Sinful Attraction (13 page)

Chapter 17

“C
harles?” Claudia stared down at her brother’s still face, which had little more color than the pillow it rested on. Well, except for his swollen right eye, which was sporting several vivid colors of the rainbow, and the inflamed red edges of the sutured cut beneath the bandage on his forehead. “Can you hear me? Charles? Wake up for me.”

Resting her arms on the bed’s rail, she looked across Charles’s body to Marcus and Judah, both of whom were watching Charles with concern. Marcus glanced up, caught her gaze and flashed her a reassuring smile.

“It’s okay, beauty. He may not wake up right now with the sedatives and painkillers. We’ll just wait while he sleeps—”

Charles turned his head in her direction. “Claudia?” he murmured groggily.

Oh, thank God!
Claudia cupped his cheek, soothing him. “I’m here, Charles.”

Charles’s eyes fluttered. “I’m...not dead?”

“No,” Claudia said sharply. “No thanks to you, though. D’you think Mum and I raised you all those years so you could do something stupid like run a car into a pole? What would she say if she was here right now, Charles? Her heart would be broken!”

Charles’s eyes flicked open. “Save...the lecture,” he said, licking his dry lips.

Oh, wasn’t this rich? Claudia glared down at him, furious all over again at the ruin of a beautiful young man who’d had everything going for him until he threw it all away. Charles looked even worse than he had the last time she saw him, with his yellow skin stretched tight over his skull and dipping into the sharp hollows beneath his cheeks, like death warmed over in a microwave.

“I will not save the lecture!” she cried. “And I hope the sound of my angry voice makes your stupid head hurt even worse than it already does—”

“I almost hit...a man,” Charles said quietly.

“—because it’s no more than you deserve— Wait,
what?
”

Charles swallowed hard and blinked, sending tears down both his temples. “An older man...came out from between these two...parked cars. He had on a...dark jacket. It was dark, but not too dark. He was just there, suddenly, and I—”

Charles broke off and began to sob the kind of messy, racking sobs that grown men rarely allowed themselves, covering his face with an IV-laden arm.

Claudia’s anger evaporated, leaving only heartbreak, and that was before she looked across the bed and saw that Judah was also sobbing quietly, his face buried in his hands. Marcus, looking pained, put a hand on Judah’s shoulder and squeezed, offering his silent support. Claudia, feeling clumsy and ineffectual, rubbed Charles’s arm and murmured to him.

“It’s okay,” she tried. “It’ll be okay—”

“And so I swerved, at the last second, you know,” Charles continued, his words choked and broken, “and that’s when I hit the pole. But I nearly hit the man! I swear I felt the car clip his leg!”

“There was no one, Charles,” she soothed. “The police didn’t see anyone.”

“I should’ve offed myself!” Charles, who was growing more agitated by the second, dropped his arm and stared up at her with his ruined face. “That would be better, wouldn’t it? I should’ve hit the pole a little harder, and then you wouldn’t be here, looking at me like that—”

“Don’t say that, Charles! You’re my brother! I love you!”

“Why?” Charles gaped at her, utterly serious. “What’s to love?”

“I think,” Judah said slowly, startling Charles, who turned his head and discovered him and Marcus standing on the other side of his bed for the first time, “that there’s a diamond in there.” He tapped a ringed finger to Charles’s chest. “We just need to get it detoxed and polished up a bit. But diamonds are always worth saving, man.”

“Claudia.” Charles turned his wide-eyed gaze back to her. “What the bloody hell is Judah Cross doing in my hospital room? Am I hallucinating?”

“No.” Shooting Judah a warning look lest he decide to make any more bombshell announcements tonight, Claudia focused on her brother. “We came from his auction straight to the hospital. He’s a, ah, friend.”

“Brilliant.” Charles’s eyes began to droop with exhaustion. “Maybe he can recommend a rehab for me to go to. I seem to need one.”

“You got it, Charlie.” Judah awkwardly patted Charles’s shoulder. “You got it.”

“Don’t...call me Charlie,” Charles said, and went quiet.

After a nervous minute or two of eyeballing him and making sure he was sleeping comfortably, Marcus spoke up.

“Why don’t I take you home for some sleep, Claudia? It’s late.”

“I’m not leaving,” she said flatly.

“You need the rest, baby,” Marcus tried again.

“Not. Leaving.” Claudia marched away from the bed and plunked herself down on the sofa. Judah had flashed his titanium credit card and arranged for a suite for Charles, which included a seating area, another bed and, yes, a kitchenette. It paid to be a rock god, even if you were a sorry excuse for a man who’d abandoned your children. “There’s no reason for the two of you to stay, though. I’ll be fine.”

Marcus opened his mouth to argue.

