Lust (31 page)

I took the compliment and held onto it. Some would call it
being a bitch; Alexander called it confidence.

“Why do I surprise you?” I asked. “Don’t the other women
you usually take on your planes make jokes and laugh and have
character?” I eyed him as I poured us both coffee. Before he
could reply, I took the plate that was in front of him and began
placing food on it. “Anything you don’t like?” I added.

He shook his head no, watching me carefully as I prepared a
dish for him, gently placing things in separate, neat places on
his plate. He looked surprised. An unexpected gesture, I guess,
that I was caring for him. I enjoyed it.

“Everything you do surprises me. You are certainly not what
I thought you were when I met you. And every time I think
I get you, you add a new side, a new piece to your character.”

I turned to him, glancing at him strangely as he continued.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that? It’s not bad. Your
surprising nature is what draws me to you, making me want
to see and know more of you. You are thrilling,” he explained.

“Well, what did you think I was like when you first met
me, at the meeting with Pat?” I asked.

“Well, you acted as if you wanted to rip my eyes out, like
I was the devil or something. But you occasionally gave me a
stare that would shoot right through my veins. Pat defined
you as a shark with clients but then I saw the sweetest, most
endearing sight when you were with Pat. Then with me…Hell,
I couldn’t decide if I should run from you or into you.”

I listened with a look of amusement and amazement. “Well,
truth is: I didn’t know what to do with you. I was being blindsided
by all the news with Pat, which I honestly still don’t get,
and you were there knowing all the secrets. And you were arrogant,
flaunting yourself as this ‘boss’ who was going to take me
over. And you did. You turned my job upside down. And you
were suddenly the image that appeared to me when I was horny,
and being next to you I would find myself wet. I didn’t know
what the hell was going on, and I was ready to kick your ass for
it—for making me lose control.”

He was astonished by my honesty. “And now?” he inquired
optimistically.

“Now, I don’t really know. I don’t know who I have become
or how I feel. I really don’t know who you are, what your past is
like. I’m letting myself stay stuck in a very opaque state, hoping
that it doesn’t end in tears. I don’t know how to do this. I
barely know you, and I…”

His eyes ached for my fears, for what I held within me, and
what obviously pained me.

I suppose he hoped to give me some relief, because he allowed
me some knowledge of his past. “Let me see if I can help.

Other than Pat and Marcus, I have never recounted my life to
anyone. I grew up on Long Island, out east, until I was fifteen.

I was taken in by the state to an orphanage at fifteen and lived
there until I was eighteen, which is when and where I met Pat
and Marcus. I lost my parents. They were in a car accident, and
they were all I had in this life—the only people I have ever
loved.”

He told me a short version of the tragedy and the life that
preceded and made him the man who sat before me. He explained
that he avoided loss by secluding himself. “I figured
that if I played it tough and never let things go past casual sex,
that I would never feel that hurt again. And so I stayed alone a
lot, focused on work, and…I never lost.”

I felt pain and sadness for him, but my expression was
blank, not knowing what to say until I found the courage to
speak. “Thank you for sharing that. I know it must have been
difficult.” I didn’t want to pity him. I avoided making him feel
like a victim, and I definitely didn’t want him to see himself
as a victim. And I didn’t. I wittingly reassured him, as I always
did so well, that he was a hero…my hero. “So, Mr. Mason,
you’ve got me here. Now what are you going to do with me?”

“Really? You steal movie lines? Is that how you snatch up
your men?” He reached for my hand, smoothing his fingers
over it gently.

“Now, Alexander. How could you think such a thing? I first
snatch up my men with my wit and sweetness. My kinky sex
toys are what keep them coming back for more.” Laughing at
myself, I turned his hand over and scratched the inside of his
palm with my finger, making his skin break out with goose
bumps.

Ding.

The hostess came out of the curtains again. “I apologize.

I am going to have to clear the table. The captain is going to
begin his descent.”

“Not a problem, Mary,” he answered. “We are all set here.”

We both placed our napkins on the table, walked to the
large seats, and buckled up.

I peered out of the window, and my shoulders lifted as I
gasped. Placing my hand on my heart, I said, “Oh my God.

This is…unbelievable, it is…divine.”

The plane was over Bora-Bora, and the sight below looked
like a postcard. It was utterly breathtaking, just like this moment
between us.

As the captain made his final descent, I turned to Alexander.

Clutching his hand, I leaned in, whispered a thank you, and
then completed our flight with a kiss.

CHAPTER NINTEEN

The car ride from the airport was breathtaking. The air was hot
but wonderful. There was no humidity, and a light breeze blew
through the windows that could have possibly swept me away
just on its own. Alexander and I sat in the back, hands grasped,
only turning away from the view of the window to smile at each
other.

He is amazing. He has me unhinged. It was so bizarre, but
forty-eight hours ago I detested this man for turning my world
upside down, and now I was basking in the joy that this whirlwind
gave me. I had moments of realization, but I was trying.

