Trouble in Sudden Falls: A Sudden Falls Romance (28 page)

Maddie felt her fists clench. Yes, Eli was a flirt from way back and would always be. It was something that Maddie thought she’d come to terms with. But this was different than a grin and a wink at the bank teller. This was
personal
.

When Lisbet opened her eyes and they shared what a meaningful glance before she pressed her fingers into Eli’s chest and giggled into his ear, Maddie felt her stomach turn. She turned and sped toward the checkout. With numb fingers, she dug a ten-dollar bill from her wallet and paid for her makeup.

She considered returning to the antique store, but she figured she’d at least give Eli the chance to try to defend himself—though she couldn’t imagine anything he could say that would make what she witnessed “okay”.

Before Eli made his way out, Lisbet stepped out the door, pausing to smile smugly at Maddie. “You didn’t really expect that you’d end up with him, did you?”

Maddie felt tears burning at the back of her eyes. She actually
had
thought Eli might be her Mr.-Happily-Ever-After. “He and I have been on-again-off-again for years. It’s well-accepted that when Eli finally gets ready to settle down that he’ll be doing so with me. It would seem with the appearance of Rogan, that Eli is finally ready. That’s what we were talking about in there.” She pointed a red-tipped thumb in the direction from which she came.

Maddie was so taken aback by the venom in Lisbet’s voice, she was actually speechless. It was long after the click of Lisbet’s man-eating heels faded away that Maddie stopped feeling like someone had punched her in the stomach.

She wasn’t sure how much of Lisbet’s story to believe. Eli knew how she felt about Lisbet. He’d witnessed their final showdown in high school, after all. A showdown which had not left either of them unscathed.

One would think that Lisbet would have learned a lesson about bragging to Maddie about her conquests of Eli as well, since that’s what had ignited Maddie’s bad judgment and Lisbet’s downfall seventeen years ago.

Maddie was still reeling from Lisbet’s newest attack when Eli sauntered out of the pharmacy. “Hey. I was wondering where you ran off to.” He had the audacity to have a big grin on his face. “Ready for
lunch
?”

“Are you kidding me?” Maddie asked, feeling a full head of righteous indignation building behind her eyes.

Eli stepped back at the anger in her voice. “What’s going on?”

“Is it true that you and Lisbet Roarke have been dating for years?”

Eli’s face fell. “What are you talking about?”

“I can’t believe it. You’ve been with the woman that this town picked over me for
years
and you never even said anything to me. When were you going to tell me?”

The tears at the back of her eyes which had been threatening since she witnessed that little scene in the drugstore finally reached their spilling point.

“Forget it. It doesn’t even matter.” She wished Eli would say
any
thing. He didn’t and she turned on her heel and headed back toward her store, stopping to lob the keys to her car at Eli’s head. “If you want the car, take it. I’m not hungry.”

Eli took several ground eating strides toward her. “Maddie—what the hell happened here? Talk to me.”

“I have nothing to say to you.” She realized she was being childish, but the idea that he’d been keeping company with Lisbet Roarke made her sick.

“Oh, great. Here we go again. Another elephant. Is this because I spoke with Lisbet in the store? When are you going to grow up and learn to trust me?” he asked as they reached the door to the shop.

His words and tone made her feel like she’d been punched in the stomach. “Maybe when you become the kind of person I
can
trust.” She stepped in and locked the door behind her.

Chapter Fifteen

On Thursday, Emma’s usual day off, she put her children on the bus and sent her husband off to work and then hopped in the car to head into Cincinnati. She had a date with destiny… and the library.

It was surprising how much information she found. There were at least fifteen separate titles ranging in subject matter from bondage to discipline, the protocols and etiquette for topping and bottoming, and several titles about sado-masochism in general.

She suffered a moment of intense humiliation as she checked out six of the fifteen titles. The librarian wasn’t paying attention as she began scanning each book. When she got to the third title, she looked up, her face red and her eyes wide.

“Research project,” Emma choked out. “Abnormal psychology class.”

The librarian nodded doubtfully and Emma quickly picked up her books and left.

She took her books to the café down the street, ordered a large café mocha, and sat in the corner, anxious to peruse her reading materials.

After beginning the first chapter of the first book, she discovered something rather amazing. Not only was it not what she expected—it wasn’t nearly as dirty or scary as she thought it would be after she had some information—but it turned her on, which she hadn’t expected.

The idea of taking someone like Rob, the most powerful influence in her life, the unquestioned leader of their family and of the entire town—and making him completely relinquish that power to her was a heady prospect.

Not that she had any idea of how to do that at the moment, but she was smart, she was inquisitive and she could learn. Hence the books.

If she was going to do this right, she’d need new clothes. Her pink satin and lace number from Victoria’s Secret, while pretty, wasn’t gonna cut it. There was an area of the Over the Rhine neighborhood that had a number of adult book stores and the like. Everyone knew they were there, though no one talked about them. At least, no one in Sudden Falls.

But did she have the courage to go into one of them?

She finished the last sip of her coffee and tossed the empty container in the trash. There was no time like the present to find out.

It was a short walk down Vine Street from the coffee shop to the adult book store which was aptly named, “Adult Books XXX”.

The front of the store was devoted to a display of videos, the cases of which were covered with people doing anatomically improbable things to themselves and others. It was at that point she almost turned around. “Don’t be a wimp,” she muttered to herself.

