Complete Indelible Love Series

by Cee, DW

  I grabbed the surfboard my brother brought from the hotel, and swam as far out as I could. Surfing made me so happy, but I guess anything water-related made me happy.

  I was doing fine until I lost my footing on the board and wiped out. That would not have been a big deal except the leash on my board loosened and the board came crashing on my head. For a split second, my eyes couldn’t focus and fainting was nearby. My breathing was labored and I was taking in water by the gulps.

  “Delaney.” A worried Donovan held me in his arms just a few seconds longer than anyone would consider friendly, and began taking me back to shore. “How do you feel?” His genuine concern erased the ugliness of this morning.

  “My head hurts and I feel dizzy. Why are you in here helping me?”

  “What the hell kind of question is that? Why the fuck do you think I’m in here...because I want to be rescuing you from your crazy daredevil antics? What were you thinking when you got on this surfboard with waves that huge? Are you showing-off, or do you not have any sense of self-preservation?”

  Donovan, why can’t you just let me be? Why do you need to constantly remind me that you don’t love me? I get it. I really do. Please...I beg you...just stop playing with my heart.

  “Please put me down.” He wouldn’t let go of me. “PUT ME DOWN!”

  I tried to jump off but he pinched me in the back and told me, “Stay still, Brat!” Then he had the gall to add, “You have been a pain in my ass all day today.”

  Every damn person on the beach heard what he said and it was mortifying. I felt like a five-year-old being scolded by her older brother. Who the fuck did he think he was?

  I pinched him back, HARD and flipped myself off him when he flinched in pain. “I didn’t ask you to come into the ocean and save me.” That first statement came out in a torrent of anger. But the next statement couldn’t hide the flood of pain. “I get it. You don’t want me anywhere near you. I’ll stay away.” Before a flood of tears came, I ran back up to the car.

  The ride back to the hotel wasn’t a fun one. I waited to see which car Donovan was getting in to so I could ride in the other car. Josh kept asking questions, and but I wasn’t in the mood to answer. Josh, the youngest of the Davis brothers, was fun, hilarious, and sweet. Today just wasn’t the best day for socializing.

  “You want to have dinner together?” I didn’t think I had a way out of not having dinner with everyone.

  “Sure. We’ll probably all do dinner together somewhere on the resort. Maybe we can sit together and we can talk more then?” That probably wasn’t the smartest suggestion, but I just needed a breather from Josh’s questions.

  “Great idea. I’ll see you soon.”

  We parted ways and I quickly showered, dressed, and left our room so I wouldn’t bother Jane and Max. Jane generously brought out the Davis brothers to join our vacation. My brother and Nick were having a grand time with Josh and Garret, and Jane and Max were equally enjoying themselves.

  “Where are you off to when the luau isn’t for another hour?”

  “I’m off so you and Jane can have some privacy,” I smiled at this great man who was perfect for my cousin Jane. I hoped Jane knew what a treasure she had in him. As Max and I became better friends, I wondered where I could find someone so genuine, and so in love with his woman, that he’d overlook her straying eyes.

  “You don’t have to leave. Hang out here with us.”

  “I think my cousin would prefer I leave. And to be honest, I’d like to walk off my headache. That bump on the head was a bit harder than I thought.”

  “Then you should definitely stay here and let me keep an eye on you.”

  Shoot! Not the right thing to say... “I’ll be all right. The beach is too inviting. I’d like to take a walk before dinner.”

  “Come right back if you feel any nausea or more pain.”

  “I will.”

  Donovan and Kate’s large villa appeared along my path, and the two of them were laughing and having a drink out in their lanai. They looked so beautiful and so right for each other. What could I possibly offer a man like Donovan Taylor when he had a sophisticated woman who suited his every need? Jake and Emily lived in wedded bliss, Max and Jane, if they kept going strong, would be right behind Jake and Emily in the bliss department, and Donovan and Kate had been together and in love for the past ten years. That was longer than the first two couples combined, times two. Why was I such a dreamer?

