Cheri on Top (12 page)

“Yeah?”

“What the hell happened with Tanyalee?”

J.J. couldn’t help it. The bluntness of the question—and the sheer enormity of it—made him laugh.

“I don’t think it’s all that funny,” Cheri snapped, sitting up straight and tugging on her sweater again.

“Neither do I, let me assure you.”

Cheri crossed her arms tight under her chest, then recrossed her legs. J.J. heard loud and clear what the body language was telling him.
Keep your distance. Watch what you say. Don’t you dare lie to me
.

“Let me start with what I will not share with you,” J.J. said.

Cheri rolled her eyes like she was expecting a load of horseshit.

He paid her no mind. “I will not tell you the details of what went on between Tanyalee and me in the privacy of our marriage. I don’t believe that’s right.”

Cheri shifted around on the old kitchen chair. “That’s very noble of you. Go on,” she said.

“What I
will
tell you is this: I did not cheat on her. I did not steal a dime from her. I did not leave because she had a miscarriage. And I never should have married her in the first place.”

Cheri blew air from between her lips. “Should have thought of that before you slept with her.”

J.J. steeled himself. It was bad enough to know the truth in his own heart, but to say it out loud—to Cheri, no less—was going to take some balls.

“As soon as I settled in and started working for Garland, Tanyalee was all over me. She hit on me nonstop for a couple years, and one night I caved. A couple months later…”

Cheri’s eyes flashed at him. She was fighting back tears. He didn’t need to finish that sentence, obviously. Cheri knew exactly what happened a couple months later, because she was part of it. J.J. was in her house and in her bed and Cheri had just started undoing his belt when his cell phone rang.

God, how it sickened him to remember what happened next. Cheri had slipped her slim fingers into his pocket and removed the phone. It was Tanyalee calling. J.J. would never forget the shock and confusion he saw on Cheri’s face as she hit the speaker button and placed the phone on J.J.’s stomach.

He looked at her now, took a deep breath, and decided to continue. “The first thing I did when I got back to Bigler was demand an in vitro paternity test. The baby was mine. And, as you recall, there was a wedding.”

Cheri rocketed up from the chair and ran out to the kitchen. Clearly, she wanted to get as far away from him as possible. J.J. watched her lean on the rounded edge of the old farm sink and drop her head. He stayed quiet, figuring she’d come back when, and if, she was ready. It took a full minute for her to turn around, and when she did, J.J. instinctively jumped to his feet—Cheri was as sad and lonely as he’d ever seen a person.

“Stay there.” She straight-armed her palm toward him. He could see her arm shake. “I gotta say some things.”

J.J. nodded, his hands hanging uselessly at his sides, his heart aching for her.

“You got my sister pregnant,” she said, giggling nervously. “You know, it may sound crazy but I might have been able to get over that … with time … a lot of time.” She stopped and shook her head.

“Cheri—”

“I only spoke to Tanyalee occasionally, you know. She called when you two got engaged, of course, all happy and sparkly and clueless that you’d been with me when she called about the baby.”

I wouldn’t be so sure about that, sweetheart.

“Then later she called to give me the details on the wedding. She also called me to tell me about the miscarriage, and soon after, that you’d filed for divorce.”

J.J. said nothing.

“Tanyalee made you sound like an absolute monster. You can’t
imagine
how hysterical she was, telling me all the horrible things you’d done to her.”

J.J. laughed bitterly. “Oh, I can imagine it just fine.”

Cheri took a deep breath. “Tanyalee said you were bonking several of the Biltmore tour guides the whole time you were together.”

“I was faithful to her.”

“She told me you emptied her trust fund.”

“If her money got itself gone, it sure as hell wasn’t my doing.”

“She said you threw her shit out into the rain! Now I realize she meant
here
! On this property! Which doesn’t even belong to you!”

“Okay, now
that
I did do. So shoot me.”

