Vulnerable (17 page)

“On your hands and knees.”

Elise hitched up and put her bottom in the air, her chest dropping to the mattress, the scent of her arousal flooding his senses. Ross opened his pants and pulled his cock out. He notched it between her swollen folds and shoved high and hard. Elise whimpered and clenched on him. He stretched out over her back, his teeth gently nipping at the base of her neck and then reached under her to find her breasts. They filled his hands, the nipples beaded and erect. Ross held the position for a long moment, his woman under him, compliant and accepting. He began to move, pushing in deep, high up against her cervix, willing what she so badly wanted. Elise moaned again, and he could feel her working her sex against the quilt. When he felt his spine tingle and his balls began to draw up, Ross urged her to come with him, and let her clenching sheath milk him dry.

He pulled out and grabbed some tissues to clean up before tucking himself away. Elise flipped over onto her back and drew her legs up, tilting her pelvis as she did so to give his semen the optimum advantage. Ross could have written a book on procreation, and Elise could have done the editing. He smiled down at her, and she smiled back, all soft and sated.

“I have to go, honey.”

Her face clouded for a moment. “Emily and I are going shopping after class,” she said. “But I guess you’ll be working late again, anyhow.”

Ross heard something in her voice that wasn’t the result of hormonal changes. “Talk to me, Elise.”

She gave a tiny shrug. “You’ve seemed a little off lately, and you’ve been working so much. I don’t want to be a clingy witch, and I know I’ve had my moments lately.”

Ross sat down and pulled her onto his lap, tucking her head beneath his chin. “Nothing’s wrong, honey. Just working hard because we’re new enough that we can’t rest on our laurels. I’ll call you later. Have fun with Em, and replace these, will you?”

Elise slapped at him playfully as he dangled her destroyed panties and kissed him. “Love you, Ross.”

“Love you.” He eased her back onto the bed and stood, checking to make sure that his clothes were in good shape before taking his leave. He had a full day ahead, and he was already running late.

* * * *

Elise transferred one shopping bag to the other arm to balance the load. She and Emily had spent a lot of time in the lingerie shop, giggling and laughing like teenagers. Emily looked and acted very differently since she had joined the Club, and their friendship had blossomed accordingly.

“Do you have time for something to eat before you go home?”

Elise checked her cell. Ross hadn’t yet called, which gave her a little twinge, but he had been really busy lately, just as he had explained that morning. He would likely have ordered something in for dinner to eat at his desk, or his secretary would have done so. The thought of Maura providing even a tiny part of her husband’s care made Elise’s teeth ache, but she pushed it away and nodded at Emily.

“Sure, if you don’t have any plans.”

They found a booth at a small bistro and settled in, ordering salad plates and iced tea. As soon as the waiter left with their orders, Emily fixed her with a look.

“How’s the baby making coming along?”

Elise shrugged. “I see the doctor again in about ten days. Normal pregnancy tests don’t give accurate results because of the hormone therapy. I feel like a weepy mess most of the time, and Ross can’t seem to do anything right when I get in a mood. It sucks.”

“Oh, girlfriend, I’m sure it’ll work out in the end.” Emily reached out and touched Elise’s arm. The other woman had become more demonstrative, in a gentle, if timid way. It was really very touching. Elise looked forward to the day when Em confided in her.

“It’s been over ten months, Emily. I don’t know if I want to keep this up. Ross has been wonderful, supportive and understanding, but I worry that sex has become a chore. We rarely just, you know, go for it anymore. And I think I might be losing my mind. Seriously.”

Emily’s laughter made heads turn their way, and Elise shushed her friend. Their food arrived, sparing her from any further insight. By the time she and Em left and went their separate ways, Elise was feeling almost normal again. Ross was home when she arrived, and she forgot all about the fact that he hadn’t called her.

“Where the fuck is she?’’

