Dating a Metro Man (26 page)

“Lovely. I’m sorry though that it will have to be just a quick shag at your place tomorrow night,” Talia said regretfully, feeling him lift her off his lap. “I can’t stay long.”

“No more talk about shagging until tomorrow. I’m not that strong. I love that word,” Allen said. “I may one day write a poem about shagging you.”

“Lovely,” Talia said dryly this time, letting Allen pull her from the couch to walk him to the door. “I’ll sext you tomorrow. I’ll do it in French in case your employer picks up your phone accidentally. ”

“Not wise,” Allen told her. “I’m a beast when aroused too much. I’d hate to drag you to your bedroom before dinner tomorrow night. It would be embarrassing for all of us. I really don’t want to have to explain to the children why their mother was screaming my name while I screamed hers. Mason is too smart for his age already. Save the sexting for after your parents leave. By the way, I’m working on the sound proofing part.”

“Sir, yes, sir.” Talia said quietly, mocking him even though she intended to comply.

At the door, Allen pressed her against the jam and kissed her in a way that was going to keep her up longer tonight than she wanted.

“Will you send me a text when you get home?” she asked. “I just want to make sure—well, don’t make me explain this. I’m not just keeping tabs.”

“Of course not,” Allen said, leaning into her and hugging tightly. He couldn’t remember the last time someone wanted to check on him to make sure he was okay. Uncle Sam had kept tabs. Before that, it was his mother. He had never had a girlfriend even act concerned. Now there was Talia asking for a text. Talia—a sexy woman who wanted to shag him. God he was lucky.

“I’ll send a text. See you tomorrow, honey. Lock up behind me,” Allen said, kissing her hard one last time and walking quickly away.

“Behind the lawyer is a business. Behind the business is two more businesses. If I didn’t know it was a residential house, I’d say it was a business building he was requesting. It’s going to take a while to figure this out,” Allen said, rolling his eyes to the ceiling and hoping his small lies would not come back on him later. “Give me a few days and I’ll check in again. I’ve got other commitments for the next four days.”

After saying goodbye to Jenna, Allen hung up the phone with great relief. He had managed to stall for four more days. Part of him toyed with the idea of confronting Seth about what he knew, but he discarded it. What would that accomplish? Nothing probably.

He just hoped that Carter intended to tell Jenna, and soon. For the life of him, he couldn’t imagine what Seth was waiting on. He just hoped Talia was right about stalling being the right thing to do.

*** **** ****

Fully dressed in his best suit and required hard hat, Seth stepped around the clear water shield and inside the steam shower where the hardware gleamed. There was a tiled seat for sitting, a rain head above him in the ceiling, nine power jets in the walls for water, and four for steam. The tan colored tiles were soothing, but interesting.

It was a dream shower. The only other fixture it needed was a smiling, sexy woman in it.

Seth could definitely see Jenna and him in this shower together. The picture of it was clear in his mind. When she walked into the master bathroom to retrieve him, Seth pulled her around the clear shield and into the recessed area where he stood.

“I love this shower,” Seth said, his enthusiasm showing. “There is so much room in here.

Jenna laughed at his excitement. “Right. Steam shower. I’ll keep that in mind for the house I build for you. Who knew you’d be so excited about a shower? Most guys want man caves and pool tables.”

“I love sharing a shower with you. We need to buy a teak stool for you to stand on so we can be the same height. Don’t worry though. I would never let you fall no matter how carried away we might get,” Seth told her.

“Don’t get too attached to the shower, Seth. It’s time for me to give the house up to the owner. As gut wrenching as it’s going to be, I have no choice,” Jenna said, letting out a breath. “I still don’t understand how a man could not even want to come see his own house. The lawyer said he wasn’t intending to occupy it for some time yet.”

Seth put a reassuring arm around her. “Well, maybe he has good reasons. So, Jenna, when are you going to be available to build another house?”

“Depends on Todd, I guess. I haven’t even talked to him about what’s next,” Jenna said with a shrug. “Why?”

Seth took her hand and led her out of the bathroom and back to the great room.

Jenna walked along with him, subdued by her melancholy over giving up the house. The workers were done. The cleaning crew was coming tomorrow. Then after that the keys would be given to the lawyer. It was all but a done deal.

