by S. J. West
“Come on, Mr. Big Bucks. Let’s see if you can beat me.”
Tara won about two hours later. Of course she did her little ‘I won’ dance in front of us. I just threw what was left of my play money in her direction and stuck my tongue out at her. Brand abstained from such childish behavior but couldn’t help laughing at us.
I really didn’t want to spend another night in the same bed with Tara. She was a horrible person to sleep with. I pitied the man she ended up marrying. She tossed and turned and flailed like a dead fish on a hot sidewalk when she dreamt. Not to mention all the mumbling in her sleep. I could only make out a few words here and there but it seemed like she dreamt about food a lot.
By eleven o’ clock, she finally went to bed and left Brand and I alone. We cuddled on the futon with some movie playing on the TV in the background that neither of us was paying much attention to.
“I thought she would never go to bed,” he said in my ear gently kissing the sensitive flesh.
“That is so unfair,” I moaned leaning my head to the side exposing my neck for his further exploration. He was quick to follow my lead.
“I’ll stop if you want,” he said trailing small electrifying kisses from my ear to my shoulder.
“No,” I took in a shuttering breath. “Don’t stop.”
Before I knew it, we were laying on the futon. He was to the side and slightly on top of me. He continued his exploration across my throat and slowly made his way to my other ear.
“What are you thinking?” he whispered in my ear, taking his time to slowly kiss his way back down my throat.
“I’m having a hard enough time just remembering to breathe,” I admitted threading my fingers through the hair at the back of his head. I could feel him smile and chuckle at my statement against my neck.
He stopped kissing my neck and looked down at me. I knew what he wanted. I wanted it too. I desperately wanted to kiss him so hard neither one of us would have a doubt who it was I loved. But I couldn’t. His declaration of love to me earlier in the week made me realize I needed to be sure I loved him and only him. I wanted to be able to give him all of me without having any nagging doubts about my feelings for Will. I didn’t want our relationship to be built on false promises.
So instead of kissing him on the lips, I brought his head down to mine and slowly kissed every inch of skin on his face but his lips.
After a while, we just laid in each other’s arms on the futon.
“Do you want to play a game?” he asked.
“No more Monopoly, please. I think I’m Monopolied out,” I laughed.
“No, it’s a game where we ask each other questions until one of us refuses to give an answer. Then the other person wins.”
“What will I win?” I was pretty sure I’d win this one. I was practically an open book as it was.
“The person who wins gets to pick what we do tomorrow.”
“Ok, I get to go first.” I decided to go easy on him to start out. “What’s your favorite color?”
“Black. What’s your’s?”
“Red. What was your first pet?”
“A Persian cat named Aphrodite. What’s your favorite food?”
“Pizza. Which of the countries that you’ve lived in did you like the best?”
“England. What’s the best memory you have from childhood about your mother?”
“Sure you don’t have another question you’d rather ask?” I prompted.
“Nope. Do I win?”
“No. But I need a minute to think of one.”
If only he had asked me a favorite memory with Utha Mae. I could have come up with a hundred about her. But my mother? Well, I had to rack my brain to try and remember one.
“Well, every once in a while she would take me and Tara to the park to play. Then we’d go to McDonald’s.” I couldn’t think of any better memory of Cora so I moved on to my next question. “What is it about me that you love?”
He smiled at that one. “What don’t I love about you would be easier to answer, or do you really want me to list everything?”
“Ok, what about me do you not love then?”
“You don’t trust your heart enough.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think if you trusted your instincts more you would have kissed me a few minutes ago.”
I couldn’t think of anything to say to that. He was probably right.
“You’re turn,” I said instead.
“Do you really plan to wait for marriage before you make love with someone?”
I could feel my cheeks grow hot immediately. “I’m not sure, but I think I would like to wait.”
“I’d like to see you in a wedding dress.” He smiled. “You’d make a beautiful bride.”
If it were possible, I think my face grew an even brighter shade of red.
“Your turn,” he gently reminded me.
“Do you love me?”
“Why would you ask that? You know I do.”
“I just wanted to hear it,” I admitted.
“I love you, Lilly Rayne Nightingale. Never doubt that.”
I kissed him on the cheek and said, “Your turn.”
“Do you want to have children someday?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I suppose so. That’s a little too far in the future for me to say for sure.
“Do you think it would bother you if you couldn’t have a baby?”
“That’s two questions.”
“I’d like to know. You can make your next question harder.”
I thought about it and finally said, “Well, if it turns out that I can’t have children of my own for some reason, I would probably just look into adopting a child if I really wanted one. But like I said, that’s too far into the future for me to worry about right now. I wouldn’t even think about having a child until I was married and knew I could provide for them.”
He seemed to be satisfied with my answer. “Ok, ask a hard one since you answered both my questions.”
“What’s your deepest, darkest secret?”
The surprise on his face wasn’t hard to miss. He hadn’t expected me to ask a question like that.
“You win,” he said.
