Rush of Redemption (Rush Series #2) (5 page)

“What’s wrong? Are you
feeling okay?” he asked.

She glanced up and gave him
an unconvincing smile. “I’m good, just a little headache.”

“Did you take your
medication?”

“I can’t while I’m
nursing,” she replied.

He watched again as she
absently pushed the food around. “There’s something else. What is it?” he
demanded softly.

He watched her throat
contract as she swallowed and looked away from his gaze. “I saw my father’s
picture in the paper today.”

He blinked rapidly as he
tried to pair her upturned emotions to her words. “I saw it as well. The
Ludlow/Donaldson case might prove to be a heated one for him as a Judge,” Rush
replied.

“I… spoke to him today,”
she said in a quiet rush.

His jaw clenched and he
stared at her for a long moment before responding. “I thought you didn’t have
any contact with him.”

Slowly she shook her head
as she watched the noodles on her plate swirl beneath her fork. “I thought… I
don’t know… I guess I wanted him to know he was a grandfather,” she lifted her
eyes, pleading for him to understand.

With his chest tightening,
he asked, “What did he say?”

She rose without answering
and scraped her non-eaten food into the garbage disposal and carefully set her
plate in the sink. With her back to him to hide her hurt, she replied with a
shrug, “He… told me congratulations. But I’d caught him at a bad time… that
we’d have to catch up at another time.”

Rush swore softly,
“Son-of-a-bitch!”

“It’s not his fault,
really. I was the one who refused contact. I… I just wanted… I don’t 
know,
 something…” she trailed off quietly.

Rush sat for a moment,
taking in her slumped shoulders as she absently ran her fingers under the flow
of water from the faucet. He rose and pulled her back firmly against his body
while wrapping his arms around her. He nuzzled his face against her hair. “You
wanted your dad. I get it. I just wish he’d have understood that. I’m sorry,
honey.”

A lone tear slipped from
under her lashes as she slowly shook her head. “It’s not even that, I’m really
missing my mom… miss having a normal family, more than I have in years. I find
myself thinking about her… dreaming about her.”

He pulled her with him to
the chair and sat her carefully on his lap and tugged her once more into his
warm embrace. He rested his cheek against her head and stroked her back in
comfort. “I know, baby, I know. 
Me, too.
 When
I look at Blake’s little face, I know my parents would have gotten such a kick
out of seeing him. I think it’s only natural to want to share a joy this
profound with others you love.”

“Has your grandfather asked
to see the baby?” she asked tentatively.

Tensing a little at her
words, and wanting to deflect any landmines, he replied, “Not since he saw him
at the hospital.”

She nodded, relief flooding
her at his words. After everything that had happened, she didn’t trust Rush’s
grandfather. After a long minute, she said, “Can I ask you a personal
question?”

“Anything,” he replied.

“Do you think your dad knew
your mom was having an affair with James Franklin?”

She felt him stiffened
beneath her. Immediately, she said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

He exhaled slowly. “I don’t
know if he knew or not,” he finally said. “They always seemed so happy to me. I
asked my grandfather and he said he’d known, but didn’t think my dad did. I
hope for his sake, he didn’t.”

“That had to be so hard for
you to lose them both, so close together.”

She felt him swallow hard
before he rubbed his face against her hair. “I hated him,” he said gruffly.

“Who?
 James Franklin?”

“No… my
father.
 I blamed him all those years for what
happened. I didn’t know about the Embassy Fund or… about my mother and James
Franklin. Up until last year, I thought my father had been consorting with
prostitutes and my mother killed herself because of the shame.”

She wrapped her arms around
him and nuzzled her face into his neck. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered as guilt
over her father’s role in his parents’ demise clutched her heart in its steely
grasp.

He shrugged. “It was a long
time ago,” he murmured.

After several moments of
silence, he pulled her up and placed his hands around her face. With extreme
gentleness, he kissed her. Pulling back, he smiled and brushed her hair away
from her face with tender fingers. “Tomorrow, after work, we are leaving Blake
with my housekeeper, Anna, and are going out on a date… just you and me.”

She began to shake her
head, but he caught her jaw in his hand, stopping her motion. “Yes, we are.
We’ve been home three 
weeks,
 Blake will be
fine for a couple of hours with Anna. You can trust her, I promise. We’ll leave
all our phone contact information with her. But it’s important to me that we do
this. Okay?”

“I don’t know…” she trailed
off.

“Well, I do know. So
tomorrow, be ready for the town by seven o’clock.”

She looked unconvinced
before slowly nodding her 
acquiesce
.

Chapter Four

When Rush arrived at the condo with the promised Anna in tow, it
was to find the condo dark and quiet. A knot began to form in his belly as he
motioned for Anna to wait at the door while he moved quickly through the rooms.
He found Blake asleep in his crib. He had to fight the urge to pick him up and
hug him close. Anxiety skidded over his skin. With urgency he moved stealthily
to the bedroom. He quietly opened the door. He stood for a minute letting his
eyes get accustom to the darkness. As his eyes adjusted, he saw a movement on
the bed. Moving rapidly to sit on the side of the bed, he switched on the
bedside light.

Trinity was curled up on
her side, snuggled into a pillow, asleep. She was dressed in the same royal
blue silk dress she’d worn the first time he’d seen her, minus the shoes, which
Rush could now see beside the bed. Relief had him exhaling softly. He smiled
that she’d worn this dress for him, the dress that he’d longed to pull from her
body. His throat constricted as he brushed the back of his fingers softly
against her cheek. She was just so beautiful. His heart swelled as he gazed
down into her smooth features. She was back in his life and had given him the
most amazing gift. He knew he didn’t deserve either of them. Not being able to
help himself, he leaned forward and pressed his lips softly against her brow.
She stirred and forced open her sleep-heavy eyes. Her immediate smile at seeing
him crashed into a frown as she realized she’d fallen asleep.