  Sitting on the sand, watching the sun begin its descent, I regretted coming to this beautiful island. This week was a time for lovers, not loners.

  “Laney?” I heard Jake call my name, but didn’t fully register. Physically, I was at the luau, but mentally I was back at the beach, sitting on the sand, watching the sunset. “Laney?”

  “Hey!” Donovan called out.

  Ignoring Donovan, I only faced my cousin and listened to what he had to say.

  “I think you should stay with us tonight. You have a bump on your head and I’d like to make sure you are OK.” Bothering Jake and a very pregnant Emily was not my idea of caring for my family.

  “Jake, I’m totally fine. I don’t need anybody waking me up.”

  My cousin wouldn’t take no for an answer and as much as I dreaded bothering them, the idea of staying with anyone else made my stomach churn. I was about to give in when Donovan came up with the stupidest idea yet.

  “Why don’t Kate and I take Delaney tonight? We have two extra bedrooms and I can check up on her throughout the night.”

  Good Gaaawwwddd! Was he kidding me? Could he possibly come up with more ways of torturing me? Please, Jake. No! Anything, I’ll do anything you ask. Please don’t send me to their love villa.

  For some Gaaawwwddd forsaken reason, Emily and Jake both saw fit to send me to hell tonight. I was told to pack my bags and Josh was to be my escort to the love-shack. Aargh! Why does crazy, stupid shit like this happen only to me?

  “Hello.” I barely squeaked as I saw an enormously unhappy Kate. “If you’ll show me where I’m to stay, I’ll go there now and not bother you.”

  Donovan led me to a room around the bend from their room.

  “Thank you,” I whispered again. “You don’t need to check up on me tonight. There’s nothing wrong with me.” He gave me a dubious and disapproving look. “I promise. I’m fine and I’ll be out of your way first thing in the morning.”

  “I’ll be here in about an hour so go to sleep now.”

  “Who the hell died and made you God?” Where that idiotic boldness came from, I could not say.

  “Do you have to be a bitch about everything? Why can’t you just take what I say as fact and follow the program?”

  “Because you can’t program me. I’m not a part of this crazy harem-thing you have going on here. You accuse me of flirting with men, but you’re the man-whore!”

  “What the hell are you mouthing off about? How did we get into talking about me, and how the hell did I become a man-whore?” He was about as flabbergasted as I was about this whole man-whore business. I couldn’t say where that really came from and why I decided to speak my mind at this very moment. The frustration of the day must have been bubbling in this cauldron of mine because I was seriously in double, double, toil and trouble, right now.

  “You think we don’t see you flirting with my cousin Jane, a woman with a boyfriend, when you have a girlfriend of your own? You’re physically with one woman, mentally thinking about another woman, but don’t have the fucking guts to emotionally love the right woman! You can accuse me all you like of flirting with other men, but when I find that right man, he will not doubt my love for him. Go back to your woman. She didn’t look happy to have me here.”

  Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! I didn’t know where all that came from and who had stolen my mouth and spewed out all those absurdly perfect words! I was so on...so right...so sublime! But thank God Donovan left the room as abruptly as I chewed him out,
or else he would have heard my nerves shatter the moment I finished realizing what I had just “mouthed-off.”

  “Where did we go so wrong, today,” was the last, rhetorical question he asked before leaving me to my own device.

  Who the hell knew where we went so wrong today? Where I went wrong in life was my early-aged infatuation with this man!

  I milled around the room and turned on the television to fill the time, but couldn’t sit long enough to watch it. Then I opened up a book and got depressed once the romance novel started heading in the happily ever after stage. I didn’t want to read about anyone else’s happily ever after, and I for sure didn’t want to be in the same villa with the happily-ever-after couple.

  “I don’t understand why you had to insist on bringing her here.” Kate had no qualms about voicing her opinion of my stay here. Perhaps they were not as happily ever after as I’d imagined?!?

  “It’s just for a night. We have two empty rooms. What’s the big deal?”

  “We have no privacy, is what’s the big deal. We can’t talk, we can’t argue, we can’t have sex with her next door to us.” Shit! Did she just say that? She was accusing me of disrupting her sex life?

