Monkey Wrench (28 page)

As if guessing where her thoughts had traveled, Joe said, “She never lived here, you know. I came to Tyler after she died.”

“But—”

“We can talk about Marie, if you like.” Joe pulled her to the bed and sat down on the quilt, drawing Susannah beside him, thigh to thigh. “I know I've allowed my wife's death to
shape the way I am now. I'm bossy and overprotective and a lot of other things—maybe to make up for the way things happened with Marie. I always felt as if I could have helped her.”

“Joe, don't beat yourself up.”

“I know, I know. I shouldn't feel guilty, but I do, and I overcompensate sometimes. But getting to know you, Susannah, has taught me that I can't be the one who makes all the decisions.”

“She was such a big part of your life.”

“Yes, and that part's not over—not while Gina's still here. But I'm ready to start again, Susannah. With you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Are
you
sure?”

She smiled. “Of course. I trust you.”

“Even though you haven't known me long?” He brushed her hair back from her shoulder so he could see her expression better.

“I feel as though I've known you forever. We clicked, almost from the first.”

“Despite a few complications along the way.”

“But I've felt comfortable with you all along,” Susannah insisted, resting one hand uneasily on his knee. “It's my own feelings that upset me. I'm at such a crossroads, it seems. I'm afraid.”

“Of living?”

“Maybe.” Susannah took a breath. “You're so full of vitality. You take risks and enjoy every moment. You're like Granny Rose that way. I wish I could be like that, but I...”

“You can be like that.” Joe leaned closer. He nibbled her earlobe and murmured, “Let me into your life, Susannah.”

“What if I bore you?”

He laughed softly. “Not a chance.”

Anxiously, Susannah staved off his hand before he could touch her and asked, “What if I'm not good enough? What if I can't please you?”

“Don't talk nonsense,” he said.

“Joe...”

“Shut up,” he said amicably, already unfastening the top button on her dress. “There's just one thing you need to know.”

“What's that?”

“I love you.” He kissed her mouth and whispered again, “I love you, Susannah.”

Her heart turned over at the sound of his melodic voice rolling those three wonderful words out, and she kissed him back, lifting her hands to his face to make the kiss last forever. As the first dizzying sensations of desire washed over her, she was hardly aware that he finished unbuttoning her dress. He pulled it from her shoulders slowly, as if unveiling a treasure. Then he sat back and warmed Susannah with his gaze.

“You're so lovely, Suzie. Sometimes I feel like a big ox when I'm with you.”

She loosened his tie and began to unfasten his shirt. His jacket came off first, then the shirt, and finally he was barechested. Susannah kissed his cheek first, then his neck before moving down his chest. She swiped her tongue naughtily across his flat male nipples, conscious that his breathing stopped and his grip tightened on her. His skin was taut over hard muscle—evidence of the labor he performed every day. Caressing him first with feathery touches, Susannah soon moved to unfasten his belt.

Long minutes later, Joe looked more like a Roman god than ever before in the golden glow of firelight. Seeing him in his beautiful natural state, Susannah suddenly wanted to be naked, too. She forget to be shy about her body, and didn't care if Joe found the dimples on her knees. Together, they stripped off the rest of her clothing and then fell across the bed, entwined and feverish.

“Darling,” he murmured. “Do you know how much I want you?”

“If this is any indication,” she whispered back, touching him, “it's no secret.”

“Oh, God, don't do that or we'll be finished before we start!”

“Do you like that? And this, maybe?”

Joe groaned and rolled over, pinning Susannah to the quilt and forcing her to stop the caresses that were almost too much for him. He began to kiss her all over, trailing his mouth along her skin as if enjoying a rich dessert. “You're so beautiful, Susannah. So sexy. I can't believe I've waited this long to have you.”

“It's been agony for me, too,” she said, slipping her fingers into his thick hair and arching her back to meet his kisses. “Do you know how close I came to asking you to drive us to Milwaukee?”

“Milwaukee?” He lifted his head and stared at her. “In heaven's name, why?”

