21. Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

LIMOGES

Nora

I had never in my life had a sexual wrestling match with a man.

Or I hadn’t, until right now.

By some miracle (unsurprisingly, I wasn’t good at wrestling, but in my defense, Jamie was taller, bigger and stronger than I was), I got him on his back and managed to pin one of his wrists to the pillow by his head.

He shot me his beloved rogue’s smile, which I took as a warning I wasn’t going to have this position for very long.

Thus, I didn’t dally.

I reached between us and wrapped my hand around his hard cock.

He hissed delightfully (oh my ), stilled, and I took advantage, rubbing the head of his shaft through my wet before he caught. And then, at the same time, I slid down as he bucked up.

My head fell back at taking the fullness of him.

Jamie glided his free hand from my knee up my inner thigh and in, his thumb homing in on my clit.

I whimpered and rode, planting a hand in Jamie’s chest for leverage, my eyes locked to his.

“You’re so handsome,” I whispered, my words breathy with effort and excitement.

“And you’re fucking gorgeous,” he growled.

He pulled his wrist from my hold, to lift it and fist his fingers in my hair at the back of my neck.

He held me there as we made love at the same time we fucked.

I started panting, Jamie put more pressure on his thumb, he started grunting, and then my orgasm hit me like it always hit me when given by Jamie.

I combusted, gasping and mewing and moaning through a transcendental climax.

In the midst of mine, I heard Jamie’s, so after mine left me, I collapsed against his chest and burrowed my face in his neck.

He kept hold of my hair but slid the hand from between our bodies to wrap his arm around me and hold me close.

“I should have never let you have the top,” he remarked, his deep voice thick and sexy.

I started laughing and pressed my face deeper into his skin, smelling his cologne, smelling Jamie, and closing my eyes as the bliss of understanding hit me.

A happily ever after wasn’t always happy.

It was the “ever after” part that was.

In other words, you dealt with the fallout that life inevitably gave you, and then you went back to the joy of it.

Case in point…now, the Saturday after we went to Texas, Jamie and I were spending the day together in bed. Alyona had the entire weekend off. He was cooking for me later. But all weekend, we had no plans but to be together, eat together, nap together, sleep together and make love to each other.

I didn’t need a superyacht.

I just needed my bed with Jamie in it.

As if to prove my point, his phone vibrated on the nightstand, evidence that life will leach into your happy.

But, just as long as you hold onto it, through all the ups, as well as the downs, you’re good.

I lifted my head to look at him.

“I’m going to ignore it,” he said.

With all that was swirling around us, we both knew he couldn’t.

“Have a look,” I replied. “I’ll go clean up.”

He nodded, and sadly, he didn’t look happy about doing it. I touched my lips to his. When I was finished, he looked happy about that.

Then I slid him out, climbed off him and headed to the bathroom.

I saw to business, had my bra still on, and tried to decide if I should find my panties, or if they would be extraneous, all while I listened to the low murmur of his voice.

I returned to the bedroom (by the by, I decided not to bother with putting on my panties) just as he was setting his phone back to the nightstand.

I climbed into bed to the delightful invitation of Jamie’s arms going wide, so I rested my chest on his, and he wrapped them around me.

“Who was it?” I asked.

“Nico,” he answered.

I felt my brows go up.

Jamie didn’t delay in giving me what I nonverbally requested. “He wanted to talk to me before he talked to you, because he knew you’d say yes, and he wanted to make sure it was okay with me before you said yes.”

“Oh dear,” I murmured, having an idea of what was coming.

“Yes, baby,” he murmured in return. “He asked if he could move in here when they return from Vermont.”

My heart squeezed.

“So, it’s done,” I stated.

“I could tell he didn’t want to talk about it, but he’s coming down every weekend, staying at their place, because they’re sharing space during the week since there’s no other choice. They’re contractually obligated to teach those classes. But Felice has already found a roommate to move in to help her with rent when she’s back from Vermont, so Nico’s out.”

Felice didn’t even let the grass die around their marital house.

I was glad I could more openly dislike that girl.

My mouth got tight, and Jamie didn’t miss it.

