Unbreakable (36 page)

"Since when are you the logical one?"

"Since I had a second shot at the love of my life."

And that caused Nina to collapse right where she was. "But what if I get hit by a bus tomorrow? Life is short. Things happen."

"Don't even joke about dying." Jacie pulled her even closer, trying not to feel Nina's hardened nipples pressing into her own. She bit her lip in a bid for control herself, but couldn't stop her hips from moving forward and seeking firmer contact with Nina's thigh.

Nina's eyes popped wide opened. "Make up your mind!" She scrambled away from Jacie as though her friend were on fire, then spoke from her side of the bed. "You're trying to drive me insane."

"I can't help it," Jacie complained weakly. Then her voice dropped to its deepest register, the tone and words causing Nina to visibly shiver. "I want you so badly."

"That was just mean." Nina blew out a frustrated breath. "I'm throbbing."

Jacie covered her ears with both hands. "Don't say things like that. I'm so wet I'm about ready to slide off the bed."

Nina's mouth began to water, and she scooted part way back to Jacie. "I could help you with that," she teased seductively.

Jacie's eyes flashed with warning. "I know you could," she gritted out. Then without even realizing what she was doing, her hand slid into her own shorts. And she hissed, her face a picture of both pleasure and exquisite pain when her cool fingers grazed her aching clit.

A flash of lightning illuminated the room and Nina's heart stopped beating. She was shocked that she hadn't simply come on the spot. "What–" she licked her lips. "What are you doing?"

Jacie realized where her hand was and she froze. "Nothing," she lied.

"No, no, no. That's not nothing. You're touching yourself."

Mortally embarrassed, Jacie nodded.

"Right in front of me?"

Another nod.

Nina closed her eyes and swallowed hard. "Sweet Jesus." Lightning flashed and when she opened her eyes again, Jacie could see the fire in them. "Don't stop."

Jacie's hands were trembling. "Really?"

Nina's voice was husky with desire. "Tell me that over the years you haven't thought of what it would be like to see me touching myself."

Jacie's nostrils flared, and the hand in her shorts began to move. "I can't tell you that, Nina," she admitted tightly, a flush working up her chest and neck. "I've thought of it a thousand times."

Nina let out a shaky breath, her arousal close to peaking. Carefully, the way she would approach a spooked colt, she moved closer to Jacie, not stopping until she was lying alongside her, her lips pressed close to Jacie's ear. "And when you thought of me touching myself, what were you doing?"

Jacie could only moan, her free hand clutching the sheets, her other hand working furiously.

"Were you touching yourself, too?"

"Yes," Jacie hissed, drawing out the word as she arched her back.

Nina sucked Jacie's earlobe into her mouth, laving it with a warm tongue.

"Oh, God," Jacie moaned, her eyes slamming shut.

Nina's mouth moved down from Jacie's ear to the tender skin of her throat. She had to nearly sit on her hands to keep from caressing Jacie's breast, but she was powerless to resist the salty skin in her mouth. She sucked hard on Jacie's neck, using her teeth for good measure, her own moisture trickling down her thigh when Jacie bucked one final time and convulsions overtook her.

Unable to stop herself, Nina wrapped an arm around Jacie and murmured things she'd always wanted to say to her in her ear as she climaxed, ending with a heartfelt, "I love you." The way Jacie was panting, she expected her to need a few moments to recover. Instead, she let out a small yelp when Jacie quickly switched their positions and hovered over her with a predatory look in her eyes.

"Nina," she purred. "You are very, very bad." A drop of perspiration snaked down Jacie's cheek and landed on Nina's neck, branding her.

"I'm sorry?" Nina whispered impishly, feeling anything but contrite.

Jacie smiled a beautiful smile. "I'm not." Then her expression went serious. "But don't think we're through here tonight." She took one of Nina's hands and slid two fingers into her own hot mouth, lavishly wetting them, and causing a tortured moan to be torn from Nina's chest. Then she guided the fingers down Nina's belly and in the direction of soft white panties. "Get to work."

*  *  *

It was well after midnight and Audrey was tucked into her bed, the night's champagne causing her to snore like a chain saw. Katherine sat in a rocking chair on the far side the room, her cell phone clutched tightly in her hand.

