Heart in the Field (23 page)

           
Angela shook her head. “I can’t,
Serena. You see, you don’t understand.”

           
“I know I don’t. That’s why I want
to interview you. I want your feelings about your man. I want other people to
understand what I don’t. Especially now I know you’ve married him. That makes a
happy ending, doesn’t it?”

           
Angela stood up. “I’d like you to
go. Please.”

           
Serena didn’t move from her seat.
“Tell me as a friend?”

           
She shook her dark head. “No. I
don’t trust you.”

           
When Nick rose, Serena also stood
up. She opened her purse and took out one of her business cards. She was ready
to call it quits, but not under Nick’s sharp gaze. She could always call Angela
later and let her know the request was off. “Call me when you think you can
trust me, Angela. Because it hurts me that you think you can’t.”

           
Serena felt Nick’s hand reach for
her waist as they walked away from the house.

           
“It’s a new twist, her being married
to the guy,” he said.

           
“That was a shocker. Now I’m not
sure if her happy ending will make a good story.”

           
“There’s no happy ending. She’s
hiding a lot. She’s cautious as hell. I think we should crack this story.”

           
“Not if Angela doesn’t want it,
Nick.”

           
“She’ll want it. She’ll think about
it. She’s in a trap. She needs to get out. We might be her ticket to freedom.”

           
“You don’t know that for certain.”

           
“I sense it in my gut.”

           
Serena sensed it as well. But she
wasn’t going to agree with him. She wanted to forget about Angela. She didn’t
want to hurt her friend in any way. Yet, she knew she couldn’t turn Angela down
if she came to her. She was now committed to this story.

Chapter Thirteen

Nick
inserted the key in the van ignition but he didn’t start the engine right away.
He wasn’t sure how being turned down by Angela would affect their plans for
today. Serena seemed a trifle pensive.

           
“Are you okay?” he asked.

           
Her hair danced in the bright
sunlight as she glanced at him. “Maybe a little disappointed, but I’m willing
to wait. I’ve planted the seed of the idea in Angela’s mind.”

           
“That’s all you can do.” He didn’t
want to rush into anything, but he was eager to be alone with her. “Let’s just
forget about work for the rest of the day and go find a little restaurant
somewhere. How’s Niagara-on-the-Lake these days?”

           
“It great.
However, it’s a popular place, with the theaters and the nice shops,
restaurants and hotels. It does get crowded on weekends.”

           
“We’ll take a chance.
If it’s okay with you?”

           
She laid her hand on his arm. “I
haven’t forgotten what we planned. I’d really like some space from Steel TV for
a while.”

           
He lifted her hand and kissed her
fingers. Their eyes met and the heat was still there between them. He felt
relieved. “How do I get there?”

           
“It’s easiest from the freeway.”

           
Even though it was a chilly day Niagara-on-the-Lake
bustled with tourists. Car parks were full, roadside parking was jammed, and
tour buses challenged the horse and carriage rides. Even after they’d found a
place to park the van, the sidewalks were crowded with people enjoying the
Victorian charm of the town.

           
Nick held Serena’s hand and they
walked along as if they were also tourists. It was great to have some time off.
For once they weren’t vying for air position or program space. For once they
were just Nick and Serena, man and woman. And Nick hoped Serena had the same
idea for how she wanted to spend her afternoon as he did. If he didn’t make
love with her today he wasn’t going to survive the months he had left to work
with her.

           
But even though he was eager Nick
still felt the need not to hurry. He thought it was because he wanted to
stretch out something that ultimately would prove to be beautiful.

           
He squeezed her fingers. “How are
you doing?”

           
She smiled and rubbed her shoulder
against his. “I’m having fun. Aren’t you?”

           
“Yes. I am.” He didn’t want to be
anywhere else at this very moment.

           
They found a pub in one of the
hotels and sat down in tapestry armchairs by the window, where they could watch
the street. They both ordered a glass of red wine and a salmon dish that was
being offered as the lunch special.

