Nicole: Star Crossed Lovers (A Wish for Love Series Book 2) (2 page)

The two laughed again. 

"I should have walked over and asked him for a selfie together." Ann poured more wine and they clinked glasses.

Ann enjoyed seeing her laugh.  She admired the
grace and appreciated the elegance which was so much a part of Nicole's every gesture and movement. The contrasts in her were surprising and complex, thought Ann.  Nicole was always warm and friendly, winning hearts with her generosity, but Ann knew her well enough to recognize the sadness that could cloud the brilliance of those green eyes.  Aloof and
distant, Nicole would withdraw into an inner world she shared with no one and at those times she looked solitary and fragile. Ann knew Nicole adored her mother and detested her father.  Once Ann read aloud an emotional text message her father sent her.  When she finished reading she looked up, amazed to find Nicole staring stonily.  "I hate my father," she declared in a cold voice.  "He constantly humiliated my mother and eventually destroyed her.  He tried to do the same to me."

Nicole refused to open up and share more than what she had already said. But something made Ann believe that beyond the suffering her father inflicted on his family there had been another man in her past.  A man who
caused Nicole to raise defensive walls, walls that guarded her from men's advances.  So Ann waited patiently for the day Nicole chose to pour out her heart. 

The two friends continued chatting idly.  Ann recounted tales of the exotic locales and the interesting people she'd met, while Nicole enjoyed seeing the world through Ann's eyes.

The evening passed quickly and at midnight Nicole took leave of Ann and made her way home.  She felt buoyant and without a care.  The wine has made me
giddy, she thought, or perhaps it was the full moon.  She was happy she'd decided to leave the Vespa at the bungalow and walk along the shore.  She took off
her sandals and tucked up her skirt.
Humming softly, she kicked the cold waves lapping at her ankles, throwing up sprays of salted foam.  She loved the sea.  At times tranquil, smooth, and clear; at
other times gray, tempestuous, and violent.  Nicole perceived the sea as a reflection of human nature and enjoyed attributing human characteristics to it.  She saw the bungalow a short distance away.  She felt surprisingly wide awake.  A cup of steaming, aromatic coffee would be the perfect way to end the evening.  Stillness surrounded her.

The man hidden in the shadow of the bungalow stood still, reluctant to reveal himself too soon.  The appearance of the woman
just a few feet away was so extraordinary it was almost unreal and he felt the familiar stabbing pain return, sharp and poignant as if new.  So many nights he had lain racked with longing for the girl in front of him.  Eight years of separation had not dimmed her image and he was aware of the charge that thrilled
his senses.  He closed his eyes and inclined his head.  Rays of the full moon observing the scene from above gleamed on his black hair
.
Nicole tensed, sensing danger nearby.  Her eyes, penetrating the darkness, caught the blue spark and she froze in her tracks.  Daniel felt her panic and stepped towards her, his superb, supple body moving to meet her startled gaze.

Time had blurred but
not erased Nicole's memory of
the handsome figure and his animal magnetism.  A dark blue shirt, unbuttoned, covered the wide, muscular shoulders and exposed his chest.  Soft hair led downwards in a straight, thin line to disappear below the waist of the worn jeans.  His hips were narrow and hinted at the long muscles of his legs.  He was more magnificent than she remembered and her throat caught.  She had a
barely controllable urge to touch the face she had once loved, but she stood motionless.  She looked silently at him, as though trying to roll back the years separating the man who stood before her from the man she had once known.  His mouth was no less sensual than before but now it was drawn in a hard line.  The day they met, she remembered, he had revealed two rows of white teeth in a smile that had captivated her.  But the most startling feature in his face were his marine blue eyes.  Nicole remembered their look, as clear and powerful as the depths of the sea.  Now, his eyes were the metallic gray of the ocean in a storm, and Nicole stepped back.

The instinctive closeness she felt turned into a feeling of remoteness and reserve.  The beating of her heart threatened to deafen her and overpower the sound of the waves battering the coast.  She opened her mouth and closed it.  There was nothing she could, or wanted, to say.  What had once been between them could never return.  The pain, the insult and the heartache were now a distant memory.  She would not let him penetrate the armor she had so successfully built up over the years.

"Hello Nicole," she heard his quiet voice borne by the slight breeze of the night.  He held out his hand and his fingers were dry and strong as they touched her cheek.  Daniel came closer and brushed away a lock of straying hair. 

