by Diana Scott
We both looked at each other stopping time. He looks a little thinner but only a little. The hair is a little longer than usual and the beard of a day begins to appear. It is ravishing. No matter how long it goes by without seeing him, my heart always speeds up when I have him in front of me. His gaze merges with mine, but neither of us moves from their place. I'm sure that fear paralyzes me, but I've come this far and I'm not going to leave. Not anymore. My heart beats a thousand times an hour and the words abandon me completely.
The little one runs to her grandmother and pulls my hand while, like a fool, I can't stop smiling at her.
“Hello.”
“Hello, precious.”
“Do you want some tocholate?”
“No, she doesn't want to, and we'll leave before that ice cream melts,” Dolores speaks confidently as she takes the little girl inside the house.
I take a deep breath and walk the twenty steps to Reed. He's still sitting in his chair without moving it a millimeter from the place, he doesn’t stop looking at me. Have his eyes always been so beautifully blue?
“I thought he would never tell you...” His deep voice breaks the silence while my skin tries not to bristle when I hear it.
I haven't felt him for so long that the memories of sweet moments come to me without looking for them.
“He didn't do it,” he looks at me frowning with confused eyebrows and I feel like kissing them.
“I understand.”
We are both silent again and I feel that all my rehearsals have been useless. I have a knot in my throat that chokes me and my hands are as cold as Antarctica itself. The fear of rejection pierces me but I try not to show it.
“She told me a little but I want to listen to you.”
“Which of all the parts? Do I justify when I behaved like an idiot or when I used you to steal the Jewels or for being the stupidest of men? Which part do you want to know?”
He moves his right hand around the wheels and I can feel his tension. He's as nervous as I am, though he tries to disguise it. That means he still cares about me, yes!
I smile with amusement and I notice him looking at me hopefully.
“Anne...”
I sit on the ground to be at the same height. The grass moistens my neat jeans, but I don't care. I put my hand to his arm and there it is, the electricity that has never left us.
“I tried... I wanted to be a better man for you but I couldn't, I wasn't able to do it. When you came into my life, my past was too deafening to forget but then everything changed. That man introduced me to Sado when I was only twelve years old.”
“I didn't know," I said disgusted.
“Because I never told you. I was ashamed of myself. Anne, I had decided to forget everything for you but I couldn't look the other way and allow him to enslave others as he did with my mother. I was just a child and couldn't bear that he would hurt others as he did to me.”
I squeeze my fingers tightly on his arm understanding the suffering he had to go through.
“My father was no longer in this world but Falconi was. Before I met you, I was simply looking for revenge, but then, when you came, everything changed. Imagine if he could do to you what he could do to those women," he clenched his fists tightly. I had to stop him.
“Why didn't you trust me? Did you think I was so weak?”
“No! I would never have thought that of you. You're the strongest woman I've ever met. I just tried to keep you away because it was me I didn't trust. Baby a few minutes with you and I ended up surrendering in your arms in clandestine appointments, if for a moment that bastard had suspected what I feel for you, now you would be dead and I by your side.”
His gaze is stuck in mine and I can't hold my hand. I caress his face. Two small new wrinkles have appeared around his eyes. He is tired. I delineate them with my fingers and his hand surrounds my wrist.
“And how do you feel about me?”
“You still have your doubts...” He says as he brings my wrist closer to his lips kissing my pulse with his mouth.
“You should have looked for me, forced me to listen to you...”
I let go of his still aching grip. He holds me tightly by the elbow and I collapse by his side. Emotions are too much to contain the tension that surrounds us.
“I went to Italy.”
I watch him with my eyes open like a plate. It's not possible.
“I knew that you hated me, that you couldn't forgive me but no logical thought managed to stop me.”
I'm with my mouth open, what is he trying to tell me?
I approached the house ready for anything. I would fight until you could hear me again but... his voice sounded louder and deeper than usual as he stirred uncomfortably in his chair.
“But?”
“I looked at the house and you were gone, there was no one there. I waited for hours in the car until you got there... and you did.”
“And then you regretted it...”
The sound of his smile disorientated me.
“You came down from an Alfa Romeo. You wore a white shirt and that black leather skirt that I always liked so much. You had a blue rose in your hand and a radiant smile on your face. I saw you so recovered and happy that for a moment you managed to infect me with your happiness. I set out to come down and ask you, beg you or beg your forgiveness. Without pride, without arrogance, without honor... anything didn't matter to me if I could be with you again. I thought I was ready for anything, but when he got out of the car, then I knew it wasn't me who was causing that sweetness in your eyes. You were so pretty and so radiant...”
Tears flow from my eyes in silence. I know the day of which he speaks to me. Maurizio and I had spent a lovely evening and he had given me a blue rose, according to him it was very special, exclusive and unique as me. That night I decided to forget my sad memories in his arms.
“Anne, what are you looking for? “
“You.”
