Dangerous Beauty: Part One: Destiny

by Michelle Hardin

  Nathan was still admiring the beauty as he waited for the stop light to change. When he looked up he saw the light was still red, so he turned his attention back to the garden. He noticed a large rose garden full of beautiful roses of various colors and his eyes settled on the yellow patch, those were his mother’s favorite. He remembered how she used them as decoration in their home and on his favorite big white gazebo, and the memory brought a smile to his face. It was memories like these that made him miss her even more.

  He was enjoying the good memories of his mother when he noticed a pair of gorgeous brown legs appear in front of the yellow roses directly in his line of sight. His eyes began to journey upward to see the owner of those beautiful legs only to find a woman with her back toward him. She bent forward and picked up a rose that wasn’t rooted in the ground, giving Nathan a mouthwatering view of her incredible ass in the pair of khaki shorts she wore. Damn, he thought biting down on his bottom lip. She had the perfect ass, round, plump, and it looked soft as hell. Nathan was sure it would fit so perfectly in his hands.

  When she stood up, she flipped her beautiful long hair over her shoulder. Nathan didn’t know if he had ever seen hair that beautiful before. It was like a thick black cloud that made its way down, ending in the middle of her back. It looked so soft. Nathan yearned to feel it against his skin. His eyes traveled to her beautiful legs again and he admired her gorgeous skin tone. God, her skin looked as smooth as silk, and so sweet like a rich Hershey’s chocolate bar. He really wished she would turn around so he could see her face.

  And he got his wish.

  When she turned around, for the second time in minutes, something in Hope Beach had taken Nathan’s breath away.

  He was stuck, gazing at the stunning woman standing in the rose garden. She looked to be far away in thought as a small smile appeared on her beautiful face. She brought the rose up to the most beautiful full lips Nathan had ever seen, and placed a soft kiss on it. Nathan’s breath caught as a rush of memories flashed through his mind of him and his mother in their garden. His mother would pick up one of her roses and kiss it then recite something she made up that Nathan just couldn’t remember at the moment.

  Shaking his head of the memory, his attention went back to the beauty in the garden. Her hair blew in the wind, and the sun kissed her smooth milk chocolate skin perfectly. She looked like an angel. Nathan was fighting to stay in the car, but it was like an invisible force was pushing him to jump out, take her in his arms, and kiss her senseless. He wanted to know her name. No, he needed to know her name. He needed to know the memory that put that beautiful smile on her face. He needed to know—

  “Nathan! Hello, Earth to Nathan!”

  Nathan blinked rapidly and shook his head. What the fuck was wrong with him? Was he actually considering jumping from his car to run across the street and confess his love to a complete stranger? Holy shit.

  He looked at Mickey, who was giving him a striking what the fuck look. Nathan frowned. “What?”

  Mickey pointed to the traffic light. “It’s green. It’s been green. Where the hell were you man?”

  He could hear the horns blare from the drivers behind him but he wanted to steal one more peek at the beautiful stranger. When he looked her way once more, his breath caught in his chest. She was looking at him! She had a confused expression on her face, most likely wondering why the idiot in the black BMW was holding up traffic. Their eyes met, and damn it, Nathan was stuck again.

  Her eyes were the most beautiful hazel with a hint of green and they held him captive, he was powerless against them. A slow smile appeared on her beautiful face and Nathan couldn’t help but mirror her smile. She raised her hand and waved at him which made him smile wider. She let out a shy giggle and shook her head, and Nathan could have sworn he swooned like a little bitch.

  Nathan was completely captivated by her. Her smile was warm and her eyes were expressive, it was like they were having a conversation without even speaking to one another. He was going to run to her, he needed to run to her. God, why the hell did he want to run to her? What the fuck was wrong with him?

  “Nathan! What the fuck?”

  Nathan snapped out of yet another daze and his attention went to Mickey.

  “What?” Nathan snapped, angry at Mickey for interrupting his silent conversation with his beautiful stranger.

  Mickey glared at him. “What the hell do you mean what? you just missed the light man. What the hell?”

