Wild Irish (Book 1 of the Weldon Series) (2 page)

She knew she was then, safe in his strong arms. She told him what happened and convinced him to take her home. The thrill of that ride, the wildness, the body contact of his back to her front as she clung to him, had awakened her to an elemental sensuality she’d never known before. She hadn't known his name, hadn't known where he came from, but she’d felt safe. He’d taken her home and left. She’d dreamed about him that night and when she’d seen him parked on her street corner the next day, she’d secretly left the house and gone to him. The next month had been a blur of wild rides and an explosion of sensual want.

Snapping out of the past with Jesse’s name ringing in her head, Alexi riveted her gaze on the passing motorcyclist until she realized that shape of the man on the bike was all wrong. Even after twelve years she was sure she’d recognize Jesse’s tall, lean, broad-shouldered figure. She remembered exactly how dangerous he looked on a Harley.

“
Lexi?” Nan asked. “Are you alright? You look like your worst nightmare just rode by.”

“
Yes. I’m fine. It’s…nothing.” She shook her head and gathered her scattered wits. Ever since she’d heard that Jesse Weldon was back in Savannah last week, she’d refused to think about him, refused to remember the past. In fact, she’d done so well in wiping him from her thoughts that she’d honestly believed herself indifferent to him and what he’d done. But then the Adam and Eve pictures had arrived at her studio and everything about her calm world was turning upside down. She forced a smile at Nan. “Just a headache. Let’s go have dinner.”

Nan stared for a long moment. “I’m going on record right now to say that this isn’t good. If you have any doubts at all, Lexi, call off the wedding. Don’t marry Roger unless you’re absolutely sure he’s the one you want. Your grandmother will live through the disappointment. Don’t let duty rule you.”

“
Don’t be silly. I’m fine. The wedding tomorrow will go down in southern history and I will be very happy.”

Alexi sucked in a deep breath wondering why her heart was still pounding so hard.

* * *

Deliciously full from buttered lobster delicacies, and pleasantly mellowed by a Prosecco’s bubbly sweetness, Alexi fell back on her bed with a sigh. By the time she and Nan finished dinner, Alexi’s worry had eased. Everything was fine. The sense of disquiet stealing her calm earlier had been a temporary fluke.

She wasn’t having any sort of crises. Why all evening she hadn’t thought of the pictures or Jesse Weldon at all. And she wouldn’t think about him now either. Splaying her hands against the downy quilt, she dug her fingers into its softness. No, she wouldn’t think about when she’d had him in her bedroom and…

“
Jesse,” she cried out his name, pushing her hands beneath his shirt, desperate to feel the warmth of his skin. He rolled them over, angled up on his elbow and unbuttoned her shirt. “I have to see you, Lexi. Just once, let me see all of you.”

Never having been naked with a man, both excitement and shyness raced through her as he removed her shirt, her pants, her bra then underwear. When he finished, he stood back and stared at her and sucked in a deep breath. Cool air brushed over her breasts and she shivered even though her heart pounded and her blood raced feverishly through her body.

"God help me, I want you so much,” he said hoarsely.

“
Me, too. Let me see you.” She reached for his shirt.

“
You don’t know what you’re asking for, sunshine.”

“
I’m asking for you, Jesse. Take me.”

His blue eyes darkened as his smile faded and he looked dark and dangerous in the play of shadow and light from the moonbeams streaming through the window.

He slid the buttons from his shirt and let it fall to the floor. Then with quick, deliberate movements, he toed off his boots, jerked off his belt, and shucked his jeans.

Touch him, she had to touch him. Had to feel his vibrant heat with her hands. He was so alive. Standing, she splayed her hands over his chest, her senses vibrating with excitement and with need as she explored his velvety heat and lean hard muscles. The dark line of hair trailing down his stomach to the bulging of his jockeys was silky. She wanted to see more, but she also feared what that more would bring. There was a strangeness about their nakedness that excited and frightened her. He pulled her onto the bed and lying next to her, he kissed her, touched her breasts then kissed them. She moaned, she writhed, she wanted to scream, and yet she couldn’t. “Jesse, please!” she cried out again.

Groaning, he rolled away. “This is as far as we go, Lexi.”

“
What?”

“
I’m all wrong for you, Sunshine. I shouldn’t be here, but I had to see you once more.”

Tears filled her eyes as she hugged him. “No. I love you.”

“
You only think you love me. Neither of us know what love really is, Lexi. I’m here with you, because I couldn’t stay away. But when I’m with you, I know it’s not right. Besides that, you’re seventeen damn years old. Two years may not seem like a lot of difference in our ages, but that difference will get me a jail sentence if I’m caught with you like this. That isn’t any way for a man to start out his life. We just aren’t meant to be.”

“
You’re wrong,” she said, even though she’d heard some truth in his words. She’d cried, feeling like her heart was breaking. He’d kissed her and held her until she’d fallen asleep then…

Alexi sprang up from her bed, her heart pounding as she stared at the digital clock. Her wedding was in six hours. Roger! Think Roger! She had six hours to focus on her groom.

CHAPTER TWO

“
Perfect. The pearls are perfect.” Katherine Jordan said.

Alexi watched in the mirror as her grandmother pulled on white gloves and adjusted her stylish hat. The weight pressing in on Alexi’s chest grew heavier. “They, uh, are beautiful.”

“
They’re yours now, Alexandria. Now you’ll carry the Jordan heritage to the next generation. You and dear Roger will have beautiful children who’ll have the might of Savannah’s two most powerful families behind them. I’m so proud of you.”

