by Linda Conrad
Nick stood next to the patio table, watching Annie and her mother walking toward him. His mouth watered at the very first sight of his wife, with her hair slightly tousled by the soft ocean breeze and her blazing green eyes looking in his direction with a yearning that he’d been feeling, too.
He’d had a moment of concern before dinner when Annie first spotted her parents, worrying that she would be furious that he hadn’t warned her of their visit. But that didn’t seem to be a problem. She’d laughed at his dinner conversation and gave him secret smiles. It had been all he could do not to drag her away before the first course.
Darling Annie, he groaned silently. She was the delightfully colorful and terribly erotic love of his life.
Everything went still. His heart waited for his brain to catch up. Love? Was that what this heavy feeling in his chest meant? If so, it was the first time in his life he’d ever really been in love.
It scared him, panicked him. What was love? The only thing he could think of at the moment was that he would die if she left him. He could not live without her. Would not.
But Annie wouldn’t do that to him. She wouldn’t walk away as Christina had done—not his Annie. And he intended to keep her safe and sound permanently.
“Uh, Nick?” Annie said softly as she walked up beside him at the table. “Could I have a word with you before the coffee is served? Please?”
She glanced down and refused to look at him. Was she angry? His mind was racing trying to come with excuses, but he couldn’t concentrate. He loved her. Dear Lord, he couldn’t breath with just the thought of it.
He managed a nod and she turned, quickly making her way toward his old office. He followed silently behind her. But he couldn’t feel his feet touching the floor. If she was mad, he would just have to find some way around it.
All he could think about was having her back in his arms later tonight. He would tell her he loved her then and she would say she loved him too and they would show each other how much they cared—all night long.
Annie waited for him just inside the office door. He moved past her, longing to take her in his arms. But he kept silent until she closed and locked the door behind him.
“Annie,” he began roughly and reached a hand out to beg her to come to him—or maybe to forgive him and love him.
She made a tiny squeak, like she couldn’t manage anything else, and ran straight into his arms. He staggered under her assault, for a second. But the feel of her next to his chest—the warmth of her body and her spicy scent of cinnamon—overwhelmed his conscious mind and let his subconscious desires take charge.
“Nick. Nick,” she moaned. “I need you so badly. I can’t stand waiting another minute. Please.” She was crying now, he could feel her tears against his neck.
“Easy, love,” he said, but his body was screaming for him to rush. Fully aroused and suddenly desperate, he orientated himself in a second and backed them both up to the desk.
Cupping her bottom, he held their bodies together and let her feel the depth of his desire. Then he bent his head and took her mouth, ravaging her with open-mouthed kisses and tangling tongues.
Annie reached between them and placed her hand firmly over his zipper. He gasped, stopped breathing, then frantically tore at her slacks and panties, dragging them down her legs.
She was just as fierce, fighting his zipper and trying to free him into her hands.
Nick backed up to the edge of the desk, balancing himself as Annie kicked her garments aside and inched between his thighs, concentrating on getting her hands on his body. At last, she sobbed his name and gently caressed his flesh. With great tenderness, she ran her fingers up and down his shaft.
“You can’t know how good that feels,” he moaned. I’ve wanted you again so badly. I haven’t been able to think of anything else.”
But before he could drag her closer and before he realized her intentions, Annie dropped to her knees between his legs and put her curious tongue where her fingers had just been. The electric jolt stopped his heart as she tasted, sucked and licked him freely.
Without taking her mouth away from its pleasure, she looked up into his eyes, gazing at him with such intimate emotions that Nick thought he would lose it right there.
He took her firmly by the shoulders and pulled her up his body. “I can’t…” he gasped. “Maybe later. It’s been so long.”
Annie threw back her head, laughed and climbed on the desk and into his lap. Her eyes were dark, her hands were everywhere at once. She fit herself down on him and wrapped her legs around his waist. He had never seen anyone so beautiful or so lost in passion. She was giving him almost unbearable pleasure.
Rearing back, Annie impaled herself more deeply on him. Warm and tight, he fit inside her perfectly. They were meant to be together forever. It was as certain as the dawn. Nothing else could ever matter this much.
“I love you,” she moaned and dug her fingers into his shoulders.
She pulled her hips up, then jammed them back down against him. He could feel the circles of her climax beginning and it was the last clear thought he had.
The world dissolved in a haze of heat and stars. In the distance he could hear someone yelling, but maybe that was Annie…or him. He wondered for a second if they had both spun right off the earth. He couldn’t be sure of anything.
Except—he loved her.
Annie lay cuddled against Nick’s broad chest and tried to regulate her breathing. It didn’t matter that her parents were waiting for them only a few yards away. It didn’t matter that she had never done anything so daring before in her whole life.
All that mattered was that Nick wanted her. He had been as desperate for her as she was for him. And she was the one who had controlled what they did. It was freeing…exhilarating. She had wanted something and had taken it.
“Are you okay?” Nick asked quietly.
“Mmm.” Was all she could manage at the moment.
