A Question of Marriage (7 page)

“Your turn,” s
he said turning to face him.

Soaping the cloth she gave him the same treatment, part bath, part message. Outlining the planes of his body with her hands
, then moving down to his semi erect penis. Kneeling down her hands messaging his balls and stroking his penis until he was fully erect, wrapping her lips around his cock, he began to fuck her mouth, moving in and out until he exploded, Payton swallowing his cum.

Standing under the water they both rinsed themselves off then dried one another with the same care. Staggering into the bedroom they both fell on the bed. “I’d
better start taking vitamins,” he spoke up at the ceiling. “I haven’t had this much exercise since….” He glanced at Payton who crawled on top of him. “…a long time.”

“Oh I don’t know, I think you’re in pretty good shape consi
dering you had that heart scare,” Payton said, running her fingers along the scar in the center of his muscular chest, stopping at his six pack abdomen, glancing down at his erect cock licking her lips.

“That wasn’t the kind
of exercise I was talking about,” he told her, shifting and rolling on top of her thrusting inside her.

******************

Payton waited in the lobby of Cain and Associates. She didn’t know why she agreed to meet with J.D Cain Senior, especially after that episode in her office a month ago. But she figured she owed it to Elaine, Jordan’s mother, who had been nothing but supportive of she and Jordan’s engagement. She couldn’t believe in a few weeks she’d be Jordan’s wife. It was all so surreal.

“Miss Hollis
ter, Mr. Cain will see you know,” the silver haired, middle aged, stern looking woman informed her.

Standing
, Payton headed down the hall, in the direction of J.D Cain’s office. She walked up to the heavy oak door and knocked. When she heard him say “Come in,” she turned the handle, opened the door and stepped inside, shutting it behind her. J.D Cain Senior was seated at a mahogany desk, looking up from his desk at her he spoke.

“Please have a seat.”

Sitting down on the black leather sofa, Payton placed her purse on her lap. “Alright, I’m here, why?”

Rising from his desk J.D Cain picked up an envelope from his desk
, walked over and handed it to her.

“What’s this?” She asked looking at the envelope
then back up at him.

“Open it and find out.”

Opening the envelope, she removed the papers inside she read them, then, looked up at J.D Senior.

“This is a lease for office space
. I don’t understand, why did you give this to me?”

“It’s for your magazine, t
hink of it as an early wedding present.” J.D Cain said simply.

Payton frowned. “I know you don’t expect me to believe you’re
in favor of our impending marriage, so much so you’re giving me empty office space as a wedding gift, what’s the catch?”

J.D Senior shrugged. “There is no catch,
I realize my son genuinely loves you, and it’s my way of welcoming you into the family.”

Payton laughed. “Y
ou know that’s very funny, a month ago you did everything within your power to break us up, even firing him from this firm and disinheriting him. Now that he’s back on his feet and working for the mayor, I might add, you all of a sudden are in favor of this marriage. Pardon me if I tell you to take this present and stick it where the sun doesn’t shine. I don’t buy this act of yours any more than your son would.”

“Suit yourself,
” J.D Cain said, taking the envelope out of her hand and placing it back on his desk. “I thought this was what you wanted, for the two of us to get along,”

“I do
, but not at the expense of being beholden to you. Men like you don’t do anything for anyone unless there’s something in it for you.” Payton said standing. “Now, tell me what you want?”

She could see from his expression
, he hadn’t expected her to reject the gift, which meant she was right in her assessment, he wanted something, what was it?

“Alright, I’ll tell you. I want my son to return to this firm.”

“Um… He might not agree to that especially after all you’ve done, Jordan’s happy at the mayor’s office.”

“He was happy here too.”

“Actually, he wasn’t. The only reason why he stayed here was because of his mother, she felt that once you officially retired he would take over as head of this firm, boy was she wrong.”

“Miss Hollister, I need my son. This firm needs him. Since he left we’ve been losing clients left and right
. No amount of cajoling could keep them here, especially once they got wind that he was no longer a part of the legal team, soon we’ll be bankrupt.”

“I find that hard to believe Mr. Cain. I mean your family alone is
worth billions, you’re legal royalty in this town.”

“That may be but to be honest with you
, I miss my son. I want him back working beside me. Will you help me make that happen?”

Seeing the desperation in the older man’s eyes Payton decided to step out on a limb and follow her instincts.

“Alright, I’ll talk to him, but I’m not promising you anything, I’ll try.”

“Thank you,
” J.D Senior said, smiling.

“You’re welcome.”

Stepping onto the elevator, Payton replayed the conversation with Jordan’s father in her mind. She didn’t believe for a second that his wanting his son back at the firm, was as simple as them losing a few clients. She had a nagging feeling there was more to it, and the reporter in her said she should do some digging, try find out what. Pressing the button for the lobby, she leaned back against the wall and formulated a plan.

******************

“You can’t be serious?” Jordan said, when Payton told him about her meeting with his father.

“Apparently the old guy misses having you around, that’s the conclusion I drew.” Payton said
, as she sank down on the couch beside him. “It was almost like he’d lost some of his spark since you left. Even though he gave me some cockamamie excuse about the firm losing clients, when I did some digging apparently that wasn’t true. I just think he misses having you around. You were his sparring partner, his lifeline if you want to know the truth.”

