VAMPIRE ROMANCE: The Fallen from Grace(Prince of Darkness Vampire Angel Fantasy Paranormal Adventure) (Dark Fantasy New Adult Devil Short Stories) (5 page)

The letter in my hand was haunting me just as it had been for the last year. I stood there with the white sand glaring from the sun, and the crystal blue waters rushing around my feet with each wave that came in. I was crying and feeling empty. The letter I clutched tightly in my hand was from my fiancé. This was how he broke off our engagement a year ago. Ever since then, I wondered what the reasons were that he had broke it off so casually. I thought it could be many things, and it left me feeling like my curvy voluptuous figure could be the problem. I loved my body and was proud of it, but my fiancé always alluded to me losing weight. I think it was my need to get him to accept me for who I am that made me want him so badly. Now I was on a vacation on Puerto Rico in the Bahamas that I really needed. I came alone to a local resort to get my life together. I was expecting rest and relaxation, but what I didn’t realize was that the island was the home of a Navy base and the most elite Naval team, Navy Seals.

I squeezed the letter tightly. “Okay Elaine, you can let go of this.  I tore it up into little pieces and threw it in the ocean. That was it, I was not going to look back at my past. I cried uncontrollably. I turned toward the resort hotel and stomped back to my villa. Kicking up sand with each step in my furious walking efforts.

I fumbled to get my hotel room keys out of my pocket, and in my haste I dropped it. Actually it was more, like they flew out of my clumsy shaky hands onto the sandy walkway. A hand reached out and picked it up and handed it to me. I looked up, and into the striking face of a man in uniform. He was in a Navy uniform, and was exotic to look at it. He had gorgeous olive skin and green eyes.

“Here you are Senora,” he said with a thick accent. I was confused by his accent. He was wearing a United States Navy uniform, but he had a Latin accent.

“Gracias,” I said in my poor Spanish that only came out as a whisper. I had already had tears streaming down my face and I had to fight back the opening of the floodgates. I could burst into a tear storm at any second. I grabbed my key and ran away. Behind me, the gorgeous Latin man called out to me.

“Senora, can I help?”

I kept running and didn’t look back. I unlocked my door and slammed it behind me. I didn’t even notice the man had followed me. I took a look at myself in the mirror; my dark brown eyes were bloodshot from crying.  I was suddenly embarrassed that I had let that sexy man see me like this.  The circles under my eyes were dark. I needed rest. Long hours of sleep. I brushed my hair out. It was very long, all the way down to my waist. It was a chestnut brown color, but got lighter the more time I spent in the sun. I tied it into a thick braid before I spread out on the bed determined to sleep for ten hours. I wanted to wake up to a brand new day. It would be a future with out being haunted by that letter.

I fell asleep. Into a deep sleep full of strange dreams where I was running from something that I could never see. The next morning I woke up early. I felt refreshed and almost like a real person again. I was determined to not cry anymore. I had got it all out of me like a toxin. Now I was going to do some relaxing and indulge myself with this exotic place. It was sunrise when I woke up. I opened the terrace windows and watched as the sun sat on top of the horizon. I breathed in the fresh sea air. I loved the way the ocean side smelled of salt and fish. It was as if you were truly breathing in the energy of your surroundings. My stomach grumbled and I realized I hadn’t eaten since I arrived. I was too upset to eat. Now I was famished. I needed coffee and a large breakfast.  I picked up the phone and ordered a large Mexican breakfast from room service.  A half hour later there was a knock at the door.

I tied the short hotel plush robe tighter around my waist. I opened the door wide and the cart rolled in.

“By the terrace please,” I said.

I drank my hot coffee and scarfed down my meal. It was a hearty tropical Caribbean breakfast an egg dish of diced peppers and pineapple. It came with a side of saffron rice and strips of sautéed mango. There was a small bowl with a colorful towel that wrapped around several warm thick grainy muffins. It was delicious and just what I needed to get my day going. Not that I had planned a strenuous day. I only wanted to do relaxing things that felt like treats. I would have to save the snorkeling and other things like hiking for a later trip. I was here to do nothing. I picked up the phone and scheduled a deep tissue Swedish massage in a cabana on the beach. After which I would lie in the sand and surf and work on my tan. That was the extent of my day. I was excited to do nothing.

I relaxed in my room with my feet up on some pillows staring out at the ocean until it was time to walk to the spa. I watched the ocean for an hour. The waves and the beauty of this paradise mesmerized me. I never expected the Caribbean to be like this. The people were warm and inviting and they lived at a slow pace that made it seem like they were fully enjoying life. It was such a contrast from my world at home. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that your way of life isn’t the only way to successfully live it.

