Prodigal Son (13 page)

Samantha couldn’t breathe. Her heart ached for him. “It wasn’t, was it?” she asked with a gasp.

He shook his head. “She left me a note. I burned it as soon as I read it. I knew the truth would only hurt her parents. They thought she was doing better, that she was finally happy. They actually thanked me for that at the funeral.”

He turned to look at her. “I knew it was better to let them think what they wanted. Why hurt them after she was gone? Why tell them she would rather be dead than married to me?”

Samantha sprang to her feet and hurried to him. “Is that what you think? It’s not true, Jack. Don’t you see? She was sick. You were right to call what she had a disease. Blaming yourself for her depression is as crazy as blaming me for Vance’s abuse. You were there for her. You tried to help. In the end, she couldn’t handle life and that has nothing to do with you.”

She touched his arms, his back, trying to make him see. “You have to believe me,” she whispered.

“I want to. You don’t know how much. It’s been a long time and I’ve let it go. But every now and then I wonder what I could have done differently. How I could have saved her.”

“You can’t save someone who won’t save herself.”

He turned then, and looked at her. “You saved yourself. That’s what I was thinking the other night. You saved yourself.”

They stared at each other. All their polite pretenses and shields were down. There was only the moment and the raw pain swirling around them, taking them to a level of emotional intimacy that was so real, so deep, it hurt.

Her first instinct was to run. If she stayed, if she let him in and they dealt with this together, there might not be an escape. She might start to care too much. She might get lost inside of him.

But there was no denying the truth. That they’d each shared their most intimate secret. They knew the worst about each other. So where did they go from here?

He must have read the question in her eyes, because he answered it by grabbing her, pulling her in close and kissing her. She responded by surging toward him, silently begging for more.

He wrapped his arms around her as if he would never let her go. She welcomed the heat and power of his embrace. He was not a tentative lover—he claimed with a forceful need that took her breath away. Right now she had to know he wanted her, she had to know this mattered, and he told her over and over again as his mouth claimed hers in a kiss that touched her soul.

Wanting grew as she tasted him and felt her body sigh and swell and dampen. She ran her hands up and down his back, then across his broad shoulders. His strength excited her. She loved the feel of his muscles bunching and releasing. When he dropped his hands to her hips and urged her closer, she arched toward him and felt the satisfying hardness of his desire.

“More,” she breathed.

He took her at her word and raised his hands to her breasts. He cupped her slight curves, teasing the sensitive skin before lightly brushing her hard nipples. Pleasure shot through her. She gasped, then let her head drop back as she lost herself in the tingling, burning, arousing sensation of his gentle touch.

Over and over he teased her, rubbing her breasts, stroking her. Even through the layers of her blouse and her bra, the feelings were exquisite. He leaned in and kissed the side of her neck, then gently bit down on her bare skin.

She shuddered in anticipation of them making love. Her brain filled with images of them naked, reaching, surging, claiming. Suddenly she needed him naked and inside of her. She stepped back and reached for his clothes.

“Now,” she commanded.

Either he wanted the same thing, or he understood exactly what she needed. He reached for her blouse as she reached for his sweater. Their arms bumped and it probably would have made more sense for them to each undress themselves, but she didn’t want that. She wanted to be the one to reveal his warm, naked flesh. She wanted to undo his belt, push down his jeans and briefs and reach for him, even as he jerked her skirt and panties to her ankles.

She stepped out of both, along with her shoes. Then they were naked and reaching and they were touching everywhere. Even as he kissed her deeply, thrusting his tongue into her mouth, he reached for her bare breasts. She ran her hands down his back, pausing when she reached his butt. Once there, she caressed the high, tight curve, then squeezed.

His arousal flexed against her stomach. So hard, she thought, loving how much he wanted her. She was already wet—she ached with readiness.

Once again, he seemed to read her mind. He pushed her back until she felt the sofa behind her. They dropped onto the cool, soft surface, a tangle of arms and legs and need. He shifted her until she sprawled across the cushions, her legs parted, her body exposed. He slid onto the floor, then bent forward, bringing his mouth into contact with her most intimate spot.

Samantha surrendered to the magic of his tongue and lips as he explored every sensitive inch of her. He licked her thoroughly before focusing his attention on that single spot of pleasure. Even as she felt herself both melting and tensing as she strained toward her completion, he slipped a finger inside of her.

