Alone At Last Read online

  “Omigod, you sound just like James! I swear to you, I did not set you up! I really did have a last minute client. Then, I had to work! It was all coincidence…but it was a good thing, right?”

  Hope tried to hide a grin. “Yeah, it was good.”

  “That’s all I need to know so don’t elaborate,” Val said wrinkling her narrow nose.

  “I’m not you, Val, I don’t kiss and tell.”

  “Ugh…thank God.”

  They sat on the bed in silence until Hope spoke. “Why didn’t you tell me your dad paid your way through college?”

  Val, for once was at a loss for words. “Uh…I…well…” She sighed. “James came up off that information real fucking fast, didn’t he?”

  “Don’t blame him, it came up in conversation…and don’t avoid the question!”

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “You can start by explaining why you had two jobs all the way through college.”

  “You did too!” Val countered.

  “Nobody else was paying my tuition!”

  “I didn’t want you to be alone. You were my best friend and you worked so hard. You kinda inspired me. So I worked to pay bills…and saved the extra. It worked out great, actually. I didn’t have to live at home like James did when he started college.”

  “Oh.” Hope fiddled with the comforter and sighed.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I didn’t want you to think I had it easier.” Val fell on the bed beside Hope and grabbed her fidgeting hand.

  “So you did a double major in Sports Medicine and Physical Therapy, worked two jobs, and served in Student Government with me…just to make it harder on yourself?” Hope stared at her best friend’s crestfallen expression in wonder.

  “Just because my dad paid my tuition doesn’t mean I didn’t need the money. Besides, all the money I saved is what I use to plan and organize our vacations. I put some toward retirement and play with the rest.” Val shrugged.

  “You didn’t have to hide the fact that your dad paid for your college. That’s a good thing. I just don’t get why you made it so much harder on yourself than it had to be.”

  “Like it or not, we’re in this life together,” Val said launching herself off the bed. “I didn’t want our relationship to change…I still don’t…even if you are sleeping with James!”

  Hope laughed. “Okay. Okay. Nothing’s changed! You’re still vulgar and I still love you.”

  Val grinned and launched herself onto Hope.

  “Oof!” Hope’s breath came out in a rush as Val tackled her in a hug.

  “I love you too!” Val squeezed Hope until she squeaked in protest. “Now, let’s go eat dinner before P.J. starts eating it straight out of the pot.”

  Hope stood in the hallway, dark but for three dim wall lights that made pale yellow circles on the hardwood. She’d been on her way to the kitchen for a glass of water when she’d stopped in her tracks. She didn’t know why she was torturing herself by listening to the familiar sounds wafting from behind the door.

  “Oh, Paolo!” Val screamed, “Oooh, papi, por favor.”

  Hope wondered how much Spanish Val knew before she started sleeping with a Venezuelan. She was about to keep walking to the kitchen when a hand clamped over her mouth. Her scream was dissolved behind the thick fingers against her lips.

  “I had no idea you were such a voyeur,” James whispered.

  Hope’s body went stiff. Her nipples pebbled and goose bumps rose on her bare arms. James removed his hand from her mouth, but she didn’t get very far. As soon as she turned around, his arms encircled her waist and he pulled her against him.

  “You scared me,” Hope whispered fiercely.

  “I’m sorry,” he muttered dropping kisses along her neck. “I just got in and I was on my way to your room. Then I find you lurking outside Val’s room listening to her scream.”

  As if to punctuate his statement, Val let out a few yelps and called Paolo papi again.

  Hope shook her head and wiggled out of James’ grip.

  “Do you listen to them all the time?” he questioned, following her downstairs.

  “I don’t really have to listen to hear them,” Hope said pulling down a glass from the cupboard.

  “They’re always that loud?” James pulled the Brita pitcher from the refrigerator and poured water into Hope’s glass.

  She nodded. “I usually put on my headphones.”

  James watched her down the entire glass and put it in the sink. “Let’s go make some noise of our own,” he suggested grabbing her hand and tugging her back toward the steps.

  They went to his bedroom. There was no chance of Val walking in there without knocking. James closed the door behind them.

  Hope watched him cross the dark room and pull open the hunter green drapes.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Turn off the light,” said James ignoring her question.

  Perplexed, Hope hit the switch and cloaked the room in darkness. She was still blinking to adjust her vision when James said, “Come here.”

  She held out a hand and moved toward his voice. His long fingers closed around hers and pulled her against him. Hope wanted to curl into his chest, find that spot where she fit just right.

  “Look at the sky,” he whispered against her hair. She did. Outside the picture window the stars winked at her against the black velvet sky. The outline of the mountains was barely visible in the distance.

  There was a full harvest moon, not surprising in late September. It was tinted orange hanging above the tops of the forest’s trees.

  “It’s beautiful,” admitted Hope.

  “I know. While I was driving, I kept looking up at the sky…at that moon…thinking that soon, I’d be under it with you.”

  “Stop,” Hope mumbled, feeling her face flush.