I come closer and kneel between his legs while I caress his hands. It breaks my heart to see him so sad. I want to tell him that he don't need so much caution, that I'm here beside him and that I won't leave.
“I don't understand,” his eyes look at me hopefully but with some fear.
“I am alone, no one is waiting for me,” their cold and beloved sapphires look at me with a burning glow. “You were right, I love only you.”
“I caress his hands and his skin bristles with my contact.”
“You hated me so much, I listened to you...” He says with dread.
“You see, you're not the only foolish in this relationship,” I say as I bring my face closer to his. Our foreheads caress each other and our noses rub gently as I wrap his face in my hands.
“Don't ever separate me from your side again, I couldn't stand it,” I say wrapped in emotion.
“Don't ever smile at another man like you smile at me. I suffered the worst of deaths.”
Our mouths are coming closer and I feel the world regaining its meaning. We barely touch our lips and I feel his fingers caressing my shoulders giving me life. It is soft, tender, affectionate but something is missing. Although my body burns before his contact, I feel the control in his lips. I haven't managed to turn it on.
“What's going on?” The voice comes out with a horrifying panic. “Don’t I provoke it anymore?”
“Baby,” he caress my cheeks with tenderness, “my legs. I'll never walk again. They are too weak to hold me.”
“But what about the orthoses you wore?”
“I seem to have overused them. I'm an invalid from beginning to end. By my side, you will no longer have the adventures or the emotion that you once asked of me, that world no longer exists for me.”
I smile at him with all the love I am capable of transmitting. I don't want anything of our past either. That world is not mine either.
“Reed Blackman, I want us to build our future together without memories or hateful scars. I love you and I want to be by your side as we are now. I'm
not the same as I was before.”
“I look at him with all my love as I squeeze his hands between mine.”
“Anne Foster, are you asking me to marry you? I say this because you're on your knees but I don't see any rings and I like those in white gold.”
His smile is so intense that I think I can faint with happiness. I try to look offended but he pulls my arms tightly to sit on his knees and melt us into a long, deep kiss. Yes, this is what I expected.
His mouth presses on mine while his tongue reminds me of the sweet taste that for a while I thought was forgotten. The barking of a puppy running over us leaves me speechless.
“And this?”
“It's called Golfo, don't you remember?” He smiles trying to awaken my memories.
I look up and look at the house for the first time. It's a beautiful country house, with an immense garden. Just like the one we once dreamed of together in a bathtub. And with a dog called Golfo!
“We've been waiting for you for months.”
I throw myself in his arms to eat him with kisses, forgetting the dog, his barks and the world around us.
Our mouths came together and the explosion exploded instantly. We kiss with despair and agony. Our lips burst before the sweet contact and our tongues dance together recognizing each other instantly.
His hand pushes me towards him with force and his hard and tight crotch pushes me. I'm about to fall but he's holding me sitting on his lap.
“What are you doing!” I scream, smiling out loud.
“The advantages of being motorized.”
I kiss him without letting go of his neck and I notice how he pushes the chair with his hands.
“And where are we going, Mr. Biker?”
“I haven't shown you the house.”
“And you want to show it to me now?” The disappointment is visible in my words.
“Yes, we'll start with our room.”
“Our?”
“I told you I would wait for you.”
Our bodies came together with urgent need but also with extreme affection. We loved each other like in a movie of lovers, one of those in which the night never ends. We stroked each other remembering the touch of our skin as it rubbed, and we knew that we had never stopped loving each other. Time may have passed and other hands may have caressed us, but no one can ever erase what one day was born out of love.
Nayade knocked on the door and entered without waiting for an answer, she threw herself on the arms of her father who received her with a smile on his face while I cover my naked body with a sheet.
“I owe you an explanation...” He says as he looks at me over the body of the little one who embraces him tightly.
“She’s beautiful...”
“When you left I thought I'd lost you, Olivia didn't mean anything. When you left, I spent my days and nights drowned in alcohol and the pain of never seeing you again. I was crazy, a man finished and hopeless.”
I caress the arm with which he holds the girl, understanding his pain for the first time. I always thought of myself, of my jealousy, my fears, my doubts, but never before had I heard of his suffering, one for which I was one hundred percent responsible.
“It was one night, I swear to you, you have to believe me, one in which I foolishly believed I could forget you but I was only able to close my eyes and remember you even more.”
“You don't owe me anything, we're together and we'll build new memories.”
“Do you have a mother? Do I have a mother? Do you stay with us?”
They both look at me with faces of hopeful fawns and I feel that I would eat them both with kisses. Self-esteem affirms happy.
“What do you say, Anne, do you adopt us?”
His gaze was illuminated with a clear blue and transparent as the sky itself. There were no more storms, no more ice floes, only warmth and hope.
“Of course I do.”
The little girl screamed in delight as her father spoke softly to her ear so that I could not hear. The little girl nodded earnestly, stepped out of bed with the most solemn of movements, and closed the door behind her.
“What did you say to her?”
