A Question of Marriage (8 page)

“Well I’m going to give you one anyway whether yo
u want it or not. You look good,” he said, his eyes scanning her from head to toe a mixture of desire and admiration in them.

Payton let out a dismissive snort as she walked over to the filing cabinet
and opened it. “I don’t have time for this Jordan, I’ve got work to do.” After pulling out the file she needed walked back to her desk.

“I know you’re curious as to why I never showed up on our wedding day.”

“I don’t care…” She began and Jordan raised his hand effectively cutting off her words.

“Please hear me out.’

Payton released an exasperated sigh. “Fine,”

Standing he spoke. “I sincerely apologize for hurting you the way I did
, not showing up at the courthouse. I don’t blame you for being angry. I had another confrontation with my father on the day I was supposed to be making you my wife, he let me know that although he wasn’t happy with my choice of brides he’d accepted it none the less. Then he informed me of the clause in his will that said if I marry a woman that either he or my grandfather objected to I could literally lose everything and end up with nothing and if I tried to sue everything would be tied up in litigation.”

“You
knew that a long time ago, that still doesn’t explain why I never heard a peep from you in all this time.”

“I was working with a legal team to untie everything and not only that, my position with the mayor required me to travel since this is an election year.”

“Well did you untie everything?”

“As a matter of fact I did.”

“How wonderful for you,” Payton said dryly.

“I want us to start over.”

“Why?”

Jordan stared at her in disbelief. “Well, for one thing
, we were good together.”

Payton didn’t know whether to slap hi
s face or laugh herself silly. Did he honestly think it would be that easy after everything that’s happened? He was delusional if he thought they would pick up where they left off.

“Well I don’t want you back.”

“Dammit, Payton don’t you think we both deserve a chance at happiness?”

“Not if it means getting back together with you.”

His mouth tightened. “Is there someone else?”

“I don’t think you have the right to ask me that.”

A fine thread of anger was weaving its way through her calm exterior.

“First you talk me into agreeing to marry you in order to save your job and your inheritance with
the pretense of providing the capitol for me to start my own publication. What’s so sad is I believed you and agreed to help you knowing full well about your reputation. Then you suddenly have a change of heart then disappear without so much as a word and on top of it all you give me this cock and bull story about untying your inheritance and having to travel because of your position with the mayor’s office. Do you honestly expect me to believe that?”

Jordan moved to stand in front of her reaching out to touch her she flinched holding up her hands warding him off. He stared a
t her, shocked by her reaction. then he moved closer raising his hand grazing the side of her face. His hands gentle, is voice rough. “I love you.” then lowered his head and took her mouth in a kiss that was gentle at first then intensified, her struggles ignored, as his arms went around her, bringing her against him.

Molten heat jolted through Payton
, as her body pressed into Jordan’s. There was a desperate hunger in his kiss. A familiar ache began to grow deep inside her, as her arms wound around his neck and her fingers weaved in his thick hair, a torrent of emotions raced through her, as she gave into the kiss.

“I’ve missed you,” he murmured against her throat. “I’ve missed us.”

She groaned against his warm mouth, she missed him too but they were not to be, the fates were against them, with strength born from desperation, she shoved him away, getting the message loud and clear with one last glance he turned and walked out. Once he had gone Payton stepped back behind her desk and sank down in her chair.

She rationalized that she had responded to him because she was a little lonely
, and busy with the magazine since they broke up. Determined to blot out the remembrance of how good it felt to be in his arms, she focused her attention on the papers in front of her she felt like bursting into tears.

“Damn you Jordan. Damn you for making me want you again.”

Well not anymore, she was determined to get over him and she wasn’t going to be vulnerable to him or any man ever again. The highs weren’t worth the lows and being a gullible fool once was enough, twice was pure stupidity. Using the mortar of humiliation, she was determined to rebuild her defenses. He was out of her life and she didn’t intend to let him back in again.

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

“You know, shopping isn’t the answer to everything, Mavis.” Payton told her friend, as she followed her up Lexington Ave, like a petulant child.

After spen
ding nearly three hours walking the streets of Manhattan, loaded down with bags, she was exhausted. The only thing she wanted to do was go home, take her shoes off, take a nice warm bath and relax.

“Are y
ou kidding me? You’ve been walking around for weeks looking like a zombie, a day of shopping is what you need my friend,” Mavis said, as she pulled the glass door of, what seemed like the thirtieth shop, they visited that day.

“You
can’t spend my troubles away, I just want to go home, bury myself under the covers and listen to Sade.”

Mavis glared at her. “No, what you need is to spend that giant bonus you just got
, and I’m going to help you, besides we need to find you something to wear to the press ball.”

Every year th
ere was a ball where everyone in the industry would go to schmooze and garner money, and to convince potential investors, going with their publications, would be a smart move.

She was hoping to skip
it this year, since she managed to do so every year, since she’d started working for the magazine. But it seems this year, it was not to be seeing, as she’d been ordered to attend by her boss and City Beat owner Calvin Banks, to quote- show some leg and shake some ass-. If any other person had told her that instead of her seventy year old boss, she would have been offended but Payton knew he just wanted to keep what he considered, his first born, afloat a little while longer.

The sales lady
, a slender brunette, greeted them, then led them to a room filled with racks of dressed in every shape, length and color. Payton removed a black short sleeved floor length dress from one of the racks.

