Taming the Whirlwind

by L. M. Heidle

  “The pleasure was all mine, Ms. Day.” With that, I turned toward the apartment. The doorman insisted on helping us to the elevator with our bags.

  We walked into the apartment and I realized how tired I was. Between the roller coaster of emotions attributed to Kade this morning, the long hours shopping, and now the emotions rolling through my head once again attributed to Kade, I needed a hot bath and my bed.

  I threw the bags on my chair then headed towards my bathroom to start the tub. I tried not to think, which wasn’t too hard considering how tired I was. Once the tub filled up, I stripped off my clothes, throwing them carelessly around the bathroom. I sank in and sighed at how good it felt. I dozed until I was interrupted by a knock and then Meg peeked around the door.

  “Hey, I’m going to meet up with Derrick for dinner and drinks unless you need me.” How did she still have energy after today?

  “Nope, I’m good. I just plan on getting into my PJs, watching TV, and then crashing. I thought he was out of town for like a week though.” Her smile lit up her face.

  “He changed his plans so he isn’t leaving until tomorrow morning. He said he wanted to see me again before he left.” Her eyes were all lovey-dovey. It made me nauseous. She turned on her heel and skipped to her room to get ready. Once again, I felt a stab of jealousy. Would I ever find a nice, regular relationship?

  An hour later, our phone rang. It was Billy, the doorman. “Ma’am, I have a Derrick Foxer in the lobby requesting to come up.”

  “Billy, that’s fine, we’re expecting him. Sorry, guess we should have called.”

  “That’s fine, ma’am. I’ll send him up.” He hung up. A few minutes later, the doorbell rang. I walked over to the door and let Derrick in.

  “Come on in, Derrick. It’s nice to see you again.” I led him into the living room. “Go ahead and make yourself at home. I’ll go check on Meg.” I made my way down the hall to Meg’s room and knocked as I opened it. She was sitting on her bed, reading the latest gossip magazine. “If you’re ready, why are you in here?”

  She shook her head. “You know I like to make a guy wait for at least ten minutes. He has to know he’s not the important one here.” She winked conspiratorially at me as I rolled my eyes. She looked exquisite as usual. She was dressed in a white skirt, showing her amazing legs, with a pink silk shirt. She topped it all off with pink heels. There we stood, her looking beautiful and me in worn PJs; in a way it symbolized how real life was for us. She was always the beauty queen type and I was the jeans with sneakers type.

  I shook my head at her, “Well, I guess I’ll go keep him company.” I walked back to the living room, “Derrick, she’s almost ready.” He was sitting on the couch sprawled out like this was his place. I meant make yourself at home, not make this your home.

  He nodded at me. “How long have you guys lived here?”

  “Only a couple of weeks.” So much had happened in a short time it almost felt like we had been here for months not weeks.

  “I was wondering since there’re still moving boxes around.” Yeah, yeah we just hadn’t got to those yet.

  “Eventually we’ll get to those. You should have seen how many we’ve already gone through.”

  He laughed. “I remember moving into my first apartment. It took months before I had all the boxes unpacked.”

  When Meg finally made her appearance, his face lit up with a smile. Derrick stood and walked over to her. If the way they were looking at each other was any indication, I was going to have to get used to him being here. Derrick took her hand and they started walking towards the door. She looked over her shoulder, “Liz, don’t wait up.” Then they were out the door and I was alone, finally. I love Meg to death but sometimes, a person just needed to be alone. Tonight was one of those nights. I wanted to watch Castle while eating chocolate ice cream and curled up in my fuzzy pink blanket.

  I had made it through three hours of the marathon when the doorbell rang. I groaned. Who in the world could that be? It had to be a neighbor since the doorman hadn’t called up. I put my ice cream down and slowly walked to the door. I just wanted a night without interruptions. I opened the door to find Kade, standing there with a dozen pink roses.

