Kissing Another Grimaldi

by K. Z. Riman

  I buried my face into my palms as I sat, unable to make anything of Scott’s words as he talked with Mother over the phone. Leo had followed us, rushing through the doors with cups of tea in his hand and my backpack on his shoulder.

  “I settled up with the taxi driver,” Leo said to Scott as he handed us a cup each. I shook my head as he handed me mine. “It will calm you down, ma’am,” he said.

  “No, thank you. I don’t want tea. I would like a bottle of water, please,” I said, not looking at anyone.

  This is all my fault. Tears began pouring down my cheeks again.

  “Yeah…I know, Mother…Good…I’ll see you in a bit.” Scott ended the call. With his phone still clasped in his hand, he turned to me. “What were you thinking?”

  I shook my head. It was my fault.

  “Why were you leaving?” When I didn’t answer, he scooted over and placed his arm around my shoulders, pulling me to him so I could place my head on his shoulder. “Don’t run away like that again.”

  I stayed that way for the next hour, falling into a light doze. When I woke up, Mother and Father were speaking with a doctor. I shot out of my chair to get to them.

  “Hey, easy.” Scott held my hand to steady me. It wasn’t really a very good idea to stand immediately after a nap. I felt a little dizzy.

  Mother was nodding as she placed her hands over her mouth at something the doctor said. I sat back in the chair, gripping Scott’s hands in terror. I couldn’t bring myself to listen to any of the things the doctor was saying. They turned to me once, before Father shook the doctor’s hand, and then came over to where Scott and I sat.

  “What’s going on?” Scott was the first to ask.

  Mother and Father looked at each other. “Why don’t we go and have breakfast in the café across the street?”

  I followed quietly as they walked ahead. Scott was holding my hand, which I knew everyone tried to ignore. In the elevators, Father glanced at us twice and then nodded at Mother.

  I ordered a cup of coffee and some french toast. It was almost morning and the sky was starting to clear up from the rain. I sat beside Scott and kept my head down, warming my hands on the cup of coffee in front of me.

  “The doctor said Sean will have to stay in the hospital for observation,” Mother began. I couldn’t look at her, but I could feel her eyes on me. “They checked his medical records and found that he had suffered from a viral infection when he was younger.”

  “Yes. It attacked his respiratory system. They said it was a new type of virus.” I nodded.

  “A new type with no known cure.” Father agreed.

  “They were able to cure…”

  “No, Kelsey. They were able to stop the infection.” Father’s voice was firm. It sounded like they were trying to be strong. “Now it has affected his heart.”

  No. Why this? “No.” I brought my face to my palms.

  “No cure yet?” Scott asked.

  “None,” Father replied. “I already have teams of researchers on it. Hopefully we should be able to develop something soon, given that the virus has manifested itself more strongly this time.”

  Scott nodded and looked at me. “I’ll work with the teams. I will handle this myself.”

  “I was hoping you would, son. He is, after all, your nephew.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  “Can I speak with Kelsey, alone?” Mother gazed at me with concern. Scott and Father moved to a table in the corner furthest away from us. “What is going on?”

  I swallowed hard, unable to control my tears. I looked out the window and noticed it had rained again. Summer was meant to be dry and fun. Why did it feel like the world around me was turning out to be just like my life—gloomy and dramatic?

  “Scott asked me to marry him.”

  “Hmmm.” Mother nodded. “I figured he’d fall in love with you, or should I say…he would realize how he really feels about you.”

  “What do you mean?” Had she known about Scott’s feelings from the very beginning?

  “I know my sons, Kelsey.” She had guided them well in their lives, and it was to be expected that no detail escaped her. “I know Seth was very fond of you and how he often felt the need to protect you from the world. I know Scott. I know when he wants or needs something. I have never seen him look at anyone the way I have seen him look at you…even when you were younger.”

  “He doesn’t want Sean.”

  “Oh, please.” Mother waved her hand dismissively. “Scott doesn’t admit how, most of the time, he was jealous of Seth. How would he admit to his jealousy over Sean? He isn’t very good at revealing his true emotions.” She paused. “Sean is the perfect reminder of Seth for him. Sean has you to himself now, just as Seth had you. It is only normal, however irrational, for Scott to feel jealous of your son, and perhaps to feel like he would never have you to himself, no matter how much he wanted to, while Sean was here.”

  “Still…”

  “He loves Sean…just as he loved Seth. He won’t admit it to himself because he is crazy about you.” Mother’s words shot to my heart. How could she know so much? “I know…because I stood by your door last night. Forgive me, but I heard a lot of your argument after your…well, passionate moment.”

  I think I’m going to faint.

  “Do you want to marry him?”

  “I’m in love with him,” I answered.

  “Yes, I know that. Do you want to marry him?”

  I sighed. “He wants me to move to Europe with him and leave Sean behind. He wants me…just me.”

  “Go with him.”

  “What?” Shouldn’t she be saying otherwise? Was this a part of their plan to separate me from my son?

