This Love Will Go On Read online

  Jade gazed at her. “Yes.” How could he say so much with that one tiny word?

  The trip seemed endless. Her nerves alive with tension, Raine sat in the front between the two men and knew this was the last time she would ever willingly spend an entire evening with Jade. His closeness made erotic fantasies spin through her brain like cobwebby threads of bright light. She saw herself touching his hands, playing with the fine gold hairs that grew on the backs, turning his palm over and pressing a kiss in it. She saw herself tracing the hard outline of his face, the square contour of his jaw, discovering the prickly roughness. Michele complained about his beard constantly, wondering aloud how a man who was so fair could have such a rough nighttime skin. Raine had lain awake nights afterwards, her mind alive with vivid mental pictures…pictures of Jade, gloriously male and naked in a softly lit bedroom, inviting her to touch him intimately, and finally, touching her in that place that longed for him. Self-consciously, she ran her hands down over her skirt, gathering it away from Jade’s thighs.

  They drove through Spencer, one of the larger towns in Iowa, and began the trek up along the tiny towns clustered along the highway. Jade slowed down and she looked out the window, watching as the amusement park came into view. The neon lights of the merry-go-round, the Tilt-a-Whirl, and the roller coaster cast a watery rainbow on the lake. One Sunday afternoon, she’d gone with Jade and Michele to the park and after they had ridden all the rides, they’d collapsed on a grassy knoll away from the carnival atmosphere. Jade, stretched out beside his wife, had moved closer to shade her body from the sun. He’d lain there, propped on his elbow, staring down at his wife for a long, breathless moment while Raine’s heart seemed to stop beating. Then he had smiled down into Michele’s face and kissed her. Her heart burning with an ache that was beginning to be her constant companion, Raine looked away. That gentle, possessive smile haunted her dreams for years afterward. Would any man ever smile at her with that same combination of love, tenderness, and protection?

  She forced her mind away from the past and gazed out the car window. She hadn’t been to the Iowa Great Lakes in years and she could see there had been some changes. A landmark house next to the highway, a rambling, two-story affair with gingerbread trim, had been painted pink and spotlighted from the lawn.

  They drove past the park and Jade guided the car around a curve. Their destination was the restaurant on the street of shops created inside the Old Central ballroom. She had never been there. Did modern people shop more than they danced? Maybe that was what was wrong with the world.

  When they walked down the long hall that led past the stores, Raine smelled a delicious mixture of chocolate candy, cinnamon stick spice and cedar wood. The shops were all closed, of course, but their huge glass windows were lit from inside, displaying craft items. At the end of the hall, Jade pulled on the rope handle of a big wooden door. A sign that said The Outrigger bumped against the door.

  Inside, it was cool, dark, and nautical. The floors were rough and wooden. A mainmast wrapped with gray rope rose to a three-story ceiling and the wood walls were covered with more rope, old anchors and heavy chains. She wasn’t sure if she’d stepped into a restaurant or onto the deck of an old clipper ship.

  “What would you like to drink?” Jade’s voice came from just behind her ear.

  “Something…cool. A Tom Collins, I guess.”

  ‘I’ll have a Manhattan, brother.” Marc told him.

  The cast wasn’t there. There were just a few people at the bar and two couples seated at tables at the other end of the room. Marc’s hand at her waist guided Raine toward a table that commanded a view. Huge, floor-to-ceiling windows looked out over the lake. At least, she thought it was a lake. In the night, boats seemed to float over a dark, silvery surface that was so still it could have been land.

  Marc held out a chair for her and when she was settled, slid in next to her. There were two empty chairs across the table. Marc stared down into the little green hurricane lamp that held a candle. The flame burned erratically in the drafty open space of the room. “Pretty fancy place, huh?”

  “It’s nice,” she agreed.

  “What did you think of your sister? Wasn’t she good?”

  “She was very good.”

  “Did you think so?” The soft question came from Jade, appearing beside them, bending lithely over to set their drinks on the table. Relieved of his burden, he sat down across from Marc, his eyes on Raine.

