Bound By Her Ring

by Nicole Flockton

  No, he didn’t want to think about that. Didn’t want to spoil their last night at the resort. Didn’t want to think about what would happen tomorrow when they stepped off the plane.

  When he’d first arrived back, he’d been so sure his plan would succeed. So sure he would be able to resist her. Now his resistance to her was below zero. She was well on the way to weaving herself in his heart again.

  He gave himself up to the moment and promised himself that he would make this a night to remember for Jasmine.

  “No, your beauty outshines even the most luminous pearl,” he breathed the words against her lips.

  He directed her to the bed and encouraged her to lay down. He wanted to take his time but the desire to possess her consumed him and he couldn’t fight the fire in his blood.

  He reached down and tested her readiness. His fingers came back slick with her answering desire.

  He groaned as he pushed into her, waiting a moment before thrusting fully in. She was so tight and warm and it was like heaven.

  He couldn’t wait a moment longer, he started to drive into her with long, slow strokes, building up momentum until they both fell over the edge together.

  The early fingers of dawn edged through the miniscule gaps in the blinds. With the early morning sunlight, came the realisation her time in paradise was over.

  What would happen when their plane landed? Would Lukas want to stay with her? He hadn’t given her any idea that he could foresee a future together.

  Jasmine wanted to believe with all her heart the tenderness with which he made love to her last night indicated he wanted to start over with her.

  There was almost a desperation about Lukas the last time they’d made love. His touches, his kisses the way he held her close before finally letting his control go and let his release pump into her.

  She shivered recalling the intensity of it all.

  “Cold?” his voice sounded heavy with sleep.

  “No, just remembering.”

  He pulled her closer. “Sleep tesoro mio, we have plenty of time before we have to leave.”

  The next time she awoke she was alone and a glance at the clock told her it was only eight, still early. She went to rollover and catch the elusive dream she’d been having. But the bathroom door opening and Lukas’s fresh scent wafting out to her had her fully awake in seconds.

  She eyed him and wondered if she could tempt him back into bed with her.

  “As much as I would love to take you up on the offer, we do have a plane to catch. Come on sleepyhead up you get.”

  She shrieked as he pulled the covers off of her. Her shriek was quickly replaced to a moan of pleasure as he took her lips on a sensual ride.

  When he released her she fell back on the pillows. “You now expect me to be able to walk to the shower?”

  “I could always carry you if you like?”

  The idea tempted her very much but reason took over and she dragged her body out of bed. “If you do that then we really will miss our flight.”

  He laughed and dropped his towel; the sight of his aroused body almost had her reconsidering her noble intentions. In protest she threw a pillow at him and had the satisfaction of hearing him grunt when it connected with his chest.

  “Breakfast will be here in fifteen minutes.”

  She waved her hand to let him know she’d heard him. She showered in double quick time and was doing up the last button on her blouse, as the knock sounded at the door.

  Would there be a little present waiting on the trolley today, she mused.

  “As if,” she muttered out loud, as she gave her hair one last swipe with the hairbrush. “One multiple thousand dollar pendant is surely more than enough Jasmine Anderson.”

  No, she wasn’t Jasmine Anderson, she was Jasmine Morelli.

  She spoke the words out loud, liking what she heard. “Hi, I’m Jasmine Morelli.”

  “Yes you are, and breakfast is getting cold.”

  Mortification at being caught out had her ducking her head to let her hair cover her heated cheeks.

  “I’m so embarrassed,” she groaned.

  “Why?” he questioned. “After all this time of not knowing your married name, of course you want to hear what it sounds like.”

  “I guess so.” She hadn’t thought of it that way. It did make sense, but it wasn’t the reason she was saying it, but she was willing to grasp at anything.

  He held out his hand. “Come on, let’s eat.”

  She grasped his hand and he led her out to the balcony.

  “It’s such a beautiful morning I thought we could have our last breakfast here.”

  She didn’t object, but his words last breakfast troubled her. Was that his way of saying not to expect too much when they returned to Perth?

  A quick glance at the table confirmed it was just food and there was no sparkling gift sitting there jauntily waiting for her to open and reveal its treasure.

  “My necklace is in…”

  “Right here,” Lukas interrupted and extracted the delicate chain from his pocket. The sunlight glinted off the diamonds as it swayed from side to side in the gentle breeze.

  “Will you put it on again for me?” she asked.

  “It will be my pleasure, tesoro mio.”

  And in a re-creation of the previous morning Jasmine held her hair up and out of the way to enable him to place it around her neck. The moment the heavy pearl rested against her upper chest she covered the pearl with her fingers.

  “I wish we had more time to meet with the designer.” She wanted to ask how he came up with his unique designs.

  “I’m sure during the negotiations between my corporation and Fierro’s something could be arranged.”

  “That would be fantastic. I imagine it will be difficult to get him to agree to show and sell his pieces other than up here.”

  Lukas sat back down and started eating. “I don’t believe it will be too much of a problem.”

  Something about the way he spoke had her questioning him further. “You know him don’t you?”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Well the supreme confidence with which you speak about him, as if you know him personally.”