“Can I help you?”

Emma turned to see a woman with tattoos covering both arms and several pounds of metal in her face. She wore a short red shiny skirt, a net shirt over a bra that left little to the imagination, and black satin, elbow-length gloves. Her boots had four inch, spiky heels and came up to her knee, displaying a length of her fishnet stocking. It wasn’t something Emma could ever imagine herself wearing, and yet, the woman, whose nametag read ‘Zarion’, pulled it off with ease. “Umm. Yes, at least I hope so. I’m looking for…” Well, actually, she didn’t know precisely what she was looking for. Nor how to describe what she wanted. She felt her face go hot.

The woman grinned. “Video, toy or clothing?”

“Clothing,” Emma said.

“Romantic, slutty or kinky?” she fired back, leading Emma toward the back of the store.

“Uh… Somewhere between the last two?”

“Top or bottom?”

“Huh?”

“Are you a dominant or submissive?”

Emma cleared her throat. “Dominant.”

Zarion’s response was a raised eyebrow. Emma felt like a fraud. “Not yet. But once I get you dressed, you will be.” She came to a stop between two racks of clothing. “You wear a size six-to-eight, right?”

Emma nodded. “You’re good at this.”

“You have no idea.” Zarion pulled several things off the rack before leading the way toward the side of the room to a wall of shoes and boots, none of which could ever be found on the streets of Sudden Falls. Emma was immediately drawn to a pair of black patent leather, thigh-high boots with an impossibly high heel.

“What size shoe do you wear?”

“Seven.”

Zarion pulled a box off the shelf. “To the dressing room, my dear.”

Emma swallowed.

Zarion led the way into a large, well-lit changing room and hung her selections on a peg in the wall. “Start with this and this,” she said indicating a skirt and corset. “I’ll be right outside if you need any help.”

Eli did a double-take as Rogan walked into the living room. “Who the hell are you? And what have you done with my son?” he asked comically.

Rogan grinned and self-consciously smoothed down the back of his hair. “I look like a nerd,” he said.

“Not at all.” Eli crossed the room to circle Rogan, taking in all the changes. “You’re a redhead.” Rogan’s hair was now the exact shade of his, give or take a few gray hairs at his temples. Rogan had had his hair cut short on the sides and a little longer on top. All the black was gone.

“Always was.” Rogan shuffled his feet. “It’s too much, isn’t it?”

“No.” he said. “You look great! Who did that to you?”

His face turned red. “I went to Shear Changes. She cut out most of the color and then used a special rinse that took out most of the black that was left on the ends.”

“It looks
really
nice.”

“Think I’ll blow Amy’s mind?”.

As long as that was the only thing that got blown. Eli shuddered remembering his own Spring Formal. The full ramifications of being the father of a seventeen-year-old hit him with the weight of an anvil.

Should he say something? Rogan was definitely too old for the birds and the bees talk, but had anyone talked to him about being safe?
Oh, hell.
Rogan might not even be a virgin. Eli certainly hadn’t been at his age.

“So Amy’s mom decided to let you take her, huh?” he said, trying to feel out the situation. He should already know this.

“Yeah. Amy said she wasn’t thrilled, but she finally agreed.”

“Have you and Amy been hanging out a lot?” Yet another thing he should definitely already know. Who in their right mind would leave an impressionable seventeen-year-old with
Eli
? No one in their right mind. But then, Becca never had been in her right mind.

“Some,” Rogan said, noncommittally.

Eli wiped a hand over his face. Now was the time for diplomacy and tact. “You—uh… You realize that Amy’s a… well, a
nice
girl, and—uh—”
Oh, hell.
This was harder than he’d realized.

Rogan looked up, startled. Then one corner of his mouth twitched up as he fought off a grin. “No worries, Eli. Amy and I aren’t—that is, this is our first date. It’s like we’re gonna—well,
you know
.”

Eli cleared his throat. “Good. That’s…good.”

They both chuckled at each other’s discomfort.

“Well, that was fun,” Eli said, self-deprecatingly.

“Do we need to have the same talk about Maddie?” Rogan asked with a grin.

“I—uh…” Since he was pretty certain at this point Maddie wasn’t even speaking to him, he felt sure that talk was more than unnecessary.

Rogan cut him down. “I’m kiddin’ ya. What are you guys doing tonight?” He sniffed. “Maddie making dinner?”

Eli shook his head. “No. She’s doing her own thing tonight.” And she probably would continue to do so until he figured out how to smooth things over. Obviously, he knew what a hot button Lisbet was to Maddie and clearly she’d seen them talking at the pharmacy. But he talked to a lot of people and he wasn’t sleeping with any of them but Maddie. And since Maddie refused to speak to him or discuss it, he didn’t exactly know how to defend himself.

All he knew is that he missed her.

And she had a couple of days of this nonsense left, and then he was going to go over there and either get her to talk or he would camp out on her door step and make a scene until she relented.

“Everything okay with you two?” Rogan asked, with more intuition than Eli would have given him credit for.

Eli shrugged. “I hope so.”

Rogan grinned up at him. “Good luck with that.”

Eli would probably need it.

Rogan adjusted the bow tie of his rented tux, cleared his throat and pressed Amy’s doorbell. He wondered if Amy’s reaction to his modified look would be anything like Eli’s.