Michelle pulled the Jaguar into the driveway of 204 Jefferson Drive and shut off the engine. No need to put it in the garage since she would have to pick up Precious from her friend’s birthday party in two hours.
She got out of the car and walked around the side of the house toward the kitchen. Life had returned to normal since their return from Granite Falls. She and Precious had stayed a few days with Philippe and she’d really grown to like him. He was the father she wished she had growing up, and he’d treated her like the daughter he never had. And thank goodness, everything had turned out well with Erik’s patient.
Back in Amherst, her days were spent taking care of Precious while Erik spent his at the hospital. They had dinner together as often as he could, and his mother had joined them a few times. While he entertained Precious after dinner, Michelle would write. They’d gone to the movies a few times and picnicked at the local parks twice.
They were becoming very good friends, and she felt much more relaxed around him even though her heart hammered in her chest and her skin tingled every time she was near him or thought of the intimacies they’d shared in Granite Falls. Intimacies neither of them ever spoke about.
Sometimes, after Precious was in bed, they would sit around and talk. They talked about the kids at the center and her progress on raising funds to build the new one. They talked about the slumping economy, about the upcoming elections, and which party should lead the country. Their opposing views didn’t matter. They talked about Cassie, his parents, and Robert and Yasmine. She’d told him about Ryan and how she’d followed him to South Carolina after she lost her job then returned to Manchester when they broke up. He never brought up the subject of her father again, and she was happy for it. That part was over and done with.
She was learning a great deal about Erik as a brilliant doctor, a devoted father, and a charming man who knew how to make a woman feel special by merely smiling at her.
She respected him. She trusted him. She loved him.
As she walked into the kitchen, Michelle eyed her laptop on the table. Before she left to drop Precious off at the party, she’d been in the middle of writing another fund-raising letter for the center. Rose had informed her that the one they’d been circulating wasn’t doing the job. They were still very short of their financial goal.
Some superb news had resulted from that old letter, though. The proprietor of one of the businesses they’d solicited owned a piece of land across the street from the projects where most of the kids who frequented the center lived. According to Rose, Mr. Dawson had himself climbed out of poverty into success and wanted to give something back to his town.
She would love nothing more than to plop down in front of her laptop and finish the letter, but she was driven instead to put away the bags of recently delivered groceries sitting on the island. Erik had made arrangements for the groceries to be delivered so that Mrs. Hayes didn’t have to go to the store. Michelle had learned that before Cassie died, she was the one who did the weekly shopping.
She still couldn’t believe the modest way they lived—well modest compared to the fully staffed mansion he grew up in—when Erik was worth millions, perhaps billions of dollars. He didn’t have to work, didn’t even have to be a doctor, but he’d told her that he loved helping people. She knew for a fact that most of the patients he saw at the free clinic didn’t pay him. It was another outstanding quality that endeared her to him.
Michelle had emptied about half the number of bags when Mrs. Hayes shuffled into the kitchen.
“Michelle dear, you don’t have to do that. That’s my job.” She walked over and tried to shoo Michelle away.
“Yeah, right.” Michelle placed her hand on the older woman’s shoulders and steered her toward the table, happy she could return a favor, however small, to the old lady who had been so kind to her and Robert when they were children. Many times, she had taken them into her little house that always smelled of cooking spices. She would feed them then wrap them in blankets she kept on her couch. She would turn on her TV and she and Robert would watch cartoons until they fell asleep in a warm, quiet room for a change. Then their father would come for them and take them home. Take them to hell was more like it. The same kind of hell children she cared about still lived in.
She helped Mrs. Hayes into a chair. “You sit yourself right down there and let me do this. She pulled out another chair and made the lady put her feet up. “Now there. Would you like something to drink?”
“A glass of water would be nice.”
“Coming right up.”
“Thank you, dear,” Mrs. Hayes said, smiling as Michelle placed a crystal glass in her hand. “You remind me so much of Miss Cassie. It’s the same way she used to fuss over me.”
“Really?”
“She was a sweet woman.” Mrs. Hayes took a long draft from the glass.
“How did you ever end up here… in this house, anyway?” Michelle asked, going back to the grocery bags.
Mrs. Hayes chuckled. “It’s a long story.”
