Love's Call (11 page)

Liana’s mind wandered as she enjoyed the feel of him against her.
I don’t know where this man came from, but he just seems too good to be true.

She knew that there had to be a catch, somewhere.  And the question that she’d yet to ask, but had frequently popped into her mind, was becoming hard to push away now.  
If he’s such a great man, why
is
he divorced?

Obviously, there was something about him that wasn’t so perfect, because no other woman would have let a man like this get away
.  The odds of her finding a man this good were slim, because her luck had never been that good.

But laying there in his arms now, she couldn’t resist asking, even if she knew she would only get his version of it, since his ex-wife wasn’t here to tell her side of the story.

“Kyle,” she started, still hesitant.

“Mmm..?” he mumbled.  He had nearly fallen asleep when he heard the sound of her voice echo through the dark room.

She tried to think of the best way to introduce the question, but then just decided it was best to be direct and not beat around the bush. “What happened with your marriage?  What ended it?”

Kyle was quiet for a few seemingly long moments and she could feel his chest tighten beneath her cheek, where she lay on him.

He sighed.  “Well…” he started.  He knew that eventually the question would arise, but had been avoiding the topic with her as long as he could.  He didn’t like talking about what had happened, and had discussed it with few other people since it happened.  He didn’t realize that he was still so affected by it until just now, as he felt the emotions flood back. “Her affair with the man who was once my closest friend, is what ended it.”

Liana’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “Oh no.  Are you serious?”

“Very.”

“I’m sorry, Kyle.”

“Don’t be.  It just wasn’t meant to be with her. Shaila was a taker. She wanted too much, but never gave anything in return. Yeah, I worked long hours back then, and that was her complaint about me.  But she knew I was building my career, helping to build a company, and trying to build a good future for us, too. But that didn’t matter to her.”

“So what attracted you to her in the first place?  If you don’t mind me asking.”

“I don’t really know. I guess I just used to be attracted to the wrapping, the package that a woman came in, and not the contents--what was inside,” he paused, reflecting on it. “If I’d really paid attention to it all, I would have seen it coming.  But I didn’t.  If nothing else, I’ve learned how to spot women like Shaila, much more quickly now.”

Liana’s thoughts went to her own past relationship with Brian,
and she realized that she could ask herself that same question.  
Why had she allowed herself to fall for him?
 He was another man who had seemed too good to be true.  He was handsome, smart and a hard worker. But that was his representative, because he had an entire life she’d known nothing about.

She was quiet, and contemplated letting Kyle in on her thoughts. He had been so revealing with his own past relationship issues that she felt it was only fair to let him know about hers.

“You remember when I told you that life growing up with my father wasn’t pretty, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, he is most of the reason why I’ve avoided relationships over the years.  The last good memory I have of him was also one of the worst memories I have of him.”

Kyle pulled her in closer, squeezing her, in an effort to comfort her.  He could hear the quiver in her voice as she spoke and wanted her to feel safe next to him as she told him about her past.

“He had taken me out for one of our daddy-daughter movie days, when a screaming woman came up to us, cussed him out and slapped him, the whole nine. He never told me what that was about, but as I got older I pretty much figured it out. She was hollering about him having a wife and kids that he hadn’t told her about, so it was pretty easy to guess. But I was nine years old when it happened.  So, all of it was pretty confusing.”

Kyle remained quiet, and rubbed her arm.  It all made sense to him now.  Her cold demeanor, the way she pushed men away and her unwillingness to give up control of anything.  And the drinking, or, lack thereof.  Her father, the first man in her life, had hurt her deeply, and it stayed with her, many years later into her adult life.

“So, when the same thing happened in my last nearly two-year long relationship, I was blown away.  I was careful, always, when it came to men.  I checked and double checked everything, I used to question everything, but apparently I wasn’t as good as I thought I was.  He had a family too.  A wife, a child, and a baby on the way.”

“How did you find out?”