  Nathan looked up at the light. Whoops, he thought and chuckled. “Shit, I’m sorry man.” But he wasn’t sorry one bit. Now he could steal another look at his beautiful stranger. Just one more look, he was sure he’d be able to leave after one more look.

  “What the hell is so funny Nathan? And what the hell are you looking…”

  Nathan was gone, lost in another silent conversation with the beauty in Hope Garden. When their eyes met again she laughed, a fucking beautiful laugh that he could listen to over and over again for the rest of his life.

  Wait, rest of his life?

  Ok, now Nathan knew something was wrong with him. But right now, he didn’t care. His eyes remained locked to hers, neither one of them wanting to leave their silent conversation. They remained that way until a pretty redhead walked up to his beauty. Nathan watched as the redhead said something to the beautiful stranger and she tossed her head back and laughed that musical laugh of hers. The redhead just glared at her and grabbed her arm pulling her down the trail, and away from Nathan.

  No!

  Nathan fought the urge to run from the car and snatch her away from the redhead. He gripped the steering wheel tight and prayed for strength as he silently pleaded with his beautiful stranger to acknowledge him one more time. Anything, a wave, a nod, the finger, anything to show that she remembered he existed.

  Once again his beauty did not disappoint.

  While being pulled by the insistent red head, she looked over her beautiful exposed shoulder at him with a playful smile and winked. Satisfied with the acknowledgment, Nathan smiled and leaned back in his seat with a girly sigh.

  “…and you better not miss this one too. Get your head out of your ass and watch the road man,” Mickey said.

  Nathan looked at Mickey, bemused. “Huh?”

  Mickey gasped and gave Nathan a look combined with shock and outrage. Nathan didn’t know he had been talking the entire time. He had been too caught up by his beautiful stranger.

  “Are you kidding me?”

  Nathan didn’t want to laugh at Mickey’s outrage, but his facial expression made it impossible to hold back. He couldn’t help himself.

  Mickey glared at his friend. “Fuck you, Nathan.”

  “I’m sorry, man. I’m so sorry,” Nathan said through his laughter. “Okay Mikilo. What were you saying?”

  Mickey just gave Nathan the finger, which for some reason caused Nathan to burst into laughter again.

  Soon after that, Nathan and Mickey finally made it to Kyle’s extremely large beach house. Nathan thought it would be more fitting to call the place a castle. They walked up the concrete pathway to the stunning modern style house and opened the front door. Once inside, Nathan felt as if he was walking into a tropical retreat. The plush white furniture sat on the polished hard wood floors, the contemporary style was the perfect choice in Nathan’s opinion. He had always been a fan and it seemed that Kyle shared the same fascination. Every room in the six bedroom, five bathroom mansion was decorated with contemporary style furniture and modern style paintings. The large wall of windows located in the living room of the mansion had a breathtaking ocean view.

  Nathan was glad that the house was so close to the ocean, he couldn’t wait to get out in the open water and let the waves carry his stress away.

  “Well, well, well, looks like I owe you some money, Lucca,” Dante said from the kitchen. He was leaning against the island looking at Nathan in surprise.

  “I told you Mickey would talk him into coming,” Lucca said
sitting at the table in the dining room, grinning, while stuffing potato chips in his mouth.

  Mickey walked over to the living room and dropped his bag. “How much you lose, Tae?” he asked through a chuckle.

  Dante sighed and held up one figure. Nathan looked at him bewildered, “You lost one dollar?”

  Dante rolled his eyes, walked over to the couch and plopped down. “I wish,” he said with an exasperated sigh.

  Lucca chuckled. “Not one dollar, cousin, one thousand dollars,” Lucca grinned widely. “I think I’m going to get a new leather jacket with the cash.” He put emphasis on the word cash to let Dante know he wouldn’t accept it any other way.

  Nathan chuckled and shook his head at their antics. “Where’s Kyle?” he asked.

  “He’s upstairs in his room, we were waiting for you guys to get here so we could hit up downtown and get some food. What the hell took you guys so long?” Dante asked looking up from the couch over at Nathan and Mickey.

  Mickey frowned and pursed his lips while jerking his head toward Nathan.

