Doubting they would continue to see each other in London because he would be overwhelmed with all women in his life again and would quickly forgets Carolina. They would only see each other during the annulment of their marriage situation and then her life would keep going on her before and so would he keep on living his glamorous bachelor life.
Everything will be as it always was.
He told her over and over again that he didn’t want her for more than sex, and he said that more than once and now they can be just friends.
Well he will forget me as soon he lands in London, with all the other women around him, he will have a few on queue already waiting at the door to have some fun and I will be history in no time.
The days of friendship and spending time together were coming to an end and it made her sad. After all they end up spending some good time together, they had awesome sex, and they got to know each other on the island.
Day 7
The 7th day is reached, they felt both sad to leave that place where they were happy and got to know each other. But now they had to return to the real world, they couldn’t live in that bubble a lifetime for how much tempting it could be. Carolina was in the bedroom she didn’t know whether to pack or not, after all, all those clothes weren’t hers, they didn’t belong to her. Today she was wearing a 3 tones orange beach dress and flat sandals. Checking just if she had all her personal belongings inside her handbag, she couldn’t avoid feeling nostalgic already.
It seemed she had all she needed to return to London, she had the wallet, passport and her mobile phone off of battery by now. She takes another look to all clothes she still had and didn’t used it when she glanced the wedding dress the one that she awakened on the island on the first day. She took it from the closet placing it on the bed, admiring it for a mere moment because the dress was just so beautiful. She was astonished, when she remembered that the exact dress was in a website that she had saved a long time ago in her laptop, she had it bookmarked because the dresses from that website were simple and sophisticated at the same time, in hope if one day she married again, she would buy ones of those. And this was one of those dresses, it was white, trumpet-shaped, it had the waist in various textures, it was transparent with delicate lace, open back surrounded with delicate lace, bypassing the chest doing a deep, sexy cleavage, the sleeves were transparent and long, cut waist with a golden belt leaving the satin in a long fall into a stylish cut.
How was it possible to have a dress like that, if I never spoke of the dresses to anyone? –
She questioned how that could be possible.
She sat on the bed, close her eyes, trying once again to remember anything about the wedding, did it really happen? She couldn’t believe that she could be married and couldn’t remember her own wedding and she tried harder and harder but nothing.
It was so frustrating this entire marriage thing.
Then she remembered that JP had left the rings on the table bedside when she removed it to show them to JP on the first day they arrived and never thought about the rings anymore. Carolina looked to where they could be, but they were no longer there, yet she searched for a little bit for the rings and she didn’t found them.
Most likely JP has put them elsewhere for sure - She thought.
As they intended to unveil if they had married or not, anyway they would annul the marriage or get the divorce, so it made no sense to stay with the rings even if they are so beautiful. She just wanted to have the rings to remember of JP, because she would probably never see him again, but she would remember the wonderful days they had spent together on the island, she knew as soon they leave the island each will go his own way and probably they will never see each other again. She has is emotional involved with the rings, she wanted them to remember him and part of her would like to leave the island with a memorable object as a memory.
Everything was perfect with him on the island, but she knew it was only temporary and illusory, there was no future and thinking of it, saddened her. She didn’t dare asking JP if he had saved the rings but there was no point at all. She forgot the idea of the rings immediately after those thoughts. They didn’t know what time they would be picked up, to ease the time Carolina needed to be distracted so she decided to put everything in order inside the cabin, there was no need to leave everything everywhere and something like this would get her head out off thinking about the sorrow she felt to split up from JP soon.
The hours passed and no rescue came, Carolina began to get worried and went to see again the note they had left with the instructions, just to make sure if there was something written that they couldn’t had seen at the first time. But no, there was nothing overseen, the instructions were very clear as it said that in the end of the seven days they would come and pick them up as instructed. She left the cabin, looked around she realized that the sun had disappeared, looked at the sky and saw the first dark overcast, threatening to start raining at any time. JP entered the cabin that moment with an expression of concern and told her:
"I think we will have a tropical storm, its better if we close the windows with the protections I found out there in the storage room.
If I'm not mistaken, when there are tropical storms the rain and the wind are very intense, so it’s always better to prevent anything to happen."
"Let me help you"
She offered immediately, Carolina knew it was true what he was saying, they could feel the storm forming by the second to grow stronger. The two began to fit the wooden protections on the big windows, so even if there will be strong winds and strong rain they would be protected inside the cabin. The storm was coming near, they felt the wind turn stronger and rain was starting threatened at any time. While they were making their work, Carolina asked JP:
"Do you think they will come to pick us today with this weather?"
"Very honestly I doubt it, whatever transport they are using to pick us, they can’t risk coming in the middle of a storm."