  “Good evening. I know you don’t want to see me but I wanted to bring you something to apologize for my behavior.” I just stood there with my mouth open, looking like an idiot. He reached over to put his index finger on the bottom of my chin to close my mouth. The shock I got from his touch cleared my head somewhat.

  “Umm, you didn’t need to do that but thank you. They’re beautiful.”

  We just stood in the doorway staring at each other then he smiled. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

  “Oh yeah, sorry. Come on in.” My mind was still reeling. I was trying to avoid thinking about him tonight but there he was. He walked over to the kitchen to set the roses down. “Thank you again for the flowers. They’re gorgeous.”

  “I’m glad you like them. I wasn’t sure if you had a favorite flower, but the lady at the shop said they were the most popular ones. Well, I won’t keep you from your plans tonight.” He looked at the TV, ice cream, and back at my PJs. Oh crap! I was so shocked I didn’t even remember what I was wearing. Why did it always seem like I was in my PJs around this man?

  I flushed at his look. “Meg has a date so I’m just trying to wind down after my shopping marathon with her today.” He nodded.

  Should I ask him to join me? If he stayed, my relaxing night might not be so relaxing with Mr. Sex God sitting next to me. I looked at him again and he didn’t look like the demanding CEO anymore; he looked his age. It tugged at my heart as I wondered if he ever got to relax. “How do you deal with the pressure of being a CEO?”

  “When I have any free time, I like to rock climb.”

  “That sounds like a lot of fun, but I’m talking about doing something that requires hardly any thinking.” He shook his head at me. The words were out of my mouth before I thought about them. “Sit down.”

  “You want me to stay? You sure about that? I didn’t come over here to get an invitation to stay. You made it clear this morning that you wanted me to leave. I was just going to drop the flowers off and leave.” The hopeful expression on his face did me in.

  “Sure, why not?” Why not? Because my relaxing evening just flew out the window, that’s why not. Well, if he is staying, we might as well do this right. “Kick your shoes off and have a seat. I’ll get you a spoon.”

  “Get me a spoon?”

  I looked over my shoulder at him. “Yes. How else are you going to eat ice cream? Take a seat. I’ll be right back.” I turned to walk to the kitchen, where he couldn’t see me. I bent over and took a deep breath. Being close to him was a heady experience, a dangerously heady experience. If I wasn’t careful, I would end up wanting him more than I already did, which would just end up with me having a broken heart. I stood up, grabbed the spoon, and headed towards him. Ready or not, he was in my living room so I couldn’t hide in the kitchen all night.

  I sat down next to him and handed him the spoon. I grabbed the ice cream off the coffee table and curled up in my pink blanket. After setting the ice cream between us, I said, “Dig in.” I looked over at him to see that his eyes were smoldering. This was going to be the longest night of my life.

  We had sat in silence through almost a whole episode before he spoke. “So this is what you do to relax? You watch marathons and eat ice cream? That seems very odd to me considering you work out every weeknight.” Why am I not surprised he knows that?

  “Yep, I don’t have to think about anything when I’m doing this. I can shut the whole world out.”

  “What do you need to shut out?”

  I paused to look at him for a minute. Do I lie or tell the truth? I went for the truth. “Mainly you.” A look of shock crossed his beautiful features.

  “I’m that bad, am I? You need to shut me out?” Shoot…me and my big mouth.

  “You’re very confusing
. I have no idea what’s going on. One minute you act like you want to be with me, the next you’re pulling away. Now, can we please get back to our night? We can talk but nothing too serious. That’s the point of nights like these: to not think.”

  He smiled but his eyes told me he was deep in thought. I took another big spoonful of ice cream and focused on Castle and Bennett. The more time that went by, the more his body seemed to relax.

  “This isn’t my usual idea of fun but it’s nice.”

  I looked over at him and smiled. “I told you so. Eat more ice cream. That helps.” He laughed a real, genuine laugh that showed in his eyes. He looked so young when he laughed like that. It pulled at my heart again. It must be torture to always be so tense.