  Nathan rolled his eyes. “We had to handle something last minute in Brooklyn, and uh…then we got held up in traffic.”

  Mickey snorted. “No, Nathan held up traffic for reasons only God knows. It was like he was a damn zombie staring at nothing.”

  Nathan frowned. “That’s not true. I was looking at some of the sites. I missed the light and Mickey got all bitchy about it.” Nathan lied. He wasn’t going to tell them he held up traffic because a beautiful woman held his attention captive. He wasn’t going to tell them that he couldn’t take his eyes off of her for more than a minute even if he tried, and he definitely wasn’t going to tell them that if she hadn’t gotten dragged away, he’d probably still be in traffic grinning at her like a fucking idiot. Nope, telling all that would just be too much.

  “Bullshit. I was trying to get his attention, and once I got it he was looking at me like he had just come out of a fucking trance,” Mickey said scowling at Nathan.

  “See what I was saying? Bitchy.”

  Dante fell back on the couch laughing.

  Mickey glared at Nathan. “Kiss my ass, Nathan.”

  Nathan laughed, messing with Mickey amused him. Mickey was the youngest of them all, not by much, but it was still fun to tease the kid.

  Lucca walked over and slapped Mickey on the back good-naturedly. “Don’t let Nathan piss you off, kid. He’s just being a smart-ass.”

  Mickey waved Nathan off. “Screw you, Nathan. I know what I saw you bastard. Anyway, I’ll be in my room. Call when Kyle comes down and we leave for food.” He walked up the stair case holding a suitcase in one hand, and holding up his middle finger at Nathan with the other.

  Nathan chuckled and turned to Lucca. “I suppose you guys have already chosen a room, so I’ll just take what’s left, it doesn’t matter to me.”

  “I got you cousin. I’ll show you where your room is.” Lucca grabbed Nathan’s bag and led him up the steps.

  Nathan grabbed his second bag and followed up after Lucca.

  Once they made it up the white marble staircase they walked down a long hallway with a skylight. Good idea, Nathan thought, as he admired the architecture of the house.

  “We know how much you like your privacy Nate, so we saved you one of the master bedrooms. It’s some distance from the rest of the rooms but you’ll love it, trust me,” Lucca said.

  They finally made it to Nathan’s room, and Lucca was right, Nathan loved it. The décor maintained the contemporary theme like the rest of the house, and the walls were painted with warm colors, but that was not the part that Nathan loved the most. The room had large sliding glass doors that opened to a private patio. Nathan walked to the large windows and admired the view of the ocean.

  “I know how much you love the water so I told them to save you this room. You have your own space and it’s a master so you have your own bathroom, with that big ass Jacuzzi tub so you should be good,” Lucca said from behind Nathan.

  Nathan continued to stare out of the windows at the sun setting above the ocean.

  Lucca went on talking. “And there are stairs that lead down to the beach on the balcony. I know how much you love those swims so that should make it easier.”

  Nathan knew that Lucca was babbling, looking for a way to ask the question he really wanted to ask. Nathan decided to put him out of his misery.

  “Just ask Lucca, I know you want to,” Nathan said. He didn’t turn to look at Lucca. He just kept his eyes on the ocean.

  Lucca sighed. “Are you okay? I know it’s a difficult time of year for you with the anniversary of what happened to Aunt Anya coming up.”

  Nathan turned to look at him and nodded. “I’m fine, Lucca. I promise. I’ve come a long way. I think I’ll be able to make it through this month without having a breakdown.” He chuckled.

  Lucca frowned. “Nathan I’m serious, because Mickey…”

  “What happened in the car was not what you think. I’m fine,” Nathan assured him.

  Lucca looked at him with concern. “Nathan if you weren’t you would tell me, right? I know you’re still struggling with this.”

  Nathan’s jaw ticked. He was not that broken, he could still function. He hated when his family looked at him like he was a pitiful fragile child.

  “Yes, Lucca, but I’m fine, I’m not as fragile as I used to be. If I was I wouldn’t be who I am. Men wouldn’t fear me the way they do, I wouldn’t have the power that I have, and I wouldn’t be an underboss!” he argued.