“Because we could have used my apartment. My bed. We could have been alone and—”

He feigned anger. “You witch, why didn't you say so? You mean we could have been making love all week?”

“Well, it's more than an hour away by car and—”

“It would have been worth the drive, don't you think?”

Susannah gasped as he caressed her with new intimacy. “Oh, yes,” she sighed.

His smile was wicked and he coaxed her body with gentle, rhythmical fingertips. “Have you truly wanted me?”

She smiled through lazy-lidded eyes as he increased the tension by running his left hand over her skin and following the caresses with his lips. “Yes.” She could hardly breathe, let alone speak, but she forced the words out. “I couldn't admit it, though—not even to myself—until just a few days ago. I thought I was past all this nonsense.”

“Nonsense?” He nipped her earlobe.

“I did. But now I...oh, Joe, please don't stop doing that.” She shuddered with pleasure, closing her eyes at the tide of sensations that washed up from within. Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around Joe's lean hips, and he settled against her with a hungry growl. “Oh, Joe.”

There was little talking after that—just a cry or a moan that communicated everything they had to know. Susannah felt as if the fire had leaped up and consumed them. The flickering light bathed Joe's body in an unearthly glow, and her own flesh felt as if it might burst into flame at any moment. She gave herself up to the delights Joe introduced, wantonly begging for more when he teasingly withheld his favors and brazenly prolonged his wait when he growled his readiness to take her completely.

At last they became one flesh and, absurdly, Susannah found herself weeping and laughing with the wonder of their union. Joe whispered sweet nothings in her ear, tenderly rocking until her mind was deliciously full of nothing but exquisite pleasures. When her climax came, it shook Susannah to her very core.

“Oh, Joe, I love you!”

The words drove him over the edge of sanity. A mad moment later, Joe exploded in a tremendous shudder of joy. Exhausted yet rejuvenated in spirit, they clung to each other, sharing a heartbeat and a long, liquid kiss.

A lifetime later, they were properly tucked into the bedclothes together and sharing a glass of wine. As the cool liquid eased down her throat, Susannah wondered if she'd ever felt so content. So satisfied. So loved.

“I adore you,” she murmured to him, nestling her head on his chest and trailing her hand down his belly. “I may never get enough of you, Joe Santori.”

“We have a long time to find out,” he replied, toying with her hair and drinking deeply from the wineglass. Then he set the glass on the nightstand and pulled Susannah under the covers again for another bout of erotic caresses. Afterward, they lay talking for hours. Joe spoke about Marie again, and Susannah listened carefully. He had grieved, she realized, but she felt he was right—Joe
was
ready to start again. The fire burned low and the bottle on the nightstand slowly emptied, and Susannah felt as if she'd never been so close to another human being before in her life.

At last, Susannah peered at the alarm clock beside the bed. “It's after one o'clock. I should go home.”

“Spend the night,” Joe urged.

“We may not get another chance like this for a long time,” she murmured, drawing whorls in the crisp hair on his chest. “But I shouldn't stay.”

“Your grandmother will be shocked.”

“You might be surprised where she's concerned,” Susannah said with a smile. “She's very fond of you. But just the same, I think I'll go.”

Joe agreed and kissed her once more, then climbed out of bed and pulled Susannah to her feet.

They were dressing when the doorbell rang downstairs.

Joe straightened abruptly from pulling on his boots. “Who in the world?”

Gina,
Susannah thought.
Something's happened to Gina.

She didn't say that, but she could see the same thought on Joe's face. He left the room without a word, still shirtless, and clattered down the steps to answer the door.

Hastily, Susannah finished dressing, then tiptoed to the top of the stairs. She was astonished to hear Roger Selby's voice in the downstairs hall.

“She's here, isn't she?” Roger asked, his voice strained and awkward sounding.

“Hold on, Selby. What's the problem?”

“I need to see Susannah,” Roger stated brusquely. “There's been an accident.”

At the word
accident
Susannah started down the stairs immediately. It was suddenly not important that Joe was half-dressed and she herself was on the second floor. Any fool could see what was going on.

