Amorous (The Lincoln Series Book 1) (18 page)

Warren called Marie’s cell phone for the third time in two minutes.

“Damn it!” It went straight to voicemail…again. “Marie, baby, why won’t you talk to me?”

He stood still, just staring at the wall. His mouth was open but he couldn’t find the right words. Finally he said, “Call me…please.”

He disconnected the call and dropped into the leather couch with a heavy groan, the conversation going through his mind over and over again. He felt lost. What the hell had happened? One minute he was talking to his sister and the next Marie was telling him she was leaving.

Something was wrong and he knew it had to have just happened. The investigation involving her and AJ had been dropped. HR had determined Jameson’s accusations were unfounded. Life at the office had settled back into a normal routine.

She had also decided to stay in her apartment for now and stop the house hunting. In fact, the last couple weeks she had stayed at his house every night, and tonight he was planning to ask her to move in with him. That meant he’d done something to devastate her, something today. After all, if anyone else had hurt her she would have told him…wouldn’t she?

She’d said she trusted him and he told her he’d never hurt her, that he’d always protect her. He thought she believed him. He couldn’t think of anything he’d done that would give her a reason to doubt him.

Maybe he’d rushed things between them and she regretted losing her virginity to him. No, damn it! She had never shied away from him since and she always seemed to want it hard and rough.

He had tried to be gentle with her the first time, but his control was iffy at best and she had said she wanted it harder, her actions had demanded it from him. Maybe he should have insisted they take it slow, but he couldn’t regret what they had done, and he would never regret the bond he felt between them.

He groaned when intimate memories flashed through his mind. He could still taste the sweetness of her arousal. He needed to pleasure her, to hold her, and tell her it would be alright. He needed to protect her from whatever was hurting her.

The harder he tried to figure it out the more frustrated he became. None of it made sense. She had been quiet this morning, like something was bothering her. But when he dropped her off before heading to the ER, she had kissed him with so much passion he nearly screwed her in the back seat of his car.

The next time he saw her she was standing in the threshold of his office. The pain he felt when he saw that look in her eyes was enough to suffocate him. The compression in his chest got tighter and he absently rubbed his hand across it.

Waiting for her to call was getting him nowhere. He got up to leave. He had to find her. He was shrugging on his jacket when AJ stopped at his office.

“Calling it a day?” AJ leaned his shoulder on the doorframe.

“Yeah and I’m kind of in a hurry, AJ. Can we talk later?” Warren headed toward him and waited for him to move out of his way.

“I saw her leaving the building. She looked pretty upset. What’s going on?”

The concern in AJ’s voice surprised him. He wasn’t known for his compassion and he had made it very clear he wanted Warren to stay away from Marie. He didn’t expect any trouble from AJ now that he had stopped pushing the limits, but he didn’t have time to explain.

“Look, AJ. I really can’t talk about this right now. I have to find her.”

AJ straightened from the doorframe. “Warren, I know you two have been seeing each other. I haven’t said anything because it has not affected her work and she seems to be very happy. That was until a moment ago.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I know I tried to keep you two apart but I also know a good thing when I see it, and what you two have is a very good thing. Don’t fuck it up.”

“I’m not fucking it up! At least I don’t think I am. Shit! I have no idea what’s going on. She won’t talk to me.”

Warren propped his hands on his hips and dropped his head back. He sighed and closed his eyes. “That’s why I have to find her, AJ. Something is killing her and I don’t know what it is. She won’t talk to me.”

He turned and paced to the other side of his office. He threw his keys on his desk and turned to look at AJ as he ran his hands through his hair. With all the strength he could muster he spoke over the pain in his heart.

“I can’t lose her, AJ. I just can’t. She’s…”

“You haven’t lost her, Warren. She cares about you too much to just walk away. I’ve seen the way she looks at you. If that isn’t love I don’t know what is. She’s just hurting right now.”

AJ stepped into Warren’s office and dropped his coat on the coffee table. “Tell me what you do know. Maybe we can figure this out. She isn’t going anywhere. She doesn’t own a car and nothing leaves out of this town until tomorrow morning.”

Warren leaned back against his desk. Maybe AJ was right. Besides, Marie wasn’t talking to him right now so hopefully they could figure out what the hell went wrong. He gave AJ the PG version of their relationship and told him what had happened before she walked out.

“I just don’t get it, AJ. You should have seen her when she walked in that door.” He stared at the open doorway and paused for a second trying to ease the pain. “She looked like the world had ended. She was leaning against the doorframe shaking like… And when I reached for her she recoiled like my touch was painful.” He blew out a heavy sigh. The thought that his touch might have caused her pain sickened him. He’d rather die than live without feeling her soft skin against his.

“Was she okay the last time you saw her?”

“Not really. She was quiet this morning. Something was bothering her and she wouldn’t talk about it.” He turned and looked at AJ. “But then she kissed me like she hadn’t seen me in months. I thought she was going to be okay.”

“It sounds like something has been building, at least since this morning. Have you two been arguing about anything?”

“Not recently.” Warren sat on the end of the sofa. “She had been wanting to move so she could start saving money to buy a house.”

“That might complicate things if you two stay together.”

He looked up at AJ. “I know. But she hasn’t said anything lately and she’s been staying with me so much I was going to ask her to move in.”

“When?”

“Tonight.” He rubbed his chin. “I told her I wanted to talk to her about something important. I thought she might suspect what I was going to ask.”

