“Yes. Well, but not whole. I can never have children.”
“I’m so sorry.” He held out his arms and, hardly knowing why, she went into them. “How awful that must be for you.”
From inside his arms, she turned that beautiful face up to him. “When someone…shows an interest in me, I like to tell them right away. That way, the man has a graceful out and it’s easy because things haven’t progressed beyond the second date. I thought I shouldn’t wait that long with you because…I’m very attracted to you. But don’t be afraid. I won’t pursue you or anything. I’m very used to liking someone and then losing them. It’s…just the way my life is…”
He stopped her words with a kiss, a complete and full taking of her mouth, coaxing her to open to him, exploring her mouth with his tongue, even while he held her as if she were delicate porcelain. He could feel her young body pliant against his. Just as he was sure she was yielding to him completely, she broke off the kiss and pushed him away.
“This can’t happen. I’ve explained to you why I can’t…”
“What if I told you it doesn’t matter to me?”
“You’re a Rutledge. You belong to a proud family with a proud heritage. Your mother is already so excited about Leslie’s baby. I couldn’t do that to you.”
“How about you let me decide what’s ‘done to me’?”
She took a step back from him. “I was afraid of this. I’ve thought from the first that you are the noble one in your family.”
“Not so noble after all, if I’m willing to take advantage of a woman in a stable.”
“I don’t know you, not really. And you don’t know me.”
“I know you’re gentle and sweet and quite possibly, terribly naïve about the world. Unlike me. I’ve seen far too much of the cruel, the unfeeling, the inhumanity to man. You’re like a breath of fresh air to me.”
“I spent most of my teenage years in bed, waiting for a bone marrow transplant when I should have been learning about the world. For my sister’s sake, I put a brave face on whenever she came to see me.” Now, I’ve tried to shut bad things out of my life. It is the only way I can survive.”
“Your sister is married and has a little boy?”
“Yes, and twin girls. Luckily for me, I help her care for them when my day is done teaching at my preschool job. Knowing I’m going home to them will make it easier to leave and never see you again.”
“Wait a minute. Who said you were never seeing me again?”
“I did, Dorian. It’s the way it has to be. You know I’m right.”
“I know you’re wrong. I intend to have you in my life.”
“No.”
“You can’t mean that. I’ve never felt such a complete connection with any woman as I do with you and I’ve been the world over.”
“You have to accept the truth. There is no future for us. I’ll see you tomorrow and then I’m going home. I don’t want you to call me or contact me in anyway. It will make me too unbearably sad.”
Natalie turned and hurried out of the stable, leaving Dorian to stare after her in disbelief. It couldn’t be ending this way. It simply could not.
Inside her room, Natalie tried to hold back the tears. She’d had so much practice in stifling her emotions. This time it wasn’t working. She lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, and a single tear slipped from her eyes. Dorian had to be the sweetest man she’d ever met. He was perfect for her, she knew that. She’d done the right thing. She’d told him goodbye. Better now than when the hurt would go even deeper.
Michael watched Dorian leave the stable. When Dorian was safely out of view, Michael went in to Beauty’s stall. In his excitement at seeing Michael, Beauty moved restlessly.
“Beauty, I have to convince Leslie to marry me, and I think you can help.”
“You’d like that? Good. Here’s what I need you to do.”
Michael opened the stall gate and using Beauty’s mane, swung up on his back. Beauty headed out to the hummock with its stand of palm trees.
The evening dinner would be a light lunch of leftovers. Everyone was gathered around the table and seated in their appointed place except Michael.
I hadn’t played in the football game of course, but I had been watching, and I was pleased when Laura took Jake down in a tackle. Now, everyone’s eyes turned to me. “Do you know where he is?”
“No,” I said, feeling the first stirrings of alarm. Michael was always prompt.
“When was the last time anybody saw him?” Jake, taking charge.
“I saw him about an hour ago,” Dorian told them. “He was going into the stables.”