  “What’s the matter with you? It’s one fucking night. She’s injured, we have a room, and she’s Jake’s cousin.”

  “Jake wanted to take her with them but no, you had to bring her here. Do you know when the last time was when we were intimate?”

  Damn. This was not a conversation I wanted to hear! It pissed me off that she was accusing me of ruining their sex life. I didn’t ask to sleep here! Rather than getting more and more pissed by the second, I left. With a quick note for Donovan and my belongings in tow, I went to the front desk and got myself my own room where no one could bother me. No Jane giving me the annoyed-eye for bothering her time with Max, no Kate for accusing me of stupid things, and no brother and cousin who considered me one of the guys when sharing a room.

  This room was way beyond my price range, but it was all mine for the night. I could wear pajamas without a bra and wouldn’t have to be self-conscious of the men in the room. Everything could just hang loose. It was wonderful! But as much as I wanted to enjoy the room, I was physically exhausted from the hike, and mentally and emotionally exhausted from Donovan Taylor.

  Oh. My. Gosh! What the hell is that noise outside my door? The noise wouldn’t stop. Go away!

  I had no choice but to get up and figure out how to get rid of this annoyance.

  In a less than brilliant move, I opened the door to find a mob of people standing, waiting for me. How did they find me? So much for my clever pseudonym.

  “Laney,” Emily hugged me for dear life and closed the door behind us. “I thought something bad had happened to you. Don’t go missing like that, again. You scared me to death!”

  Not once did I consider my family would find out I’d left the villa. Damn Donovan Taylor! “I’m sorry, Emily. No one was supposed to know what happened. I just wanted some peace and quiet. I wasn’t trying to upset you, or anyone else. I feel terrible.”

  “It’s all fine now that we know you’re safe. Maybe you’d like to put something on and tell everyone you’re OK?”

  Shit! I’d forgotten I had no bra on and with my size boobs, it wasn’t a pretty sight to be bra-less. I put a sweatshirt over my t-shirt and opened the door.

  “Delaney, are you OK?” Donovan got that in before I could apologize. He looked like hell—and even that was gorgeous. I was so doomed!

  “Yes, I’m fine. I’m sorry to have caused you guys any worry.” I apologized to the rest of my family. Then I added, “I told you not to tell my family that I left.” All of this could have been avoided had he kept his mouth shut.

  “Jake, can I have a word with Delaney, alone?”

  Shit, shit, shit! No Jake!

  He was about to say no, but something in Donovan’s plea made him change his mind. Emily gave me a nod of encouragement as Donovan walked in my door and shut it behind him.

  “You!” Uh-oh! He was not happy with me. “Don’t you ever, ever scare me like that, ever again!” He didn’t yell loudly enough for the people outside to hear, but it was loud enough for me to understand. “I lost at least ten years of my life when I couldn’t find you. What the fuck were you thinking, disappearing on this island like that? How irresponsible can you be to scare all of us, especially your pregnant cousin...”

  That did it! I was going to listen quietly and let him rant because he did look like I’d scared the shit out of him, and also because I enjoyed this frazzled look, but bringing Emily into this was a low blow!

  “Do NOT accuse me of being irresponsible, and do NOT give me guilt about scaring Emily. I don’t give a rat’s-ass whether or not you ‘lost ten years of your life.’” And yes, I put up my fingers air-marking the quotations. That really pissed him off! “I left you a letter asking you not to tell my family. I told you in that letter that I would see you tomorrow, or in another lifetime, if I was lucky enough!”

  It was at this point, the craziest, most bizarre, but a most phenomenal thing happened. Donovan—who up until two seconds ago, was some ways away from me—rushed me, grabbed me by the face with both his hands, and KISSED ME! My initial thought—Oh. My. Gaaawwwddd! Donovan is kissing me. My second thought—Shit! I have morning breath. Just kill me now. Donovan Taylor is kissing me for the first time and I have bad breath. Gaaawwwddd! My third thought—I hope I’m doing this correctly. Damn! Why’d my first real kiss have to be with Donovan?

