FATED (26 page)

‘Nathan, I can’t answer that... It is definitely not my story to tell. You don’t know how much I wish it was. She needs to tell you and only her.’ I watched as his head dropped forward onto his chest, just hanging there. He placed his hands into his front jean pockets, so deep down his arms were almost straight and the top of his Adonis girth peeped into view. My heart was breaking for my bestie asleep next door and for the beautiful man in front of me. I felt so utterly wretched at the fact it seemed that I couldn’t help either of them.

‘I’m so sorry, Nate, so, so sorry.’

He gathered himself now and stood taller. The tears, that had started to fall down his face at the veracity of it all, stopped suddenly as he pulled on another facade.

‘Who else knows?’

‘Just myself and Bella’s sister, Yasmin... It’s not something she has ever really wanted to share.’

I heard him inhaling one hell of a deep breath and he pushed himself off the balls of his feet into sudden movement towards me.

‘Tell her I am here... waiting... I want to hear her tell me she doesn’t love me to my face. I will wait for her until the weekend.’ He left my personal space then and my gaze. He turned to stare out of the windows at the lights below. ‘I will wait until then and only then.’

I knew he was upset, but the fact he was now offering Bella an ultimatum just angered me.

‘So that’s it?... She has until the weekend to talk or what... what will you do?’ My voice had increased in volume, I wasn’t sure if it was all in anger or just at the sheer undeserved finality of it all.

‘I can’t make her want to be with me, Frankie... I can’t make her love me... and I certainly can’t sit around here waiting for her either... it will fucking finish me!’

I slipped my hands around his waist from the back and hugged him.

‘I will tell her, Nathan,’ I whispered to his shoulder blade.

When I left his apartment, I left him staring out at the city below and I shut the door behind me. My eyes couldn’t help but move to Alex’s apartment and I found myself wandering over to it. I knew he wasn’t in, but I was going to allow myself to wander around in there, I just needed to feel close to him at this moment. The door had opened with ease. It wasn’t locked; I knew it wouldn’t be as the whole floor was owned by his family. No one could gain access to the penthouse level without going through the whole security thing first or having a key card to swipe in the lift. The heavy door had pushed open wide and I stopped there on the threshold just to breathe in his scent. It was somewhat comforting and after the emotions of today I needed him, badly. I knew he was busy but had to make contact with him.  Quickly I had made my way to his bedroom and placed my body beneath the quilt in order to envelope myself with his smell. Pulling up my phone I began to message him.

Hi

I know you’re busy.

I just wanted to tell you how much

I love you and how much I miss you.

I can’t wait to see you

My phone immediately pinged.

Baby

I miss you too! I can’t wait to feel you against me.

I want to hold you in my arms. I love you

I’ll be home on Friday; we’re going out on Saturday.

We’re going to experience Christmas in NYC

X

That’s great news

I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU!

Frankie

I laid back and sunk further into Alex’s comfortable bed, clasping my phone against my chest as though it were a lifeline. The stress of the day had caused a feeling of absolute exhaustion to wash over me. Just after closing my eyes I felt my phone beginning to vibrate again. Looking at it I was brought back to reality with a bump. Bella was awake.

Thirty-Seven

The next morning I found my way back to Alex’s. I was going to use his treadm
ill. Really I could have done with some fresh air, but Bella had gone over to speak to Nate and I didn’t feel like I should be any further away than his apartment. We had lain awake last night chatting, stuffing our faces with chocolate and consuming copious amounts of wine.

Already I knew in my gut she wasn’t going to open up to him. He would probably walk away. It was too much to comprehend. I didn’t know who I was going to have to pick up first. The sheer emotion of it all was weighing heavily on my shoulders; I just hoped for both of my friends’ sake I was strong enough to carry it.

Once I found the right position on the treadmill I slapped forcefully at the start button. I placed my ear buds in and turned up my music as loud as I could deal with. A small part of me desired to obliterate everything that was going on around me, just for a time, even if that time was short.

After I had run almost five miles my iPhone screen lit up in the holder.

The message was from Nathan, it was simple.

Go to her

I pulled out my ear buds, almost snapping the cable in my haste. My hand had slammed down onto the stop button as I simultaneously jumped off the machine and ran out of the apartment. Heading off in a diagonal direction, I manoeuvred myself around the central arrangement of plants in the marble hallway. I was moving quickly to get to her, but my movement was brought to a sudden halt when out of my peripheral view I had caught sight of Nate leaning onto the open doorframe of his apartment. His eyes lifted from the floor to mine. I started to move towards him then, even if just to offer my understanding in a hug. His hand moved abruptly, showing me his palm, stopping me in my tracks. His face had a hardened guarded expression. An expression I had never witnessed before on the normally playful Nathan’s face and it broke my heart somewhat to see it there.