Jake looked at Gabe. “The stallion,” they said together.
“What are you talking about?” Leslie looked sharply at Jake.
“The stallion he ‘made friends with.’ The black devil has turned on him. He’s probably lying somewhere in the south pasture.”
Leslie pushed back her chair. “I’m going to find him. Which horse can I ride?”
‘None, in your condition,” Jake growled. “Just sit down, Leslie. Gabe and I will go look for him.”
Inside the stable, the men saddled up the pinto and the gelding and headed out to the corral where Gabe opened the gate.
“Damn fool,” Jake muttered as Gabe came back and remounted the gelding.
“I thought he had turned that stallion completely around.”
“He’s a wild horse, Gabe, and clever.”
“Clever enough to pull a Jekyll and Hyde on Michael? I don’t think so. Oh, oh, look out. Her comes Leslie driving the Jeep.”
“Dammit it all. Go get the gate for her, Gabe.”
“All that jouncing around probably isn’t good for her.”
“If you want to tell her that,” Jake said. “Be my guest.”
In the Jeep, I covered half the distance to the hummock. I could see the black stallion standing there. Michael lay on the ground beside him, his eyes closed.
“Oh, you black devil,” I said to the horse as I jumped out of the Jeep. “If you’ve hurt him, I’ll have you shot.” I knelt down beside Michael and took his beautiful face in my hands. “Michael. Michael! Please talk to me.”
“He’s out cold, Les,” Jake told her. We’ll have to carry him to the car. You can take him to emergency.”
“Meanwhile, can you shoot that horse?”
Jake felt there was something wrong. If the stallion had bucked him off, he’d have run as far from Michael as he could get. Instead, the horse stood over him, as if he were guarding him. Something was definitely not right.
“I think we’ll wait to shoot him until we find out what really happened.”
Between them, Jake and Gabe carried Michael to the car and laid him out on the back seat.
“Are you sure you’re okay to drive him to the hospital? Maybe one of us should go with you.”
“You were the ones who let him ride that black devil. I don’t want to see either of your faces until I know that Michael isn’t dead.”
I slammed the back door and went around to climb in under the wheel.
“Don’t drive so fast you kill all three of you,” Jake admonished me.
“There’s only two of us…” The baby. I hadn’t thought about the baby. “I’ll be careful.”
I bumped over the pasture and took the Jeep out onto the main highway. “Oh, Michael, I’ll never forgive myself if you’re dead. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have let you go out to the stable. I should have watched over you. Now you’re going to die and I’ll never be able to tell you how much I love you. I do really want to marry you. I know you’d be a perfect husband. If you come out of this, I will marry you, that is, if you still want me.”
“I still want you, darling Leslie,” the silky voice said in her ear.
I looked in the rear view mirror and there he was, sitting up, smiling, not a blasted thing wrong with him.
I slammed on the brakes, nearly throwing him into the front seat and pulled
over to the side of road. “You tricked me. There’s nothing wrong with you, is there?”
“No, there’s nothing wrong with me. You don’t have to take me to the hospital.”
I sputtered, almost at a loss for words. Then the words came spilling out. “Oh, you’re despicable. I never would have believed you capable of such skullduggery.”
“I don’t know what that is, but it seems I’m capable of it.” He climbed over the seat and sat down next to me. “So you’re going to marry me?”
“How can I marry a man who…who plays such a trick on me?”
“I only did it because I want you to marry me. I want to marry you very much. Will you be my bride?”
“Yes, I’ll marry you,” I said, almost crying. “That ought to be punishment enough to last you for the rest of your life!”
Back behind the Rutledge mansion, a double row of Royal Palm trees grew. Elizabeth stood there looking at the lovely aisle they created, remembering when she had insisted on planting them and how vigorously Mitchell, her husband, had protested. “They’ll be too close to the house.”
“No,” she said. “I want them as an aisle for my children to walk down when they marry. I want them to marry here, where their heritage is.”
