by Ju Ephraime
As a matter of fact, she thought she might have already gone crazy. She was forever seeing someone she thought looked like Foxx, only to find, on closer examination, she was mistaken.
The day she’d boarded the plane to Martinique, she was floating on air, literally and figuratively. She felt reborn. Her excitement couldn’t be contained. No matter how many times she told herself not to build her hopes up because Foxx might very well be married, nothing could stop the joy that filled her heart at the thought of seeing him again, of breathing the same air.
What she was not prepared for was Foxx’s reaction to seeing her. She was beside herself when he’d walked into the café after she’d been on the island only one day. She’d been sitting at the counter, drinking a cup of coffee while trying to decide on the best way to make her presence known to Foxx, when he’d walked in accompanied by a beautiful woman.
She’d felt as if someone had reached inside her body, taken her heart, and squeezed the life out of it. The pain was physical in its intensity. That was why she was a bit breathless when she greeted him and she could only sit there like an idiot.
After that brief meeting she’d not seen him again. Walking about the island and revisiting some of the old familiar places she and Foxx used to visit was sheer torture, but she made herself go… made herself breathe through the pain. She sometimes felt as if someone were following her, but every time she’d turn around, there was never anyone there. Neither was anyone paying undue attention to her.
Therèse hadn’t gone back to the same hotel where she’d stayed before. Now she was staying at a more upscale hotel with better security, so she felt safer, not that anyone had bothered her in the least.
On the contrary, she had been left pretty much to her own devices. Although she liked it that way, it was very lonely. The nights were especially difficult for her. When she’d been here before, she’d had her alumnae sisters, and, of course, there had been Foxx.
This was why she was at this bar, within touching distance of Foxx, having this stilted conversation with him. It had not taken her long to realize that Foxx hated her. He still harbored a lot of anger against her. No doubt he meant to punish her for what she had done to him.
chapter
SEVEN
Foxx listened carefully, trying to understand how the woman he’d loved so desperately had left him hurting and in pain because someone on the island had been threatening her, and she feared for her life. And rather than discuss it with him, she’d listened to her alumnae sisters and turned tail and ran.
She’d left him behind to pick up the pieces of his shattered life. Led him to believe she did not want him anymore, and their time together had been only a fling for her.
He could no longer remain sitting. He got up and began pacing rapidly, one moment stopping in front of her and the next turning away from her in disgust. It was a good thing the bar was almost deserted. There was only one other couple besides them, and they were on the opposite side of the room.
“Therèse, let me repeat this so I am certain I understand you. Are you telling me, when you were here two years ago, someone had been threatening or attempting to harm you, and rather than discuss the matter with me, you chose instead to leave the way you did and return to England? Please tell me I misunderstood what you just said because this doesn’t make any sense.”
Therèse sighed. “Foxx, you have to remember I was a naïve young woman, on her first trip away from her family, her home, and everything familiar. The only things familiar to me were my alumnae sisters. I had not known you that long, and on two occasions, had I not moved out of the way in the nick of time, I would have been assaulted in my own hotel room and in the vehicle I was driving.
“The second time, I almost had a car accident. The person was very clear: Leave Foxx alone and return to your country.”
“Why didn’t you say something to me, Therèse?”
“I knew if I’d told you while I was still here, you’d talk me into staying, and I didn’t know if I was ready for it.”
“So you took the coward’s way out and left me wondering where I went wrong with you.” He shook his head in disbelief.
“I tried when I got home to England, but you returned all my letters unopened. I figured you were disgusted with me and didn’t want to have anything more to do with me.”
“You’re damn right I didn’t want anything further to do with you. What did you expect? That I would eagerly tear open your letters and console myself with a piece of paper, when all I wanted to do was rip your heart out as you had done mine? There was just no way in hell I would have read those letters.”
“I know that now.”
“It was your last week here, Therèse, and you wouldn’t even take my calls. I had to talk with you through your girlfriend. What’s her name, Earline? She wouldn’t let me anywhere near you. Short of having her call the authorities on me, which she threatened to do on several occasions, I had no other option but to bow out.”
“Earline threatened you?” Therèse asked, seemingly surprised. “I had no idea. She didn’t say anything to me about this. Her only comment was she had gotten you to stay away, and at the time, I was so scared and so grateful for her for taking charge of the situation that I didn’t question her. I just went along with whatever she said.”
“I very much underestimated the influence your girlfriends had over you,” Foxx responded. “That, I believe, was my biggest mistake. I was so devastated when you would not take my calls and avoided all contact with me. I hid my pain and held on to my injured pride until you’d left. But after you’d left the island, that’s when the hurting began.”
“I was hurting, too, she said. “Sometimes I thought I’d lose my mind for the pain.”
“You hurting?” he asked. “If you were hurting so much, why then didn’t you return until now?”