“I have time.” After all the time Mrs. Hayes had devoted to her childhood, she could spend a few moments listening to the old woman’s life story. Besides, even though Mrs. Hayes still refused to admit pulling strings to get her hired, Michelle knew that if she hadn’t run into the old woman that day at the diner, months ago, she never would have met Erik. She wouldn’t be in this kitchen today.
“Well, my younger brother came down sick with leukemia. He didn’t have medical insurance, so I started taking care of him. I sold everything I had and mortgaged my little house, but it wasn’t enough. At the time, I was cleaning office buildings for a living. One of them was the free clinic on Bridge.” She smiled as a far-away look came to her eyes. “Then this young doctor joined the staff.”
“Erik?” Michelle asked.
She nodded. “Dr. Erik Philippe LaCrosse, Jr.—young, handsome, brilliant, and newly married. He’d be at the clinic at all ungodly hours of the night. Miss Cassie used to bring him lunch and sometimes dinner.” She chuckled. “He used to complain that she was the worst cook and how he feared she would poison him one day. So I started bringing him little dishes here and there. You remember I like to dabble in the kitchen.”
Michelle swallowed a lump that lodged itself in her throat as she filled the egg tray in the refrigerator door. “Yeah, I do.” If it weren’t for Mrs. Hayes, she and Robert would have died of starvation in their childhood.
Mrs. Hayes sighed and took another sip of water. “Eventually, my brother passed, but by then I’d lost my house to the bank. I didn’t have anywhere to live, so I started sleeping at the clinic. The doctor figured out I was homeless and he and Miss Cassie insisted I come live in their guesthouse. All I had to do in return was cook. After she passed, I took over the housekeeping.”
Michelle was rooted at the island, too choked to speak. Just the thought of this woman who’d been so kind to her and so many other kids in her neighborhood, not having a place to live was too much for her. Life was so damned unfair. Tears welled up in her eyes.
When she felt the comforting arms go about her, Michelle let the tears flow.
“Michelle, darling,” Mrs. Hayes said, guiding her over to the table and seating her, just as Michelle had done to her a short while ago. “The good Lord brought me here for a reason. All these years I didn’t know what it was until I ran into you at Mama Lola’s diner.”
“So you did have the agency call me,” Michelle said, smiling through her tears.
Mrs. Hayes smiled back, sheepishly. “Yes. I know the owners at Ready Nanny Agency. They used to be my clients. The doctor was getting desperate and Precious was growing more miserable with each potential that came through the door. I asked them to cancel the scheduled candidate and call you instead. I told them not to give you time to think about it.”
Michelle smiled. “They didn’t. Thank you. You are truly my guardian angel.”
“The doctor is sweet on you, and I know you like him,” Mrs. Hayes said softly.
She laughed. “Is it that obvious?”
“I may be old, but I’m not blind.” She paused. “You need to tell the doctor the truth about your father. You shouldn’t have lied to him.”
“I didn’t plan on it. It just kind of slipped out when he asked me about him.” She crossed her arms to stop the quivering in her stomach.
“Your father is a drunk and a drunk killed Miss Cassie, but that doesn’t have anything to do with you. Even if it was your father, the doctor wouldn’t hold it against you. He’s a fair man, and I’ll tell you what he hates most are lies and deception. Tell him.”
Michelle knew the old woman was right. She needed to tell Erik the truth, and she would. She just had to find the right time. “Mrs. Hayes, how well did you know my parents?”
“What do you mean, dear?” She dropped wearily down in the chair next to Michelle.
Michelle shrugged. “Well… I know they aren’t from New Hampshire. All Robert and I know is that they moved here from the south when Robert was just four years old, and my mother was already pregnant with me. They don’t have any family. Not any we know about. They must have come from somewhere.”
Mrs. Hayes placed her wrinkled hand over Michelle’s. “Do you have a specific reason for asking these questions, little Michelle?”
“It’s just that one of my friends thinks that he may not be our real father. You know, because neither of us looks like him. We don’t act like him either.”
“Hmm. I only knew your mother for a very short time, Michelle, but we became close friends.”
“So close that she asked you to be in the delivery room when I was born.”
She nodded. “She was very sweet and shy and kept to herself a lot. Your father was very protective of her in public.” She paused for a moment and her face twisted with concentration. “Now that you brought it up, he was more guarded that protective. If he saw Violet talking to me, he’d always find a way to stop the conversation and take her into the house.”
