A Silken Thread - Brenda Jackson [43]
Unfortunately Rita hadn’t slept off the guilt. It was still there staring her in the face, right along with an aftermath of luscious sensations that just wouldn’t leave her alone. Her breasts were still tender from where Wilson’s mouth had been, and the area between her thighs…well, there wasn’t much she could say about it. His mouth had been there and also the most hard and thick erection she’d ever seen. When he’d entered her, the invasion had been priceless, right along with the passion they’d fueled and the desire they’d stirred in each other.
“Is that why you cancelled your lunch with Brian and Erica?”
Rita rubbed her hand down her face. “For crying out loud, Lori. How could I look in Erica’s face knowing what I’ve done? What was I supposed to say? Oh, by the way, I ran into your father in Sweden and we had drinks and screwed our brains out.”
“Is that how it was?”
Rita threw her head back. “Practically, although what I said almost painted a picture of the two of us being drunk, we were in our right minds, trust me.”
“Then why do you think you did it?”
Rita glanced over at Lori. Her friend could ask the damnedest questions at times. It had to be the attorney in her. “Lust, pure and simple.”
“So, you weren’t operating under the illusion that you’ve fallen in love?”
“No, although Wilson is a man I think any woman could love. Karen would be a fool if she didn’t love him. He’s kind, gentle, charismatic, handsome, well built, an extraordinary lover.” She paused. “Need I go on?”
“Not unless you want to. You’ve drawn a pretty damn good picture for me. Now I’m sorry I had that business trip and missed the engagement party and checking out Wilson Sanders for myself.”
She knew Lori meant it, although she also knew Wilson would have been much too old for Lori’s taste. Her motto these days was “Go young and have much more fun.”
“And I would have checked out Karen Sanders,” Lori added. “Most men, you know, cheat because of something they’re missing at home. I would have been able to tell within seconds if she’s putting out.”
“It really doesn’t matter if she can stand at the head of the line as the Wicked Witch of the West, no woman deserves to be cheated on, Lori. I think you of all people would believe that.”
Lori should have believed that. Her ex-husband, Deon, a pilot for one of the major airlines, had cheated on her. Lori had returned to town early from a business trip to find him in their bed with the woman—one of his flight attendants.
“I do, but to be totally honest, Deon and I had begun drifting apart a year before he pulled that stunt. He wasn’t getting any from me and with his horny ass, I figured he was probably getting it from somewhere. What pissed me off was the fact that I caught them in our bed. He had money. They could have gotten a hotel room someplace.”
Of course Rita knew the entire story. Lori had grabbed the pistol she usually kept in her nightstand and begun shooting. Of course she’d been smart enough to raise the revolver toward the ceiling, but according to Lori it had given her great satisfaction to see her husband and the other woman run butt-naked from the house into the streets. That had given the neighbors, the postman, the garbageman and a UPS man making deliveries in the area something to talk about.
And someone, Lori still didn’t know who, had captured the fiasco of the naked couple trying to hide behind bushes—probably on a cell phone—and had mailed the video to her. She had used the pics as leverage to get everything she wanted in the divorce settlement.
Rita had always suspected Deon of being up to no good. On the other hand, she believed Wilson when he’d told her he had never cheated on his wife before. She suspected he was somewhere feeling as bad about what had happened between them as she was. She couldn’t help wondering how he would react when he saw her again. How would she react to him?
“So what do you plan to do, Rita? You can’t hide from your future