Bad Girls Don't (13 page)

“More issues than
Time
magazine, as the saying goes. Although I prefer the irreverent satire of the
Onion
.”

“You’re both just so different.”

“Yeah. She’s uptight and impossible and I’m always right.”

Angel smiled. “She came through for us when we were in a bind a few months ago. She let us stay with her all that time. I’m still living in her house.”

“House-sitting while she’s off pretending to be a wild thing. As if she could ever really pull that act off.”

“She looked pretty natural sitting on the back of that Harley, I must say. I was really surprised. But you didn’t see her, did you?”

Skye shook her head.

“Why not?” Angel studied Skye’s face. “Why didn’t you come see her off?”

“I was busy.”

Angel gave her a look.

Skye tossed her apple in the garbage. “I didn’t want to, okay?”

“You’re not jealous, are you?”

“Of her and Luke? No way. We had zip chemistry.”

“No, I meant of her father.”

“You mean the fact that she has a billionaire father who’s alive, while my father is dead? No. I’d rather have had my dad any day.”

“That’s what I thought, but I wasn’t sure.” Angel frowned. “There’s still tension in your voice whenever you speak about her.”

“Because she drives me crazy.”

“Julia says the same about you.”

“I know she does. But she’s wrong. She always thinks she knows best.”

“The curse of being an older sister, perhaps?”

“I don’t know what caused it, but it is a curse, all right. And she’s so bossy and judgmental. Half the trouble I got into was just to piss her off.”

“Well, she’s not around now, so you don’t have to do anything to get into trouble. Unless that’s why you’re creating sparks with the sheriff? To aggravate your sister?”

“No. He’s able to aggravate me all on his own.”

“I suspect you have the same effect on him.”

“I also want to grab him and kiss him.”

“He looks at you as if he’d like that too. With him doing some of the grabbing, as well. So what’s stopping you two from getting together?”

Skye stared at Angel as if she’d just beamed down from another galaxy. “You’re kidding, right? Can you see me with a tight-assed authority figure like him?”

“You said yourself that he’s complicated.”

“So he’s a
complicated
tight-assed authority figure.”

“That you’d really like to have sex with.”

“Possibly.”

“So, what do you plan on doing about it?”

“Please.” Skye gave her mother a look. “Since when have I ever had a plan?”

“True.” Angel enveloped her in a quick hug. “So you’re just going to see what happens? See where fate takes you?”

“Or where I take fate. You know I like to lead rather than follow.”

“I suspect Nathan feels the same way. About being a leader and not a follower.”

“Yeah, I suspect the same thing.” Skye grinned. “Which should make things interesting, huh?”

 

 

Angel spent the next day in Philadelphia, exploring some new co-ops and yarn shops before heading for the trendy seafood place Adam had selected. She and Adam arrived at the same time. At first glance, he didn’t seem any different than the last time she’d seen him, several months ago. His aura still had lots of red and brown going on. He still radiated power and confidence. His hazel eyes were different, though. She just wasn’t sure how.

He ordered a hot appetizer called Dynamite, which combined baked shrimp, scallops, calamari, and shitake mushrooms with spicy mayo. She’d forgotten he liked spicy food as much as she did.

“I read in the paper that your other daughter won a million dollars in the lottery. If she needs any financial advice, I can recommend someone,” Adam offered.

“She’s bought a theater.”

“She what?”

“She bought a movie theater. The Tivoli. In Rock Creek.”

“What made her do an idiotic thing like that?”

“It’s not idiotic,” Angel protested.

Adam narrowed his eyes at her. “Was this
your
idea?”

“No, it was not.”

“You don’t have to get all het up about it. My question was a valid one, given your business history.”

“Hey, it’s not easy being a New Age entrepreneur. You’re never going to let me forget that, are you? Or forget the fact that I didn’t tell you about Julia right away.”

“Right away? You waited thirty years!”

“Is that why you invited me to dinner? Because you wanted to accuse me face-to-face?”

“No.” Adam rubbed his hand across his face and, for a second, looked amazingly vulnerable. Unless she was imagining things? “I want to understand.”