“He says he’s good with it. He’s going to buy an apartment or find a co-op. He didn’t want to rent in the first place. He thinks it’s throwing away money, since he can’t even claim it on his taxes. He just needs somewhere to be while he’s looking.”

“You two talked a lot in a short period of time,” I remarked.

Jamie smiled. “We tend to lay it out there.”

I would love him simply for being that man Nico could lay it out there to.

Fortunately, there was a lot more to love.

“Of course, you said yes he could stay here,” I noted with mock severity.

That got him chuckling. “I did. Though, I wanted to run it by you the possibility of him staying at the brownstone. Work hasn’t started, it probably won’t for a while, and if it does, they can work around a living space for him. It’ll set my mind at ease, having someone there. And he won’t feel like he’s third wheel to what we have going on here.”

I melted deeper into him, “That’s a lovely thought, Jamie. Feel free to suggest it, and I’ll make sure he knows, if he wants to be home for a while, he’s still welcome here.”

“We have a plan,” Jamie murmured.

I kissed his jaw, then his chin, before I parroted, “We have a plan.”

He rolled us to our sides and tangled our legs together.

“Since we’re taking a break from fucking,” he started.

“A short break,” I put in.

His blue eyes were dancing when he stated, “I’m not a machine, woman.”

“You’re my pleasure machine.”

He burst out laughing.

“Well, you are,” I declared.

He continued laughing and only stopped in order to press a hard kiss on my mouth.

“So, while I recalibrate,” he started again, his lips still twitching.

“Yes?” I urged him to go on.

The residual amusement swept from his features, and he said quietly, “I’m pulling back from AJ.”

I felt my eyes go wide.

“He might get the insurance and live another day,” Jamie continued. “He might not. If he doesn’t, the ranch will be mine, and I can make decisions then, and now I can do it while talking to Morgan about how he feels about it. But at this point, he’s a lost old man, stripped of everything he had, everything he was. His two sons are dead, and he put them in the ground. His daughter can’t stand to be in his presence. I was after vengeance, for Mom, for Judge, for me, and I got it. Continuing to go at him now is just cruel.”

My morally upstanding Jamie.

“I think the same about Paloma,” I admitted. “Seeing her with your father, it was just… pitiful.”

“Yes,” he agreed.

“And you have Morgan now.”

He did.

Since Morgan was clearly hoping to make up for lost time, he called Jamie every day, even if it was simply to share the news they got rain down in Texas.

I loved that for Jamie.

No, I adored it.

As such, Morgan had told his sons. They took it as expected, being Morgan Rawlin’s boys, shock but quick acceptance. They were all discussing when we’d go back at a time when Judge could take Chloe and JT, which wouldn’t be long from now.

And they’d already accepted our invitation to come to the as-yet-unscheduled adoption celebration for Dru and Jamie.

The whole family.

AJ didn’t need to factor in that.

Paloma didn’t either.

“Whatever they can do to us now will be like a needle thrown at armor,” Jamie said. “They can’t hurt us. I couldn’t live with myself if I kept up the drive to hurt them.”

“Agreed.”

Jamie tucked some of my hair behind my ear, a sweet look on his face.

Then he asked, “Want a snack?”

“Please,” I answered.

“Stay here.” He gave me a quick kiss before he knifed out of bed. “I’ll be back.”

He pulled on some joggers and left the room.

I watched him go, then stretched languidly on the bed, before I pulled the sheet over my lower half.

And I waited for my man to get back and feed me.

Definitely my version of happily ever after.

It was the next day, Sunday morning.

We were in the kitchen, sitting on the stools at the bar by the window.

Jamie had made scrambled eggs, bacon, potato hash and toast (he was an excellent cook, even breakfast, then again, his mother taught him).

He was reading The New York Times .

I was fielding texts about the next Sunday lunch, to be held at Allegra and Darryn’s, something she wanted to do soon, so we’d have a chance to check in on how Nico was doing.

Therefore, I was on my phone when the call came in.

Elsa.

“Elsa,” I told Jamie (and the brows he’d raised at me) as I took the call. “Hello, dear.”