The phone rang fifteen minutes before my massage to let me know it was time. I slipped on a silk dress and headed out the door. At the spa I lounged in a thick volcanic mud bath then rinsed off in a warm shower. The Oceanside cabana was lit with aromatic candles and the ocean provided the relaxing background noise. The massage was just what I needed. It released tension from my entire body.  I didn’t realize how much stress I was caring around until it was released. By the end of the treatment my skin was smooth as silk. I left the spa feeling very feminine, and it was refreshing to remember I was a woman.

I walked back to my villa thinking about what I would order for lunch, or if I should eat a small picnic in the sand while I tanned. I was so distracted by my planning that I almost didn’t notice the envelope on the front door to my villa.

I snatched it off the door frame and took it inside and threw it on the table. It was in a hotel envelope so I assumed it was tickets for a hotel attraction. I was completely shocked when I finally got around to opening it. Inside was a folded letter and inside it was a pressed flower. The letter read,

“Senora, I saw you crying. I picked up your keys. If you are sad I can help. Come to my room tonight. I am in room four. Come at eight o’clock.”

That was it! That’s the only thing the letter said. I plopped down on the bed. It was the mysterious man in uniform. It had to be. I couldn’t do that. I knew I was on vacation in an exotic land, but I was mostly a prude by nature. I would not go do something so out of character. It was not like me at all. There was no way. It was too dangerous. Not just dangerous physically, but dangerous for my heart. I couldn’t take that risk. This man already made me feel something with one look and a few words. I couldn’t image what spending a night with him would do to me

I crumpled the letter ready to throw it in the wastebasket. Then I stopped. It reminded me of the day before when I had another letter in my hand. That one letter that had destroyed my life. The writer in me thought, how romantic would it be if this man turned out to be more than just a one-night stand? It was uncanny that yesterday I held a letter that broke me into pieces, and now I held a letter with so much promise and intrigue. Was this a sign? I uncurled the letter and placed it on the bed. I would force myself to think this threw. My life since that fateful wedding day had not been a real life at all. I was bored to death with what I had been doing. It was a routine of work and sleep, and I was ashamed that I had wasted three years doing nothing. This was an opportunity to explore. To have a new experience out of my ordinary routine, and to have a life less ordinary, and if anything else it would make a great story.

I paced the room for the next few hours. Talking myself into and out of going. What was the harm? He would open the door, I would see him and turn and walk away if I was appalled. As rude as that might seem, it was an option. I owed this stranger nothing. I made a pros and cons list, as I often did, but that didn’t help either.

When eight o’clock came around I found myself walking to room four. My curious nature had gotten the best of me. That was the main thing about being a journalist, if there was a question lingering in the air, I needed to answer it, or it would forever bother me. This mysterious Latin man in uniform was a question that needed to be answered. An enigma. I was halfway there when I stopped and turned around. I only got a few steps and then changed my mind again and turned around going toward his room. I knocked on the door. I was not expecting what happened next.

The door opened and the gorgeous exotic man stood there. He had a five o’clock shadow of a beard. He was tall dark and exotic. His hair was a bit damp and one look down his body let me know why. He was shirtless and wore wet swim trunks. I wanted to reach out and touch him. His skin was a beautiful tanned color that made his green eyes stand out even more. His stomach was hard and he had a swimmer’s body. He had that look of adventure and fun in the sun, like a cliff diver. He looked at me and smiled

“Hola Senora, I am glad you came.  Excuse me I just went for a quick swim. Come in.” He stepped back away from the door and continued, “My name is Alejandro. Will you come in?”

I could scarcely speak. “I’m Elaine,” I said in barely a whisper. I was excited and scared at the same time.

“Elaine, it is beautiful name,” he said as he maneuvered around the room. He found a towel and wrapped it around his waist and then slipped off his trunks under it. I watched wide-eyed as he did this. Was he just going to get naked in front of me? Was he just going to go straight to the sex? That was astonishing!

“Thank you.”

“Dinner? Would you have dinner with me?” I looked in the direction he pointed and there was a candlelit dinner waiting for us. This was not what I was expecting. This was so polite.  I was expecting to be aggressively ravaged when I came in the door. I didn’t expect conversation; I just expected sensual talk to lure me into bed. This was sort of refreshing, and was the first step in me realizing that I don’t know it all.

“Please sit. I just need to change,” he said as he disappeared into the bathroom.