She laughed at how comical it sounded, “At a friend’s wedding, of all places.  He was there with his family.  And there I was too, happy, even considering marrying him, when, what do I see when I look over but him and the family he’d already made with someone. I’ve never felt so much like a fool in my life.”

 Liana drew in a breath as hot tears rolled down her cheek.  She wiped them away and continued, “I don’t know how the hell I ended up there--the naive and stupid
other woman
.  I’d done everything I could to avoid turning into that woman that confronted my dad outside of the movie theater that day. And it wasn’t enough.”

Kyle reached over, and pulled Liana’s body up, to lie on top of him.  He wanted to fully enclose her in his arms, and felt the urge to protect her--from the pain of her past, from the haunting memories and from her fears about her future.

They were quiet as Liana’s body shook from the force of her sobs. Kyle was the first man she’d told such personal details of her life.  She didn’t know why she’d spilled so much to him, but she just felt secure and safe with him.  Even if it wasn’t real and was just part of the charm of a beautiful vacation fling, she couldn’t deny that it felt good in the moment.

Kyle’s eyes were glued to Liana the entire night, as they sat in the formal dining hall, enjoying their last dinner together of the cruise.

The hall was full of the singles dressed to impress, in their finest formal attire. Kyle didn’t think that Liana could look any more stunning than she already did, but as he studied her at the table--her hair pulled into a neat up-do, her makeup perfectly complementing her face, and her long dark blue fitted dress, clinging to her, and accenting her hourglass shape--he quickly realized that he had been wrong.

Liana looked up between bites of her food to find that his eyes were on her and not his plate.  She winked playfully at him, and smiled underneath his attentive gaze. She finally asked him, “Are you going to eat tonight?”

“Yeah, I plan to.  But I have an appetite for something a bit more fulfilling than this.”

The fire from his words ignited the passion within her, and she involuntarily wiggled in her seat, in an attempt to ease the aching she now felt between her thighs.

He held her eyes, and thought to himself,
Why are we wasting time here, when this is our last night on this ship?

“How about we stop playing “dress-up”, and go back up to my cabin to play some other, more exciting games?”

She nodded, dropped her fork and pushed away from the table. She leaned over to Alyssa, who sat next to her, “We’re going to turn it in early tonight,” she told her.

Alyssa smirked, her eyes went to Kyle, who stood, waiting on Liana, and then back to her friend.  “Yea, okay. Turn in, huh?  Alright, good night lovebirds,” she said and shared a grin with Lloyd.

They hurried out of the hall, and neither could get out of there fast enough.

***

Liana’s back was against Kyle’s chest as he spooned her, holding her in his arms. Liana’s up-do hadn’t stood a chance against their hot and steamy love sessions. But her disheveled, messy hair was the last thing on her mind as well as his.  

Kyle could hold her in his arms all night, if she’d let him. “You are staying here tonight, right?”

“Yes,” she answered.  She didn’t want to leave either.  It was their last night together and she wanted to savor it.

“You know, I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to let a woman like you go?”

She felt as if her heart had stopped when she heard his confession. She didn’t say anything.

“I haven’t met anyone like you, ever, Liana, and I don’t want this to end.”

Liana sucked in a deep breath.  She didn’t know what to say, and decided not to say anything.

Kyle noticed her silence on the subject. He changed gears and asked, “What are you plans when you go back home?”

She let out the breath she was holding, and was grateful that he’d steered the conversation in a different direction. “Just the usual.  Going back to my workaholic life as a Realtor in Houston. What about you?”

“I guess the same, back to working crazy hours, back to that quiet, empty house in Atlanta.”

She wasn’t falling for the trap.  
What does he want me to say?  That I’ll come to Atlanta to live with him in that ‘empty house’?

“Well,” she said, “At least we had a great time here. You can take these memories back with you, and so can I.”

Back to stubborn Liana again
, he thought. “How about I take
you
back with me.”

Liana closed her eyes.  She wanted to say yes.  She wish that she could throw caution to the wind, ignore all of the drama of her past and wished that she’d finally found the one person she could trust.  But she didn’t believe that, and she couldn’t do that. But she knew what could take his mind off of this crazy talk, at least for the rest of their night together.