“I’m going to send you something via email,” she said. “I’d suggest you go to your computer to watch it. This definitely needs to be consumed on a larger screen.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Just…enjoy,” she replied.

And with that, oddly, she rang off.

I turned to Jamie. “She’s sending me something to watch, and she says I have to do it on a computer.”

“Something bad?”

I shook my head. “No, considering she sounded like she was trying not to laugh the short time we were on the phone.”

“I could always use laughter,” Jamie noted.

I could too.

We took our coffee and left our plates when we went to the PC in the study.

I woke it up, pulled up email, found the one Elsa sent not minutes before, and clicked on the link.

It was a video from a gossipy news site.

And the still was of Ryan of G-Force sitting in what looked like a living room.

“Well, shit,” Jamie said.

Shit indeed.

I hit play.

The video started in a newsroom, with the commentor saying, “It appears things are going to get complicated for the struggling AJ Oakley after several men came forward to report the cash sales of some of the Oakley estate’s prized possessions. Reportedly, this happened only weeks, and in some cases, mere days before Oakley’s son, Jefferson, allegedly set fire to the entire compound on the ranch known as Oakbilly Gulch.”

The video switched to Ryan in his living room, gesturing to a number of vintage Limoges trinket boxes sitting on a velvet lined tray.

“I bought all of these from Paloma just two weeks ago,” Ryan was saying. “Along with this.” He jiggled his wrist for the camera, showing off a slim, gold Cartier watch. “She would only accept cash, real cash. Not Venmo or something like that. I didn’t really think much of it at the time. I mean, cash is preferred, always . Now, I wonder if it was for other reasons.”

The camera panned to Bryan, who was seated next to Ryan, and he was holding a pair of, to my trained eye, what looked to be three and a half carat diamonds studs pinched between his thumb and forefinger toward the camera.

He put his hand in his lap.

“I bought these from her, and yes, she demanded cash,” Bryan announced. He grinned cheekily at the camera. “They’re for my mom for Mother’s Day.” He leaned forward. “They’re Tiffany’s.” After delivering that morsel, he winked.

The camera panned over Ryan to Wallace, who was seated on Ryan’s other side.

“We all bought things from her,” Wallace reported. “All for cash. She had a whole load of stuff to look through. It was like having a What Goes Around Comes Around store right in Ryan’s living room. Except with tacky boxes.”

Ryan could be heard gasping before he snapped, “They’re Limoges .”

Wallace kept speaking over Ryan. “She asked us to tell all our friends about the things she had. She said they were from her private collection, and she’s Paloma Friedrichsen, so we didn’t question it. But now, with what happened down in Texas, we wonder.”

The screen cut back to the newsroom commentator. “All told, these gentlemen say they purchased around one-hundred-and-ninety-thousand-dollars’-worth of pre-owned merchandise from Ms. Friedrichsen, and they’re aware that friends and acquaintances made even more purchases. It’s been noted by the police in Texas that a number of these items, which were listed on an inventory AJ Oakley provided to them, such as the diamonds in jewelry, wouldn’t perish in a fire, even one that blazed as hot as the one in Oakbilly Gulch. Efforts are ongoing, but as yet, police report very few valuables have been recovered. It appears Mr. Oakley, and his girlfriend, ex-supermodel Paloma Friedrichsen, might have some uncomfortable explaining to do before they’re able to collect what has to be a sizeable insurance payout after the disaster at Oakley’s family ranch. We’ll keep an eye on this story, and report as it progresses.”

The video ended and I turned to Jamie.

He was looking down at me.

Fighting a gleeful smile (he and I did agree not to kick them now that they were down… still ), I got up and walked (all right, it was more like ran-walked) back to my phone in the kitchen, whereupon I immediately called Teddy.

“Let me guess, you saw it,” Teddy drawled as his greeting to my call.

“Did they really buy those things from Paloma?”

“They absolutely did. The deals were insane, darling. But they thought it was like a Paloma’s Dying Breath Closeout sale, which, in and of itself was something to celebrate. Even so, they had no idea she was unloading AJ’s belongings prior to what it seems this is about…that man attempting insurance fraud.”