‘She needs you, Frankie,’ he started to move his feet to turn into his apartment. ‘Look after her for me,’ the door slammed suddenly behind him and with the sudden loud noise my eyes began to fill with tears for him and Bella. Rushing from my statuesque like position I burst through our door, screaming out her name. Hearing her, I found her in her bedroom on the floor, tearing at the carpet with her fingers in her anguish. The tears were falling so quickly down her face she was almost inhaling them back into her body as she gasped for breath.  After I had fallen to my knees, I had just held her, rocking her slowly back and forth in my arms. After what seemed like a lifetime of hugging and crying together, she had finally turned in my arms.

‘I couldn’t do it, Frankie,’ she finally managed to expel. ‘I am going undercover to expose IT and I couldn’t drag Nathan down there with me... I have let him go.’ I had known she had been stressed over work and now that one statement had answered the question why. If we could have been clasping each other with any more force than we were exuding now, I felt we would have probably broken a bone or two.

‘I love him, Frankie, and this is tearing me up... but I have to put this right before I can move on.’ Her face was streaked with tears, snot and mascara, all mixed together. But looking into her pained blue eyes she was still painstakingly beautiful in her bravery.

‘I got so lost in him, so lost in the two of us, so lost it was almost like being found for the first time ever,’ she sobbed harder now and we continued to rock there on the floor.

‘Don’t you think that was his decision to make, Bella? I think he would move heaven and earth for you, if you would only let him in.’ She shook her head suddenly and I knew she had already made up her mind. Nothing I said was going to change her mind; my heart broke for them. My fingers clutched tighter to her already dishevelled clothes and I sobbed with her and for them both.

‘I’m sorry, Frankie, I can’t stay here now.’ I nodded my understanding at her reasoning.

‘I understand but I don’t think you will need to leave, I am certain Nathan is going, I saw him briefly and he looks... defeated... sorry I can’t lie to make it sound any better.’ We had started to stand up. Really I needed to check on Nate and didn’t know how to put it out there into the conversation.

‘Go and see him, Frankie,’ Bella offered. She knew.

Nodding, almost relieved, I had run from one apartment to the other. I banged and banged on his door with both hands. My fists clenched in frustration.

‘Frankie... he’s just left the building.’ Spinning around, I had found Edwards standing there. I must have been pummelling so hard on the door I hadn’t even heard the bloody lift come up.

‘He said he’ll contact you soon.’

Light was starting to come through the windows in my bedroom. My head pounded and my shoulders ached with the tension in them. Even my skin felt on edge. I wanted to go back to sleep and get the two of them out of my thoughts. I found it hard to grasp that only a week ago we had all been so happy up in the mountains and how that happiness could have fallen apart so quickly. Turning over, I threw myself back under my covers and hopefully into oblivion, in doing so I found my body bumping into another familiar, naked one. He was asleep face down as normal, with his hands underneath the pillows. Moving quickly I jumped on top of him and laid myself out flat on my front, pressing my needy skin tightly to him as I snuck my arms underneath his weighty, but extremely well formed, torso. My face nuzzled in the back of his hair.

God I had so needed this. I hadn’t understood just how much.

‘Morning to you too, Frankie’ He was smiling, I couldn’t see it but I could hear and feel it.

He moved an arm up to me and pulled me rapidly down to his side. My leg was lifted and wrapped around his hip and his arms closed around me like a vice.

‘Missed you, baby, it’s been a hell of a long week.’ The scruff on his face was abrasive on my temple as he spoke, but I couldn’t have cared less. I squeezed him to me, not wanting to ever let him go again.

‘I can feel something has missed me.’ I was referring to his hardening cock, protruding its way in between us.

‘Ok I concede, baby, we’ve both fucking missed you.’ He laughed out loud, released me slightly and clasping my chin with one hand he lifted my head up to meet his eyes. My lips were met with his as he brushed them lightly with a chaste kiss. ‘Do you understand just how much?’

His eyes were sleepy but sparkling none the less; I moved one hand to the back of his neck and the other to his just fucked looking, bed hair and brought our mouths crashing back to each other’s. Our teeth mashed together with the force of the kiss. The feeling of needing to consume him washed over me. Never one for losing control for too long, Alex rolled us over and I found myself underneath his hard muscular body. I needed to let him know what had gone on in the last couple of days, but not just yet. First I needed to lose myself in him and with him. He held me as he made love to me, holding me tightly and saying nothing. He stared into my eyes, trying to convey his love. The intensity I felt was palpable, almost like he was shouting out the words loud for everyone to hear.  I was so worn out that afterwards I had started to doze again.

