J Saint - Collateral Damage

"Listen to this," Jack held up a wireless phone and pressed a button. Several recorded messages played. Two from friend's asking Bill to call them. The last was from his Brazilian squeeze, it was a voice and accent Lauren would never forget. "Please, I know you say to only call here for emergency. But I so worry. I sent everything as you asked today. To friends. To family. Now please be okay. Call me."

"Bill's latest. She lives in Sao Paulo. Angie spoke to her yesterday. Bill's a week late for their date."

"She left the message five days ago. I also found this brochure in Bill's office. It's about a Brazilian wildlife preserve. It just seemed out of place with the high end golf resorts and spas and it could have some connection to BioLogics."

"Good thinking." She looked down at the mail in her hand. "Brazil…sent everything…Oh My God! Bill's letter!" She dropped the mail and dug into her back pocket to pull out the letter. "It must have been delivered with the boys' birthday presents yesterday. They came from Sao Paulo. In their excitement, the boys had likely knocked it into the bushes I found it in this afternoon."

"And you haven't opened it, yet?"

"It's not like nothing else has been going on. And, to be honest I almost ripped it up and threw it away." She held up the letter. "He wrote My Dear Lauren on the envelope. And I…" She paused. "Didn't want to read it after that. After all of his indiscretions, after all of the pain he's caused, after all of the disrespect, those words pissed me off so much that I didn't want to hear anything he had to say. Even if-" her breath hitched, "-even if he was dead. I'm awful. That's awful, but that's just the way it is."

"No," he said without a trace of condemnation. He stepped closer to her, brushing his thumb along her jaw. Every inch of his rough-edged nearness grabbed her attention and made her want to be closer to him, despite the chaos inside her. He was a rock solid port in a storm, an attractive port that appealed to her on a base level, for sure. But there was more to it than animal attraction and her own starved state. She was drawn as much to that element of honor she sensed in him as she was to everything else. She breathed in his enticing scent and drank of the determined warmth of his appreciative gaze. With her world reeling, he was an anchor she couldn't resist.

"Not awful," he said. "While you were getting the boys ready for bed, I did some internet searching on BioLogics and Bill. The pictures of him with other women pissed me off." His intense gaze darkened and his jaw set to a rock hard angle that she'd hate to meet in a dark alley. He moved his hand to cup her chin. "So, no. You're not awful at all. But him doing that while married to you made him the biggest idiot in the world."

His touch stirred her even more and his anger comforted. She nodded. It had been so long since she'd been touched or comforted that she wanted to lean into his hand to feel more of him, but stepped back instead and opened the letter.

My Dear Lauren,

Considering the way things are at the moment, I know this letter will come as a surprise. But I have to let you know that I still love and miss you very much. Our times together have meant everything to me and I'd love to give you all of the riches in the world. Your share is only the beginning. Just remember how happy we were in Paris, our visit to the Coliseum in Rome and the kiss we shared despite our "suspicious minds" this "July". NBT if you can believe it. The trip was just like our love me tender honeymoon in "blue Hawaii".

I know you are looking forward to our trip to Vegas with the gang. Everyone will have a piece of the action to win the "Grand Jackpot". Yahoo! "Viva Las Vegas!"

Please don't stop loving me. You know all there is to know and you are the key to everything.

Love, Bill.

With every word she read her heart pounded harder and her anger shifted to something darker as outrage sent a sharp pain ripping through her gut-not her heart. His infidelities had killed whatever part he had there. She'd thought she was over all that. Over the hurt. Over the tears. Her hands shook as she crumpled the letter. Tears stung her eyes.

"What's wrong? Can I read it?"

"It's…Dear God…it's…everything is wrong with it." She reached deep and steadied her insides. "Yes, you can read it. It's nothing but a huge pile of bullshit."

Surprisingly, he grinned as he slid Bill's letter from her numb fingers. "Having grown up where cow patties were a menace, I can appreciate the adjective. Not just a pile, but a huge pile." She could tell he was deliberately searching for a way to shift her from the shadows pulling at her and she latched onto his levity, blinking back her tears. It was a lifeline.

"Where was that?" she asked, realizing that her own farm roots had exposed themselves. Bill would have been appalled.

"Kentucky. Bluegrass, prime horses and sweet tea. You?"

"Georgia. Peaches, grits and even sweeter tea."

"So tell me what's up with the letter," he asked as he opened the crumpled paper and looked over it.

"He's playing some sort of sick game. How dare he tell me how much he still loves me and how much he misses me! He's also totally delusional. He's fabricating memories that never happened. We've never been to Paris nor "to the Coliseum in Rome" or had a "kiss we shared despite our suspicious minds this July." And what does "NBT, if you can believe it" mean?" She fisted her hands and paced across the plush floor. "Bill and I honeymooned in Bermuda, not Hawaii. Perhaps he mixed me up with one of his bimbos. I've never been to Vegas with him and his buddies, so why would he say I'm looking forward to going with him and his buddies? Bill would have never been caught dead using either of those expressions. And this last part makes me want to scream. Where does he get off asking me to please don't stop loving him?"

She blinked at the burn of more tears and turned away from Jack, embarrassed.

Jack clasped her shoulders and turned her to face him. A fierceness had sharpened his chiseled features. His green eyes burned. "Bill Collins was a fool and completely unworthy of anything to do with you. Don't waste any more of yourself on his stupidity." He slid his thumb along her bottom lip, sending fiery need right to her core. Her stomach clenched and her body wept for more. "Another time, another place, I'd back you to that wall right there, or any place you wanted to go, and do everything in my power to wipe him from your mind."

His voice was deep and rough, giving her a good idea of what he'd sound like in the bedroom. She tingled. Something inside her loosened and flared hot, making every erogenous zone she possessed jump to attention. Do it. The words rang in her mind. A directive to her. A command to him. Let him do it. Right here. Right now. Toss everything you know and believe about yourself and take Jack up on his offer to forget about Bill.

What did it matter that she'd known Jack less than a day? She had no doubt he was capable of fulfilling his promise to wipe Bill out of her mind. In some ways he'd already done that. She was more aware of Jack on a sensual level than she'd ever been of Bill.

Jack demanded it. He was so much more primal, so much nobler, so much more everything. He had flung open a sexual door between them so hard and fast that she could still hear the echo of his enticing promise slamming against her. I'd back you to that wall right there, or any place you wanted to go, and do everything in my power to wipe him from your mind.

She opened her mouth, ready to cross the threshold. But before she could say "do it", he turned away from her.

"Let me amend that statement," he said. "Were I a better man than Bill and we were in another time and place, I'd do that."

She didn't get the chance to reply because she heard a key turning in the lock to Bill's condo.