Brash Boss

by Roberts, A. S.

  His words and the tone of voice he said them in thrilled me.

  I looked up from staring at the gold wedding band he had gently pushed onto my finger to see a smile spreading over his devastatingly handsome face. I knew without a doubt my wedding band had cost far less than the diamond I had pushed onto the same finger a couple of weeks ago, but it meant so very much more. Although I knew that this whole scenario was a charade, I couldn’t help the lump that formed in my throat with the constrained emotion inside of me and the happy skip of my heart.

  All I could do was to smile back, and I knew without a doubt my guard had completely evaporated before his all-seeing eyes. I was happy, joyful and excited about our future together and it was completely wrong for the occasion.

  For a split second his smile dropped and terror seemed to fill his dark eyes. Recognising he’d somehow slipped up in his own eyes, it was quickly replaced by a well-rehearsed smile he would probably bestow to the people he sat round a table with in a business meeting.

  Trip’s voice sounding, as he started to sing a line from what I knew from Kendall’s explanation on the flight over had to be a Beatles song, came from close behind us. Totally out of the blue I heard, ‘I wanna hold your hand.’

  Nico twisted his head to look over his shoulder and narrowed his eyes on Trip almost in warning and then burst out laughing.

  Thanks to Trip, the tense, horrible moment between us was broken.

  * * *

  We walked back down the hill to Nico’s home, occasionally stopping to have celebratory words spoken to us, and to have Nico’s hand clasped and shaken over exuberantly as the older villagers offered their sincere congratulations on our marriage. Two of them had even pinned money onto my dress despite Nico explaining it wasn’t necessary. But, after a gentle shake of Nonna’s head in reprimand, we’d understood that we had to allow it to happen so as not to offend anyone. The walk in the sunshine, that should have taken ten minutes at the most, stretched to just under an hour, and although I knew our marriage was an arrangement, the longer he held my hand and gently guided me forward, occasionally holding my elbow to offer me support on the unmade road, the more it felt very real.

  In truth, I had a rush of last-minute nerves as I’d entered the chapel. We were about to say vows in front of God and although I wasn’t deeply religious, I also wasn’t the sort of person who could make promises in such a holy place without feeling them deeply. But I remembered Nonna’s words about how love could grow from a seed of friendship and when Nico had smiled and then lifted his hand to receive me, my feet travelled on impulse towards him. Apart from when he placed my gold wedding band on my finger his hand hadn’t left mine and when we’d shared our first kiss together as man and wife, the touch of his lips on mine had drowned out everything and anyone else in the small chapel with us.

  His kiss had felt like he was accepting me body and soul. With that gentle, chaste kiss of ownership my body had sprung awake feeling more receptive and positive than I could ever remember. When he called me Mrs. Morello in front of the small wedding party, I knew then and there that it was something I wanted to hear fall from his lips for much longer than just the year I knew he was allowing us.

  I thought over the words of wisdom his grandmother had imparted to me before the wedding and wondered if I could make this small seed between us grow.

  If I wrote down everything about us on paper, I was sure we wouldn’t be compatible. Nico came from the sort of lifestyle you heard about in the media, watched in films and read about in historical literature. Whereas I came from what would be labelled as a regular Joe’s way of life. We had been a young military family that had been posted abroad. Although that was where our regular life had ended. My brother and I had grown up quickly as we fought to survive our mom’s neglect. We had been a family that was eventually driven apart by my mom’s homesickness, subsequent addiction to painkillers and my dad’s refusal to acknowledge that she needed help. I also knew what Nico was, where he came from and what families like his did to retain their success and standing. I understood that he had most definitely ordered things to be done that would terrify and sicken me. He himself had probably done things that I would find abhorrent, I mean the man himself had warned me against him and to not romanticise who he was.

  I wasn’t stupid. Sure, I had made some very poor decisions in my life, but no one could accuse me of being naive.

