Impossible Things (18 page)

Not understanding she turned back to look at her mom. From this distance her mom looked much younger than her fifty-three years. With her black hair loose in curls around her face, and her flushed cheeks she looked like she could be Lucy’s sister and not her mother.

Rodrigo leaned in closer and said, “She was twenty-six when she had you. A grown woman and not a young girl, do you know what her life was like before she married your father?”

Lucy shook her head and said, “No.”

She was still looking at her mom but she felt it when he nodded his head. “Exactly. That seems to be a running theme with my Lennox women. None of you talk to each other. You shut down and shut each other out.”

She turned and her blue eyes met his brown as she asked, “That’s not how it’s done in your family?”

He threw his head back and laughed and half the women in the room turned to look at him. He leaned his head in close and said, “We’re Italian. We fight, we scream, we threaten each other, and then we make up. Nothing is secret in my family.”

A few minutes later he walked away and left Lucy standing in the corner, watching her mom dance, thinking about what he had said. Rodrigo was right; they did shut each other out.

When her mom came back she was out of breath and her skin was glowing. Lucy handed her a fresh glass of champagne and Rosaline drank it in one gulp and then laughed at the look on her daughter’s face.

“Mom, can I ask you a question?”

Rosaline turned to her, “Of course you can. You can ask me anything.”

Lucy saw that her mom’s foot was tapping in time to the song that the band was playing and she smiled. She didn’t remember the last time she saw her mom smiling and having fun, maybe never.

Lucy took a deep breath and asked, “Did you ever have an addiction? You know like mine? Maybe not jewels but something like that?”

Rosaline turned to her, the smile on her face fading and Lucy’s stomach dropped. Her mom was going to shut her out, she just knew it.

But Rosaline didn’t. She rolled her eyes and whispered, “Clothes.”

“What?” Lucy pulled back to get a better look at her mom’s face. “Clothes?”

Rosaline nodded. “I had a thing for clothes. I was obsessed with them. I had so many clothes that your grandfather turned the bedroom next to mine into a walk-in closet for me. I couldn’t get enough of them.”

Lucy looked at Rosaline with sadness in her eyes. The last time she had seen her mom’s closet it contained, at most, thirty garments, all of them bought from discount stores. It was not at all the closet of a woman who had once loved clothes.

Deciding that there was no time like the present, she asked, “What about men? You were twenty-five when you and dad got met. Did you date before him?”

Rosaline l
ooked away and a look of deep sadness crossed her face. But her voice was cheerful as she said, “Of course I did. But then you’re dad came along.”

Lucy knew it wasn’t the truth, there was more to it
hen that, more to her mom, but she didn’t press. She had already learned more about her mom in one day than she had in the previous twenty–seven years.

They were standing, watching the room, and sipping their third glasses of champagne when her mom grabbed her arm and said, “Don’t look now but there’s a man staring very intently at you who makes Rodrigo look ugly.”

Lucy didn’t look up but her stomach clenched. In her opinion there was only one man in the world that was better looking than Rodrigo and that was Lucas.

Her mom squeezed her arm. “He’s coming this way.”

The fear in her belly clenched again and she put her glass to her mouth and downed its contents in one swallow. As she was bringing the glass down her eyes met Lucas’. He had stopped in front of her and her mom and was waiting for her to say something. When she didn’t he smiled at her mom and held out his hand, “Hello, I’m Lucas Antonelli.”

Lucy didn’t look at her mom but Rosaline was breathless as she introduced herself. Lucy didn’t take her eyes off Lucas’ face as he looked at her and then back at her mom. “Hello, Lucy’s mom. I would have known it anyway. You look very
much alike.”

Rosaline laughed. “Poor Lucy, I’ve always been told that I look like my mother. It’s not always easy to be compared to someone else.”

Lucas smiled at her mom and Lucy felt her traitorous stomach contract. When his green eyes met hers again she felt a flush start on her face and spread down her chest. She wanted to reach down and cover her bare skin but she didn’t want to draw his attention to it.

Lucas reached out and grabbed her arm and she flinched. He turned to her mom, “Mrs. Jacobs I hate to take your daughter away but we have some business we need to discuss in private.”

Lucy watched as her mom backed away, “Of course!”

Her mom looked at her
. There was surprise and confusion in her face, but she didn’t say anything, she just turned and walked away. Before Lucy could turn to Lucas to ask him what he wanted he was pulling her after him, and out of the room.

They went down a long corridor, passing armed guards who nodded at them and then out through a set of French doors to a balcony. She realized they were overlooking a garden and in order to gather her thoughts she moved forward and put her hands on the railing.

The air felt so good after so long of being hot that she threw her head back. She had perspiration on her neck and the air cooled it and sent shivers down her body.

When she turned back to him he looked down at her chest, at the flesh that was exposed, and she felt her nipples harden in response. All it took was one look from him, one touch, one whiff of his scent and her body was ready for him.

He came closer, pressing her between his hard, hot body and the balcony railing and she felt her mouth go dry. It had only been two days since they had seen each other and yet it felt like a year. She wanted him to pull her skirt up, drop his pants, and thrust inside her but she would never say that to him. She would never let him know how much she wanted him.

When he spoke his voice was thick with a desire that matched
hers. “What are you doing here?”

Angry at herself for wanting him, for not being able to get over him, she took it out on him. “Am I not allowed to go out? What, did you think I was stalking you? You don’t have to worry about that!”

He snorted. “I know just how unlikely that is!”

She pushed her finger into his chest and asked, “What are you doing here?”

He smiled at her and looked down at her finger. “I’m Italian, and this is a party for Italian businesses. I belong here. You don’t.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I belong anywhere I want to.”

