“Tell me you’ll never leave me.”
“Erik.” Michelle instinctively pushed backward to meet a hard delicious thrust.
“Tell me!”
“I’ll never leave you, Erik. I’ll never leave you.”
“Good. Good. Michelle…”
Erik came. He came hard and long as cries erupted from his throat. He fell forward, crushing Michelle between him and the wet tiles. He clung to her as his sex pulsed inside her. He never wanted to let her go. He never wanted to lose her. He never wanted to have to live without her.
Finally, he pulled from inside her and turned her around. He could tell she had been crying. She had cried for him, for his pain, his loss, his grief.
He turned off the faucet then kissed her wet cheeks and puffy eyelids. He kissed her mouth, his tongue seeking hers. He brought her close to him and felt life return to his loins. God this, sexy, slender woman was going to be the death of him.
He lifted and placed her on his shaft again, wrapping her legs around his waist, and his hands around her body. Carefully, he stepped out of the shower and stumbled toward the bed, their wet bodies still joined together. He arranged her buttocks on the edge of the mattress and draped her legs over his shoulders. He cupped her breasts, leaned in, and sank deeper into her.
She bucked, and her mouth opened on a long scream.
It was pure madness. They weren’t leaving this hotel room any time soon.
A deep growl erupted from his throat as he began to pump inside her.
***
Michelle gazed at Erik as they waited in the lobby for the valet to bring the Mercedes around. They had made love over and over again until their bodies literally shut down on them. They had no choice but to succumb to fatigue and had fallen into a long, deep sleep.
It was now early evening, and Michelle was dying to know what had driven him to take her so violently in the shower. She’d asked while they were getting dressed, but he hadn’t responded. Had they found Cassie’s killer? It was the only thing she knew that could unhinge him. “Are you ready to talk, Erik?” she asked gently. “I need to know what’s eating you.”
His eyes clouded over. “Danielle died early this morning.”
Michelle’s hand automatically flew to his arm. They’d been expecting it, but still… “Oh, Erik, I’m so sorry.” She now understood why he’d made her promise not to leave him. The women in his life were dying around him. He needed to know he could count on one. She would be there for him for as long as he needed her. “I meant what I said. I’m here for you. I’ll never leave. I’ll help you get through this difficult time, however you want me to.”
He placed his hand over hers resting on his arm. “Do me a favor.”
“Anything.”
“Can you start joining me for coffee in the morning? It’ll brighten my day.”
“I’d love to.”
“I’m sorry I hurt you in the shower,” he said with a tender hum in his voice.
She smiled. “I’m over it. Couldn’t you tell?”
He touched a finger to her cheek. “You have brought so much happiness back into my life and my home. Last night and today were the most magical and incredibly beautiful moments of my life. You were unbelievably amazing. It was never like that for me. Ever.”
Michelle’s heart leaped with happiness. She had something on the late Mrs. LaCrosse, and he’d been honest enough to tell her. “Well, I can’t take all the credit. I had an excellent teacher. I didn’t know my body could do half the things it did in the last eighteen hours.”
He chuckled. “There’s a lot more I plan to teach you, Mrs. LaCrosse. You haven’t seen anything yet.”
Michelle smiled in euphoria. She was sure she hadn’t.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Back and forth, Michelle paced the length of the porch as her mind raced in anxiety. She was a desperate woman who had lied to her husband, and if her brother didn’t go along with her, she could lose everything.
Robert had to corroborate her story. He just had to.
It was exactly a week since her secret marriage and one-night honeymoon in Boston. There hadn’t been time to dwell on the memories since Erik had been preoccupied with Danielle’s death. Last Sunday, they’d driven up to Granite Falls for the funeral that took place on Tuesday. It was during the ride back on Thursday that Erik told her he wanted to meet her brother and Yasmine, the two people who were closest to her. He wanted to invite them to dinner before he left for a medical conference in D.C. tomorrow.
When she’d asked him why he wanted to meet them so suddenly, he’d simply stated that they were married, albeit secretly, so it was time he met his in-laws.
