouth closed over him, he gripped her hair to hold her against him as he lost himself in the beat of the drums.

For an eternity, he was lost in the beat of the drums and the slick heat of her mouth. It was only a break in the rhythm, that tiny pause while the music moved into the next track that interrupted the fantasy and restored a little sanity.

He stilled, hands clenching with the effort of it. She made a muffled sound of protest and he realized his hands were still tangled in her hair. She rolled her eyes up at him and he loosened his grip, let his thumbs slide along her cheekbones as he pulled away from her, then dropped his hands down to her arms to pull her to her feet.

She held his gaze all the way up. He wanted to say something, to know what the game was, what the rules were, but he couldn’t get the words out. All he could focus on was her mouth, slick and swollen, and her eyes, darker than the kohl with desire.

She took his hand and led him to the bed. He let her push him back into the pillows piled against the headboard. He thought she would follow, take him into her mouth again, but she turned and began to move to the music. The candles glinted off the bracelets, the belt of coins, the chains hanging across her belly. They turned her skin to gold and caressed the planes and hollows of her body as she undulated to the beat. Where had she learned this, this dark and mysterious thing? She awakened every uncivilized instinct in him. It made him want to posses her in ways that had nothing to do with love, respect, mutual need. She made him into her sultan and she his concubine. His.