“Do you really, Adam?”

“Yeah, I do.” He sounded distressed. “I missed all that baby stuff. Julia’s first walk, her first words. And I’ll never get it back.”

“You could have more children.”

“I already told you that I can’t.”

When she’d let him know about Julia, he’d confessed to a medical condition that had subsequently made him sterile, but he hadn’t gone into any details and Angel hadn’t wanted to ask. “You could still adopt.”

“Where did we go wrong?” His eyes turned melancholy.

“
We?
”

“You and me.”

“As I recall, you cheated on me.”

“You said you didn’t want an exclusive relationship. You were the one who made that statement, not me.”

“I didn’t really mean it.”

“How the hell was I supposed to know that?”

“It was a long time ago, Adam. We’ve changed.”

“You haven’t.” At her look, he added, “I mean it. You haven’t lost your zest for life.”

“I appreciate the compliment.” She took a gulp of wine. Was he flirting with her? Was she responding? Or was it just another hot flash?

“Did you really think I was such a monster that you had to hide my child from me?”

“Oh, Adam, it’s not that simple. I was afraid you’d take her from me. And that you’d raise her to worship the dollar the way your family does. You come from an incredibly powerful family. I had no one.”

“No family of your own?”

Angel paused to take another gulp of wine, an even bigger one this time. “Not that I could count on.”

“My family isn’t exactly the supportive warm-and-fuzzy kind of clan.”

“I know. I remember you telling me that. But they’re powerful.
You’re
powerful. And I’m not. Or rather, I’m not in the same way. I have my own powers. Anyway, I figured I’d tell Julia about you when she got older and would be able to stand up to you. When she was an adult. Then the years went by, and . . . Anyway, I did finally tell her. And you.”

“Sharing that kind of news at a book signing isn’t exactly the way I’d pictured it.”

“Me either. But I figured it was my best chance to get close to you.”

“You never thought to call me?”

Angel rolled her eyes. “Please. As if I’d be able to get through to you. Anyway, it all worked out in the end. You and Julia seemed to be getting along without too much conflict.”

“I hardly got to know her before she took off with that biker guy,” Adam complained.

“Luke is a good man.”

“He turned down a large chunk of money from me.”

“So Julia told me. That was a dumb move, Adam.”

“I had to make sure he was in love with her and not her money.”

“She doesn’t have any money.”

“As my only heir, she will have.”

Angel stared at him in disbelief. “Surely you don’t think she’s going to run your empire, do you?”

“Surely you don’t think she’s going to be happy staying in that small-town library when she gets back?”

“It’s Julia’s life. Her choice. Not yours, not mine. We should stay out of it. That’s what parents do.”

“I wouldn’t know. So what else are parents supposed to do?”

“Love unconditionally.”

“The way you love Skye? Even when she does something wacky, like buying a movie theater?”

“I love both my daughters, equally and unconditionally.”

“They aren’t much alike.”

“No, they aren’t. But that doesn’t matter.”

“And how do you do that? Love unconditionally.”

Angel shrugged. “You just do it.”

To her surprise, Adam leaned forward and took her hand in his. “I might need your help in showing me the way. Think you can do that?”

He wanted her to help him become a better father. A better man. A better human being. How could she say no?

 

 

Skye stood before her belly-dancing students, wearing a short purple T-shirt and black leggings, her attention focused on her friend who’d just joined the class. “There’s a reason it’s called a shoulder punch and not a boob punch, Sue Ellen.”

“Hold on a sec. My left boob just popped out of my lucky bra.” Sue Ellen fixed the situation. “Okay, now I’m good to go. Where were we?”

“You were flashing us,” Fanny Abernathy said with a toothless grin. She’d forgotten to put in her bridge again. “Is that a new move? Want us all to do it?”

“No, not really,” Skye said quickly. “Okay, now keep your posture straight and your chin up. Punch that shoulder, as if it were a fist.”

“You mad at the sheriff again?” Fanny said. “Because you’re sure punching as if you’ve got it in for someone.”