“Do you think we ought to try to go back outside?” His voice was hoarse, his words shaky. “Maybe we can have a quick cup of coffee and then claim we’re tired. We could beg to be excused early.”
She kept silent for a moment, listening to his heart beating frantically under her cheek. He wanted her again, right now. What a fantastic thought.
“Annie…” He relaxed his grip and let her slowly slide to her feet. “We have to go back out there now. But we’ll have all night—later.”
She was light-headed and her body still hummed, but she tried to bring a little clarity to her mind. Nick helped to find her slacks and panties, then he straightened his own clothes as she redressed.
Her parents. They had to deal with her parents tonight.
When they both felt they were presentable, Nick slipped his arm tightly around her waist to keep her steady and they headed down the hall.
“I’m glad you weren’t upset with me about your parents’ surprise visit,” Nick said after he cleared his throat.
“I’m sure my mother invited herself,” Annie told him. “She can be very overbearing. I’m just amazed she isn’t foaming at the mouth about us not having a church wedding.”
“She was,” Nick said with a laugh and tossed his head. “Until I told her we were planning to have another big church wedding later this fall. She was thrilled to know I intended to pay for all of it and wanted to fly the whole family to Alsaca for the reception. I think she likes me.”
Annie stopped walking. Her heart stopped. The world stopped. Had all the air been taken from the room?
“What did you say?” she heard herself ask distantly.
“Your mother likes me?”
Annie swung around to narrow her eyes at him. “You told my mother we would have a church wedding? Without asking me?” She tried to keep her voice steady but a reddish haze had enveloped her and she couldn’t focus.
“Of course.” Nick’s voice had grown wary, but he still didn’t realize how deadly serious this was. “What’s wrong with that?
We’re already married. You said you loved me. It’s no big deal if we get married again for your family.”
“No,” she said as the cold began to numb her body. Icy fingers of doubt and pain drew circles around her heart.
“No?” Nick echoed and reached for her. “Why…?”
Annie backed away from his grasp, out of his reach. “You’ll never change, will you Nick?” She could feel the tears threatening, but willed them down. “Everything will always have to be your way. You must have all the control.”
She saw the fury and the fear fill his eyes. “What are you talking about?” he choked out. “Grow up, Annie. You’re my wife. You’re supposed to love me, not question me.”
His words tore a bigger hole in her heart. Not only would he never love her, but nothing she could ever do would make a difference to him. His childhood examples had affected him forever. She’d never had a chance.
She slashed her hand over her face, trying to push aside the tears. “I’m sorry, Nick. I thought I could make a life with you, but now I know it won’t work between us.”
“What?” He moved fast and gripped her by the arms. “What are you saying?”
The tears were running freely now and Annie had to swallow twice to talk. “I’ll go pack a few things and move back out to the pool house tonight. We can talk more about details tomorrow. I need to get my thoughts together.”
The look on his face ripped her in two. “You’re leaving me? You can’t. I won’t let you.” His voice cracked and he dropped his hands to his sides.
Annie had to turn her back to him, otherwise she would’ve fallen at his feet in a heap. But she had to be the adult here. “Make my excuses to the family, please.”
With those words, she took off running. Afraid to look back yet desperate for him to say something to make her want to stay. But in her soul, she knew there was nothing that would ever make things right between them now.
“Oh Nicholas,” he heard his mother say through the fog in his brain. “I’m so sorry. I tried to help guide your life in a different direction, but…”
“What the hell are you talking about, Mother?” He knew she’d been a big help for the last hour since Annie had walked away, leaving him stunned and confused.
She’d settled Annie in the pool house for the night. And she’d also managed to calm Annie’s parents and shepherded them into the guest suite with soothing words.
But since then, Elizabeth hadn’t been making any sense.
She gripped his shoulders and tried to shake him, but he was so much bigger than his mother that it didn’t have much effect. He knew what the gesture meant, however.
“Listen to me, son,” she said through gritted teeth. “You love that girl. You may not know it, but…”
“Yes, I do know it,” he interrupted. “It finally hit me earlier tonight.”
“Then, for God’s sake, why would you treat her that way? Why would you hurt someone you love?”
“Hurt her? Don’t be absurd. What are you saying?”
His mother dropped her hands and sighed. “Are you so blind? Have you finally lost all of yourself and turned completely into your father?”
He narrowed his eyes at her, and lifted his chin. “What does my father have to do with Annie?”
The tears filled his mother’s eyes. “You’ve become just like him. Without even noticing, you are the same controlling, selfish man you feared and desperately tried to please while growing up.”
“Me? What have I done? I only wanted to do the best for my wife. I wanted to keep her safe and happy.”
“And what about her wishes, Nicholas? Did you once think to consult her about what she really wanted?”
“But…”
“It’s the same thing that you did to Christina,” his mother broke in. “You thought she needed you to control her life, but she was almost as strong inside as Annie. Christina didn’t die because you forced her to do something against her wishes. She wanted to be near the ocean. She made her own choices.”
