Falling Read online

  "Anyway," repeated David determinedly. "We lost touch for quite a while. I will confess to emailing Madeline when I ran across her email address on one of the social networks. And she began to email me back."

  He let go of Madeline's hand at last, with a smile. "I need to show Jen the photo, darling."

  Darling pouted, but then nodded. "All right. If you think it's the right thing to do."

  David produced a photo from his inside jacket pocket. "I didn't know about this, about her, until about eight months or so ago."

  Jen automatically took the picture and then stared, wordless, at the giggling infant. Who happened to be the exact image of David himself. There were big eyes of a distinctive soft honey brown, and the widow's peak…that was something she'd heard was a definite genetic hand-me-down.

  She noticed the pink frills and the little curls over the ears…"A girl?" She looked up.

  David nodded. "Yes. Kristin Anne." He straightened. "My daughter. Our daughter. Mine and Madeline's…"

  "Jesus."

  It was all she could think of to say as she handed the photo back.

  "I named her Kristin." Madeline looked proud. "I love Twilight."

  "Ahh." Jen, who wasn't a fan of the undead, tried to look knowledgeable.

  "I didn't want to tell David, you know. I'm not that kind of girl. It was an accident, of course, but then she arrived and I loved her so much…well it wasn't long until David got the truth out of me and then he wanted to see her and then…well, he fell in love with her too. How could he not?"

  She raised adoring eyes to the father of her child, who looked strangely proud. "She's a lovely child. Hard to believe she's mine." He blushed a little. "Fate seems to have designated me father material. Came as a bit of a shock."

  "I'll bet." Jen's voice was dry.

  "Look." He suddenly remembered who he was talking to. "I admit I've been an utter scumbag here, Jen. No need to rake me over the coals for it, because I've been doing that myself for the last few months. There aren't any excuses so I won't even try. All I can say is that some things are just meant to be. And Madeline is one of mine. I knew when I saw her again that fate had brought us together for a reason. Kristin sealed the deal."

  Jen sighed as he looked at her and knowing him as she did, she could read the plea for forgiveness. He had sinned and was looking for absolution. Or at least a way to get off the hook with a minimum of unpleasantness. The rat.

  What to do?

  Before she could decide on whether to rip him to shreds or let him loose, a warm hand descended on her shoulder and she turned to look up into a familiar dark gaze.

  "Good evening, querida. I wasn't eavesdropping, but I couldn't help overhearing your conversation with your guests. You didn't tell me about your ex's offspring."

  "An oversight." She gazed at him, seeing the delighted laughter in his eyes and knowing it was reflected in her own. "Since I didn't know until this moment, an understandable one, I hope. Forgive me?"

  "Always." He slipped into the chair beside her and encircled her shoulders with one arm, tugging her into his side. "Won't you introduce me?"

  "Is it worth it?" She lifted an eyebrow quizzically.

  "Mi Corazon." He feigned shock. "How can you ask? Everything that matters to you matters to me." He turned to David and Madeline. "Do you not agree? When one loves so deeply, is it not so? I see you both will understand completely how it is when the heart is given to another…"

  He smiled, showing a few more teeth than usual, thought Jen. She took a breath. "Very well. David, Madeline…this is Cristobal Martinez de la Rosa." She felt the smile begin. "And…" she paused, remembering something she'd read online somewhere recently. "Eres el amor de mi vida."

  Cris's face lit up. "Ahh, my Jennifer."

  Completely ignoring anything but her, he hugged her tightly and pressed a light kiss on her lips.

  Across the table, following the stunned silence created by the little public demonstration of affection, David cleared his throat. "Well."

  Jen pulled back, smiled happily at Cris and then looked at her ex. "Don't even pretend to be shocked, okay? You've been hiding a girlfriend and a child for quite some time. I happen to have only just met the man of my dreams and had every intention of telling you about it. So although both of us have probably been quite foolish, I think I'm the one who's entitled to be pissy about this." She sniffed, then laughed. "But I won't be. I'm too damned happy to care about any of it. All I know is that I'm free to follow my heart now, as are you."