  On the next commercial, I stood up to take the empty ice cream container and the spoons to the kitchen. This was turning out to not be too bad. I walked back into the living room and sat down. I turned my head when he scooted closer to me. He ran his index finger down my cheek and over my lips before he grabbed my face softly with both hands. My body came alive when he touched me. How could this man cause such a reaction by just his touch? “Just so you know, you have my head spinning, too.” He leaned in and planted a soft sweet kiss on my lips. He pulled away to kiss my nose then he set back against the couch and focused on the TV.

  See? This is the crap I’m talking about. This man was going to drive me insane. In a calculating move, I grabbed my blanket and laid my head on his leg. His leg muscles tensed. I smiled, loving the fact that he reacted to me too. After a few minutes, he started to play with my hair. The sensation he caused was exquisite.

  It felt like heaven being next to him like this; so intimate, so normal. I glanced up at him to find him watching me, not the TV. “Do you know how beautiful you are?” I turned my body so I was looking up at him. “You take my breath away every time I look at you.” I flushed scarlet. “I love that you do that too.”

  “Me beautiful? When was the last time you had your eyes checked?”

  “Don’t do that. Whether you think it or not, you are a very attractive and smart young woman who deserves all the best that life can give. I just wish I could give it to you.”

  “You can. You just don’t want to.” His beautiful face was marred by a frown.

  “It’s not that I don’t want to. The thought terrifies me.” I reached up to stroke his cheek. He leaned into my hand and took a deep breath. Then he grabbed me by my waist and the next thing I knew, I was sitting up in his lap. His mouth was on mine in an instant. My body reacted almost instinctively to his. He put his arms around me to crush me to him. I sighed as he put his tongue in my mouth. I ran my fingers through his soft silky hair. The passion from our kiss and the closeness of our bodies was such an amazing feeling. He had one hand at the small of my back to hold me close while his other was at the nape of my neck. He kissed me from my shoulder up to my ear. When he brought my face back to his, the kiss started where it left off. Before I knew it, he stood up and started carrying me towards my bedroom, never breaking the kiss. I wrapped my legs and arms around him as tight as I could.

  All of a sudden, he stopped and turned around, going back to the couch. What? What is he doing? He gingerly sat me down on the couch. “What are we doing?”

  “Umm, I don’t know. You’re the one who came back to the couch.”

  “What’s the point in doing this? We both know it’s not going to go anywhere. I can’t give you what you want but I also know I can’t walk away from you. This is going to sound crazy but hear me out.”

  The only thing I could do was nod. What could he possibly have to say? I doubt he could say anything to make this whole situation crazier.

  “Do you think we could be friends?” He wants to be friends after what happened? I stand corrected; this situation just got crazier. “I know we would be going about this in a funny way.” Ya think? “This is the only way I know how to keep you in my life.”

  I couldn’t speak for a minute. “I don’t know what to say. I’m not sure we can do the whole ‘friend’ thing. I don’t know about you but I don’t usually go around having sex with my friends. Not to mention the fact that we were walking towards my bedroom less than five minutes ago.”

  “I know it won’t be easy but this way, I can make sure you’re safe.”

  I thought for a minute. Could I just be his friend? If I was honest with myself, it was a terrible idea. I knew we couldn’t but maybe, eventually, we could be more. I also knew that line of thinking would most likely only get me hurt. “You know I don’t need your protection. I’ve taken care of myself for years, even managed to feed and clothe myself.”

  His mouth set into a hard line as he glared at me. “I don’t care what you say. This city is a dangerous place and I’ll do anything and everything to protect you.”

  “Excuse me? Who made you ‘boss of the universe’?” I’m an adult woman. In a weird way, it was sweet because I knew that’s how Kade showed he cared, but still.

  “I’m sorry if you don’t like it but you’re just going to have to get over it. Whether you like it or not, it’s going to happen. The thought of something happening to you terrifies me. It’s not even worth discussing because nothing you say will change my mind.” I hated people telling me what to do, but I highly doubted arguing with him would do any good. “The friend issue is the more prudent choice.”