“Roger, what's wrong?” She clutched the handrail for dear life. Her imagination was already boiling with possibilities and she said, “Has something happened to Granny Rose?”

“She's had a heart attack,” Roger said curtly.

Susannah felt her heart freeze, and she sat down abruptly on the steps, too dizzy to stand.

Joe clutched Roger's coat as if ready to punish him for being so cruel. “Blast you, Selby, cut the dramatics and tell us everything before I wring your neck.”

“There's no need for threats, Santori. While you two have been cozying up here doing God knows what, your grandmother, Susannah, has had a heart attack. One of the neighbors found her in a snowbank and called an ambulance. She's at the hospital.”

“She—she's alive?” Susannah could barely whisper.

“For the moment,” Roger said. “Come on, Susannah. I'll take you to the hospital.”

She felt as if she were swimming in Joe's dark eyes, but it didn't help the pang of guilt. Nor did the pressure of his hand on hers or the quick kiss he gave her temple to tell her that he understood. There was no need for words. Joe grabbed her coat from the closet and helped her into it. Roger opened the front door and waited, letting a blast of cold air into the house.

Susannah rushed into the night.

She endured an interminable ride to the hospital with Roger, who summarized the situation as best he could.

“You'll have to speak to the doctor for the whole story,” he said. “They wouldn't tell me much. I've been scouring the whole town trying to find you tonight.”

Susannah flushed. If only she'd known Granny Rose was so sick!

Roger dropped her off at the front door, and Susannah rushed into the hospital alone while he parked the car. The intensive-care unit in Tyler's hospital had only three beds, and Granny Rose was the sole patient. The nurses were sympathetic and kind.

“She's resting now,” the head nurse explained to Susannah outside the room. “The doctor's been checking on her every hour, and we watch her monitors like hawks.”

“Thank you. May I go in?”

“We can bend the rules, I think.” The nurse smiled reassuringly. “Don't wake her.”

“Is she...” Susannah was almost afraid to ask. “How bad was it?”

“The doctor who admitted her should give you that information. But at your grandmother's age...well, it didn't help that she spent so much time in the snow. The results of hypothermia in a patient her age—”

“What was she doing outside?” Susannah cried. “I left her in the house. I can't imagine... Oh, I should have stayed at home tonight. I should have...oh, dear.”

The nurse patted Susannah's arm. “Don't let the guilt eat you up. You couldn't have prevented anything. And we're taking good care of her now.”

Susannah nodded and tried to pull herself together. Then she went into the hospital room to sit with her grandmother.

In the big bed, Granny Rose looked appallingly small and her face papery. An obscenely fat plastic tube had been fastened to her nose, and a bottle of some medication was dripping from an IV stand into her thin arm. Susannah choked back a sob at the sight.

But she didn't waken her grandmother. She tiptoed to the edge of the bed and sat down in a stiff plastic chair. Then she began a long vigil—of watching Granny Rose breathe and trying not to cry.

Please don't let her die,
Susannah prayed.
She's such a vibrant woman. She's still so young—young at heart. Don't take her yet. I'm just learning the lessons she tried to teach me.

The night crawled along, and Susannah's only company was the equipment that monitored her grandmother's life. The beeps sounded terribly weak. The thin liquids that seeped into Granny Rose's arm seemed inadequate. Susannah's fear grew as the hours stretched into a dim winter morning.

The doctor arrived at 6:00 a.m., and it was Jeff Baron, Liza's brother. He knew Rose well indeed. He spoke with Susannah in hushed tones.

“I won't kid you,” he said softly. “Your grandmother has
had a severe heart attack. Has she been under unusual strain lately?”

Susannah nodded miserably. “We've had a busy week.”

“Getting ready for Christmas, I suppose?”

“Yes, but she saw Dr. Phelps. He was going to give her more tests.”

“She's had some severe arrhythmia problems, I understand. Well, that sort of thing can escalate into a heart attack if left untreated.”

“Why didn't he treat her, then?”