“He came to her apartment,” Sue Ellen told Fanny.

The octogenarian nodded. “So I heard.”

Skye focused on the lesson. “Use your abdominal muscles to push your hips back. Circle. And circle. Now arms overhead in the same direction as your hips. Beautiful arms. Fluid snake arms.”

“Yuck.” Sue Ellen stopped in her tracks. “I hate snakes.”

“I think they should just have at it and get it over with,” Nancy announced, joining in the conversation for the first time.

“Who?” Sue Ellen furrowed her brows. “The snakes?”

“No. Skye and the sheriff.”

“Now move in the other direction.” Skye was determined not to get sidetracked. “Left, front, side, back. Sweep your arms over your head. Sweep and sweep.”

“He’d sweep her off her feet if she’d let him.”

“Maybe she’d rather sweep him off
his
feet.”

Skye laughed. “Trust me, if I wanted Studly Do-Right in my bed, he wouldn’t know what hit him. But that’s not the case.”

“Why not?” Nancy demanded, her hips rotating as directed.

“Why are you so eager to get him in my bed?” Skye kept moving as well.

“Well, let’s just say that he’s not the kind of guy you’d kick out for eating crackers in bed. Right, girls?”

A chorus of affirmative cheers filled the room.

To which Skye replied, “If you like him so much, then you go after him.”

“I would if I were ten years younger,” Nancy said.

“Me, too,” Fanny said with another gap-toothed grin.

“Focus on your inner goddess, ladies,” Skye ordered them.

After class, Sue Ellen approached Skye. “Are you sure all this boob shaking won’t make ‘the girls’ sag or something?” Sue Ellen stared down at her breasts as she spoke.

“What’s the matter? Are you afraid they’re gonna shimmy right off?”

“No, the plastic surgeon assured me that that wouldn’t happen.” Sue Ellen clapped a hand over her mouth. “Forget I said that,” she added before making a quick exit.

So Sue Ellen had had some help in the boob department. Interesting. Not something Skye would ever do. She was happy with her breasts as they were. Not that they were perfect or special in any way. She was simply okay with them.

Alone in the space, Skye danced. For herself. For her inner goddess. For all the women in the world who wanted to dance but still lacked the freedom to do so.

Slowly, she became aware of another presence. Nathan. Off-duty. In jeans and a T-shirt. Looking too damn good. He caught her right in the middle of her deep back bend, with her cleavage aimed directly at him.

He didn’t appear to be unaffected. “I . . . uh . . . you . . .” Nathan mumbled.

Skye straightened up, deliberately taking her time.

“I thought your class was over.” His voice was raspy.

“It is. We’re all alone here.”

“Right.”

“Is it? Is it right?”

He didn’t ask what she was talking about. Their sexual chemistry was thick in the air. “Do you care if it’s right?”

“No.” She barely got the word out before his mouth covered hers, totally consuming her.

His hunger would have surprised her, had she not felt the same singular, red-hot intensity herself.

Seconds later, he had her up against the wall, her breasts pressed against his chest. Cupping her bottom, he lifted her. Skye wrapped her legs around his hips and ran her fingers through his hair as she held on.

Who knew he could make her feel so good? Beyond good. Wickedly divine. Deliciously decadent.

She could feel his arousal beneath the placket of his jeans. His crotch and hers were doing an ancient mating dance of their own—rubbing, thrusting, lunging. Her bare feet dug into the backs of his thighs as his tongue swept through her mouth, capturing her moans of pleasure.

Then it was over as quickly and unexpectedly as it had begun. He released her and stepped away just as Sue Ellen walked in. Skye hadn’t heard the distinctive click of Sue Ellen’s wedgies on the floor, but apparently Nathan had.

“Don’t mind me,” Sue Ellen told them airily. “I forgot my purse. You two just carry on with whatever you were doing.”

Nathan’s expression was remote. “I was just leaving.”

Speechless for the moment, Skye watched him go. How dare he get her all ready to do the deed with him and then walk out on her?

“Did I interrupt something?” Sue Ellen asked.