Love at First Flight (25 page)

Her eyes fixated on the engagement ring
hanging from the chain around his neck.

“Do you think we could pretend?” he
whispered, reaching up to unhook the chain. “That just for tonight you're mine
and this belongs right here?” Sliding the ring onto her finger, he kissed his
way up her neck. “I want to see you wearing nothing but my ring.” He released
the clasp on her bra, tossed aside the last of their clothes, and pulled the
blanket up around them.

“Let me see.” He reached for her hand
and kissed each finger but spent extra time on her ring finger. “It's so
perfect on you. I bought it on Friday when you were waiting for me at Mrs. R's.
Did you know that?”

She shook her head. “I wondered when
you'd had the time.”

“Make love with me, Juliana. Make love
with me like we're engaged and have everything in the world to look forward to.”

She pulled him to her. “I love you,
Michael. No matter what happens, I love you so much.”

“That's all I need.”

***

The next morning Michael left Juliana
sleeping in his bed. He set the alarm, locked the front door, and crossed the
street to talk to the officers on her detail.

“Juliana is sleeping, and the alarm's
on. Stay close to her today, okay?”

“Yes, Mr. Maguire. Don't worry. We're on
it.”

“Thank you,” Michael said.

With one more anxious glance back at the
house, Michael got in his car and left for work. Forced to leave her for the
first time in days, his stomach churned with nerves. She promised him she would
be careful, and since he couldn't see to her safety himself, he could only hope
she would be vigilant.

As he drove, he thought about making
love with her on the roof deck and then again in his bed after the chilly night
air drove them inside. He reached up for the ring and discovered they had
forgotten to return it to the chain, which meant it was still on her finger
where it belonged. Imagining her going through her day wearing his ring made
him smile.

Trailed by two police officers, he
arrived at the courthouse with minutes to spare before the meeting with Judge
Stein. Michael shook hands with Tom Houlihan in the hallway outside of the
judge's chambers. The defense attorneys were huddled on the other side of the
corridor.

“Good weekend in R.I.?” Houlihan asked.

“It was great. How was yours?”

“I spent most of it on the phone dealing
with the media's feeding frenzy over the rock incident. Rumor has it the judge
is on fire over it. This ought to be interesting.”

Stein's clerk called everyone in a few
minutes later.

The judge paced behind his large
mahogany desk, his wiry frame all but bursting with energy. “What the
hell
is going on?” he asked the defense
attorneys. “Are your clients out of their minds?”

The lead defense attorney, a heavyset
blonde, held up her hands. “They claim to have had no knowledge of what their
cousin planned to do.”

“Somehow I find that hard to believe.”
Stein ran his fingers through what was left of his hair, his sharp blue eyes
landing on Michael. “Mr. Maguire, your room-mate's injuries were minor as
reported?”

“Yes, your honor. We were very lucky.
She was sitting less than a foot from where the rock landed.”

“This is an outrage.” He turned to
address the defense team. “I want you to tell your clients that I'll tolerate
no further harassment of Mr. Maguire or any other member of the prosecution
team. You might want to remind them of who'll be determining their sentence
should they be convicted. Am I clear?”

“Yes, your honor.”

“In light of all the publicity this
incident has gener-ated, I'm sequestering the jury for the remainder of the
trial. We'll resume tomorrow at nine,” he said with a dismissive wave of his
hand. “Mr. Maguire.”

“Your honor?”

“Be careful. The defendants are already
facing three consecutive life sentences. I have absolutely nothing worse than
that to threaten them with, and they know it.”

Michael nodded. “Yes, sir.”

***

Outside the courthouse, a swarm of
reporters and cameras were waiting when Michael emerged from the meeting. They
bombarded him with questions as he pushed through the crowd with Tom at his
side and two police officers following close behind them.

“Mr. Maguire, what do you have to say
about the incident at your house?”

“No comment.” He and Tom kept moving in
an attempt to break free.

“Mr. Maguire, are you worried about your
personal safety?”

“No.”

“Mr. Maguire, can you tell us your
roommate's name and describe the nature of her injuries?”

“Absolutely no comment.”

“Mr. Houlihan, what did the judge have
to say this morning?”

“The trial will resume tomorrow.”

“Mr. Maguire, is it true you recently
left your preg-nant fiancee?”

Michael stopped and turned to the
reporter who had asked the question. “What did you say?”

A hush fell over the gaggle of
reporters.

“Is it true you recently left your
pregnant fiancee?”

“No. It's not true. Where did you hear
that?”

Tom put a hand on his shoulder. “Michael,
come on.”

“Wait.” Michael struggled to control the
urge to punch the reporter in the face. “Where did you hear that?”

The young reporter shrugged. “Word on
the street.”

“Well, it's not true, and I'd better not
see that in print anywhere or hear it on the air, do you hear me?” His eyes
circled the group to make sure they knew he meant all of them. “I'll sue your
asses so fast you won't know what hit you.”

“You can't sue me if it's true,” the
brazen reporter replied.

Before Michael could act on the urge to
punch the guy, Tom pulled him free of the crowd.

“What
the fuck?”
Michael said after they left the reporters behind. “That's just what the jury
needs to hear right about now. My credibility with them will be shot.”

“They're being sequestered,” Tom
reminded him. “Even if it makes it into the news, they won't hear it.”

“Son of a
bitch
.”

“Is there any chance it could be true?
I'm only asking as a friend, Michael.”