“You think he was hiding something? You think he was afraid she’d say something he didn’t want her to reveal?”
“I don’t know, dear. I asked her if he physically abused her. She swore up and down that he didn’t. I never saw any bruises on her, so I don’t know.”
Michelle clenched her teeth together. Her blood boiled at the possibility that her father had hit her mother.
“If you think he’s not your father, then you should look into it,” Mrs. Hayes said. “You should at least find out where you came from, or if you have any other family. There was just something about him that didn’t quite fit. I should finish up the laundry and make up the doctor’s bed,” she added. “Thanks for putting away the groceries.” As she straightened up, she swayed and grabbed the table.
Michelle was on her feet and holding her. “Are you all right, Mrs. Hayes?
“I just felt a little woozy there.”
“Sit down.”
“No child. I just probably need to take my medicine.”
“Where is it? And what are you taking meds for?”
Mrs. Hayes placed a cool hand against Michelle’s cheek. “I have all kinds of ailments. The doctor keeps me supplied with medicine. It’s at the guesthouse. Perhaps if you could run down and get it for me.”
“I have a better idea. Why don’t you take the rest of the day off? And I’m not going to take no for an answer,” she added, steering her across the kitchen and out the door. “If I could, I’d sling you over my shoulder and carry you, but since I’m so skinny, you have to walk. Just hold me tight.”
Mrs. Hayes protested all the way to the guesthouse, but after making sure she took her medicine and propping her up on her sofa in front of her plasma TV, Michelle came back to the main house with a smile on her face.
But that smile slowly faded as she walked down the second floor hall toward the master suite. She’d promised Mrs. Hayes that she would make Erik’s bed and put out fresh towels for him. An army of butterflies took flight in Michelle’s stomach. She had been living in this house for almost two months and she’d never ventured into the master suite. On several occasions, curiosity had lured her in that direction, but each time she reached the door, she’d stopped. She always felt as if she were snooping, which in fact she would have been, seeing she had no reason to enter the private quarters that man shared with his late wife.
Now here was a legitimate chance to satisfy her curiosity. After work, Erik was flying up to Granite Falls to see Danielle and wouldn’t be back until late tonight. She would be in and out before he came home and he would be none the wiser.
Taking a deep steadying breath, Michelle opened the door and stepped into a fully furnished cozy lime green and beige sitting area. A book lay on the table beside the sofa. Curious to know what he was reading, she went over for a closer look. The Kite Runner. She smiled. She’d read that book a while ago. She supposed he was a little behind in his reading.
Leaving the sitting area, she walked into another room where the only furniture was a double king-size unmade bed with an ivory marble headboard that extended into two nightstands on either side. The bed was situated in the middle of the room under a skylight. Michelle didn’t even know they made them this big. She stepped inside and her bare feet sank with ease into the soft carpet as her nostrils picked up the heady scent of Erik’s cologne.
She glanced around the softly painted room, noticing that the inside walls were mirrored, allowing a full view of the bed. Feeling an awakening blush come, she instantly flushed the images from her mind.
You’re here to make the bed.
She walked toward an archway that opened into two separate walk-in dressing areas complete with built-in bureaus and drawers. She took a swift peek inside the Hers and her heart skipped a beat when she saw the rows and rows of clothes and shoes lined up against the walls. A purple silk robe was draped over a chair in front of a silver and white vanity, and a pair of black pumps lay on the carpet beside it—one overturned on its side. Michelle wondered if this was how Cassie left her dressing room the night she died.
Poor Erik. He was really living in the past.
Michelle backed away and walked through into the bathroom—a spacious gold and ecru refuge of supreme tranquility. A large glass-encased shower stood in one corner next to a long slab of marble with two sinks. A sunken Jacuzzi with three steps leading up, then down into it, sat under a low window.
The tub in her bedroom was gigantic, but God, what she wouldn’t give to be able to soak in this giant whirlpool covered to her neck in bubbles.
You’re here to make the bed, Michelle.
She cased the room then went over to what looked like a linen closet. She opened the door and stared at shelf after shelf of neatly folded towels and sheets in assorted colors.