Cheri rubbed her face with both hands, like she was clearing something away from her eyes. Then she sighed like she was pushing out every last molecule of air in her body. “Tanyalee came to see me the other day. She told me that after the divorce, you told her I’d been calling while y’all were married, trying to get you to leave her.”

The roaring in J.J.’s ears felt like it would shatter his skull.
What the fuck was Tanyalee up to? Was she that insanely jealous of Cheri?

“I did not say that, of course.”

“And she said she lost the baby because she … the stress of—” Cheri choked back a sob. “She said she always suspected we were plotting against her, and the stress made her lose the—”

“Hell no, Cheri!
Fuck,
no!”

Cheri stood stone-still, her breath going too fast. The sweater had fallen away and J.J. could see her tummy quiver under the thin little tank top she wore. She was fighting to keep calm, and doing a far better job than he was, apparently.

J.J. took a step toward her. “No, Cheri. Listen to me, please. She did not lose the baby because of you, or me, or anyone else, or anything that anyone else did or said. That’s a low-down, nasty lie with only one purpose—to hurt you, to hurt you
bad
. I am so sorry she did that. You didn’t deserve it.”

Cheri’s brows knitted together and her mouth tightened. He watched her ball her fists at her sides. “What exactly are you saying, J.J.?”

He took another step closer. “You’ll have to ask Tanyalee what happened. You just need to know with absolute certainty that you aren’t to blame for anything.”

Cheri’s nostrils flared. Her knees shook under the thin pajama pants. “She told me something else.” Cheri stopped, and her rich amber eyes began searching J.J.’s face. “Tanyalee said that you’d never stopped loving me, that you’d always been hung up on me and still are. Was that another lie?”

Her question landed with a thud in the empty room, and J.J.’s mind went blank. Nada. Zilch. Zero. He could think of no way to answer her without all hell breaking loose in his heart and his world. But if he lied, he’d be no better than the likes of Tanyalee.

“Oh, just forget it, J.J.”

“Wait.”

“You should probably go.” Cheri headed toward the front door and reached for the handle.

It was exactly like a few days ago out at Paw Paw Lake. The instant J.J. grabbed her wrist, a wild heat ripped through his brain and body, blinding him to all else but Cheri and what he wanted—needed—now that she’d come back to him.

“Damn, Cheri.”

He pulled her hand from the door and gently turned her arm so that it pressed against the small of her back. J.J stepped into her, molding his body against hers. He held her like that for a moment, fully in his grasp, her eyes locked on his, her lips open as if to dare him to do it, to make it happen, to make it become the only choice either of them had—the only choice they’d
ever
had.

He must not have moved fast enough for Cheri, because she reached up with her free hand and grabbed a hunk of hair at the back of his head, then yanked him down.

Wet, hot, slick, full of lightning and yearning, the kiss was the one thing, the only thing, that kept them tethered to the earth. As his lips danced with hers, J.J. dropped hold of her wrist and slid his arms up and around her body, lifting and pulling her into him so hard that he worried he might hurt her. That thought evaporated as Cheri’s hands gripped the sides of his face, then raced down his throat, then kneaded his chest, all while her mouth moved on his with a ferocious hunger.

They moaned in unison and grabbed at each other like they had to convince themselves the moment was real.

“Cheri, baby.”

Suddenly, her legs were around his waist and her thighs gripped him tighter than a tick on a hound. He slapped his hands on her ass and squeezed, all while managing to turn them both and take a few steps toward the hallway, and the bedroom that lay beyond, just inside the gates of what he knew would be heaven.

Chapter 14

Wim pounded on the door long and loud enough that even a deaf old fart should be able to hear the racket. As he slipped the key in the lock, he hoped to God the drunken bastard hadn’t kicked the bucket. Losing the blackmail payments—even as sporadic as they’d been of late—would put a dent in his cash flow, just when he was in danger of losing his shirt with the lake project.