“Fine, fine, fine. But half of those trees will die.” Her husband had given up and driven the bulldozer in to dig the holes for the fragile little trees. As if those trees understood what Elizabeth wanted and were eager to do her will, every one of them lived and thrived.
And so, two days later, on the afternoon of my wedding day, I donned the beautiful white dress I told my mother I didn’t deserve to wear. Mother said, “Hush. You think you’re the first bride to carry a child under her white dress?”
Elizabeth looked at her daughter in the mirror. The dress was perfect for this woman just grown into her full maturity. Her beautifully shaped shoulders were bare, and the gown fit her perfectly above her breasts coming up in a sweetheart line high enough to add to the demureness of the dress. The white Chantilly lace fit her still slender torso to perfection, and the skirt burst into layers of silk falling to the floor. The veil framed her lovely face, showcased her dark hair and brought out the beauty of her dark eyes. She looked like an angel come to life.
Elizabeth’s heart nearly broke, looking at her. The first daughter to leave the nest. She’d be living so far away. If it were not for the fact that Elizabeth felt Michael would watch over her like a hawk, she didn’t think she’d be able to bear it. She also knew she’d be making a trip to the city when that baby was due. No way would she not be there when her daughter’s child was born.
On his wedding day, Michael stood dressed in his tuxedo under a Royal Palm, watching his bride walk down the aisle of the gently swaying palm fronds. His heart nearly stopped. How beautiful she looked. He knew that his face must be showing all that he felt for her, affection, admiration for her beauty, protection. He would never again let anything happen to Leslie like the trouble that had befallen her when she became entangled with Adam. After today, she was his to care for, watch over, and love.
They said their vows with a soft Florida breeze lifting her veil and the shadows of the palm fronds moving over their heads. When the ceremony was over and Michael was invited to kiss his bride, he bent his head just as the veil floated in front of her face. She turned her head to let it drift away and missed his kiss. Soft laughter came up from the watching family, but Leslie made up for it by capturing Michael’s face in her hands and kissing him very thoroughly.
The wedding meal was held inside the house; everyone seated at the long table in the dining room, all the Camerons and the Rutledges. The Cameron contingent of the family had flown in for the wedding this morning in Hunter’s private plane.
Michael knew that he should not feel self-conscious sitting with Leslie’s family and Lynne’s family, but he did. There were so many of them, he could hardly keep them straight. Lynne had invited her family of Camerons and they had come in full force to see Lynne’s sister-in-law get married. At one of the round tables sat Hunter, Liz, their seven year old daughter Madeline, and their two year old son, Philip.
Justin’s family filled another table, his wife, Anne, their five year old son, Josh and their two year old twin daughters, Jessica and Janine, dressed to the nines in their little pink chiffon dresses.
Alex and Susan were easy to remember. They had only one child, an adorable little boy named Johnny. Michael was extremely startled to realize that he’d already seen Susan in New York.
The room was filled with tinkling as family members tapped their spoons against their glasses.
“Why are they doing that? Michael turned to me, his face wearing such a perplexed expression that I wanted to laugh. Michael was not often perplexed.
“They want us to kiss.”
“Now? Here, in front of everybody?”
“Now, here, in front of everybody. It’s a custom.”
“A very strange one, I must say.” He sat there, unmoving.
“Haven’t you ever attended a wedding reception?”
“No.”
I was too intent on getting my kiss to think how odd that answer was. I leaned toward him. “This won’t hurt, Michael.” And I kissed him, just a gentle brush of my lips.
He did not expect to be nearly overwhelmed by the wonderful perfume she wore, or the seductive rustle of her wedding dress as she moved toward him, or the gentleness of her lips. Her wisp of a veil teased his cheek as she moved away. He felt as if he were in some exotic dream where every sense he had was being overloaded with pleasure. There it was, that unwelcome swelling between his legs which he had no control over, that peculiar swelling which created a hunger in him that only sinking himself deep in Leslie could appease. He was thankful that the tablecloth hid his erection from the sight of Leslie’s family.