  But, so far, all he had shown me was kindness. He appeared to think of others before himself. He truly was a mass of contradictions. A puzzle that I desperately wanted to learn the complexities of.

  I knew I had to face facts. I knew what we were.

  We were an arrangement born out of convenience.

  But every single time he held my hand he made me feel like we were destined to be so much more. I wanted to be more than just a year in his life. I wanted to be more than the person he used to placate his beloved grandmother.

  I watched our feet walk side by side over the uneven Crete road and recognised that I wanted to walk by his side always.

  I wanted to be his forever.

  For once my head and heart were in complete agreement, but having just started therapy for another addiction, I knew I needed to take a complete step back. I had to be sure I wasn’t enabling the addictive personality my new therapist had diagnosed me with, by swapping one addiction with another.

  * * *

  ‘On behalf of my wife and I.’ Nico looked down at me and tipped the top of his Champagne flute towards me as he spoke. The completely straight line of his mouth that he normally directed to the world changed when the corners lifted a little with the beginnings of a smile as I wholeheartedly smiled back up at him.

  The twenty or so people who had been invited by Nonna, for a dinner on Nico’s pergola and grapevine covered patio to celebrate our marriage, murmured and softly clapped.

  ‘Well, my wife and I would like to thank you for coming to celebrate our wedding day with us.’ He waited until the small gathering became silent again before he carried on. ‘Bee and I want to especially thank my grandmother for arranging everything for us, for allowing us to have this day.’

  Well ain’t that just the truth.

  I blinked away my thoughts and like everyone else who seemed to hold the matriarch in high esteem, I raised my glass to her.

  ‘But I especially want to thank Bee, for marrying me. As I’m sure you will all agree she looks exquisite… alla mia bellissima moglie.’

  Again, murmurs of agreement went around the small crowd and although I only knew a few of the faces I found looking at us, I smiled my thanks out to them all.

  ‘You look beautiful, Bee… far too good for the likes of him,’ Trip shouted out and laughter consumed our small audience.

  Everyone knew Trip was joking, all apart from it seemed the man stood beside me. Nico shot him a look with his eyebrow rising so high it nearly touched his hairline and then he continued.

  ‘Many thanks to my best man for his addition to my speech… I know I’m not an easy man to be with. You have to understand that I know she’s far too good for the likes of me… So, I also want to thank Bee for bringing some light into the darkness I’ve been living in for years and to acknowledge her joy of life that she has so readily bestowed on me. It’s been awe inspiring and appreciated in what has been a very discontented existence.’

  For someone who I knew was only playacting, his choice of words were so heartfelt, and for a man who normally held all of his cards to his chest, so very painful. Agonising almost to the point that I could once again feel tears pricking at the back of my eyes.

  The crowd in front of us seemed to still.

  Suddenly feeling uncomfortable for my new husband, I went with my instinct and stood up quickly beside him. Nico’s head dropped momentarily as he looked down at the floor. I knew he would recover quickly, because I knew what sort of man he was. I just needed to buy him a few minutes grace. As I’d hoped, all eyes now moved to me. I was
as stunned into silence as our guests appeared to be, so I raised my glass up high.

  ‘To my new husband,’ I offered and smiled.

  Glasses raised in the direction of us both and out of the corner of my eye I saw Nico lift his head once again as he cleared his throat. Despite having spent so little time together I already understood that it was something he did when he needed to draw a clear line under what had happened, in order to move on.

  His hand lifted again as he offered up his glass to our guests, but the taut atmosphere still hung over the patio area where we were stood.

  Moving quickly and wanting desperately to relieve the palpable tension, I scooped my fingers through the moist wedding cake on the plate in front of me. My hand moved fast, and without thinking over what I was about to do, I lifted it up quickly and wiped my fingers down his nose, covering him with the sponge, fruit and cream. Then as realisation washed over me at what I’d just done, my arm froze in mid-air and I withheld my next breath as I offered him a nervous smile.