“Lawson?” Wim shoved at the door only to have it catch on some kind of chain. “What the fuck? Purnell! Open the goddamned door!”

Nothing. As much as Wim hated to scuff his new Gucci tassel loafers, he wasn’t left with much of a choice. He drew back his right foot and kicked the center bottom of the door.

It hurt like shit, but the chain broke away from the wood frame. He hobbled into the small foyer, shut the door behind him, and wandered into the barely lit living room. He gasped at what greeted him.

Dammit to hell! Purnell Lawson was dead, sprawled out on the chair with one arm flung out to the side and booze soaking into the carpet again. Wim figured he couldn’t have been gone long since his skin still had a pinkish cast to it. As much as it pained him to have to deal with hip-hop Halliday, he pulled out his cell phone and began to dial the sheriff’s office.

“Schnorrf!”

Wim nearly pissed himself. The sound Lawson just made must have been some kind of snort in his sleep. With a sigh, Wim slipped his phone back into his pants pocket and tapped his loafer against Lawon’s pants leg. “Git up! I thought you were dead!”

Purnell smacked his lips and waved his hand around like he was chasing off a fly.

“Wake up!”

The old man’s eyes flew open and he tried to right himself in the chair, an ordeal that was painful for Wim to watch. Lawson looked like an old walrus flailing on dry land.

“What the hell do you want? How did you get in here?”

Wim shrugged. “Kicked your door in, you old fucker. Now wake up. We need to talk.”

Lawson groaned loudly and held his face in his hands. “Leave me alone,” he mumbled.

“Not an option.” Wim kicked the old guy in the shin.

“I should just blow your head off,” he slurred.

“Here’s the situation,” Wim said, deciding to cut to it. He didn’t want to stay in this rotten-smelling hole any longer than he absolutely had to. “Four preconstruction contracts fell through today. All after the
Bigler Bungle
started running pictures and sob stories about that little dead slut.”

Purnell make a pathetic croaking sound, face still buried in his hands.

“And at nearly three hundred grand per, we’re looking at a lot of fucking money!
My
money, Lawson! You’re responsible! You got to do something!”

The old pecker shook his head but didn’t raise his eyes. Wim had reached the end of his patience. “Fine,” he said, pulling out his cell phone again. “Who gives a shit, right? I’ll just call Sheriff Snoop Dogg and have him come pick up your sorry ass for murder. It’s long past time somebody went to jail for killing her, right? Hey, maybe I’ll get a reward.”

That got his attention. But instead of looking fearful when he glanced up, Lawson seemed amused. “Even
you
wouldn’t do something that stupid,” he mumbled, shaking his head. “You’re just as guilty as I am, son. If you turn me in, you expose your daddy for the devious, lying blob of spit he was—and yourself for being his idiot accomplice. Then guess what happens?”

Wim began trembling with anger. “What the fuck do you know about anything?”

Lawson laughed hard, his laughter changing to a hacking cough within seconds. “I know you ain’t got the sense God gave a goat, boy, because as soon as you turn me in, your blackmail scheme gets exposed, and every piece of property and every building and every parking lot that dirty money has paid for over the last forty-odd years gets
taken away
. Is that simple enough for you? Now get your ass out of here or I’ll shoot you where you stand.”

Wim’s eyes flew wide as Lawson reached down into the chair cushion and pulled out a handgun.

“Git,” the old man said. “I’m just starting to understand how your daddy stole my life from me—it would only be fair if I took yours.”

“Right,” Wim said, managing a smile while checking that the gun’s safety was still engaged. “Shoot me, you old motherfucker.”

Lawson’s hand shook violently. At this rate, Wim figured he’d be dropping the gun in about three seconds.

“The worst is your kids and grandkids, isn’t it?” Wim continued. “Just imagine how they’ll react to the news that sweet ole Pappy murdered an innocent girl. And what about Garland? Don’t you think when this whole mess unravels it’s gonna kill your best buddy to know how you’ve used him all this time? That you’ve lied and stolen from him half your lives?”

