***
I was impressed by the sleek black limo that picked me up for the business meeting. I slid in with a smile of thanks to the chauffeur who held open the door for me. Just as it was closed after me I became conscious that I was not alone. I turned in my seat and almost jumped who I saw there, his small smile unfathomable on that devastatingly handsome face.
“Brian,” I choked.
“Lydia,” he said with far more calm than I was feeling. “It’s certainly good to see you again.”
“Wish I could say the same,” I snapped. The limo began to move and I panicked. “What is the meaning of this? I’m supposed to me on my way to meet with a client and instead I find you here.”
“I’d have thought it was pretty obvious. I’m the new client,” he said drily.
“Is this your idea of a sick joke?” I breathed. “Why do you insist on tormenting me?”
“That is not my intention,” Brian said, blue eyes solemn. “This was the only way I could get you to talk to me.”
I snorted. “I can’t imagine what on earth we have to talk about.”
I looked through the tinted windows as we headed downtown. My panic grew and I felt like yelling to be let out of the car, but instead I rounded on him again while forcing myself to sound level-headed.
“Look, I don’t know how you pulled this off.”
“I had no choice but to take drastic measures,” he explained. “In a few days’ time you’re set to marry someone else and well, I couldn’t let that happen.”
I gasped. “Who put you up to this? Brandi?”
Brian didn’t answer directly, but said, “It’s unfortunate that I have to resort to a bit of kidnapping to get you to listen, but if that’s what it’ll take, then...,” He shrugged. “I just need a few minutes of your time, Lydia. And after that you’ll be free to go.”
I could only stare speechlessly at him for a moment. How had he convinced my father to go along with this ploy? No wonder my father had been acting so strangely. “You know what?” I said bitterly, “I’m actually anxious to know what you have to say that’s so important. Where are you taking me?”
“We’re almost there,” he said enigmatically.
I let out an angry sigh and sat back heavily on my seat. The limo rode into one of the most up-and-coming neighborhoods in the city. My eyes widened with curiosity as an imposing-looking building that sported a striking, shimmering glass exterior came into view. I looked up at the roof and saw the name “Serene Park Hotel”.
“It doesn’t officially open until a few more months,” Brian explained, “But already it’s been selected as one of the top places to visit in the city. It’s to be one of the four luxury hotel properties we’re adding to the Payne brand here in Seattle. More importantly though, we’re expanding our sustainability efforts to ensure the communities enjoy positive, long term change and support from our luxury brand.”
“How noble,” I said with a slightly impatient sigh as I was let out of the limo and Brian guided me into the luxurious interior of the building. “But I still don’t know what this has to do with why I was tricked into being here.”
“You’re right,” Brian said drily, his smile wry. “Yet there’s still something I need to show you.”
I rolled my eyes and followed him past the ground floor security and reception. I could tell that it was all still in development, but it was clear to see that the hotel would be well equipped with its own luxury retail stores, fitness facilities, restaurants and lounges as well as other function space.
It felt like having a hotel within a hotel and I couldn’t help but be impressed even if I didn’t care to show it. The restoration and design showed a modern style that I guessed would make a hit with potential guests whether for business or leisure.
We went up into the elevators and my confusion grew. I didn’t know what to make of all this and Brian wasn’t forthcoming with much info. Seeing him again, being this close to him was like a drug playing havoc with my system and part of me wanted to scream.
Why was he doing this now? None of this mattered. Things could never be the same between us and besides, there was no way out of the mess I was in.
I took in deep breaths and forced myself to relax when the door opened onto a luxurious looking floor.
“This way,” Brian said lightly, and opened the door to a room.
I sent him a suspicious look, but he merely smiled. I walked in slowly, my breath catching in amazement with the sight that met my eyes.
It was an exact replica of my room back on the Caribbean island, with one extra touch that led memories flashing back to twist my heart strings tighter in my chest.
Rose petals, leading right up to the bed, soft colors of pink and white with scents of beauty filling the air. Tears pricked my eyes and my wish to run away grew stronger.
Facing the truth at last, I realized I’d never let go of the fairy tale of falling in love so foolishly with Brian and now I’d have a lifetime to spend regretting a future without him.
“Brian, I don’t understand why you went through all this trouble,” I choked, spinning round to face him. “But there’s something I need to tell you.”