‘Sleep, baby, I’ll go and make us some breakfast.’ That one sentence brought me to. For one thing I needed to be with him, I couldn’t bear not to be near enough to touch him and then there was the obvious, that I needed to explain just what had happened here this week.

Grabbing the covers to my chest I sat up hastily, grabbing onto his arm. I started to shake my head.

‘No, stop... I need to tell you about Bella and Nathan, before you walk out of here and possibly bump into her.’ I proceeded to tell him what had gone on. What an absolutely hellish few days it had been.

He was sitting up slightly in bed and I was lying on his chest, tucked under his arm. I wanted this closeness as I told him all about my mother, from start to finish. Holding on to him I felt his heartbeat rise in anger, as I told him what she had wanted me to do for her. Next we discussed Nathan’s mistake in saying he loved Bella out loud and the subsequent spiral downwards of their relationship. Obviously I said nothing of Bella’s past to him and understanding as he was, he didn’t question me. He placed kisses to the top of my head, in encouragement to carry on with the story I was telling, to carry on through the tears that were rolling down my cheeks and onto his chest.

‘Sorry, Frankie... I couldn’t have picked a worse fucking time to leave you, with all that going on.’ He kissed the top of my head again. ‘Before we even think about food, I have to contact Nate... Unbelievable, I just get Scotty on an even keel and then another one of my siblings crashes the fuck out. It’s like trying to hold up a jelly with my hands. I keep running around pushing up the sides and the one I’m not pushing up, spills the fuck out... I must call him and then you and I are going to spend the day together, regardless for once of anyone else... OK?’

‘Mmm Hmm.’ I was still hanging on to him for all I was worth. ‘You never did tell me how it went back home? Nathan did say Scotty was really upbeat and that it was a very positive thing to hear, he said it was something he hadn’t heard in a while.’

‘He doesn’t cope well with Scotty’s illness at all. Scotty has to, at times, cope with severe depression; I don’t think I told you that before?’ I could feel him shaking his head. Not answering him verbally, I shook my head against his chest.

‘They often say, in lots of articles I have read on his illness, that the most brilliantly creative minds can often have some sort of mental illness to handle. We’ve dealt with a lot since our dad died......’

I hadn’t realised, but I had pulled him tighter to me again. I already understood how difficult he found it to open up. It only made me feel more for him.

If that was even possible?

Every time he did, even if it only came in small snippets of information at a time, I appreciated him opening up and sharing with me. His hand was casually running lightly up and down my spine as he talked, it was sending electrical surges to every part of my body. We had to get out of the bed, otherwise as wonderful as it would be; the realisation was we would spend all of this beautiful day together between the sheets. Curious as I was, I needed to know what he had got planned for our day together. Moving quickly now, I sat up and over him, making sure I straddled his stomach and not his once again hardening cock. I began to tickle up and down all over his sides and ribs. Alex just leant back with his arms now behind his head, smirking at my evidently extremely feeble attempts to make him laugh.

‘What are you up to, baby?’ He raised both eyebrows and smirked.

‘Apparently what goes around comes around... I seem to remember you tickling me before to get what you wanted... so here I am,’ I gave him a huge grin. He really was the most beautiful man I had ever seen. His eyes lit up with fiery amber flecks, the surrounding green sparkled. His huge grin had brought out his dimples to play. His very evident overnight scruff just added to the amazing picture. He had tensed up all of his muscles on his torso, in a bid to stop my tickling make him laugh.

‘There are easier ways to get what you fucking want from me; you must know that by now?’ He continued to smirk at me.

My fingers sustained their movement all over him, but it was beginning to infuriate me that I couldn’t find one area where he lost control, bloody control freak. He was laughing now, but at my ridiculous tickling that had turned into heavy handed prodding.

‘What about here?’

‘Here?’

‘Oh come on... you must be ticklish somewhere?’ I almost yelled at him.

His hands came down from his head suddenly and with very evident purpose. My hands were grabbed and pushed to my sides as he forcibly moved me back onto his now fully engorged cock. He winked as my eyes found his again at the surprise of the movement and where I now found myself. He flicked out his tongue to wet his lips.

Dear God, I so wanted to bite that tongue.

‘Surely you must know by now, baby, what you have to fucking do to get your own way around here?’

‘Look, Mister the second whoever you are... I have already done YOU this morning... I have no bloody intention of doing YOU again... for quite a while... Thank YOU.’ As I spoke in my best school ma’am voice, I had also moved my arms, once they had been released, and they were now crossed over my chest. With a very noticeable result, as Alex was now having a conversation with my boobs. He continued to lick his lips, the consequence being that my nipples hardened to stiff, almost painful, points in front of his eyes. His large cock was flexing underneath me and I could feel myself beginning to flood.