  “I could never keep much from you, cara. Yes you’re right, we are friends. We met when we were at college and we kept in touch.”

  Triumph at being right sizzled through her. “Well I shall be the envy of many women. Not only do I have a Jeffrey Courteux original necklace, but my husband knows him personally.”

  “Your necklace is not the only design by him you own.”

  She sat back and thought for a moment about her jewellery at home. Everything in her jewel box she remembered purchasing. Was Lukas talking about a piece of jewellery he had possession of?

  Then another thought hit her. She looked at the rings on her left hand. The rings she had refused to remove. The rings that connected her to the man sitting opposite her.

  “Are you saying…?”

  “Yes.”

  “My rings.” She couldn’t help but ask the question she had to know. “Did I know that?”

  “Yes.”

  Jasmine glanced back at them, the enormity of the moment sinking in. Her rings just weren’t a generic design that any another woman could possess. Her rings were unique, designed especially for her. Had he told Jeffrey how he wanted them designed or did he choose them from an array of designs? As she looked at the ring on Lukas’s hand she had her answer. For the first time she noticed the matching etching on his and her wedding bands, the only difference was her band was interspersed with diamonds and his wasn’t.

  Lukas was an enigma, she decided. It was hard to compare the man sitting in front of her with the one she’d first met only a few days ago. She couldn’t comprehend it all. They were two completely different men, and she knew which one she preferred.

  The man sitting on the opposite side of the table.

  “My rings were removed when I was in the hospital.
When I was discharged they were handed back to me along with the rest of my personal belongings.”

  The feelings she encountered then charged back through her veins now. The emptiness and loneliness and sheer panic competing with the complete sense of loss of not knowing her past.

  “I had to put them on straightaway. The moment I did I felt calmer. They belonged there and I knew I wouldn’t take them off ever again.”

  She looked up and noticed Lukas’s rigid posture. It was like he didn’t want to know, but once the gates had been opened on that day, she couldn’t stop the words from flowing out of her.

  “I was so angry at the hospital for taking them off. I blamed them for my memory loss. I reasoned that if I’d still had them on, I wouldn’t have forgotten who put them there. I wouldn’t have forgotten my husband.” She finished on a whisper.

  Strong arms enfolded her and just like the moment she put her rings back on, calmness stole away her aching loneliness.

  “Nothing comes of remembering that painful time. Look forward, cara, look forward.”

  But look forward to what, she wanted to ask. A future with him or a future without him?.

  She voiced her concerns. “What do I have to look forward to?”

  “So much more than just remembering the past.” He stood abruptly and glanced at his watch. “As much as I know you need to talk about this more we have a flight we need to catch.”

  “Fine,” she threw her napkin on the table, stood and walked back into the suite to collect her bag.

  Frustration vied with relief. Part of her wanted to know, the other part didn’t. She wanted to believe, at least until they returned to Perth, that this was more than just a casual fling, that the past few days together had been the ground work to building a new and stronger relationship between them.

  “Cara mia, everything will become more focussed when we return. Here, where there are no complications, no outside influences, no one but us. It paints everything in a rosy glow.” He opened the door for her and waited for her to precede him out. Once they were heading to the car he continued.

  “You can’t get a handle on any situation until you live in it the circumstances in which it is meant to be lived. Trust me, everything will be fine.”

  And she did, she realised. She did trust that he would do the right thing. She just hoped it would be what she wanted.

  The mood was a lot different this time when she boarded the plane. The hostess was the same as the previous trip and she found out her name was Marie and she’d been in Lukas’s employ for only a few months. This time, when Marie smiled at Lukas, no spark of jealousy pierced her heart.

  She seated herself in the same seat as before and put her seatbelt on, all the while taking deep breaths to calm her nerves.

  She jumped slightly as Lukas took hold of her hand, rubbing it between his two large, warm hands.

  “You have more chance of dying by being hit by a car than a plane crash.”

  She groaned her stomach flip flopping. She placed her hand on it in an attempt to stop the jumping. “Seriously, I really don’t need to hear facts and figures. Plus I’ve lived through a car crash and don’t plan on experiencing the other.”

  Jasmine tightened her grip on Lukas, her nails digging into the fleshy part of his hand as the plane gathered momentum and roared down the runway.

  She bit her lip hard and, once again, when the wheels locked into their bay, only then did she loosen her grip.

  “You seemed much calmer on the flight up, than you do now.”

  She tried to laugh to lighten the mood, but it sounded more like a snort mixed in with a hiccough. “Trust me when I say, I was just as nervous then.” She raised her eyes up to him. “Only that time I had to hide it.”

  A myriad of emotions flicked across his face as if he was weighing up what she’d said. She couldn’t understand why he had so much trouble believing her sometimes. She’d always been an honest person. What had happened to make him doubt her? She was determined to find out and change it.

  “I’m glad you feel more comfortable around me. I probably wouldn’t have been as accepting last time if you had displayed such terror.”

  She recalled how he’d acted and the words he’d spoken. “Well, last time, you did mention something about distracting me,” she said as she looked coyly up at him from beneath her lashes. “If you mention it again you might get a different response.”