  “Yes, I thought so.” Desperately, she cast around for some other topic of conversation. “Oh, look, there are stairs and a deck down below where you can watch the boats out on the lake.”

  “How old is Michele?” Marc asked, sticking to the topic that she most wanted to avoid. “She's older than you, isn't she? She isn't quite as ancient as brother here. He’s thirty-one. Practically over the hill.”

  “She's twenty-nine,” Raine said reluctantly.

  “Too bad.” Marc shook his head, “I thought she was younger. She's really too old to be starting a career as an actress now.”

  Raine glanced quickly at Jade's face. Dazed, she said, “I don't think there's any question about her starting a career.”

  Marc’s shoulders moved lazily. “She’s been bitten by the stage bug.” He smiled at Jade. “Brother here may find himself commuting to New York on weekends.”

  Marc gazed at Jade, knowing full well he had thrown out a line of bait. Jade didn’t take it. Instead he looked at Raine.

  “I forgot to tell you. Tate sends his love.”

  Raine felt her cheeks go warm. “I’m glad he got over his flu.”

  “You haven’t sent me your bill.” Jade’s voice sounded amused and a smile played over his well-shaped lips.

  Marc's curiosity was instantly aroused. “Bill? Why should she send you a bill?”

  “I called her for a midnight consultation.”

  “I never did tell you how to give him that sponge bath.”

  “I figured it out.”

  A noise at the other end of the room saved them having from having to explain any more to Marc. The door burst open and the cast, noisy and high with excitement, poured into the room. There were several people in the group whom Raine didn't recognize. She decided they must have been behind the scenes, doing props and makeup. The last few people crowded into the room but Michele wasn't with them.

  A lean man, tall, with silver hair, whom Raine recognized as the man who portrayed the movie actor in the play, sauntered over to their table and looked down at Jade.

  “Are you Michele’s…husband?” There was a faint air of condescension in the words.

  Jade’s voice and face revealed nothing, but Raine’s sensitive antenna reacted at once to the tension radiating from his body.

  “Yes,” Jade said softly. “Is there something…”

  “Michele asked me to tell you she'd be delayed. She was sorry.”

  “Of course,” Jade said politely.

  “She should be here in twenty minutes or so. She rode with Tony, our director, and he wanted to stop off at his apartment and change clothes there instead of backstage as the rest of us did. Now if you'll excuse me…”

  Jade nodded, turned back, lifted his glass and swallowed the entire contents.

  “Hey, brother, not so heavy on the Scotch. You gotta drive home, remember.”

  “I remember.” The words were harsh. He got to his feet “You two ready for another round?”

  Stricken with her own pain, Raine gazed at him. “No. I don't want another drink.”

  Watching him stride across the room to get the drink that would anesthetize him, she felt helpless and angry. What a fool Michele was.

  Beside her, Marc looked down into his drink. “That's not like him.”

  “No, it isn't.”

  “Maybe you were right.”

  She turned to look at Marc. “What about?”

  “About leaving them alone.” His grin was rueful. “I'm beginning to wish we weren't here. I didn't
know things were so bad between them.” Marc twisted the swizzle stick inside his glass. “Have you talked to Michele lately?”

  She shook her head. “Not since she started driving to Canton every night for the play rehearsals.” Raine turned her head to gaze out at the water. Marc’s voice came low in her ear. “There she is.”

  Michele, wearing a creamy silk beige dress Raine had never seen before, came in the door. The gown outlined the mature curves of her figure, the high rounded beauty of her breasts. She clung to the arm of a darkly handsome man of medium height.

  Michele was surrounded at once by members of the cast, and even from across the room, Raine could hear their effusive praise. “You were marvelous, Michele, just marvelous. It’s been a privilege to be in the cast with you.”

  And there, leaning with his back to the bar, stood Jade, watching.

  Hardly knowing what she was doing, Raine jumped up. Like a guided arrow, she homed in on Jade. Halfway across the room, Michele’s voice, newly resonant and precise, reached her ears. Raine turned to look at her sister.