  James turned her around in his arms. “I’m serious. You were on my mind all day. I was wondering what you were doing.” His gaze left hers and slipped down her frame stopping where her cleavage was evident in the skimpy silver camisole. He licked his lips. “What you were wearing.” He pulled her flush against him, sighing when her breasts crushed against his chest. “If you were thinking about me.”

  Hope blushed full on. “I was,” she whispered.

  “I also realized something,” James continued.

  “What?” Hope’s eyes went round in curiosity.

  “I’ve known you for so long, but I don’t know any of the important stuff.”

  “Like what?”

  He released her waist, encasing her hands in his and led her to the bed. They sat beside each other. “I wanted to pick up something special for you. I had no clue about your favorite flower, food, or color.”

  She laughed. “That stuff isn’t important at all!”

  “You don’t think so?”

  “No! Just because I’m a girl, doesn’t mean I want flowers and fancy dinners. Trust me; you know all the important stuff.”

  “I do?”

  She nodded. Seeing confusion on his moonlit features, she continued.

  “For example,” she said looking down, “You know that I love to cook but I hate doing dishes. You know that I tend to get up late no matter how early I go to bed. You know that I like to watch basketball.” Hope stopped at the chuckle coming from James.

  “Unless your team is losing; then you start to pout and curse.”

  She laughed.

  “Remember when the Spurs beat the Pistons in the NBA finals? I thought you were going to throw the bowl of popcorn at the television.”

  Hope stopped laughing and frowned. “I don’t want to talk about it!”

  He chortled again. “Maybe you’re right about knowing the important stuff already.”

  He tucked his palm under her jaw and nuzzled her neck.

  Hope sighed as her body responded to the feel of his nose tracing her jaw line and late night stubble grazing her neck.

  “For example,” he continued as
he nibbled that spot behind her earlobe, that made her groan every time, “I really enjoy it when you make that sound.”

  He smiled when she gasped at his statement.

  James took advantage of her slack jaw and plunged his tongue into her mouth. Hope recovered and met his tongue with her own. His hands roved, first to her breasts, then around her waist. He pulled both of them backwards, falling onto the bed. They barely noticed the change in position; they were so engrossed in each other. Hope fisted her hands in his hair and groaned.

  James pushed the camisole up her chest. Once the shimmering fabric had bunched above her breasts, he abandoned her lips to wrap them around a nipple. Hope peeled off the camisole and dropped it.

  “You know,” James said. “I never realized how nice it is to have someone waiting for you at home.”

  Hope sat transfixed as he undressed. She didn’t know what to say. Could she tell him how much it meant to her to hear him say those words?

  She slid off her pajama bottoms and kicked them to the floor. “I never knew how wonderful it felt to wait for the person that makes me completely happy.”

  James finished undressing and grinned at her. “That’s music to my ears, sweetheart.”

  Hope laughed when he rolled over to settle between her legs, but James began kissing her breathless. She plunged her hands into his hair and returned his kiss with equal fervor.

  His erection was hot against her leg and getting bigger by the second. Hope loved the way it pulsed. She slipped her hand between their bodies and wrapped her fingers around his organ. He was heavy and hot in her hand.

  “Please,” she whispered. “I’ve been waiting all day.”

  James nodded and produced a condom.

  Hope waited not-so-patiently as he sheathed himself, and lay down beside her. Hope hopped onto his lap and James grabbed her waist as she settled herself onto his engorged member. His hands guided her onto the bulbous head of his cock and her heart began to hammer in her chest.

  “You feel so good,” James confessed through clenched teeth.

  She sank lower, half his dick was only halfway inside her and her pussy was convulsing around him, close to release. James lifted his hips as he pushed her down. Hope cried out as her ass tucked completely against his hips. She was completely full, and her orgasm was approaching fast.

  They moved together, him using his hands and hips in synch with the way Hope rolled her hips. Her nails bit into his chest, but he didn’t care. His hands slipped from her waist and his fingers dug into her full ass. She was sure to have bruises, but she didn’t care.

  As her orgasm peaked, Hope moved faster. James grunted each time she bottomed out and Hope gasped his name louder. Her head dropped back as her entire body quivered with her release. She felt his cock swell and jerk his release as he filled the condom.

  “Damn,” James hissed when Hope leaned forward and brushed a kiss over his chest. He ran a hand through her hair; the ends were damp with sweat.

  Hope climbed off him, noting the feeling of emptiness when his dick left her. She slipped under the covers again while James left to dispose of the used condom.

  When he returned, she was already sleeping. He gathered her in his arms and drifted off to the sound of her heavy, even breathing.

  Chapter Nine

  James stared at the number displayed on his cell phone. It was familiar and he had no desire to speak to whoever was on the other end. He’d silenced the phone, but the vibrating against the nightstand had still woken him.

  “I should just ignore it,” he whispered. Unfortunately, this was easily the fiftieth call in twenty-four hours and there was no sign of the harassment ending any time soon, even though it was almost two in the morning. There was no way in hell he’d spend the last two days of his vacation hitting IGNORE.

  “Doctor Murdock,” he answered quietly.

  “Thank you so much for taking my call.”

  “Mr. Rogoff, I have nothing to say to you or your wife.”

  “Please don’t hang up!”