“No, not that one,” Mavis said taking the dress out of her hands hanging it back up. “You want to look sexy not like a nun.”

“Hey!” Payton said glaring at her friend. “I do not dress like a nun.”

“Lately you have,
” Mavis told her. “It’s like you’re purposely trying not to call attention to yourself. What’s up with that anyway, did something happen I’m not aware of?”

“Yes, but I’m not ready to talk about it right now
, it hurts too much.”

“Okay, I’ll let it go for now. In the meantime
, we need to find you something that will knock those stuffed shirts socks off.” Tucking a black and purple dreadlock behind her ears, she scanned the racks of dresses.

“Hold the phone
I think we have a winner,” she announced, grabbing Payton’s arm, dragging her across the room, towards a rack of colorful gowns, stopping. she pulled out a turquoise blue dress with spaghetti straps and held it up. “This is definitely the one.”

Payton eyed the dress, i
t was silk with fine beading along the waist, a plunging neckline that looked like it stopped at the navel with a full skirt that flared at the bottom. The thing that caught her attention the most was it had long slits on both sides.

“Are you insane? I am not wearing that.” Pa
yton told her. “I want to dazzle them, not give them a heart attack.”

Mavis rolled her eyes. “Sometimes you have a tendency to exaggerate, there’s nothing wrong with this dress.”

“Says you, I want to look tasteful not slutty.”

“Showing a little
cleavage and leg does not, a slut make. Besides you want to get new investors right? Then this is the dress that’ll do it. Just try it on, if it doesn’t look good. then we’ll find something else.”

“Fine I’ll try it on,” Payton sighed
, taking the dress then stalking off to the dressing room.

Pulling the dress over her head she fastened the small zipper in the back and rotated the dress then smooth
ed it down with her hands and stepped out of the dressing room.

“Wow!
” Mavis cried out. “You look amazing.”

Turning Payton looked at herself in the full-length mirror beside the dressing room door. She had to admit
, the turquoise brought out the color in her eyes, and made her creamy skin glow. Though she had no idea how to keep her breasts from spilling out of the bodice, maybe if she used double sided fabric tape, she may just be able to pull it off.

“Alright, I admit it
, you were right, I do look good in this dress.”

“See
, I told you,” Mavis said, a smug expression on her face. Payton just stuck her tongue out at her. ”Now all we have to do, is find you some shoes.” Rolling her eyes, she just followed her friend to the register to pay for the dress, then to shop, for shoes.

Unlocking the door to her apartment Payton kicked off her shoes and made her way into the living room
dropping her bags on the couch. Picking up the remote, pressing a button, filling the air with the sounds of George Benson. Walking over to the phone, she dialed her messaging service and listened to her messages. One was from her mom, checking on her. The second was from Earl, the boring, she silently added. A man she’d been set up on a blind date with. A nice enough man, but as dull as powder. The entire evening he kept talking about his Anime DVD collection and how he couldn’t wait for the next Naruto, to be released. She was so bored, she wanted to bang her head on the table. The third was from Jordan, a message she quickly deleted the moment she heard his voice.

The pain was just too fresh
, even after all this time, she just didn’t want to go that route again. She was just beginning to return to her normal self. Sure, she missed him, after all they’d been best friends and spent a lot of time together, even gone on several vacations together. She’d even accompanied him to several of the law firm’s functions. She hadn’t heard anything about whether or not he was seeing anyone and frankly she didn’t really care. He’d inflicted enough pain on her to last a lifetime and she had no desire to reopen old wounds again. She hadn’t seen him since the day he’d dropped by the magazine, hopefully she’d never see him again. Although, she had a feeling she would, releasing a sigh, she turned and begun unpacking her purchases.

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

It took some doing, but he managed to finagle an invitation to the press ball, Jordan stood at the bar nursing a glass of bourbon, waiting for Payton to arrive. God he missed the hell out of that woman, he had to do something to get her back. When he’d read in the newspaper about the ball, he called in a favor to a friend. Now here, he stood and he had no idea what his next move was going to be. The only thing he knew was that he had to get the woman he loved, back.

Then he saw her, dressed in a turquoise gown
, she looked stunning, her hair had been straightened and arranged in an intricate style and her makeup was flawless. Every male in the room had their eyes fixed on her, as she made her way across the room, over to the table where her boss and his wife where and sat down in a vacant chair. Downing the last of his drink, Jordan made his way over to the table.

“Good evening folks,” h
e said as he stopped at the table, his eyes focused on Payton.

“Oh good evening young
man, I don’t believe we’ve met,” Wilma Banks said.

“My name is Jor
dan Cain, I’m Payton’s fiancée

“Oh congratulations,” e
veryone said in unison.

There was nothing Payton could do but go along with it
, to avoid an embarrassing situation so she smiled and thanked everyone, but on the inside she was plotting a certain lawyer’s demise. Then the band began playing a romantic tune.

W
hen Mrs. Banks suggested that she and Jordan dance and enjoy one another, Payton wanted to use the excuse that she was here to work but Calvin put the kibosh on that by saying he could assign someone else the task of wooing possible investors. That left her no choice but to accept Jordan’s suggestion, they share a dance.

“You have some nerve showing up here and then have the audacity to introduce yourself to my boss and his wife
, as my fiancée, I don’t recall us ever reconciling.”

Jordan gave her a sexy smile. “I’m a very persistent man
, when it comes to something or someone I want, don’t you remember?”