  “…owe it all of course, to this darling man.” Just as Raine reached Jade’s side, Michele kissed her companion. It was not the obligatory peck of congratulation, it was an intimate kiss…a lover’s kiss.

  A silence fell in the room. The cast was strangely quiet, as if they were aware that another drama was being enacted. Several people glanced furtively in Jade’s direction. His face was a dark, impassive mask. When Michele broke away from the man and laughingly told everyone to go have a drink, they began to move away from her toward the bar. Soft music radiated from speakers and people began to dance wherever they were, glasses in hand.

  “Hello, Jade.” Michele’s voice was cool, confident. “You found us.”

  He didn’t reply. He simply stood and looked at her.

  His silence seemed to rattle her slightly. “Darling, I’d like to have you meet my husband. Tony Costelino, Jade Kincaid.”

  Neither man extended his hand.

  Tony Costelino turned to Michele. “Have you told him yet?”

  She gave Costelino a breathtakingly intimate smile. “I haven’t seen much of my husband lately. Now is as good a time as any, I suppose.” She straightened slightly and fastened her dark blue eyes on Jade. “I’m going to New York with Tony. Tomorrow.”

  Jade didn’t move a muscle. In that low, controlled voice, he said, “Is that supposed to surprise me?”

  Michele laughed, throwing her head back and exposing the smooth, creamy line of her throat. “I should have known nothing surprises you. See, darling,” she said to Costelino, “you’ve been worrying for no reason.”

  The other man frowned slightly, drawing his dark brows together. “Then you don’t mind if your wife goes to New York with me, Kincaid?”

  He couldn’t quite believe that a man like Jade Kincaid would give up his wife so easily, Raine thought in stricken amazement. And, neither, somehow, could she.

  Jade picked up his drink from the bar, tipped the glass and downed the contents. He replaced the glass carefully on the shiny wooden surface and then turned his head to gaze at Costelino. “She stopped being my wife the minute she walked in that door on your arm. You’re welcome to her.”

  Raine stood frozen, unable to think of anything to say or do.

  Michele had plainly not expected that. With a proud lift of her head, she said, “Does that mean you’ll grant me a divorce?”

  “I told you I’d be glad to give you a divorce.”

  Raine’s mind reeled. They had already discussed a divorce?

  In a bitter tone, Michele said, “As long as I agree to relinquish all visiting rights to Tate.”

  “You don’t see him when you are here. Why should you worry about seeing him when you aren’t?”

  “I won’t agree to those terms, Jade.”

  He shrugged. “If that's the way you feel…”

  Michele turned to the man at her side. “Tony, be a darling and get me a drink. My usual.”

  Grasping Raine's arm, Jade said in a cold, deadly voice to Michele, “You'll forgive us if we don't stay.”

  Genuinely disconcerted, Michele protested, “But I thought I'd ride home with you.”

  “Get Tony Darling to take you home with him,” he growled. “The only time I’ll let you back in my house is when you come to pack your things.” Raine caught a glimpse of the surprised expression on Michele's face. Then, in the next instant, Jade had grasped Raine's arm and half-dragged, half-pushed her past the people crowded around the bar. The bartender started to protest when Jade opened the door to the deck, but he took one look at Jade's face, closed his mouth and nodded his permission.

  Outside, the cool breeze felt like heaven on Raine's hot cheeks. Starshine danced on the lake and a sliver of a moon had traversed half the sky until it was overhead. She would have enjoyed the fishy smell of the water and the faint creak of the wooden steps under her feet had it not been for Jade, bearing down behind her, gripping her arm with steel fingers.

  They reached the ground and Jade propelled her forward. What his destination was she had no idea. There was a patch of grass underfoot and a path that led to a double-wide dock. Jade guided her toward it. Her heels clicked against the wooden boards, and she stumbled. Annoyed, she said crisply, “Are you planning to throw me in the lake instead of Michele?”