Nicole looked at him with frightened eyes.  She moved out of his reach. "Don't you dare touch me, Daniel," she whispered.

The beginnings of a smile touched his mouth.  "So you do remember my name.  For a minute I was afraid you had completely erased me from your mind."

From the tone of his voice it was clear to Nicole that not for a minute had he believed any such thing.

He's having fun, Nicole thought, he enjoys torturing me.  But she would not let him get under her skin.  She would prove to him that she was no longer the young, naive girl he remembered.

"You have a nerve," she heard herself saying, aware of
the note of hysteria in her voice, "coming back here and frightening me so.  You are not at all welcome here."  She lifted her chin and stood taller, trying to appear cool and authoritative.  "Please leave," she said in a tone she hoped sounded gracious and commanding at the same time. 

He hooked his thumbs in his pockets. 

"As I recall, I was a very welcome guest here.  And if I try real hard, I can remember nights you begged me not to leave you at all."

Nicole felt fatigue
overcoming her.  "Then, Daniel, everything was different. I believed in you, trusted our love, thought all the dreams we dreamed together would come true.  But you chose to leave, to go without saying good-bye."  She remembered the short note he had left: 
I love you for eternity. Wait for me!
  No more.  She felt her self-confidence returning.  "If you've come back to ask for forgiveness I won't make things hard for you.  I forgive you.  I believe in fate.  We were obviously not destined for each other."

"Forgive me?!"  he repeated unbelievingly.  He looked at her astounded, and then threw his head back and laughed.  His voice held no mirth and only with difficulty could Nicole detect an echo of the gay laughter of eight years ago.

"I left to protect you.  I loved you!"

Nicole noticed he spoke in the past tense.

"I told you I would return.  I intended to return.  But you couldn't wait and it didn't take more than a few months for you to marry some rich playboy."

"How do you know all this?" she whispered.

"You father told me."

"My father?"

"Yes, your father.  The same one who beat you when he heard you were going out with me, the same one who wanted to cheat you and your mother out of your inheritance, the very same one you swore you would protect your mother against."  He was suddenly silent, running his hand through his thick hair.

The panic, the despair closed in on her.  He knew!  How could he know?  She had never told him and he had never given any sign he knew.

"I had to leave, Nicole.  I had to have the power and strength to defend you, to take you far away from here."

"You abandoned me," Nicole accused. "You disappeared and left behind nothing but a piece of paper."  She could feel the rage and the shame.  She could not stop.  "I was pregnant with your child," she shouted.  "I flew all the way to New York to find you.  And when I found you," she hesitated a moment and continued bitterly, "it was in the arms of a woman, another woman."  She stressed every word, slowly and clearly.  She wanted him to suffer.  To feel the pain as she had felt it that terrible moment. "You were making love to another woman!"

He paled and Nicole felt his effort at self-control.  The minute stretched out forever.  Neither of them moved.

"Where is the child?" he finally asked and Nicole could hear the tension in his voice.

"He died.  He died before he was born.  The baby died and Eric died and I was left alone."  She bent her head and her hair tumbled forward, hiding her face.  "I wanted that baby.  God knows how much I wanted him!"  She buried her face in her hands.  Her face was wet.  She did not notice the tears.

She did not cry when they told her Eric had died in the car crash.  She did not cry when they told her the baby had died as a result of the accident.  She did not cry during all the years that followed when she picked up the pieces of her life. 

Now she cried.

With one stride Daniel closed the distance between them.  He took her in his arms, held her close to his chest.  There were so many hidden things to uncover but now he only wanted to comfort her, to offer the warmth and confidence of his body.  They stood, holding on to each other, sharing for a moment the grief of bereaved parents.

His hand lightly brushed her hair, neck and back, in rhythmic, comforting movements.  When the trembling stopped and the tears dried on his shoulder where her head lay buried, he moved slightly while holding her fast in both arms.

"I'm sorry," he said in a low voice.  "I would have wanted to be with you when you lost the child, to comfort you and ease the anguish."

Nicole tried to smile through the tears.  She knew he was sincere.  He meant what he said.

He released his arm to twist a strand of hair around his fingers.  Her faint smile vanished.  His hand came up to her cheek.  His fingers moved to her mouth, slightly separating her lips.  She stood motionless as he caressed her neck, feeling the agitated heartbeat coursing through her veins.

"You must be exhausted," he murmured.

"Yes, I must be exhausted," she echoed, unconsciously drawing closer.