  Nico’s head snapped around and his wide eyes met mine. The initial look on his face was one of anger and although strangely he didn’t scare me, I knew in a bizarre way that I needed to be worried.

  The room around us erupted with laughter.

  I’d done exactly what I’d set out to do. I had lifted the fraught atmosphere. But what I hadn’t taken into consideration was the way the man stood next to me would react.

  I only inhaled my next breath when I saw the small crinkles appear at the corners of his eyes as he fought off a smile. I watched as he wiped a finger down the bridge of his nose slowly and as some of the cake fell into the blue rose he was wearing as a buttonhole. Still stunned into silence as I waited for his next move, I watched as his cake covered fingers pushed into his open mouth, a mouth that until now I hadn’t noticed was shaped like cupids bow.

  My core clenched as I watched his tongue flick out and start to lick his fingers clean. In front of our small party of gathered guests, I was embarrassed about the reaction I was having to such a seemingly normal action. The problem was the actions were being played out by the man who was stood next to me. He seemed to unknowingly have a hold over me, or maybe I was wrong. Perhaps he knew exactly what his actions were doing to me. Watching him again I knew he was being very deliberate, and he couldn’t have given a damn who was looking at us.

  Nico cleaned his fingers off slowly keeping his eyes fixed on me the whole time. My eyes however darted backwards and forwards from his fingers being sucked clean and the amusement I could now see in his dark brown orbs. Then as his expression changed and his left eye narrowed on me, I knew I was either in trouble or being thoroughly scrutinised or maybe even both.

  ‘That’s one amazing cake, Bee…I think you need to try some.’ The gold threads that ran through Nico’s dark eyes seemed to spark alight. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him so lit up with life before and it was enthralling.

  I smiled at him and shook my head. ‘No, you wouldn’t?’

  ‘Wouldn’t I?’ he teased back.

  I could already hear laughter beginning to ripple around the outside area.

  ‘But my beautiful dress?’ I watched him shrug his shoulders and then as I saw his hand begin to stretch out towards me, with a sudden primal instinct I was moving.

  I darted to the side of the table and breathed a sigh of relief when I heard nothing crash to the floor, despite having pulled against the starched, white linen cloth as I’d brushed passed the table. Quickly, I steered myself in between the tables in front of me to the outer walled area of the patio and then I fled down the zig-zag walkway I knew led to the beach.

  I was moving as fast as I could allowing for the fact that I’d already consumed three glasses of Champagne and was wearing the delicate, strappy heels we’d bought back in Vegas. I stopped momentarily, knowing they were slowing me down and pulled the shoes off my feet, dropping them unceremoniously on the landscaped rockery beside me. My heart was pounding in excitement as I looked back over my shoulder to see that Nico was stalking behind me, with the piece of cake still attached to his fingers and a broad smile on his face. I was running and he was only walking, but the strides he was taking meant he was ever so slowly catching me up.

  I could hear the laughter coming from our wedding guests and a few of them including Trip and Kendall had come to the edge of the patio to lean on the wall to watch our descent.

  Oh yes, I certainly knew how to detract from an uncomfortable situation.

  I’d saved him.

  Now, how was I going to save myself?

  Chapter Eighteen

  Bee

  At last my bare feet hit the cool sand. Although the day had been hot, without a cloud in its blue skies, the sand below Nico’s home had been in the shade of the cliffs around it for quite a while. Having been here for a few days already, I knew that sunset was nearly upon us and we would soon both be propelled into twilight and the limited light coming down from his house above us. Feeling the need to make better progress and even though I knew my dress wasn’t long enough to really hold me back, I lifted up the full skirt and began to run.

  Excitement and fear propelled my feet across the expanse of sand like I was completing the 100yard dash back in high school.

  From above me, I heard Kendall’s voice, ‘Bee run, he’s catching up… RUN!’ she screamed and I recognised instantly that she was clearly excited by what she was watching unfold as her voice hit my ears.