“It can’t be that bad,” I tried to joke. But the look on Brand’s face was very serious.
“It’s not a secret I can talk about with you right now. I want to, but it’s not just my secret. Other people are involved and I can’t break their faith in me. So,” he said, “what do you want to do tomorrow?”
“I want to spend the whole day with you.” I snuggled my face against the side of his neck kissing him in a spot I found earlier in the evening which seemed to make him putty in my hands. “And I mean 24 whole hours.”
“Ok,” he said through a ragged breath. “What else?”
“I want you to show me your favorite things. Your favorite movie, favorite things to cook, your favorite hobby, favorite sports, everything we can fit into a twenty-four hour period.”
“I can do that.” I could hear the pleased tone in his voice. I knew he was flattered I wanted to know him so intimately.
“Does the clock start now?” he asked.
“No.” With one last kiss to his neck, I reluctantly stood up. “In fact, I should go to bed. We need to get a good night’s rest for tomorrow. I intend to stay up the whole 24 hours. I don’t want to miss a minute.” I leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. “Sweet dreams.”
“They will be,” he assured me.
When I got up the next morning, there was a note on the kitchen counter.
Lilly, I’ll be back at 9 to start our day together.
Love, Brand
I smiled at the simple way he signed the note. I still had a hard time believing I had found someone so special. The college recruiter had been right after all: college had allowed me to start a whole new chapter in my life.
Tara came up behind me and read the note over my shoulder.
“So y’all spending the
day together?” she yawned.
“Yeah. I told him I wanted to spend a day doing his favorite things. Don’t wait up for me. It’s supposed to be a 24 hour date.”
“24 hours?” Tara lifted a dubious eyebrow in my direction. “I don’t know about that Lilly Rayne.”
“Listen, Tara. I know you’ve been trying your best to make sure my virtue stays intact but you’re just going to have to trust me. Nothing’s going to happen.”
“I trust you. I just don’t trust your hormones,” Tara said with a sassy attitude but completely serious. “Just make sure you keep that phone on you at all times in case I need to get in touch with you.”
I promised to keep the cell phone in my pant’s pocket. Tara seemed appeased by that small concession.
“Maybe I can get Simon to come over and study while you’re away,” she mused, a slow smile spreading her lips at the prospect.
“Ok,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest and cocking a hip. Two could play at sassy. “Do I need to stay here to chaperone?”
“No,” she said indignantly. “I can take care of myself. He ain’t getting’ nothin’ from me. I can keep my man in line.”
I went and took a shower. I wasn’t sure what to wear so I opted for a pair of jeans, sneakers and simple blue cotton button down shirt. I put a few things in a backpack since I was going to be spending a full day and night with Brand: an extra set of clothes, toothbrush and toothpaste, hairbrush, hairspray, and make-up bag.
Brand was prompt, as always, and picked me up at exactly nine.
“What are we going to do first?” I asked as we made our way down the highway towards his house.
“I’m going to show you my latest favorite hobby.”
“Latest? Do you switch hobbies a lot?”
“More than you might think. You can only do one thing for so long.”
“So what’s your hobby now?”
He smiled and looked at me from the corner of his eyes. “You’ll have to wait. I want to see your initial reaction without knowing anything before hand.”
Well, that had me intrigued. Less than ten minutes later we were parked in front of Brand’s house. He took my hand when I stepped out of his car and walked me into his home. He led me up the stairs to the second floor which I had not seen during any of my past visits.
On the loft landing, there was a large pool table and a couple of chairs.
“Do you play?” he asked nodding to the table.
“Not very well…” I hedged.
“Maybe I can show you a few tricks later, if we have time.”
We passed the table and went down the hallway which had four doors leading off of it. He opened the first door to our left and motioned with his hand for me to enter before him.
When I walked into the room the first thing I noticed was the strong odor of wet paint. Scattered around the room were numerous paintings. Two caught my attention immediately because they were being displayed on easels on either side of the French doors, which faced towards the lake.
They were both of me.
The first one looked like me sitting at my desk in physics on the first day of classes. The second looked like me in the gazebo the night after we had supper at Utha Mae’s. They were both beautifully painted reminding me of pictures you would normally only see in a museum.
“Do you like them?” Brand came up behind me and put his arms around my shoulders.
“They’re beautiful. Is that the way you see me?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I love the way I look in them but they seem more like fantasy versions of me, too perfect.”
“I painted you exactly the way you look. I wish you would realize just how gorgeous you are.”
I hugged his arms to me. “Thank you for sharing them with me.”
“I was hoping I could talk you into sitting for me. I mostly have to do these by memory.”
“Sure,” I said instantly wanting to play the muse to my own Michelangelo. “How do you want me?”
“That could be a dangerous question.” I could feel him nibble at my neck. I leaned back into him reveling in the feel of his complete adoration.
“Oh?” I sighed. “Why dangerous?”
“Well, if I had my way, you’d be completely naked.”
