Long-Lost Mom

accept my calls.”

Lara glanced down at Sara, then over at Jenna. “Would you mind terribly…?”

“Not at all,” Jenna said, relieved. “Come with me, Sara, into the living room. We’ll stoke the fire.”

“I want to stay here and listen.”

“Sara…”

At the warning in her father’s voice, Sara rolled her eyes and went with Jenna.

“I saw you hugging my daddy,” she said the instant the doors shut behind them. “I don’t want you to do that again. My mommy’s going to come home and he’s hers.”

Jenna nodded seriously, although her heart began to race. Everything she’d ever wanted was standing right in front of her, and she didn’t want to ruin it. “I’m glad your mommy is coming home. Have…” Her voice started to crack and she cleared her throat. “Have you missed her?”

“Yes.”

Jenna took a big chance and kneeling before the stubborn wonderful child of her heart, whispered, “She missed you, too. And I bet she’ll tell you that real soon.”

They were playing cards by the fire, with Jenna losing badly at a game of Go Fish, when Stone and Lara came back into the room. Looking stressed out and exhausted, Stone went directly to his daughter, pulled her close and said, “Would you like to go spend the night at your grandma and grandpa’s house?”

“Oh, boy! Really?”

“Really,” Stone told the bouncing grinning girl. “Can you be good?”

“Yep!”

Stone helped Sara pack, then walked both her and Lara to the car. Jenna sat in the kitchen, her heart pounding. By the time Stone came back in and looked at her, she thought for sure he’d be able to hear it from across the room.

She was about to lay her life and heart and soul on the line. There was nothing and no one to stop her this time, and panic nearly overwhelmed her.

“Just us.” Stone came right for her, lifted her out of the stool and against him.

He felt so good. Warm and hard and strong and capable, so very capable. How long had it been since she’d had someone like him in her life, someone she could depend on?

She knew the answer to that all too well. He’d been the last person. The one and only.

“Oh, Stone,” she whispered, clinging for just another minute. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry in advance for-”

“Just tell me, sweetheart.” Stroking her sides, her back, his big hands were everywhere.

Because she couldn’t help herself, her hands slid under his T-shirt, traveling slowly up the sleek bunched muscles of his back. Stretching beneath her roving fingers, he made a noise like a big cat on the prowl; a deep husky half-purring sound that had her body reacting in a thousand ways.

When she arched against him with a soft needy murmur, he lowered his mouth to hers.

“Wait,” she gasped.

“Cin-” he started, only to break off with a little laugh. “Okay, you’re right. This before hormones, because I just remembered-I don’t even know your name.” Still standing, still holding her, he looked down into her face. His eyes had a suggestive gleam. “Besides, we have all night now.”

She was desperately afraid it wouldn’t take that long.

“So…tell me.”

“Okay.” But she couldn’t speak past her fear.

Gently he set his forehead to hers, then punctuated each word with a hot kiss. “Tell me why you had to lie to me. Tell me your real name.”

Swallowing hard, she barely managed to speak. “It’s Jenna.”

She felt the shock go through his body, vibrate through hers. Lifting his head, he stared at her with eyes gone cold as ice. “That’s not funny. How do you know about her?”

Before she could answer, he withdrew his arms from her and stepped back, leaving her feeling colder and more bereft than at any time in her life. “I never told you her name.”

“I know.” Her heart was racing even faster. “That’s why you have to believe me. I’m really her.” He just stared at her, frozen in disbelief. “It’s me, Stone,” she whispered. “I’m back.”

Chapter 10

Jenna licked her dry lips and forced herself to look him in the eye. “I had to-”

“No.” Shaking his head, Stone backed away another step, banging into the counter behind him. Swearing, he turned around in a slow circle before whirling on her. “Dammit, why are you saying this?”

“Because it’s the truth.”

He stared at her, furious and confused. “Your eyes, they’re different-yet the same.” He shook his head again as if clearing it. “God, I’m losing it.”

“No.” She very carefully took out her contact lenses. With a precision she didn’t feel she set them on the table, then blinked a couple of times in the harsh kitchen light. She opened her purse, fishing out her wire-rimmed prescription glasses-similar to the ones she’d worn ten years ago.

“Look at me,” she ordered softly, her eyes misting over with the glare of the light and the emotions heavy in her heart. “Really look at me.”

He complied, his face a mask as he took in her bright blue eyes.

She fluffed her fingers through her short hair. “Imagine me with that long blond hair,” she said quietly. “In that thin, malnourished body I was always depriving.”

“No.”

“Minus nearly ten years,” she added. “Without all this makeup I use to cover up the-Never mind that now. Just look, Stone. Really look, past all the exterior.” She stood there, heart and soul bared. Terrified. “Who do you see?”

“My God.” He gripped the counter behind him, and his chest expanded as he drew in a breath with obvious difficulty. “Oh, my God. But how?”

“A car accident.”

“You were in a car accident and got a new face?”

“Not exactly. It was the surgery required to put me back together after I went through a windshield and down a two-hundred-foot cliff.”

Before she could draw a breath, he was there, standing in front of her, yanking her against him and slamming his mouth down on hers.

His hands held her face as his tongue dipped into her mouth. Helpless, she wrapped her arms tightly around his midsection and opened to him.

The hard counter he pressed her against dug into her back while the hard bulge between his thighs dug into her front. But it was wrong. Something was missing.

The warmth, she realized. He held her, he kissed her, yet utterly without care and affection. She pushed away, needing to see his face.

His hand dipped into her collar and pulled out the pearls she wore, which he stared at with barely repressed violence. “I knew I’d recognized these. They were your grandmother’s.”

“Yes.”

“Maybe that’s a lie, too.” His hands clasped her waist and with one swift motion, he had her blouse out of her pants.

“What-”

But he cut off her question ruthlessly, with that knowing, exacting, mind-blowing mouth of his. When she shoved at him, he nuzzled her neck beneath her ear. “You’re good, Cindy. Jenna. Whoever the hell you are. Very good. But I suppose you’ve had lots of practice.”