“Shhh,” he said gently, an arm coming around my waist while his other hand lifted to close my lips softly. “I know all about Theo’s hold over you. Brandi called and told me everything. The blackmail, all that money.” His forehead rested against mine and he inhaled deeply. “You won’t be marrying him, Lydia. A few days ago I met with your father and drew up an agreement with him concerning the Payne interests here in this city. Apart from handling our considerable accounts, he’ll be an associate managing much of the Payne Holdings. To start things off on the right foot with the new partnership between my company and your father’s, I decided that the matter of the debt being owed Theo was the first thing to strike off our list.”
My look was blank for a few moments as I tried to sink everything in. “Are you saying you managed to pay off my father’s debt?”
“In full,” Brian said in satisfaction. “And with a fair plan mapped out which insures that over the next few years your father can see to settling the balance while working within our partnership.”
I backed away from him slowly, my head in a whirl. “You did all that, for me? You mean I’m free?”
“Yes, you’re free and yes, I did it all for you, Lydia. Knowing that I had the influence and means to get you out of that bastard Theo’s trap gives me greater satisfaction than you’ll ever know.”
“So I guess power has changed hands then,” I said with a twist to my lips. “Now it’s you I’m indebted to, right? And is this how I’m meant to repay you?”
My hands indicated the seductive setting around us; the room, the bed. Brian’s look became pained and he grabbed my shoulders gently.
“Is that what you think? Lydia, I did this because I wanted to make you happy. And it doesn’t feel like you owe me anything because I love you and would do anything to protect the one I love. How can you imagine it’s anything but that?”
“Are you saying if I wanted, I could walk out that door, no strings attached, no repercussions?” I asked, chin lifted proudly.
Brian sighed.
“I was hoping you’d stay. But I’d never force you to. You’re free to leave, of course. I don’t hold you to any obligations for what I did. Because unlike with Theo, when it comes to me you’ll always have a choice.”
I instantly thought of my father’s words earlier and felt a prick of conscience. Theo had never let me have a choice. I’d never have been able to walk away without hurting my family.
I could be enraged at Brian all I wanted for all I I’d suffered, but it was simply my pride fighting for dominance, I realized. Would I let that foolish emotion stand in my way of me chance of finding true happiness at last?
I headed for the door which stood ajar and my hand fell on the lock. I thought of how we’d met and how passion, unbidden, had risen like an elemental force between us. I remembered him promising me his heart and soul and being the one to think of what was best for me even before I thought of it for myself that last night together. Brian, holding back when he could easily have taken what I had to offer so willingly.
He had never been the enemy and would never be. I saw that now and the conclusion had me gripping the door handle tightly before pushing the door decisively closed. Once the lock clicked I turned and faced Brian, and the look on his face could have turned my knees easily to jelly.
We both moved quickly and in moments were clasped together, meeting halfway in the middle of the room.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth about who I was. It wasn’t about me trying to play some game,” he said, gripping my shoulders and staring into my face. “For those few days, I relished the thought of being wanted, desired simply for the man I was and not what my name and family money represented.”
“I understand that now,” I whispered, nodding. “And I hope you’ll forgive me for not being open about why I couldn’t leave Theo for you just as we agreed. If I’d told you all about it, maybe things would’ve been different.”
“It’s okay,” Brian whispered, lips clinging to mine. “In my jealous rage I never gave you the chance to really explain why you felt it was impossible to leave him. I was a fool to doubt what my heart had told me all along; that you’re my soul mate and nothing would make you turn your back on me unless it was beyond your control.”
I nodded, but couldn’t stop the tears that spilled from my closed lashes. I couldn’t believe it was truly over. Couldn’t believe how long I’d gone without Brian’s arms around me, his lips on mine.
“Thank you,” I breathed, turning my cheek into his hand and kissing his palm as he cupped my face. “Thank you for caring enough to come after me even when it seemed like all was lost.”
“I never believed that,” Brian said fervently, crushing me hard against him and making me aware of every solid outline of his lean, whipcord frame. “Even when I walked away from you that day, I couldn’t let myself think it was over. That’s why I carried out the hotel expansion to this city, hoping to see you again. When Brandi called and filled me in on all you’ve been through, I felt like such a jerk. Promise me you’ve truly forgiven me?”
My soft smile grew sultry.
“Maybe I truly will. But there’s one more thing you have to do for me.”
“Anything,” he growled, even as he let me back him up until we were standing by the edge of the bed.
Biting on my lip sensuously, I planted my hands on his chest and then shoved him down on the bed. Before he could sit up I scrambled on top of him, straddling his hips and leaning forward to hover my lips over his.
