Gentlemen Prefer Curves: A Perfect Fit Novel (15 page)

“Yeah, I—” A loud clap of thunder startled Belinda. “Listen, Elle, I’ve got to go before this rain starts. I’ll call you tonight after I close the shop.”

“Yikes. It looks like it’s going to be a bad storm. I’ll talk to you later.”

They disconnected and the first drops of rain hit Belinda’s windshield as she pulled off. Those few drops turned into a harsh downpour; her wipers were useless. Belinda’s pace down the hill was slow and painful. She thought about pulling over, about stopping until the rain cleared, but she knew that the road would only get worse.

Her wheels slipped on the unpaved road. The new tires she needed came to the front of her mind, but before she had time to castigate herself for not buying new ones her back left wheel hit something hard. Her car slid, the road too muddy to provide any traction. She came to a stop unharmed but she knew all was not right. Half of her car was in a ditch. Foolishly she pressed on the gas, trying to pull it out, but she knew there was no way she was going to make it out on her own.

“Fuck.” She threw open the door and got out of the car, the rain immediately drenching her. She could barely see in the downpour, but it did register that her tire had blown.

She wasn’t getting out of there anytime soon.

*   *   *

Carter turned his wipers to their highest speed. He was glad he’d opted for the sturdy SUV when he’d moved to New York instead of the smaller luxury car he had been driving for years in San Francisco. He remembered how much snow Durant got in the winter from his visits at Steven’s house in between terms. He was excited for it. Ruby had never played in the snow before. He couldn’t wait to bring her sledding for the first time. He couldn’t wait to watch her build her first snowman and experience her first Christmas in a place where it really got cold. It was another reason he wouldn’t be leaving Durant.

A flash of red caught his eye as he drove that windy road, and even in the harsh rain he knew what it was. He recognized it. He was drawn to it. There wasn’t another shade of red like it in the world. He pulled over, barely throwing his car in park before he jumped out.

The cold hard rain pelted him, but he barely noticed the chill. He was too busy thinking about her. “Bell, what happened? Are you hurt?”

She turned slowly to look at him, her clothes and hair plastered to her body. He could barely make out her face, but he knew she was upset. He could feel it, and the need to make it better overwhelmed him.

“Not you,” she groaned.

“It’s nice to see you, too,” he said, actually meaning it. She had been in his thoughts nonstop since their last meeting. Since he’d talked to his mother, since he’d found out that there was more against their marriage than he’d ever realized. “Why are you standing out in this mess?” he shouted at her through the rain and the wind.

“My car!”

He looked over to her old gold-colored Mercedes. It was funny how he hadn’t noticed it before, only her. But it was precariously perched on the side of the road. Halfway into the muddy ditch. He knew it was moments from sliding all the way in. And there she was heading back toward the driver’s-side door. He grabbed her arm just as her heel slipped on the wet gravel. She struggled for a minute, but he looped his arm around her waist and lifted her off her feet and toward his SUV.

“But my car!” she shouted at him.

“Leave the damn car!”

He mentally shook his head, unable to believe that she was still driving the same car as when they had met. They had talked about getting her a new car just before she left him, but she never seemed too thrilled about the idea. It had belonged to her mother. It was her first car. She was very fond of it then, even now it still seemed she was. It made him wonder if she felt the same way about everything in her life. If she still liked to hold on to things. He wondered, probably foolishly, if she was holding on to him. She could have divorced him by now, but she hadn’t, and for some reason that made him feel hopeful.

He opened the rear door on the driver’s side and pushed her in, following close behind her as a gush of wind threatened to knock him over. She glared at him. Those unforgettable eyes flashing at him. The temperature in the car went up ten degrees. The windows fogged up. They were totally alone for the first time since they’d last made love. He couldn’t help but be aware of her. He could be blindfolded and in a darkened room and he would still know she was there. He felt her in his chest.

For a moment all he could hear was the rain pelting his car and his own beating heart. The sky had somehow grown darker in the few seconds they had been inside. Originally he had thought that it was going to be one of those storms that lasted for a few minutes and then dried up, but he was afraid things were only going to get worse.

