Phoenix Rising(50)

Jessa’s mouth twitched into a warm smile. She missed him. The way he would wake up slowly, squeeze her tightly and then press soft kisses to the side of her neck until she opened her eyes and begged him to slide his long cock deep inside her ready warmth. Jessa missed the softness in his dark eyes, that expression he reserved solely for her.

Jessa was so far gone there was no coming back. The painfully proper lady who’d watched Will stride across the marble foyer and out the front door had burned away completely. Left in her place was a woman who hadn’t wanted her two-faced husband, anyway. She was a woman who was tired of society telling her what to say, what to wear and who to love. In short, she was Connor’s woman. Connor’s Jessa.

And that was what had brought her home for a few days. After all, the inconvenient fact was that Jessa and Will were still married, on paper at least.

She rolled out of bed and into the shower with a mile long to-do list ahead of her. Jessa had no idea how long it would take to get the details of this latest wrinkle in her life taken care of, but the lawyer she’d seen the day before had been optimistic.

Jessa didn’t want Will’s money. She wanted out. She wanted to spend her time at Phoenix Rising with Connor. The rest of it would work out. She was sure of it.

It didn’t matter that they’d never discussed a permanent relationship or that he’d never dropped the L word. And the total lack of kissing? That was a little bit harder to reason away. Kissing required intimacy. So did love. Was she going to hang her future happiness on one frayed bit of hope? Connor was nothing if not a hard case. Was Jessa ready to take it on faith that if she were patient enough, he’d open up to her?

That same internal argument had raged for days. But Jessa couldn’t believe Connor didn’t love her. The days and nights of passion hot enough to scorch the world couldn’t possibly be a fling.

A fling didn’t include soft looks, stolen moments in the back room and gentle caresses that made Jessa’s heart take flight. It didn’t include exasperated looks from Alex or soft chuckles and shakes of his tousled blonde head.

It wasn’t a fling. It couldn’t be. If it was, Jessa was on the fast track to irreparable heartbreak. The kind that should’ve come with warning labels.

Ending a nineteen-year relationship with Will had been painful, but it was a different kind of painful. There had been fear of failure in that pain. She had done everything he’d ever asked of her. In the end, even turning herself inside out for Will hadn’t been enough.

Connor was different. He’d taken her as she was, as the real Jessa Kincaid, even when Jessa hadn’t been certain who that was. If Connor rejected her after stripping away her protective mask it would be worse, devastatingly so.

Jessa was still having a heated debate with herself when the doorbell chimed. Frowning at her reflection in the mirror, she tossed the hairbrush back on the counter and trotted out of the bathroom.

The car in the driveway was half hidden by a giant rhododendron bush, and Jessa couldn’t see the front porch from the bedroom windows. Hesitantly entering the foyer, she tried to think of anyone who would have a reason to ring her doorbell. It was unlikely to be one of Jessa’s neighbors. They no doubt thought she’d long ago moved out, if they cared about her fate at all beyond any tidbits of juicy gossip.

The bell rang again and Jessa swung open the enormous mahogany door. Anne stood on the other side, tissue in hand and tears streaming down her face.

“Anne? What on earth is wrong?” Jessa demanded, concerned.

“I’m so glad you’re home! I was afraid you wouldn’t be. I didn’t have anywhere else to go and…” Anne broke down into sobs.

Jessa tugged her inside and through the foyer into the formal living room. Anne perched on the brocade sofa and Jessa gingerly sat beside her. In the back of her mind, she wondered why she’d ever purchased furniture that was so horribly uncomfortable to sit on. She’d almost rather sit on one of Connor’s barstools while having a heart-to-heart with Anne.

“Okay, now tell me what’s going on, Anne.”

“I left Jason.”

“That’s wonderful news!”

“But he threw me out of our house!”

Jessa paused, uncertain. “I’m not sure he can do that, honey.”

“He said my name isn’t on the deed! How could my name not be on the deed? I signed papers when we bought the stupid thing! And my name is on the payment coupon I pay every single month! Who cares if it’s his money that pays it? He was supposed to be my husband!”

Jessa dug her cell phone from her purse and dialed her lawyer’s number. “Sounds like you need to lawyer up, honey.”