  David sighed then, and slumped. "I can't hide that I'm surprised, Jen. But truly I wish you nothing but happiness. The kind of happiness I've found."

  "Perhaps some champagne would be in order to celebrate this auspicious occasion." The socially-magnificent skills of her lover rose to the fore and champagne appeared on the table in short order, pleasing Jen and relieving the tension in the atmosphere.

  They even managed to eat dinner in a civilized fashion, all four of them, without any blood being shed. Cris cleverly guided the conversation, which helped Jen relax even more, and she found herself discussing important matters in the most sensible and practical of ways. David was going to move in with Madeline and their child. He'd been looking for places where they could live and was even now arranging to open a new office just outside of Baltimore.

  Their apartment would be Jen's until the lease expired toward the end of the year. They'd both known that perhaps it would be time to move but hadn't discussed it.

  Such had been the stagnant and apathetic nature of their relationship.

  It was so clear now, thought Jen. There'd been a friendship, a mutual respect and a habit. There hadn't been anything beneath it anymore.

  For a moment she felt sad. Sad that she'd wasted time on something that was in trouble, fading and probably would have ended badly. But then she remembered the good times-and there had been more than a few of those. Nobody could predict the future and they'd gone into their lives together with hope and enthusiasm. It wasn't a bad deal, ever. It was a good deal that just didn't have enough power to sustain itself or to grow. Neither party was to blame.

  Jen knew that now. They were good people but wrong for each other.

  And now…well, perhaps they'd managed to find the right people. Destiny, fate, whatever she wanted to call it-Jen realized that finding Cris had turned the tide of her life completely, just as having a daughter had changed David's.

  She reached for Cris, laying her hand quietly on his strong thigh. He covered it with his own.

  "You all right?" He spoke softly only to her.

  "Yes. I just heard the universe self-correct."

  He grinned. "I heard it too. It turned me on."

  She chuckled. "Doesn't everything?"

  He gazed at her. "No, querida. Only you." He squeezed her fingers. "We can talk now, can't we?"

  Understanding his meaning, she nodded. "Oh yes. Yes we can."

  "Later then." He glanced at her mouth. "Definitely later. We have much to discuss."

  She had to turn away before she began to drool at the thought of what "later" meant.

  *~*~*~*

  For Cris, the evening had begun in the worst possible way and ended on a high he couldn't have begun to envision.

  Jen was free. Free to become his if she wanted. And he was free to ask her things he'd have kept inside. Like how much did she love him? Was there a way they could be together? Did she feel as he did? Did she also sense that there was something special inside them-something responding to the other like flowers to sunshine?

  If he asked her that, would she look at him like he'd lost his mind?

  Probably.

  He wanted to laugh aloud, to shout something primal to the stars and rush up to his suite to hug Maurice. The weather was echoing his joy, darting flashes of excited lightning across the darkness and rumbling with pleasure.

  Or so he liked to think.

  He was giddy with happiness, something he'd read abou
t but never actually experienced.

  "I'm giddy with happiness." He hugged Jen as they watched David and Madeline head out of the hotel.

  "I've read about that. Never thought it was real."

  "It is and I am."

  "Come to think of it, me too." She turned in his arms and smiled up at him.

  He enfolded her in a close embrace and then whirled her into an impromptu waltz, ending up in front of the elevators.

  "Oh, smooth."

  "Gracias, senorita."

  "I was expecting a tango, though. The red rose in the teeth and all."

  "Thorns. I might prick my tongue. I'll be needing it soon. I have plans."

  Jennifer blushed and hurried into the elevator. "Okay. You win that round."

  "Really?" He pushed the button and the door closed. "I was talking about ice cream cones. Or possibly licking Maurice."

  She snorted. "Yeah, right."

  "You had something else in mind?" He leaned over her and looked wicked.

  "Hmm." She stroked her chin, mimicking deep concentration. "I could probably come up with something better for you to lick than your goldfish."

  "Hold that thought."