She kept staring at him with those hot angry eyes. Maybe he deserved her heat, her anger. But he couldn’t help but feel some of his own toward her. He couldn’t help to think that she gave up on them too soon.

He reached over into the back of his car and pulled out two towels and a blanket to distract himself momentarily from his thoughts of her. The pink blanket belonged to Ruby. She still fell asleep in the car on longer rides. As for the towels … He’d learned never to be without them after she had gotten sick after eating too much cotton candy at the fair. Being a father to Ruby taught him always to be prepared for certain things, but as his eyes traveled to the woman he was still married to he realized he was totally inept at dealing with her. Still, he reached for Belinda, unable to stop himself. He pulled off her soaking-wet blazer. Beneath it she wore a little cream-colored dress. It was so wet and molded to her body he could see her underwear through it. She wore a yellow bra. A sweet sexy yellow bra on her bad-girl body. The urge to yank down her dress and peel her out of it was overwhelming. He wanted a glimpse of her. He needed another taste of her, but he controlled himself. He used all his power to control himself.

“What are you doing?” she asked as his eyes continued to roam her body. Goose bumps broke out all over her chilled skin. He ran his hand down her arm, in an attempt to make them disappear, but he got distracted by how hot her soft, damp skin felt.

“I’m getting you out of this jacket before you get sick.”

She made a low sound in her throat. It almost sounded like a moan. “I need to call a tow truck.”

“I’ll do it for you.” First, though, he reached down and freed her feet from the insanely high heels she wore. They were gray with little pointy spikes lining the front. “Are these your stay-the-hell-away-from-me shoes?” Her toes were cold and for a moment he held her foot in his hands, stroking them to warm them.

He made the mistake of looking into her eyes. They were wide. There was still some innocence in Belinda. At first he had been attracted to her because of her outrageous in-your-face sexiness, but he had wanted to make a life with her because there was a sweetness to her. And kindness and thoughtfulness and he had felt like he had finally come home when he was with her.

“I can warm my toes myself.” She suddenly jumped away from him as if she had been bitten. It was a good thing, too. The heat in the car had jumped another ten notches. “I’ve survived the past four years without you just fine, you know.”

“I know,” he said softly. “You’ve never needed me. Have you?”

She blinked at him for a moment, seeming a little stunned by his words. He turned away from her in that moment, unable to look at her and have coherent thoughts at the same time. He blindly handed her a towel and pulled his now wet cell phone out of his pocket to call for help.

“It’s going to take an hour for a truck to get here,” he said when he got off the phone. “Maybe more. They don’t want to risk the truck getting stuck on this road in the rain. Let me take you home. The tow company will call when they have the car.”

“No. I want to be here when the truck comes.” She opened the car door, but a strong gust of wind shut it again.

“You are not getting out of this car.”

She looked at him, the towel draped over her head. “Does that tone of voice work on your daughter? Because it sure as hell isn’t going to work on me.”

“Maybe a good spanking will work.” He shrugged out of his wet suit jacket and tossed it in the back of the car. “I’m not sure why you are so hardheaded. The weather is bad. If you aren’t going to let me take you home, then you’re going to be stuck with me in this car until a truck comes.”

“I’d rather be stuck in a car with a big hairy spider than with you.”

“You’re so damn testy today.” Unable to help himself he reached for her arm and tugged her across the backseat until her soft body was neatly tucked into his. She tensed for a moment at the contact, but then she relaxed. He didn’t know if she was feeling what he was, but a memory flashed across his mind. Of them sitting like this on his couch. They weren’t speaking then. They needed no words, or at least he didn’t. Back then, having her close to him always seemed to calm him.

“I’m having a bad day,” she said after a moment.

“Want to tell me about it?”

“No. You’re ninety-seven percent of the reason I’m having a bad day.”

For some reason her nasty little remark caused him to chuckle. “You were so sweet to me when we first got married. What happened?”

“See, that proves how much you didn’t know me. I was always this bitchy.” She nestled her head into the crook of his shoulder. Her hand rested gently on his stomach.