Slumping heavily in the comfortable chair, she was nearly asleep when the phone finally began buzzing in her hand. Startled, she jerked upright and fumbled to answer it. Before she could say a word, a soft baritone voice greeted her.

"Hi."

"Hi," she whispered, relieved to hear the familiar voice.

"I can barely hear you. Can't you talk?"

Worriedly, she looked toward Audrey, who had suspiciously turned over in bed and stopped snoring. "I can talk. Just not here. Hang on." Tiptoeing across the room, she eased open the door and slipped silently into the hall. She heard the sound of muted laughter coming from Nina and Jacie's room and so, not convinced that she was safe yet, she headed downstairs and out onto the built-in back porch that was located off the kitchen.

The wooden floor was cool against her bare feet and she shivered a little as she walked.

"So," she whispered as she took a seat on a padded lounge chair, "do you miss me?"

He let out a low groan. "I feel like I'm dying. I'm counting the minutes until you come home."

She sighed dreamily, well aware of how cheesy his words were but unable to stop herself.

"I'm sorry we argued earlier."

Katherine nodded, though he couldn't see her. "Me, too." She considered everything that Gwen had revealed earlier that night. "And I think you're right. At least for now."

"It's all for the best, you'll see, sweetheart." His relief was palpable, even over the phone.

Once again, Katherine pushed aside the guilt that was getting harder and harder to ignore. Trying not to picture the other women's faces if they found out, she did her best to focus on their future. "I hope you're right."

"I am," he said confidently. "I'm only doing this for us." There was only a second's pause before he added, "I really love you."

Katherine could hear the smile in his words and her face instantly mirrored the emotion. "I love you, too, Tucker."

Present Day
Rural Missouri

I
T WAS MID-AFTERNOON Saturday and the rain was still falling, a faint staccato against the roof of the bed & breakfast. The morning meal and lunch had come and gone and the women had made a round of phone calls, each eager to check on things on the home front.

Gwen felt as if a monster truck rally was going on between her ears. While she was long accustomed to imbibing, she usually didn't finish an entire bottle of champagne herself and was still feeling the effects of this morning's killer hangover. She came down the stairs and stepped into the parlor, three aspirin tucked in the palm of her hand. It would be, she decided, nearly impossible to feel worse. Even a short nap hadn't helped. Then she thought about what she had to do today… and reconsidered her conclusion.

She looked around for Katherine and Audrey, but they were nowhere to be seen. She glumly wondered if they had packed up and snuck out after lunch.

"Hey." Jacie, who was sipping a cup of coffee and reading the morning paper on a sofa near the window, looked up from her task. Her hair was still a little damp from a long walk Nina had talked her into despite the light rain. "You feel like you're going to die, don't you?"

Gwen's eyes narrowed. "That would be an overly optimistic diagnosis," she answered warily, not really in the mood to be told that she deserved it, even though she knew she did.

"I've got some painkillers in my bag if you need them," Jacie said simply, then refocused on her paper.

Gwen blinked a few times. "Uh… No, thanks." She held out her hand and showed Jacie her pills, unable to stop her surprise. "But I appreciate the offer."

"No problem."

Jacie's attitude seemed to have thawed considerably since the night before. Between her nap and Jacie and Nina's long walk, this was the first time they'd had a moment to talk all day.
Maybe things went well with her and Nina last night.
Gwen focused on the other woman on the sofa, the one sitting on the opposite end from Jacie, whose socked-feet were thrown across Jacie's lap. Every once in a while, Jacie would absently reach down and tenderly rub Nina's foot as she read. Then Nina's mouth would curl into a love struck grin and she'd glance up at Jacie, her heart showing plainly in her eyes.
Oh, yeah. Things went
really
well for them last night. Good for you both,
she whispered silently.

Peeking into the room before she entered, Frances Artiste appeared, holding a handful of cloth napkins.