Michelle couldn’t argue with his logic without causing suspicion, and so had reluctantly made the phone calls, hoping that since it was short notice both Robert and Yasmine would have prior engagements. They didn’t.
With Robert and Yasmine coming to dinner, the subject of her father was bound to wind its way into the conversation. So while Precious and Erik were getting dressed, she’d decided to keep vigil on the porch for Robert. He’d always been there for her. He had to come through for her again tonight. Her entire future depended on him lying for her, just this once.
Michelle stopped her pacing when she spotted her brother’s car coming up the long winding path to the house. She was down the stairs waiting anxiously in the driveway by the time he pulled to a stop in front of the three-car garage. She broke out into a wide grin as Robert pulled his tall, lean frame from his silver Lexus.
“Come here, little sister,” he said.
Michelle threw herself into his arms. She hadn’t seen him in weeks, and even though they spoke on the phone regularly, she still missed him.
Myriad memories assailed her. Noble ones of Robert as a young boy, working at the local supermarket after school, bagging groceries, sweeping floors, cleaning up, just so he could earn some money to buy them food. Robert shoveling snow, mowing lawns, delivering papers in sub-zero temperatures on an old bicycle he found at the dump and fixed up. Robert reading to her at nights, calming her, soothing her fears.
Then there were the unpleasant ones of Robert standing in front of her to shield her from their drunken father’s rage. Robert taking a beating for her while she crouched in a corner, listening to the blows their father delivered to his young body. Tears sprang to her eyes at
those
memories.
Robert held her at arm’s length so he could look into her eyes. “You still crying, Mich?”
She chuckled at the endearing nickname. He and Yasmine were the only people who called her Mich. She sniffled and poked him in the chest. “I’m just happy to see you, you big hunk.”
Robert grinned and looked up at the house. “Some place. Big change from where we came from.”
“Well, you live in a brownstone on Beacon Hill.”
“True,” he said with a whimsical smile.
“Did you ever imagine I’d end up in a place like this?”
“Well, I did teach you to dream high. But you just work here, Mich,” he astutely added.
Michelle gave him an obscure look.
“Oh, it’s more than that. See, I’ve been racking my brain, wondering why I got an impromptu invitation to meet your employer of barely two months. What’s going on, Michelle?”
“We’ve become very close, and he wants to meet my family.”
“Sounds serious.”
She dropped her gaze.
He put his hand under her chin, raising her face. “So it is. Are you in love with him?”
She so wished she could tell Robert everything. But Erik was right. It was best they kept their marriage a secret, especially for Precious’ sake. They had to consider the psychological and emotional impact it might have on her. “Yes, I love him.” That much she could share.
“Then my only question is, does he deserve you?”
“You’ll get your chance to judge him. See if he’s good enough for your little sister.”
“In my eyes, nobody would ever be good enough for you, Michelle. And if Dr. Erik LaCrosse can’t see what a terrific woman you are, I would be very happy to tell him what a dumb turkey I think he is, right to his face.”
Michelle laughed with a mixture of warm emotions. Robert used to warn the boys in their neighborhood to stay away from her, or else. Because of him, she’d managed to hold on to her virginity until she was old enough and ready to give it up. She wished she’d waited for Erik instead of wasting it on Ryan who couldn’t even appreciate the priceless gift she’d given him.
But there wasn’t one shred of comparison between Erik and the men in her old neighborhood, nor her father. Erik would never hurt her intentionally. She was the dishonest one here. If Erik found out about her father, he might want nothing more to do with her. She was certain of it. He might fire her—contract or not—annul their secret marriage, and worst, cut off her relationship with Precious.
That last reality brought her back to the reason she had been lying in wait for Robert. She wasn’t a little girl anymore and Robert didn’t need to protect her—except from herself—but she would ask him to do her one last favor.
Michelle took a deep breath of the warm, late-summer afternoon air. “Robert, before we go inside, I need to ask a favor of you.”
“Anything for you, little sister.”
“I told Erik that Daddy is dead.”
Robert slumped against the car and let out a mild swear. “Why did you do a stupid thing like that, girl?”
“At the time, I thought it was the best thing to do. Now I’m not so sure. But I can’t change my story. Not yet.”
