Carved in Stone (21 page)

“Doubtful,” Ellen said, smirking. “Almost every woman does something crude to the man parts on his marble men. Will used to grin like an idiot when he caught a woman sneaking a feel. I would have been jealous, but Will isn’t the kind of man to shift his attention randomly from woman to woman.”

Jessica nodded, offering a tight smile. “Will told me he was a one-woman kind of guy. Still, it’s good to hear it from a woman he was once committed to.”

“Ms. Daniels, I think it’s only fair to warn you that I’d like to be that one woman in Will’s life again. I’ve decided I made a mistake divorcing my husband,” Ellen said firmly, watching for emotion in Jessica’s eyes.

Jessica had run into her share of jealous ex-wives and girlfriends over the years, so Ellen Cannon’s declaration did not bother her. The only thing she wondered about was whether Will had any feelings left for the woman. Since she considered her relationship to Will temporary anyway, she decided in that moment of holding the woman’s gaze to keep him for the duration. Will’s ex-wife would just have to wait for her second chance.

“I’m afraid you’re one weekend late wanting Will back. Now you’re going to have to wait until he gets tired of me first. That may take a while,” Jessica warned softly but just as firmly.

Ellen watched Jessica Daniels slide open the glass patio door and step out.

So that was the reason for Will’s emotional distance, Ellen thought. He was sleeping with the Daniels woman. Fortunately the relationship was still new, and not running smoothly if Jessica’s face was telling the truth. Not once had the woman smiled or looked happy about her relationship with Will.

She needed to work quickly, Ellen decided. She needed to make sure Will knew her intentions before he spent any more time with the Daniels woman.

Chapter 13

“Hey,” Michael said, watching Jessica halt and smile at the metal across the fire pit.

“Do you enjoy pounding the metal into compliance? A furnace would be more practical for that much effort,” Jessica said, smiling. “The metal would bend like a cooked egg noodle.”

“It would also be more expensive,” Michael said with a grin. “I did learn to pound with both hands so I wouldn’t end up with one super-sized arm.”

He made a sign to indicate how much larger his right bicep could be.

Jessica laughed. “What are you working on?”

Michael looked at the rings in a pile. “Wedding present,” he said coldly. “I wanted to make sure the love of my life has something to remember me by this time around when she marries the wrong damn man again.”

Jessica raised an eyebrow at both his anger and his passionate resentment.

“Sorry,” Michael said. “I’ve been interested in my events planner for a few years now. We got close a few weeks ago, but she dumped me without saying what went wrong. Now I hear she’s getting married again. This is marriage number three for her.”

Jessica looked at the pile of metal rings and back at Michael. His need to personally pound that large pile of symbolic wedding bands suddenly made a lot of sense.

“Rust-treat the finished piece like you did the one in Cincinnati. Make it so it looks like you bled all over it. It will make a stronger point,” she advised.

Michael smiled and sighed at the great suggestion. “Go kiss my father and make him look like he did when he came home Sunday. He’s been sleeping with your vagina and trying to give you space.”

Jessica sighed and shook her head negatively. “I’m sure glad my daughter lives in Ohio. I don’t think I could handle my own adult child interfering in my dating life. You and your brother are bad enough.”

“I guess you saw Mom,” Michael said, ignoring her comment about interfering. He was safeguarding, even if Jessica didn’t know it.

She nodded and looked down, not really having anything remotely nice to say about Michael’s mother.

“Don’t let Mom bother you. She mostly a good woman, but she can be more melodramatic than an angry artist,” Michael said, frowning. “Her husband kicked her out. Shane is taking her this weekend.”

Jessica nodded again, saying nothing in return. She couldn’t tell a son—even an adult one—that his mother wanted his father back. It was every divorced kid’s dream. She also couldn’t tell Michael that she was still intending to break up with his father eventually, but that his mother’s comments had changed her mind about doing it today. Ellen Cannon’s warning had shown Jessica the 3D-reality of what Will might end up doing after her. Up to today, it had been theoretical. She’d be a fool not to wonder if Will had at some point just been waiting for his wife to come around.

Jessica sighed at her thoughts and chastised herself for worrying about it. She had learned over the years to be selfish about taking what she wanted because most of her relationships never lasted long anyway.

Granted, she was more conflicted about Will than the typical man she dated.

Panicked as she was about staying involved with him, while facing down Ellen, she had become equally panicked about never having him again. Knowing Will might decide to go back to the woman, all Jessica wanted now was more time. She wanted at least a few more nights, a few more memories. If Will wanted to give them to her, Jessica was going to be selfish enough to take them. His ex was just going to have to wait her turn, and Jessica was not sorry about letting the woman know she considered Will hers for the moment.

Jessica walked resolutely to stand in Will’s line of sight, waiting for him to see her.

Still absorbed in his task of sanding away the chisel marks on the statue’s chin, it was a few moments until Will saw Jessica standing there quietly watching him. He walked to his tools table and put his equipment all down. He brushed himself off as best he could, removing his breathing mask as part of the process.

“It took you long enough to come see me,” Will said, stepping in close to her. She reached out and touched his earring and then ran a hand over his shoulder.

“I—I needed some time to think about the change in our relationship,” Jessica said.

“Come to any conclusions yet?” Will asked, reaching around her and tugging her hips flush to his to remind her of just how much things had changed.

“None at all,” Jessica replied, sighing. “I ran out of patience with myself and came to see you anyway.”

“I swear I didn’t plant my ex-wife in the house to make it harder or to punish you for making me wait,” Will said, grinning even when his eyes were serious.

“Good to know,” Jessica said, trying for a teasing smile and not really getting there.

“Hey,” Will said, seeing her doubts as clearly as if she had voiced the words. “You know how it is between us. We talked about this.”

