He let her kiss him for a moment, but the coolness of it was in such sharp contrast to the fires he felt with Naomi that he could not stand the great difference between the two, and he knew that the last person he wanted to kiss was the one person who was standing before him.
He pushed her away gently and stepped backward. Her kiss had left him uncomfortable and unhappy, and nothing more. "Susan, please don't do that. I tried to tell you a few weeks ago when you came into the office that it isn't like this between us any longer, and it isn't going to be like that between us again. It's just not. I don't care for you that way. You must know that. You must understand it. We are friends, and we can keep being friends, but there is no way that there will ever be a romance between us." He hoped that she understood how serious he was about what he had told her and tried so many times to show her.
She looked pained as she stood there, her eyes filling with sadness and her lower lip extending in a pout. "Jonathon! How can you say something like that?" she took a step toward him and he held his ground.
She reached her hands up to the straps on her dress and slowly slid them off of her shoulders, letting the top of her dress fall away from her breasts, baring them to Jonathon. She smiled at him and reached her hands for his, but he pulled away from her again and turned his eyes from her.
"Susan, what are you doing? Put your dress back on. I don't want to see you like that. Please!" he told her insistently.
She frowned and rushed to him, wrapping her arms around him again. "Jonathon! You can't keep pushing me away like this! We're going to be married, you and me, and I want you to love me like you used to!" she pleaded as she looked up at him and tried to get him to look at her.
He carefully raised his hands to her shoulders, not wanting to inadvertently touch her bare breasts, and he pushed her away from him again. "Susan, it's not going to happen. Get your clothes back on and let's go back inside. It's ridiculous for you to try to seduce me like this. I have told you over and over that it isn't going to happen between us. I never did love you, I never said that I loved you, and you and I haven't dated since college, now get it through your head; please! We are not ever going to be together, and we are certainly never going to be married!" he insisted.
She stepped back and shook her head as her green eyes filled with tears and she reached for the straps of her dress and pulled them back up over her pale shoulders. "Jonathon," she spoke his name like a prayer, "we are going to be married. It's what I want more than anything, and it's what our fathers want. It's expected of us. It's been expected of us since we were children! You know that. It's going to happen. You don't have to love me like I love you; you don't have to love me right away. It will happen over time, it will grow. I have enough love for the both of us." She promised him earnestly.
He shook his head and finally turned it to look at her. "It's not going to happen. Let it go and find someone else who wants you back. I am not that man. Be honest with yourself and face that reality."
Seeing the pain in her eyes touched his heart for a moment and he looked at her with sympathy. "Listen, Susan, I'm really sorry, but this just isn't going to work out the way you want it to. You deserve more. I'm not ever going to give you the love you want or need, and you shouldn't wait around expecting it to ever happen, because it won't. Just let it go and move on to someone else. That's really the best thing that you can do. Honestly. I want that for you, because we are friends. I hope you do find a great love and some happiness, with someone else." He pressed his lips together as tears rolled down her cheeks and she sniffled her pointed nose.
He sighed and turned away from her, heading back into the house. He went to his own room for a while, not wanting to see Susan or Vincent again that night, and when he saw their car pull away down the long drive, he went down to the study to speak with his father.
Phillip was sitting in a leather bound armchair, the stump of a cigar in the ashtray beside him, and the remnants of his glass of brandy in his hand. The older man raised his eyes to meet his son's, when Jonathon walked in and closed the door.
"How did it go with Susan tonight?" he asked pointedly.
Jonathon sighed. "It was the same that it always is with her. She wants more from me than I am willing to give her."
Phillip narrowed his eyes. "You should be willing to give her anything she wants. You're going to marry her, so you may as well start making her happy now." He said resolutely.
Jonathon clenched his square jaw and pressed his lips together a moment, keeping the argumentative thoughts in his mind from finding a voice. Instead he drew in a slow deep breath and released it just as slowly as he had drawn it in, before answering his father. "I am not going to be with her. I am not marrying her, and I am not dating her. I don't want her."
Phillip stood up and tipped his fat brandy glass back, swallowing the last of the amber booze, and then he set the glass down carefully on the desk and walked silently to the door, reaching for the handle and opening it. He turned and looked over his shoulder at his son, giving him a serious gaze.
"You will marry her." he said definitively.
Then he walked out and closed the door behind him, leaving his son to stare after him and shake his head.
Chapter8
Jonathon was much more careful with Naomi in the few days following the evening that the Grayson's came to Cross Mansion for dinner. He continued to make love with her in stolen moments, and their passion grew stronger with every connection they made, but he was much more discreet about it.
She was working up the courage to tell him how she felt about him, and she had almost gotten it worked out, when Andrea showed up unexpectedly at her door Sunday morning following the Grayson dinner at Cross Mansion. Naomi opened the door with a wide smile, which faltered when she saw the expression on Andrea's face. She invited her best friend into her home and walked into the living room with her to sit down.
"I already know what you are going to say and why you have that look on your face." Naomi gave a resigned sigh. Her smile was still showing at the corners of her mouth. She pulled a sofa cushion over to her waist and hugged it to her lightly.
Andrea looked at her in surprise. "You do?"
Naomi nodded. "I do. I know that look. You are waiting for me to get things taken care of with Jonathon, just like you told me to. I will. In fact, you'll be so proud of me! I have been trying to think of how and when I could tell him that I am in love with him, and I've figured it out." She looked at her friend happily as Andrea frowned.
"I'm planning a weekend getaway for us out of town. I found this really great little bed and breakfast, and from what I saw of it online, it looks so romantic! We will be able to spend the whole weekend together with no one to interfere; there's a hot tub in the room and a little kitchen area if we want to do our own cooking, but there's a big fancy dining room too, where meals are served. There's a horse property down the road so if we want to go horseback riding we can … it'll be perfect. I was thinking I would wait until we were settled in and he didn't have his mind on work, and then I would take his hands in mine and tell him that I am in love with him."
Andrea shook her head. "You think I'm here because I am going to get on your case for not telling him that you're in love with him already?"
Naomi blinked out of her reverie and looked over at Andrea. "Yes, of course." She answered as if it couldn't be any other reason.
Andrea sighed and sadness filled her eyes. "No, honey. That's not why I'm here."
"Well, why are you here then? I mean, I'm glad to see you, but obviously you came here to talk with me. What's up?" she asked hesitantly. The look on Andrea's face was one that made Naomi's stomach clench in unease.
Leaning over, Andrea reached her hand into the massive shoulder bag she carried in with her and she fished out a folded newspaper. Holding it in her hand a moment as she raised her eyes to Naomi's, she sighed and handed the paper over.
"Read the Society page," she said softly.
Naomi's brow knitted in confusion. "The Society page? Why would I want to read that?" she asked, taking the newspaper and opening it up.
"Because your lover is a billionaire." Andrea answered her softly. "I wish you didn't have to know this, but I'm glad that I'm the one who is telling you, and I'm so glad that you are finding out here in the comfort of your own home."
Naomi's eyes widened as she looked down at the Society page. There on the top left corner was a large photograph of Jonathon and Susan Grayson, and Naomi could see that it was an old photograph; they both looked much younger in it. The headline beside the photograph read, ‘The King Finds His Queen.'