She pulled out a set of navy blue towels and draped them over the towel rack next to the shower. She ran her palms slowly down the soft, fluffy fabric, knowing that later this evening Erik would use it to dry off the most intimate part of his anatomy. A wicked smile curled her lips at the thought, and feeling a sense of wantonness overtake her, like a kitty on catnip, Michelle picked up the towel and began rubbing it all over her face.
“Michelle, what on earth are you doing?”
Michelle clutched the towel to her chest and froze. A hand seemed to tighten around her throat, cutting off her breath. She couldn’t move. She wanted to die, to melt into the marble under her feet, never to show her face again.
“Michelle.” His voice got closer and her body got tighter.
He stood behind her, close enough for her to smell him. What was he doing here? He was supposed to be on his way to Granite Falls.
“What are you doing in here?” he asked again.
Michelle shuddered, released her grip on the towel, and with shaky fingers tried to straighten in on the rack. “I… I… um… Mrs. Hayes—”
A thrill of anticipation zapped up and down her spine when his hand closed around her shoulder. He turned her around then backed her into the glass wall of the shower. It was cold against her shoulders.
Afraid to look into his eyes, Michelle stared at the corded muscles of his chest straining against his blue shirt.
He put a finger under her chin and forced her to face him. Animal passion burned in his eyes and tightness settled into his sexy lips. “You trying to leave your scent for me, little kitty?” he drawled in a husky voice.
Michelle licked her lips then swallowed. Her body was on fire. She licked her lips again.
With his eyes glued to her face, he nudged a knee between her legs, urging them apart, then he bent down, looped his arms in the inside of her thighs and effortlessly picked her up.
Michelle grabbed his arms as he spread-eagled her then leaned in, curving his body into hers. She was wearing shorts and she looked over his shoulder to see her bare legs dangling in the air, her red-painted toes curling in expectation.
He thrust forward, slamming her against the shower wall. Hard. The glass shook so violently, she thought it would shatter.
“Is this what you want, Michelle?” he whispered in a ragged, tormented voice. “You want to feel me deep inside you?”
A gasp escaped her at the hard ridge of his penis pressing against her moist center. The inner walls of her vagina tightened into a painful ball of quivering flesh. Her legs trembled and blood pounded against her temples. She had hungered too much from the memory of his mouth on hers, the intense suckling of her aching beasts, the possessiveness of his touch, the perfect fit of his hard body against hers, and the shattering release he had brought her to in Granite Falls. But this time, she wanted more than his fingers. She wanted his…
“Yes, this is what I want, Erik. I want to feel you buried deep inside me.”
He groaned, long and hard. “Okay, then. Let’s give you want you want, right now.” He gathered her close then stumbled out of the bathroom, through the dressing area and into the bedroom.
He placed her on the unmade bed then came down on top of her. His potent arousal pressed urgently against the softness between her thighs, causing a throbbing sensation deep within her core Michelle had never felt before. He captured her hands in one of his and pinned them to the mattress above her head. As his other hand reached under her shirt to cup and massage one breast then the other, he dipped his head and captured her mouth, forcing her lips apart with his tongue. Michelle tangled her legs about his and surrendered on a moan as he kissed her deeply and sweetly.
Somewhere, she heard a deep growl, followed by a mild swear, then he was off her, and sitting on the edge of the bed. Michelle’s entire world crumbled as a truckload of rejection slammed into her chest. He didn’t want her. Too stunned to speak, and too numb to move, she curled up in the bed and squeezed her lids, trying to stop the tears stinging her eyes.
Erik planted his elbows on his knees and buried his face in his hands. It was the house, this bedroom he’d shared with Cassie and her moral values. He felt like a caged tiger, wanting to break free and roam the jungle in search of a mate.
Since he’d returned from Granite Falls, he’d lain in this bed and imagined Michelle under him, on top of him, next to him, night after night. Her woman’s scent had stained his brain. Her mewling sex sounds were stamped in his heart. He’d taken cold showers in the bathroom where she’d just been laying her scent like a cat in heat that wanted to make damned sure her male recognized and followed her smell. She was in his bed, and he couldn’t take her, hard and ready as he was.