“Well, I thought I did. Now I’m not so sure. I’m having a hell of time figuring it out after seeing your ex here. Got some way to convince me?” Jessica asked, not really teasing at all.

“Not with Michael and Ellen watching, but if you take me home with you, I think I can put all your fears to rest. Mine, too. Have you had any dates this week I need to worry about?” Will asked, seeing the answer flash in her gaze even before she tilted her chin.

He laughed at her irritation and pulled her closer. “Good to know we’re both being monogamous,” he said, tilting her back over his arm. “I’ve worked too hard today to do any competing.”

Will put his eager mouth on hers, and her groan of satisfaction vibrated both of them. When he pulled away, Will moved them both from the line of sight of Michael and the patio door just in case Ellen was spying. He pressed Jessica against his statue which in turn pressed David 17’s marble penis into the small of her back.

“Touch me,” he whispered. “Show me you want me so I can get through the next few hours without being inside you.”

“Will? Do you realize what you’ve backed me into?” Jessica demanded, putting her hand on his dusty jeans and feeling him come instantly alive for her. As she stroked Will, she could feel the hard marble pressing against her back. She much preferred the real one, Jessica thought, stroking more firmly.

Will laughed and leaned into her hand to enjoy the moment.

“Yes. I only wish I could be that hard with you,” he joked.

“If you get any harder, we’re going to end up shocking your son,” Jessica said, pressing her face against his dusty neck.

“Okay, maybe you’re right,” Will said laughing. He couldn’t help noticing she didn’t mention caring if Ellen saw, but he was wise enough not to gloat about it. “Maybe you’re right about shocking Michael. Let go of me, woman.”

“No, not yet. You started this. I need a little something for me now,” Jessica told him, sliding hands from the front of him to put them behind his hips and arch herself against him to rub until the arousal spread through her. “Yes, I definitely need you to come home with me. Clean up and meet me there in an hour.”

Feeling her heat even through all the denim between them, Will rocked against Jessica. There was great relief to be in her arms again and to know she still wanted to be with him. Each day that passed without hearing from her, he had grown more afraid Jessica had opted to be in denial about it.

“Can I come back tomorrow night too?” Will asked. “I don’t want to be here right now. The house is too crowded, if you know what I mean.”

“Bring the bike and stay for the weekend,” Jessica said, pushing him away with her hands. “We’ll go for a ride Sunday and find someplace to have breakfast.”

Will smiled at her willingness to take another bike ride with him and met her gaze levelly. He could already feel her wrapped around him, feel her sigh of pleasure against his back. It was the happiest thought he’d experienced in years. He fell the rest of the way in love with Jessica Daniels without any regret.

“Better get ready to hear how I feel about you,” he warned her. “I’ve been looking all my life for a woman who liked to ride me
and
my bike.”

Jessica was already shaking her head at his teasing. “Don’t push me, Will. I had a hard enough time coming over here. I still have the urge to run like hell from what you make me feel. Dealing with your ex did not make me feel better about things.”

“You have no competition and I’ll see you in a hour,” he called after her, smiling at the white marks on the back of her jeans as she walked away.

After Jessica had exited through the patio door, Michael leaned around his work and looked at his Dad, who was grinning again—thank God. As the eldest son, he didn’t care if he was being disrespectful or not, he just had to know if it was intentional.

“Did you do that on purpose just now?” Michael asked.

“Is there an answer to that question that you won’t harass me about?” Will asked in return, hurrying back to his table to put away his tools with the sound of Michael’s laughter echoing through the courtyard.

He hadn’t put hand prints on Jessica on purpose, Will thought, but he wasn’t sorry about them either. He hoped Ellen saw them and knew what they meant. He didn’t want to have to explain it to his ex-wife, but he would if he had to.

***

Later, Will was in such a rush to get showered, packed, and over to Jessica’s that he momentarily forgot Ellen was there. He walked from the bathroom to his bedroom with only a towel wrapped around him, an easy habit he had gotten into when there had been just Michael and him in the house.

When he walked into the bedroom, he was suddenly wishing like hell he had gotten dressed in the bathroom. Ellen was sitting on the bed with
Blue Blaze
in her hands, turning it around as if it was puzzle she was trying to figure out.

“Is this what she’s making for art now?” Ellen said, mildly disgusted. She put it on the bed beside her. “I guess it’s better than the rape art. Though I’ve got to say it looks too much like a woman’s private area. I suppose the colors are nice enough.”

“It’s called a vagina, Ellen,” Will said. “You have a college degree. You’re allowed to use the right anatomical terms.”

Angry at himself for engaging yet another time in an argument about art so similar to the other thousand they’d had over the years, Will turned his back to her. He went to his dresser and pulled out clothes to toss on the bed.

“What are you doing in my room?” he asked fiercely, delving into another drawer for more clothes. He walked back to the bed and found Ellen sitting next to his clothes with one hand on top of them.

“William, don’t go to her. You’re not making the woman happy. Haven’t you noticed the anxiety on her face when you’re around?” Ellen implored.

Using an assertive move vastly familiar to both of them, she put her hand on Will’s hip and ran it down his thigh, sneaking it through the towel flap at the last minute. She stroked him and made sure he felt her polished nails lightly scoring his abdomen with every motion. A few seconds later she got the reaction she had hoped for and was accustomed to with Will. Her heart leapt at the thought of what it meant and she squeezed harder to reward him.

“Nice move,” Will said coldly, staring into the surprised gaze of a woman he’d once thought he’d spend his life with until he died. “Now go back to Luke and use it with him. I’m not your husband anymore.”

When her hand dropped away, Will immediately moved out of her reach. Uncaring any longer what she thought, he pulled off the towel and pulled on briefs while she watched. He tucked his now withering erection into place with no thought of sparing Ellen the embarrassment of his rejection.