New Beginnings (36 page)

“Let’s go look at it. I’ll keep an open mind. I promise.” I winked at him.

I squealed with surprise when he jumped up and grabbed my hand to pull me out of my chair. “Thank you, sweetness,” he said, holding my face in his hands tenderly. “Let’s head to bed,” he said, with a heated look in his eyes that told me sleep was the furthest thing from his mind.

The following Monday, I found myself sitting once again in the plush leather seat of his private plane. I was stunned that a week had passed by as quickly as it had.

As I stared wistfully out the airplane window, I thought back on what a wonderful week we had shared together. I couldn’t have asked for a better honeymoon or a better opportunity for us to connect before having to return to the daily routine of our lives in Seattle.

We never left the property. Xavier had planned to take a helicopter ride of the island to view some of the volcanoes, but we never made it. He also planned on attending a traditional Hawaiian luau, but the thought of giving up any quiet time between us just didn’t seem right.

The strong urge to be together kept us in the confines of the gorgeous home. I knew Xavier had cut himself off from his business world for the week, which made me want to spend every moment with him all the more. It was as if we had our own little, private, tropical island, and we didn’t want to spoil any of our time together by leaving it or sharing that precious time with anyone else.

Every morning we caught the sunrise from the third floor lookout, had breakfast on the lanai, and swam laps in the pool amongst other water activities. A couple of the lazy afternoons, we curled up with each other in the large hammock, but that always ended in a make-out session since neither one of us could keep our hands off the other in such close proximity for long. A few times we found ourselves getting dumped out of the hammock because we would get too carried away. We would just laugh at each other, as we lay sprawled out on the grass before one of us silenced the other with a heated kiss.

We did manage to catch the large tail fins of the Humpback whales and even spotted a few dolphins jumping out of the water. We took countless walks along the beach holding hands. Every night we watched the beautiful, colorful sunset from the beach before we retired for the evening. And every night we fell asleep wrapped around each other while listening to the rhythmic sounds of the waves crashing on the beach.

For an entire week, we were living under our own little, perfect bubble with no contact from the outside world. No cell phones, no computers, no television. It was perfect. It was magical. Now that little, perfect bubble of serenity was about to burst as we headed back home to reality. I let out a long sigh as I continued to stare wistfully out the small airplane window.

“Why the long face, sweetness?”

I looked over at Xavier. His brows were creased with concern.

“I hate that we have to leave,” I said sadly.

He made his way over to me with a smirk on his face. Crouching down in front of me, he took my hands in his. “This past week was pure bliss. But I can’t get sad about leaving, because I have the most amazing memories of our time together that I will treasure always. We have our whole lives ahead of us. We’ll be back to make more memories. I promise you that.” He winked at me.

I pulled my hands out of his. Staring into his eyes with the same intensity his bore into mine, I grasped his face. My thumbs caressed his cheekbones lightly. Leaning in, I whispered against his lips, “I love you.”

My mouth hovered there for mere seconds before he let out a sexy little moan and sealed his mouth over mine. Minutes later, we jumped apart at the sound of someone behind us. The captain cleared his throat clearly embarrassed for having disturbed our moment. “We will be ready to leave in about ten minutes, Mr. Hart.”

“Thank you, James.” Xavier kissed me chastely before he sat and buckled himself in.

We were up at five this morning with a scheduled departure time of six a.m. I was unable to stifle the yawn that loudly escaped me. As soon as we were up in the air, Xavier handed me the pillow and blanket once again, encouraging me to get some sleep.

We were about an hour out of Seattle, when Xavier’s booming voice jolted me awake. He was angry and cursed as he slammed his hand down on the small table. His laptop looked in danger of toppling over as the table shook from the force of his fist. Whatever happened it had to be serious to garner such a reaction from him.

He sat in front of his laptop with an angry scowl on his face. I brought my seat into the upright position. Sitting quietly, I patiently waited for him to stop reading whatever it was that upset him so much so he would start talking. I couldn’t even begin to fathom what could have possibly gotten him so upset. After several minutes of silence, I finally spoke. “What is it? What’s happened?” I asked anxiously.

“It seems Patrick had to do a little damage control while we were away,” he said, still staring angrily at his laptop.

I furrowed my brow at him. “I don’t understand.”

He rubbed his hand over his face, and sighed heavily before he looked at me. “The picture of you and Devlin from the restaurant was leaked to the press claiming that the two of you were having an affair.”

I bolted up out of the chair. “What?” I screeched.

“Ella, please sit down and fasten your seatbelt. It would seem Patrick has already handled it. My PR department issued a statement denying it all and confirming our marriage. It seems to have blown over already,” he said reassuringly.

I started to pace in the small isle. “That heinous bitch. If I ever see her again I swear I’m going to …”

“Do nothing,” Xavier said, cutting me off. He grabbed my wrist to stop me in my tracks. Swiveling his chair around, he pulled me down onto his lap. “I don’t know what Carline’s reasoning was behind this, and I don’t really care. Patrick fixed it. Let it go,” he warned.

Shaking my head at him, I narrowed my eyes. “Let it go? She maliciously accused me of having an affair while I’m on my honeymoon, and you expect me to just let it go?” I asked incredulously.

“Yes, I expect you to just let it go. I will have words with her father. You
will
let me handle this,” he said sternly.

I thought for a moment, but I knew he was right. As much as I didn’t want to, I knew I needed to let him handle this. Dropping my head onto his shoulder, I sighed in defeat. He wrapped his arms around me, and held me close. “Okay. You know her and her parents better than I do. I’ll let you handle this,” I said quietly. “Wait! Did you just say your PR department issued a statement confirming our marriage?” I gaped at him.