“You’d better let her be, man,” Judah interjected as the men followed her to the sitting area. “Cross women are notoriously hardheaded.”

One arrested second passed while Claudia ran that back in her mind, then she erupted, not caring if she woke Charles and the whole floor. “I am not a Cross woman! And you are not my father! You’ve made that perfectly clear for the last thirty-odd years, haven’t you, Judah!”

“Yeah,” Judah said sadly, slumping into a chair near her while Marcus blended into the shadows, giving them a moment. “I have.”

“Well, then, you don’t get to suddenly show up and announce that you’re here! No. Correction. You don’t get to engineer a whole auction scenario, pretend to be a client for several months and
then
announce who you are! Because that’s what you did, didn’t you? And this whole time I foolishly thought you wanted me for my rare-book knowledge! Well, the more fool me, eh?”

Judah bowed his head. “It was a terrible plan. I admit it. I didn’t know what else to do. I was going to get to know you for a long time—a year or two, maybe—and get to know Charles... Hell, I don’t know. There’s no rule for showing up in your grown kids’ lives. All I know is I didn’t want to tell you like this—”

“Well, why the hell did you?”

“Because—” Judah met her gaze straight on, with no apologies “—you’re my daughter. I love you. I’m proud of you. I don’t want to hide it anymore. I’m done pretending. And I damn sure wasn’t going to let you go through this alone.”

“Why not?” Claudia didn’t bother trying to keep a lid on her tears or rising hysteria. “You let us go through our entire lives alone, didn’t you?
Didn’t you?
”

Marcus edged closer. “Maybe this isn’t the time, Judah,” he said tiredly.

“This
is
the time!” Claudia shrieked. “This is exactly the time! He’s got some explaining to do and I’ve got nothing but time! So you talk, Judah—do you understand me? You peel back those bloody layers! It’s your turn!”

Marcus hovered, looking uncertain.

Judah managed a gentle smile and stared off into the distance with an unfocused gaze. “I met your mother after a concert in London. I saw her in the audience, and the second I looked her in the eyes, well... How much detail do you want here, Claudia?”

Claudia gaped at him, tears forgotten as they dried on her cheeks. “Are you telling me my mother, the barrister’s secretary, was a
groupie?
”

“No, no,” Judah said quickly. “But she and I—” He shook his head and whistled low. “Well, we had some serious chemistry, and we didn’t try to fight it.”

“We know what that’s like, don’t we, Claudia?” Marcus murmured.

Claudia twisted to shout at him. “You will
not
take his side! You will
not
make this easy on him! Understood?”

Marcus held his hands up in a gesture of surrender and moved away.

“Anyway,” Judah continued, “we got together. She toured with me. We broke up. We got back together. We blew up when we were together and melted down when we were apart. And then I cheated on her—well, I slept with everything that moved back then, but this time she found out about it—and she didn’t want to have anything to do with me. And I couldn’t get through to her, no matter what I tried. And it’s hard to try when you’re always on world tour.” He swiped at a tear. “She was pregnant with you. I didn’t know.”

“Oh,” Claudia said faintly.

“Being stupid, I retaliated by getting married—”

“Was that the third time?” Claudia asked, scrunching her face to remember what she’d read.

“Fifth.” Judah hung his head, rested his elbows on his knees and sighed. “I saw her one last time when my sixth marriage was breaking up. A last hurrah in London, at the Ritz.”

“Oh, God,” Claudia muttered.

“It was damn good, though.” Judah smiled at some sweet memory. “That’s where Charles came from. I remember your mother wore this—”

“Okay, that’s enough!” Claudia said quickly. “I don’t need to know every detail. And where was I during this lovefest?”

“With your grandmother,” Judah said.

“Oh.”

Judah slumped back, rested his head on the sofa’s cushions and closed his eyes. “She never told me about the two of you. Until she died, and there was a letter she’d written me. Her lawyer sent it after her funeral.”

Claudia glared at him and crossed her arms over her chest, not at all certain how she felt about this explanation.

Judah opened his eyes and pinned her with his bright blue intensity. “Your mother is my big regret. I should have made it work. I should have tried again and again, until we got it right. I should have found out about you and your brother—”

“Yeah!” Claudia shouted. “You should’ve! Because you ruined our lives! You know that, don’t you? Kids don’t just grow up and turn out fine when they don’t have a man in their lives who cares about them! Look at us!” She pointed to Charles, still asleep in the bed. “He’s a drunk, and I’m a disaster! I’ve never had a successful relationship with a man—”

Marcus discreetly cleared his throat.

“—and who knows if I ever will? And what about—”

Judah jerked his head in Marcus’s direction. “Looks to me you’re doing pretty well with Marcus here.”