“I’m not certain AJ knows those things were missing,” I shared.

There was a moment of silence before, “Well, that makes it even more delicious, don’t you think?” Teddy asked. He didn’t give me time to answer, probably because there was only one answer (that being “yes”). “They had other ideas up their sleeves to stop her shenanigans against you, but when Paloma sought them out, they were simply going to spread the word she was so desperate, she was having a clearinghouse sale of all her best pieces, something they did. Nothing makes a woman hide her head in shame more than being forced to divest herself of the items she worked very hard for .”

His inference wasn’t even slightly veiled.

I so adored Teddy.

“Obviously,” Teddy carried on, “when they saw the news about the fire, they put two and two together, and they contacted the police. That is, they did that before they contacted the media.”

And I absolutely adored the G-Force.

I felt Jamie come in and watched him regain his stool.

I wasn’t certain what his expression was relating, so I said to Teddy, “I need to go. Tell them their last visit to the closet was just for fun. And you and I need to go shopping.”

“You do know you don’t need to take me shopping, and you don’t need to give them anything else. We love you, Nora.”

“We’ll discuss it later, dear. Lunch this week?”

“Obviously. Ta-ta, darling.”

“Goodbye, Teddy.” I hung up and focused fully on Jamie. “Are you all right?”

“If AJ’s smart, he’ll press charges for theft.”

I said nothing, and not because Jamie kept talking, because I didn’t know what to say, and I still wasn’t certain about his mood.

“At this juncture, I have no idea if he’ll be smart. I don’t know if he’d be able to live with everyone knowing his girlfriend was with him to steal from him, or if he’d better be able to live with an arrest for insurance fraud. I know that sounds ludicrous, but it’s true, because that’s the kind of man he is. And he’s this regardless that he has to know fraud like that is a felony. At those amounts, he’d definitely be looking at massive fines and prison time. And he doesn’t have the money to pay a lawyer, and anything she left for him went down with that fire.”

“Jamie,” I said gently. “He must throw Paloma under the bus. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but he needs the insurance money.”

“He needs the insurance money,” Jamie murmured before picking up his phone.

I sat watching as he moved his thumb over the screen before putting the cell to his ear.

He caught my gaze briefly before he got up and moved toward the dining room, saying, “Yes, AJ, it’s me. We need to talk.”

Ugh.

My poor Jamie.

I turned back to our plates.

Jamie had cleaned his. What was left on mine was now cold, but regardless, I was no longer hungry.

Thus, I took them to the sink, rinsed them, swiped them with the handled sponge Alyona kept close, and put them in the dishwasher.

I set the skillets to soak and wiped down the counters so when Jamie was ready to make us lunch, he had a tidy kitchen.

He came back, glanced around and said, “I could have helped with that.”

“It wasn’t much.” I went to him and put both hands on his chest, he rested his on my waist, and I leaned into him. “I didn’t hear any shouting.”

“He asked if I’d buy the ranch.”

This was such a surprise, I sucked my cheeks into my teeth and bit them.

“Cute,” Jamie muttered, his gaze on my mouth.

I let my cheeks go and urged him to continue by saying, “Darling.”

“He did not know Paloma was stealing from him. He’s going to be pressing charges.”

My heart thumped with the shock of receiving confirmation of that news.

Jamie carried on, clearly reading my reaction. “He has no choice, sweetheart. It’s either put her down or go down with her. And I believe him when he says he had no idea she was taking things. I asked him about Chet, and he didn’t even know who that was.”

Truly, the woman needed to learn how to lose a lover.

“Are the G-Force going to lose their money?” I queried.

Jamie sighed. “I can make them whole, but, probably. Those items weren’t hers to sell. And unless she can prove that AJ gave them to her, as stolen property, they’ll have to be returned.”

I hoped the G-Force knew that before they called the police and the media.