He chuckled softly. “It wasn’t a secret that we were engaged, Ella.”

“I know, but …” He was always so careful about exposing our relationship to the press after a jealous, stalking ex gunned down his former fiancé.

“It needed to happen, Ella. I couldn’t have people think that you were out having an affair while we were off on our honeymoon. Patrick did what he thought was best. I would have handled it the same way.”

The announcement that we were approaching SeaTac came over the speakers. I slid off his lap, and settled myself into my seat, quickly fastening my seatbelt.

As we flew into Seattle, I relaxed immediately as my adopted city came into view. Gladly, I welcomed the angry, gray skies and rain after a week of nothing but sunshine. I smiled, surprised at not only just how much I found those gray skies to be so welcoming and pleasing, but by how much I had missed them.

Stewart and Marissa were waiting for us with the familiar black SUV on the tarmac. Xavier took my hand as we made our way down the stairs. I noticed Marissa was giving me what looked like a sympathetic smile, which I thought was odd. Then I felt my phone starting to buzz against my hip in my bag.

Once we got settled in the car, I dug my phone out. At first I smiled when I saw Renatta’s name on my screen, but then I realized I had several missed calls and text messages from her, which was strange. She knew I was on my honeymoon. She had to have known that I was going to turn my phone off.

I opened my text messages and frowned. Every one had to do with the photo that Carline had leaked. It was on every celebrity gossip website known to man, and Renatta was sending me links to all of them. I quickly deleted the messages knowing I had no desire to see what comments people had been making. Is this why Marissa smiled like she did at me? I had a horrible feeling that this hadn’t been laid to rest like Xavier indicated earlier.

I put my phone back in my bag. Trying to relax, I sat back and let out a small sigh. I could feel Xavier’s eyes on me. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I glanced over at him. He was staring at me intently. His brows were scrunched showing his concern. “What?” I snapped. Immediately I regretted my tone. “I’m sorry,” I said before he could speak. “I just had several messages from Renatta. Do you believe she was sending me links to all the gossip sites that featured that photo of Devlin and me?” I rubbed my hand over my forehead. I could feel a headache coming on.

Xavier grabbed my hand and laced his fingers through mine. He gave my hand a gentle squeeze until I turned my focus on him. “Did you delete them or did you look at them?” he asked me carefully.

“I deleted them. I don’t need to see what people say. It doesn’t matter, right?” I shrugged at him.

“Right. I’m proud of you.” I gave him a puzzled look. “The insecure and emotionally hurt woman I knew a few months ago would have been devastated over this. You seem to be handling it okay, though.” He gave me my favorite half smile.

I gently squeezed his hand back. “What can I say? You make me a better woman.” I winked at him.

Turning away, I focused my attention out the car window. I would still be devastated if I saw people’s comments, but in a way, I just didn’t care. Let them talk. The people who mean the most to me know the truth. Maybe that was easy for me to say, since I didn’t see what people had commented. I knew I might feel differently if I took the time to look at those sites, but why torture myself? I couldn’t change it.

As soon as we pulled into the parking garage for Millennium Tower, Xavier scooped me up and carried me to the elevator. “What are you doing?” I protested.

“Keeping up with tradition. I’m carrying you over the threshold.”

I shook my head at him and snuggled into his neck. Stewart entered the code that would take the elevator directly to our condo. As I glanced over Xavier’s shoulder, I saw a smile on Marissa’s face, which only widened when she made eye contact with me.

When the elevator slid open, Xavier turned to Stewart. “Just leave the bags here in the hall. I’ll get them later.”

Stewart gave me a knowing smile. “Certainly. Good to have you two home,” Stewart said before he stepped back into the elevator with Marissa.

Xavier turned to head down the hall with me still in his arms. “I think you can put me down now,” I said, kissing the side of his neck. I lingered longer than was necessary as I inhaled his sexy, musky smell.

“No can do. We still have another threshold to cross.” The heated look he was giving me made my insides quiver.

“And what threshold might that be?” I whispered in his ear. Grazing my teeth along his earlobe, I felt a shudder run through him.

He turned toward me and lowered his head. “The bedroom,” he whispered against my lips.
Oh, yes! Please!

I ran my fingers through the soft hair at his nape. “Hurry,” I whispered back.

As soon as we crossed over the threshold, he placed me on my feet. We frantically started removing our clothes acting as if we hadn’t been with each other in days. The need to feel my naked flesh pressed tightly against his was almost overwhelming, and I was pretty sure he was feeling the same way.

When we were both stripped bare, I wrapped my hands behind his neck and pulled his mouth down to mine. As our bodies pressed together, I could feel every hard inch of him. He let out a moan as our tongues met and tangled together. The vibration of his moan rumbled against my lips and chest.

Running his hands down my back, he cupped my behind and urged me to wrap my legs around his waist. I gasped, breaking our kiss, when his arousal brushed against the exact spot where I desperately needed him. He held me fast to keep me from pressing down onto him.

“No,” he whispered as he ran kisses down my neck. “We need to take it slow.”

Fighting against his hold, I shook my head. My heart was pounding in my chest. My breaths were quickly turning into pants. The blood pumping through my veins felt like liquid fire. The need to be filled by this man was all consuming. “I need you too much. Please,” I shamelessly begged.

A low growl rumbled through his chest. I smiled to myself knowing he wouldn’t be able to resist my begging. Sure enough, he dropped me down onto the bed and took me without hesitation.