Daniel knew he must pull back before it was too late.  He longed for her.  She stood so close, so lovely, and he felt a painful need to cover her body with his, to shield her from all the evil and pain of this world.

He leaned forward slowly, giving Nicole a chance to draw back.  She gasped softly as his mouth tenderly met hers.  His breath was warm and clean and his kiss erotic and sensitive.

With the last shred of reason, Daniel knew he was lost.  He closed his eyes and drowned himself in his senses.  His lips became more demanding and his kiss deeper, his arm drawing her closer.  Nicole stiffened suddenly at the burning touch of their two bodies.  She
clung to his taut, muscular body, and her breasts rubbed gently against his chest.  She allowed his tongue to penetrate her lips and play with her tongue.  Her loins were moist and warm as forgotten passions engulfed her.

He drew his head down.  His lips grazed her throat as they slid toward her breasts.  She sighed. He slid to his knees, his lips never leaving her smooth skin. She lifted her face to the moon like an ancient goddess worshipping the glories of nature.  In one swift movement he lay her down on the sand.  She submitted.  She crossed her arms behind his head and drew him to her.

"My sweet darling."  His mouth covered hers and his hands fondled the sensitive parts of her body.

Such experienced hands.  The thought darted through her mind as she fought to free herself from his embrace.  She saw clearly the face of the woman Daniel embraced in New York.  She remembered the expression of transcendent gratification.  She saw vividly the muscles of Daniel's back, his lips on the woman's neck.  Nicole stood motionless in the doorway and it took a few seconds for the woman to notice the stunned girl from over the man's shoulder.  Her red, swollen lips smiled at her before she closed her eyes again.

Cheater! Liar!

Daniel lifted his head but would not release her.  He pinned her to the sand and his eyes looked straight into hers.  "You're running away again." He rolled over on his side and leaned on his elbow while looking down at her. "I still desire you," he said and Nicole again noticed that he said 'desire' and not 'love'.  "I thought I'd find you married with three children.  I wasn't even sure you still lived here."

"So why were you here at this hour?"

"I couldn't fall asleep and thought of you.  I felt I had to come to this place that was so much a part of you.  This beach, the bungalow, they soothed me."  He trailed his hand through the sand, scooping up a fistful and releasing it slowly through his fingers. 

"I lay awake nights on end, tossing until the early hours, watching the sun rise and seeing you standing beside me in the moonlit room, your golden skin gleaming faintly in the dark while I caressed you, all of you, my mouth drinking in every inch of your bare body.  When I saw you walking along the sea I thought it was a mirage.  You were exactly as etched in my memory."  He spoke slowly and in a low tone, as if in a dream.

Nicole trembled.  His words, the rhythm of his speech, the distant look in his eyes, aroused her traitorous body to renewed passion.

"It just won't work," she finally said, looking at the sand streaming between his fingers.  "I admit I'm still attracted to you.  I can't control that.  But it's not enough.  The past, and our memories, separates us.  It will hurt too much.  It took me a long time to forget you.  For a while I even hated you.  After you left I cried for two months, refusing to be comforted.  At the end of two months I understood that I was pregnant.  I wanted to tell you about the baby.  I wasn't sure if you would be happy or not, but you had a right to know.  I thought that if you really loved me you would want us to share a life despite the difficulties.  I convinced myself that if you would see me again you would realize that we belonged together, that we must not lose heart and renounce the happiness we had together."  She forced herself to look straight in his eyes.  "I thought I was special for you.  I would not believe you stopped loving me."

He listened attentively.  A long moment he stared fixedly into her eyes with an expression she could not fathom, then lowered his gaze, bowing his head.

Mercilessly, she continued.  "I decided to fly out to New York and find you.  To tell you the news face-to-face.  I got your parent's number.  I must have spoken to your sister and when I explained that I worked with you in the Australian production she gave me your address in New York.  After a day's flight I grabbed a cab at the airport and drove straight to your place.  One of your neighbors came out of the house and I was glad I didn't have to ring you from the intercom.  I wanted to surprise you.  It was ten at night and I knocked several times.  When no one answered I turned the doorknob and the door slid open.  I entered and heard music, soft, romantic music.  And then I saw you, half-naked, embracing.  You didn't see me but she saw.  She said nothing, just smiled.  I left and vomited on the street.  I was miserable.  Something within shattered into a million pieces and my heart bled.  I thought my world had come to an end.  But then I remembered the baby and the thought gave me courage.  After a sleepless night I flew home, tired and sorrowing, but determined and strong."