Lovers and Takers (23 page)

He carried that excitement as he bounded up the steps and entered his home’s double doors.
 
He was so glad to be stateside again, in fact, that he didn’t even notice the silver and blue Rolls that sat behind Pam’s Miata.
 
He didn’t even notice the smell of that familiar perfume that used to be so alluring to him.
 
All he could think about was how thrilled he was going to be when he saw Veronica again.

But just as he entered his home, and rounded the foyer, all thoughts of Roni fled when he noticed a slim figure sitting beside his daughter.
 
And although it had been years, and although she was turned to Pam and therefore her back was turned to him, he still knew immediately who it was.
 
Immediately.
 

It was Deanna.

His one-time wife of eleven years.
 

His ex-wife of fourteen.
 

It was
Dena
.

He hadn’t seen her in years, and the thought of coming face to face with her again right now, so unexpectedly, was suddenly terrifying to Jake.
 
It felt as if he was reliving a bad car wreck from his past, where he was in the passenger seat being flung around like a human projectile.
 
But what made it worse was that he knew it was ultimately his fault.
 
Because he should have known better.
 
Because he should have never ceded control to a driver who’d already made clear, by her actions time and time again, that she really didn’t care to drive at all.

He wanted to turn around and run.
 
He literally felt like running rather than facing that wreckage again.
 
But Pam looked past her mother, saw him, and called his name.

“Daddy!” she said in that cheerful way of hers that always warmed his heart.

Dena’s heart pounded when she realized that Jake had arrived.
 
She knew she had to play this right.
 
She knew she couldn’t give him any indication of just how desperate she really was.

She stood up, and turned, that male-melting smile all over her pretty face.
 
“Hello, Jake,” she said in a voice he never forgot.

And he could hardly believe it.
 
Because that woman, standing there, after all these years, somehow managed to look even better than she used to look.
 
It seemed impossible.
 
She had already been, he thought, the most beautiful woman in the world.
 
Now, as she stood there in her peach-colored chiffon pantsuit that brought out the beauty of her dark skin, she was even more stunning?
 
It seemed damned unfair.
 
And damned enchanting to see.

His heart hammered against his chest.

TWELVE

 
“Send her in,” Druce said as his secretary announced that Kara Wingate wanted to see him.
 
It was so unusual, the idea of Kara coming to his office, that it intrigued him.
 
What
had Aubrey
done now to diss her, he wondered.
 
He wasn’t giving it up to her, a fine looking woman like that, so what else could be the problem?
 
Druce wanted to tap Kara’s ass every time he saw it, but he knew he couldn’t risk her running back to Aubrey.
 
He wasn’t about to mess up his good thing by banging his boss’s woman.

Kara walked into Druce’s big office as if she was on a mission.
 
Even Druce was surprised by the serious look on her face.

“Well, hello there, Miss Wingate,” he said jovially.
 
But Kara didn’t crack a smile.

She stood at Druce’s desk and stared into his eyes.

“Kara, what is it?” he asked her.

“You want Pam,” she said without preamble.
 
“And I want Aubrey.
 
What can I do to make certain that we both get what we want?”

Druce stared at her.
 
Was this chick for real?
 
Because if she was, he had a very clear way that she could help him.
 
And it might not, in the end, get her Aubrey, but it damn well could get him Pam.
 
And get Pam, more importantly, with Jake Varnadore’s approval.

But first he had to make sure she wasn’t just feeling him out, or trying to blow smoke up his ass.
 

Before he knew whether or not he could trust her, he had to get her dirty first.

“But Kara Wingate?”
Troy asked as he and Druce walked along Lincoln Road in the heart of bustling South Beach.
 
“I thought she and Aubrey were tight.”

“They are tight,” Druce agreed.
 
“That’s why she’s perfect for what we need.”

“I’m not understanding what you’re asking, Druce.”

Druce sighed.
 
“Let’s take a seat,” he said and made his way to a table at a sidewalk café.
 
Troy sat down beside him.
 
Druce, in Khakis and a sweat shirt, rolled up his sleeves.
 
“Okay, this is the deal.
 
Kara is Aubrey’s woman, but she wants to be his wife.
 
Aubrey won’t budge, as usual, and so she’s had it up to here with him.
 
She knows I can’t stand his behind, so she came to me.
 
She’s agreed to help us set him up.”

“But if she wants him as she claims, why would she want to set him up?”

“Because she feels she’ll never get him if he’s on top like he is now.
 
She needs him needy like she is.
 
Because as soon as his father sees the pictures we will show him, then she’s as convinced as I am that Jake Varnadore will dump Aubrey like a bad habit and cut him off completely.”

Troy looked at Druce.
 
Something wasn’t adding up here.
 
“And that’s okay with her?” he asked.

“Yes.
 
She wants him, not his money.
 
She
figure
he’ll get back into his old man’s good graces.
 
But first she needs him down and out.”

Troy couldn’t believe the maliciousness of some people.
 
He knew he was no saint, either, but at least he was just trying to get ahead the old fashion way.
 
He was willing to sleep his way to the top.
 
