FATED (15 page)

I was nicely cocooned in the crook of his arm pit. His arm rested casually around my shoulders. It wasn’t feeling so casual now. Every muscle in his body had gone hard and his arm now felt like it was imprisoning me.

‘Well it was just a casual arrangement,’ I answered.

‘Who with?’  He repositioned his body a little, straightening up.

‘Just some guys Bella works with, that’s all.’ I answered the question very calmly, trying to play the whole situation down. I was trying to get him to relax again. Bella was grinning like the cat that got the cream. I wasn’t sure what game she was playing, but I sent her a look of total contempt.  From the look on her face, I knew what she was playing. She was just setting him up, so she could read his expression. Checking him out, to see how much he felt for me or not.

I think he’d answered her question. She raised her eyebrows at me, obviously very pleased with her findings.  I shook my head back at her.

‘I was hoping we could spend Thanksgiving together, in fact I have rented out a cabin up in the Catskills.  Haven’t I, Nathan? Thought perhaps the four of us could go together?’

Nathan looked up from his second dessert of the sitting. His plan was to soak up what was left of the alcohol in his system, clearly by eating as much food as he could possibly stomach.

‘I’m sure we’re expected back in the Hamptons?’ he questioned, looking at Alex.

‘No,’ replied Alex, staring him out.

Nathan lifted both eyebrows in a questioning reply. ‘OK then big brother, if you say so?’

Bella was now jigging up and down in her seat with excitement. ‘I have heard so much about the Catskills, when do we leave?’

I watched Nathan openly taking in the movement in her breasts.

‘I think Wednesday evening will do it, it takes about three hours to drive up, depends on traffic. That’ll give me time to tie up some loose ends at work,’ he looked at me now, ‘I know your boss; he’ll give you the time off,’ he grinned his perfect smile at me, making me melt.

‘What do you think? Spend the weekend with me,’ he whispered in my ear, I was sure he deliberately just made the scruff on his face lightly rub on it. My body instantly responded. I gripped a hold on the front of his T-shirt and pulled his ear down to my mouth. Feeling really brave I casually licked the rim of his ear, which caused him to inhale deeply.

‘That depends on my boss being really open and answering some of the many questions I have for him, truthfully... like as soon as we leave here.’ I smiled sweetly back, as I released the grip from the front of his T-shirt. Placing my hand firmly on his chest, I pushed him back against the booth backrest. I started to run my hand over his chest flattening out the creases I just put in it.

‘OK everyone, time to cut and run,’ as he spoke his eyes never left mine.

This should be interesting.

Twenty-One

The ride home in Alex’s Range Rover w
as so much quicker than the trip out. But doesn’t it always seem that way; I remember thinking the same as a kid. The happy memories of my uncle’s old car apparently must have crept over my face. Alex’s hand was once again resting on my leg, just above my knee cap and he squeezed it slightly.

‘Penny for them,’ he asked.

‘Oh I was just back home, thinking of a Sunday afternoon ride with JJ, my aunt and uncle,’ I smiled back at him.

My tiredness was beginning to sneak up on me now. Yesterday had been a long day and night, what with one thing and another. It was Sunday, late afternoon and the heated seats in this luxurious car were beginning to have an effect on me..........

The fire was sending huge flames up. I could see their flickering reflection on the ceiling. I was tucked up on a huge, deep, soft settee. Alex had covered me with a fleecy blanket. On the low coffee table in front of me sat an equally huge glass of red wine. I rolled over onto my back and took in the room around me. It was decorated in blues and muted greys, very masculine. The furniture seemed to be heavy oak. On further inspection the room was similar to the living area that Bella and I shared, just on a much bigger scale. The view of NYC lit up was magnificent. Of course his apartment would have the best views. Floor to ceiling picture windows framed Central Park and the lights of the city behind.

I must have fallen asleep, how embarrassing.

‘Hey,’ came from the man, with the deep voice I loved. He was sitting in a chair, in the opposite corner of the room.

Slowly I brought my eyes into focus.

God what must I look like?