Liana turned in the bed to face him and placed a hand on his face, as she stared into his eyes.  “I want us to enjoy this--our last night together. Let’s not talk about stuff we both know can’t happen.  Please, not right now.”  She leaned in for a soft, sweet kiss. It was affectionate, and quickly became a sensual communion of their lips and tongues, as they became caught up in the heat of the kiss.

Liana pressed herself against him, her nipples rubbing against his smooth chest. She reached down between them. When she felt his erect hardness, she knew they were both ready for one final round of slow, lingering love-making on their last night together.

Kyle placed Liana’s suitcase in the trunk of her car, and Lloyd did the same with Alyssa’s luggage.  They’d helped them both to their parked car in the terminal parking lot.  

Kyle hadn’t wanted Liana to struggle with her broken suitcase as she had when he’d seen her board the ship the first day of the cruise, and had insisted on walking her to her car, despite her protests.

Alyssa’s back was against the passenger door, as she locked in an intimate embrace with Lloyd, his forehead touching hers as he spoke to her softly.

Liana looked over at them and back at Kyle, hoping he didn’t try to do the same.  She didn’t want to make this any harder than it was and she’d tried to avoid a moment like this.  “Let’s make this as painless as possible,” she said.

She leaned in, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and pulled back to look into his eyes, “Goodbye Kyle.  I really enjoyed...everything.  And I enjoyed being with you on this trip.  Thank you.”

“Thank you, Lia.”  He pulled her into him. He didn’t want to part with just a peck on the cheek, as if she was just an old friend.  Though she felt like a friend, after the closeness they’d felt on the cruise, she was so much more than that to him. He wanted her as his lover, as a more significant part of his life.  

But Liana had been adamant. They would not exchange information, numbers, anything.  He’d reluctantly agreed because he hadn’t wanted to spoil their last moments together that morning as they prepared to leave the ship.

To hell with this friend bullshit
, he said, and leaned down to taste her sweet lips one last time as he kissed her passionately.  Liana was reeling and dazed when he finally released her.  She fumbled in her purse for her car keys, and went to open the driver side door. When she started the car, Alyssa groaned as she peeled herself away from Lloyd, gave him two more, quick kisses, and climbed into the seat next to Liana.

Liana turned to look at Kyle one last time and waved.  He lifted his hand to wave back and watched as she drove off, through the parking lot and out of his life, as suddenly as she had entered it.

***

Liana had arrived home from Galveston, nearly an hour later and though she was tired after so many late nights with Kyle, where she’d done anything and everything but sleep, she began unpacking her suitcase.

But the task was harder than she had anticipated it would be, as now every article of clothing she took out held a new memory of the time she’d spent with the beautiful man she’d come to know.

Her print bikini reminded her of the way he’d looked at her hungrily at the pool, the white pantsuit brought back flashbacks of their hot night in his cabin, and her blue formal dress was now tied to their lust-filled last night on the ship.

She sighed and unzipped the inner compartment that held her toiletries and underwear. She scooped up nearly all of the compartment’s contents and dropped them onto her bed.  A slip of paper, peeking out from underneath her black lace underwear, caught her attention.  She picked it up and noticed the neat handwriting and numbers printed on it.

 It was a phone number and the message below the number read,
I know we agreed, but I couldn’t resist letting you go without a hope of hearing from you again.

Please, get in touch.  I’ll be waiting for your call.  Kyle.

Liana slowly lowered herself to sit on the bed.  It took everything in her not to reach over and snatch her phone from the nightstand and dial the number from the slip of paper.  

But she couldn’t.  What’s done was done, and in their past.  It was fun, and it was beautiful.  But it was a fantasy.  And now, she was back to her reality, and they both needed to accept it.  She placed the paper in her dresser drawer, hidden away, under her clothes. But even she wondered why she didn’t just toss it in the trash, if she was serious about keeping their cruise ship fling as just a fond memory from her past.