Okay, good. He was going to put some clothes on. Good, because I wouldn’t be able to concentrate or eat dinner otherwise. That was the thing about beach dwellers or even some European people. They worshipped the body. Nudity was no big deal to them, and they were comfortable with it. Again, it was another contrast from the required conservative nature of my home life. I could learn a lot from this man.

He came out of the bathroom in tight jeans and no shoes. He wore a fitted white t-shirt that I could see every ripple of his stomach muscles through. Since he was still damp when he put his clothes on, the t-shirt was a little wet and clung to him tightly.

“I hope you like tequila,” he said as he poured a clear white liquid from a beautiful blue bottle. He grabbed two small glasses with short stems and threw a small slice of lime and a chunk of mango in each one. Then he poured a small amount of tequila in each one.

“I don’t really drink it usually,” I said as he handed a glass to me.

“Salud,” he said ignoring what I said. He bumped his glass against mine and took a sip from it. I did the same and swallowed hard at the strong taste and potency.

“Please sit. I picked all this from the market myself.  It was caught today.”

I looked at the assortment on the table. There was fresh fish, rock crab, small lobsters, oysters, and all sorts of fruits and vegetables that I had never seen before. I was amazed by the elegance of it all.

We ate slowly. The food was more of the background to drinking tequila, talking, and flirting. I could barely concentrate as he looked at me. This man was making me feel lustful. The way he looked at me and admired my body. It felt good. It felt different. It’d been so long since I let a man admire me. It felt otherworldly in this exotic place.

When he spoke, he spoke with such passion. I was in complete awe of everything he was saying, but not because of the subject matter but because of the passion he had for this place. It was contagious. He knew how to fish in the ocean, he knew how to live off the land here. He was everything I imagined him to be when I first set eyes on him. Then I had to ask the obvious question.

“Alejandro, I’m just confused by the uniform you wore and the accent. Are you American?”

“Yes, Elaine I am. I grew up here in Puerto Rico. I joined the Navy on the base here.”

“Oh I see. What do you do in the Navy?”

“I do special operations, that I can not really talk about,” he said.

“Like a Navy Seal?” I asked.

He smiled a striking smile and simply nodded yes.

I got the idea he didn’t want to talk about it too much. Looking at his body I could imagine the dangers he must be put in. He looked strong and brave. It was intoxicating to look at.

The way he spoke and the way he was gentle about touching me. It was the real deal as far as what I thought a Latin lover would be. After dinner and talking we sat close to each other staring at the ocean. He had a beach house a few miles up the coast that he rented out, since the base nearby provided him with room and board. However, he would come stay some weekends at this resort, like he was now. He looked at me and said, “I would like to take you to my beach house sometime, while you are here. If you want to see it?” he said while breaking a piece of lobster from its shell and handing it to me.

Oh great, I thought. He’s making future plans with me. That was always a red flag when I had just met someone new. Most guys knew that women liked to fantasize that a date would be more than just sex, so they would make future plans that they never intended to keep. I narrowed my eyes at him.

“What? What is that look for?” he questioned.

“You really want to take me to your beach house? You don’t even know me,” I said taking a sip of the strong tequila. I wanted to drown out my paranoid thoughts.

“I do know you.  You are sad about something. I want to help. I want to show you fun. My beach house, it’s fun. It is beautiful and isolated not like tourist spot here.”

My mouth dropped open, I had almost forgot about our first run in. Of course, I was a wreck that day. I was in tears and in a deep cave of self-pity. He had picked up my key card and I ran off crying like a child. I suddenly flushed and felt embarrassed by it all. It felt as if him knowing my sadness and hurt gave me a disadvantage and game him all the power here. I wanted to crawl under the bed and hide.

“Why are you sad? I’ve never seen that here. People come here and they are happy on the beach. You, you come here and are crying and sad.”

“I’d rather not talk about it,” I said in a quiet whisper, lowering my eyes to the floor.

“Is it love? No one cries like that except for love.”

It was unnerving how he wouldn’t give up. Why did he care so much? Why didn’t he just have sex with me, and get it over with, I thought. I wanted the seductive Latin lover I heard about that lures you to bed and forgets you in the morning to move on to the next conquest.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Ok I will stop, but your sadness. It was beautiful. It made me want to hold you. Elaine, I would like to ask your permission to make love to you.”

My heart dropped to the floor. I had never heard anyone speak like this before. I didn’t know if it was the Latin lover in him, or the Navy seal. Either way he was being very romantic and straightforward as though he worshiped women.