“Lying to him, Mich? How could that be for the best?”
Michelle saw the disillusionment in her brother’s eyes. She had looked up to Robert her whole life. He had always been her hero. He’d taught her the good principles of life that had kept her honest and out of trouble. The last thing she wanted was to disappoint him. “Because it was a drunk who killed his wife,” she said in defense. “I’m ashamed of him. I hate him for what he did to us.”
Robert wiped his hands down his face. “Oh, Michelle, I hate the bastard, too, especially for stealing from you and nearly destroying your life. But I don’t go around telling people he’s dead. I’m proud of the man I’ve become. It doesn’t matter who or what my father is. He can’t take my pride or my dignity away from me.”
Michelle sighed. Robert was right, but she knew how passionately Erik felt about drunks. They were all suspects, and he would keep on believing that until the one who ran his wife down was brought to justice. “I just know I can’t tell him about our father.”
Robert placed a hand on her shoulder. “What does Daddy have to do with it, Mich?” he asked in a big brotherly tone. “He didn’t run down Erik’s wife, and even if he did, Erik wouldn’t hold it against you, I’m sure. You don’t lie to people you love. You can’t build a relationship on deception. What do you think will happen when he finds out you’ve been lying to him all this time?”
“He isn’t going to find out,” Michelle said adamantly. “Not as long as Daddy stays wherever he is. And if he does come back, I hope Erik would have grown to love me enough by then to understand why I lied to him.”
Robert shrugged as he pushed off his car. “I don’t know, Mich. Seems to me you are setting yourself up for a lot of grief. I don’t think Erik would care if your father were Charles Manson as long as you were truthful with him. When he finds out that you deceived him, it will destroy any trust or faith he may have had in you. You’re taking a big chance, little sister.”
That was a chance Michelle was willing to take, because if she came clean now, she was sure the end results would be the same. She had already lied.
“Well,” she added, crossing her fingers behind her. “It’s possible that I may not even be lying. Our father may really be dead.”
Robert’s face furrowed into a frown. “What are you talking about, Mich?”
“Remember I told you Yasmine thinks Dwight may not be our real father? Our real father could be dead, or out there looking for us.”
Robert sighed and shook his head. “Michelle, you need to stop this foolishness. Horrible as he is, Dwight is our father. I would have remembered if it were not so.”
“But you were really little when we moved to New Hampshire, and Mom was already pregnant with me. You could have suppressed a terrible memory. And Mrs. Hayes says he used to act suspicious when he saw our mother talking to her, or anybody else. He practically kept her locked up in the house.”
“You talked to Mrs. Hayes about this?”
Michelle shrugged. “Yeah. She was like a grandmother to us after Mom died.”
“What did she say?”
“She said if I believe there’s a secret to be uncovered, I should go uncover it.”
Robert regarded her quizzically for a moment. “You really believe there’s something out there, Mich?”
“Yes. I mean, look at the way he treated us. He hated us, Robert. Especially me. He accused me of killing our mother. If I can prove he is an impostor, I wouldn’t be so scared of telling Erik about him.”
“This man… Erik means that much to you, Mich?”
“He means everything to me.”
“Okay, little sister. Even though I think it’s a futile cause, I’ll give it some thought and perhaps hire an investigator, just to put your mind at ease. And speaking of Erik,” Robert declared as he looked up at the house, “he’s waiting for you.”
Michelle’s heart leaped at the sight of Erik standing on the porch. He looked appealing in an indigo short sleeve shirt and grey linen slacks. “Come on. You have to meet him.” She threaded her arms through Robert’s and started for the house. The smile in his eyes assured her he’d agreed to keep her little secret, even though he didn’t approve of it.
When they reached the porch, Michelle did the introductions.
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Robert stated as he shook Erik’s hand. “Your excellent reputation as a doctor and as an employer precedes you.”
“As does yours as a dentist and big brother,” Erik remarked as he studied the man—Michelle’s brown-eyed, black-haired brother, who almost matched him in height. He and Michelle would have tall children, some with grey gold-speckled eyes, some with brown, some with black...