“I tried. After a year, I decided if I had to have a life and move on, I’d have to return to Martinique, but it took a lot of preparation. I had to put my store up for sale, and just when it was listed, the real estate market went into a depressed state and became stagnant in England. I wanted to sell the entire thing because I knew I would have to be away for an indefinite period of time. I didn’t know how long it would take to convince you I had always loved you and I’ve never stopped.”
“You could have approached me when you saw me at the pier.”
“When I saw you at the café on the pier, you looked at me with so much disgust that I had no idea how to approach you. I began to question whether it was too late for us. But the way I felt just being near you, I wouldn’t trade for all the tea in China. So I decided to follow my original plan.”
Just retelling the story brought back to her, very vividly, the emotional pain she had been through when she thought she would never get to hold him again. The fear that she’d never experience the intense pleasure that being with him brought her. She was close to tears.
Not wanting him to see how emotional she was, Therèse walked into the garden connected to the bar. The air was heavy with the perfume from the flowers, but for once, she was aware only of the effect peripherally because she was too shaken up by being this close to Foxx.
Therèse had not been aware of Foxx following her, but suddenly, he was standing behind her. Their bodies were not touching, but she was acutely aware of him behind her. If nothing, the heat radiating from him was enough to scorch her.
His body temperature had always been hot. She used to jokingly call him her hot water bottle. When he was wrapped around her, she needed no other source of heat. And all of a sudden, right there in the middle of the hotel garden, she was gripped by a physical need so powerful she almost leaned back into him and begged him to have his way with her. She had to fight herself to keep from grabbing his hands and bringing them to her breasts where she was aching to be touched.
It had been a bad idea for her to meet with him tonight, she thought, as she closed her eyes. Then another wave of physical
hunger hit her as she breathed his scent in deeply.
“What’s wrong, Therèse? Are you in pain?”
“No. Why do you ask?”
“I saw you grimace, and you’re breathing very hard, as if you are in pain.”
“I go through this sometimes, but I’ll be all right.”
“How long have you been going through this, whatever this is?” Foxx sounded deeply concerned.
“It started the day I left here, and it has grown more intense as the days, months, and years have gone by.”
Moving closer to her, Foxx whispered into her ear. “Does being this close to me affect you? Is that it?”
Therèse turned her body to face him fully, her face inches away from his, as a warm, tingling sensation invaded the pit of her stomach.
The familiarity of the moment held her in its thrall as she looked him straight in the eyes. Therèse toyed with the idea of denying the effect he had on her. But when she took one look into his heavy-lidded eyes and saw the fire there, her body began to weep, and she could no more deny his effect on her than she could stop breathing.
The scent emitting from his body, clean soap and the masculine essence that was all Foxx, almost brought her to her knees. She’d always loved that he wore no cologne to mask his own unique scent. It was almost animalistic in its uniqueness. Breathing deeply, she felt an elemental jolt of response as her panties became damp with her juices.
Therèse saw his nostrils flare as he inhaled deeply and moved in closer to her, then, with a deliberateness that left her speechless, he used the front of his body to anchor her against the trunk of one of the huge trees growing in the garden. Placing his left leg between hers, he lifted her onto his thigh. She was practically riding him. She felt his hand behind her neck, and as he bent his head toward her, she had no strength to resist him. Her lips parted in open invitation.
And it was just as it had always been between them. The floodgate of memories opened up—who they were and what they had been to each other. Flashes of past kisses mingled with memories of the state of ecstasy that always seemed to overcome them.
Her moan was trapped in Foxx’s hot mouth as the kiss that began as a near assault transformed into an ecstatic reverence. His tongue plunged into her mouth, strong and sure, and he covered her mouth completely, drowning out the sounds she was making, as she was reduced to whimpering like a baby.
He moved from her lips to run his hot mouth against the pulse beating in her neck. Then he traveled back to her mouth and dove in with deep, ravaging kisses. His hand moved from her nape to the small of her back, bringing her more tightly against him.
Arching her back, Therèse whimpered as his ever-wandering hand urged her forward against his body. She could clearly feel the evidence of his arousal, which caused her pleasure to intensify to an almost terrifying level.
Suddenly, Foxx made a grunting sound and jerked away from her. Bereft of his warmth, Therèse leaned back into the tree, her legs threatening to collapse. They were both breathing hard while the heat from unfulfilled passion permeated the air like steam from a locomotive.
Finally Foxx was able to speak. “Go back to your room,” he said angrily, “while I’m still able to let you go.”
It took several moments before Therèse was able to compose herself and clear her mind of the sex fog clouding her brain.
“Would you like to accompany me to my room?”
“No,” he responded. “I believe it’s a bad idea for us to try to pick up where we left off. There are too many unanswered questions between us.”
“I understand completely.” She nodded.
“I have to go home and sort out all the information you just unleashed on me, and I don’t want to do anything in the heat of the moment I will likely regret. After all, I am no longer the same man you used to know.”