He leaned down and his tongue touched the corner of her mouth as he said, “You belong in my bed.”

She lost her voice and her reason as her arms went up around his neck. Her fingers went to his hair and tangled in his thick black locks as his mouth took hers. His mouth was rough as he pressed her up against the railing. She felt as if she was going to fall for a second before his hands came up and his arms went around her. She felt her nipples press into the heat of his
tuxedo covered chest and she ground herself against him. She wanted to crawl inside him, to penetrate every inch of him, the way that he had penetrated her mind.

He pulled back and she groaned in disappointment but he didn’t leave her. He reached down and pealed the black silk from her breasts and bent his head to take her turgid nipple into his mouth. She groaned and felt an orgasm building just from the feel of his mouth on her nipple. “Lucas….”

She trailed off, lost in a sensual haze created by his hot, wet mouth. She was grinding her pelvis against him when a cough cut through the fog in her brain. She opened her eyes to see Rodrigo standing over Lucas’s shoulder.

She gasped and pulled back but Lucas stepped forward, so that Rodrigo couldn’t see her bare breast as she quickly fumbled with it, trying to get it back in her dress. When she was safely covered Lucas turned around and said, “Rigo.”

Rodrigo nodded, “Lucas.”

Lucy looked from one to the other. “You know each other?” she asked and watched as both men nodded.

Rodrigo was the one who spoke up. “He’s been my best friend since we were fourteen. We met at boarding school.”

She looked at Lucas but he wouldn’t meet her eyes. She got a sneaking suspicion and she looked back at Rodrigo. “Did you do this? Did you set me up to meet him?”

Rodrigo jerked back. “No! I would never do that.”

She turned to look at Lucas, “Did you know who I was th
e day we met?”

He didn’t look at her.

“Answer me!” she screamed.

He looked up and she felt her stomach drop at the look in his eyes as he nodded.

“You knew! You knew who I was and you never said a word?”

He shrugged and she turned back to Rodrigo. “I trusted you! I was beginning to love you! And you set me up. Why? So that I would meet some handsome Italian like you and fall in love and dump poor Sam?”

Rodrigo shook his head. “I didn’t set you up. I had no idea that you had met until the other day when you showed me the bracelet. I recognized it from a sketch that he had on his coffee table, and then I didn’t know what the hell was going on. When I went to confront him he wouldn’t tell me.”

“You’re lying!”

“No he’s not.”

Lucy turned to see that Isabella and Rosaline had come out onto the balcony. Isabella was shaking her head as she said again, “No he’s not lying. He had no idea. I was the one who sent Lucas to meet you.”

“What?” Her voice was low, confused…hurt and she turned to look at Lucas. “It was all a set up?”

He shook his head. “No of course not. Not all of it.”

She shook her head. “Not all of it.” Her voice was flat and she turned from his green eyes to confront her grandmother.

“How could you? How could you do this to me? I knew that you didn’t like Sam but to go to such lengths…”

Her grandmother stepped forward. “I did it because I love you, because I want the best for you. I lost your mother to a man who took every shred of who she was away. After they married I didn’t even recognize my own daughter. She had once been beautiful and vibrant, full of life and love. She was passionate about everything and interested in everything. The last time I saw her she was dull and lifeless and I was afraid that you were headed down the same path.”

“So you paid a man to seduce me?”

Her grandmother shook her head but it was Lucas who spoke up. “What kind of man do you think I am? She didn’t pay me and she sure as hell didn’t tell me to seduce you.”

Lucy turned to look at him. He was angry and that made her feel better. She wanted to fight with him; she wanted to scream at him and throw things and tear his clothes and pound on his chest. She wanted to hurt him the way that he had hurt her. “You lied to me from the very beginning, you lied about everything.”

He shook his head and stepped towards her. He was at least six inches taller than her and he stood over her, looking down at her, with anger blazing in his green eyes. “I didn’t lie. I didn’t tell you that I knew who you were. Your grandmother asked me to meet you; she thought we might hit it off…which we did if you remember correctly.”

She flushed with shame and she knew that he saw it because his voice became tender as he said, “She just asked that I meet you and I did. What happened after that was just you and I.”

Angry at her traitorous heart for pounding at his intimate tone she said, “You tried to buy me!”

He shook his head. “No. I bought you those things because it gave me pleasure to. Because you stood in that street and looked at that ring with pure lust on your face and I knew how you felt because that was how I looked at you. I wanted you to have the object of your desires because I didn’t think I could ever have mine.”

She looked up at him. His pupils were dilated and his eyes were pleading with her to understand but she was hurt. The two men that she cared about had both been pretending to be someone they weren’t.

“You followed me.” She said for lack of anything else.

He nodded. “Yes, I did. I admit that. I was going to your apartment that day and I saw you come out. I followed you to your dress appointment and waited on you. I know it was wrong but I’m not sorry. I was already in love with you.”

Rosaline gasped and Rodrigo swore as Lucy looked up at Lucas in confusion. “What? You just saw me.”

He shook his head. ‘No, I’d seen you long before. The day that Isabella and Rodrigo got married I was his best man. We went back to her house for the reception and on the mantle in the library were pictures of you. You were just a kid, but I saw something in those pictures that called to me. I thought…” he took a deep breath and put his hands in his pockets, “I thought I would have liked to have known you when I was young. I thought we might have been friends. Those pictures drew me in every time I went to their house. I was fascinated by you, and I listened eagerly to every story about you that Isabella told. How well you did in school, the time you got caught skipping school, how you had fallen off the back of your boyfriend’s motorcycle in high school. How you graduated with honors from college, your love of architecture. I lived for those stories.”