The blazing heat in his blue eyes spurred me further and I linked my fingers through his, pushing his arms up on either side of his head.
“Lydia.”
I couldn’t tell if it was a warning in his tone or a prompting to keep going. He stared deep into my face and I felt all hot inside and outside.
“I could drown in the beauty of your eyes,” he said, voice thick with emotion and a raspy desire.
“And you intoxicate me,” I told him, gripping tighter on his fingers and moving my hips sensually over his. His sharply indrawn breath had me licking on my lips in anticipation.
“I’ve been wondering what it would feel like if you ever let yourself go. I mean really let go,” I mused, feeling him swell and throb beneath his pants as I ground my lace-covered sex over his burgeoning hardness.
My lips lowered to his neck and I nuzzled my face there, opening my mouth on his flesh and sucking, nibbling. Brian groaned loudly, fingers flexing within mine.
“Keep doing that and you’ll find out. I’ve wanted this so long, Lydia. You’ll make me crazy,” he said hoarsely.
“Mmmmm,” I purred, licking contentedly on his neck before lifting my head to gaze down into his eyes. “I’m already crazy, about you. I can’t believe this isn’t a dream. Please take me, Brian. I need you so much.”
With a growl, Brian moved swiftly and soon had me flipped on my back. Now I was pinned down partly by his weight and my chest was heaving with excitement.
“I want to be buried so deep inside you we’ll be welded as one,” Brian promised, making my deepest core turn to cream at the velvety rasp of his deep voice.
The heat in my belly pooled into fiery liquid and streamed from my needy sex, soaking my panties. A helpless moan escaped me.
“We need to get naked,” Brian said factually, and my throat bubbled with laughter, which died off as Brian systematically stripped me out of my clothes, then his in less than fifteen seconds.
His unclad body touched mine, strong and defined with muscle. His head seemed to magnetize me to him and I looked up into his eyes to find their blue depths mesmerizingly filled with arousal. His intensely handsome features seemed etched with an unbearable, fierce need that I knew matched my own.
How did we come to feel this way? It hadn’t happened like the conventional romance. One moment I was thinking we could never be together; I belonged to someone else and Brian was almost a stranger. But out of nowhere, our spark grew into an abiding flame. And now, ferocious and irrevocable, it was about to become uncaged, engulfing us both.
Swept away by his enthralling gaze, I almost didn’t want to close my eyes as his head lowered to mold his lips to mine. He devoured me with his kiss and my body was caught up in a liquefying desire. It coursed through my system like a life force and I had to cling to his rippling arms and shoulders, my body arching and opening instinctively to welcome him.
Pleasure was his tongue raking into my mouth, eating into me like no one had ever done. He seized command of my lips and consumed my ecstatic moans. It felt like he never wanted to stop kissing me and I felt the same, like nothing else existed but our mouths merged together as he intended for our bodies to be soon.
My hands frantically slid down his incredibly toned abs and with delicious entitlement, I reached for his raging hardness. We groaned in harmony and his lips tore from mine, both of us gasping for air. The rigid, silken feel of him filling my palm gave me the most pleasurable rush.
I heard his deep, growling sounds of approval as I stroked him from base to tip, and I grew wetter by the moment knowing I drove him crazy.
“This is going to be over pretty soon if you keep up with that,” he groaned, grabbing my wrists gently.
He lifted my hands to link behind his neck and then he cupped my breasts which already felt ripe with desire. He licked all around the swollen aureole and the effect on me was devastating. I cried out and arched my spine to surrender all of myself to his onslaught.
Groaning with delight, Brian closed his lips over one thick, rigid nub. Thousands of endorphins erupted to life in my brain and switched on each erogenous zone in my body. My fingernails raked along his back as I flung my head from side to side and cried out his name in total bliss.
He teased my other nipple with his fingers and set me off even further. I was half aware of the way I was rubbing my dripping center against his thigh, coating him in juices. Knowing full well I needed some kind of relief, he reached down between us and stroked my vulva until I started to form a pool all over the sheets beneath me.
“Brian!” I cried out. My fingers were fisted in his hair and I was lost in all the sensations from his mouth on my nipples and his hands caressing my breasts and pussy. The pleasure was so exquisite it was almost agonizing. There was no sanity in the way I felt about his touch and the electric pull of his lips and tongue on my flesh.