Alexi stared in the mirror at the thick band of pearls encircling her neck, wondering why the strands felt so heavy. Kids? She and Roger had yet to decide what they wanted. Roger wanted to wait several years before even
thinking
about the subject. Alexi cleared her constricting throat. “Give us time. We aren’t even married and you’re hatching great-grandkids.”

“
Psst. Too much time has been wasted already. Violet and I had given up hope to see you two together before we died. Having a child soon isn’t too much to ask of either of you.”

The vise around her lungs tightened. “There is plenty of time,” she told her grandmother. “You and Roger’s grandmother have too much vim and vinegar in your blood to die for a long time to come.”

“
Hmmph. You young think that you’ve all the time in the world, but it isn’t so. You’ll be old before you know it.”

The more her grandmother talked, the less oxygen Alexi found to breathe. “Times have changed,” she managed to gasp as she rose from the vanity and paced across the room.

“
Not for the better, mind you,” replied her grandmother. “In my day you’d have been married years ago, instead of wasting your time on art and soiling your hands at the hospital. Now that the Holstead’s social responsibilities rest on your shoulders, too, you’ll have to contain your activities to fundraising and stop volunteering to care for those unwashed hoodlums.”

Alexi ignored her grandmother’s bluster. They’d been at odds over her volunteer work at the hospital for years. “You’d best be off, Gran. I’m sure there are at least one hundred details you’ll want to check on before the ceremony.” Alexi kissed her grandmother’s cheek, opened the door to the air-conditioned Bridal tent, and urged her out.

“
I’m proud of you, dear, and your mother would be, too,” her grandmother said as she sailed away.

Alexi sucked in a painful breath and shut her eyes. She wished her mother were here. Was that the source of her panic? Why she felt so unsettled? Every girl wished to have her mother’s support before she walked down the aisle and her father’s support while walking down the aisle.

“
Are you going to pass out?” Nan walked up and grabbed Alexi’s arm.

“
No, but we need to fix my train.”

Nan shook her head. “We just fixed it.”

“
I messed it up again.” She’d tangled the train around a chair with her pacing.

“
You’re supposed to be sitting still. Not prowling around like a caged tiger.”

Perspiration beaded Alexi’s lip. She’d been fine until her grandmother fastened the pearls on. They felt like a noose around her neck. Generations of Jordans were looking down from the heavens, ready to pounce on her should she do the wrong thing. Heart pounding, she touched the pearls. “I have to see Roger. Maybe I…oh, I don’t even know what I need to tell him. I have to see him.”

Nan's gasped. "Are you thinking what I think you are? That you’re not going to go through with the wedding--”

“
I don't know." Alexi dried her palms on a cotton towel and adjusted the Venetian lace on her shoulders. Trimmed with satin rosettes, her dress hung in elegant lines to her feet, its candlelight hues matched the heavy antique pearls. The dress had been designed with the pearls in mind. Her mother, her grandmother, and every Jordan woman who’d married since James Oglethorpe arrived in Georgia back in the seventeen hundreds had worn the pearls for their wedding. And she felt as if every one of them were trying to grab her and drag her with them.

"I knew it." Nan tossed her hands up. "Roger is not
the
one. At least it's not too late. We’ve thirty minutes before the wedding starts. I’ll get your father to explain."

“
No.” Alexi grabbed Nan’s hand. “No.” She straightened her shoulders. “This is my responsibility. I have to talk to Roger first. I’m not even sure that I don’t want to do this.”

“
Sorry to interrupt but...” Walking in, Karin Taylor, Alexi’s main assistant at the gallery and Lucy’s mother, one of the sick children the auction would help, appeared anxious.

Alexi's heart skipped. "What is it? Is Lucy worse?"

"No, Lucy's better today. The new medicine is helping." Karin held up a Fed-ex package. "This just came for you. The man insisted that you get this immediately. I need to hurry back. I promised Lucy she could hear the ceremony on my cell. She can’t wait to see the video of it. She is so excited."

“
Thanks, Karin.” Alexi released Nan's hands and took the package. HOLSTEAD FAMILY JEWELS was written in bold black letters across the front. She frowned. “I wonder if Roger's grandmother sent something for me to wear for the wedding. But why at the last minute? And why Fed-ex it?”

"Well," Nan said, scrunching her nose. "Bad choice of phrasing, that’s for sure. Hurry and open it."

Shrugging, Alexi unsealed the envelope and peeked inside to see a packet of photographs.

"What is it?"

"Pictures." Alexi pulled them out and gasped at the photo of Roger naked at a pool with about eight nude women and two men. Her hands shook, making it harder to see. Roger and the others weren't just soaking up the sun's rays and Roger’s family jewels played a prominent role in keeping several of those women entertained. She tried telling herself that they had to be doctored pictures, but then she noticed the digital date at the bottom. Three days ago. The day of Roger's bachelor's party. The next day he’d cancelled their lunch and she hadn’t seen him until the rehearsal dinner. He'd been distracted and sunburned then, had said he was tired because he'd gone deep-sea fishing.

Nan leaned over to look. "OH MY!
Those
family jewels."

Alexi's mind reeled and nausea curled in her gut. Then anger gripped her. Fishing my ass! The jerk had been screwing every hook, line, and sinker in sight!

"Nan, have my father invite the guests to enjoy the food and entertainment, but there will be no wedding."

Clutching several pictures, Alexi ran from the tent.

"Wait," Nan called out, catching up. "Are you all right?"

"Fine." Alexi blinked back tears. "Just as fine as any woman is when she realizes she's wasted years on a jerk." She stabbed the pictures with her finger and shuddered. "Group sex? My God, Nan, can I really be that blind about a man?"