The combination was too much for her to stand. Her breath quickened as her muscles clenched. Her climax became a certainty so all she had to do was simply brace herself for the explosion.

When it crashed into her, she gasped her pleasure. Her body contracted and stiffened, only to become boneless. Still he moved in and out, while kissing and licking and circling. As long as he touched her, she came—again and again. The orgasm stretched out until every cell in her body sighed in delight.

At last he slowed and her contractions eased. When he raised his head and looked at her, she found herself feeling more exposed than she ever had. Raw emotion made her uncomfortable. But she was trapped and naked and there was no escape.

Then Jack smiled. “You’re so incredible,” he murmured. “So beautiful. I could do that for hours.”

With a few simple words, he made her feel special and at ease. She opened her arms and welcomed him. He moved close, shifting so that he could slide his arousal into her waiting warmth. Her body tensed slightly and he groaned.

He put his hands on her hips and drew her closer, then he shifted one hand so he could touch her breast. She wrapped her legs around his hips, urging him deeper and deeper, wanting to get lost in him, as he was lost in her.

She felt him harden, stiffen, then still. His release claimed him. She kept her eyes open and watched his face tighten. At the last possible moment, he opened his eyes as well and they stared at each other.

It was a perfect moment of connection, she thought in wonder. She was truly one with this man. And in love with him.

The revelation stunned her but, once admitted, the truth wouldn’t go away.

She loved Jack.

She didn’t know if the feeling was new or if it had been in hiding for the past ten years, but she loved him and she didn’t have a clue as to what she was going to do about it.

Chapter Twelve

“W
e have plans, Jack,” Harold Morrison said as he handed a glass of scotch to Jack’s boss.

Jack held his drink until everyone was served, then waited for the toast.

“To men who have the potential to go places,” Morrison said.

Everyone glanced at Jack. He nodded, rather than smiled. “I appreciate the support and encouragement,” he said before taking a drink.

“We think you can make it all the way,” Morrison told him. “We’ve been talking about you.”

Jack glanced around at the ten other people in the room. There were the four senior partners from his law firm, two congressmen, the junior senator and three officials from the state party office. Six men and four women, all of whom had the power to influence his future.

Morrison patted Jack on the back. “You need to get things squared away at Hanson Media Group. You’re doing a good job. We’re getting excellent reports. Sure, you’re not practicing law, but you’re being a leader, making decisions. That bodes well. Just don’t screw up there.”

Everyone laughed but Jack.

“You’ll be back at the law firm in another couple of months,” Morrison continued. “Once that happens, you’ll be put on the short list for an appointment to the circuit court as an associate judge. The law firms like to send good people into the judicial system. It makes us look good.”

More laughter.

“I’ll do my best,” Jack said, knowing there was little he could do to move the process along. The launch of the website was only days away. Once that was up and running and adding to the cash flow, he could focus his attention on the many other problems. Two months, Morrison had said. Was it enough time?

Jack knew that legally he could walk away any time he wanted. Without signing a permanent contract with the board, they couldn’t stop him from leaving. But legal obligations were different than moral ones. Hanson Media Group was the family company. Could he turn his back on it and let it fail so he’d be free to pursue his own dreams?

It was a question he had yet to answer.

Sarah Johnson, one of the firm’s senior partners, leaned her hip on the conference-room table. “After working as an appointed judge, you’ll run as an elected one. We’ll have an organization in place to help with that. We’ve seen how you think and we like what we see. You’re fair without being sentimental and you consider all your options. That’s good for everyone. If you do as well as we expect, it won’t be long until you’re appointed to the federal bench.” She raised her glass. “I like the sound of that.”

“Agreed,” Jack said, then took a sip of his drink. Big plans. Why did it have to come down to a choice between doing what he wanted and doing what was right for a family business he didn’t care about?

* * *

“Was it wonderful?” Samantha asked as she walked into Jack’s office for their quick lunch together.

“It’s the first time I’ve had liquor before noon.” He frowned as he thought about college. “At least in a lot of years.”

“Oooh, you were drinking. That’s good, right?”

“I’m not sure the drinking mattered, but there was a spirit of celebration.”

She moved toward him and smiled. “I like the sound of that,” she said as she raised herself on tiptoes and lightly brushed his mouth with hers. “They’re impressed with you—just like me.”