Ross paced his office for the umpteenth time. Elise was supposed to meet him here after her visit to the doctor so they could go for lunch and hadn’t shown up, and she wasn’t answering her cell. The receptionist at the physician’s office must be new, because she not only refused to put his call through to the good doctor, she would make no acknowledgement of an Elise Lassiter, all because Ross didn’t have his insurance information on hand. She had gently put the phone down when his temper had flared. Ross’s hand positively itched to paddle some woman’s bottom.

Ross glared at the phone. He was talking to himself now. Elise always carried her cell with her and always had it charged and turned on. He had punished her several times before she accepted that he needed to be able to reach her whenever. He was responsible for her care and safety, and being able to pick up the phone and connect with her made his task easier. He had been meeting with the new board members of his company all morning and wondered if Elise had tried to call him, but Maura hadn’t left him a message from her. A worm of worry began to wiggle in his gut.

He knew Elise was obsessed with having his child and wasn’t doing well with her failure to conceive. It sometimes made him feel helpless and incompetent, and that was totally foreign for him, but he knew that Elise felt that she was letting him down. He had begun to explore his own fertility over the past few weeks, suspecting that the problem might not lie with his wife. Submitting to humiliating tests hadn’t been easy for him, but he would do anything for Elise, because she had given all of herself to him.

Ross had a thought and pulled up the four-one-one for his area. He searched for the number of his closest neighbor, certain the old woman would be home and keeping her ever-vigilant eye on the street. He punched in the number.

“Mrs. McDonald?”

“Yes.” The querulous old voice belied the razor-sharp intelligence Ross knew lived behind Betty McDonald’s wrinkled exterior.

“It’s Ross Lassiter, from next door.”

“Yes? What do you want, young man? I’m watching my show.”

“I wonder if you might look out and see if my wife’s car is in the driveway?”

Mrs. McDonald huffed. “I’m sure that I have better things to do than spy on my neighbors.”

Despite his anxiety, Ross smiled. Mrs. McDonald was a one-woman neighborhood watch. “I’d appreciate it. Elise isn’t answering the phone or her cell, and yet I’m sure she is at home, and I’m getting worried.”

The older woman softened immediately, all defensiveness gone. “Of course. Wait a minute.”

He heard the receiver clunk on a hard surface and the sound of shuffling start and then fade away. He tapped his fingers on the desk and forced himself to breathe through his rising panic and was rewarded with the shuffling sounds returning.

“Her car is there, Mr. Lassiter. Shall I go and check on her?”

Ross hesitated. He didn’t want to believe something serious had happened to Elise yet accepted he couldn’t risk it. “I’m not sure, Mrs. McDonald. I don’t want to expose you to anything…”

She cut him off. “Nonsense. I’ll take my mobile phone and have it set to dial emergency if I get a hint of anything wrong.”

Ross uttered his thanks and told her his cell number, advising her that he was heading home immediately. He hung up and grabbed his keys, standing to move hurriedly from his office. Maura looked up, startled.

“I’m taking the rest of the day, Maura. Take messages and cancel or reschedule my appointments.”

“But, sir! You have the Bridges account this afternoon!”

Ross hesitated, and then shrugged. “Tell them I have urgent family business. They should understand that. It’s their motto anyhow, family first. Maura?”

Maura’s face had drained of all its color, and her lips actually looked white. She lifted a trembling hand and opened her mouth again, but nothing came out.

What the fuck was it with the women in his life? Ross needed to get going and find Elise. He nearly snarled his secretary’s name again.

Maura licked her lips and asked, “Is something wrong with Mrs. Lassiter?”

Ross was at her desk in two strides. “What do you know that you aren’t telling me?”

“I forgot to say that she was here before lunch and, well, I was in your office, and…”

Ross kept his hands by his sides and clenched them, rather than wrapping them around Maura’s shoulders and shaking her until her teeth rattled. “Maura, tell me what’s going on.”

