Paradise - Chapter 5

Jess put his hand on Rory's shoulder, ushering her inside. The interior of the house looked as desolated as the exterior. Beyond the living room was a dining room with maple furniture, and beyond that an open door revealed a kitchen. A stairway on the right led to the dining room to the second floor, and a very tall, thin man with graying hair and a deeply grooved face was walking down it, a glass filled with dark amber in his hand. Unfortunately, Rory hadn't seen him until that moment, and the uneasiness she felt as she looked around the house was still written across her face when her eyes riveted on the glass in his hand.

-What's going on? he asked as he walked into the living room.

In answer, Jess introduced Rory to him and to Julia.

-Rory and I met when I was in Chicago last month, he added. We're getting married on Saturday.

-You're what? his father uttered.

-Fantastic! I've always wanted a big sister, but I never imagined she'd come with her very own Porsche!

-Her very own what?

-Porsche, Julia repeated ecstatically, racing over the window and drawing the used curtain to show him. Rory's car glinted in the sunlight - white, sleek and expensive. As completely out of place as she was. Jimmy evidently thought so too because when he looked from the car to Rory, his brows jerked together.

-Chicago ? You were only in Chicago for only a few days!

-Love at first sight! Julia declared. How romantic!

Jimmy Mariano, who'd seen the uneasy expression on Rory's face when she glanced around the house a moment earlier, attributed her reaction to disdain for his home and for him, not for her own frighteningly uncertain future.

-Love at first sight, huh ? Is that was it was?

-Obviously. Jess said, in a tone that warned him to drop the subject, then he rescued Rory by asking her if she'd like to rest before dinner. Rory was very thankful to Jess for hauling herself out of this. Next to telling Jess she was pregnant, that was the second most humiliating confrontation of her life. She nodded at Jess while Julia insisted Rory to use her room.

Upstairs, Rory sank morosely on Julia's bed, and Jess put her single piece of luggage on a chair.

-The worst is over, he told her quietly.

Without looking up, she shook her head, twisting her fingers in her lap.

-I don't think so. I think it's only the beginning. Your father hated me on sight.

-It might have helped if you hadn't looked at the glass of iced tea he was holding like it was a coiled snake.

Flopping back on the bed, she stared at the ceiling and swallowed, ashamed and bewildered.

-Did I do that? she asked hoarsely, closing her eyes as if to shut out the image.

Jess looked down at the forlorn beauty draped across the bed and in his mind, he saw her as she'd been at the country club six weeks ago, filled with laughter and doing her effective damnedest to ensure that he enjoyed himself. He noted the changes while something strange and unfamiliar tugged heavily at his heart, and his mind pointed out the absurdities of their dilemma.

They didn't know each other at all and yet they knew each other intimately.

in comparison to every other girl he'd had sex with, Rory was a complete innocent. And she was the one pregnant with his child.

There was a social gulf between them a thousand miles wide. They were going to bridge it with a marriage. And then widen it with a divorce.

They had absolutely nothing in common, nothing except one astonishing night of lovemaking. An unforgettable night that had haunted him for weeks afterward.

A wife and a child were definitely not a part of Jess' master plan right now; on the other hand, he'd known when he devised the plan and followed it for ten long years , that sooner or later something was going to happen and he was going to have to adapt it to suit new requirements. The responsibility of Rory and the baby was coming at a very inopportune time, but Jess was used to shouldering enormous responsibilities. No, this one didn't bother his as much as other things did - the most immediate of which was the absence of laughter and hope on Rory Hayden's face. The possibility that because of what happened six weeks ago, those two things might never brighten that entrancing face of hers bothered him more than he would have believed possible. Which was why he leaned over her, and in a voice he'd meant to be teasing, he ordered sharply:

-Cheer up, sleeping beauty!

Her eyes snapped open, narrowed, dropped to the smile on his lips, the lifted to his eyes gain in confused misery.

-I can't. This whole idea is insane, I see that now. We'll only be making things worse for each other and the baby by getting married.

-Why do you say that?

-Why ? How can you ask me why? My God, you didn't even want to take me out again after that night. You haven't even phoned. How can -

-I intended to call you. If I'd thought for one minute you actually wanted to hear from me, I'd have called you long before this.

Torn between disbelief and painful hope, Rory closed her eyes, trying unsuccessfully to deal with her bewildering, uncontrollable reactions. Everything was extreme - extremes of despair, of hope, of joy, of relief.

-Cheer up! Jess ordered again, inordinately pleased that she'd apparently wanted to see him again. Among other things, he'd assumed six weeks ago in the harsh light of the day, she'd reevaluate the situation and decide his combined lack of money and social standing were impossible obstacles to any further relationship. Evidently, she hadn't felt that way. She drew a ragged breath, and not until he spoke did Jess realized that she was trying valiantly to respond to his urging cheer up. With a tremulous smile she said darkly :

-Are you planning to be a nag?

-I think that's supposed to be my line.

-Really ?

-Mmm. he confirmed. Wives nag.

-What do husbands do?

He gave her a look of deliberate superiority. Husbands command.

In contrast to her next words, her smile and voice were angelically sweet. Would you like to bet on that?

Jess tore his gaze from her inviting lips and looked into jewel-bright eyes. Mesmerized, her answered with blunt honesty. No.

