Chapter Six
God Granted You More Talents
I was sitting at Luci’s kickass wrought iron table outside on her terrace, my heels to the seat, my knees to my chest, sipping a cup of coffee while wearing her bright orange silk robe with huge even brighter scarlet red flowers on it that she let me borrow when she brought me a bunch of stuff so I could shower.
Upon seeing it, I told her it was totally awesome and she told me she bought it not far away and promised we’d go there before I left so we could pick one up for me.
“They have one exactly the same but this enchanting purple with a splash of vibrant pink flowers, cara mia, that would be perfect for you.”
I agreed instantly, wondering what Luci would consider was an “enchanting purple” that was “perfect for me”, completely forgetting my vow to quit blowing my admittedly large but shrinking by the day cash stash on stupid stuff and telling myself everyone needed a good robe.
Still, I knew by the feel of it that robe was expensive so I didn’t figure everyone needed that good of a robe.
But… whatever.
One more splurge.
Nothing wrong with that.
Right?
My hair was wet and combed back, I’d consumed a bowl of fruit and two pieces of toast that was more delicious than any toast I’d ever had except in Paris. My experience was that Europeans didn’t mess around with bread, no doubt about it. I didn’t know what it was but their bread rocked. What made it better was that the toast was spread with Nutella which meant I went from really liking Luci to seriously liking her considering her breakfast included Nutella.
She’d gone to turn on her laptop so I could pull up my webmail and I’d moved to studying a view I knew I’d never find anything less than amazing.
I was thinking that it was weird and cool she had a party last night that included loads of people, food, drink, red-coated valets and white-coated waiters but today her house (or what I’d seen of it on my way to the table) was completely tidy and sparkling clean, not a glass half full of champagne or a stray cocktail napkin in sight. It was like magic.
I was also thinking that last night, I’d laid it out for Sam and, right then, he was picking up my stuff so we could spend the day then the evening then the night together.
Which meant I wasn’t just studying the view.
I was studying the view smiling.
Yes, again.
I heard Luci speaking in Italian and I twisted my head in surprise to see her approaching, a cell to her ear, and I was surprised because she’d walked away not a minute ago.
And she didn’t have her laptop with her.
She stopped by my side, said something, then said, “Ciao,” then took the phone from her ear, extended it to me, I noticed she had the same phone as me right before she said, “I heard it ringing as I was walking by, cara, your bag is in the other room. I answered it. It’s a lady called Celeste?”
Suddenly, my cell phone morphed into the head of ferocious, snapping wolf with rabies though I didn’t know if wolves could get rabies but my phone wolf had them.
Definitely.
“Kia?” Luci prompted on a shake of my phone.
Oh man. Here we go. Celeste was probably curious about how my date went.
Now it was nine thirty in the morning after I slept in my fabulous gown and my fabulous shoes with a man I had practically just met, something Celeste was way too cool, chic and sophisticated to ever, ever do.
I reached out, took the phone, whispered, “Thanks, Luci,” then hesitantly put it to my ear and said softly, “Hey, Celeste.”
“Well?” was her reply.
I blinked at my knees.
“Sorry?” I asked.
“Well? The woman I just spoke to told me she was Luciana Gordon. The Luciana, I assume, whose party you told me you were going to last night?”
Oh man.
“Celeste, um… well…” God! “Honey, last night, I had a bit too much to drink.”
“Excellent.”
I blinked again.
Then I repeated, “Sorry?”
“Ma chérie, you were tense, champagne is excellent at relieving stress. This is good.”
“Okay, well…” Shit! “Maybe I should have said I had way too much to drink.”
Silence then, “And how is that, Kia?”
I sucked in breath.
I didn’t want to tell her this and I really didn’t want to tell her this with a Luci who had not gone back to get her computer but instead settled herself in the chair by me at the table and was currently pouring herself a cup of coffee and therefore also was going to stay awhile. I couldn’t get up and wander away because I figured that would be rude, maybe not as rude as Luci’s obvious eavesdropping, but still rude.
So I had no choice.
