The Whispering Room

“He’s not going to try and break in. Not in broad daylight. He was probably lost, just like he said.”

“But what if he wasn’t? What if something happens to me or the baby? How are you going to like having that on your conscience?”

“Come on, Lynette.”

“No, you come on. If you cared a whit about either one of us, you’d already be on your way home. Just forget it. I’ll call Vaughn. Or Evangeline. Although you know how she feels about snakes.”

“All right, all right. Jesus. I’ll get away as soon as I can.”

“How soon?”

“It’ll take me a few minutes to wrap things up here. Is that soon enough for you?”

“I guess it’ll have to be, won’t it?” Lynette grumbled.

She hung up and walked over to the window with the baby. She peered around the edge of the slider until she could see the snake’s head and she caught sight of the flicking tongue. Definitely not dead.

Then she saw now what she hadn’t noticed before. There were two of them. The second snake was coiled at the edge of the patio, head lifted, tail quivering as if ready to strike.

Heart hammering, Lynette backed away from the glass. Two snakes on her patio. What were the chances of that?

Don took his time clearing off his desk. In spite of Lynette’s call, he was in no hurry to get home. It was obvious she was trying to manipulate him and he refused to rise to the bait. If she hadn’t dragged his grandson into the conversation, he would have told her flat out he wouldn’t come home until he was damn good and ready.

Well, maybe he would have couched it a little more diplomatically than that, but still, Lynette’s behavior was getting tiresome. After forty years, Don had had enough.

Forty years of marriage and only the first five had been good. It was a wonder he’d stuck it out for as long as he had.

But for a time there, right after Vaughn’s birth, life had seemed pretty damn great. Lynette had been so beautiful back then, so sweet and flirty, and she’d devoted herself to being the kind of wife and mother any man would be proud to call his.

But then a string of miscarriages had plunged the woman Don had married into a black abyss of despair, disappointment and bitterness. Even after Evangeline came along, Lynette had never fully recovered. It was like a part of her had withered and died with each lost pregnancy.

After a time, she’d learned to put up a good front. Sometimes everything would seem so normal that Don would be fooled into thinking his old Lynette had finally found her way back to him. But then he’d look into her eyes and realize all over again that the woman he’d married was gone forever.

To be fair, much of their life together hadn’t been as bleak as he now made it out to be when he looked back. Lynette had always kept herself fit and attractive, and he’d always been proud to be seen with her. Their home was immaculate, their children well-cared for, and she had never denied him in bed. Things could have been worse.

But things could also be a whole lot better as Don had recently discovered.

He glanced out the glass partition that divided his office from the reception area. Deanne sat in front of the computer, her brow furrowed as she concentrated on her work. Her dark hair fell like a curtain across her smooth cheek, and she unconsciously lifted a hand to tuck it behind her ear.

With his eyes, Don traced the contour of her jawline, the graceful curve of her neck, the sensuous mounds of her breasts beneath the light blue blouse she wore. For a moment, he imagined himself undoing the pearl buttons, slipping the silky fabric over her shoulders and down her arms, planting his lips on one of her dusky nipples as she moaned softly into the darkness.

Jesus.

He took no small measure of delight in the stirring of his body as he watched her. What a kick it had been to find out that he could still pleasure a woman like Deanne. That even at his age, he still had a few good miles left in him.

But guilt punched a hole in his happiness, and his newly found swagger deflated like a pinpricked balloon.

He didn’t know what he was going to do about Lynette.

Don hadn’t set out to hurt her. She was still his wife, the mother of his grown children, and he would always care about her. But he was sick and tired of the pretense. Maybe if Deanne hadn’t come along, he could have muddled through the rest of his life without thinking too much about what he was missing. But now he didn’t see how he could ever go back.

Shoving some paperwork aside, he got up and walked out to Deanne’s desk. She looked up with a ready smile, the same one she had for everyone, but there was a little knowing glitter in her eyes that she reserved just for Don.

How had he gotten so damn lucky?

“Hey,” she said softly.

“Hey.” He could see just the barest hint of cleavage from where he stood. Deanne was a curvaceous woman, and even the conservative clothes she wore couldn’t disguise the lush body beneath. Lynette was thinner and firmer and a much better dresser, but there was something so…earthy and maternal about Deanne’s softness.

“Is everything okay at home? Lynette sounded pretty upset.”

“I don’t know. I need to drive out there and see what’s going on.”

“Of course. If there’s anything I can do…” She slid her hand over his and squeezed.

Don waited a moment, then slipped his hand away. They’d been careful to keep their relationship private. He didn’t want word to get out until he’d had a chance to talk to Lynette.

Coward, a little voice in the back of his head goaded him.

He’d had plenty of chances to talk to his wife. It wasn’t like it would come as a total shock or anything. Lynette had to know things weren’t right between them. It might even come as a relief.

Of course, Evangeline wouldn’t take the news well. Not that it was any of her business. He’d had reservations about her marriage to Johnny, but she hadn’t been of a mind to listen so now she could just damn well sit back and bite her tongue the way he’d had to do for so long.

Vaughn would be okay. He was a lot less judgmental than his sister. He might not be thrilled by the news, but at least he’d be supportive.

“I don’t know how long this will take. I might not make it back in time to have dinner with you,” he warned.

A little frown puckered Deanne’s brow as she pouted her full lips. “I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you, too.”

Her voice lowered and her eyes deepened. “What about…later?”

“I’ll get away if I can. You know that.”

“Don?”

He’d started toward the door, but now he turned back. “Yes?”

She glanced around as if making sure they were all alone. “Come back to me,” she whispered.

His heart melted and he nodded.

He thought about Deanne all the way home, and it was only when he pulled into his driveway that his conscience started to act up again.

What was he doing? What the hell was he doing?

Men his age didn’t have affairs. This was just crazy. Men his age gardened and golfed and took fishing trips with their buddies.

Men like him didn’t cheat on their wives or turn their backs on a forty-year marriage. They didn’t attract the attention and the affection of a woman almost half their age.

Except…miracle of miracles, he had.

And as he sat in his car and stared at the one-story ranch he and Lynette had shared for nearly as long as they’d been married, it hit him suddenly that this house was no longer his home. He didn’t belong here anymore.

The only place he felt truly at peace was in Deanne’s soft, warm embrace.

He was so preoccupied with getting back there, he didn’t even notice the blond woman who watched the