  He almost dragged her into his suite, slamming the door and kicking off his sandals in one move.

  "Hurry much?" She was smirking.

  "No. But Maurice might be getting impatient." He pulled her to the sliding doors of the living room and turned her to face them. The storm was gaining strength and he could see their reflections in the glass, flickering figures illuminated by the lightning.

  "Strip, Jennifer. I want you naked against me." He undid his shirt and pressed the heat of his chest against her back. "Please, love. Do this."

  "Okay." She whispered the word and slowly lifted the hem of her top, pulling it up and over her head.

  His hands followed the fabric, stroking upward, unfastening her bra and tugging everything away from her.

  Nude from the waist up, Cris held her, his hands covering her beautiful breasts.

  "We are amazing together." She leaned against him. "We fit."

  "I know, querida. I know." He kissed her shoulder. "Take the rest of your clothes off. I don't want to move my hands."

  Awkwardly, she did as he asked, wriggling when her slacks clung to her hips and catching her panties along with them. He noted that she took every opportunity to rub her ass against the growing hardness behind his fly.

  He didn't need any encouragement in that quarter. "Turn around. I need help with my buttons."

  She turned, a smile of pure pleasure on her face. "I'm always happy to lend a hand to a man in distress." Her fingers found the buttons and she was unzipping him within seconds. When she dove inside his briefs and freed his cock he sighed with relief.

  When she stroked him, he groaned and grabbed her ass cheeks, squeezing and stroking in his turn.

  "Get naked, Cris. This is fun." Her hands were all over him as he slipped off the rest of his clothes. "I want to touch you everywhere."

  Since he thoroughly endorsed that wish, he kicked away their clothing and grabbed her, kissing her hard and thoroughly.

  Now it was his hand that searched, his fingers that found and her breath that came in short excited gasps. He swallowed her moans and found her pussy, wet and hot and swollen to his touch.

  The thunder roared and lightning did its best to blind them with a pyrotechnic display of nature's most impressive fireworks. Cris ignored it, focusing on the woman writhing in his arms.

  "God, Cris. When you touch me…" She sobbed as he teased her clit.

  "I love touching you…I can't get enough." He nipped her ear as he thrust two fingers deep into her. She rose on her toes and her thighs parted, a silent invitation to do more.

  He backed away a little and moved her, turning her toward the window and putting his hand between her shoulder blades. "Look down. The small side table. Put your hands on it, Jennifer. And spread your legs."

  She did as she was bid…

  And raised her head to see herself, breasts swaying, body bared to the man behind her.

  In the vivid strobe strokes of light she watched Cris reached down and position himself at her entrance. She felt the head of his cock touch her sex, rub around the moisture gathered there-and then push deep into her body.

  She cried out and yet kept watching as he took her, hard, fast and with an erotic passion that brought tears to her eyes. He was claiming her, marking her as his and she welcomed every penetrating thrust.

  His gaze lifted and met hers in the glass, a reflection of desire at its most fundamental level.

  Man taking woman, woman accepting man.

  Touching, whimpering, beseeching each other and driving each other toward the edge.

  Jen felt the strokes speed up, as deep as possible, as hard as possible, finding the most sensitive inner places and brushing against them in an ever-increasing rhythm of erotic need.

  Her breasts trembled, her hips began their own counterpoint and she found her breaths timing themselves to the hard invasion of her sex. She floated, held aloft by the burgeoning need to come, to explode around Cris's cock and suck the life out of him.

  "I can't stop…" She sobbed out the words, staring into the very teeth of the wildness beyond the glass yet ignoring the storm since it was nothing compared to the one within the room.

  "Don't." Cris's face was taut, his reflection that of a man lost in his own rush to ecstasy. "Let go…" He cried out over the crash of thunder.

  She obeyed. And her body fractured, spasms of pleasure racking her body, turning her muscles to stone and her spine to a taut bow barely holding the rest of her together.

  She vaguely heard him groan loudly, felt him hard against her heated buttocks and then the searing fire within her as he came. His fingers dug into the flesh of her hips, holding her immobile while he emptied himself into her.

