Relentless Rhythm (Tempest #4) (23 page)

“No problem,” James said to me before calling for John and Michael. They scrambled to their feet. “I’ll need you to come get them by the morning though.”

“Why?” I raised questioning eyes to him.

“I know this is bad timing, but Mr. C’s asked to see me. You know how it is. I have to go. It’s not an optional thing.”

“Ok.” I licked my dry lips. My tears robbed all the moisture from me. “How long will you be gone?”

“A few days, probably. Five tops.”

We stared at each other, and I couldn’t even muster the strength to really care. It would actually be easier for me with him gone. Though I searched, in that moment, I couldn’t find even a trace of the man I’d fallen in love with.

He cleared his throat, dipping his head to my brothers. They shuffled closer. I watched them walk down the empty corridor together. They were about to lose their father, but he didn’t even offer them his hand. I shouldn’t have been surprised. What affection did he give me anymore? He’d come and gone without a kiss, without a hug, without any consideration. When he left, I felt more alone and empty than before he’d arrived.

I gave myself a mental shake, forcing my tensed muscles to relax. My family needed me. I couldn’t fall apart, and I wouldn’t. I had no one to fall back on.

I headed back to my father’s room. My mom was sitting in the chair beside his bed, his limp hand in her own. “Did James take the boys?”

I nodded, coming closer, placing my hand on her stooped shoulder and squeezed it. She reached back with her free hand and patted my arm. I moved beside her and leaned over to kiss my father’s smooth brow while trying to hold back the floodgate of memories.

“I need a cup of coffee,” my mom announced abruptly, slapping her hands on her thighs. “Would you come with me to the cafeteria?”

“Sure, Mom.” I walked with her out into the hall, and we stopped at the nursing station. She held up her cell and told them where we would be if they needed us. We made the silent journey together, weighted down with the burden of our heavy thoughts.

Once we settled into a booth, we just sat, staring across the table at each other, ignoring the steaming Styrofoam cups in front of us. Adrift in a turbulent sea, each without our anchor George.

“Mom.” I reached for her hand. It was soft but cold as ice. Her shoulders started to shake, the vibration traveling down her arm to the hand I held. I immediately pushed free from my side, but before I could get my arms around her, she started crying, loud wracking sobs that sounded as if they’d been ripped from her soul. My own heart began to crumble seeing my strong mother falling apart.

I pulled her into me, stroking her soft hair. The roles were reversed, daughter comforting mother now. I made the same soothing sounds she had for me when I’d lost Quinn. I didn’t try to make sense of it all. I just held her letting her know I was there and that I wasn’t going anywhere. I would always be there for her, the same way she had always been for me.

She clutched my forearms, and I tightened my embrace. I realized we would just have to be each other’s anchor from now on. A few people came and went. I gave them little mind as we sat together. Eventually her tears subsided.

She reached for a napkin and dabbed at her wet cheeks. “I want you to know, I spoke with the physician on call. We both know George is not going to get any better, honey.” Her voice was rough. She took a sip of coffee before continuing. “In my mind I’ve always known, but in my heart I still hoped…” She trailed off and pulled her shoulders back. “I don’t want him to suffer anymore, but it’s going to be hard. I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to let him go, even though I truly believe he’ll be in a better place.”

“I understand, Mom. You don’t have to decide tonight, do you?”

“Actually, I already have.” She looked me in the eye for a long moment, and I knew she was trying to communicate a truth even deeper than our present circumstances. “When you love someone you have to do what’s best for them. Put their needs and wishes above your own. Sometimes that’s easy to do, and sometimes it’s really, really hard. But then those hard times are the moments when love is proven genuine.”

“Yes, I know that.” And I did. I really did. She was the one who’d shown all of us that by her example. She didn’t just say the words. She walked them out. But I’d messed up. I’d looked at James, seen his good looks, and I’d been swept away by his persuasive words. It was just too bad for me that I’d misread him so completely.

“It’s just so difficult,” my mom whispered. “Worse to say goodbye than it was with your father because then I didn’t realize how terribly lonely I would be.”

I started crying again then. This time she comforted me, both of us grieving, a slow process we’d begun two years ago after the accident, but now underwent in earnest for the husband and father that would be taken from us way too soon.

April jumped when I called her name. She spun around surprise sparking life into eyes that were reddened, dull, and lifeless. I completely abandoned my plan to play it casual.

I crossed the hospital corridor and yanked her into me. I didn’t care how it looked. I didn’t even worry about where she’d put her hands. I just knew she was going to fly into a million pieces if someone didn’t help her hold the fragments together, and I didn’t want that person to be anyone but me.

She didn’t fight me. She didn’t resist at all. Her hands landed lightly on my shoulders. To my relief I didn’t flinch. She swayed and I caught her, sweeping her into my arms and cradling her to my chest. She blinked up at me in gratitude.

“Did he?” I couldn’t speak the words. I sucked my lip ring into my mouth. “Is he gone?”

She shook her head. “Not yet.” Her voice sounded hoarse as if she’d overworked her vocal cords. She buried her face in my chest. I could feel the wetness from her tears soaking into my shirt. I couldn’t have cared less. I wasn’t thinking about anything but comforting her. I tightened my grip wishing I had magic wings to fly her far away from her pain.

After a moment she lifted her head, studying me intently as she touched my face with gentle hands running her thumbs across my eyebrows and skimming her fingertips across my bottom lip. Mapping my features as if she never wanted to forget them. “You can let me go now, Diz.”