I could not remember the last time I had sat on a beach
with no agenda or work to do or with a man—a man who had
crawled inside every inch of me and set me on fire.

“So, are you OK so far?” Alexander asked, lifting my hand
and kissing it.

“I am…” Not sure of what I truly felt, I let my initial instinct
reply. “I am OK. All of this is incredible.” I kept trying
to put things into perspective. I had slept with—no, no, I had
been fucked by a man into the heavens. Then fed, washed, and
bedded by that same man with an ease of comfort that was
turning me inside out. And now I had been flown to Polynesia
in a private jet and was being made to feel like…like no one
had ever made me feel before.

“Alexander, I don’t want to spoil any of this, but I would
like to talk about all of it.”

Alexander held his stare, sweetly and confidently. Hell, he
had me halfway around the world; I wasn’t fighting too well.

“Of course we can talk. As soon as we get…there.”

My eyes followed to where his arm extended and his finger
pointed past my window and out in the distance, awaited a
cabana covered with palms and bamboo, attached to a dock
that led from the shore, floating above the ocean. It was where
we were headed. My head spun to look at Alexander, and I unintentionally
gasped; my eyes were filling with tears ready to
drop to this white, sandy earth.

He leaned in and ever so softly brushed a kiss on the tip
of my nose and then my lips. “I listen to everything you say,
Evangeline; but your desires—well, they get extra special
attention.”

He winked. I knew he meant every word. In a few hours he
had planned the exact trip of my dreams. I didn’t know how,
but he read me, my thoughts, emotions, and desires.

A butler waited for us at the edge of the dock. He held
out two glasses with a sparkling island drink filled halfway
with exotic berries; it was just as beautiful as it was satiating.

Our bags had been brought in for us, and we were given
a quick tour through the hut. This is unreal, I couldn’t help
thinking. As juvenile as it sounds, I could barely form any
real sentences or thoughts. It was so much larger than what
it seemed from the outside.

All of the rooms were crafted with distressed wood and
bamboo. The hut was surrounded by windows so that the island
views were our walls; there were cutouts in the bamboo
floors in every room that showed the ocean water, and through
it swam all of the miracles of the sea. An oversized room, the
hut’s main part, was flanked by an extraordinary full bathroom.

The rest of the structure, which was made up more than half of
it, was the bedroom. The king size bed sat on a circle of glass
that gave way to the ocean floor. Linen drapes hung from the
four posts of this gloriously large and lavish bed. The room was
overflowing with exotic flowers and scents. In front of the bed,
at the end of a red rose petal path, were two French doors that
opened to the rest of the world. But this world only consisted
of us and the sea.

“There is no kitchen?” Realizing the tour was over but
there were only three rooms, I turned to the butler.

“No, ma’am. We aspire to cater and tend to you in the utmost
capacity, to allow you to leave the world where it lay,
and wake and sleep above the sea like the gods. We are here to
serve you, miss, and you are here to be served.” He shut me and
my questions up without pause or thought, and he believed in
what he was saying. He sounded pleased to be able to have that
effect on his guests.

“Thank you. You are very kind.” Alexander placed a tip in
his hand as he shook it. The butler nodded in response and left
us in our paradise.

“This is amazing. I have never seen anything like this, and
yet, it is all I imagined.” Slipping out of my flip-flops, I sauntered
onto the silk rose petals that lead the way to the waters.

Standing at the edge of the deck outside of the bedroom,
I drank it all into me—the view, the scent, and this unimaginable
moment that was part of my life.

Alexander came over and wrapped his arms around me,
pulling me into him sensually and slowly. “I am glad you like
this. I want to see this glow and smile on you always. And I
want to be the reason for that reaction—just like the one you
are wearing now.”

I eased my body around to face him, not knowing how to
thank him and warn him all at once. “Alexander, I wouldn’t
know where to start to thank you for all of this, but you don’t
have to do this. You don’t have to buy things and take me places;
it won’t change my feelings or thoughts on my life right
now. I have to admit, here in this moment with you, I can’t
imagine being anywhere else. But there is a reality out there,
back home, that we both have to go back to.” I grasped his
hands with force. I didn’t want to let go of him, and I needed
him to know that despite what I was saying, I was in heaven—
with him.

But he stopped me halfway through. “Evangeline, I know
that you are always trying to jump five steps ahead and foresee
the ending, but life—a good life doesn’t work that way. I’m
not asking you to answer any questions or make any decisions;
I’m just asking you, all of you, to be here with me: all of you
with all of me. Nothing more than you are willing to give…

Remember?” And with that, the conversation was done.

Alexander lifted my arms above my head and did away
with my shirt. He caressed my shoulders with his palms and
smoothed his hands down my chest and over my breasts that
carried fine beads of sweat over them from the Polynesian
heat. His hands made their way down to my jeans, and without
difficulty, they were at my ankles, and I was stepping out
of them. I was his puppet, and I was letting him do with me
as he wanted.