The West Wind

by Morgan Douglas

  He laughed and gestured with his head through the doorway. “Come on, this is my room.”

  Hero climbed the last few steps and stepped into the room. Where the library had bookshelves, the cupola had windows. A thick air mattress and a suitcase rested on the floor. That was it.

  “You don’t have any curtains,” she noticed.

  Xander laughed. “No, we haven’t hired an interior designer yet. We wanted to get the renovations done first.”

  “Doesn’t that make it hard to sleep in?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t mind. We get up early to work on the house anyway. Plenty of time for sleeping in when the work is done.”

  “Can I do it?” Hero asked. Interior design was one of her dreams.

  “Work on the house? You could help if you wanted to. . .” he trailed off.

  “No, silly. Choose your curtains. Help decorate. You obviously need a woman’s touch,” she said with a wink and a smile.

  “Oh.” He paused. “Yeah, sure. Up here at least. I get veto power, though,” he said the last words suddenly. Visions of lacy pink curtains floated through his head.

  She grinned wickedly, reading his thoughts from the expression on his face. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure it’s appropriate for a boy’s room, promise.”

  “Check this out,” he said out of nowhere and flipped the light switch.

  The room went dark, but outside the windows she could see everything. She gasped. The moon was bright, nearly full and played on the ocean out to sea as if it were painting the waves by hand before sending them to shore. The lights at La Hacienda were dark, but other homes on the island made tiny fires in the darkness and the town created a night sky of its own as it stretched out into the hills and across the shoreline.

  “Is there anything in your life that isn’t breathtaking?” she breathed as he came to stand behind her and she leaned back against him.

  “No,” came his simple answer in the dark, its meaning obvious. She immediately turned and embraced him, flattered. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close, resting his cheek lightly against the top of her head. She had never felt more comfortable, nor safer, in her entire life. She started to lift her head, thinking about kissing him, when Zach’s voice called up from below.

  “Xander, are you up there?” he asked, loud enough to be heard from the bottom of the stairwell.

  “Yeah, I was just showing Hero the view.”

  “Can we have the lights on, please? You know I don’t really care, but let’s do it for the sake of propriety.”

  “Propriety is a harsh mistress,” Xander called down.

  “And yet please her we must,” Zach yelled back calmly.

  “Alright,” Xander said, disentangling himself from Hero and turn the lights back on.

  “Propriety thanks you, Son. I’m going to bed now, so keep her in mind.”

  Xander laughed. “Goodnight, Dad.”

  Hero joined him, “Goodnight Zach, It was nice to meet you.”

  “Goodnight Hero. Make sure my son behaves.”

  “Of course,” she replied, but he was gone. Hero sat down on the air mattress and found herself sitting on the floor. When Xander sat down next to her his weight lifted her back up and she laughed. He grinned and kicked off his shoes, then layed back. She lost her balance and let herself fall back on him. She snuggled up close, her head pillowed on his shoulder and one arm rested along the center of his chest. Her palm pressed against him and she could feel his breathing and hear his heartbeat. She let herself linger in the comfort of it.

  They talked for a while, about anything and everything. It was so easy. Neither of them were particularly introverted, but their conversations flowed as easily as their dancing. One lead, the other followed and then they switched again. It was as if they were pieces of a puzzle, one that only had two. As the night wore on the pauses in the conversation grew larger and larger as Hero grew more comfortable and started to fall asleep. She knew she should go, but didn’t want the feeling to end. She tried to wake herself up with a final questions that she’d been wondering about all night.

  “Xander?” she murmured sleepily.

  “Yeah?” he replied.

  “Why haven’t you kissed me yet?” she asked with her eyes closed.

  She could feel him grin with her whole body as his muscles worked together to turn the corners of his mouth up.

  “I don’t kiss on the first date,” he answered.

  “Mmm. . .” she responded, and fell asleep.

  * * *

  Hero stirred and screwed her eyes shut in protest against the light streaming in through the windows. She could still feel Xander close to her and smell him. It was a dream she didn’t want to wake up from. She snuggled up against him. When she realized it wasn’t a dream, her eyes flew open. He was there. She was still there. She sat up violently, spilling out of the bed.

  “Oh my god!” she exclaimed. “I am so dead.”

  Xander sat up slowly and shook his head clear. “Huh?” he said through the fog of sleep. His motion shifted the air in the mattress and Hero used the momentum to help her stand up.

  “Can you take me to Jaimie’s house? Like, right now? What time is it?” she fired off one question after the other without taking a breath.

  “6:30,” he said blearily. “And yes, and yes. Are you okay?”

  “Uh, no. If my mom finds out I spent the night with a guy she’s going to kill me.”

  Xander woke up all at once as if a bucket of ice water had been splashed on his face.. “Oh, shit. I fell asleep. I’m sorry. I meant to wake you up, I was just enjoying having you here.”

  “And I liked being here, but if we don’t go, you’ll probably never see me again in this lifetime.”

  He nodded and they rushed out of the house.

  Xander dropped her off outside Jaimie’s a short while later. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before sliding out of the car.

  “Last night was wonderful, thank you. I have to go.”