  “Then what the hell, Nathan? Mickey’s description of how you were acting on the way over sounded oddly familiar to the way you used to space out all those years after Aunt Anya passed. If you’re shutting down again we need to know.”

  Nathan groaned. Lucca and his damn interrogations, he thought.

  “One, she didn’t pass, she was murdered. Two, I didn’t ‘space’ and I’m not ‘shutting down’. What happened to me a few years after the murder is never going to happen again. I’m different now. Now I have my work” Nathan said becoming frustrated with the conversation.

  Lucca looked at Nathan and raised his brow. “Nathan, it wasn’t that long ago,” he said dryly, “and since then you have been disappearing every year around this time so I don’t really know how you’ve been handling anything. You don’t talk to me. I don’t know if you’ve truly healed. Don’t get upset with me for being concerned about you, cugino. You disappear, Nathan, you just leave!”

  Nathan turned to look at his cousin. His concern was real and Nathan felt guilty. He didn’t know his running away every year had affected anyone, he didn’t think anyone would care. But it looked like he was wrong. Nathan stood staring into eyes identical to his own, and tried to figure out a way to ease his cousin’s worry.

  He ran his fingers through his hair and walked over to the king sized bed in the middle of the room. Plopping down on it he let out an exasperated sigh. “It was a girl,” he muttered hoping Lucca would let it go now.

  Lucca gave him an inquisitive look. “What?” he asked walking over to the side where Nathan laid.

  Nathan put his arm over his eyes. Shit. “A girl, she was at the garden, and I…I don’t know I was, you know, I just didn’t see the light change, or hear Mickey bitch and moan.” Nathan shrugged his shoulders, hoping this would change the direction their conversation was going.

  Lucca smiled and looked at him curiously. “You’re saying, you held up traffic, zoned out to the point where you couldn’t hear Mickey… staring at a girl?”

  Nathan smirked at his cousin. “Yep.”

  Lucca frowned, he wasn’t buying it. “Really?” he asked dryly.

  Nathan nodded and chuckled. “Yes, really.”

  Lucca nodded his head up and down. “Mmm hmm, must have been some girl.”

  Nathan sat up in the bed slowly and frowned in thought. “Actually, yes. She was one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen in my life. It was so weird man. It was like,
I couldn’t stop looking at her, and now…I sort of can’t stop thinking about her” Nathan said honestly. He couldn’t get that girl off his mind even if he tried. There were no words to describe how badly he wanted to see her again. Was it crazy that he was thinking this way about a woman he didn’t even know?

  “I bet,” Lucca said, still not buying Nathan’s excuse. “You’re trying to change the direction of the conversation, and I’ll let you, this time, but we will talk about this again,” Lucca said using his big brother tone. He was only one year older than Nathan, but he always felt more like Nathan’s big brother growing up.

  Nathan chuckled. He understood why Lucca didn’t believe him about the woman. Nathan didn’t even believe it himself. “Yeah, I know.” He was just glad they didn’t have to talk about it now.

  Lucca let out a long sigh. “Well, get your ass up we’re about to go out. Kyle knows this bar. He says the food’s good and the waitresses are hot. Of course, knowing Kyle he’s probably already slept with half of them.”

  Nathan nodded in agreement. “True, he has a serious problem. I’m surprised he still goes to the place then. Isn’t he afraid of what they’ll do to his food?” Nathan questioned, disgusted by the possibility.

  Lucca laughed loud and made a disgusted face. “Good question, we should ask Kyle before we go.”

  “Ask me what?” Kyle asked walking into Nathan’s room with Mickey and Dante.

  Mickey walked over to the window. “I knew you guys would give him this room, what is your obsession with water views, Nate?” he asked staring out the window inquisitively.

  Nathan ignored him. Dante plopped down on the opposite side of Nathan’s bed, and Kyle walked over and stood in front of Nathan.

  “Ask me what?” he asked again, eyeing Nathan curiously.

  Lucca chuckled. “This bar you want to go to tonight.”

  Dante sat up quickly and pointed at Lucca knowingly. “Yeah, I was wondering the same thing as you when he was talking about “Benny’s Bar with the sexy waitresses.”