Chapter 22
“Ineed your help, Beth.”
It was noon on Monday, a full eight hours before she was supposed to see Ernie. Millie stood in the living room in a silk robe, her wet hair wrapped in a towel.
“Help with what?” Beth asked, looking up from her book.
This was going to be humiliating, but it was time to confess. She lost the bet fair and square, and she needed Beth’s help to get ready for her date with Ernie.
“I’m going out this evening.”
A triumphant grin spread across Beth’s face. “With Ernie Pritchard?”
Millie sighed. “Yes, with Ernie.”
“I knew this would happen!”
Trying not to roll her eyes, Millie walked over to the hook next to the front door where her purse hung, and she pulled out a crisp twenty-dollar bill.
Beth walked up to her and plucked it from her hand.
“I always win. You should have known better,” Beth said with a smug smile as she tucked the bill into her own purse.
Gritting her teeth, Millie swallowed a retort.
“Now what do you need help with?” Could Beth possibly look any more pleased with herself?
“I want to look good but not ostentatious. We can’t have any gossip columnists writing about us or snapping photos. How do I make myself look attractive for Ernie but unremarkable for the rest of the world?”
Tapping her index finger on her lip, Beth looked Millie up and down.
“I have a black velvet number that should suit you to a T. You’ll blend in with everyone else wearing black. It isn’t showy like your beaded dresses, but it will hug your curves beautifully, and it’s heaven to touch. He won’t be able to keep his hands off you.”
The thought of Ernie’s hands on her sent shivers down Millie’s spine. She bit her lip.
“Ooh. You have it bad,” Beth observed, missing nothing. “We’d better show up at least half an hour before him so that it doesn’t look like we were there to meet him.”
“We?” Oh, no. Was Beth saying what she thought she was saying?
“I’m going with you, of course. Then it will look like a girls’ night out instead of a date.
No one will think anything of it if you dance a few dances with a gentleman who you just happened to meet while you were out with your friend.
Besides, I can be your lookout. If any reporter shows up, I can warn you. ”
It was a good plan, much to Millie’s chagrin. The only downside was that Beth would get to observe every minute detail of her behavior with Ernie and then tease her about it for the rest of eternity. But Beth was right. The two of them together would attract less notice.
“I’ll dress to the nines, and you can be my dowdy friend,” Beth said, enjoying this far too much. “Let me pin your finger wave before your hair dries,” she said, tugging at the towel.
“All right,” Millie said, surrendering.
“To the plan or to your hair.”
“Both.”
Beth was never going to let her live this down, but what were friends for?
Millie knew the instant Ernie came in the door.
She could feel his eyes boring into her with an intensity that made her cheeks heat, despite the fact that she’d spent the last half hour feeling like a pigeon next to a peacock in the dim and busy speakeasy.
The tables were packed, and the dance floor roiled with soused couples.
Beth’s plan was working a little too well. All eyes were on Beth in her red, beaded dress with the scooped back that barely covered her knees. Their gazes slid off Millie’s unadorned outfit, modest jewelry, and muted makeup.
A bevy of men surrounded them, all ogling Beth, vying to ask her to dance and buy her drinks.
No one spared Millie a glance as Ernie glided up to her without a word, took her hand, and pulled her to the dance floor. No one except Beth, that was, whose gaze followed them, her face brimming with amusement.
Ernie’s arms enveloped her, pulling her as close as decency would allow as the band started a foxtrot. His thumb stroked the soft fabric on her back, and everyone in the world disappeared except the two of them.
“You look breathtaking,” he murmured in her ear.
She melted into his embrace.
“Is your friend discreet?” he asked, glancing at Beth.
Millie nodded. “We thought it would be best if it looked like I was out with her and met you by chance, in case anyone was watching.”
“Very sensible.” His lips brushed her hair. Warmth coiled within her.
They traversed the floor in perfect sync, their bodies moving together, legs brushing. Close as they were, she craved more.
“Thank you for agreeing to meet me,” Ernie said. “I had to see you.”
“It’s a terrible idea.”
“But you came.”
Millie didn’t much care that it was a terrible idea while he was touching her and moving with her like this. She longed to draw him into a dark corner and go further. Much, much further. Could they possibly sneak away to a hotel without attracting notice?
Mildred, what are you thinking?
“Yes, I came,” she said, breathless for reasons having nothing to do with the foxtrot. “I wanted to see you too.”
It cost her to admit it. Ernie was a bad habit she couldn’t seem to quit. He stirred things within her. And it wasn’t only physical attraction. If she was being honest, she had feelings for him too. She’d known it ever since that night when she thought he’d died in the fog over the Alleghenies.
No. She couldn’t afford to give in. Too much depended on her. And she still didn’t entirely trust him.
But all her worries seemed distant and unimportant while he was so close.
“Millie, you know I have feelings for you. Do you have feelings for me?”
How could he ask that? It was too direct, too difficult to deflect.
“Yes,” she admitted at last, unable to deny the obvious truth. “But it doesn’t matter because we can’t do anything about it.”
“Oh, sweetheart,” he whispered, pulling her indecently close.
His hard chest pressed against her breasts, and it was all she could do not to moan.
“We’ll find a way to be together,” he said, brushing his lips across her forehead.