  James stilled his finger over the END button. He wanted to throw the damn phone against the wall. He glanced at Hope, asleep beside him in bed. The moonlight streaming through the open window bathed the entire room including her peaceful face.

  It wasn’t fair. He was finally where he wanted to be, but he couldn’t hang up the phone and be with Hope without his mind wondering. Why had Barry Rogoff called him? Why did he sound desperate and not enraged?

  “Doctor? Are you still there?”

  “Yes,” whispered James slipping out of the bed, “I’m still here.”

  “I need your help.”

  James clenched his jaw and sighed. “I don’t see how I can help you at this point.”

  There was a long silence on the line. Hope sighed in her sleep and James watched her roll toward the spot he’d just vacated.

  “I know how it looks, but you have to know that I never hurt my girls.”

  “You should tell this to the cops…not me.” James walked to the window and gazed out at the silver and black sky and forest.

  “I know and I have…but they took my girls.”

  Barry’s voice cracked and James rolled his eyes. “Mr. Rogoff…”

  “Please—you don’t understand.”

  “Well then explain it to me,” James hissed through clenched teeth, “Explain why your daughters are the ones that have been abused and hospitalized, yet I should feel sorry for you. Why am I on the phone with you at two in the morning instead of in bed with the woman I love?”

  “Roselyn has been on heroine.”

  James felt his stomach drop. “And you knew this?”

  “Sort of…I mean…she started on it years ago, we both did, when we were just dumb kids. We quit before it became anything serious. I had suspicions that she’d slipped up once or twice but she never used it while she was pregnant. I made sure she had blood tests run at every prenatal appointment.”

  “So you suspected your wife was on drugs and you left her alone with your daughters every day?”

  Barry sighed heavily. “This woman you love…if she was perfect—in every way—but had one thing she just couldn’t get past—would you stop loving her? Could you cut off your emotions or would you focus on the perfection?”

  James stared at Hope and his hands itched to touch her. “If we had kids...” James got a sudden image of a beautiful baby girl with Hope’s black curls framing her angel face, tucked under the arm Hope had stretched across the bed. He saw her sleeping there, between them with her tiny fist curled in her mother’s long tresses. His heart beat double time and he had to take a deep breath before he could continue. “When we have kids, I would never let anyone hurt them.”

  “I didn’t know,” breathed Barry.

  “You should have known.”

  “You’re right…you’re absolutely right, and my eyes are open now. I just can’t lose my family this way. Lizzie is in the hospital and Kimmy is in foster care until my parents finish the custody paperwork. I don’t know what to do at this point.”

  James sighed. “Go to the police and do whatever you can—a polygraph, whatever it takes to prove you didn’t hurt your girls. If what you say is true, your wife needs help and she doesn’t need to be a mother right now.”

  “Yes…yes…of course.”

  “I’m sure my answering service told you that I’m on vacation so please stop calling me. I can’t help you. It’s time for you to help yourself and your kids…now that your eyes are open.”

  “Thanks doctor.”

  James flipped the phone shut after he turned the damn thing off. There was no way he’d turn it back on until he and Hope got out of bed in the morning.

  Hope groaned and blinked against the sunlight from the picture window. Usually when she woke up the entire world seemed to have already been up for hours. There was something different about waking up with James. He tightened his arm around her waist as soon as he felt her slightest move. When she wi
ggled harder, he grunted, buried his nose in her hair, and inhaled.

  “James,” she whispered trying to get a grip on his toned forearm. She couldn’t get her fingers around his arm.

  “Just a few more minutes,” he whispered, “let me hold you a few more minutes.”

  Hope grinned. “I would love to stay in bed with you all day, but you’re squeezing my bladder!”

  James chuckled and loosened his grip.

  Hope pulled on her robe and went to the closest bathroom and started the shower. She quickly undressed and hung up the robe. She did her best to avoid the cold stone tiles by staying on the bath rug and hopped into the shower. She pulled the door shut and stood under the hot water.

  She was humming and shampooing when the door slid open.

  “Would you like some company?” James asked poking his head inside.

  “I’d love some,” she answered, hands still buried in her hair.

  James hopped into the shower and pulled the door closed behind him. “Good because it’s freezing.”

  Hope giggled as James wrapped his fingers around both her wrists. He put her hands by her sides and replaced them with his. Her eyes slid shut and she moaned long and loud. No one else had washed her hair before. His fingers felt amazing, just the right amount of pressure as he gently massaged her scalp.

  He moved them forward, so the water hit them both. James pulled his fingers through her hair repeatedly until the shampoo was gone.

  Hope’s eyes were still closed when she felt the pressure of his lips against hers, much better than the water.

  She leaned in; wrapping her arms around him and splaying her hands open across his broad back. She barely registered anything besides his tongue coaxing the water drops in and out of her mouth, and the delicious feel of his erection against her stomach.

  They were both panting by the time he pulled away. Hope fought the urge to lock her fingers in his wet hair and pull his face back to hers. I’ll never get enough of this, she thought as her breathing finally slowed.

  James closed his eyes and touched his forehead to hers. They stood just that way for a moment, silent in each other’s arms, eyes closed, being pummeled by the shower spray.