Click.

“Forget it,” Wim said. “You’re useless to me. To everyone.” He turned around and headed for the door, fairly confident Lawson wouldn’t pull the trigger. And even if he did, he’d be shaking too much to hit his mark.

Chapter 15

Cheri’s whole being flooded with raw sexual sensation, painful need, crazy jumbled feelings of love and desire and regret and hope, all while she felt J.J.’s hands tighten their grip on her ass.

His lips were hot, slippery, first rough then achingly tender, then back again. His lips were everything. The feel of his rock-solid waist clasped between her thighs was heaven. The taste of him. The smell of him—it was all just right. And the heat shooting from his body—it had burned through the layers of caution, questions, and common sense. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Cheri told herself she wasn’t being smart, that things weren’t unfolding the way she’d planned—not with J.J., or Tanyalee, or Viv and Granddaddy. Not with the paper. Not with the lake house. Not with the way her heart was cracking open with the force of this place, this little town in the mountains, its memories and ghosts.

By the time Cheri felt her body being laid upon the bed, she told herself she was no victim. This wasn’t all J.J.’s doing. This was something she’d agreed to—no,
demanded
—the second she’d grabbed the man’s hair and pulled his mouth down on hers.

She wouldn’t lie—she wanted this. She’d always wanted this. She’d always wanted J.J.

She’d always belonged to him.

“Cheri,” he mumbled as he dragged his lips up her cheek and over her ear, down her throat, and down into the valley between her breasts.

“Cheri,” he said again, just before he clamped his teeth on the nipple threatening to poke through the worn fabric of her camisole.

“Cheri,” he groaned, as his hands ran the length of her sides and over her hips and across her belly.

“Yes,” she hissed. “Oh, God,
yesss
. Please!”

“You like that, don’t you?” J.J. asked.

“Yes,” she groaned. “I like everything.”

She heard and felt J.J. chuckle. Soon he’d pulled himself up so that his face hovered over hers in the palest light. His fingertips pushed away a sliver of hair that had stuck to her damp cheek.

“You like it when I call you Cheri.” J.J.’s lips curled up when he made that statement—it sure wasn’t a question. “You like it because it reminds you of who you once were and who you are still—a sweet, fun, smart, beautiful, real young woman with a whole lifetime ahead of her.”

Cheri took a gasp of air. She blinked. She stared at J.J.’s face. There was no teasing there, no snarkiness. It was not the face of a man who was toying with her.

It was the face of a man who wanted her to know she was safe, that she could be herself in his company. That she was loved.

“You never answered my question, Jefferson Jackson,” she whispered, feeling her chest and belly tremble with the significance of what she was about to ask. She could hardly believe she had the guts to utter the words—not once, but twice in one night. “So … is it true?” Cheri waited, the breath she needed to ask the full question suddenly not available to her. “Did you—”

“No,” he said.

“No?”

“Absolutely not—I never stopped loving you. Ever.” J.J. ran his fingertips over her bottom lip, then leaned in and nipped that puffy lip with his teeth. “And I never will. You can count on it.”

It wasn’t what she wanted—in fact, she’d fought all night to stop it from happening—but Cheri felt a tear run sideways down her face.

“Ah, baby. You’re crying.”

“What? I am not! I don’t cry.”

J.J. chuckled, leaving a sweet kiss on her lips, then several more along the path taken by her stray tear, from the corner of her eye to her hairline.

“Nothing wrong with a good cry now and again. Cleans away the cobwebs in the heart.”

Cheri felt herself frowning. “You tellin’ me I got cobwebs in my heart?”

J.J. offered her a crooked smile. “Hell, yeah, you do. We all do sometimes.”

“And you’re gonna help me do some spring cleaning?”