“No, it's not true.” But then the earth
seemed to tremble under his feet as he remembered the last time with Paige when
they failed to use a condom. “Oh, shit,” he whispered. “Oh my God. I've got to
go.”

CHAPTER 21

JULIANA EMERGED FROM THE HOUSE AT TEN
O'CLOCK and crossed the street to let her detail know she would be going first
to Collington Street and then to her mother's in Highlandtown. They followed
her as she drove the short distance to Collington Street.

Jeremy would've flown back to Florida
the night before, so she planned to get the mail, do a little cleaning, and get
out of there as fast as she could.

Since the house was alarmed, they let
her go in without them.

Juliana was startled to find the alarm
deactivated, which caused her heart to accelerate and anxiety to course through
her. She turned to go back for the cops.

“Hello, Juliana,” Jeremy said on his way
downstairs. “Nice of you to come home.”

“Why are you still here?” she sputtered,
tucking her left hand into her pocket and working the engagement ring off her
finger. “You scared me.”

“
You
scared
me
when you didn't come home
for three days.”

“I told you I was away.”

“Who were you with?”

“We aren't seeing each other right now.
I don't have to explain myself to you.”

“What's going
on
, Jule? Where are you living? I know it isn't here. The place was
filthy. When I wasn't trying to figure out where you were this weekend, I was
cleaning the house.”

“I came to clean today. That's why I'm
here.”

“
Where
are you living?”

Swallowing hard, she said, “With a
friend. No one you know.”

“What
friend
do you have who isn't a friend of mine, too?”

“I'm not talking to you about this,” she
said, her heart racing with anxiety.

He studied her for a long time, a nerve
in his cheek pulsing with tension. “What happened to your forehead?”

“I banged it.”

He picked up the letters that she had
left on the kitchen table. “You're not reading your mail?”

“Look, Jer, I don't know why you're here
or what you thought was going to happen when you came home this weekend, but we
agreed to spend three months apart. It's only been one. You're not being fair.”

“I want out of that stupid agreement.”
He took a step toward her. “I haven't been with anyone else, and I don't want
to be. That was the whole reason we were doing this, right? So the deal's off.”

“No, it's not.”

“Why are you having so much trouble
looking at me, Juliana?”

“I'm not.” She tilted her chin to make
eye contact with him.

“It's almost like you're guilty about
something. Are you seeing someone else?”

“I'm not having this conversation with
you. We have a deal. I'm not giving in on this. I'll talk to you in two months.
Not before.”

“Something's going on, and I want to
know what it is.”

“We'll talk in two months,” Juliana
said, picking up her purse to leave. He had cleaned, so there was no need for
her to stay.

He took hold of her arm. “One month,
Jule. I'll do one more month. Not two.”

She looked up at him, at that
oh-so-familiar face, and knew she couldn't deny him this. “Fine. One month from
today.”

“Meet me here.”

“Okay.”

“Jule? Will you let me hold you?” He
held out his arms. “Just for a minute?”

She bent her head and rested it against
his chest as his arms went around her. Her hands rested on his hips, and she
felt his lips brush against her hair.

“I miss you, babe,” he whispered. “I
miss you so much. I'm going crazy without you.”

Juliana looked up at him and was
startled when his lips came down on hers. When she felt his tongue nudging her
mouth open, she pulled back. “Don't, Jer,” she said, stepping out of his
embrace. “I'll see you in a month.” She bolted out the door and drove away
before he could notice a police car was following her.

***

Michael left the courthouse and drove to
his office, trying to process the possibility that Paige could be pregnant.
He'd ignored a new burst of phone calls from her over the last few days, but
she'd made damned sure he wouldn't be able to ignore her anymore. He parked the
car and reached for his cell phone.

“Hello, Michael. How good of you to
finally call me back.”

“What are you trying to pull, Paige? Do
you expect me to believe you got pregnant the one time we didn't use
protection? Do you think I'm that stupid?”

“You can believe whatever you want to,
but I am pregnant. Exactly four weeks.”

Michael took a ragged deep breath. “I
don't believe you.”

“Well, you'd better believe it. You're
going to be a daddy, Michael, so you can forget all this business about calling
off our engagement. It's just as well I never cancelled the wedding plans. We
can just proceed as planned.”

“Yeah, in your dreams.”

“I'm pregnant. You
will
marry me.”

“I will
never
marry you. I don't care if you're having triplets. I'm not
marrying you.”

“Then you'll never see this child. Do
you understand me? Never.”

Michael laughed. “Have you forgotten I'm
a lawyer, Paige?
Bring it on.
By the
time I'm through with you,
you’ll
never see this phantom kid of ours. Besides, how do I even know it's mine?”

“Go to hell, Michael.”

“You're not going to blackmail me into
marrying you, and you failed to mess up my trial by leaking this to the media
because the judge sequestered the jury. And you're certainly not going to stop
me from seeing my kid—the kid I highly doubt even exists. So you may as well
give it up. Oh, and it's probably safe to go ahead and cancel those wedding
plans. The groom won't be there.” He slapped his phone closed.

“Fuck!” he cried within the confines of
his car. “Fuck! Fuck!
Fuck!
” As he
slammed his hand against the steering wheel in frustration, the phone rang.
Expecting it to be Paige calling him back, he flipped it open and roared, “What?”

“Michael?” Juliana said.

Just the sound of her voice chased away
the rage. “Oh, baby, I'm sorry.”