She sat up quickly. “I’m so
sorry. I was getting a headache and was only going to lie down for just a
minute.”

He brushed her loosed dark
hair behind her ear. “No problem. I’m sorry for waking you. You looked so sweet
and I couldn’t resist.” He studied her intently before leaning forward to press
his lips against hers. Emotion so raw and so big gripped him hard. He pulled
back to stare down into her upturned face. “I love you, you know that, right?”

Her smile made his heart
catch in his chest. “Yes, but I still like hearing you say it,” she replied.

He continued to stare down
at her with such intensity, she blushed. His heart began to pound in his chest
and he inhaled deeply. She tilted her head and gave him a curious smile. He
reached for her hands before he slipped down to his knees onto the carpeted
floor. He pulled her until she was sitting on the edge of the bed. He allowed
her left hand to fall as he reached his right hand into his pants pocket.
Pulling an antique, black velvet box from his pocket, he snapped open the lid
revealing an opulent solitaire diamond ring. She lifted a hand to her lips as
she gasped.

“I was going to do this
right this time and give you this over dinner, but I don’t want to wait.
Trinity 
Allura
 Grace, you have made my life
complete. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?” he asked softly.

With glassy eyes, she
grasped his exquisite face in her hands and kissed him. She pulled back and
stroked her fingers over the angles of his features.

“Is that a yes?” he asked
with a smile.

“Asked and answered,” she
murmured as she slid down into his arms.

He wrapped his arms around
her and held her tight against his massive chest. “I love you, Trinity. You
make me so happy,” he murmured against her hair. She pulled away and sat back
on the bed. He removed the ring from the box and slipped it on her finger.
“This was my grandmother’s.”

Trinity felt a little of
her happiness seep away. She didn’t know if she wanted anything associated with
his family. She chided herself… wasn’t she now his family? Besides, this was
his 
grandmother’s,
 she’d not had anything to
do with what had happened in the past.

“It’s beautiful,” she
murmured.

“Do you feel up to going
out to dinner?” he asked.

“Just let me grab my shoes
and a wrap.”

He took her back to the little Italian restaurant they’d visited before
but had left before they’d had a chance to sample their cuisine. He pulled her
chair out, and after she was seated, he pressed a soft kiss against her head.
He couldn’t seem to go very long without touching her. It made her feel secure
and loved. Instead of sitting directly across from her, he moved his chair so
that their knees touched underneath the table. The waiter came by and brought
them water, but Rush refused the wine list, knowing she couldn’t drink while
she was nursing. A soft smile curled her full red lips as she stared in awe at
the amazingly superb man beside her. While their beginning might have been
flawed, she found herself beginning to trust him. Feeling the weight of her
stare, he lifted his sexy
hazely
-green eyes, trimmed
with those ostentatiously long, dark eyelashes that most women would kill to
possess.

His lips curled into a wry
smile. “You can’t keep looking at me like that. I’m hanging on by a thread,
here. I want you so much that you probably won’t even make it past your doctor’s
lobby once he gives the go-ahead.”

“Just a few more weeks,”
she promised with a grin.

As she’d seen so many times
in their past together, she watched his face fall from fun and sexy, to that
dreaded somber expression she detested.

“What’s the matter?”

She watched the column of
his throat move as he swallowed hard. He placed a less than steady hand against
her face. “I still can’t believe you’re here… with me. I can’t believe you’re
wearing my ring and have agreed to share your life with me. It’s just… too
much. It’s so much, it scares me. Can anyone really ever have it all? 
A beautiful wife?
 
An amazing son?
 
The perfect life?
 I keep waiting for the other shoe to
drop… does that sound horribly morbid and pessimistic?”

“No,” she replied softly.
“I feel exactly the same way.”

He leaned forward and
pressed his lips against hers softly. Someone clearing their throat had him
pulling away slowly and reluctantly. As if he couldn’t bear to draw his stare
away from Trinity’s, it took him a moment to realize who was standing next to
their table. Internally, he groaned, but slid on a mask of passivity once he
actually saw the person, Tonia McAllister, the woman he’d been out with the
night he’d seen Trinity at the French restaurant. Beside him, he felt Trinity
flinch.

“Well, well, look who we
have here. I thought for sure since you didn’t call, 
as you promised
,
that you’d been in a horrible accident. But no, here you sit with the woman who
rudely interrupted our dinner,” Tonia snarled.

Rush’s
jaw clenched.
 “Tonia, I’d like you
to meet my fiancée, Trinity Grace.”

Tonia inhaled sharply and
audibly at his words. “Fiancée?” she gasped, as the man who’d been walking with
her grabbed her arm and moved her away from their table.

The previous glow Trinity
had felt ebbed away. Memories of sitting in that restaurant alone and seeing
Rush leaning into the beautiful woman came rushing back… all the insecurity…
all the isolation… all the loss. Instead of thinking of all her recently gained
memories, all she could imagine was Rush running his hands, his lips, and his
body over the woman… over all the other women. She lifted her water goblet to
her lips and sipped while she tried to block the ravishing woman from her mind.

But the feelings of
insecurity continued to swamp her. Standing quickly, she said, “Excuse me.”
From the corner of her eye she saw Rush stand and reach out a hand to restrain
her, but she ignored it as she made her way to the restroom. The restroom was
occupied. Trinity sat down on the chaise 
lounger
 outside
the door as she waited. She pushed her hair out of her face.

“Trinity?”