  I found myself at the large rocks that were dotted around at the bottom of the cliffs. Cursing under my breath as my bare feet left the soft sand and found the occasional chip of stone, I darted behind the nearest one hoping it would conceal me from him.

  Desperate to escape him I held my breath trying to silence the gasps that were now leaving my mouth.

  Silence enveloped me.

  I clutched onto the rock in front of me and tentatively began to try to peer around it in a bid to find my pursuer. But as the light grew dimmer, I comprehended that I hadn’t a clue where he was.

  My heart leapt up into my mouth.

  ‘Nico,’ I called out nervously.

  I strained my ears but could hear nothing over the soft ripple of the sea caressing the shoreline.

  What’s he playing at?

  Slowly, I bent down lower, peered around the side of the rock I’d been hiding behind and looked back to where we’d both come from. But I still couldn’t see him.

  ‘Nico,’ I called out again a little louder in case he hadn’t heard me the first time.

  ‘You can run, Bee…but you can’t hide.’ His voice sounded from behind me and I stood bolt upright in response. My body reacted to his voice and the bare skin on my arms broke out into goose bumps instantaneously.

  I took a deep inhale, trying to give myself enough oxygen to fight down the growing sense of desire that was surging throughout my body. Then I span around quickly to find him still looking as amazing as he had all day.

  He was leaning on the rock not two feet away from where I had been hiding, with one hand pushed down deep into the pocket of his pants and the other still holding fingers full of our wedding cake. He turned his head to look up from the floor he’d been staring at and looked straight into my eyes.

  In the early evening light of dusk, he looked every bit the dark and dangerous man I’d always thought he was, and a thrill of possession ran through me.

  We’re married. I’ve married him, were the two thoughts that ran on replay around my head

  I let my eyes casually wander up and down his tall, broad physique. It appeared that he hadn’t even broken a sweat chasing me and the two pieces of his grey suit that he’d worn for our wedding still looked immaculate.

  ‘I don’t believe you waited around long enough to taste our wedding cake, Bee,’ he teased.

  He looked amused as the words left his mouth.

  ‘They can’t see us anymore, you know. You don’t need to carry on pretending, Nico,’ I countere
d and lifted my head to look up at the cliffs above as if to demonstrate that we no longer had any spectators.

  His beautiful mouth flexed as he briefly pretended to think over my words and then I saw a subtle shake of his head.

  ‘Who’s pretending?’ he replied.

  ‘You can’t possibly mean to cover my face in cake… I only did it to you to help us both out.’ I crossed my arms over my chest in defence and watched his eyes appraise my breasts. Then I looked at him defiantly waiting for an answer, and when his facial expression didn’t even change, I carried on talking, ‘You do understand that, don’t you, Nico? It was just “playacting” with an audience and you appeared to like that before.’

  He didn’t even bother to answer me, but propelled himself forwards. I’d half managed to turn away from him to run again, when his arm came around my waist and I was pulled towards his hard body and unceremoniously lifted up and off my feet.

  The squeal that left my mouth sounded so completely girly that I laughed out loud at the predicament I was in and at just who was sharing the moment with me.

  ‘I like the sound of your laugh, Bee.’ He buried his face into the side of my neck, and I shivered as I felt him inhale.

  ‘The smell of you, Bee… you tempt and entice me.’

  A flood of wetness hit the top of my thighs. Being trapped in his arms with the feel of his hard body behind me, I felt his every breath as it left and entered his body, playing out my fate on the over sensitive part of my neck and I melted into his embrace. It was all too much. In a sudden and complete panic, I recognised that the man behind me could very easily open the locked door to my heart and alarm swept through me.

  What are you doing? Get a grip Barbara!

  I pushed both of my hands down onto the forearm that was wrapped around me tightly, in a very poor and pathetic attempt to get him to release his hold on me.

  ‘I think you need to let me go,’ I pushed out breathlessly as I struggled again to show my commitment to getting out of his hold.