Destined (30 page)

“Isn’t that your car?” I asked,
frowning, as he silently steered me up the front steps of the house. The front
door opened when he turned the knob.

“And, isn’t that my cat?” I demanded,
as Tree jumped down off the windowsill and came rushing over to me, purring
frantically. He rubbed himself madly back and forth against me as I squatted to
pat him. Tony closed the door behind us and stood watching with his arms
crossed and a satisfied smirk on his face.

The house was nearly empty, with just
a few pieces of furniture sitting on the gleaming wood floors. There was a
large room to the left with a fireplace, in front of which a dark brown leather
sofa and two lamp tables had been positioned. Tree suddenly abandoned my
stroking hands and stalked away toward the back of the house in that “follow
me!” way of his, tail held high, turning to see if I was coming and saying, “Mmrrr?”
He wanted to be fed.

I laughed. “Well, I guess he knows his
way around, huh? What have you been up to, Tony Novak?” I asked, shaking my
finger at him. “Breaking and entering?”

“It’s not breaking and entering if you
have a key, it’s just entering,” he answered.

“And, how did you get this key?” I
demanded, starting to wander through the rooms and look around, vaguely
following my cat. My voice echoed in the empty space.

“My realtor gave it to me,” he replied
innocently, walking past me and going into the kitchen, where the large
greenish-gray granite island in the center of the room showcased an impressive
six-burner gas range. Tree was crunching dry cat food in the corner on the
floor, where two small bowls sat on a newspaper. Tony opened the stainless
steel refrigerator door and pulled out a bottle of our favorite champagne. An
ice bucket and two tall, narrow glasses stood on the granite counter next to
the fridge. I slipped out of my sandals and stood barefoot on the cool tile
floor.

“Your realtor?” I asked.

“Yes, Emily,” he said, popping the
cork and pouring two glasses of the bubbly elixir. “Welcome to my new home!” he
announced, handing me my glass. “You are the first guest. Well, except for
Henry of course. He’s been helping me move in.”

“Mr. Paradis? He was here today?”

“I told you he was with a friend.”

“How on earth could you find this
place and complete the purchase so quickly?”

“I’m renting until we can have the
closing,” he said, “What do you think of it?”

“I love it!” I said, and meant it.

The big kitchen was fabulous, with its
cherry cabinets and stainless steel fixtures. There was a double sink with a
graceful, curving faucet, and a spacious nook surrounded by windows was in the
far corner, where the kitchen table would eventually stand. The island had room
for four bar stools on the side opposite the stove. The walls were painted an
appetizing
café au lait
color. I liked it very much and it would be very convenient to cook in, the way
it was laid out.

“Want to see the rest?” Tony invited,
hooking his arm through mine. We brought our champagne and wandered through the
empty downstairs rooms. Everything was spotless and the woodwork was beautiful.

“My furniture is coming from England
in two weeks,” Tony said as we stood and looked out the window at the backyard,
bathed in moonlight. “I already bought a few new things though, just what I’ll
need until then.”

He took the empty champagne glass out
of my hand and put it next to his on the windowsill.

“Come upstairs,” he said quietly, and
led me up the winding staircase.

At the top of the stairs he turned
toward the back of the house where the master suite looked out over the garden.
A dim light flickered from inside the bedroom as we approached the door and
entered. A circular brass table covered with lighted votive candles occupied
the center of a plush dark red Oriental rug, and a ceiling fan spun lazily
above. In the back of the room near the bamboo-shaded windows was a very large
brass bed swathed in white linens, with big white pillows and a fluffy throw of
white synthetic fur.

“Very inviting!” I walked across the
rug, enjoying the feel of it between my bare toes. I knew he had done all this
for me and I was getting the message loud and clear, but I wanted to tease him
a little bit more. “You didn’t leave those candles lit over here all evening,
did you?” I demanded sternly.

“Don’t be silly, do you think I want
to burn my house down before I even own it?” He spoke impatiently. “Henry lit
them a little while ago, right before he went home.”

“Oh, so he is in on this too, eh? I’m
not sure how I feel about that, it might be illegal you know, with the labor
laws and all!”

“Emily, don’t be ridiculous. Henry is
a
romantic
, you
know that.”

I walked over to the bed, inspecting
the elegant pattern of the brass head and footboards, with its knobs and
curlicues.

“So Henry approves of you getting me
drunk and seducing me here tonight, is that what you’re saying?” I smiled at him
in a friendly way, as he followed me, looking worried. I wandered to the side
of the bed and suddenly hopped on, flopping down backwards and sinking deeply
into the clean crisp white cotton duvet. “
Mmmmmm
…
Very
comfortable!”
 
I patted the bed next to me invitingly.
“Come and see!”

He flopped himself down too, and then
his warm, dark eyes were looking into mine as he lay next to me, propped up on
one elbow.

“I’m glad you like it,” Tony said. “And
now, I am going to say something to you and you want to hear it, so stop
wiggling around and torturing me!”

 
“Yes, Master!” I couldn’t stop smiling, enjoying every minute
of this. I already knew what he was going to say, and he was right, I wanted
very much to hear it.

“Emily, I want you to know that when I
make love to you tonight, that’s exactly what it will be, do you understand?”
He leaned over and kissed me firmly, finally capturing my full attention. “I’m
not interested in an affair, either. I’m interested in you.” He kissed me
again, and looked deep into my eyes.

“Last time you said you were
‘obsessed,’” I said. “And now you’re just ‘interested?’ What’s the matter,
don’t you like me any more?”