He pressed his lips to the bridge of her nose as his thumb swiped down her check. “Why are you crying, pretty girl?”

“I’m not crying. It’s the rain.”

“Rain isn’t hot, but tears are.”

She looked up at him, her green eyes shining with tears, her hair slicked back away from her face. She was so damn stunning.
Beautiful
wasn’t a strong enough word to cut it. “Why are you here?”

“I had a meeting. A client was thinking about building a house up here, but after seeing how shitty this road gets in the rain I think I’m going to talk her out of it.”

“No. Carter. Why are you here in Durant?”

“I told you why. I want Ruby to grow up here.”

She shook her head. “There has to be another reason. I can’t believe that.”

Looking at her he almost didn’t believe it himself. But it was true. At least he thought it was true. He wanted Ruby to grow up here. “I never kept Bethany from you,” he said, surprising himself. “I told you that I had been in a long-term relationship for years.”

“But you didn’t tell me that you had a wife before me.”

“No. I am guilty of that. But I never thought of Bethany as my wife. We were only married for three days before I got it annulled. I didn’t love her.”

She rested her head on his chest again, and he was glad for that. He didn’t have to see the hurt in her eyes anymore. “Tell me the whole story.”

“We were childhood friends,” he started slowly. “Our parents vacationed together. We spent holidays together. We had dinner once a week at their house. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of college that I realized our parents kept throwing us together for a reason. I’m not sure how it happened but we started dating. Bethany was a pretty girl and she was sweet and I liked her so it wasn’t a hardship to be her boyfriend. We dated off and on for years. Most of it long distance until one day my father called me into his office and told me it was time I settled down with Bethany.”

“So you just did it?”

“No.” He thought back to that time in his life and remembered how much he hated himself then. “Not at first. I balked at the idea. My whole entire life they had dictated my every move. They chose my friends and sent me away to boarding school and handpicked my college. I balked when they wanted me major in finance and go into the family business and I was ready to tell my father to shove it then, but he told me that if I didn’t marry Bethany, his merger with her father’s company wouldn’t go through. I had no idea that my father’s business was in trouble, but it was. My father told me that they had given me everything; it was time I gave back to them. Two weeks later we were engaged. We dragged out our engagement for two years and then our mothers started planning the wedding and the whole thing got so out of control that neither of us knew how to stop it.”

“You didn’t want to disappoint them,” she said softly.

“No. Neither of us did. When we got married it was the wedding of the decade and I had resigned myself to living the rest of my life with a woman I didn’t really love. But three days into our marriage Bethany had the guts to do what I didn’t. She told me that she wanted out. She went to Europe for a year while the fallout over what we had done blew over. I had no idea about Ruby until they showed up at our door that day. If I had…”

“You would have never consented to the annulment.”

“No, but I’m almost glad that it happened the way it did. Bethany made me realize how stupid I was for going along with their plans. I promised myself that I would only be with someone because I wanted to be with her. Not because my parents thought I should be with her.”

“I guess you showed them by marrying me,” she laughed bitterly. “You had to know they were going to have a huge shit fit when you brought me home.”

“I wasn’t thinking about them, Belinda. Trust me, when I was with you my parents were the farthest thing from my mind.”

“Whatever happened to Bethany? Ruby told me she passed away.”

He nodded. “In a car accident. She was taking Ruby to the doctor for her six-month checkup and some asshole in a pickup truck hit them. Bethany died on impact, but Ruby was in the hospital for weeks.” A lump formed in his throat. “I almost lost her.”

“Is that how she got the scar on her arm?”

He nodded.

“Carter, I’m so sorry.”

She pressed herself against him a little harder, holding him a little closer to her. “You want to know why I didn’t come after you? I was angry with you and I was angry at Bethany for keeping my daughter away from me and I was overwhelmed at the thought of being responsible for somebody else’s life. And just when I started to fall in love with my kid, just when I was getting used to everything that had come my way, the accident happened. And I was a single father with a sick baby. Ruby had to come first in my life. She still has to come first in my life.”