Carolina was visible disappointed, she knew he was right. JP realizing her sadness he tried to comfort her by placing a hand on her shoulder, but she pulled slightly away from him, making him aware he shouldn’t touch her. He didn’t insist. She wasn’t disappointed that they didn’t come to rescue them, she enjoyed being there with JP, but her concern was if anyone would really come to pick them up as stated in the note. When they finally finish putting all the protection on the windows they returned inside.
The rain had just begun, the drops were large and spaced out, the wind was already very strong, and they could feel the intensity increasing every minute and the entrance door was closed but without protection, if the storm became too violent they could fit protection on the door quickly from inside, drops turned rapidly into a heavy rain, lightning and very strong wind. The tropical storm had begun.
Carolina decides to make dinner, since they had to stay there, at least they should eat a decent meal. Preparing the dinner helped her to distract from the thunderstorm, and she hated thunders. While she was making dinner they decided to put the protection on the door, because it was night already and it is certain that no one would pick them up with that storm and most important the storm was already to strong and would be always to be better safe than sorry. JP set the table and chose the wine to drink with the baked chicken breasts and vegetables which Carolina had prepared, Carolina served dinner and JP poured a glass of wine each. Each time a thunder blow up in the sky, Carolina closed her eyes from the fear, shuddering slightly.
JP quickly understood she should be afraid of a thunderstorm, but he didn’t comment nor did any joke of it, he respected her fear. He preferred to remain in silent and said nothing in relation to thunder instead he tried to distract her with questions about other thing trying to distract her from the storm. He asked her what kind of movies she liked to see, what kind of music she liked to hear, and gradually Carolina was calming up as she was answering making him also a few questions to see what he likes too. He was able to abst
ract her with success and she seemed a little bit more relaxed from what was happening outside as they continue conversation.
Outside, the rain and the wind were now so intense, making a deafening noise, they could hear the hum of the wind in the palm trees and while it passed on the cabin whistled violently. They weren’t feeling very optimistic that the cabin would stand that storm as the wind increased much more, but they couldn’t admit that out laugh. JP continued to talk to her, making her questions about her family, but she wanted to avoid talking about her personal life, especially about her childhood it had been quite painful but so differently from JP's life and she didn’t wanted to talk about something that still made her so sad. To prevent him to go the road of questions she didn’t wanted to answer she tried small talk on a topic that she loved, history.
"Did you know that about 350 years ago in England you had a king named Charles II, who had a large debt and the only way to solve his problem was marrying a rich princess?"
"I don’t know much about history, I must confess. But please continue. I am curious"
He said, to keep her busy with talk and to forget a little about the storm outside, he thought it was funny letting Carolina giving him a history lesson.
"He ended up marrying a very rich Portuguese princess, her name was Catherine of Braganza, she came up with the dowry to give the king Mumbai in India and Tangier in northern Africa, which at the time were Portuguese colonies for exploration."
"What a selfish and smart king he was"
Laughing and blinking his eye at her.
She continued:
"And did you know that she had become the queen of England, Ireland and Scotland after the death of the king.
She was the one who introduced the fashion of drinking tea among the British aristocracy and royal court. The tea at the time was very expensive and exoticism, coming from the Portuguese colonies at the time"
He laughed without contain genuinely his surprise saying:
"And everyone thinks that drinking tea is very British"
He was truly interested in what Carolina had to tell, even after dinner they remained entertained at the table talking. Each passing day JP admired her more and more, found her intelligent, friendly and reliable. He always thought of her as sexy but never wanted to admit to himself that she could be more and now he was madly attracted to her sexually and psychologically. Carolina still visibly scared of the thunderstorm and JP thought maybe another type of distraction could help her relax more.
He had an idea.
He got up, went to the living room space for what he had in mind, put a CD into the CD player and turned the volume up to the maximum, managing to stifle a little bit the noise coming from outside. Carolina shook her head laughing at him:
"Now we have disco?!"
He smiled, walked over to her side, took her hand with the intention to dance, but she refused, he insisted and she went somewhat contradicted by his hand to the living room area, where he had already made space for dancing. They started to hear Enigma what did Carolina burst out laughing, she had no idea that JP liked this genre of music.
"I must tell you that I hear any kind of music, I'm not weird but all the other CD's options which are there aren’t much better than this in order to dance"
Carolina was not big Enigma fan she didn’t knew anything about that group. The music itself was stirred, it had a highly danceable beat, the song was strong and steady, and it was sung in several languages. He begun the dancing and took her by the hand to him, making her starting to move with the beat. She puts her hand to her mouth laughing seeing him dancing, it was humorous, but he danced very well, she didn’t expected to see him dancing. Finally Carolina gives in, she begun to feel the beat of the music to surround her body as if it was an invisible force, making her to move to the sound.