           
Nick raised his glass. “Cheers to a
few hours off.”

           
Serena reached over and touched her
glass against his. He thought she looked wild and beautiful. Her golden hair
ruffled by the breeze, her luminous eyes gazing at him. She had taken off her
leather jacket and she wore a feminine white silk blouse.

           
He sipped his wine and placed the
glass on the polished table top. “Don’t slap me, but while we’re waiting for
our order I’m going to book a room.”

           
“You don’t waste time.”

           
“I won’t if you don’t want me to.
We’ll go shopping after lunch.”

           
She touched her neck in that way she
had. “I’ve made up my mind about this. Go do it.”

           
He rose from his chair with a
similar feeling he had that morning at Heathrow. This was commitment.

•

           
Serena picked up her wine glass and
forced herself to relax in her chair. This is what she’d planned. This is what
she needed. She glanced at the crowded tables. Did everyone know what they were
going to do this afternoon?

           
She saw Nick make his way back to
her around the tables and felt her heart leap at the way he looked.
Tall, good-looking, with a rather soft expression on his face for
her as he sat down in his seat.

           
“Did you get a room?” Her voice was
husky.

           
He patted his inside pocket.
“Yep.
But you can still back out.”

           
She shook her head. “No. I’ve given
my word. It’s just that I might be over thirty but I’m not used to this.”

           
He let out a breath and rested back
in his chair. “I’m not used to what is happening between us either. We’re both
novices.”

           
“It thought you were the experienced
one.”

           
He picked up his wine glass and took
a drink. “Not that experienced. I think my reputation rises far above my
consumption.”

           
She laughed. “You expect me to
believe that?”

           
“I do.
Because
it’s true.
Anyway, I’ve never felt for a woman what I feel for you.”

           
She felt elated by his words. Maybe
he could even fall in love with her and never leave her. Then this action today
would be much more than a brief liaison. She could let herself go with him and
she wouldn’t feel quite as if she were floundering in a rough sea. But she
didn’t want to get her hopes up. She’d live for today first and see what
happened.

           
The waiter came by, with a smile and
a flourish of their plates. Serena ate all the food. The salmon was light and
fluffy, with a hint of lemon, and the rolls were warm and fresh. She noticed
that Nick also drank a second glass of wine. Did they both need courage? Like
her, was he venturing into deeper waters than he usually ventured? Did he feel
as if he were putting his emotions on the line the way she did?

           
Nick paid with his credit card and
they rose from the table. He helped Serena on with her jacket and squeezed her
shoulders. She looked at him and smiled. Now they were actually down to the
moment she seemed much more relaxed and certain about her actions than he did
about his own.

           
He placed his hand at her waist on
the way out of the pub and he guided her into the hotel section, through a maze
of corridors until he located the right room. He inserted the card and pushed
open the door. All his movements felt ethereal. Serena moved inside the room in
front of him. He walked inside and closed the door. He locked it. The room was
dark, because the blinds were pulled against the bright afternoon sunshine, but
shafts of light striped the king-size bed and pine furniture in the room.
Serena stood with her back against the wall, her hair also catching a bright
ray of light. Her eyes were midnight blue, dark.

           
Nick didn’t move into the room or
take off his jacket. Instead he returned the swipe card to his inside jacket
pocket and he moved forward until his body was in line with hers. Their eyes
met, and stayed fastened and she touched him.

           
At first her fingers were tentative
between his thighs, and then, as her interest grew, she caressed with a sure
stroke. Reeling from the sensations, Nick touched her and felt her heat and her
damp warmth even through the leather. Holding her that way, he leaned and
kissed her mouth. Her lips opened, with no hesitation when he let his tongue delve
deep.
Her hunger as intense as his own.