I started to unbutton his shirt,
slowly, deliberately, one button at a time. First his chest, and then his neck,
and then his face flushed a deep red. He put his mouth over mine for a longer
kiss, filling me with his soft tongue and its spicy-sweet taste. He covered me
with his body and pressed me into the mattress, our hips fitting together like
they were made to be joined, my breasts crushed against his strong chest. My
arms twined around his neck and I answered his questing tongue with mine, my
head spinning as I lost myself in the moment.

We kissed, and kissed, and kissed. The
layers of protective reserve dissolved and fell away. My heart floated right up
to the surface, its brittle shell opening like a flower in the sun. I was ready
to be vulnerable now, ready to let him in. The past was behind me and my fear
of being hurt again had no place in this new world.

When we came up for air I pulled his
shirt off his shoulders, slipping it down his arms to drop it on the floor. His
skin was hot and silky smooth, and his curved muscular chest was softly furred.
He kissed the tops of my breasts where they swelled above my sundress and used
one hand to open the buttons, peeling the fabric back with the other. All I had
on underneath was white lace bikinis and by the time he had revealed them I was
panting.

My back arched as he took my breast
into his mouth and sucked it, nibbling the tip. My nipples were on fire and I
reach down myself to pull my panties off, impatient to be naked and to feel his
body against mine. He grinned as I rolled him over onto his back and straddled
him, unbuttoning his khaki shorts and pulling down the zipper as he watched me
approvingly, arms crossed behind his head.

I stepped off the edge of the bed for
a moment to slide his shorts down his thighs, snagging the elastic waistband of
his underwear with my fingers and quickly stripping him. I lay beside him and
ran my hand down his body from the hollow below his neck to where he swelled
against my palm with a warm pulse.

His breathing hesitated for a moment
and we both smiled, our eyes locked. Then I reached my mouth up to kiss him,
lightly running my tongue across his lips, and he responded like a man in the
desert who finally finds water, ravenously devouring me, and we were swept away
on tingling waves of soft smooth stroking and erotic glimpses of pink and
reddish-purple swellings.

Our movements flowed together like a
graceful dance. He tasted every part of my body with his lips and tongue before
he finally slipped between my legs to push inside me, looking into my soul as I
gasped and wrapped my legs around him tight.

Tony closed his eyes and moaned. His
handsome face filled my view, inches from mine, dark with suffused color. He
opened his eyes and we reconnected, more than naked now. We had stripped right
down to beyond the bone, and our spirits touched while our bodies moved
together, the ultimate yin and yang.

The coiled spring tightening inside me
started to quiver. Then I kissed him hard with my tongue and he immediately
reacted, pushing into me and shifting in a subtle way that created intense
dizzying sensation. We gasped for air and I saw his eyes flutter
  
and I let go completely and
surrendered to the pulsing shudders that swept over us both, perfectly
synchronized, perfectly matched.

A rush of blissful gratitude washed
over me, and tears spontaneously ran out of my eyes. All my stress, my fear, my
pain and my anger were released. He lay beside me and held me encircled in his
arms, perfectly at peace. It felt like home to me, the place where I was
supposed to be.

When our lovemaking finally came to an
end, or should I say a pause, I had a raging thirst. Naked, I went into the
bathroom and drank right from the tap. Tony’s shaving gel, razor and toothbrush
were on the back of the sink. I noticed there was a huge double Jacuzzi tub
next to the big double shower. A container of lavender bath salts sat on the
edge of the tub near the faucets, and four fluffy white towels hung from the
racks. More candles were lit nearby.

This man had thought of everything!
Or, was it Henry? Had he once bought lavender bath salts for her, for Margaret?
Did he hope for the same happiness for us that they had found together? It was
very endearing. This must be why Henry had been so excited this morning, and
why he had behaved so affectionately. He wanted Tony and me to be together. He
had hinted as much, several times.

Tony was eagerly waiting for me in
bed. Very eagerly! We were starved for each other, seemingly insatiable. I had
not made love like this with a man for many years, not since my early college
days when I met a boy named Tristan, my first lover, who eventually dumped me.
At four in the morning when we were sitting next to each other in the Jacuzzi,
soaking in lavender bath salts and feasting on low fat yoghurt and
Veuve
Cliquot
, we talked
about Tristan.

“He was a fool!” Tony said
comfortingly, raising my hand out of the water to kiss it.

“Thank you, but actually he was a
genius,” I said. “He studied social psychology with Jean Piaget in Switzerland
during his junior year abroad, and then he kept going back there every few
months for the next couple of years to finish some project they were working on
together.”

“And he kept leaving you behind?” Tony
asked, satisfyingly indignant.

I nodded, still feeling vulnerable
when I thought about it.

“He carried my photo in his wallet and
told everyone I was his girlfriend, but he only wrote me one letter in three
years and when he was home he’d say that while he loved me, he wasn’t ‘in love’
with me. We’d have wild sex constantly for days, and then he’d go away again.”
I took a sip of champagne and stared into space. “He accused me a being a
‘physicalist.’ He seemed to think it was a bad thing. I tried to talk to him
about it, but he wasn’t really interested in listening to what anyone else had
to say.”

“What is a ‘physicalist?’’’

I shrugged my shoulders. “He wouldn’t
say. I guessed he meant I liked having sex too much.”

 
“No, that can’t be right!” Tony looked at me doubtfully. “It’s
impossible!”

“What’s impossible? Having too much
sex?”

“No,
liking
it too much is impossible.”

“What about people who are addicted to
sex?”

“That’s different. If they are
addicted to it, they aren’t really enjoying it any more. It has become a
negative thing.”

“I might get addicted to having sex
with you, would that be a negative thing?” I ran my big toe up his leg and
slipping my foot between his knees.

“Emily!” He gasped happily. “You are a
very naughty girl!”

“I am?”

“Yes,” he said firmly, “Come over here
immediately!” He pulled me up over his wet, slippery body, sliding me across
his chest.