  Friends? On one hand, I knew it was a horrible idea like train-wreck bad. On the other hand, I liked the idea of us spending time together. It could be fun. “We can try but I’m not sure it’s going to work.” With his breath of relief, I smiled. “All I wanted was a nice relaxing night at home and you go all serious on me. You really don’t know how to relax, do you?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t like to leave questions unanswered so we had to settle our relationship tonight.”

  “Umm, okay, whatever. Let me get this straight so there is no confusion. We’re just going to be friends from this point on? That means no kissing or touching beyond quick hugs.” He looked about as excited as I was about that idea. “Also, no matter what I do, you’re going to ‘protect’ me. What exactly does that mean?”

  “Yes, that’s it in a nutshell. Like I said, it means doing anything and everything needed. You’ll have a driver if you need him. I’ve increased security here and at Parker Towers, just things like that.” For some reason, I seriously doubted that was the extent of what he was going to do.

  “This is going to be an interesting experience,” I muttered under my breath. I spoke a little louder to make sure he heard me, “You do know there is a fine line between protective and obsessive, right? I’m not going to stop living my life the way I want to and if your ‘protection’ gets in the way, we’ll have a problem. You have to promise me, you won’t do anything over the top.”

  He turned to look at me, “I’m not making any promises I’m not sure I can keep.” Oh, great. I’m pretty sure that meant he was going to be a major pain in the butt.

  “Right, of course you can’t. Now that we settled that, I suppose you’re leaving.” I wasn’t sure if that was a statement or a question.

  “Already ready to get rid of me, huh?”

  “No, you can stay. I just figured you would leave since we cleared the air like you wanted.”

  “I would like that as long as you can keep your hands off me.”

  “My hands off you? You’re the one who started playing with my hair. You’re the one that started the kiss.”

  He laughed. “Details, details. I’m pretty sure you started it. This is my story so let me tell it.” This was a whole new side to him; I didn’t know he could be playful. It gave me a little hope that a friendship could work.

  We stopped the heavy conversation and went back to the way we were. I laid my head back on his leg and he had his arm draped over my shoulder, tickling my arm. We sat there in blissful silence. I was lost in thought as I stared blankly at the TV. One glance at him and I could see he was lost in tho
ught too. Suddenly, my eyes were so heavy. His slow breathing was like a lullaby to me and I drifted off to sleep.

  I felt someone gently shaking me. “Liz, wake up. You fell asleep.” I rolled over so that I was turned towards him. I felt his fingertips gently caressing my face.

  “It’s not time to get up yet,” I mumbled.

  He sighed. “You can’t sleep out here. You need to go to bed.” I didn’t have the strength to answer him so I just snuggled in closer to him. He gently lifted my head and slid his knee out from under my head. I frowned. Was he leaving? I was slowly starting to wake up when I felt two arms under me as he lifted me into his arms. I wrapped my arms around his neck and laid my head against his strong shoulder. He held me tighter against his rock hard body. Being in his arms was true bliss. Even though I hardly knew him, I felt safe and cherished in his arms. He bent down to move the comforter out of the way and laid me down, tucking me in.

  He leaned in to kiss me on the forehead as I whispered, “Please stay.” He lay on top of the covers and held me. Friends could still snuggle like that, right? I think we were going to have to be more specific about the boundaries but tonight, I just wanted to enjoy the feeling of being in his arms.

  Chapter Eight

  Sunday, September 1

  I woke the next morning a little groggy. It took me a moment before I could get my eyes open as I started to remember last night. I sat straight up and looked around. My heart sank when I didn’t see him anywhere. Did I think that he would stay the night with me? I was going to have to stop thinking like that. If we were going to be friends, things were going to have to change. I can’t believe I agreed to be friends with him. I’m such an idiot. I flopped back on my pillow. It would never work. I looked to see what time it was but instead of my clock, I saw a note.

  Thank you for last night. I had a wonderful time. I may have to try relaxing more often.