JC felt he had to communicate with Tori somehow. The lawyers were right; she had saved him from public humiliation. If she had chosen to make their marriage public, at the very least, it could have been an embarrassment – at the very most, it could have cost him his career. Getting her address from her lawyer, he showed up at her home that afternoon.
“Josh!” she exclaimed when she found him on her doorstep.
“Hey, Tori.”
“What are you doing here?”
He put out his hand. “Extending a hand of peace. I don’t want us to be enemies, honey.”
Cautiously, she placed her hand in his. “I don’t want that either.
“May I come in?”
“Please.” Removing her hand from his, she stepped back to allow him in then closed the door.
“I expected you’d live with your parents.” This house was the opposite of the designer house she had grown up in. This place looked lived in, comfortable.
“I bought this with part of my trust fund. I wanted a place to call my own.”
He smiled at her. “I like it. It looks like a place you can kick back and relax.”
“Good. That’s what I was going for.” She smiled uncertainly. What did she really have to say to her almost-ex-husband? “I-umm…would you like something to drink? Coffee…juice…soda?”
“Coffee’d be great.”
Waving towards the living room, she said, “Have a seat. I’ll be only a moment.” Then disappeared down a short hallway.
JC didn’t sit down right away. He moved around the room, looking at the artwork on the walls, the small clusters of knick-knacks, and the frames photographs on the sideboard. He recognized pictures of her parents and a few of the other people. What had surprised him was their wedding photo and another picture of him at twenty. She displayed pictures of him?
“A husband is family.” Her voice came from the entryway, as if answering his unspoken question.
“I was never much of a husband to you,” he murmured.
“You weren’t given much of a chance.” Tori set the coffee tray on the low table between the sofa and the loveseat.
“Yeah, Lou pretty much said I was never to see you again.” JC picked up their wedding photo. They were so in love; it shone from their eyes. “I’m sorry I hurt you, Tori.”
“After a couple of years hind-sight, I understood some of it.”
Setting the frame back down, JC sat on the sofa while she sat across from him. She poured two mugs of coffee from the carafe and offered him one. “Still take it black?” she asked.
JC nodded. “You still dump sugar in yours?” He had made fun of the amount of sugar she added to coffee to take the edge off the bitterness of the brew.
Tori smiled. “Yes.”
“Sooo…Did you go into the family business?”
“Yes, I do research.”
“Do you like it?”
She shrugged. “My brother will run the foundation eventually. I may move on to something of my own.”
“Like what?”
“I really haven’t given it much thought.”
“Think about it. I’d like to help you.”
“Out of guilt?”
“Not guilt. Friendship and the love we once shared.”
“Was it love or was it hormones?”
JC set his coffee down and rose from the sofa. Stepping around the coffee table, he took her mug and placed it on the table, then he urged her to her feet. “It was love, baby,” he told her softly. “Don’t ever sell yourself short.” His mouth lowered over hers. Tori resisted at first, then her arms went around his neck. They tasted the coffee on one another’s tongues as they twined and twisted together. He pulled her up on her toes to fit her more closely against him. Oh, God, he remembered! Remembered how wonderful it was to possess her and to be possessed by her. It wasn’t just a boy’s fanciful dream! His beautiful, magical Tori…He nipped at her ear, whispering, “Please…Please, baby…”
“Josh, we—“
Sensing she was going to say ‘no’, he kissed her again.
Tori weakened with every moment that ticked passed. She had never been particularly good at telling JC ‘no’ as a girl – as a woman it was proving equally as difficult. It felt so good…so right…Before she knew it, her back was against the sofa cushions and he was above her, pleasantly weighing her down. His lips trailed down her throat as his hands clumsily opened her blouse. “Joshua. No,” she said shakily as his mouth tasted the upper curve of her breast. “We can’t.” Can’t? JC’s sensual haze refused to process the word. “Josh, you are engaged to someone else,” Tori announced flatly.
Ice water spilled into his veins. Someone else. Not Tori. He was marrying someone else…With unsteady breath, he levered himself off of her. “Damn!”
Tori snatched the edges of her blouse together and sat up. “If we did this, we’d have to go through a divorce instead of an annulment.”
“I’m sorry, Tori. I had no right—“
“Neither of us did.” She got to her feet and buttoned her blouse. “We’ll just call it youthful hormones revisited.”