“So, you think she wants out?”

Warren shrugged his shoulders. He couldn’t say the words. The fear that she wanted to leave him was too painful, saying the words would kill him.

“Well, honestly I think she’s too decisive for that. I think if she wanted out she’d just tell you.”

“I have to do something, AJ. I can’t lose her. You were always my voice of reason. Tell me what I have to do.”

“I don’t know what the answer is. I never did understand women as well as I would like to.” AJ grinned mischievously. “Why do you think I stick to the blonde, bimbo type? They’re a lot easier to manage.”

Warren smiled weakly while his hopes of figuring this whole thing out faded.

He whispered, “Maybe Janet knows what’s going on. She’s Marie’s best friend.”

“Maybe.” AJ shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “It’s worth a shot.”

****

Jake opened the door to his Porsche and helped Marie into the seat. She watched him give last minute instructions to the man who had taken her bags. When he got in and pulled into traffic a sharp pain stabbed her heart. Warren hadn’t shown up, he hadn’t followed her.

“I can get you through this,” he said. “The question is will you accept my help.”

Marie didn’t respond. She really didn’t want to know exactly what kind of help he was talking about. She began to question her decision to leave and her heart ached to be in Warren’s arms. She needed his strength to ease her pain and the farther away from her apartment they got, the more it hurt.

“I could do it a lot easier if I knew what happened?”

She swallowed hard and clenched her fists in her lap. “Nothing happened.”

“Really? Well I would hate to see you when something does happen because nothing has made you rather unpleasant.”

She looked up and stared blindly out the window at the passing scenery. “What’s done is done. I just need time to think.”

“They say it hurts less if you talk about it.”

“Jake, I just need a place to stay for a couple days until I can arrange to get to my mom’s house. I’ll pay you back when I get settled there.”

“I’m not keeping a tab, Marie. Consider it a gift from a friend.”

He glanced at her and when they made eye contact her stomach flipped. What the hell was she doing? There had to be another way out of this mess. Jake didn’t do things for other people; he took what he wanted and threw away what was left.

She pulled her phone out and turned it on. There were several missed calls and messages from Warren. A mix of hope and fear stirred in her chest. Maybe he was calling to say that he was wrong and he wanted a family with her, or maybe he was calling to tell her it was over between them. After all, if he loved her he would have come after her.

She closed her messages and opened a text to Janet. She looked at the screen and tried to find the right words. She didn’t want to believe her best friend would lie to her about this. They’d been through so much and Janet was always on her side, but this was different. Warren was an old friend, one she was very close to. She took a deep breath and started typing. Her message was brief. She’d call Janet later when she was alone. She finished the text and turned her phone off then set it on the console between them to dig through her purse. She needed an aspirin for her aching head.

“What happened between us is in the past, Marie. I’m sure you have some regrets, as do I, and we’ve both grown since then. You can trust me to take care of this for you, to take care of you. All you have to do is tell me what happened. I’ll fix everything.”

“Some things can’t be fixed with money. I have to figure this out for myself.”

“Money can fix more than you realize. Take a couple days to think about it. I’ll be here when you’re ready to talk.”

Jake was wrong. Money couldn’t make Warren love her. It couldn’t make him want their child, and right now that was the only fix she was interested in.

****

Janet sat at her desk and read Marie’s text.

He doesn’t want the baby. I’m going away to think. I’ll call you when I get there. Please don’t tell him. I’ll take care of it.

The words were too benign for Marie. She had been so excited about the baby she was ready to explode. Now she made it sound like he didn’t like her choice of curtains. Something was wrong, eerily wrong.

At first Janet thought it was a joke but when her call went straight to voicemail she got worried.

What the hell did she mean ‘
please don’t tell him’
? Don’t tell him what? That she was going away? Wouldn’t he figure that out pretty quickly? They were supposed to have dinner at his place tonight.

She was lost in thought trying to make sense of the message when her phone rang.

****

Warren paced in front of his desk and made a call to Janet. He wanted this call to be over with so that he could find Marie. He needed to hold her. He wanted to feel her body pressed against his.

“Becker Realty. This is Janet.”

Warren stopped pacing and closed his eyes. “Janet, I need your help. I have to find Marie.”

“Warren what the hell did you do?”

“What?”

“She ran from you, didn’t she? What happened?”

“She called you? Where is she?”

“No, she didn’t call me. I’ve been trying to call her. What the hell did you say to her?”

“I wish I knew, Jan. She won’t talk to me. She just walked into my office looking like the world had ended and she wouldn’t tell me what was wrong.”

“What are you talking about? The last time I saw her she was fine, actually more than fine. What did you say to her?”

“I didn’t say anything. She…she told me she needed a break and she needed to get away for a while. Jan, I think she left me.”

“What? Well, maybe your silence told her more than you realize, dumb ass! Why else would she start crying? Honestly, Warren, I thought you were smarter than that.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? She was crying when she walked through my door and she wouldn’t tell me what was wrong.”

“That doesn’t make any sense, Warren. Why would she…Shit!”

“Damn it, Janet. What aren’t you telling me? What’s going on?”

“Look, Warren, I don’t want to get in the middle of this. This is between you and Marie. Okay?”

“Janet, please don’t start keeping secrets from me now. She won’t talk to me. Tell me what you know.”

“Don’t put me in the middle of this. I care about you both. One of you is going to be pissed at me in the end. I know it.”