  “Is that right? We’ll just have to see what happens,” he replied as he ran a finger around the hem of her top.

  Her nipples peaked beneath her clingy silk fabric and a shiver reverberated down her spine. His seductive tone swirled around her like tendrils of smoke from a candle and if she were standing she was sure her knees would’ve buckled and she would’ve swooned at his feet.

  She didn’t know how long they looked at each other, their eyes communicating, their fingers touching, their emotions dancing around each other until they collided and danced as one.

  The silent battle taking place between them, in the close confines of Lukas’s luxurious jet, was just as arousing as when Lukas was in full seduction mode. She wanted to rip her seatbelt off, take him by the hand and drag him down to the room at the end of the plane where a bed was waiting.

  “Not yet, we need to wait until we are at cruising height before we can leave our seats.”

  His calm words didn’t cool her desire, they only inflamed it. For the first time ever she willed the plane to reach the necessary height.

  “Soon, amore, soon, but I can do this.”

  ‘This’ turned out to be a mating of their lips. She arched into him, wanting to get closer but unable to because of the limitations of her seatbelt. She thrust her fingers into his hair, relishing the feel of his soft, springy hair.

  The plane jolted violently and as her fingers dug into his head, their noses collided.

  Terror raced up her spine, its spindly tentacles leeching into her blood. A scream built low in her belly, and if Lukas hadn’t have spoken, it would’ve exploded out of her.

  “It’s okay, Jasmine.” He wound his arms tighter around her, throwing caution to the wind by raising the arm rest between them.

  The plane hitched again and she was sure it was about to plummet down to the ground. At least she would die holding the man she loved.

  And as quickly as it started it was over. The plane levelled out. Before she had time to think the captain’s voice boomed loudly in the cabin.

  “Sorry about that Mr and Mrs Morelli. We hit some crosswinds, but I’ve taken the plane to a cruising height of thirty thousand feet. It’s hard to tell if we may encounter more turbulence, so I would suggest you remain seated with your seatbelts fastened until further notice. My apologies again.”

  The silence in the cabin sounded louder than the captain’s voice. Fear had her reaching down and tightening her harness until it almost cut her in half. She closed her eyes and muttered a silent prayer while wishing she could somehow be magically transported safely back to Perth.

  “Where is Doctor Who with his Tardis?” she muttered.

  “Probably morphing between one realm and another. We don’t need him, Darryl is an excellent pilot. I only employ the best.”

  “Yes, I know you do.”

  “Then try and relax, the more nervous you are the longer the flight will be.”

  “Easier said than done, you know.” She checked her seatbelt again.

  “I don’t want to revisit your accident.”

  The words were terse and she was confused at his reaction. Now it was her turn to do some reassuring.

  “So seeing as moving isn’t an option what can we do to fill the time until we can land safely?” she asked.

  “I can think of many things, how about I show you?”

  “Sounds intriguing go ahead and dazzle me.”

  She spent the next hour in a haze of mind blowing feelings. His touch and caresses transporting her to a place where all thoughts were lost and all sh
e did was feel.

  Adrenalin was pumping through her at breakneck speed, leaving her little time to breath as Lukas moved from one erogenous zone to the next. And when finally, her climax took hold she felt she was flying alongside the plane.

  She collapsed in his hold and after a while the glow of contentment faded and was quickly replaced by embarrassment. What if the pilot or the hostess had walked out when Lukas was seducing her into her relaxed state?

  “I can’t believe I just let you do that. We could have been caught out at any time.”

  She tried to break out of Lukas’s hold but he held her firm, kissing the top of her head while a hand stroked lightly up and down her spine. “My staffs know better than to intrude. If I need them I let them know. Otherwise they remain at the front end of the plane.”

  Jasmine knew he was trying to be reassuring but she felt anything but reassured. She also knew it would be futile to fight out of his embrace. So she lay quietly, the steady beat of his heart under her ear lulling her to sleep.

  A soft kiss on her lips roused her from her slumber.

  “We’re about to land.”

  She couldn’t believe how long she’d slept. She stretched to iron out the kinks that had taken hold during the flight.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t better company on the rest of the flight.”

  “It’s fine.” Lukas replaced the armrest between their sets, took hold of her hand and tucked it into his as they started to descend. “We’re almost home.”

  Her sigh was heartfelt; the end of their idyllic getaway was fast approaching. How different the trip home had been to the trip up.

  The sound of the plane’s landing gear engaging had her tensing momentarily. No, she told herself sternly, she was going to overcome this fear. She dropped her shoulders and let the tension seep out of her.

  We’re going to be fine. We’re going to be fine.

  She chanted to herself for a few seconds. When she felt more in command she flashed a wide smile to Lukas.

  “I’m done being afraid.”

  He didn’t say anything, just raised her hand to his lips.

  The plane touched down smoothly and taxied to a stop. Disembarking only took moments and then Lukas led her out of the plane and to the waiting car. Once he had her settled he said a few quiet words to the driver and then got in beside her.