He really shouldn’t have done that, but it felt so good. They were risking too much, and she couldn’t stop.
Did she believe that he cared for her, though?
Could she trust him? She’d let Barney break her heart and had sworn never to allow herself to be vulnerable like that again.
And yet Ernie’s sentimental declaration thrilled her.
She wanted to believe. In her heart, she did believe, even as her mind blared warnings.
Her resistance was melting as she breathed in the spicy scent of his aftershave mixed with an earthy scent all his own.
“Ernie?”
“Hmm?”
“Did you mean it when you said you cared for me?”
She held her breath as she waited for his reply.
“Of course, I meant it.”
He stepped back slightly to look her in the eyes as they maneuvered around another dancing couple.
“In fact, I’ll prove it to you. Come have dinner with my family tomorrow night.
They will assure you that I’ve never brought a woman home to meet them before.
I’ve never felt about anyone the way I feel about you. ”
Dinner with his family? Heavens. That sounded terribly serious. Did she dare say yes?
“I’ll come,” she said at last. Curiosity got the better of her.
Ernie grinned and gave her a spin, clutching her close as she returned to him.
“We aren’t fancy,” he warned. “We live in a simple townhouse in Brooklyn.”
“I didn’t grow up rich, you know. It will be a pleasure to go somewhere unpretentious and have a good, home-cooked meal. I miss that.”
The song ended, and another started. She hardly noticed as the rhythm of their steps adjusted to the new beat.
“My family will love you, though I should warn you they can be rather overwhelming all together.”
“I can’t wait to meet them, especially your sisters. They sound like very interesting and independent young women.”
Ernie chuckled. “That they are. You and they have that in common.”
He twirled them around, and Millie saw a flash of red. When they stopped, Beth was right next to them, dancing with the handsomest man in the room aside from Ernie.
“Reporter,” Beth murmured just loud enough for Millie to hear and nodded toward a table in the back.
“Thanks,” Millie whispered back.
“There’s a reporter here?” Ernie whispered as they traversed the dance floor. “I thought speakeasies liked to keep a low profile. Why would they let him in?”
“They probably don’t know what he does. If he knows the password and buys drinks, they don’t ask questions. Besides, he wouldn’t be foolish enough to name the place in his articles. He would just say he saw so and so out on the town.”
“What do you think we should do?” Ernie’s muscles tensed around her.
“Finish this dance and go to the bar. You should buy me a drink and then go home. I’ll stay here with Beth and dance with some other people so that he doesn’t suspect we’re more than casual acquaintances.”
His jaw clenched, but he nodded. For the rest of the song, he kept a decorous distance, though the intensity of his gaze never abated.
When he led her to the bar, she felt oddly bereft. He was no longer holding her in his arms, and she missed it.
“What can I buy you?”
“Martini, please,” she answered.
Flagging down the bartender, he ordered a martini and a whiskey. While they waited for their drinks to arrive, he wrote his address on a bar napkin, and she tucked it into her purse.
“We usually eat around seven. Does that work for you?”
“Yes, I’ll be there.”
Their drinks arrived, and she took a sip.
Thank God for martinis. She needed something to cool the raging heat coursing through her in his presence.
There was still a part of her tempted to throw caution to the wind and ask him to meet her at a hotel so that they could finish what they’d started on the dance floor.
“Good God I want to kiss you,” she blurted after her third sip.
A wicked smile played across his lips. “The feeling is mutual.”
“Maybe if we left separately, the reporter wouldn’t notice.”
It was risky, but she couldn’t imagine the evening ending without at least a kiss. The martini must really be going to her head if she was contemplating something like this. But at that moment, she didn’t care.
“Wait five minutes after I leave and then follow. I’ll be at the tobacconist up the street.”
“But you don’t smoke.”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t kill five minutes buying cigarettes. No one will suspect I’m waiting for you.”
And so, a few minutes later, after a quick word with Beth, she wandered by the tobacconist, and Ernie just happened to come out as she passed, tucking a pack of cigarettes into his breast pocket.
She glanced behind her and only saw Ernie, so she ducked into a dark alley, and he followed.
Grabbing his lapels, she pulled him against her. His lips met hers, and everything else dropped away. There was nothing but this kiss, the feel of his body against hers. His warmth. His scent.
He drove her to distraction. His lips and tongue answered hers in a desperate dance.
Throwing caution to the wind, she took his hand and moved it to her breast. He moaned into her mouth.
“Millie,” he gasped. “We have to stop, or I’m going to take you up against the wall right here.”
Good. That was exactly what she wanted. Caution be damned.
Ernie stepped back, putting some distance between them. Why did he have to be such a gentleman?
“Go back to Beth. I’ll see you tomorrow. We’ll figure out what to do from there.”
So disappointing.
“Fine. I’ll go.” She straightened her skirts and patted her hair, hoping she didn’t look too ravaged.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, caressing her cheek.
“Seven o’clock.” She kissed his hand.
Stepping out of the alley and into the beam of the streetlight, she glanced back over her shoulder. Good God, he was handsome, and the loving look in his eyes was almost too much to bear.
There was a click. She looked around for the source of the noise but saw nothing. With a sigh, she turned around and headed back to the club.