  “I know. It’s okay, go. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Thank you, I can’t wait, thank you.”

  He laughed. “Go, I don’t want to have to perform a seance just to see you again.”

  “Bye!” She slammed the door in her hurry and ran to Jaimie’s front door. Xander drove away.

  Hero tried the door handle. She had left her purse at the club, so she didn’t have her phone to get ahold of Jaimie. It was unlocked and she pushed it open gently. When it was open wide enough she slipped in and began to stealthily close it behind her. Jaimie, dressed in pyjama shorts and a light tank, was standing in the entrance, waiting for her. Hero cringed.

  “Where have you been?!?!” Jaimie hissed.

  Hero winced. “With Xander,” she admitted.

  “Did you sleep with him?” her friend demanded in a whisper.

  “Literally, yes. We didn’t have sex, if that’s what you’re asking. We didn’t even kiss.”

  “Good,” Jaimie said, her tone short and grumpy. “I wouldn’t have let you stay if you had.”

  “Jaimie!” Hero said incredulously.

  “I wouldn’t have,” she insisted. “Come on, let’s go to my room before we wake up my parents.”

  Hero nodded.

  When they made it safely into Jaimie’s room, Jaimie turned on her friend.

  “What were you thinking?” she demanded. “I was worried sick about you. I thought maybe he’d turned out to be a psycho killer after all and left your body in a ditch somewhere. You didn’t even take your purse! He could have kidnapped you and no one could have tracked the GPS on your phone or anything.”

  Hero hugged her. “I love you.”

  “Your mom called last night. I told her you were asleep.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Don’t do it again. I won’t lie for you next time. I don’t trust him.”

  “I do. Absolutely.”

  “Why?”

  “Oh my god, le
t me tell you.”

  * * *

  Zach was sitting at the card table they had set up in the kitchen eating breakfast when Xander got back. He looked up at his son as he came into the room. His eyebrows lifted with a question. Xander grinned sheepishly.

  “Propriety’s anger narrowly averted,” he said.

  “Hmm,” his father responded. “Let’s not make that mistake again. Did anything happen?”

  “No, we just fell asleep while we were talking.”

  “With the light on?” Zach knew his son liked it dark and quiet when he slept. He figured Xander must be sleeping with a pillow over his head in the cupola.

  “Ah, yeah. I think I fell asleep around 3:00.”

  “And her?”

  “2:00?”

  Zach laughed. “You’re definitely my son. That happened to your mother and I often when we first met.”

  Xander smiled sadly. “I wish she were here.”

  “So do I, son. So do I.”

  Xanadu

  Xander sat on a bench overlooking the ocean. It was mid-afternoon. A garden grown into a jungle of weeds and riotous colors of untamed flowers surrounded him. Though the two McConnells had spent many late nights pouring over, drawing out, scrapping and re-drawing their plans for every part of the renovations, they hadn’t had time to do anything about the landscaping. It was scheduled for next spring, once more than a few rooms of the house were habitable. Between the grounds and the building itself, the work on the Brighton House would keep them busy for at least a couple years. They had intentionally purchased the estate so the effort would help them keep their minds off of his mother, but recently it was harder to keep his mind off of Hero. As he thought of Hero, she appeared as if by magic, in a pair of black board shorts and a mesh & lace shirt over a black bikini, pushing her way through a patch of weeds at the edge of the cliff.

  “Well, hello,” he said in surprise. He got up and helped her through the rest of the way. “How did you get here?” he asked, puzzled.

  She took his hand and stepped out into the garden, brushing herself off while she answered.

  “I walked on water, of course,” she said playfully, hugging him.

  “Oh, of course. I knew that.” He hugged her back.

  She laughed, enjoying the feel of his arms around her. “You have a private dock. There are stairs carved into the cliff.”

  “Really? The realtor didn’t say anything about a dock.”

  Hero stepped away from him. “She probably didn’t know. You can only see it from the water. You might want to fix it, though. There are more than a few holes in it.”

  “I didn’t think a few holes in a dock would bother a woman who walks on water.”

  “Well, you might get wet, and I wouldn’t want that.” She grinned, then turned and started back into the brush she emerged from. She stopped and looked back at him. “Are you coming?”

  He leaned his head to one side in a question.

  “To see your dock. You’re not afraid of heights, are you?”

  He shook his head. “Alright, I guess I’d best see this mythical dock of yours,” he said, and followed her.

  The dock was in worse repair than Hero had given it credit for. ‘More than a few holes,” was an understatement. Nothing was left but beams and posts with the exception of a small platform at the end of the dock. Two tall poles stuck out of the water where it stopped, presumably to keep boats from running into it. Someone had nailed reflectors to the posts at some point. Hero picked her way across gingerly as Xander strode confidently toward the platform as if there was solid ground beneath his feet. About a yard from the end he paused and offered his hand to help her balance. She took it and made it easily the rest of the way.

  “Do this often?” she asked.

  “Ah, it’s not so different from walking across the frame of a roof. You get used to it.”

  “I see.”

  “Out of curiosity, where’s your cell phone?” he asked.