Jacie and Nina exchanged looks of indecision. They'd discussed forgiving Gwen on their walk along the Missouri River but had been unable to come to any real resolution. Gwen's words and actions ping-ponged between excessively prying into their personal lives and acting so much like the dear, much-loved friend they had known as girls, that they couldn't get a read on her at all. But even so, they'd agreed to this much. Jacie and Nina smiled and stood up as the older woman mysteriously flicked off the lights.

"Mrs. Art–" Gwen began to question, but her mouth clicked shut when Katherine and Audrey wheeled into the room a small cart holding a white birthday cake. Flaming on its top were what looked like a million candles but were, in reality, exactly 40.

"Don't look so surprised," Katherine said gently, seeing a myriad of emotions flash across Gwen's face. "Isn't this why we're here?"

Frances smiled and quietly excused herself from the room.

For several long seconds Gwen stood motionless. Her eyes filled with tears, then took on the wild look of a panicked animal torn between fight and flight.

Audrey and Nina came forward to lay comforting hands on Gwen's back. "Are you okay?"

"No," Gwen whispered brokenly, pulling away and presenting them with her back. She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. "I'm really not."

Bright yellow candles were melting, dropping golden dots onto the cake's snowy surface. Wordlessly, Jacie began blowing them out as Katherine looked on in shock.

Gwen let out a shuddering breath.
I've got to do this now. If I do it after I tell them about the blackmail, they'll never believe me.
They need to believe me.
"We need to talk."

Gwen asked the four women to be seated on the sofa. It was, she decided, a strange feeling: facing a firing squad composed of dear friends and knowing you deserved every bit of their scorn. "This is hard." She chuckled nervously and the noise had an odd, almost hysterical edge to it, the sort of giggle reserved for inopportune occasions like funerals or fiery church sermons.

The other women glanced at each other uncertainly.

"I'm not cracking up," Gwen assured them.

"You're sure?" Jacie asked, remembering Gwen's tentacle comments the night before.

Gwen took a few calming breaths to compose her scattered emotions. "I'm sure. I know we made a pact to get together when we turned 40," she began, knowing that getting started would be the hardest part. "And even though we were just girls, the promises that we made to each other always meant something to us. Always." Her words were greeted with a chorus of nods.

Gwen paced a little as she spoke, the wide legs of her gabardine trousers brushing together with a light swooshing sound as she moved. "But I think we all know that my birthday isn't why we're here."

The women on the couch shifted a little, each acknowledging privately that they'd really come to see their sofa-mates, and that Gwen's presence, at least at first, was mostly incidental to that.

A heavy blanket of guilt wrapped around Katherine. "Gwen, it's not like that. Not exactly. I–"

"Please," Gwen interrupted. She held up a hand to forestall her. "I need to get this out all in one go, or I'm going to chicken out."

Katherine's eyes widened slightly, but she held her tongue as her head bobbed.

Gwen drew in a deep breath and pinned her oldest friends with an intense gaze. "I need to say I'm sorry and I need for you to know that I mean it." She resisted the urge to start begging right off the bat but was unwilling to rule it out for later. "God," she shook her head a little, "I've practiced this so many times over the years, and now when I actually need the words, everything I want to say seems so small and meaningless. But I'm going to say it anyway."

She focused on Katherine. "What I did in college, the way I acted… I broke up the Mayflower Club. I guess it's really as simple and as complicated as that. I knew how important all of our friendships were to you and that if I hadn't acted so horribly… well, we'll never know what might have happened. I also know that my treating Nina, Jacie, and Audrey so badly didn't just hurt them. It hurt you, too. I never meant for that to happen, Katy. I swear to you."

Katherine blinked a few times, not knowing how to respond.

"I robbed us all of something very precious. I was wrong and I was a fool and I've regretted it my entire adult life." Weakly, Gwen shrugged one shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"I forgive you," Katherine heard herself saying. And while the words were hanging there she decided she really meant it. She wanted a future with Tucker, and she wanted her friend back.

"You do?" Gwen looked as if a stiff poke with a feather could topple her.

"I've missed you, Gwen. And I didn't get the worst of it like everyone else did. So, yeah, you sucked, and yeah, what you did was wrong and horrible. But I have less to forgive."

A tremulous smile twitched at Gwen's lips. "Thank you," was all she could say.