And that was why I glued my eyes to my knees and whispered, “I… something happened and, I couldn’t help it. See, um…” I rushed the rest out. “I didn’t tell you this but I’m a widow and my husband was abusive and last night, like, ten minutes after we got here, something happened and then Sam wanted my attention so he got it and he was kind of physical doing it and I, well… I freaked out, exposed my secrets because I kind of couldn’t, um… not react. And he, well, then he freaked out in his, uh… Sam way because he freaked me out. He was really upset and then he promised me he’d never hurt me and shared about his life and when I told him I couldn’t trust him not to hurt me that was when he promised me he’d make me believe he’d never hurt me then he spent the rest of the night being really nice and he was all, well… Sam being a gentleman and making sure I wasn’t left out of conversations and stuff like that so, I, well, I kind of haven’t told you this but I’m wealthy but, I’m, you know, new to being wealthy and I was just a normal person before and will eventually not be on vacation, I’ll go home and be normal again and I got kind of drunk and felt Sam needed to know I was not, you know, like him and so I told him I wasn’t and he told me he didn’t care but it was more than him not caring, he told me he was like me and told me I was not the fraud I was trying to convince him I was and I was just me then we spent the night talking about family and friends while lying in bed, I fell asleep in his arms and today he’s taking me out on a boat and showing me Lake Como.”
I finally shut up then I sucked in breath, continued to ignore the completely unmoving Luci and I waited.
Celeste didn’t speak.
Shit.
“Celeste?” I called softly.
Nothing.
I kept trying. “Are you disappointed in me that I… well, didn’t take your advice, especially when you were so kind, and that I, you know, kept from you I’m normal?”
That was when she spoke.
And this was what she said.
“Ma chérie, you are many things and one of them is not normal.”
I blinked at my knees again, not sure if this was good or bad.
She kept talking.
And she was doing it quietly.
“Thomas and I, we had a daughter.”
She said “had”.
Oh God.
Oh no.
Oh shit.
“Celeste,” I whispered.
“We lost her when she was twelve. She had leukemia. That was four years ago.”
Oh God.
Oh no.
Oh shit!
“Honey.” I was still whispering.
“She was blonde with green eyes.”
I closed my eyes which were green but still felt them fill with tears.
“Her name was Clémence.”
OhGodohnoohshit!
Celeste kept speaking quietly.
“I know you are not her. I know this. But that does not mean the last three days I have not enjoyed thinking that, if Clémence was still with us, grown up, grown beautiful and off on some adventure and she found herself where your mother lives, your mother would see her and think that she reminded her of you, take to her and share with her like I have with you, giving her something more than she would have found on her own, a gift, a treasure, what I hope I’ve given you.”
The wet spilled out of my eyes.
“You have,” I whispered brokenly because my voice was clogged with tears.
“And when you needed me yesterday, ma chérie, I must confess, not having my Clémence to share those kinds of moments with, I was more pleased you turned to me than you could ever be grateful I assisted you.”
Ohmigod! That was so nice, so beautiful and so freaking sad.
And it was so all of that that I felt my body jolt as my breath hitched with my sob and I also felt Luci’s arm wrap around my shoulders and her cheek press into my hair.
“And lastly,” Celeste whispered, “I am not disappointed in you. I know of this man, ma chérie, most everyone does. Thomas admires him and, I must admit, I do too. I suspected your secrets were dark, though I am sad to know what they are. But I am not disappointed in the least you are bright enough to see that all men are not like your husband and you are strong enough to take a risk that must certainly frighten you by trying again.”
My body jolted again as another sob tore up my throat, Luci held on tighter and at that moment, I heard a barked, angry, “What the fuck is goin’ on?”
I swallowed, Luci moved away and I twisted in my chair to see Sam stalking my way.
Yes, stalking.
Oh God.
Oh no.
Oh shit.
His eyes were on my wet face then they sliced to Luci and he demanded to know, “Who’s Kia talkin’ to?”
“A woman named Celeste,” Luci whispered and Sam’s eyes cut back to me.
“Is she upsetting you?”
“I –” I started.
He’d arrived and he bent, one hand to the arm of my chair, one hand wrapped around the back of my neck and he got in my face to ask, “Yes or no, baby, is she upsetting you?”
“Well, obviously, yes, Sam,” I answered, his face got dark, he made a move that my guess (what I didn’t know was accurate) was to pull my phone from my ear so I hurried on. “But not how you’re thinking.” I dashed my hand over my cheeks and finished, “We’re having a heart-to-heart a good one, I mean… uh, a bad one but a good one.”
Sam’s brows were knitted and his eyes were intense and he was clearly not liking me swiping at my wet cheeks and I knew this because his gaze followed those movements and that was when his brows shot together.
But now he was studying me.
I let him do it for a moment then whispered, “Honey, she’s still on the line.”
He studied me again. Then his hand slid from my neck to my cheek, taking my hair with it, his thumb extending to glide through the wet still on my skin then the pads of his fingers dug in briefly before he let me go and pushed away.
I let out my breath.
Sam said to Luci, “Girl, I need coffee.”
I said to Celeste, “I’m back and I’m really, really sorry.”
And Celeste said to me on an excited cry that was so far from her polished sophistication, my body jumped in surprise, “I approve ma chérie! Oh, I approve!”