He could feel his cheeks flaming with the anger and the pain. Why did she have to dredge this all up now? Wasn’t his current situation bad enough?
“It was your guilt about not being able to father a child that colored your memory of the relationship with Christina. Annie is a strong woman. You cannot control her whole life.
“Stop and take a look at what you are becoming. Do you want your children to think of you the same way you thought of your father?” she asked with a low, sad sigh.
A sudden image of the face of his and Annie’s child, looking up at him with his own big, hopeless eyes, blinked into his mind. But he couldn’t allow himself to think of that, not when everything looked so impossible with Annie.
“Thank you for your concern, Mother,” he said in a more formal tone than necessary. “But I won’t discuss this.”
He turned and walked away, suddenly more tired than he’d ever been in his whole life. Without paying much attention to the direction his feet were taking him, Nick found himself back in his old office. The place where he and Annie had first come together—and where they had come together tonight for perhaps the last time.
Nick collapsed into his old chair, and realized he was surrounded by things that reminded him of Annie. Her books on the desktop. Her scent still in the air. He even imagined he could feel her warmth in the leather under him.
How could this happen to him? To find the one passion, the one right person who matched him and his needs so perfectly, only to lose her again.
His eyes began to cloud with the sheen of wetness he’d seldom allowed. Searching frantically for something to take his mind off the pain, he spotted the gypsy’s gift on the far corner of the desk. He reached out and picked up the heavy gold-and-ivory covered book, studying it.
He’d almost forgotten all about this. What nonsense it had been for the old woman to give him a book of fairy tales and tell him it would bring him to his destiny. Ridiculous.
But curiosity got the better of him as he turned the book in his hands. He couldn’t remember ever actually reading any fairy tales before. But he did listen to a few told to him by his great-aunt Lucille. Now he wondered if his memories were the same as the real thing.
Opening the book and beginning to read, Nick absorbed each story. Remembered each plot. Relearned each lesson.
As he came to the story of Sleeping Beauty awakened by the kiss of her Prince Charming, exhaustion took over. His body was limp and his brain couldn’t focus. He lowered his head to the desk and fell fast asleep. To dream about gypsies and witches, and beautiful sleeping princesses—all with Annie’s face.
Passionata smiled down on the sleeping heir from far away. “Yes, let the magic take you, young Scoville. It is not a sleeping princess that has been awakened today, but a vulnerable and lonely prince.
“Wake up and take your destiny into your own hands. Your legacy has brought you to your heart’s desire. Cherish it. Cherish her.”
The gypsy waved a hand over her crystal ball and time spun forward.
Groggy and disoriented, Nick woke up several hours later. Something felt different in the room.
Suddenly he came alive. Something was very different. For the first time, Nick could see himself, his life and his mistakes with complete clarity. As clear as if it were one of the stories he’d read in the book.
Hell. He was the one that was different. Not the same selfish, controlling jerk who’d fallen asleep, laying on the gypsy’s magic book. He shook his head in amazement.
It was a complete wonder that anyone could’ve stood for the man he used to be. He had turned into a bully—just like his father.
Christina popped into his mind. Poor, dear Christina. He’d badgered her into marrying him and then hounded her until she agreed to stay married after they discovered they couldn’t have children. They hadn’t loved each other and hadn’t even been friends in the end.
The ache of remembering her woke him up to a new truth. He’d tho
ught he was honoring her memory by not allowing pleasure into his life, by staying in his isolated and gray world and hiding from the desolation of not being able to father a child. But in fact, Christina would’ve hated that he’d done that in her name.
I’m sorry, Christina, he thought sadly. Sorry for everything. But I refuse to continue being a lost prince…
The book! The damn book must really be magic.
He looked around, half-expecting to see Annie and dying to tell her what he’d learned. But she wasn’t there.
Oh, God, she was never going to be there again. The stabbing pain in his chest moved him. He had to find her, had to talk to her. Had to make her listen and understand. Tell her about the magic.
He started down the hall toward the pool house to wake her up. But he saw a light on under the door to the master suite, and changed directions instead.
When he opened the door, he saw her, pulling things out of a suitcase and putting them away in a drawer. Was he dreaming? Had he wanted her back so badly that his brain conjured her up?
“Annie?”
She turned her head, but there was no smile on her face for him. The vision must be real. If he’d dreamed her, she would’ve been laughing and happy to see him.
“Hello, Nick. You’re up early. I was hoping to get this done before you needed to return to your room.”
“Annie, what’s going on?” He’d asked the question calmly, but then found himself holding his breath, waiting for the answer.
“I thought about it a lot and I’ve decided it was not very adult of me to walk away. I married you for better or worse and I have a child to consider.” She shook her head sadly and dropped her hands to her side. “Even if we must live separate lives from a distance like your parents have always done, I intend to stay married and keep the promise I made.”
It was as if a window opened to his soul. But Annie didn’t understand. Somehow he would have to make her see.
He went to her side and gently turned her to face him. She kept her head down as if she couldn’t bear to look at him. So he tenderly used his finger to lift her chin.