JC stood up. “You’re being way too nice about this.”
“It takes two to get carried away, Josh,” she admitted with a sad smile. “But you came back to be free of me. What we were about to do would make things very complicated.”
Get free of Tori? Suddenly, that didn’t sound so appealing. He was confused and overwhelmed by all the emotions flooding through him. “I’d better go.”
Tori nodded. This would be the last time she would see him. “Good-bye, Josh. Be happy.”
JC said nothing as he let himself out.
Later that same evening, JC was surprised when the doorbell rang. He’d kept a low profile since his arrival the day before, so he didn’t know who would think he was in town. He hadn’t even let Johnny know he was in Orlando.
What was even more stunning was his visitor. Tori! At first, he thought he had imagined her, he’d thought of little else since returning from her house. When he opened the door, she stood there in a pale green sundress, looking uncertain and ready to bolt. Taking her hand, he drew her inside. “C’mon in, honey.”
“I-I know I shouldn’t have come…” she murmured nervously.
“If you want to talk to me, it’s cool.” He took both of her chilled hands in his. “You’re like ice. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. I…I just…”
“Just what?” he prompted.
Pulling her hands from his, she put her back to him. “This was a mistake. I shouldn’t have come.” Her fingers closed over the doorknob when his closed over them. “Josh, I should go.”
He pressed her against the door with his body. “Talk to me, baby.” He nuzzled the hair from her neck. “Why’d you come?”
“N-no one has to know,” she assured him quickly. “That is if you want…”
“Know what? If I want what?”
“Me?” It came out as a tiny squeak.
“I think earlier I proved I want you, Tori. You’re the one who made me stop,” he reminded her quietly.
“I know. I’m sorry.”
Easing her away from the door, he turned her to face him. Her eyes were turbulent, stormy green. “What are you saying?”
“That I was wrong to come.”
JC shook his head. “Why did you come?” He wasn’t going to let his wishful thinking make a blunder and send her screaming from the house.
“It was a mistake, all right?” She dropped her eyes.
“No, it is not all right.” He tipped her chin up with one hand, forcing her to meet his eyes. “Tell me.”
“I was thinking if you still wanted to make love…we could…and not tell the lawyers…”
“Honey, we are like spontaneous combustion. Always have been.”
Tori shrugged, trying for nonchalance. “I thought for old times’ sake…”
He shouldn’t want this so badly, JC realized. He shouldn’t even be tempted by his soon-to-be-ex-wife, not if he truly loved his fiancée. He’d never been the ‘playa’ type. But he did want Tori – and he wasn’t so sure being with her one last time would burn it out of him. “You came so we could make love?” he demanded huskily.
“I know, I sound—“
“Tori, answer the question.”
“Yes. I-I realize it’ll mean nothing to you…”
Which meant it would mean something to her. His hand moved to her cheek. “Bullshit. It always means something between us, baby,” he said softly. He unbuttoned the first few buttons of her dress, revealing the top swells of her breasts above her bra. He bent his head to kiss the flesh with great tenderness. “This is me, Tori.”
With a weak sob of surrender, she pressed him close.
Straightening, JC muttered, “I don’t know if I can make it to the bedroom.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
“Then lead the way.”
They loved each other through the night. It was wild and sweet like JC had never known with anyone but Tori. They took turns making each other cry out in exquisite pleasure. They would fall asleep only to wake to love again.
Towards dawn, Tori woke to find herself weighed down by JC’s arm and leg, as if he was preventing her escape while he slept. That was a fanciful notion. She was JC’s past – his fiancée
was his future. The previous night was merely stolen hours belonging to another woman. Attempting to extract herself, she scooted away from JC.
“Go back to sleep, baby,” he muttered without opening his eyes. “We got time.”
No, they didn’t. Tears slipped down her cheeks. This was the end of their time – forever. She pressed a last kiss on his sleep-soft mouth and he smiled. Gathering her clothes, she noiselessly crept from the room.
JC woke alone – and felt incredibly hollow inside. Tori hadn’t even stayed to greet the new day with him. He’d hoped they could talk that morning. He felt a lot needed to be said. “Dude, she didn’t even want to see you this morning,” he muttered to himself. “What were you thinking?”
That afternoon a bouquet of white roses was delivered to Tori’s home.