He of course looked like the Greek God; that I became more certain as time went on, that he actually was. He had reclined back into the chair, one leg crossed over, so his foot was on the opposite knee. He was just wearing blue sweat shorts and basically a smile. I knew that when he stood up, they would be so low on his hips I would have to resist the urge to pull them down. I felt myself lick my lips with the last thought. His smile grew wider as if he could read my mind. I watched him take a sip from the bottle of beer in one hand and turn the page of a book with his other.

Dear God, he reads as well?

‘What’s the time?’

‘A little after seven. Are you feeling better now?’

I nodded.

He closed his book, after inserting a book mark and placed it down on the table next to the chair. Clasping his bottle of beer by the neck with his fingertips, he stood and prowled over to me. That was exactly the correct description. I allowed myself one quick look down and yes I was right, his blue shorts did hang low on his hips, God help me. He sat on the edge of the settee and brushed my hair away from my face using his fingertips.

‘I poured you a glass of wine, I wasn’t sure what you would like to drink, but as we need to have a talk, I felt it might help us to relax.’

‘That’s fine, thanks.’ I managed to mumble in response.

I had to force myself to sit up now, as I knew our discussion was imminent. I wanted answers and I wanted the truth. I was just so afraid of them making me feel any different than I did right at this moment.

Alex reached out and grasped the wine glass from behind him; slowly he brought it around and to my lips. I sipped at the liquid, all the while staring into those deep eyes, the same eyes that just about pulled every available emotion out of me and then some. Alex put the glass back down on the table and moved to sit down on the settee behind me. With hardly any effort he lifted me up onto to his lap and wrapped both his arms around me tight.

‘I need to feel you, Frankie.’

I nodded.

And he began, with my back to his chest.

‘At eleven years old I was sent to England, to a private school in Kent, my stepfather could no longer bear to look at my face. You see I reminded him too much of my father, any picture shows how much we look alike.’

‘Where is your father?’

‘Dead, Frankie, he died when I was five.’

‘Oh I’m sorry; I know what it feels like to lose your father.’

‘Yeah... I know you do.’ I could hear him take a sip from his beer and then he continued.

‘The school was great. I really, I mean I really fucking enjoyed it. I was away from him, the fucker... People appreciated me for what seemed like the first time in my life, for what I was good at. But the best thing was I met some brilliant friends... my best friend came to the school when I was fourteen and he was thirteen, he had won a local scholarship because he was so fucking bright, he could pick up any language and just run with it. We became instant friends, you know the sort of thing you have going on with Bella, through thick and thin we stuck together. I didn’t get home too often, the rather pathetic fucking excuse was “it’s too far away,” or “we’re going on holiday.” He made a feminine squeaky voice as if to take off, I can only assume, his mother.

‘I loved the stories he would tell me of his home and his family.’ I could hear his heart going ten to the dozen behind my head. ‘God I miss him... You must know where I’m going with this, Frankie?’ he breathed out. He had hold of my hands in his and was stroking them with his fingers.

I nodded, but made no sound. I just wanted him to carry on.

‘I didn’t get home to see my little brothers and my stepsister... I couldn’t protect them from him, the fucking asswipe that he is,’ Alex’s voice was beginning to break slightly. I had questions I wanted to interrupt him with, but I just didn’t dare throw him off course. He had opened this dam and it needed to come out. Too many questions and I just knew he would shut it down.

‘Are you close to your other brother and stepsister, now?’

‘Scott and Ruby, yep I would move the earth for any of them. He sent me away but he never destroyed our connection. I think that gets to him even now, after all these years.’

‘JJ’s best friend at school was called James, I think I saw him a couple of times at sports days and rugby matches?’ I quietly added in.

‘Yep... you did,’ he whispered. ‘Well here I am James Alexander Blackmore II, Lieutenant J Blackmore, otherwise known as Jabby. But I just prefer Alex; because all the people I love most... call me Alex.’ His voice started off as hard and indifferent, slowly softening as the sentence continued. His arms enfolded me slightly tighter.