As always, her closeness made him aware of his ever-present need for her. It didn’t seem to matter how many times they made love, the wanting wouldn’t go away.

She set a tote bag on the coffee table and sank onto the sofa. After pulling out two wrapped sandwiches, she held one in each hand.

“Turkey or ham?” she asked.

“Either.”

She passed him the ham, then dug around for take-out cartons of salad, two bags of chips and napkins. He took two sodas out of the small refrigerator in the corner and settled next to her on the sofa.

“There’s a plan in place,” he said as he unwrapped his sandwich. “I have the support of the senior partners, along with a couple of guys from Congress and our junior senator.”

“That’s great,” she said. “Did you get to meet them?”

He nodded. “They said they like the way I think. Plus having a former member of a law firm moving up the judicial food chain is always good for getting clients.”

She frowned. “Because they think they’ll get a break in cases?”

He smiled for the first time that morning. “No. Because it means they can pick and groom talent. Any sign that I was favoring one side over another in a case would mean getting thrown off the bench. I haven’t busted my butt to get this far only to screw up over something that stupid.”

“Okay. That makes sense. So if you look good, they look good.”

“Yeah. There’s only one thing standing in the way of all that.”

She tilted her head. “I don’t even have to guess. What are you going to do?”

“I haven’t decided. Part of me wants to call a board meeting and resign. What do I care about this company?”

She touched his hand. “Except you do care. You don’t want all the employees to be out of a job and there’s a tiny part of you that can’t face losing the company your father loved so much.”

He stiffened. “I don’t give a damn about my father.” Why would he?

But instead of backing off, Samantha stayed exactly where she was and took a bite of her sandwich. The silence lengthened. Finally he exhaled sharply.

“Fine. I might not care about the old man, but you’re right. I can’t let this all be destroyed. It would be wrong.”

She swallowed, then smiled. “Why was I afraid of you back in grad school? I kept seeing you as exactly like my father, but you couldn’t be more different.”

“Why were you afraid of me?”

“Because I thought you’d hurt me, then leave me.”

Instead she’d been the one to walk out, he thought. “I’m not like him or Vance,” he said.

“I know that now.”

Better late than never, or was it? In the ten years they’d been apart, they’d both learned lessons. Unfortunately, his had been to be wary of trusting anyone to stay.

“I want to talk to Helen,” she said. “About getting you back to your law firm. She can take on the board, she’s good at that kind of stuff. There has to be someone else who can run things around here.”

He leaned close and lightly touched her face. “Not your concern.”

“I want you to have your heart’s desire. Why wouldn’t I?”

Very few people bothered to look out for him these days, he thought. David had when he’d been younger. Now Samantha was stepping into his life and doing her best to make his dreams come true.

“Why does it matter?” he asked, when what he really meant was “Why do
I
matter?”

She smiled. “It just does.” She pushed his sandwich toward him. “You’d better eat. Mrs. Wycliff said you had a full afternoon.”

He unwrapped the paper and took a bite, but his mind was busy elsewhere. Her words, her actions, all spoke of caring about him. He’d wanted that for a long, long time. Was it finally happening? Could he trust her not to bolt? And if she was willing to stick around this time, was he willing to open himself up or had he been burned one too many times?

* * *

“I’m going to throw up,” Samantha muttered, doing her best to stay calm and keep breathing.

Arnie hovered at her side. “You’ll be fine. We’re all fine.”

She laughed. “You look like you’re going to pass out. That’s hardly fine.” Her humor faded. “Jeez, I hate this. Why can’t it be tomorrow? Why can’t the launch be behind us?”

“Because it’s now.”

And it was. She stood in the corner of an after-school center in the middle of the city. The large computer lab was filled with excited kids, members of the media and most of her team and the IT staff.

Dozens of conversations competed with laughter and loud music. There were bright balloons, plush toys licensed from animation on the website and a cake big enough to feed a hometown Bears crowd.

They had been live for all of eighteen minutes and she was still scared to go see how it was going.

“It’s my job,” she muttered to herself and took a step toward the computers.

“What do you think?” she asked the boy sitting closest to her.

He was maybe eleven, with bright red hair and freckles. “It’s fun. I can do my math homework and get help when I need it. And it’s like a game.”

He clicked on several icons faster than she could follow and ended up in a math-based jungle where three different paths offered three different games.

Samantha made a few notes and then moved on to another child. About a half hour later, David Hanson strolled up and said, “You can’t hide from the media forever,” he said. “They have questions.”