“Yeah right,” Jordan scoffed. “If that were the case
, why did he fire me in the first place?”

“Maybe he wanted to see if you’d fight for your job.”

Jordan stared at Payton. “Why would I do that? This was the same man that thought me marrying some clingy woman, would be beneficial to me and the firm. Then it turned out, she was secretly seeing the chauffer.”

“You definitely dodged a bullet with that one huh?”

“You’re right about that.”

Payton leaned in and kissed him soundly on the lips. “So tell me the truth, if you hadn’t joined the mayor’s staff, would you go back to Cain and Associates?”

Jordan thought about it for a moment
. “To be honest no I wouldn’t, especially after I learned he’d been cheating on my mother, I’ll never forgive him for that.”

She
cast him a sympathetic gaze. “If your mom could forgive him, you should too. After all, he’s your father.”

“That may be but I always believed that a marriage was sacred and you don’t mess that up by cheating.”

“I had no idea you felt that way,” Payton said, as she got up from the couch stretching and yawning.

“I don’t know about you but I’m exhausted I had a long day, I’m going to bed.”

“I’m right behind you,” Jordan said glancing down at his watch as he stood, turned off the lights and followed her into the bedroom.

******************

Two weeks later Payton waited in the lobby of the municipal courthouse for Jordan, where they had agreed to be married by a judge that was a friend of his, thirty minutes had passed and he still hadn’t shown up. A mixture of fear and dread filled her, as the minutes continued to tick away, until finally after an hour she had come to the conclusion that he wasn’t coming.

Walking to the corner Payton hailed a cab and headed for her Brooklyn apartment
, instead of going back to Jordan’s place. When she arrived there was a note taped to her door. Removing it, she unlocked her door and went inside. Placing her purse and keys down on the table she sank down on the couch and opened the letter to read it.

Payton,

“I’m sorry but I can’t marry you, it’s for the best. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me I never meant to hurt you.

-Jordan.

“Bastard,” Payton said, as she crushed the letter in her hands and tossed it across the room.

Her chest tightened
, as pain rushed through her like a brush fire. How could he do this to her? Especially when he kept assuring her that their plans were a go, when she sensed he was having second thoughts. She’d notice a week ago after he’d returned from a last minute trip to Boston he had to take on behalf of the mayor’s office and began acting strange. Every time she brought it up, he kept assuring her there was nothing wrong but her instincts told her something was definitely up. She had a feeling his father was involved up to his eyes balls, especially after that meeting the two of them had in regards to him returning to the firm. Rising to go change her doorbell rang. Stepping into the hallway to answer the door, she was surprised to see it was her mother.

“Mom, what are you doing here?”

“Jordan called me.”

“Why would he do that?” Payton asked as she shut the door turning to follow her mother into the living room.

“He told me you might need me.”

“Did he happen to mention why he jilted me?”

“No, he just said to tell you he was sorry and that he’d explain everything soon,” her mother said, as she followed Payton into the living room and they sat down on the couch.

“I
cannot believe I actually thought that he wanted to marry me. I feel so stupid. It was just like that whole thing with Trent, me believing he wanted to have a future with me, and then I find out that he was only using me to get a job in television. He never loved me, I don’t think Jordan did either.”

“
I think he does,” her mother rubbed her back trying to comfort her. “Sometimes things happen and there’s no reasonable explanation for it.”

Payton leaned back against the couch. “You know mom, sometimes I think that I’m either cursed
in love or meant to spend my life alone.”

“You
don’t honestly believe that do you?” her mother asked.

“I do,
” Payton answered standing. “I mean look at my track record, every man I get involved with, that I think is leading somewhere, always bails on me.”

“You know you’re going to ha
ve to tell your father what happened.”

“I know bu
t I’m not looking forward to it,” she admitted.

“Payton,” h
er mother said. “You’re father has mellowed over the years, he’ll understand.”

Payton let out a snort. “Sure he will. This is the same man who stopped talking to me because I decided not to join the force.”

Her mother cast her sympathetic gaze. “Jordan regrets hurting you.”

“Yeah right, sure he does.” Payton said
, as she released a hollow laugh glancing down at her dress, her fingers touching the delicate material. “Did you know he arranged a fitting for me to get this dress?”

Aoleon nodded. “It’s beautiful.”

“It really is,” Payton agreed as the tears began to fall. “I loved him mom, and he broke my heart. I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive him.”

“You will,” h
er mother said holding her while she cried. “You will.”

It had been over two months since she’d been jilted by Jordan. She had long since sent the ring and dress back to him by courier. Although she’d heard he wanted her to keep the ring, Payton couldn’t bring herself to do it. She didn’t want any reminders of what could have been. Two weeks later after she returned from vacationing with her parents he showed up at her office wanting to talk.

The moment she saw him
, she had to stop herself from running into his arms. He looked tired and there were lines of exhaustion around his eyes and mouth. His dark hair was mussed, as though he’d combed his fingers through it numerous number of times. He was dressed casually in a pair of khaki pants and a burgundy pullover, careful to keep her expression neutral she spoke.

“What are you doing here Jordan?”

“I came to see how you were doing and I believe I owe you an explanation,” he said, sitting down on the couch.

Stepping around to the fron
t of her desk Payton leaned against it crossing her arms under her breasts. “I can’t think of a single thing I want to hear from you,” she told him keeping her voice casually sarcastic.