Yes. Even though she knew he wasn’t serious, Willa’s stomach did a crazy flip. I am. I always have been.
He stopped just long enough to grab the strip of condoms from beside the bed. Once in the master bath, he lowered her to her feet and began to strip her. All jokes had fallen to the wayside along with coherent thought. It was only them and their need for each other. She helped him out of his shorts, lovingly encircling his huge, hard shaft with her hand. They stepped into the shower together but completely neglected to turn on the water. Just like everything else, it simply wasn’t as important as how much they enjoyed each other.
He slammed her back against the glass wall of the shower, held her hands on either side of her head, and kissed her mouth, her neck, her breasts until she thought she’d come from that alone.
A little voice in her head warned that she needed to be careful, but she ignored it. The only fear she had at that moment was that he might stop kissing her. She was pretty sure she’d die if he did.
Hours later, in bathing suits, Lance and Willa were side by side in the large hammock he’d had installed beneath the shade of a few trees in the area of the yard that overlooked the beach below. It was close enough to provide a breeze off the water, but private enough that it felt as if they were alone on their own island.
During their drive earlier, Willa had noticed his aunt’s journal sticking out the side pocket of his computer bag. She’d asked if he still wanted her to read it and he’d said, “Yes.” Although he’d gone through it, he was curious what she’d think of it. He couldn’t imagine wanting to share anything so private with a woman he was sleeping with, but Willa was also a friend.
She was on a very short list of people he trusted completely.
He watched her expression turn from sympathy to disgust as she flipped through the pages. She paused just before the torn out pages and said, “What a horrible, horrible woman.”
Lance couldn’t agree more. “I’m glad my mother moved away from her. I’ve gone to quite a few family events on her side of the family and thankfully her vileness doesn’t appear to be hereditary.”
Willa nodded. “I met several of your cousins at the auction the night Asher proposed to Emily. They seemed like very nice people.”
“Did you meet Alessandro and Victor? They’re not technically related to me, but you’d never know it. When I first met them, I thought they were loud and a little too inquisitive for my taste, but they’ve grown on me.”
Willa turned back to an earlier portion of the journal. “I think your aunt slept with Victor then married his brother.”
Lance frowned. “I don’t remember it saying that in there.”
Flipping to another section of the journal, Willa nodded slowly as she reread. “She really disliked Victor. No woman hates a man like that unless she once loved him.”
Lance tensed. He opened his mouth to ask, then shut it with a snap. Willa had said she’d once loved him. He didn’t want to imagine her ever feeling that way toward him.
As if she’d heard his thoughts, Willa’s eyes flew up to his. “I never hated you. I wanted to. I told myself I did, but I didn’t.” She ran a hand over the open pages of the journal. “Not like this. Your aunt was sick.”
“I’m—”
“What do you think all the numbers mean?” Willa cut off his apology with her question.
He took hold of one side of the book so they were both holding it above them. “Some are phone numbers. The country code is for Aruba.”
“Which is where your parents were when Kenzi and Kent were born?”
“Yes.”
Willa shuddered against him. “The torn-out pages really bother me. She filled the rest of the book with hateful, awful thoughts. Doesn’t it make you wonder what she could have written that she considered bad enough to tear out?”
“Enough that I called a couple of the phone numbers. They were either disconnected or belonged to people who’d never heard of my aunt. I felt like an idiot afterward. I don’t know what I expected to uncover. I’d ask my parents about it, but you know how well that would go.”
“Can I see the journal again?” Willa flipped to the part of the journal where the pages were torn out. She read the section after it. “Isn’t it strange that she’s obsessed with your mother and the twins she was carrying right up until the missing pages. Then she doesn’t mention either again. In fact, it’s almost a year before she writes anything in the journal again. It’s creepy.” She looked back up at Lance.
Lance took the journal and weighed it in his hand. “Do you remember the woman who came to my office and pretended to be my secretary?”