“I’m nervous,” she admitted.

“It doesn’t show. Come on. It won’t be so bad.”

Samantha followed him to the row of reporters and newspeople. David introduced her.

“We’ll start with general questions,” he said, “then we can schedule individual interviews and tape segments for the local news.”

A pretty woman in a tailored navy suit jacket grinned. “I’m actually the network feed. This is going national.”

“That’s great,” Samantha said, knowing it was amazing publicity and ignoring the sudden aerial formation of butterflies in her stomach. “Ask away.”

She fielded several questions about how the new website worked.

“What about security?” one of the reporters asked. “How are you protecting our children?”

“In every way possible,” Samantha told her. “We have all the usual safeguards in place, along with specific security triggers to flag potential stalkers. There’s a special section for parents on the website. They can set up parameters, determining how much access each child in the family has. Older kids can do more, younger kids less. We’re interested in feedback on the issue as well.” She smiled. “I have the time logs in my office. On this project, we’ve spent as many hours on security as we have on content and we’re very proud of that.”

The next few questions were for the director of the after-school program. Samantha took the time away from the spotlight to look around and enjoy the success. She’d had the idea of making this a reality and now it was.

“We also owe a specific debt of gratitude to Hanson Media Group,” the director was saying. “Not just for the wonderful website, but also for the new computers and Internet access they’ve donated to our center.”

Samantha joined in the applause, but she didn’t know what the woman was talking about. As soon as the media interviews were over, she found David.

“The company donated computers to the center?” she asked.

David nodded. “It was Jack’s idea. He didn’t think it was right to use them to get publicity without giving something back. Their computers were pretty old.”

She glanced at the man in question and saw him sitting in front of a monitor with a little girl on his lap. Two more girls leaned against him, all raptly intent on the screen.

“The donation isn’t mentioned in the PR material,” she said. “I reviewed it last night.”

David shrugged. “Jack didn’t want to exploit the moment. I told him he was crazy, but he didn’t listen. He’s stubborn that way.”

She knew he hadn’t done it for her. In fact, she was confident she’d never crossed his mind. He’d quietly given thousands of dollars worth of computers because it was the right thing to do. That was simply the kind of man he was.

She’d let him walk out of her life once because she’d been afraid.

But not of him, she suddenly realized. Her fears had never been about him. They’d been about herself. About how she would react. About how her world would change. She’d been afraid of depending on someone who would let her down and that she wouldn’t be able to handle it.

Ten years ago she’d let Jack go, not because of who he was, but because of who
she
was.

She walked toward him and as she got closer, her chest tightened. There he sat with those girls, typing in what they told him to, patiently exploring the site with them. One of the girls pointed at a colorful animated parrot and laughed. Jack smiled at the child and nodded.

Samantha got it then—she saw it all. The acceptance, the caring, the goodness of the man inside.

She’d always wanted children. She’d put her dreams on hold because of her marriage to Vance. She’d lost so much time, but she’d been given a second chance. Was she going to blow it again? Or was she going to reach for the happiness waiting there, well within her grasp?

* * *

Friday night the website flashed with bright colors. The man at the keyboard typed furiously. This was wrong. All wrong. George wouldn’t have wanted this. George would have wanted things to stay the same. He never approved of all this new technology.

It was the wrong direction for the company. How many times had George said Hanson Media Group was about magazines? Not this. Never this.

It was all going so well, too. Jack would get the credit. Jack who had never cared about his father. Jack who had broken his father’s heart by refusing to go into the family business. The board and everyone else would say Jack was the hero.

He typed more quickly, working redirects into the software programming, putting them in places no one would think to look. Because they
would
look. The IT people always wanted to fix the problem themselves.

What they would forget was that he was better than all of them. The more they dug, the farther away they would get from the actual problem.

He tested the virus, then smiled. All done. Now all he had to do was crash the system. The techs on duty would work frantically to get it up and running again. When they did, they would see everything working fine. What they wouldn’t see was that the website automatically linked to a porn site. They wouldn’t know there was even another problem to deal with until it was too late.

That should punish Jack. That should punish all of them.

* * *

A fire crackled behind the grate. Jack felt the warmth on his legs, but only barely. He was far more interested in getting Samantha’s bra off. But she wasn’t cooperating.

“I want you naked,” he murmured against her mouth.