Leslie’s mouth turned up in a strange little smile, and the next thing he knew, she placed her graceful hand directly over his swelling part. “Leslie…”
“Don’t you know that pleases me, my darling husband? Don’t you think I love it that one little brush of my lips makes you want me?”
“Quite frankly, I do not know what to think.”
“Oh, Michael. Sometimes I wonder if you are from another planet. You seem so…naïve for a man.”
He wanted to protest and say he wasn’t naïve, but what could he say he was, really? Before he could form any words, Leslie lifted a glass of champagne to his lips. “Have a drink, love. It will help.”
He drank. It didn’t.
“Taste this braised beef. It’s quite wonderful.” She held the fork to his mouth and he dutifully took her offering. “My family raises some of the best beef in the country. Besides,” she got that little coquettish look as she tilted her head and smiled at him, “You’ll need to keep your strength up.”
He didn’t know about his strength, but that other part of him was definitely up and showed no sign of going down.
Leslie continued to feed him, a cool shrimp, a bit of potato and more beef. At last she put her fork down and stopped torturing him with food he could hardly swallow. “Mother’s cleared the living room so that we can have our wedding dance.”
“I do not know how to dance, Leslie.”
“That’s all right. We’ll just hold each other and move around a little bit. Pretty soon, everybody else will start to dance and no one will care what we are doing.”
There was one more session of glass tapping and one more kiss. Then Leslie took his hand and led him into the living room that had been stripped bare of furniture and rug. She turned to him and held up her arms. He had not the faintest idea what to do. Gently, she took his left hand in her right and held his right hand to show him how it should go around her waist. “Good heavens, Michael. We’re married now. Hold me close. Close enough so our bodies are touching.”
“Like this?” He pulled her into him and there he was, surrounded by that lovely drift of her perfume and the rustling sound
of her dress. He could feel her breasts against his chest, and the swelling got harder. She leaned into him and looped both her arms around his neck, leaving his other hand to clasp her waist. “I honestly thought this would be hard for me, Michael. Marrying you. But it feels like…heaven.”
Heaven knew it was hard for him. There would be no relief until he could get her alone, take her in his arms and bury his body in hers.
As they continued dancing, other couples joined them on the floor, Hunter holding Liz close, Justin, twirling Anne around and making her laugh, Alex doing an exaggerated two step with Susan. Gabe seemed content to watch his extended family enjoy themselves. Jake had taken the floor with Lynne and executed a deep dip and a kiss. Dorian also kept to the sidelines, his eyes on Natalie across the room.
With all the children standing there watching and jumping up and down, Michael told Leslie, “Let’s keep the children amused for a moment so their parents can enjoy a bit of freedom.” In addition, it would get him off the dance floor.
“Oh, Michael. Who but you would be so kind to think of that?” She immediately sat down on the edge of the floor with her white silk spread all around her and said, “Who wants to play duck, duck goose?”
“I do, I do,” chorused the childish voices.
Michael volunteered to be it. He picked Madeline first, but allowed him to catch her. So he was still it. He picked David next, but David had him in less than five steps. After that, he let all the little children, including the two sets of girl twins and Johnny, attack him at the same time, catch him and crawl all over him.
At last, Leslie said, “I think maybe we should stop playing this game. I don’t want my husband to get too tired.”
At her hint that the game was going to end, all the children piled on Michael. The girls smothered him with kisses. The boys just tugged at his arms.
“Okay, gang, that’s enough.” Leslie pulled the top two girls, Madeline and Jessica, to their feet. “You keep kissing him like that, and I’ll get jealous.”
When I extracted Michael from the last child clinging to his leg, I murmured in his ear, “I’m going to throw my bouquet and we can leave.”
Some Kind of Angel Page 13