She closed her eyes as they got to the center of the house. Jenna opened them after a few moments to see the fireplace, the single thing she would miss most.

When Jenna turned her head, Seth was looking at her with such concern that she dropped her gaze to the floor. “I’m going to be fine. Really. It’s just that I put a lot of myself in this one. I’ve never really done that before,” she said.

“When are you doing the magazine interview and photo shoot?” Seth asked.

“Next week—maybe. When the cleaning crew gets finished. They’re waiting on me to give them a call and schedule it,” she replied.

“Jenna?” Seth said, stopping to swallow hard before he continued. “I love you. I want to marry you. I want to live with you in a house that you build for us. I want to fill the rooms with children we make together. You’re the only dream I have left in the world. Will you marry me?”

Jenna weaved with emotion. She shut her eyes tight. “Seth—I—I don’t know. I haven’t—haven’t thought about this. You’re ahead of me on this.”

Seth closed his eyes too, turning to look at the fireplace instead of her. “I love you. Do you love me?” He reached up and unclipped his hard hat, setting it on the hearth.

“I don’t know,” Jenna said, her voice tight. “Maybe. Sometimes I think I do. Sometimes I—I’m afraid you’re going to reach some point of ticking me off your to-do list, and then you’ll go back to your plans, and I—I will be ignored again. If we had children and that happened, I don’t think I could bear it.”

Seth nodded. “So all the love and support I’ve given you in the last two months hasn’t made up for what happened the first time we dated? Is that what you’re saying? You can’t forgive me and will never trust me.”

“I don’t know what I’m saying. I haven’t had time to think about it,” Jenna said again, unclipping her own hard hat and setting it on the hearth beside the one Seth had worn. They weren’t really needed anymore anyway.

“If you were wondering if I understood how it feels to be rejected, you’ve done a great job of teaching me that lesson all the months after we broke up until now. I’ve watched you with other men, worried myself ill thinking you were going to sleep with Stedman, and I ruined our first time together because I was insane to prevent you being anyone’s but mine. We have belonged to each other since we met, but it’s clear to me today that I’m the only one of us that feels that way about it.” Seth turned to face her, made himself meet her tortured gaze. “You can’t even tell me you love me. Can you?”

“Seth, I care about you. I do. I like being with you now. Can’t that be enough for a while?” Jenna asked, not understanding why it was so important to him to get a commitment from her today. “I’m trying to figure things out.”

“How long until you’re ready to discuss getting married? When will our sex-only relationship not be enough for you? The sex has never been enough for me, Jenna, not even at the beginning. I’ve wanted to marry you since the day I met you. I’ve been waiting and waiting these last couple of months for you to catch up. I thought you had. I thought I had finally gotten through that stubbornness of yours,” Seth said harshly.

“I’m not being stubborn. I’m being practical. How am I supposed to be as sure as you are that things will work out with us?” Jenna asked.

“If you loved me the way I love you, having faith wouldn’t be difficult at all. You’d just know how much you mean to me,” Seth said, walking across the room.

He stopped at the archway to the foyer and turned back to see Jenna framed by hearth, the fireplace at her back. He swept an arm up and indicated the room and the house.

“Even this house, as big as it is, can’t hold the amount of love and faith I have in you—in us. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t give you, but if the love I have isn’t enough. . .We’re done, baby. We’re just done.”

Seth walked away. The ring box carrying the promise he’d wanted to give Jenna felt like a weight on his chest. His wedding present to her seemed like a silly idea to him now, regardless of how expensive it had been.

When his phone rang, he answered it, grateful for the distraction. It might just keep him from going back and shaking Jenna Ranger until her teeth rattled.

*** *** ***

Jenna took the wad of tissues Regina pulled from her purse and dabbed at her eyes.

Eddy’s was crowded as usual. Her mother squeezed her hand tightly and looked at her with great concern, which made Jenna’s eyes burn and water even more.

“Seth’s not even answering my texts. I know he’s home, but he won’t come to the door. I handled things badly. I did. But he just surprised me. I was giving a final house tour, not expecting a—a—a—damn marriage proposal,” Jenna complained, wiping her red-rimmed eyes.