“I have to pick up Precious from that birthday party.” Michelle said. “So it’s just as well we didn’t—”
Erik turned and looked at her. She was sitting up in the bed, staring at him. He saw the rejection, the disappointment in her black eyes. “It’s not you,” he said.
She snorted. “I’m the only one here.”
“It’s the bed.” He threw her a crooked smile.
“What’s the real reason you stopped?” she asked, her voice filled with frustration. “You keep leading me on. I can’t take any more teasing, Erik. Is it really because of this bed you shared with Cassie?”
Erik chuckled. Cassie. He leaned back against the headboard. “Yes, it’s Cassie, but not for the reasons you think.” He sighed. “Cassie had these moral values. She didn’t believe in premarital sex. I kind of adopted them.”
She hissed. “So you’re saying we have to be married to make love?”
That didn’t sound too bad, he thought. The idea had crossed his mind, not only so he could have her without feeling he was doing something wrong, but because she had become a wonderful surrogate mother to his child.
Precious was happy, the happiest she’d been in two years. She loved Michelle and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that Michelle loved her. Michelle loved him, too, and she wanted to have his babies. So yes, marrying her would be a good thing, a sensible thing. And although he knew she would fill the hole in his heart, he wasn’t ready to take it that far.
“No, we don’t have to be married to make love, Michelle. We just can’t do it here.”
“We can go to my room. Mrs. Hayes is gone for the day and I don’t really have to pick up Precious for another hour.”
Erik chuckled again. “Michelle, darling, an hour is not enough time for me to make love to you properly and thoroughly.” He raked his fingers through his hair. He couldn’t believe he was having a conversation about when and where to make love to a woman. When he wanted Cassie, he used to just take her to bed. No discussions necessary. Marriage did have its perks.
He glanced at Michelle sitting in the middle of his bed. The cotton fabric of her shorts clung to her soft curves, accentuating the seductiveness of her swollen hips and long shapely legs. He wanted those brown legs wrapped around his waist and neck. His manhood stirred as he recalled the feel of her wonderful sable nipples cresting in his mouth and her moist, tight woman’s flesh pulsing around his fingers.
“So what should we do? Rent a hotel for a night?”
Erik stood up. “No. Well, yes.”
“You’re double-talking again, Erik.”
“Okay. I’m supposed to attend this gala in Boston. It’s an annual event for the doctors in the area to rub shoulders, and for their wives to meet each other.”
“I’m neither a doctor nor a doctor’s wife, Erik.”
“But you can be my date. And if you would honor me with your lovely presence, Michelle Carter, by the end of the night, you will be a doctor’s woman in every sense of the word. We can spend the night in Boston. What do you say?”
Her eyes lit up. “I say yes, yes.”
Erik stared at her eagerness. He was going to make her purr, and she would no doubt make him growl. His big bang was coming, sooner than he anticipated.
“When is this event?” she asked, anxiously.
“Saturday.”
“Saturday? That doesn’t give me much time. I have to find the perfect dress and shoes, get my nails and hair done—”
Smiling, Erik grabbed her hands and pulled her off the bed to stand in front of him. “You have two days.”
“I don’t want to disappoint you.”
Erik swallowed at the naked passion in her eyes. He brought her hands up to his chest. “You can never disappoint me, Michelle. I have faith in you.”
She bit into her lower lip and smiled at him like a teenager on prom night. “We’re really going to do it.”
“Yes, Michelle, we’re going to make love. Slow, sweet amazing love, all night long.”
Her lips trembled. “I wasn’t snooping, you know. Mrs. Hayes asked me to set out towels and make your bed. And that thing in the bathroom you walked in on, well I was just—”
A faint smile ruffled his lips. “Michelle, it doesn’t matter. But if it would make you feel any better, to redeem yourself, you can help me make the bed. It’s rather large.”
She giggled. “You’re telling me. I’ll get the sheets. What color?” she asked on her way to the bathroom.
“Surprise me.”
She stopped and curled her lips. “Speaking of surprises, what are you doing home? Aren’t you supposed to be on your way to Granite Falls?”
“The chopper was delayed. The pilot is picking me up at a local airstrip later on.”
“You could have called and warned me.”
He laughed out loud. “And missed the scene I walked in on. No way.”
She gave him a salacious smile that fired electricity through his blood. It was a feeling he wanted to experience over and over again for the rest of his life.