  “Go with him,” she said again. “Make sure you bring him back to us soon. Make him realize that with you, he needs a family. Make him want to come home to us, and to a nephew and son.”

  “What if he doesn’t want to…?”

  “I know my son, Kelsey.” She reached for my hand and squeezed it.

  How could I trust her judgment on this? How could I go through a plan that detailed risks for myself and for my son? “Seth’s…”

  “Seth is gone. It’s been years.” There was pain in her aging eyes. She was still grieving as I was, but she was a lot stronger than me. “Seth wouldn’t want his son growing up without a father and you getting along with life this way.”

  “I’m afraid I’ll forget Seth.”

  “You won’t,” Mother shook her head. “You will always have him…here.” She placed her palm over her chest and smiled weakly at me.

  I didn’t answer.

  “I’ll ask you again. Do you want to marry Scott?”

  “Yes.” There was no hesitation in my voice, no trace of second thoughts. I wanted to marry him. I wanted to be with him always and be the one to take care of him.

  Mother might be using me to make sure her son came back from the world he built, but I wanted it to happen as much as she did. If her plan worked, I would be getting Scott back, too. I would be gaining a family, just as she would.

  “Then, marry him.” She smiled at me, relieved and contented. “Don’t worry about Sean, dear. He will be with Keith and I, and you will be back for him in no time.”

  * * * *

  “Kelsey.” Scott was shaking me lightly. I had fallen asleep, sitting beside Sean as he slept in bed. “It’s lunch time, and they’re going to move Sean to an observation room in five minutes.”

  My back and my neck hurt. I stretched out and felt so tired I felt like going home for more sleep, but I couldn’t leave Sean.

  “Do you want to go home for an hour or so?” he asked.

  I nodded. “After they move Sean.”

  I was rather quiet at lunch. Scott didn’t bring up anything
about what had happened at dawn. He was quiet and constantly answering phone calls from his team. I heard him giving directions, saying he would handle some of the procedures tomorrow, and that they should not disappoint him with this.

  I was glad he took interest in finding a cure for Sean’s illness. I didn’t care if it was only because of the business or because he loved his nephew. What mattered to me was that he was doing his best to make sure Sean would be cured.

  My room was completely clean and tidy when I entered it. There were no traces of the shattered bedside lamp, or my phone, and my clothes were back in the closet. I was beginning to feel this was home.

  “I’ll be in my room. I have some documents to sign…”

  “Stay with me.” I turned to him as he stood by my door. He nodded pulling me close for another embrace. I was learning to get used to them, for comfort. “Please stay in my room as I sleep.”

  I heard him beside me while I was in bed, working on his paperwork and talking with someone on the phone as the day wore on. I turned to my side and touched his leg a couple of times as I woke, only to fall asleep again as I felt him brush my hair and my cheek. He had changed his attitude towards me, and I was hoping towards Sean, too.

  “The sex pill?” I heard him later that afternoon as he stood by my window, talking with someone on the phone. “I guess we will have to postpone that. No, I still want it. Yes…yes, but plans have changed and I…I have other things to settle. Yes. You do that…Thank you.” He turned to me, and smiled. “Hi.”

  “Hi.” I smiled shyly. He climbed onto the bed to sit next to me and stretched his legs. He must be feeling really tired. I pushed myself up and climbed onto his lap, burying my face on his neck as my legs crossed his, my hand on his chest. I felt so at home all of a sudden. I felt so safe.

  “Why were you trying to leave?” he asked me.

  “I thought I needed to be away from you for a while. I thought you would forget about me and when I returned, you wouldn’t want me,” I whispered, finding faults in my own plan.

  He chuckled. “You are so naïve. I could never forget you, Kelsey. I will never get tired of chasing you, to the end of the world, if necessary, until you marry me.”

  Such words. I never felt so much passion before in my life. I was beginning to fall deeply in love with him.

  He held my hand and touched my ring with his finger, before trying to remove it. He stopped and waited to see if I would recoil. I didn’t. I allowed him to remove the ring from my finger, and watched as he placed it on my bedside table.

  “Marry me,” he whispered, as he pulled from his pocket a ring of his own. I held my breath seeing it—a white-gold ring with small diamonds all around and a big heart-shaped one in the center.

  He slipped the ring on my finger and kissed it. I gazed up at him and nodded. “I want to marry you, Scott.”

  “Finally, you say it.” He smiled and brought his lips to mine.

  If I could just make Scott want a family…

  “I want you now,” he whispered as he tipped me over, pushing my hands above my head so I could grab one of the bed’s pillars. He removed my shirt and jeans with ease before removing his own clothes.

  He buried his face in my neck, caressing my skin with his lips, his hands travelling the length of my legs before he parted them. “Now, I can really have you to myself.”

  However I tried to protest and tell him about Sean, I could never do it while making love with him. Scott was like a child again, having something for himself, and I had to take this slowly with him.

  When he brought his lips to mine, I could not wait to own him, too. He was so beautiful, and I had just realized it.

  His face shone like pale honey against the afternoon sun and his eyes were the most beautiful and purest of shade of amethyst. His lips curved perfectly and were wonderful to kiss. I could look at him and bask in the joy of having him brought to my heart, all the days of my life.