“Uh… sorry?” I asked.
“He has a lovely voice, like velvet,” she observed.
I blinked again at my knees. Then I looked at Sam who was now sitting, eyes on me.
Then I burst out laughing.
Then, still laughing, I agreed, “Yeah. Totally.”
“He’s taking you out on the lake today?”
“Yes.”
“Lovely. The views from the lake are spectacular. Now, I know you’re busy but perhaps, before you leave, we can meet him, if only for a drink. Thomas would so enjoy that and I would too.”
My eyes slid to the lake, “I’ll, uh, talk to Sam and we’ll see.”
“Bien,” she whispered.
“But, regardless, before I go, we’ll see each other again.”
“Oh yes, ma chérie, we will definitely do that.”
“And I need to pay you back for yesterday.”
I heard her cultured but still rich and beautiful laughter then she said, “Oh no, ma chérie, you must give me that.”
“But, uh, it was you giving to me,” I pointed out.
“Yes, and the result was I walked out of your hotel room after seeing a vision of beauty. It was a gift to have a hand in that, even if it was simply nail varnish and a sweep of cosmetics. And you walked out of your hotel room to spend the night with a gentleman who earned your secrets in ten minutes. And it was a gift to have a hand in that too.”
Seriously, did I already say I loved Celeste?
I totally did.
“Okay, then my gift is, whether it’s with Sam or not, when I see you and Thomas again, I pay for dinner.”
“Oh, my Kia, I don’t speak of such things. You’ll need to discuss that with Thomas.”
Which meant I so totally was not buying dinner.
Great.
Okay, well, whatever.
“I’ll call you tomorrow and we’ll set something up.”
“Très bien,” she murmured.
“All right, honey, I have to go finish getting ready.”
“Have a wonderful time, Kia.”
“I will, Celeste. We’ll speak soon.”
“Of course, adieu, ma belle.”
Adieu, ma belle.
Freaking cool.
“’Bye, Celeste.”
She rang off. I flipped the phone shut, slipped it on the table and looked to Sam just as Luci walked out with another pot of coffee.
“You okay?” Sam asked.
Luci poured.
I answered.
“That’s my Lake Como bud, Celeste. She just told me she had a daughter with blonde hair and green eyes named Clémence who died when she was twelve of leukemia. Since we met, she’s been super awesome. This is because she’s super awesome but also because, I just learned, I remind her of her daughter. I kind of lost it when she told me that so, uh…” my eyes slid from a solid and staring at me Sam to a frozen and staring at me Luci, “sorry for the drama.”
“Jesus, baby,” Sam whispered.
I bit my lip.
“That’s very sad,” Luci whispered.
I nodded.
Sam kept staring at me.
“I’m okay now,” I assured him.
He kept staring at me.
“Sam, I’m okay,” I whispered.
His eyes moved from me to Luci then back to me before they slid to the lake. He appeared to be thinking but he also appeared not to wish to share what he was thinking and I knew this not because I’d absorbed knowledge of all things Sam by sleeping in his arms but because he didn’t share what he was thinking.
I left it at that and took a sip of my coffee in preparation for going back upstairs and finishing getting ready.
I only got the sip in before Luci put Sam’s coffee cup in front of him and announced, “I’ll go get my laptop so you can check your e-mail.”
Then off she went, gliding gracefully through the doors to the kitchen before I could make a peep.
When my eyes moved from where Luciana disappeared, they went through Sam on the way back, a Sam who was putting his coffee cup down and turning to me.
And when he did, he said quietly, “Celeste, your Lake Como bud, can I take from that you met her here?”
I nodded.
“And she just shared about her kid?”
I nodded again.
“Just like that?”
I thought about it. Then I said, “Well, kind of, I mean, we got close very quickly so it hasn’t been long but, I don’t know, I feel a connection with her, a connection she’s now explained so it isn’t weird. I mean, we’ve shared. Nothing that personal but, my guess is, it would get that personal eventually. It was just sooner rather than later.”
“Luci likes you,” he informed me and I smiled.
“I can tell.”
“No, baby, Luci likes you.”
That was when I blinked because he was telling me something, I just didn’t know what.
Sam carried on.
“I told you she was up in my business, what I didn’t tell you was, not only is she all over my ass to hook up and get down to the business of makin’ babies, she’s all over my ass because she pretty much hates every woman I’ve been with that she’s met. She isn’t here often. That party last night is something she does when she comes home so she can see all her friends. She’s still got the house she lived in with Gordo, a house that’s close to mine and she spends most of her time there. So, when I say she’s in my business, I might not have mentioned she’s got opportunity.”