  He stopped short in the middle of the dock, his body as still as if she had shot him, his face a mask of anguish. Spasmodically, his fingers bit painfully into her flesh. An instant later, he dropped his hand and she was free. He moved away from her and, in a strained tone, said, “I’m sorry.” His face bleak, he turned away and stared out over the lake into the darkness.

  Wrenching out the words past a throat that was tight, she said to his back, “If I could change things…if I could remake the world, I would never let her hurt you like this.”

  He pivoted round and took hold of her and she was in his arms, clamped against his lean body. “Shut up,” he said fiercely. “Keep your damned sympathy. I don't want it.”

  “No,” she said, “you don't want anything from me. Not even this.”

  Driven by some dark force she couldn’t understand or control, she pulled his head down to hers and captured his lips. He didn't respond, but he didn't push her away. After years of yearning to touch his hard, controlled mouth, she could no more stop kissing him than she could stop breathing. She went on probing his lips with her own, reveling in the warm strength of the mouth that lay quiescent under hers. Oh, it was wonderful to press her lips against his mouth. She had been waiting to taste it all her life. She circled his neck with her arms and pressed her body against his, knowing that this was the last time she would ever be this close to him, knowing that now that he had put Michele out of his life, he would want nothing to do with her sister.

  “Kiss me back, Jade,” she murmured against his lips. “Please, just this once. Kiss me.”

  He caught her long hair with his hand and pulled, not cruelly, just enough to make her tilt her head up to him fully. “Raine, do you know what you're doing? Do you know what you're asking?” His grip tightened and she felt the aroused state of his body. The unfamiliar feel of him only heightened her own wild excitement. “Hasn't it occurred to you that I haven't been to bed with my wife for a long time? What makes you think I'd want to stop with a kiss?”

  “I don't…I didn't think…”

  His hands slid over her back, pressing her against him. The cradle of his hips nestled on hers, and she felt his erection come fully between her thighs. Even standing there in her clothes, she had the acute sensation that he was making love to her.

  “Well, start thinking,” he said, lowering his head and kissing the soft skin of her cheek, making it impossible for her to think at all. “Think about how it would feel to have me kiss every lovely inch of you. Think about how I'd like nothing better than to take you home and explore the sweetest part of your body with my mouth and hands until you begged me to
take you.” His mouth caressed the curve of her lips. “And think,” he murmured into her mouth, “how wonderful it would be to wake up in the morning and know that what we shared was sex, not love, and that we could walk away from each other without either of us giving a damn.”

  She recoiled as if he had struck her, but it was too late to escape. He locked her head in place with one hand, anchored her hips against his with the other, and kissed her with a tender passion that rocked her to the depths of her soul. His mouth sought hers as if it were a golden prize, his tongue playfully teasing under her lips, coaxing her teeth to open, plunging through with a flicking, tantalizing exploration of the dark-honeyed sweetness she couldn't deny him.

  Dying inside, she moaned softly, a wordless plea for him to release her. He only went on kissing her, cradling her even closer, seducing her with his mouth and his tongue and his hands. The hand that had held her head slid downward along her rib cage and swept up underneath her breast, searching for the swelling fullness that anticipated his touch.

  Another soft, muffled sound of mingled pain and delight escaped her, and this time, he heard it. He let her go abruptly, leaving her feeling lightheaded. One instant she was in his arms, and the next he was standing a foot away from her, the only sound in the night his ragged breathing…and hers.

  In that cool dark silence, he said, softly, “Stay away from me, Raine.”

  She stepped toward him. “Jade, I…”

  “Don't touch me.” The words were like knives. A sob bubbled up and she turned to run from him. In violent repudiation of his own words, he caught her and whirled her around in his arms. Glittering gray eyes looked up at him, shining like silver gems. For a long, silent moment, he held her and gazed at her. Then he took a breath and expelled it, loosening his hold on her slightly. “Listen to me, you little fool. I told you to stay away for your own good. You've handed me the perfect weapon of revenge, don't you see that? Of all the women in the world, Michele is most jealous of you.”

  She shook her head. “That can't be true.”

  “All right,” he said in a strange, flat voice. “Add liar to my list of names, along with cuckolded husband.”