“I understand,” she said again.
“Good night, Therèse, bon soir.”
She couldn’t answer him. It felt as though every breath was a struggle. She didn’t leave the garden for a long time after he had walked out on her.
Standing there, she was too stupefied to move or to understand what had just happened. It appeared, if anything, to have created a deeper wedge between them.
What was she going to do? She would have to try to be more inventive if she wanted to break down the barrier Foxx had erected. It seemed she was so close to reaching him, only to have it snatched away from her in the cruelest of ways. She was not a quitter, nor had she come this far only to give up at the first obstacle she encountered. She was made of stronger stuff.
This in no way lessened the hurt she felt at being rejected by Foxx. Although she understood why he had reacted as he had, it did not make it any less discouraging.
She went back to her room and ordered one of their famous desserts and a bottle of wine. She really was not hungry, but it was something to do.
When the food came, she did nothing but push it around and around on the plate. She did drink the entire bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon that accompanied the food. The wine got her tipsy, and she was barely able to change out of her clothes before she was fast asleep.
She slept through the night and awoke the next morning with a hangover, which was accompanied by a sense of urgency. She couldn’t recall what it was she had to do, but she knew it was something important. Then the events of last evening came back to her. She told herself she shouldn’t waste any time; she had to see Foxx, to talk with him.
She had tried pouring her heart out to him, and all he’d done was reject her. This time she would try to talk to him without sex clouding the discussion, although she knew it wouldn’t be easy. They always lit sparks off each other. Last night had been nothing new, but the rejection certainly was.
She refused to dwell on it and rang for room service before selecting an outfit to wear for the day. After careful deliberation, she settled on emerald-green culotte pants, one of her favorites. She needed all the help she could get.
The breakfast came, but she only drank the coffee because the thought of food made her stomach act up. She knew she needed to eat; she’d had nothing substantial since breakfast yesterday.
Therèse had skipped lunch because she was so uptight and nervous about meeting Foxx. Although they did have dinner at the restaurant, she’d hardly touched it. She was so nervous about trying to explain things to him that she wasn't able to enjoy any of the delicious dinner he had ordered.
She’d never dreamed it would end the way it had, she in her hotel room, lonely, with a bottle of wine. Evidently, she had to go slowly with Foxx; he was as skittish as a recently abused horse.
She was about to walk into the bathroom when her cell phone rang. She picked it up, hoping it was Foxx. She hadn’t given him her number, but a girl could hope. Alas, it was one of her alumnae sisters, Earline.
She didn’t want to talk with Earline, who had been calling her trying to find out where she was. Having decided not to tell Earline, or any of the others, she was not going to change her mind.
This was her time. She didn’t want anyone telling her what she should and should not do. It hadn’t been the same between her and her alumnae sisters since the trip. But unfortunately, she had picked up the phone so she had to answer it.
“Hi, Earline. What’s the matter?”
“I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for several weeks now. Why aren’t you answering your phone?”
“I’ve been very busy. What’s going on? Is something wrong?”
“Yes and no. Are you at home? I went to your place several times, and the place is closed.”
“I’m sorry. Is there something you needed, Earline? I have an early appointment, and I’m running late.”
“Okay, I’ll call you later, or you can give me a call when you are free.”
“I’ll try, Earline.”
She hung up the phone, very disturbed about this phone call. She and Earline had never gotten along, but now her behavior was beginning to
seriously annoy her.
Why was the woman so interested in her whereabouts? Why did she think she should be keeping tabs on her? Something was nagging at the back of her mind, but right now, she had to get out of this hotel room.
Her parents knew where she was, so she knew nothing untoward was going on with her store. If a buyer was found, she had an agent in place to handle the sale, and her parents would contact her. Her mother knew she needed the time away. She was here with her blessing. So what was eating Earline?
She felt better after taking a shower, and in record time, she was walking out of the hotel. Going to the café on the pier, she took her favorite seat while she waited for Clay to finish dealing with his customers.
Pulling out the local paper, she had just begun to read the sports section when she felt a change come over her body. She lowered the paper to discover the source of her disturbance and found herself looking directly into Foxx’s hazel-green eyes, which at the moment, were mostly green.
chapter
EIGHT
Foxx had known he would find her here, but he was not prepared for the kick in his gut that seeing her always seemed to produce. He tried to keep his expression neutral as he walked over to her.
“Hi, Therèse, is this where you spend your days?”
“Hi, Foxx. No. But I do come here often because it so happens I like their coffee. Is that a problem?”
“Didn’t say it was. Just wondering,” he asked. “Would you like to accompany me to the south side of the island? I have some errands to take care of there. That is, if you don’t have other plans.”
“No, I’d love to accompany you.”
“I’m going to take my coffee to go. Do you want a fresh cup?”
“Yes, all right.”
They walked up to the counter and fixed their individual coffees. Foxx paid Clay, and they left.