That didn’t sound good.
“Why didn’t she like your other, uh… women?” I asked.
“I didn’t say she didn’t like them, honey, I said she hated them, as in, hated their fuckin’ guts.”
“Okay,” I said slowly, drawing it out. “So, why?”
“How would I know? Obviously, I liked ‘em.”
Well. Obviously.
“Until I stopped liking them,” he finished.
Well, obviously about that too.
I made no reply.
“But, gotta admit,” he muttered distractedly, his eyes sliding to the lake, his hand going to his coffee cup, “none of them were like you.”
I was curious to know what that meant even though I was kind of freaking out about this conversation but I didn’t get the opportunity to figure out how to shape my question so as not to sound overly nosy, fishing for compliments or gossiping cattily because that was when Luci returned.
“Here we are!” she called, gliding forward carrying an open laptop which she rounded Sam with, then shoved my dirty dishes aside with one hand and plonked it on the table in front of me. “All ready. I have wi-fi or whatever; Sam set it up for me the other day so you’re good out here.”
Sam could set up wi-fi. This meant he was trained to kill, trained to read people and was good with computers.
Interesting, useful (ish) and scary.
I leaned forward but didn’t take my heels from my seat as I slid my finger on the mousepad, clicked and plucked out the web address one-handed and called up my webmail then Paula’s e-mail which had the subject line Woot! Woot! Perfect!
I clicked the link and stopped breathing.
It was.
Perfect.
It was one of The Dorchester’s three-story, two bedroom units. This meant it had a dining room rather than dining area. This also meant that it had a study or family room area that was kind of a balcony that opened up over the first floor. This meant it wasn’t awesome, it was awesome.
Therefore, looking at it, I whispered, “Awesome.”
“Let’s see!” Luci cried then suddenly the laptop was twisted away from me and toward her and Sam and, instantly, I felt panic.
This was because The Dorchester was cool and that particular unit was awesome.
What it was not was a swanky, exclusive hotel. It was also not what an ex-pro-football player who had numerous endorsement contracts could afford. Nor was it an Italian villa which had an extended garage that housed five trashy but mind-bogglingly expensive automobiles.
Shit.
“Uh… I, uh…” I stammered then blurted, “It’s in Indiana.”
Sam’s eyes went from the laptop to me and Luci, who was standing beside him and bent to look, twisted to me.
Neither of them spoke.
They thought it was rinky-dink.
I looked to Luci.
“Uh, we don’t have villas in Indiana, er, I don’t think or, at least, I’ve never seen one.”
Luci’s face softened and her lips smiled before she said quietly, “It’s lovely, cara.”
“Uh… thanks,” I muttered then slid my heels off the chair and stood, saying quickly, “I’ll e-mail Paula after I get ready.” My eyes moved to Sam. “Is my stuff upstairs?”
He shook his head, put his coffee cup down and then his hands to the arms of his chair as he muttered, “I’ll get it.”
He didn’t push up.
This was because Luci announced, “Kia thinks she’s normal.”
My breath clogged and I was pretty sure my eyes bugged out.
Sam’s gaze cut to her.
“Come again?”
“She told her French friend she was normal,” Luci explained. “Not like us.”
Sam’s gaze cut back to me.
I wondered if there was additional sentencing if you were tried and convicted for clobbering ex-supermodels.
“Kia, cara mia,” Luci said to me and I tore my eyes from a perplexed Sam to her, “the pictures of your future home are lovely. It’s much like Travis and my home in North Carolina.”
Oh yeah. I forgot Sam lived in North Carolina; he’d stayed where he’d last been stationed.
Wow. That was a long way away from me.
“Except smaller,” Luci finished.
“Uh…” I mumbled.
“Girl, give us a minute,” Sam said to Luci and Luci turned to him.
“How many minutes with Kia are you going to need, Sam?” she asked tartly, clearly wishing to be in on finishing the intervention she’d instigated after outing further pieces of my dramatic conversation with Celeste she’d eavesdropped on.
His eyes cut to her and they stayed locked on her as he stood, his head tipping down to hold her gaze as he straightened and hers tipping back to hold his.
Then he rumbled, “A lot.”
“Right,” she whispered, turned to me, bugged out her eyes then she glided away.
I watched her go then looked to Sam.
“You’re not like us?” he asked.
“That was taken out of context,” I explained. “Luci only heard my side of the conversation.”
“So, baby, tell me, how did she take it out of context?”
“Well –” I started but didn’t finish.
This was because Sam cut me off to ask, “I thought we got past this last night.”
“Actually, I was telling Celeste about last night. That was how it was out of context.”
