They both thanked her for her help and after refusing help from the bellboy service, moved toward the bank of elevators around the corner.
“Just my luck not to get a room with you guys!” said Candasee feeling a little nervous now about being away from the rest of the group. Talk about a series of unexpected events!
They got on the elevator and Nathan selected the floors they would each would be staying on.
“Listen Candee, as I said earlier, I would be happy if we could stay together. I can stay with you on the seventh floor and that would give us some more privacy away from the delegates,” he suggested, leaning over to quickly kiss her on the cheek before slipping his arm around her waist and pulling her close to his side, nuzzling her neck gently with his lips.
“I know that would solve the problem in a way but I could never relax with Darius knowing I am here sharing a room with someone else,” replied Candasee.”I’m sorry!”
Nathan gritted his teeth with the beginnings of impatience. “I don’t think I have to remind you of this, but Candasee you guys are divorced and it’s been two whole years! He has no say in how you live your life anymore!” replied Nathan forcefully. “For all you know he has moved on with his life already. I doubt he has been thinking twice about asking your permission to bring his lovers here!”
Nathan knew it was a hard thing to say but, Candasee needed a little shock therapy. Two years was a long time and it was time for her to realize that there was nothing wrong with what he was suggesting to her!
Candasee fought to digest Nathan’s candour as she pictured Darius spending time here with other lovers. The thought made her so angry and envious inside and she dared not let it show! This was ridiculous! It was two years and a lot could have happened since then. “You have a point Nathan, but let me think about it some more. For now I think we should go to our separate rooms,” said Candasee still disguising the fact that she did not want to even entertain images of what Nathan had just so callously suggested to her about Darius. “I am really tired and all I want to do is sleep!”
She’d shut him out! Why did he have to say something so over the top just now! But you know what, he wasn’t sorry. This was what she needed, a tall, cold dose of reality. The faster she could let go of whatever fantasies she held in her mind, the faster he could get on with deepening their relationship.
When the elevators reached the fifth floor she urged Nathan to get off and after a quick kiss she promised to meet up with him in the morning to go jogging and to have breakfast together.
He offered to come up to help her get settled in seeing that it was still early, but she firmly refused and insisted on finding the room on her own. She’d had enough pressure for one day. She knew that Nathan meant well and in a way he was protecting his investment in her. Who wouldn’t if they discovered their new girlfriend would be staying alone in her ex-husband’s hotel two floors away far from all the others.
At first, she wondered if Darius had anything to do with this but knowing him, he probably couldn’t care less that she was even here, that is if he even knew at all. She’d had enough surprises and changes for one day. If she experienced one more she was sure that she would scream.
As the elevator opened onto the seventh floor she exited it and pulled along her suitcase along the plush, carpeted hallway until she reached room 746. Sliding her passkey through the lock she heard it engage and she entered pulling in the suitcase behind her. The door swung closed with a click.
The room was simply breathtaking. Now that she remembered it, every floor in this hotel featured rooms with different cultural themes from around the world. The fifth floor where the others were staying had more of a Hawaiian feel to the decor and it was regarded as one of the ‘economy floors’ for person’s booking rooms and packages on the lower budget end.
The seventh floor was always her favourite and she wondered how Eloise knew that. Its contemporary Oriental decor was stunning with the red accent wall and the white and black king-sized bed that dominated the centre of the bedroom. Perhaps she just got lucky! She doubted Eloise could have heard it from Darius because from the looks of things he was not even at the hotel. If he didn’t come to meet her in the lobby it must mean that he just did not care if she was there or not. Why that even bothered her she did not want to analyze. It was just a coincidence. She would just take a shower and go straight to bed. She was exhausted and they would have a long day tomorrow. She needed all of her strength just to make it through this ordeal.
Leaving her suitcase next to the hallway closet she was about to check out her bathroom, when she heard a knock at the door.
“Ugh! If that is Nathan I swear I will strangle him, groaned Candasee to herself as she walked towards the door. There was a definite weariness creeping into all her muscles and all she wanted was to sleep off all the stress and tiredness. Between the travel delays, the uncertainty about the intensive, her new exclusive relationship with Nathan and being so close to Darius she had exceeded her emotional quotient for the day and then some. Looking through the peephole, she instead saw a man holding a huge bouquet of red roses in a crystal vase dressed in the hotel’s front desk uniform.
She unlocked the door quickly and opened it eagerly. Who was it that sent her these exquisite flowers? She was always sweet on red roses and could not wait to bury her face in their soft velvety fragrance. Nathan could be so romantic, but wasn’t this a little over the top to have red roses sent to her room already?
“Delivery for Candasee Maxwell!” said the man dressed in the uniform for the hotel.
“Thanks, that is me! Let me get a tip for you!”
“No tip is required miss!” the man replied quickly handing her the vase.
“Taking the flowers from him she closed the door and detached the card. After placing the vase on the counter near the entertainment system, she opened the envelope and read it aloud.