She was still in her work clothes and had barged in on their evening. It reminded her of the last time she’d coming running to these three women for support. Seth had rejected her then. Now it was the other way around. Or maybe they had rejected each other this time. She was ill trying to sort it out.

“Seth and I have been sexually involved for over two months. We just a couple weeks ago decided to start dating again. I thought we were taking things slow, then suddenly today he decides that we need to get married. He has never, not once, even talked about marriage to me before today,” Jenna wailed, tears flowing and leaving her face streaked with them. “Was he just assuming it was what I would want? Damn. I’m a mess.”

“Happens to all of us,” Regina said, waving a hand. “You should have seen me wailing over Ben.”

“I never cried over Casey until he was hurt,” Alexa said. “That doesn’t count as wailing. I guess I did cry over Paul, but I was way younger than Jenna at the time. I had a baby too. Hell, it might have been baby hormones making me bawl.”

“I never cried over Jim—well except that time I thought I hurt him,” Lauren said, rubbing Jenna’s arm. “Jim just makes me mad a lot, but not as much as he used to. It’s hard to stay mad at a man who feeds you cannoli while he—oops, never mind. I guess that’s a different conversation.

Regina laughed but rolled her eyes at them. “Fine.
I’m
admittedly the emotional wienie in the group. I cry at weddings. I cry when I’m sad. I cry when I’m happy. I cry over everything. The point is that panic and tears are just the sort of things that happen to a passionate woman.”

“I’m usually not that passionate,” Jenna said, almost laughing at their bickering. It was a constant in her life. The friendship they offered each other was bolstering, and they had offered it to her since she had gotten old enough to appreciate them.

“Seth makes me passionate,” Jenna admitted. “He makes me be a lot of things. Then he calls me bossy if I try to exercise any control and stubborn if I disagree with him. He’s the most frustrating man that ever walked. How could I possibly love a man like that? We can’t even get along most of the time.”

The snorts and snickering started out being stifled, then grew into giggling that all three older women tried to control. But as they looked at each other, they broke out in loud laughter that drew every eye in the place to their table.

“I came for sympathy, not to be laughed at,” Jenna said, sniffing back another round of tears threatening to fall any second.

Alexa held on to her hand, and Lauren gripped her arm hard to keep her in place until they could control themselves enough to talk.

“Casey used his cane to hold me against the wall in my office and lectured me on what a bad woman I was,” Alexa said, one eyebrow arched at her daughter. “Don’t get me started on how pissed I was. I didn’t talk to him for a week, and then I made him grovel.”

“He put his hand on your leg to comfort you at breakfast the morning he met Daddy,” Jenna told her. “That’s what I want. That’s love.”

“Sure. It all goes together, honey. Casey also likes to control our entire sex life—when, how often, where. Pretty much everything. It’s annoying as hell,” Alexa said.

“That must run in the family. What do you do about it?” Jenna asked.

“Let him—most of the time,” Alex said sagely. “I’m not stupid. The man is good in bed.”

Jenna closed her eyes and shook her head. She was never going to stop being shocked at some of what her outrageous mother said.

“Ben gets his way with me by using sex,” Regina confessed, sipping her mineral water. “Don’t ask me for details. I’m taking his secrets to my grave or putting them in my next book. I haven’t decided yet.”

Jenna laughed, dried her eyes, and threw the used tissue on the table. Her gaze swung to Lauren expectantly.

Lauren shrugged. “I’m the bad one in my relationship. I get my way using sex. I’m better than Jim in bed, but he’s catching up nicely. He thinks he’s in competition with Ben.”

Jenna laughed out loud, her strong throaty release easing the pain in her chest. “That certainly explains why Jim wouldn’t let you have a stripper when I asked.”

Alexa and Regina looked at Lauren with knowing grins.

“It’s not what you think. Jim just didn’t want me to get over stimulated,” Lauren said, shrugging again.

That sent the four of them laughing for another round.

Jenna closed her eyes. “So how dumb am I being? You’re all telling me that it’s never going to be any better than this with Seth, aren’t you? He’s going to drive me crazy forever.”

They all just shrugged and looked at her with great empathy.