“Hmm, well, that’s not going to happen,” I said, stepping away from his intoxicating kisses and turning to face him. “But I do have an idea.”
“What’s your idea?”
“You’ll need to leave the room for a minute. You’ll see when you come back in.”
He looked at me with questioning eyes, but didn’t ask for an explanation. He kissed me on the cheek and left the room closing the door behind him.
I quickly shed my clothes except for my panties. There was a clean white drop cloth sitting on a chair in the room. I quickly wrapped it around my body letting the last part drape to the floor like a train and held the part across my chest securely in place with one hand. I flipped my head to mess up my hair a bit so that the strands would fall around my shoulders naturally. I could just imagine what Tara’s reaction would be when I told her about this. She would probably say I was acting like a hoochy mama trying to tempt Brand into kissing me first.
Actually…that wasn’t a bad idea. What if I could get him to kiss me first? Then my promise to him would no longer apply and we could stop denying ourselves that pleasure. It could work.
“Ok, I’m ready,” I called, excited by my newfound mission for the day.
Brand walked in the room. When his eyes landed on me, he let out an audible gasp. I saw him swallow hard before he said, “Talk about not playing fair.”
“How do you want me positioned?”
A cheeky grin spread across his face, and he just shook his head at me. “That’s probably not the most appropriate question to ask me at the moment, Lilly.”
It took me a second to catch on but when I did I felt my cheeks flair with embarrassment.
“I do have an idea though.” He opened the French doors which lead out onto a balcony. The cool, gentle breeze coming off the lake water felt wonderful against my flaming cheeks.
He brought in a white wicker chair and positioned it diagonally in the middle of the door frame. He asked me to sit on the edge of it with my back as straight as I could make it. He pulled the sheet away from my legs and positioned them in a relaxed pose.
He had a canvas already set up in anticipation of my posing for him and quickly began sketching.
“So how long have you been painting?” I asked.
“A little while. I find it therapeutic.”
Careful not to move my head too much, I searched with my eyes and looked at the paintings hung on and propped against the walls. A lot of them were of Abby during different stages of her life. One picture caught my eye. It was hard to tell what it was exactly. There were a lot of colors and it almost looked like an abstract painting but there was a discernable face underneath that I couldn’t quite make out. It was almost like looking at one of those 3-D pictures where you have to stare to the side of it before your eyes can focus on the object hidden within.
“That painting,” I said keeping my eyes on it. “Is there a face in it?”
Brand followed the direction of my gaze. “Yes,” he said. “I’m surprised you can see it. Most people can’t.”
“Who’s it of?”
“My father.”
I looked at Brand and saw a brief moment of pain cross his face. I was instantly sorry I had asked about the painting. I could tell from his expression that the loss of his father still hurt to think about.
Almost an hour later, Brand stopped working and covered the canvas with a sheet.
“I don’t get to see it?” I asked.
“Not yet. It’s not finished. When I get through with it, I’ll show it to you.”
He left the room so I could put my clothes back on and told me to come down to the kitchen when I was ready.
As soon as
I made it back down the stairs, I could smell a wonderful aroma coming from the direction of the kitchen.
“Are you cooking your favorite dish?” I asked taking a seat on one of the stools at the counter.
“Yes, it’s lobster risotto with black truffles.”
As I watched Brand work in the kitchen, I marveled at how quickly he could manipulate things with his hands. It was just like when I watched him work on my painting upstairs. He moved with a fluidity and assurance I had never seen in anyone before. Nothing in the way he moved indicated he was unsure of himself or what he was doing, no hesitations, no missteps.
Lunch was prepared before I knew it. We sat outside at a table already set with a white table cloth and a vase of pink roses on the back porch. I wasn’t amazed at all at how wonderful the meal was. The lobster was cooked to perfection, soft and juicy. I hadn’t expected any less from Brand.
Brand took our plates back into the house and asked me to stay where I was while he brought out desert. I leaned back in my chair and basked in the warmth of the day. We couldn’t have asked for better weather. It was sunny and around seventy degrees. The light breeze coming off the lake almost lulled me into an impromptu nap.
“You’re here again.”
I looked up to see Rose Marie standing over me. It seemed like every time I saw her she always had a look of intolerance at my presence on her face. I sat up straighter in my chair.
“Have I done something to make you dislike me, Rose Marie?” I was getting really tired of feeling like I was doing something wrong just by coming to Brand’s home. “I’m sorry for barging in uninvited at Abby’s the other night, but I get this feeling you dislike me for some other reason.”
“I love the Coles. I don’t want to see them get hurt.”
For a servant, I thought she was strangely over protective.
Brand came back out of the house at that moment carrying two glass bowls containing our dessert.
“Is everything all right, Rose Marie?” he asked setting one of the bowls in front of me and taking his seat.
“Yes, Mr. Cole. I just came over to see if you needed me to do anything.”
“No, I think I have everything under control.”
“Then I’ll be getting back to Ms. Abby’s.” She bowed slightly at the waist and left us.