They danced without touching each other until the song was over. When the song ends, another begins, this also had a powerful strike, it was peaceful and romantic, and the sound was almost mystical. Carolina had never heard it, but it was beautiful and powerful.
"This song is beautiful, never heard it, and is this also from Enigma?!"
He nodded his head, taking the opportunity grabs her and pulls her to him.
"Do you like the music? It’s called Gravity of love. The previous song was called Sadness. I know the work of Michael Cretu, music is my passion and I know him personally"
Carolina looked at him with a suspiciously face.
He continued:
"It’s true, in my work line I know many famous artists. Just to let you know Enigma is not a group but a musical project."
He said near her to hear making his voice overlap the music.
"I don’t doubt that you may know him"
She said smiling at him.
His hand began without warning to navigate blindly on her back, making her shiver, he felt her reaction and pulls her to him touching her body against his, putting his arm behind her back to let her know that she is safe with him from the storm. Carolina felt his hard erection against her, realizing immediately where everything would stop again, she couldn’t let it happen, she didn’t want to go back again to the starting point with him. She had to be strong, not for him, but for her. Carolina walked away trying to set her free from him, she needed to get a quick excuse to get rid of the certain near future that awaited her this night in the cabin with him. She said:
"I need to go to the bathroom now"
Carolina moved away from JP without giving him time to protest. When she got finally inside the bathroom, she closed the door behind her as she continues hearing the music coming from the living room and the thunderstorm outside. Taking a deep breath, she did what had to do and waited more than necessary, allowing time for JP to calm down. She stayed in the bathroom convincing her that she needed to be strong and not succumb to him. Trying to calm down about her confusion of emotions, she tried to control her best and not to give in to the temptation having sex with him tonight, their last night.
She wanted him, but she couldn’t. Couldn’t stop smiling inside, remembering always when they were too close he was always very excited. For who sees her only as a sexual object he has too much concentrated excitement.
Unless he's a sex maniac and he gets excited with any woman who gets too close to him, it can be that as well. Or is it because I didn’t give myself to him anymore and he can’t have me anymore as he would like it, or is he excited because he sees me as a sexual object - hammered Carolina's mind, she wanted avoiding thinking too much about it again.
Carolina shakes her head hopping to wash her thoughts away. Outside the storm seemed to be getting stronger, if it could be possible, it didn’t intend to slow down any time soon. The wind howled and beats against the windows and against the cabin like a giant about to get inside the cabin to devour them, increasing the anxiety and fear of Carolina. When she was leaving the bathroom, she heard a crash, could have been a lightning that had fallen nearby, the noise was such that ended with the electricity inside the cabin, leaving them completely in the dark.
After the initial shock, both began groping the cabin to find candles and the lighter that JP had used the night he had seduced her to have sex for the first time on the island. She shuddered at the thought and because of the thunder at the same time, she didn’t want to think about that night, they had such spectacular sex and after what’s left was a bitter sweet in her mouth due to JP’s behaviour the next day. Now she had to worry about the storm out there, trying to find something to do light and not with her thoughts with him. They found the candles and the lighter, lit a few and JP told her to bring candles to the bedroom, Carolina followed him a little hesitant.
Turn around and return to the living room – Said a voice inside her head.
Didn’t want to repeat the same mistake, she couldn’t let anything happen. She had to be strong, very strong, for her. They put the candles on the side tables, and she turned around immediately to return to t
he room to light more candles intending to stay there. She intended to lie on the couch and get some sleep there, but didn’t know if she could, first because of the storm and then because she knew JP was too close to her. Seeing Carolina planning to stay in the living room, JP went to her and asks to go to the bedroom with him:
“You know that you don’t need to sleep in that couch don’t you? You can’t even stretch your legs!”
He said concerned to her.
JP takes her hand, determined to take Carolina to the bedroom. He lies on the bed, she is still standing beside the bed, motioned her to lie beside him, but she nodded a no.
"I don’t think you want to sleep outside again, do you?"
Asks JP jokingly.
"If you don’t want me to touch you, I promise I won’t. I can keep my word and I think I have kept my word in the last days."
He said trying to calm her down and convince her to lie next to him, continuing the conversation trying to convince her one more time.
"Anyway it's better to be together because of the storm, I know you're scared and I just want you to feel safer here beside me"
The truth is that Carolina was full of fear of thunder yes, but she was terrified of what could happen if she stayed with him in the bedroom. She gave him a shy smile.
"I will only stay here if you can respect me and if you promise you won’t try anything stupid"
"I promise"
He said genuinely to calm her down. She lay dressed on the edge of the bed back to him, she knew he was facing her almost felt his breath on her back. The storm was at its height and at every thunder Carolina shuddered slightly. JP couldn’t attend more to see her suffering, saying softly in a voice trying to comfort her:
THE DEAL: Novel Page 18