“Marcus?”
she cried. “He’s never even told me he loves me! And even if he had, he’s probably going to walk out on me now that he knows the full story about my sordid family history—”

Without a word, Marcus reached into some inner pocket of his tuxedo jacket, pulled out a jeweler’s black velvet box, opened it and plunked it on the coffee table in front of her.

“—because what kind of sane man would want— Oh, my God, what’s that?”

“You’re a smart woman,” Marcus said, studying his fingernails. “I think you can figure it out.”

Claudia put a hand to her forehead, floundering. “What does this mean? I can’t— I don’t even know what this...”

Another low whistle from Judah, who’d picked up the box and peered inside. “This is a nice canary, baby girl. Emerald cut. At least three carats. Not as nice as the canaries on the pendant I gave you—”

“Hey!” snapped Marcus.

“—but still pretty sparkly.”

“Hang on.” Claudia put a hand to her dragon pendant. “Are you telling me these are diamonds?”

“Hell, yeah.” Judah looked at her as if she’d grown feathers, fur and hooves. “Diamonds, sapphires and rubies. See, this is why you need me in your life, baby girl. No daughter of mine should stumble through life not recognizing quality diamonds when she receives them. That’s the real tragedy here, if you ask me.”

A bubble of laughter surged up Claudia’s throat and out before she could stop it.

Judah froze. “Give me a chance. That’s all I’m asking. I’ll be the best father you never had. Hell, you should be glad I wasn’t around when you were growing up. You’d know me as the dad who was either gone on tour or passed out drunk on the couch. But now I can do the job right. I want to do the job right.”

Claudia shook her head. Her heart was hard, and she wasn’t ready. Nowhere close to ready. “No. I can’t. I can’t just—”

Breaking off midsentence, she got to her feet and hurried around the coffee table to Judah, who met her halfway. They came together in a hard, swaying hug, laughing and crying together with Judah’s mascara making a terrific mess down his face.

“I love you, baby girl,” Judah told her over and over. “I love you.”

“Love!” Extricating herself from Judah, Claudia turned to Marcus. Reached for him. He came closer, his eyes glowing but wary. “Do you love me, then?”

He swallowed with a rough bob of his Adam’s apple. “Always.”

Claudia’s jaw dropped. “D’you think you might’ve mentioned it?”

Marcus hitched up his shoulder. “Were you ready to handle that information before?”

“No,” she admitted. “But I am now.”

Marcus made a choked sound—part sob, part laugh—put his hands around her waist and pulled her into his arms. “I love you, Claudia. Love you, love you, love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“Then maybe you can wear this for me,” he said, reaching for the ring.

“I can do that,” she said, holding out her left hand.

Judah leaned his head back and went into his howling routine. “Woo-hoo! ’Bout damn time! Woo-hoo! I’ve always wanted to have a wedding at the ranch! Woo-hoo!”

And, laughing, the men sandwiched Claudia in a hug and held her tight.

Epilogue

“T
he black dress is a nice touch, wife.” Being careful of her wedding gown, Marcus pulled Claudia closer, nuzzling her neck as he whispered in her ear. “You’re spectacular.”

Claudia tipped her head back and grinned, linking her hands behind his neck. “So glad you approve, husband. It’s a little unorthodox, I admit. As is having both my father and my brother give me away. I hope it didn’t shock you too much?”

“It’s you. That’s all I care about. Whatever you want.”

“It was what I wanted, of course, but I think Judah and Charles wanted it even more. They’re really inseparable, you know? And who’d have thought my big-city brother would enjoy managing the ranch quite so much? Or that he’d take to ranch life so beautifully?”

“If you ask me, he’s taken to Summer.”

“I thought I’d noticed them making eyes at each other,” she said thoughtfully. “We’ll have to stay tuned for further developments there, won’t we?”

“I leave that to you.”

“He’s been sober for nearly six months now.”

“I know,” Marcus said. “I think rehab and Judah are the best things that ever happened to him. Other than you.”

She rewarded him for this compliment with a lingering kiss. “Well, back to us, husband. Shall I tell you about my ensemble?”

“No need.” Easing back to arm’s length, Marcus studied his stunning bride and decided to show off a little bit. “I recognize the gown from the Vera Wang show. Strapless organza fit and flare gown with— Help me out here.”

“A hand-cut bias flange skirt,” she supplied. “Very good!”

“Flange skirt,” he echoed. “That would be the layers that look like flower petals, right?”

“Right, my brilliant husband! This is why I knew I had to marry you! What other man would appreciate clothes quite so much?” Smirking, he leaned in to kiss her. “And if you get my headpiece right,” she added, sounding a little breathless now, “I have a special surprise for you.”

“Does it involve getting you naked?”