J.J. leaned his head back and laughed. “Absolutely. And when we’re done with your heart we’ll get to this place—we’ll paint the walls and find you something to sit on and put your clothes in. It’s not too late to plant some annuals if you want. And you’ve already got a whole mess of irises coming up in the back. Did you see them?”

That’s when she just plain gave up. Cheri let the tears flow until she felt her back spasm and heard her own sobs. It was too much—that J.J. loved her was mind-blowing enough, but that he’d want her to be happy and help her paint and even noticed there were irises in the back? It was all too much.

His arms went around her and slipped under her back. She felt him roll so that she lay on top of him. Cheri buried her face in the crook of J.J.’s neck as he squeezed her tight.

He held her as she cried. Then cried some more.

*   *   *

“I said I’m not in the mood, babe.”

Tanyalee chuckled, nibbling his neck again. “But I know how to get you there real quick-like.”

Wim spun around in his home office chair. “Are you deaf? I said
not tonight
.”

“Well.” Tanyalee straightened and put her hands on her hips. Truly, she could not remember the last time Wim had said no to sex, and she didn’t much like it. Besides, saying no was
her
trump card. “Bad day at the office, honey?”

Wim released a half sigh, half laugh and shook his head. “Are you trying to be funny? Because I assure you, losing four contracts in one day is nothing to laugh at.”

She threw up her hands, disgusted that she’d showered, shaved, and reapplied her eyeliner for
this
crap. “Excuse me for bothering you.” She turned to go.

“Ah, shit, Tanyalee. Come back here.”

“No, that’s all right, honey,” she said, producing a sad little pout, which she accented with a sexy arch of her back nicely framed by the doorway. “I know how important business is to you, Wim.”

“Come back here.”

She shook her head sadly. “Really, I understand. I’ll just head on to bed.”

“
Goddammit
, Tanyalee.”

“Good night then, honey.”

He was on her in a flash, pressing her against the doorjamb and nuzzling her neck like a piglet looking for a teat. Sometimes, she just had to laugh at the man. It had been disgustingly easy to train Wim Wimbley. He was as complex as a road sign. As unpredictable as sunrise. Once she finally agreed to go out with him—after damn near a decade of his begging and pleading—it required about two minutes of effort on her part to figure him out. It took two days for him to offer her a job, two weeks to pledge his unwavering devotion, and two months to propose with a two-carat marquise-cut diamond. Obviously, a man like that wouldn’t be much of a challenge for a woman with her skills, but real property, interest-bearing investments, and cash on hand made up for a multitude of inadequacies.

“Oh, Wim,” she breathed, rubbing her left thigh against his chief inadequacy.

“Don’t be mad at me, baby,” he said, sticking his tongue in her ear.

Oh, she fuckin’
hated
when he did that, but she was stuck with it now, because on their second date he’d stuck his tongue in her ear and got so excited he nearly unloaded his ammo right then and there.
“Do you like that, baby?”
he’d cooed.
“Oh, yes, Wim! Do it again!”
she’d cried. And so here she was, four months down the road, his tongue still wiggling in her ear like a slug on the sidewalk.

“Are you mad, baby?”

“Of course not, Wim.”

“Good, because I have to get back to work.”

“What?”

“Sorry.” He kissed her cheek and patted her bottom before he headed back to his desk chair.

I can’t believe it
.

“I’m so pissed at that fuckin’ DeCourcy that I wouldn’t be any good for you tonight, anyway.”

Don’t laugh, don’t laugh
. Tanyalee bit down on her tongue in an attempt to prevent the slightest escape of sound. Had that fool just admitted he wouldn’t be good in bed? And had he just mentioned himself, sex, and J.J. DeCourcy in the same sentence? God, but that was screamingly funny.

By the time Wim glanced over his shoulder to check her reaction, Tanyalee had assumed a position of sympathy—head tilted to the side, brow wrinkled, hands clasped demurely at her front. “What did J.J. do now, honey?”