“Welcome Home!” was all it said, but in that bold handwriting that she would recognize anywhere. She knew who the flowers were from immediately.
So, Darius was here and he knew that she was too! But what was the meaning of “Welcome Home”? Her home was where she belonged, back in Barbados not here on Derrien Island. The days for calling this place home were long behind her.
Despite her irritation at the words on the card the flowers beckoned to her invitingly and she buried her face in the scent of them and sensed some of the tensions from the day begin to ease out of her body. Darius always knew how to calm her down after a fight. Roses always did the trick and before long she was back in his arms again and he was forgiven. She never could stay mad at him for long once he gave her roses. Of course he never gave her roses for the fights they had about her career change and maybe that’s why they divorced. He never apologized, and he was never sorry about any of it!
That thought caused her to stop in mid-sniff to consider exactly what she was doing. Was he still testing her weakness to him with these silly games? Sending her flowers to get her all warmed up so that she would be open to any suggestion he would make, and not just that but welcoming her home too?
Immediately, all of the bottled anger she felt for the last year when he never bothered to even call her or to find out how she was doing simply boiled over in one minute. The last contact she had with him was signing for the wire transfer of one hundred and twenty million dollars to her personal bank account as her divorce settlement. He had succeeded in making her truly feel worthless and like a woman who had been tricked into giving her heart away. The money meant nothing to her and she knew to him it was only a drop in the bucket of his massive fortune. She’d wanted him, not his cold voice on the phone wanting to know if she’d received her money without difficulties!
Dropping the card to the floor she felt hot tears spring to her eyes and before she knew it she had grabbed her passkey and left the room and strode toward the elevators. She knew where she was going the moment she left her room and it was confirmed when she pressed
the number eleven.
There were only three suites on the top floor of this hotel; the presidential suite, the penthouse deluxe and Darius’ private office and living quarters. Seeing the door she was looking for at the end of the hall she walked quickly and opened the outer door leading from the secretary’s office to his inner sanctuary. She barely nodded at the security guard who was seated in his cubicle before barging into Darius’ domain. The door was ajar and she and knocked on it loudly. Behind her she could hear the opening and closing of the door to the security office and the sound of rapid footfalls behind her.
“Miss, stay where you are and don’t move, this floor is off limits to the guests!” warned the voice behind her.
Candasee was in her element and did not even bother to turn around to acknowledge the guard. She was waiting for the man seated behind the desk typing on his laptop to look up and see that he had company. Her breath was coming in almost breathless heaves now as she observed him. Even from here he exuded an aura of pure male energy that made him so attractive to her and that thought caused her anger to blaze brighter.
Darius tore his eyes away from the computer screen at the sharp sound of his security detail issuing orders for a female to stop. He looked up quickly to see one of his personal guards pointing a tazer in Candasee’s direction as she stood in his doorway looking as though she would rip him to shreds!
“Gerald, it’s okay! You can lower your arm, I’m not in any danger here,” said Darius standing slowly as the surprise of seeing Candasee first assaulted his abdomen like a million fluttering butterflies. Was he still supposed to get that feeling when her saw her he mused, amazed at his reaction. She looked gorgeous in a tousled way with her hair loosely clipped behind her head with a few escaped tendrils framing her face. She was dressed in a lilac coloured top that exposed her toned arms and the length of her neck with a pair of form fitting blue jeans that emphasized the soft swell of her hips.
“Are you sure sir?” asked Gerald taking his job seriously and assessing the level of threat.
“Yes Darius, are you sure?” asked Candasee taking a menacing step forward into the room.
Darius moved out from behind his desk and walked right up to Candasee and stood about three feet away from her, just drinking in her presence. He could see she was livid but he could not get over that she was here and that she’d actually come up to see him. He wanted to take her in his arms and hold her, but he knew this was not the time for that. She was holding one of the roses in her hand, which told him that she received his welcome gift.
“Candasee, I didn’t know you would be coming up here tonight or else I would have greeted you at the door,” he said unsure of what he could possibly have done wrong already. “But welcome home!” he added.
Gerald lowered his hand and moved away a discreet distance but Darius knew he was still on his guard for the slightest indication from his boss! He had only seen one other woman come up here who was not on the management teams, and that was his mother who was always welcome and always in a good mood. This angry woman was unfamiliar to him but Darius seemed to know her quite well, thought Gerald.
“That is the whole problem I have with you Darius! You assume that you just know it all don’t you. Do you actually think I wanted to come here and within a few minutes of reaching my room realize that you are already trying to manipulate me by separating me from my group, and sending me these roses?”
Darius stood in silence and a muscle in his jaw tensed as he watched Candasee lay into him.
“I came up here to tell you that I will not be bought this time with any of your little gestures. When you decided you didn’t want me and all of me, this marriage was over and it still is! I don’t know what kind of mind games you are trying to play with me here, but I did not decide to come to this hotel. If I had my way you would have never even known that I was on this island! We had our time and that has passed by, let me at least enjoy this media and arts intensive without you ruining every moment of it for me!” shouted Candasee.