I promised her more chocolate ice cream if she went with her grandmother Dolores.
“You have no shame”
“You don't know how much... “ He says as she covers me with his body, giving me the deepest and hottest kisses.
Epilogue
“Reed! Reed!”
I shout around the room not knowing where everyone is while I read my sister's note.
“Mom, you're home now.”
The little girl runs from the garden with open arms so that I can pick her up among my family and I die of love just by seeing her.
“Hello, sweetie. How was your day?”
“Good.”
“Where’s Dad?”
The little girl raises her little shoulders as a sign of not knowing anything, but she didn't manage to deceive me. The cheeky one lied and with all the intention. Reed smiles as he approaches with a small box in his hand.
“Nayade, shall we give it to her?”
“Yes!”
The girl leaps from my arms over her father's chair to join his hands in handing me the delicate box.
“What’s this?”
“Happy anniversary!” She screams amused and her father smiles with her.
“It's been a year now since you adopted us,” Reed winked at her and the little girl smiled with the same roguish blue in her eyes as her father.
Reed's happy voice made me bend down and embrace them as I bring my lips closer to his.
“I love you.”
“And I love you.”
We kissed with just a touch of lips but it was enough to see how Nayade escape with disgusting faces while he spat wiping his mouth.
“Won’t you open it?”
“Uh, yes," I said as I looked at the box in the same hand in which I hold Jane's note.
“Baby, what's wrong?”
“It's Jane, she left me this note,” I'm sorry to spoil the moment but I'm very worried. “Reed, my sister is gone, she left her house.”
I lean over his grieving chest as he accommodates me on his legs and begins to kiss me passionately on the neck.
“Reed, this is serious...” I try to speak but his caresses light me up making me forget all worry.
“My love, you don't have to worry.”
“I let go of his grip to look him in the eye and he smiles with all the mischief he is capable of.
“Suraj has also left. He called me to say goodbye. I guess it will take some time for them to return.”
“Them? They... They did it!”
“That's what it looks like.”
“I close my eyes, happy for Jane. My sister has been brave in trying to rewrite her own story and I admire her for her courage. I cling to the neck of my man, delighted by life and its turns.
“If you don't open it, I'll give it back.”
Right now he's grumpy. I give him a strong kiss on the cheeks and I dedicate myself to break the paper.
I unwrap the package, open the wooden box and I'm speechless. A marvellous white gold pendant, with the shape of an oval, contains a beautiful engraving of a delicate twig of cinnamon.
I look at him in love as I caress the delicate pendant.
“That's where it all began. Your concerns led you to me and I wanted you to know that the only past I remember begins and ends in you.”
Reed holds it in his hands while I pick up my hair trying not to cry.
“Happy anniversary, love.”
Reed kisses me with all the affection in the world and I feel myself melting in his arms. I feel him move the chair and jump out of it like a spring, I know where he wants to take me but for tonight I have other plans. I also have a surprise prepared.
“I'll stay in the living room.”
“Not at all,” he grumbles as he pulls me back into his arms, but I refuse to have fun.
&nbs
p; “You have to go to the room.”
“That's what I'm trying to do,” He pulls me again, but I'm resisting with a smilingface .
“I want you to change your clothes while I wait for you here.”
“Are we going somewhere?” I asked, arcing an eyebrow.
“Yes, you don't think I'd forgotten my adoption,” I speak happiness on my lips.
“Oh, you didn’t?”
“No, go and change that we're late,” I say hiding my nerves.
“Baby, what are you up to?”
“Come on, don't ask or you'll spoil the surprise.”
I feel nervous on the couch. I'm waiting. We've been building a beautiful future for a year and it's the day we have to climb positions. My fears are gone and I have full confidence in him. It has taken me a while but today I am totally sure of our relationship and I want to prove it to him. Today Reed Blackman will know that although I appreciate his changes some aspects of his past were not so bad. Self-esteem jumps for joy.
“Are you okay, baby?”
A Reed wearing dark pants, a white shirt and emanating a delicious sandalwood scent appears to melt me with its very presence.
“Please, if even the wheelchair looks to die for on you.”
“If you keep looking at me like that, we'll stay...” The ardent desire of his words make me doubt for a second.
“No! We're leaving!”
I caress my new necklace and devote some courageous thoughts to myself before entering the Cinammon Room. If Reed has obeyed my directions he should be lying on the tantra couch waiting for me. Oh God! The poor man understood absolutely nothing but if everything goes according to plan, the old and the new Mr. Blackman will shake hands for me.
I put on my long lace gown while I check that everything is in place. Very small thong, thirteen-centimetre heels, transparent lace, perfect. Here I come!
I open the side door and the scents of essences hit me head-on intoxicating me in a halo of sex and eroticism. Small aromatic candles barely illuminate the room but their blue eyes illuminating like lanterns at night show me the way to follow. I approach and feel as if my breath is shaken when I see him. His glorious body shines with the crackling of the lamps and his mouth smiles at me until my blood boils.