“Okay, then, why did you look like you were holding back the urge to grab Luci’s laptop and throw it over the balcony when she turned it so we could see pictures of the place you’re thinkin’ of buying?”
Okay, now, seriously.
Did the man miss nothing?
I glared.
Sam waited.
I kept glaring.
“Baby,” he growled.
I threw up my hands and cried, “What do you want me to say, Sam? Look at her.” I threw an arm out in the direction where Luci disappeared then swung it out again and went on, “And this place. And her cars.” Then I flicked a hand out to him. “And you. You’re hot, you’re famous, you’re rich and, if that wasn’t enough, you kiss really freaking well. I mean, God granted you more talents than just playing football and being an excellent commando, Sam, trust me. Clearly, He does not have an even hand. And I’m, well…” I threw up my hands again and said kind of loudly, “Me. So, okay, I got a little weirded out by you guys looking at my possible new pad because it isn’t Malibu or Lake Como or whatever. Put yourself in my shoes. How would you feel if you were me?”
I barely finished with the word “me” before I found myself not standing three feet from Sam but instead plastered against his body, one of his arms tight around me, the other hand in my hair cupping the back of my head and his face an inch from mine.
I had not recovered from this maneuver, like, at all, before Sam asked, using his sexy, rough-like-velvet voice, “God granted me more talents than playin’ football and bein’ an excellent commando?”
Oh man. I totally needed to learn when to shut up.
“Sam –” I whispered and he grinned and he did that in a sexy way too so I (way too late) shut up, my mind took that opportunity to remind me what his mouth tasted like, and his skin, and I shivered.
His grin got bigger and sexier.
Then his eyes heated, his eyelids lowered a sexy centimeter and he muttered, “Fuck.”
“What?” I pushed out on a breath.
“You wearin’ anything under this?”
Uh-oh.
“Uh…” I mumbled but that too was breathy.
Sam was clearly feeling impatient with the flow of information so his hand went on a voyage of discovery and trailed light as a whisper over my behind.
Even light, that felt so good, I sucked in breath, shivered again and my knees got week.
“Fuck,” he repeated on a mutter when his voyage of discovery gave him confirmation on the intel he’d assumed and now his voice was heated which meant I heated, like, all over.
Oh man.
“How bad you wanna take this boat trip, honey?” he asked, his voice now low as well as sexy and rough.
“What boat trip?” I asked back, my voice was still breathy.
Sam grinned again.
I blinked. Then it came back to me.
“Uh, Sam, I’m only here three more days and I’ve got to fit Celeste and Thomas in there and Luci is going to take me to buy a robe like this and, uh…” You! “Anyway, I might never get back here so I should pack everything in that I can so I kind of want to take this boat trip, like, bad.”
Something changed in his eyes, flickering then fading away, taking the heat with them but not the warmth before he whispered, “Right.” Then his hand still resting light on my ass glided back up, his arm wrapped tight around my waist and he continued, “Then go get dressed, the sooner I give you your boat trip, the sooner I can bring you back, feed you and then have you all for me.”
Oh man.
I was rethinking how bad I wanted the boat trip.
But I whispered, “Okay.”
He gave me a squeeze as his head dropped and he also gave me a mouth touch.
Then he let me go.
Then I concentrated on walking away without him cottoning on my legs were still trembling and not holding out much hope at succeeding.
But when I turned to go into one of the many double doors that opened onto the terrace, I looked back at Sam and stopped, most of my body inside the house but my head leaned back and turned his way.
He was standing but he’d shoved back the screen of the laptop, his chin was dipped and he was studying it. Then his hand came up, grabbed the top and shut it with a firm snap. Then his eyes went to the lake and his profile, I noted, looked preoccupied.
With what, I didn’t know.
How important it was, I also didn’t know him enough to know for sure.
But it looked pretty important.
And I didn’t know what to make of that since before he got that look, he was looking at my possible future home.
And that freaked me out.
But if I was ever going to get my boat trip, I couldn’t waste time on freaking out.
I had to get ready.
So I left Sam to his thoughts and did just that.
The problem was, once I got upstairs, I had to come right back down because my stuff wasn’t there so I had to ask Sam where it was.
And Sam, being Sam, meant he didn’t tell me.
No, he got up from his chair, went to the overnight case of mine he commandeered to bring my stuff to me and carried it up for me himself.
After he left, when I tested it by lifting it, it weighed approximately five pounds. Still, he didn’t let me carry it up a single flight of steps.
Okay, yes, damn.
Seriously, I liked Sam Cooper.
I knew Sampson Cooper was awesome but Sam Cooper was turning out to be a whole lot better.