But people like Druce and Kara wanted to slash and burn their way there.

But Troy still
wasn’t understanding
this.
 
“Why would we need her help, anyway?”

What a dumbass, Druce thought.
 
“Because,” he said as if any fool would know, “she’s the only one with access into Aubrey’s apartment.
 
She can put our tiny little cameras in place.”

Troy still felt uneasy.
 
“But I still don’t like it,” he said.
 
“Why would Aubrey even go for it?
 
He’s not even gay.”

“What does that have to do with it?” Druce asked.
 
“I’m not gay, either!”

Yeah, right
, Troy wanted to say.
 
“But what I mean is, he may be offended and may fire me.”

Druce looked at beautiful Troy.
 
He was certain that if he couldn’t turn down Troy, no human being alive could.
 
Least of which an undercover gay like Aubrey.
 
“Stop worrying,” Druce said to Troy.
 
“He won’t fire you.
 
He’ll fuck you.
 
And we’ll have the video to prove it.”

Troy felt a sinking feeling.
 
He had a lot of video of his own, video starring Druce himself, and now this new wrinkle.
 
But he’d go along with it because he knew he had backup.
 
He knew, if this harebrained scheme of Druce’s backfired, he’d have his own movie reel to show.

Jake’s first impulse was to kick her out of his home.
 
Where does she get off, after all of these years, coming around here now?
 
But she was the mother of his children, although she never acted like one, and Pam seemed over the moon with joy to be with her mother again.
 
He kept his first impulse in check.

He began moving toward his daughter.
 
His only prayer was that he kept it together for her sake, despite the enormity of what was now transpiring before his very eyes.
 
“Hello, Dena,” he said as he approached them, determined to keep eye contact with his ex-wife.
 
Even as her big, smoky-brown eyes slayed him.

“Hello, Jake,” Dena responded, attempting with all she had to keep it together too.
 
Seeing him again was no walk on the beach for her, either.
 
“How are you?” she asked him.

“Good,” he said, moving past her, to Pam.

Dena turned and looked as he hugged Pam and kissed her on the lips.
 
“How are you, baby?”

“I’m great, Daddy,” Pam said, her hands around her father’s neck.
 
“I’m so glad you’re
back
home.”

“I’m glad to be
back
home.”

“All she’s talked about all day is your return,” Dena said, refusing to be excluded.
 
But Jake’s nearness almost did her in.
 
She had expected him to still be his handsome self, but damn.
 
She didn’t expect to react the way she was reacting to his handsome self.
 
She wanted Jake back because Jake was good, and she was tired of bad in her life.
 
It was purely selfish and self-serving.
 
But she never dreamed, not in a million years, that her heart would want him back just as desperately.

 
“How do you feel, sweetheart?” Jake asked his daughter.
 
Although his eyes were completely on Pam, he felt as if Dena’s presence consumed every inch of that room.

“I feel much better.
 
Oh, and Dr. Brooks came and said I should be up and about in a day or so, too.”

“Yes, he phoned and told me,” Jake said.
 
“But he also ordered you to stay off your feet for now.”

“And I have, Daddy, honest. You can ask Hudson.”

“He’s also ordered some tests.”

“But that’ll mean I’ll have to spend the night at the hospital.”

“That’s right.”

“But why can’t I come back home after I take those tests?”

“That sounds like a reasonable proposition to me,” Dena said, agreeing with her daughter.

For some reason her input annoyed Jake.
 
He stood erect.
 
“You will do exactly what Dr. Brooks tells you to do,” he made clear to Pam.

Pam knew that tone.
 
She looked at her mother, as if to warn her to back off, too.

Pam smiled.
 
“Isn’t it great that Mommy’s here?”

Jake didn’t want to deal with her.
 
He would have rather ignored her.
 
But he knew he couldn’t do that in front of their child.
 
He looked at his ex-wife.
 
His heart hammered again.
 
“I thought you were in Botswana,” he said.

“I was,” Dena said.

“She’s been in Miami for the past few days,” Pam interjected.

Jake looked hard at Dena.
 
He could hardly believe it.
 
“Here, in Miami?” he asked.

“For the past few days, yes,” Dena said, although she hated being found out.

“It obviously wasn’t to see your children, since you made no attempt to see them, so why are you here?”

How would you know what I attempted to do, she wanted to ask.
 
“I’ve been thinking about moving back here,” she said, to Pam’s delight.
 
“I wanted to surprise the children.”
 
Then she looked at Pam with a smile. “Surprise,” she said.

While Pam reveled in the news, and how much fun she and her mother were going to have together, Jake looked down Dena’s incredible body.
 
She was tall and still lithe.
 
And her shape was as perfect as ever.
 
Even in the crisp, businesslike pants she wore, it was obvious that there wasn’t an ounce of fat anywhere on her.
 
And that face of hers, from her dark-brown skin to her bright-brown eyes, didn’t display the age he knew she had on her.
 
Not because of cosmetic surgery.
 
He was willing to bet she’d had none.
 
But because of genes.
 
She just had the look.
 
And she’d had it all of her adult life.