  “Don’t ever do that to me again or I’m going to spank your ass till you can’t sit for a good long time. You got it?” That was it. He kissed me, threatened me, then left me reeling in my room.

  That kiss, that pressure on my mouth, and that image of Donovan so up close and personal, stayed with me the entire night. I didn’t sleep, but adrenaline kept me going till the next day.

  April 3, 2013 Kiss and Make-up

  Since I didn’t sleep a wink last night after the kiss, I got my workout clothes on and ran along the beach as the sun rose. Our next to last day in paradise brought a mixture of sadness, relief, and bliss. In full (embarrassing) disclosure, I’d never been properly kissed until Donovan kissed me last night. Part of the reason for this was the fact that I’d never seriously dated anyone. Another part of the reason was that I never liked anyone enough to want them to kiss me.

  “Hey.” A beautiful voice called out softly, tenderly.

  He came and sat next to me on the sand, and we watched the sun rise little by little.

  “Hi.” I felt self-conscious and shy about talking to him, but eventually broke the silence. What do you say to a guy who doesn’t like you, but kissed you passionately the night before? Was there a Miss Manners guide to a situation like mine?

  “You ran?”

  “Yeah. Couldn’t sleep so I thought I’d be productive and exercise.”

  “...a beautiful sight!” I wasn’t clear what Donovan was talking about. I wanted his ‘beautiful sight,’ to be me, but most likely, it was the gorgeous sunrise. How could I compete with a Hawaiian sunrise? “Why couldn’t you sleep?”

  Was he really asking me this question? “Oh, I don’t know...”

  He gave me a seriously? look that made me laugh. “What brought you out here at five o’clock in the morning?”

  “Maybe it had something to do with an intruding girl in a large villa, a frantic family looking for this same girl with a poorly attempted disguise as Briar Rose, and this same ratty-haired, frightening-looking, woken-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night girl who had a kiss stolen from her amidst all the mayhem and drama.”

  This beautiful man laughed with me at the frivolity of my statement. “Yeah...” he sighed, “I guess we should talk about that kiss, huh?”

  I shook my head no. “Not necessary. I’ll consider it a bad dream, a crazy passer-byer, a figment of my convoluted imagination—in short, I won’t cause any more trouble with y
ou and Kate.” I hugged my knees even tighter into my body and only stared off into the ocean.

  “When I realized you had left last night, and couldn’t find you, I didn’t know what to do. I was wholly lost.” The sincerity in his voice was sweet. Everything he said, I believed. “When we found you and you went off on me...”

  It was at this point, I had to interrupt and say, “After you went off on me...”

  He chuckled. “You can’t let me win an argument, can you?” He put his arm around my shoulder and brought me closer to him. “Yes, after I went off on you, first, I was in a state of distress and somehow that translated into a stolen kiss. I’m sorry. It shouldn’t have happened. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

  He still had me in his hold. “I know that kiss meant nothing to you, and I won’t say anything to Kate. I heard part of your argument last night with Kate, and I hope you were able to explain to her that I don’t mean anything to you other than being ‘a pain in your ass.’”

  He brought me even closer to him and kissed me on the head. “You mean more to me than I think even I understand. Don’t worry about Kate. I’m sorry about last night. I hope you’ll forget any of this ever happened?”

  I stared at this beautiful man. You can forget since it meant nothing to you, but your kiss—even done in a state of distress—was what made my fairytale dream come true. I love you, Donovan.

  April 4, 2013 To Each His Own

  Today was our last full day on the island so we all decided to do our own thing. Since the fiasco I caused trying to be Briar Rose on this resort, several changes happened. The first big change—Kate left. Donovan didn’t say much other than that she had meetings to attend in London so she was flying all the way from Hawaii to London. That was going to be a helluva long trip! I was told to give up my very expensive room and take over Donovan’s original room. Max moved in with Jane, and Donovan opened up the villa to the four single men. It was a serious frat party in the villa.