“No way.” My gaze delved deeper than hers. “Not a chance in hell.”

I could feel it. The moment she gave in. Her body relaxed, betraying her. All of the fight finally gone. “Then take me out of this place. Please,” she pleaded.

I was out the automatic doors of the hospital entrance before she had finished speaking. The valet took one look at my face and ran to get my car. Within a few moments, he was back slamming the brakes and bringing the Panamera to a screeching halt in front of us.

Reluctantly, as always when it came time to release her, I set her down, though I took my time, savoring the contact of her sexy curves sliding against me. Once she was in and settled into her seat, I closed her door and shoved a wad of cash at the valet. I rounded the hood and got in behind the wheel. “Where?” I asked glancing her direction.

She was staring out the front windshield, but I knew she wasn’t seeing anything. “It doesn’t matter,” she murmured. “Just somewhere. Anywhere. I just
need
...” she emphasized that one word drawing it out as she turned to give me a longing look that revved me like the Porche’s engine, “to be with you. Wherever, ok? I want you, Dizzy, more than I’ve ever wanted or needed anyone. Take me somewhere safe. Where it’s just you and me and no one has to know. That’s where I want to go.”

Bloody hell.
That definitely exceeded my wildest expectations. I wanted her right then. I gripped the steering wheel tighter instead.
One step at a time
, I cautioned myself. The number one priority right now was getting her far away from where we were, and I knew the perfect place.

April was completely silent as I drove over the Lion’s Gate Bridge. She stared out the side window and didn’t even glance my way during the zillion and one stop lights that slowed us down and kept me from opening up the throttle.

Finally, I turned in, the tires crunching over the gravel drive. The water of the Indian Arm lay spread out in front of us, the surface smooth as black glass. The quaint Deep Cove shops were dark, but the stars twinkled overhead like a dreamy canopy as I exited my side and opened the other door for her.

She looked up at me with such undisguised desire that my pulse kicked up faster than one of King’s frenetic drum solos. She unbuckled her seat belt and clasped my outstretched hand, glancing around at her surroundings as I pulled her out.

In the bright moonlight I watched a look of wonder erase the grooves of worry from her face.

“I haven’t been here since I was a kid.” A nostalgic smile curled her beautiful lips. “George used to bring us here to kayak. There are usually sea lions just off the shore, and you can see starfish at low tide.”

I led her across the sand to a secluded alcove on the far side of the beach. The driftwood I remembered from times when I’d come here to think was still there, and I pulled her down beside me on the log that was wide enough to be a bench.

She immediately shifted, turning to face me, reaching for the buttons on my shirt. I could feel her trembling, and I didn’t want it to be hurried and desperate so I captured her hands and brought them to my mouth. I meant to brush soft kisses onto her palms, but as soon as my lips touched her skin she sighed, and I couldn’t help myself. I nipped at the fleshy spot below her thumbs, her skin salty to my taste.

“Dizzy,” she spoke my name more seductively than any woman ever had, and the soft look on her face completely sank me. This was it. She was giving herself to me. This was what I had wanted from the beginning, from the first moment I saw her at PTU, and now that I had it, I realized it wasn’t enough. I wanted more.

My fingers tightening around her wrists, I pulled her so I could position her between my legs. Her back was to my chest, facing the water. I needed her restrained. I couldn’t have her touching me while I tried to regain control.

“Diz,” she called, craning her neck to one side so she could see me. “I thought you…we…” her voice trailed off as uncertainty extinguished her confidence.

“Kitten.” I breathed the endearment in her ear, unable to resist a lick and a nip of the fleshy lobe near my mouth. She groaned, and I shuddered. “I want you so badly that being with you is all I can think about. All I
have
thought about for quite some time. But not now. Not tonight. Not when you’re so upset that you’ll regret it.”

“You’re wrong. I won’t regret it.” She turned all the way around so that she could straddle me. “I’ll relish it.”

My hands instinctively went to her ass to keep her from falling backward onto the sand. Hers came toward me. I didn’t shrink away. I didn’t even think about stopping her. With her, I didn’t want to avoid contact. I actually craved her touch.

She framed my face and I never knew a gesture like that could feel so erotic. Her eyes shone in the moonlight, and my pulse pounded steady and strong in my veins. I massaged the sexy globes nestled within my grasp. “Mmm,” Her lips parted with pleasure and she moved seductively on my lap while threading her soft hands into my hair. I nearly came that felt so good. I couldn’t even remember that I’d ever been touched that way.

“I want you.” She held my gaze, and even though I couldn’t see her well in the starlight, I could hear the sincerity behind those simple yet profound words.

“And I want you, too,” I groaned with my pulse beating in my ears competing with the quiet lapping of the water against the shore behind us.

“Good.” She brushed her lips over mine, prodding at the closed seam with her tongue. I fused my mouth to hers and touched mine to it. Low appreciative sounds trickled from the back of her throat as she rocked her hips over my rock hard erection. I swore I could feel her heat.

“April,” I moaned, beginning to take her mouth brutally, slanting my head one way, then the other, frustrated when I couldn’t get as deep as I wanted. A forest fire of need blazed through my body out of control. I wanted to burn my name into her soul. Brand her so the whole wide world would see that she was mine. Touch her deep enough that she’d never be able to let me go.