  When I admitted him, I moaned and curled my legs up, wrapping them around his bottom so I could feel him and allow him to thrust deeper and deeper into me.

  He was finally making love to me. His eyes never left mine, except to flutter when he eased himself in and out of me. His lips savored mine, and my chest. He was not a predator this afternoon. He was so much more than his brother, and I felt loved. I felt wanted…needed.

  “Do you love me?” he asked. It dawned on me how I never said such words to him, no matter how much I had said it to myself.

  “I love you,” I whispered

  He kissed me before he asked me to say it again. “I love you, Scott. I will always love you.”

  He cupped my cheek before taking my hands away from the pillar that kept me sane, a moment of pure joy like this. I brought my hands to hold onto his back as he crutched his elbows on either side of my head, his weight on mine.

  “I’m coming,” I whispered, and he pushed himself up, rapidly changing his pace to meet my release. I was moving with him to match his every thrust, holding on to the sheets as I held off my release. “Oh, Scott…”

  His groan grew louder with each thrust and he called my name as he spilled inside of me. I could feel every pulse of his manhood, as he shattered on top of me. I arched to meet his hips, circling mine, at the most gratifying feeling I ever had in my life.

  “Scott!” I called him, and we collapsed on the bed together, his face in my chest.

  “I love you,” he whispered. “I will give everything…never to lose you again.”

  That was heaven, right there.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Scott, the Hero

  I was never scared of what Father would think of the things I would like to do with my life. That was why I had the courage to say, straight to his face, how I wanted to leave him and Mother to follow my dream and rip the family apart. It was what I wanted, and it was what I would still be pursuing, especially now that Kelsey had agreed to marry me.

  I could wait until dinner tonight to break the news. Kelsey was too preoccupied with her boy at the hospital and so she would not say anything—not that she would want to be the one to say it. She was afraid that Mother and Father would not accept her. I wondered what changed her mind, agreeing to marry me even when I told her I would take her to Europe with me, or to any part of the world rather than stay in Khazkathia. I was still hoping she would see how this could change her life. I could give her everything she ever wanted. I would give her everything she needed.

  I began to stay an extra hour longer at the lab, just to make sure everything was going well in looking for Sean’s cure. I could not bear to see Kelsey’s face as she looked at her son. She looked more devastated each passing day, which was what I feared. How was I supposed to take her away if being apart from Sean was going to break her heart? She wanted me; I could feel it. Would I want her this way? Would I want her crying secretly each night, missing her son, even as she was happy with me?

  Shit. I knew this would be complicated! How was I supposed to deal with the happiness of finally having her, only to hear her cry?

  At eight that evening, I walked into the dining room. She was already there. She looked at me with a faint smile on her lips and nodded as she asked me to sit beside her. That was a first.

  I did as she bade. Mother and Father glanced at me as Leo served my meal.

  “You’re late,” Kelsey whispered, as she looked at me.

  “I needed to finish something,” I said honestly. She had no idea it was for her son and I wanted to surprise her, tell her the cure was ready for testing.

  As always, there was no room for privacy in this house. “Scott, I heard from your new team that Sean’s cure will be tested tomorrow.” Father’s tone was rather condescending. What was so unbelievable about it that he had to sound so sarcastic? The fact that the cure I was looking for could
actually become the pride of the company this time, or the fact that I actually bothered?

  “Yeah, well…”

  “You’re almost done with the cure?” Kelsey’s tone brought me back to a good mood. She sounded hopeful. For once in her life, it sounded like she was relying on me.

  “Yes.” I held her hand under the table. “I know it’s important to you.” She looked down at her plate and started crying. It was my cue. “Don’t cry. We’re getting married after all.”

  “What?” Father was astounded.

  Mother covered her mouth and started crying as well. “You are?”

  “Well, don’t get too excited,” I said. “Kelsey has agreed to come with me to Europe.”

  I heard Kelsey sigh.

  “Kelsey!” Mother sounded scandalized. “What about Sean?”

  “Mother, I will…” Kelsey turned to me. “I will visit him often. I’m sure Scott would not deny me that.”

  Of course, I wouldn’t, but how many times would she want to see him? For how long would she want to stay here when we visited? How would she act around me when we returned?

  “Well.” Mother swallowed hard. “If you are both decided. Seth is gone and he would wish two important people in his life to be happy. When would you like the wedding to be?”

  “As soon as possible,” I replied without thinking. Kelsey shot me a glance. “As soon as Sean is well, of course.”

  “Very well,” Mother nodded. “It is best that you find a cure the soonest you can.”

  I stayed in Kelsey’s room that night because she refused to stay in mine. I made love to her, but she was not responsive to me. She was faking some of her moans and often stared out the window, fighting her tears back.

  It made me feel ashamed of why I was touching her in the first place. I hated the feeling. Without a word, I stopped and pulled out of her, throwing my condom in the bin. I slammed the bathroom door shut as I went in. She followed me and joined me in the tub.