“The same ole shit. The stories he’s running on that dead bitch are getting picked up by big-city newspapers and TV stations. Right in my target markets! Atlanta! Raleigh-Durham! Charleston! Charlotte!”

“That jerk.”

“I know! I’m spending a fortune marketing the fantasy of unspoiled Smoky Mountain retirement living to people sick of crime and rap music and urban decay and he’s blabbering to the world about our dead bodies and ghosts and murder mysteries! He’s hell-bent on ruining me!”

“He’s a lying, cheating loser, honey. Just ignore him.”

Wim swiveled around in his chair to face her again. “I damn sure wish you hadn’t fucked it up with Garland the way you did. Maybe you’d be able to convince him to drop the subject, just stop covering the story altogether.”

Tanyalee had never been so close to whopping Weenie Wimbley upside his hair-sprayed head. “Really?” she said, folding her arms over her chest. “So it’s my fault that J.J. turned my own granddaddy against me? It’s my fault Granddaddy won’t listen to anything I tell him about J.J., and never will? It’s my fault that J.J. has convinced Granddaddy that he’s the Jesus of Journalism and not the cold-blooded bastard who ruined his favorite granddaughter’s life?”

Wim blinked in surprise, then chuckled. “Tanyalee, darlin’, you alienated your granddaddy all by yourself. He doesn’t trust you because of the shoplifting, the check kiting, the computer hacking, and how you forged his signature on that credit application. He pressed charges against you for that, remember?”

Tanyalee felt the heat flare up from her chest and spread over her neck and face.
Oh, no, he did not just go there.

“Besides,” Wim said, letting his gaze roam up and down her body, stopping momentarily on the sparkler that adorned her left hand. “You look pretty well-heeled for a ‘ruined’ girl.”

Tanyalee’s mouth fell open in shock. Wim had never spoken to her in this manner. In the past, he’d always taken her side when it came to the Newberrys. Or J.J. Or the incompetent Sheriff Halliday. And the fucked-up court system. And her idiot probation officer. And the whole Bigler rumor mill that had besmudged her good name. And now he was turning on her? Like everyone else?

“Oh.” She made her voice as small and vulnerable as possible. “I see how it is. Good night, Wim.”

By the time Tanyalee made it halfway down the hall, she realized Wim wasn’t going to call after her or beg for the chance to smooth things over. As she proceeded down the central staircase, her eyes began to sting, probably from the blinding light splashing off the Swarovski crystal chandelier. Sometimes this new house seemed too bright, too clean, too perfect, too big. Sometimes she hated it. Like she hated Wim. And every fucking thing in her life.

Tanyalee grabbed her keys and purse from the foyer table. She got into her Mercedes coupe and started the engine.

Sometimes, the disgust and the rage got so hot inside her head that she felt like killing someone with her fists. Or running over somebody in the road. Or beating somebody’s face against a big ole tree trunk.

Her head began to throb. Her eyeballs felt like hard rocks. She wondered if this is what it felt like to have a stroke. Then about a mile down the road, it hit her—and she began to laugh uncontrollably.

Everything had been going just dandy last week! She was planning her wedding and honeymoon. She’d convinced Wim that a prenup wasn’t necessary. She’d smoothed over the prickly spots with Viv and Garland as best as she could. J.J. DeCourcy was nothing but a distant—albeit hot—memory. But most importantly, last week her damn sister was five hundred miles
g-o-n-e
.

Tanyalee took a right at Randall Road and headed up the hill. She wasn’t sure what she’d say to Cheri when she got there. There were so many options, of course. Tanyalee could remind Cheri that it was her fault their parents died. She could mention that Viv always loved her more. She could point out that Cheri’s money didn’t make her better than her sister, who, after all, would soon be rich herself. And she could remind Cheri which Newberry sister J.J. DeCourcy had married, and which sister had carried his child—if even temporarily.

Tanyalee Marie Newberry,
that’s who.