I don’t know if he’s worried I will bolt at the news or what?

I am reeling, or am I?
I think far down in the recess of my mind I knew I had always known him, almost like we were fated to be together.

The synapses in my brain began to fire.......

‘The beautiful flowers I received after I had been to visit my dad’s grave for the first time, they were from you weren’t they?’

‘Yep.’ He swigged from his beer.

‘Thank you, the words on the card meant so much to me.’

The pain in his voice was apparent. ‘I wanted to do so much more to help you, Frankie, but I’d just enlisted and couldn’t get the leave.’ He drew in a deep breath, and carried on.

‘I first saw you; I mean really saw you, Frankie, when you were fifteen, only from afar. I knew I had found a kindred spirit in you. I knew all about the clusterfuck your life was and I recognised you, you know, like only another person who has felt your pain can. I
don’t have to add that you were the most gorgeous thing I had ever seen. I was twenty-one at the time and you had come to Cambridge to watch JJ play rugby. I had girls falling at my feet and all I could ever really think about was you.’

I had to look at him now and I turned in his arms. I placed a leg either side of his thighs and for a minute I knew he wanted to pull me up higher over his cock, but he resisted. I tucked my hands down onto his naked stomach and forced myself to look into his face. He really was the most beautiful man I had ever seen. Slowly I lifted up one hand to cup his hard, stubble-covered jaw line. The right words were so difficult to find. The information he had just bestowed on me was slowly filtering through. Alex closed his eyes and leant slightly onto my palm.

‘Say something, Frankie... say anything.’

Taking a deep breath I started, ‘I have felt so alone for so long, but you were always there weren’t you?’

He nodded at me gently and his eyes opened to find mine again. My other hand came up to rest on top of his left pectoral muscle, just so I could feel the steady rhythmic beat beneath his ribs.

‘I fell for you, baby, the first day I saw you. You were too young for me to do anything, so I waited and waited, hoping that by helping you in small ways as you grew up... well I hoped that someday our paths might cross again. Well either that or I would get over the beautiful girl that had captured my heart.’ His heart shaped lips twitched at the corners and he offered me a small smile.

‘You’ve wanted to be with me for...’ I was mentally doing the maths, ‘Nearly nine years... is that what you’re saying?’ My voice was starting to rise in tone at the sheer disbelief of what the man in front of my eyes, and under my thighs, was actually, owning up to. The only movement coming from Alex was the slow rise and fall of his feet. Lifting me too, up and down slightly every time. The rocking movement was almost comforting. I could feel tears coursing silently down my cheeks.

‘Please don’t cry, baby.’

‘I have dreamt about you most nights since first seeing you at Coronado.’ I laughed a nervous laugh through my ever increasing tears. ‘All this time you wanted to be with me too?’ Alex nodded urging me to continue. ‘I’ve had a few lucky breaks in the last couple of years, scholarships and things... were they all you, too?’

‘No, baby, they were all you, I just made sure that things you did got noticed by the right people. I’ve always been in the background, gleaning anything I could about you from JJ and then your aunt and uncle.’ The deep breath he inhaled lifted my whole body up. I flung myself forward and onto his naked torso. My arms wrapped so tightly around him and I hung on for all I was worth. My face turned to nestle into his neck and I inhaled the cologne, the only cologne I ever wanted to smell again for the rest of my life. I lifted myself away and roughly wiped my cheeks with the back of my hand.

‘I get it, your rugby club has the same colours you both used to play in at Cambridge and various things now are connecting in my brain. You need to tell me though, did you really want me as Nathan’s physio, or is this all some elaborate plan to get into my knickers?’ Humour was what we needed now and I needed to inject it into the conversation fast. I smiled at him.

‘Well now, let me think?’ He raised his fingers to his chin. The other hand sneaked behind my arse and he pulled me forward, onto his growing erection.

It felt so good to have some of the loose ends tied up. I had more questions but they could wait. We started to kiss, running our hands all over each other in a frenzy. It felt good just to relax once more into him and I started to look forward to a whole weekend of us.