And then the last thing that he expected occurred. Instead of cheering up, he realized she was crying, and just when he was blaming himself for making her do that, Rory put her arms around him and pulled him down to her. Burying her face in the curve of his neck and shoulder She turned into his arms as she stretched out beside her on the bed, her slim shoulders shaking. When she finally spoke, several moments later, her words were rendered almost indistinguishable by her tears.

-Does a farmer fiancée have to can and pickle things?

Jess muffled a stunned laugh, stroking her luxuriant hair. No.

-Good, because I absolutely don't know how. Sighing, she said : I was supposed to start college next month. I have to go to college. I p-planned to be president someday, Jess.

Astonished, Jess tipped his chin down, trying to see her face. That's a hell of a goal! President of the United States...

That last, perfectly serious remark, startled a shriek of teary laughter from the unpredictable young woman in his arms.

-Not of the USA ! Of a store! she corrected him, and the gorgeous eyes she raised to his were suddenly swimming with tears of laughter now instead of despair.

-Thank God for that. I expect to be a reasonably rich man in the next few years, but buying you the presidency of the United States might be beyond my means even then.

-Thank you, she said.

-Why?

-For making me laugh. I haven't cried that much since I was a child. Now I can't seem to stop.

-I hope you weren't laughing at what I said about being rich.

Despite his light tone, Rory sensed that he was extremely serious about that, and she sobered. She saw the determination in that square jaw, the intelligence and hard-bitten experience in those dark eyes. His life had not given him any of the advantages that if offered men of her own class, but she sensed instinctively that Jess Mariano had a rare kind of strength couple with an indomitable will to succeed. She sensed something else about him too - that despite his arbitrary attitude and mild cynicism she'd glimpsed, there was a core of gentleness within him. His behaviour today was proof of that. She had initiated their lovemaking six weeks ago, and this pregnancy and hasty marriage was undoubtedly as disastrous to his life as it was to hers. Yet, not once had he torn into her for her stupidity or carelessness, nor had he told her to go to hell when she had asked if he would marry her.

Watching her study him, Jess knew she was rating his chances to succeed and make good his claim. He also knew how incongruous that claim would seem to her, particularly now. the night he'd met her, he'd at least looked successful. Now, however, she knew what sort of place he came from. She'd seen him with his head under the hood of a truck and grease all over his hands, and still she was there.

To his complete shock, Rory lifted her hand and shyly laid it against his tense jaw, her fingers spreading over his cheek. The smile on her lips transferred to her eyes, making them glow. Jess opened his mouth to say something, and he couldn't speak. The touch of her fingers, the proximity of her body, and the look in her eyes suddenly drugged his mind. Six weeks ago, he'd been wildly attracted to her. In the space of the moment, that latent attraction erupted with a force that maid him lean down and seize her mouth with a hard, demanding hunger. He devoured its sweetness, stunned by his own urgency, astonished when he had to slow down and coax her lips apart, because he knew instinctively she was feeling a little of what he was feeling. He almost groaned a few minutes later when she tore her mouth from his and held her hands against his chest to keep him away. Your family, downstairs...

Jess reluctantly dragged his body away from hers. His family. He'd forgotten about all that. Downstairs, it has been obvious that his father had leapt to the correct conclusion as to the reason of their sudden marriage - and the wrong conclusions about what sort of woman Rory was. He needed to go downstairs and straighten that out, he did not need to reinforce his father's opinion that Rory was a rich slut by staying up in this bedroom right now. He was amazed he'd forgotten that. He was still more amazed by his unparalleled lack of control where she was concerned.

Tipping his head back, Jess dew a steadying breath and got off the bed, removing himself from the proximity of temptation. Leaning a shoulder against the bedpost, he watched her scoot up into a sitting position. She glanced uneasily at him, straightening her clothes.

-At the risk of sounding outrageously impulsive, I'm beginning to find the notion of a marriage in name not only gothic, but impractical. It's obvious we have a strong sexual attraction to each other. We've also made a baby together. Maybe we ought to consider taking a shot at living like married people. Who know, we might like it. he said, lifting his shoulders into a shrug, smiling.

Rory wouldn't have been more surprised if he'd grown wings and started flying around the room, then she realized he was merely tossing the idea around as a possibility, not making a suggestion. Torn between resentment at his offhand attitude and an odd kind of pleasure and gratitude that he'd even brought the idea up, she said nothing.

-There's no hurry. We have a few days to make up our minds.

When he left, Rory stared at the closed door in exhausted disbelief, completely dazed by the speed with which he reached conclusions, gave orders, and switched directions. There were very distinct and startlingly different sides to Jess Mariano, and she wasn't at all certain of who he really was. the night she met him, she'd seen a chilling harshness in him yet, that same night, he had smiled at her jokes, quietly talked to her about himself, kissed her into insensibility and made love to her with demanding passion and exquisite tenderness. Even so, she had a feeling that the gentleness he nearly always showed her wasn't necessarily his norm, and that he wasn't to be underestimated. She had an even stronger feeling that whatever Jess Mariano chose to do with the rest of his life, someday he was going to be a force to be reckoned with. She feel asleep thinking he already was a force to be reckoned with.