Twice the Temptation

“You do that and you’ll throw away everything you’ve worked so hard for. And knowing you like I believe I do, you won’t do that just because someone said something you don’t like.”

“You’re not someone, Rhett,” she countered angrily. “Remember, we’re not strangers.”

“That’s something I’ll never forget, because you made certain of that.”

Her eyes narrowed. “So, you’re still blaming me for something you initiated and let get out of control.” Rhett’s reply was preempted when the waiter brought menus to the table.

“Would you like to order cocktails before I take your order, Mr. Fennell?”

“We’ll have a bottle of champagne.”

“Your usual, sir?”

“Yes, please.”

Denise did not want to believe Rhett had ordered champagne without asking her beverage choice. “I don’t want anything to drink because I’m driving,” she said softly after the waiter had walked away.

Rhett smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll make certain you get home safely.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“I’ll drive you home and then take a taxi back here.”

“That’s not necessary.” It was enough that Rhett knew where she worked, and Denise didn’t want him to know where she lived.

Picking up the menu, Rhett studied the entrées as Denise seethed inwardly. His success had made him not only arrogant but also rude. When they’d dated she rarely drank. Being underage was a factor and even when she’d reached the legal drinking age she’d discovered one drink usually left her feeling giddy.

“You’ve changed, Rhett.”

“And you haven’t?” he said, never taking his eyes off the menu.

“Yes, I have. I’m no longer the wide-eyed young girl who got to sleep with the smartest guy on campus.”

Rhett’s head came up as he slumped back in his chair. “You think what we’d had was all about sex, Denise?”

“What else was it, Rhett?” she asked, answering his question with her own. “Even you admitted you’d never connected with a woman the way you had with me.”

Pressing his palms together, he brought his fingertips to his mouth. He’d fallen in love with Denise Eaton because of her outspokenness, passion and her ambition. Of all the women he’d met at Johns Hopkins, she’d been the most focused and driven. Even at eighteen she knew who she was and what she’d wanted for her future.

She was a Philadelphia Eaton, while he was the only child of a single mother who’d looked young enough to pass for his sister. Denise had grown up in a sprawling house on several acres with her attorney father and schoolteacher mother and an older brother. Her brother had attended the prestigious Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, with the intention of becoming a professional soldier.

Meanwhile, he hadn’t known his father, and whenever he’d asked Geraldine Fennell about him, she would say she didn’t know. His mother didn’t know the man who’d fathered him, and every time he walked the streets in his neighborhood he’d randomly searched the faces of men in an attempt to find one who he thought he looked like.

Gerri, as she was affectionately called by the few friends she’d held on to from her childhood, worked two jobs to send him to a boarding school twelve miles from their blighted neighborhood so he would get a quality education. Her sacrifice had paid off, because he’d been awarded full academic scholarships to Stanford, Howard University, Harvard and Johns Hopkins. Rhett had decided on the latter, because the scholarship included not only tuition but also books, room and board. The university was also close enough to D.C. so he could easily return home during school breaks.

The adage that there is a thin line between love and hate was evident after Denise dashed all of the plans they’d made for their future to crawl into bed with Trey Chambers. He’d wanted to hate her, but couldn’t. He’d wanted to hurt her, but hadn’t. Now the only thing he wanted was revenge—the sweetest revenge that he would exact in his own time, using his own methods.

“That was then.”

“And this is now,” she said softly.

“Yes, it is,” Rhett said slowly as if measuring his words. “Speaking of now—how is your family?”

Denise, relieved to change the focus of the conversation from her and Rhett, smiled. “Thankfully, everyone’s well.”

“How’s your brother?”

“Xavier has retired from active service. He went to Iraq a couple of years after 9/11 for two tours of duty. He was stateside for a while, and last year he was deployed again, this time to Afghanistan. A month before he was scheduled to return home he took a bullet to the leg that shattered his femur.”

“What is he doing now?”

“He just got a teaching position at a military school in South Carolina, much to the relief of my mother, who went to church every day to light a candle that he wouldn’t come back in a flag-draped casket.”

Rhett had always liked Xavier. The career soldier had become the older brother he’d wished he had. “Are your parents well?”

“Very well,” she said, smiling. “Daddy is now a state supreme court judge. Mom put in for early retirement, and now complains that she’s bored out of her mind. All she does is cook and bake cakes.”

“Your mother missed her calling.”

“And that is?”

“She should’ve become a chef instead of a teacher.” Whenever he’d gone to Philadelphia with Denise, her mother had prepared so much food that she’d invited every family member within a twenty-mile radius. Although he and Denise hadn’t been engaged, the Eatons had unofficially adopted him into their family.

Denise’s smile was dazzling. “I think you just gave me an idea, Rhett. When I speak to my mother I’m going to suggest she take some cooking classes.”

Rhett’s smile matched Denise’s and for a brief moment he forgot why he was sitting across the table from her in a hotel restaurant. “Your mother is an incredible cook, unlike my mother, who still can’t boil water.”

A tender expression softened Denise’s features when she remembered meeting Rhett’s mother for the first time. Her greeting of “you’re the daughter I always wanted” had resonated with her long after she and Rhett had driven back to Baltimore after a holiday weekend.

“How is your mother?”

“Believe it or not, she got married last year.”

“I don’t believe it. Your mother is so beautiful, and what I didn’t understand was that men were practically genuflecting whenever they saw her, yet she wouldn’t give any of them the time of day.”

Rhett chuckled, the warm honeyed sound coming from deep within his chest. “She finally met someone who wasn’t intimidated by her hostile glares and sharp tongue. Russ claims he chased her until she caught him. She used every excuse in the book as to why she wouldn’t make a good wife, including her inability to cook, until he promised to hire a personal chef.”

“Did he?” Denise asked.

“Yes. He made good on his promise and they have a cook who prepares their meals, so the only thing Mom has to do is heat them up in the oven or the microwave.”

Denise wanted to tell Rhett his mother didn’t have to learn to cook because she’d worked at a restaurant and brought food home. She also didn’t tell him that six months ago she’d gone to see Geraldine Fennell, but neighbors told her Gerri had moved and hadn’t left a forwarding address.

“I hope she’s happy.”

“She is,” Rhett confirmed. “Once I convinced her to give up one of her jobs, she got her GED and eventually went online to get a liberal arts degree. She says she doesn’t know what she’s going to do with it, but earning a college degree is something she’d always wanted.”

The sommelier approached the table with two flutes and a bottle of champagne in a crystal ice bucket. He poured a small amount into one flute, handed it to Rhett, and then filled both when he nodded his approval.