  “In the boat,” she answered suspiciously, nodding to where it was moored off to one side. “Why do you ask?”

  “Oh, I was just thinking about testing a hypothesis.”

  “And what’s that?” she asked, not trusting the mischievous twinkle in his eye.

  “I propose,” he said calmly, closing the space between them. She took a step back and found herself at the edge of the dock.

  “I propose,” Xander repeated. “That we discover whether or not you can actually walk on water.”

  While he spoke he had innocently taken her hand in his, maintaining perfect eye contact. His other hand had settled one her hip, distracting her from his roguish intent. When he finished his sentence, he pushed out with both hands.

  Hero screamed.

  She stopped screaming when she realized she was leaning out over the water, her heels over the edge and Xander, laughing, held both her wrists in his hands to keep her from falling. She glared at him.

  “You think you’re so clever,” she said in a cold voice tinged with wicked amusement.

  He smirked. She pulled him in.

  Xander fell into the water with a huge splash, twisting to avoid landing on top of her. When he came up, sputtering, Hero sent a wave over that swamped him again. He resurfaced and grabbed the dock with one hand.

  “Pfft,” he said as he spat water.

  “Eloquent,” Hero commented, treading water a few feet away. Xander thought she looked like some kind of naiad, a water nymph, with her hair wet. It reminded him of a scene in that old movie, Ferngully, for some reason.

  “How do you know I don’t have my cell phone?” he asked, teasing.

  “I texted you when I got here. You didn’t answer.” She was closer and took hold of the dock as well.

  I guess you don’t walk on water after all,” he said.

  “Maybe I just like being wet,” she countered.

  She watched his brain pause. She splashed him.

  “Perv.”

  “I prefer to think of it as a ‘healthy appetite.’”

  Hero laughed and kissed him. Xander’s eyes widened for just a moment before his free arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her into him. Her lips were soft, warm, and salty from the seawater. She sank into him as he drew her close and wrapped both arms around his neck. He held them both above water with one hand as they finally shared their first kiss. The gentle waves of the bay rocked them as they embraced.

  In spite of the fact that Xander was also busy keeping them from drowning, Hero had never been kissed like this in her life. It was like being kissed by someone who was completely unaware that anything else existed, as though she was his entire universe. As though he had no plans and wasn’t going anywhere, ever. It seemed to her that somehow his only goal in life was to kiss her in that moment. Each time he did, his lips would part hers ever so slightly and open her mouth just a little wider. His tongue would taste her, tease her, and slip away. It made her hungry for more and as the kiss began to grow more and more passionate she lost sense of time and self. Hero was vaguely aware of the waves and her weight, buoyed by the water. Beyond that, there was only his mouth on hers, his arm preventing her from floating away.

  Just when she thought it couldn’t be any more incredible, the kiss changed. His lips met hers, parted, but with the weight of a feather. Her mouth pursed to complete the kiss and he drew away in the middle of it, leaving her unsatisfied. She opened her eyes and look at Xander briefly, to see him grinning playfully at her. He leaned in to kiss her again and at the last second kissed the air so close she couldn’t tell if their lips had met or not. She growled and pulled his head into into hers, biting his lower lip firmly, but without causing pain. She felt him smile again, then was carried away by the tidal forces of the moment. The kiss lasted until a particularly large wave swamped them both.

  Hero pulled away from him, breathless and spitting sea water. Xander blew the water from his own mouth and watched her. His head almost hurt where the endorphins had flooded
his frontal lobe. She was incredible. Beautiful. All he wanted to do was kiss her once more, to spend the rest of the day exploring that feeling they’d achieved together. He took a deep breath and pulled himself up onto what was left of the dock, then helped her out of the water, lifting her all the way up until she was standing firmly on the wood. Then he kissed her again.

  “Not too easy, I hope?” she joked.

  “I think we’ve earned it,” he laughed.

  “I think you should remind me what it is we earned.”

  He did.

  When they broke for air, he said, wistfully, “I should really get back up to the house. Dad’s probably wondering where I am. We’re supposed to be sanding my stairwell.” He grimaced. “I can think of things I’d rather be doing.”

  “I can’t imagine what,” she teased.

  “I can show you, if you like,” he said, his arms wrapped around her waist. She opened her mouth to respond and discovered his lips on hers.

  “Mmm. . .” she said. The kiss was much shorter.

  “I’ll call you later?” he stated with a question mark.

  “Sounds good. I’m going to stay here and dry off for a bit, if that’s ok with you.”

  “Sure, sounds good to me. I’ll see you later.” He kissed her one last time and started to walk away across the boards.

  “Hey,” she called to him.

  He looked back at her. “Yeah?”

  She opened both hands out to the side as she teased him. “You haven’t quoted any poetry today,” she said with a grin.

  “Oh, you want poetry, do you?” he asked impishly.

  “I demand poetry,” she said with an air.

  “What the lady demands, she will have, then.”

  She smiled and feigned exaggerated expectation, arms crossed. Xander jumped and planted his feet wide as he came down. She reached out to steady him unconsciously, afraid he would fall in. He winked back at her as she caught herself and returned to pretending to be haughty.