“I don’t know if the fire was his idea or Jeff’s,” Jamie went on, “because he didn’t get into the fire. All I know at this point is, who I just talked to was a shattered man with all the fight kicked out of him. He’s humiliated. Paloma humiliated him. The only thing he has is that land, and if it goes through, the insurance payout. He wants to sell the land to me for what he owes on the note, which is not what it’s worth, especially now there’s no house or outbuildings on it, so that won’t be happening. But if he can get the payout, drill down the note, I’ll purchase it from him at a price the market will bear, and, from what he says the payout will be, he’ll have a nice sum to find someplace comfortable to live out the rest of his life.”

“Did you tell him you’d buy the ranch for a fair price?”

“Yes.”

“Was the call…antagonistic?”

Jamie suddenly appeared in mild pain. “He…” Jamie shook his head. “Fuck, Nora, he thanked me for calling.”

Oh, my Jamie .

I slid a hand up to curl it around his neck. “It seems, in some cases, revenge isn’t very sweet.”

“This isn’t that, darlin’,” he declared. “He’s not going to wheedle his way in because I’m the last one he’s got, and I’m not even his. But I’m not going to let the man my mother loved once in her life, even if he conned her into that love, end up homeless or whatever is to become of him.”

“You’re a good man, Jamie.”

“I’m my mother’s son, Nora.”

“Yes, like I said, you’re a good man, Jamie.”

His smile was small, but at least it was there.

“Paloma is in real trouble, isn’t she?” I asked.

“AJ said he doesn’t know all that she took, he does know it seems like it was hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of property, so, yes. She’s in a good deal of trouble.”

I’d never experienced it before, but I was experiencing it then.

This being that fact that revenge sometimes actually felt awful.

Jamie slid his arms fully around me and suggested, “Let’s not let this ruin our day.”

“Okay then. Let’s curl up in the hearth room and watch movies all day. We can make popcorn later. I think Alyona has one of those popcorn-popping gadgets, because she’s made it for me before.”

“Sounds good,” Jamie agreed.

I got up on my toes to press my mouth to his.

He angled his head and deepened the kiss.

Jamie then let me go and went to the hearth room to fire up the TV.

I rinsed out our coffee mugs and put them in the dishwasher.

Then I joined him.

Getting ahead a little bit …

In the end, although it was impossible to tell after the destruction of the fire, it was estimated that Paloma stole nearly a million dollars’ worth of valuables from the Oakbilly Gulch estate.

She also took what was left of the proceeds of her sales of purloined merchandise and fled to the UAE. She did this within days of Jeff’s funeral.

The UAE has no formal extradition treaty with the United States.

Nevertheless, deals between the countries could be made.

It was just that Paloma had been last seen entering the property of an obscenely well-off, as well as well-connected, not to mention quite elderly, sheik.

In other words, the police couldn’t take her into custody for extradition talks to begin, because she disappeared in Dubai.

I had no idea what became of her, because she was never seen, or heard from, again.

AJ, on the other hand, received the insurance payout.

There was no evidence that Jeff hadn’t acted alone, and considering Jeff’s reputation, it wasn’t hard to believe that was true, and he came up with that lamebrained scheme to help out his father who was having a tough time.

We would never know.

AJ paid down the note, but sold to Reid and Greer, saying that would keep the Oakley ranch “in the family.”

This wasn’t a snub to Jamie. It was partially because Morgan said he had enough to handle, and Boone and Cass agreed, so Jamie had no use for that land.

I sensed Morgan’s decision was also at least partially because he didn’t want the memories of that place, bittersweet as they were, and he also didn’t want his wife to face them, considering who the sweet part was.

AJ bought a modest property in Dallas, and mercifully, was forced to live in it for only six months, before he died of a heart attack while watching the Cowboys on TV.

Jamie told me that was the way he’d want to go.

And for the first time when it came to AJ Oakley, I was glad he got what he wanted.

Last, Jamie, Dru, and Judge had a Skype where they all decided to keep the Oakley name.

They did this because it was one of the names that defined Cordelia in her life, all of these names Jamie carried within his own, because she gave them to him.

Morgan, who was a very affable man, didn’t feel slighted.

But that might be because Jamie legally added Rawlins before the Oakley, Dru would as well when she was adopted, and not only did Judge do it too…

He added it to JT’s name.