           
He moved away from her and saw her
hand drop from him in slow motion. He removed his jacket. She slipped off her
own jacket. She tossed it on top of his on an armchair. She unbuttoned the top
two buttons of her white silk blouse and he saw a glimpse of the white satin
that covered her perfect, creamy breasts.

           
He opened his shirt and tugged the
bottom from his jeans. Her fingers trembled over the rest of her buttons and
she removed her blouse. She let it drop to the carpet. Then she held the top of
the side zipper to her pants.

           
He unbuckled his belt.

           
She slid down the zipper.

           
He unsnapped the button on his
jeans.

           
She slid her hand provocatively
between leather and flesh.

           
“Let me now,” he said.

           
She sat down on the side of the bed
for him to remove the rest of her clothes. He kissed her through her white
satin panties, kissed her thighs, her knees and her feet, worshiping her. When
he rose he found it a struggle to remove the rest of his own clothing. He had lost
his head over this woman.

           
Serena watched Nick come to her.
Naked, he was magnificent. She never thought she’d ever think that about a
man’s body, but it was true. He was muscular, golden and sleek and he wanted
her badly, but he held himself in control. Once she was naked with him she
opened her thighs to him and took him to the throbbing place deep inside her.

           
She heard herself cry out with the
unfamiliar pressure of his body, but she couldn’t stop the pleasure, the
sensations that raked her and broke her into a sobbing mass in his arms. And
then again: Facing one another, gazing into one another’s eyes: The push, the
pull, the fantastic healing feeling of being with a man and the joy as they
drove to the same heights with the same sounds of ecstasy.

           
And once again: Serena atop Nick.
She flung back her body and his hands rode up her stomach and over her breasts,
and she felt the room began to spin and she couldn’t get enough of him. She had
never known such urgent, physical hunger, but then she had never let herself go
with a man this way.

           
She bent down and cupped his face
with her hands. His tongue wet her lips and she wet his lips with her own
tongue. She was teetering on the verge of
fulfilment
.
She never wanted this to end. They were in a secret place, nobody knew they
were here, and these were stolen, delicious moments.

           
Nick lost control first, and she
felt high on the power of being able to give him such wild satisfaction, a wild
satisfaction that became her own only moments later. They finally parted and
collapsed on to the damp sheets.

           
Half awake, half sleepy, Serena
listened to the sounds outside: the traffic, people talking, laughing. She
chuckled. “I can’t believe what we’ve just done and we’re only a step away from
the sidewalk.”

Nick rolled
on to his elbow beside her. He slowly stroked her from hip to breast. “I’m
pleased you sound happy about it.”

           
“I needed it, didn’t I?”

           
“Me too.”

           
She turned her head to look into his
face and she realized with an all-over feeling that came to her like waves
crashing on a beach that she was in love with him.
You fool,
she told
herself.
You absolute
idiot.

           
He brushed her hair from her
forehead and traced his fingers over the creases. “Why do you frown?”

           
She lifted herself on her elbow, the
way he had. “Was it great for you?”

           
“You don’t have to ask that
question. Didn’t you feel how I was? I gave you everything.”

           
Not everything. Not nearly
everything. Serena sat up on the bed. “I guess we should be moving on.”

           
“No.” Nick reached up and tugged her
down beside him again. He kissed her eyes, her cheeks,
her
mouth. He kissed her breasts and her stomach and he kissed between her legs.
The hunger was far from satiated. But this time her pleasure was mixed with the
knowledge of loving him.

•

           
Nick left the shower, and after
drying himself, returned to the room. Serena was spread out beneath the covers,
sleeping. He noticed the rise and fall of her breathing and the soft way her
face looked at rest. If he’d done nothing for her, he thought, he’d given her this
respite. He’d given her the calming sleep after being well loved.

           
Except strangely, although his body
felt relieved to have finally given itself to Serena, he didn’t feel very calm
himself. He actually felt pretty guilty.
For he was going to
be for Serena the same as her father, a missing person from her life.