She laughed. “That’s guaranteed. Wedding night and all. No, this is your wedding gift.”

“You’re my wedding gift, Claudia,” he told her softly. “You’re all I need.”

She beamed at him, blinking furiously. “You will not make me cry, you wonderful man. Headpiece.”

“That’s easy.” He examined the concoction—wispy black feathers surrounding an organza flower—perched on the right side of her head. “Philip Treacy fascinator. You can take the woman out of London, but you can’t make her get married without Philip Treacy headgear at her wedding, right?”

“Have I mentioned how much I love you?” she asked, laughing again.

“Yeah, yeah, you love me. Blah, blah, blah. Now where’s my present?”

“Patience, please.”

Extracting herself from his arms, she strode to the bookshelf behind the huge rough-hewn desk in Judah’s study and retrieved a small wrapped gift. Marcus took a second to look out the tall windows and enjoy the view.

True to his word, Judah had gone all out hosting the wedding here at Sweet Heaven, and Marcus couldn’t imagine a more beautiful spot for the occasion. The enormous wraparound decks had been strung with white lights and decorated with exquisite flowers in shades of blue and violet, and the lake, dark and placid as the sun set in the distance, glittered as though the water had been replaced with jewels. A Western feast was in the offing, and even inside the house, Marcus could smell the bison burgers on the grills.

“Judah does know how to throw a wedding,” he said.

“And I know how to give a gift,” she said, handing him the package and bobbing excitedly. “Open it. Hurry. Hurry! Oh, here.”

Amused, he let her snatch it back from him, rip off the wrapping and give it back to him.

It was a book, he saw. Red leather covered with gilt. It was—he gasped, his jaw dropping.

He looked back up at Claudia. “This is
A Tale of Two Cities,
” he told her.

“I know!”

He checked the copyright page and darn near fell over backward. “First edition.”

“I know! You like?”

“I love,” he said hoarsely, grabbing her in for another kiss. “And I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“Okay, okay, enough of this love crap.” Without warning, the study door swung open, and in streamed Judah, dressed in a green tuxedo of crushed velvet, Charles, dressed in a black Armani suit to match Marcus’s, Yoda, Buddha and Gandhi, wearing matching blue bow ties and little silk top hats attached to their heads via elastic chin straps.

A newcomer to the pet parade trailed behind them, and Marcus held his breath, waiting for Claudia to notice.

“That’s right,” Charles added. “Save it for the wedding night. We’ve got a bison to eat. And huckleberry pie.” He rubbed his hands together with undisguised glee. “I do love my huckleberries.”

“You love to eat anything that’s not glued down, judging from the size of you these days.” Claudia pulled her brother in for a kiss and hug. “And far be it from me to deprive a growing man of his nourishment. Are you ready, husband— Oh, who’s this?”

She peered down at a yellow Lab puppy who had a miniature blue fascinator strapped to the right side of her fuzzy head. The men exchanged conspiratorial grins.

With a happy cry, Claudia scooped up the puppy and whirled to face Marcus. “Marcus, whose puppy is this?”

“She’s yours. I hope you like her. She’s your present.”

Claudia visibly melted, kissing the squirming puppy and dripping tears on her little forehead. “You’re my present, darling. I love you so much. What should we call her?”

“There they go with the love crap again, Charlie,” Judah said to Charles, and they shook their heads at each other. “We’d better give them our present, quick-like, before these two decide they can’t wait till tonight to make it official.”

“Agreed,” replied Charles.

Reaching for Marcus’s hand, Claudia drew him in closer and they faced Judah together.

“I’m not sure I can take another present,” Claudia said, laughing. “I’m so happy now I can barely stand it!”

“I think you can stand this one,” Judah told her.

“Well, where is it?” Claudia asked.

“There.” Judah pointed out the windows facing the driveway in front of the house. “It’s from me and Charlie, with a little hint from your handsome husband.”

“Hope you like it,” Marcus told her.

Claudia looked out the window, to Judah’s gleaming black band bus, which was parked in the drive. The men had had great fun earlier, scrawling
Just Married
all over it and attaching Mylar balloons to the back bumper.

Breathless and wide-eyed with excitement, Claudia swung back around to Marcus. “Are we—”

“Going to tour the national parks for our honeymoon? Yeah,” Marcus said. “We thought it’d be a great way to start married life together. With an adventure.”

Crying and laughing, the puppy still wriggling in her arms, Claudia pulled him in for a hug. “This is perfect! I was so worried an airplane was going to be involved with the honeymoon adventure!”

“As long as we’re together, beauty,” Marcus replied.

“Woo-hoo!” Judah shouted. “Group hug!”

And they all piled on, laughing and swaying together.

* * * * *