He pushed two eager fingers inside me and my center melted in one hotpot of ecstasy. I’d felt so cold and remote for so long in the past weeks that this new tumult of red-hot passion was almost too much to bear.
“Brian,” I pleaded, bucking into his hand. I needed so much more than the skillful thrust of his fingers probing against my hidden magic spot. I longed for something substantial and completely fulfilling to ease the ache threatening to get me totaled.
“I know, baby. Soon,” promised Brian, shifting from my breasts and venturing lower. “Just let me have one taste, baby. I need your nectar drenching my tongue like the last time. God, you blew my mind.”
I was incapable of stopping him as the next instant he had his face buried between my legs. His stiffened tongue immediately sought access within my entrance, stimulating the already sensitive inner tissues. My mouth fell open in a soundless gasp at the sensation of Brian pleasuring my folds so intently with his tongue and lips. He sipped at me, sucked, licked and plucked until I was a swollen, pulsing bundle of molten nerve cells. He drove in and out in a fast-paced dance with that meticulous tongue and I had no way to keep from screaming. To cap it all, he shifted attention to my clit and set off an almost instantaneous kinesis.
“Ooooooh,” I cried and it was never-ending, my body undulating alongside my long, aching moan of release. It had been so long since that last time – that first time when Brian had sent me up this same path of lavish enchantment.
He lifted up to kiss me and I was waiting, my mouth ready to receive him and drink my essences from his lips. At the same time, I spread my thighs wide apart and felt him settle against me, his tip grazing over my slit. Our mutual groan was filled with almost painful arousal. So hard and ready, he only needed to thrust his powerful hips and be embedded deep within my slick walls.
I met him mid-air, bucking my hips upwards to cleave myself to him in mind and body. My senses pulsated along with my inner muscles as I twitched and convulsed around his immense shaft.
“My love,” groaned Brian against my panting lips, “Tell me this feels good.”
“Yes. Yes it does. Feels perfect,” I moaned, moving in tandem with his surging cock.
He slid in slowly and painstakingly. The strain on his face from holding back was hypnotic to watch and I didn’t try to look away. He stretched me to the limit and I welcomed the feeling of fullness, of being a perfect fit with the one person that made my body sing.
My ankles linked around his waist and soon my heels were digging into the firm muscles of his ass which flexed with every rampaging thrust. I couldn’t keep still, rearing and writhing beneath my lover’s energetic glides in and out of my sheathe. Fast, then slow. Hard, then smooth, his every movement seemed paced with carnal intent to bring us both to finish at the appointed time. Never too soon or too late, but just in the right moment.
By this time a tingling had taken over my toes and trailed a volcanic path up through to my heart which pounded along with my brain. My eyelids parted long enough to find Brian’s gazed fixed on my face, and that did much to intensify my already immense compulsion to orgasm into a million fragments.
I’d reached too far beyond to turn back now. Crying out with fervent satisfaction, I came and came, bucking so strongly I drove him deeper inside me than ever before, my ribcage jarring from the impact.
Brian buried his face against my neck and jackhammered several body-shattering thrusts before he filled me with potent, liquid heat.
“Mine alone,” he rasped in my ear, collapsing against me for just a second and I clung to him, relishing the sensation of being crushed beneath his welcome weight. Next he was rolling off me and unto his back, pulling me close to snuggle against him. Tremors shook us both and it was several minutes before my head felt cleared of its climax-induced mist.
There was no need for words and I was glad. I only had to lift my head and we were kissing again. There was passion but no burning haste, just love.
Brian’s hand cupped my neck and his hold felt possessive, warm and even dominating, yet in the way that I loved. I felt a thrill thinking how much I still had to learn about him, but I already knew, in my heart all the things that made me love him. Anything else I’d find out would only make me love him more.
All was right with the world now, and it showed in the way we lingered in the sheets, reluctant to leave our fairytale haven. But in time, in between kisses and caresses, we made plans for the future.
Meeting each other’s families, planning our wedding, and making a future, together. Everything that once seemed out of reach for me just weeks ago, were now fully in my grasp.
Happiness, fulfillment, and faith.
I gazed into Brian’s unwaveringly affectionate eyes and knew I’d found it all in him. It made my heart soar knowing he felt the same about me and wasn’t disinclined to show it not just in deeds, but in words.
Brian’s love and support became a ray of hope that proved to me that life didn’t always have to be a bed of roses, but it could still hold true happiness not based on wealth or status, but on trust and love.
And I vowed never to forget it.