Good she had made her point! Let him digest that while she returned to her room. She whirled around to storm back down the hallway and away from Darius who for some reason had become even more handsome and refined than she had last remembered. Did his hair always have that extra curl to it and were his shoulders always that broad and his eyes...
Her progress was interrupted by a firm hand that pushed the door closed in front of her face. Jumping back in surprise, she collided with a solid wall of muscle and that impact released a wave of heat and the characteristic scent of his body around them. She had not even seen Darius move but suddenly she was trapped between the warmth of his body and the solid frame of the oak door. Trembling violently she was not sure if it was because she was angry or if it was because she could feel how the warmth from Darius’ body was radiating into her and how good he smelled. The scent of frankincense was always one of his favourites and clearly this cologne he was wearing contained that heady aromatic.
“Candasee, please wait!” he said softly against her hair and he grasped her shoulder with his other hand willing her to stop trembling. He had no idea that she would take his welcome gesture so badly and he knew that if he had any hope of seeing her again he had to get her to calm down. “Please listen to me for a moment!” he asked softly. “Please!”
Standing this close to Candasee was all Darius dreamed about for years and it took all of his restraint not to turn her around and kiss her until she forgot what her true mission was to his suite tonight.
Slowly, Candasee sensed the burst of anger ebb out of her body like a tide and her body slumped against the door now totally tired and spent! She felt as though she was literally on a roller coaster since early this afternoon. She turned around and her face ended up being pressed into the break at the top of his slightly unbuttoned shirt, where he always applied his cologne. Why couldn’t she even maintain a good angry moment at this man? Why was his just standing so close to her affecting her so powerfully still?
She raised her eyes to meet his and found him watching her warily as though at any moment she might run away. That was exactly what she knew she should do, but for some reason she was rooted to the spot. She was also forgetting exactly why she came up here and attacked him in such a manner just now. Whatever happened to hoping they never ran into each other?
Stepping backward slowly now that he was more confident that she would not go bolting down the hall, Darius let her have her space. Standing there watching her as she looked back at him, he pushed his hands deep into his pockets to control his impulse to just grab her by the shoulders and kiss her deeply. Yes, he heard every word she said and by the looks of things she was still very angry at him but that did nothing to quell the desire within to hold her close to him. Just that moment of inhaling her hair and touching her arm had awakened something in him that he’d thought died a while ago.
“Darius, I shouldn’t have come up here,” said Candasee finally turning again to leave, feeling her face prickling with embarrassment as she recalled how out of control she must have seemed just now. The security guard must also have thought that she was out of her mind!
Darius ignored her last statement, hoping to engage her in even the shortest conversation before she left.
“I’m so glad to see you Candasee, you have no idea! Please don’t go yet!” he said earnestly trying to stay rooted to the spot where he was standing. Now that he had her in this room he did not want to let her go at all and he was racking his brain for something to say that would not offend her. “Will you come and sit for a while? I just ordered dinner, would you like anything?” he asked.
“No Darius, I am not hungry right now, I already ate at the airport. Didn’t you hear a word I said to you just now?” she asked regarding his calm demeanour incredulously.
Darius paused before he responded to her. “Yes, I heard everything you said and I am sorry if I offended you, it was not my intention!” he said sincerely.
&n
bsp; Darius, I think I should go back to my room now, I don’t feel so good,” said Candasee as the room appeared to tilt a little.
Seeing her looking unsteady Darius knew from experience that she must be exhausted from the events of the day and he reached out to steady her. Just that contact with her sent a super charge of what felt like electricity through his body and from the wonder in her eyes he knew he was not alone in that feeling. Not even she was too tired to notice the connection that still crackled between them.
“Ok ay, but at least let me get you something to drink first. I can’t have you stumbling back down the hallway like this. You must be very tired from travelling today.”
He took her hand gently praying silently that she would not push him away and led her over to the seating area where she followed and sat without the slightest resistance. In the past whenever she became like this he knew she was almost beyond the point of exhaustion. She was not the type to lose her cool just like that. The few times she did so, she was under extreme pressure working as an attorney on several important cases all at once; or when they had their arguments just before the divorce.
Moving over to the drinks caddy he knew he had at least two bottles of the sparkling ginger drink she’d always raved about there and he poured her a glass. Whenever she got really exhausted in the past she always liked to have one of these to settle her stomach and usually she would just end up falling asleep afterward.
He sat beside her and offered her the glass and she drank the golden liquid quickly and then handed him the empty glass. He took it from her and rested it on the low mahogany coffee table in front of them.
Candasee knew that all the fight had gone out of her body and all she felt now was an overwhelming tiredness. Coming up here was a definite mistake and now all she wanted to do was to sleep. She couldn’t fall asleep here; this was not the plan at all. All of her bravado and self talk about how she would go out of her way to avoid him and make sure their paths never crossed during this trip was now a complete waste of time. She was the one who initiated contact. If she had the energy, she would kick herself in the shins.
Hidden Love (Derrien Island Trilogy) Page 5