  Oh God above, it was incredible and she came again just from the heat of him.

  Sobbing, breathless and beginning to cramp, she finally eased, gasping for air and slowly standing up.

  Her thighs were soaked and she put her hands against the glass doors, holding herself upright, trying to regain her balance. The storm crackled around them but she barely heard it, so lost was she in the aftershocks of her amazing orgasm.

  She nearly jumped when a soft towel stroked between her thighs. "Did I hurt you?" Cris cleaned her with a sure and delicate touch. "Mi amor, tell me I didn't hurt you…"

  She shook her head. "No, no you didn't hurt me." She leaned against him. "You rocked my world. It hasn't settled back down yet."

  "Stay with me."

  She stilled in his arms.

  "I mean it, Jennifer. I don't know why or how or when, but I'm crazy in love with you. I'm a grown man, not a kid and yet here I am, with you in my life for barely over four days. And I'm lost."

  Tentatively she touched him, running her hands over his arms as they held her. "I thought it was just me. That I was so lonely I'd cling to anyone who treated me kindly."

  She felt his arms tighten, but he said nothing.

  "But I was wrong, Cris. It's you. I'm crazy in love with you too. And I haven't a clue why either. But…" She reached for his face and cupped it with her palms. "It's the most wonderful feeling in the world. And I don't want to ever lose it."

  "We didn't use any protection."

  "I figured that out myself actually." She grinned at him. "There was significant evidence. So, in case we have a daughter in nine months time, you have to make me a promise."

  "What's that?" His face was gentle and he watched her with a tender look that melted her heart.

  "We won't give her a name that has anything to do with vampires."

  "Uhh…" He blinked in confusion. "I agree. I promise. What the hell…"

  She laughed. "Don't ask Cris. Just love me."

  "That's easy, querida, because I already do." He laughed in his turn. "And I think I'd like to do it again."

 
Jennifer sighed with pleasure and ran her hands over her man's chest. Then she leaned in. "Okay. But perhaps we'd better put a cloth over Maurice's bowl. I have plans…"

  EPILOGUE

  Four months later - Boston

  "Madre de Dios. How do people survive in this cold?" Cris was muffled to the eyeballs in a parka, a scarf and a knitted hat. His hands were gloved and shoved into his pockets, his nose was red and he looked flat-out miserable.

  Jen grinned. "Do not whine, you tropical wuss. You're the one who offered to fly up. Let's share the holidays, querida, you said. I'll help with the last of your packing and we'll fly back down together after New Year's Eve. You said it, babe. I saved the email."

  "Marry me and warm me up. Right here, right now. In this…" he shivered. "Arctic paradise."

  She sighed. "I've said yes, my love. Quite a few times, as I recall. However, at all those times we also agreed to wait until all this location stuff is settled. Until I'm in Florida with the business branch up and running."

  He groaned and clenched his teeth. "For you, I'll wait. If I survive this icy blast, make it back to somewhere there are flowers and warm sunshine, I will still wait."

  "Aww, poor baby." She moved close, ignored the bags he was holding, and cuddled him. Right there in the middle of the Boylston Street sidewalk and the holiday crowds. "I love you."

  "Well at least I'm not freezing my ass off for nothing."

  His parka smothered her laugh. "C'mon. Let's go back to the hotel. It's Christmas Eve, we'll have a nice dinner and spend tomorrow in bed. There's lots to do around her for the next week or so and then we're on our way south to kick off the New Year."

  "And our new life, eh mi Corazon?"

  "Oh yeah." She nuzzled his chin. "I'm so glad I found you, Cris."

  "Me too. I kinda wish you'd lived in Hawaii, but…all things considered…"

  Jennifer laughed aloud, her breath making clouds in the bitter cold of a New England Christmas Eve.

  It had been a challenge, getting the condo issue sorted out, packing everything she owned and all the while talking her company into letting her open a branch in Florida.

  Fortunately, that suggestion fell in line with what the Director had been suggesting for a few months…right after his daughter started college at Florida State.