His secretary blurted, “I was, uh, meeting with Jason, Mr. Holden, in your office while you were out with the new board, and Mrs. Lassiter came by. I might have given her the wrong impression.”

Ross literally felt his heart stutter. What the fuck was his partner doing with Maura in
his
office? He knew, but he had to be sure. “What impression?”

“Uh, she didn’t know who I was with in there. Like, she might have thought it was you. I don’t know why I did it. I don’t. She just acts so cool and collected all the time, and I was a bitch, wanted to shake her up a bit. It was just a case of mistaken identity. I didn’t
say
it was you!”

Ross wanted to throw up. Elise’s demeanor was hard earned and could be brittle. She acted cool and calm whenever she felt threatened, and she had shared her insecurities about Maura. They were insecurities that he had dismissed because he was the man, and so in control of everything, forgetting how good Elise’s instincts were. Maura was indeed a troublemaker, and the shit storm she had unleashed might bury them all.

Ross didn’t trust himself at that moment, so contented himself with saying, “We’ll talk about this tomorrow. Can I trust you to do your job this afternoon?”

Relief colored Maura’s voice. The craven coward thought she had gotten out from under. “Of course, Mr. Lassiter.”

Ross nodded and strode out, making his way to his SUV without seeing the faces of anyone who spoke to him along the way. Mrs. McDonald wasn’t walking into any personal danger, but he was afraid of what she might find.

He drove as quickly as he dared to their split-level home on the outskirts of the city. His apartment had done the job for the first few years, but both of them wanted a family, and suburban life had its appeal. They had talked about getting a dog as well, and Elise wouldn’t have one without a fenced yard and a place close by for it to be exercised. She always thought about the needs of the more vulnerable. Ross knew she would make a wonderful mother and hoped that they were facing a minor setback. As he passed along the leafy streets, reducing his speed as he did so, Ross became aware of just how tense he was, and how he was thinking happy, hopeful thoughts to keep his mind off what he would shortly face.

He pried his fingers from the wheel, one hand at a time to flex the digits before replacing them and repeating the process with the other. He reassured himself that it had been a malicious misdirection, a misunderstanding, and there would be no real difficulty in straightening it out, because Elise loved and trusted him. Ross made himself believe that things would work out, because he couldn’t imagine a life without her. Elise had come too far to let something so ridiculously inferred affect her for any length of time once she learned the truth.

Mrs. McDonald met him at the door, her lined face pale, her eyes troubled. “She’s outside by the pool, Mr. Lassiter. She looks fine, but she’s not really saying anything much, and she won’t look at me. She thanked me for my concern but says she wants to be alone.”

“Thank you for helping, Mrs. McDonald. I’ll take it from here.” Ross didn’t try to come up with some flimsy explanation. He didn’t care about anything other than Elise at that moment.

“You call me Betty, now, Ross. Your wife has had a shock I expect, but you’re here now, and it will all come out in the wash. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”

Ross impulsively pressed his lips to the soft, lined cheek. Mrs. McDonald, Betty, patted his hand in response and tottered down the steps and across the side yard to her own house. She lifted a finger in his direction and disappeared inside. Ross shut the door and went to find his woman.

Elise sat on one of the loungers that was placed to view the pool and the yard beyond, while taking advantage of both the tree-thrown shade and the breeze that flowed around the house and out over the green space. She was wearing the same skirt and blouse she’d been dressed in when he had kissed her good-bye that morning, although her hair was no longer secured on top of her head. A partially empty glass of what appeared to be milk sat on the tile-topped table beside her, and the remains of a sandwich decorated a plate placed beside the glass. She had to have heard him open the garden door to the patio, but she gave no sign. Ross crossed to stand beside her and reached down to touch her shoulder. “Elise.”

She tore her gaze from the dancing water in the pool and looked at him. Ross’s gut clenched at the blank look in her chocolate eyes, and when she forced a tremulous smile, he hurt so badly that he pushed the pain away and at her. He reached down and yanked her to her feet and got in her face.