Three Wishes

by Kristen Ashley

  “Lily, come to bed.”

  She whirled on him at the same time attempting to pull the camisole on over the towel.

  “No! You have to take me back.”

  “I’m not taking you back.”

  She had the camisole on, ripped the towel off and threw it on the bed. This sent the clothes under her arm flying but she grabbed the skirt as it fell. Then she shook it out and was clearly about to put it on and ignore him completely.

  “Lily, if you put on that lovely skirt, I’ll just take it off again.”

  “They’ll think I’m a brazen hussy,” she mumbled, deep in the throes of agitation.

  He wanted to laugh but sensed this was not the time. Instead he threw the covers off the bed and, naked, approached her.

  She was still trying to put the skirt on, bent double again and hopping around, clumsy in her turmoil. She was also muttering to herself.

  “My mother would just die of mortification and my grandmother! Oh, I don’t even want to think. She would have disowned me. She’s probably twirling in her grave.”

  “Lily.” He put his hand on her back and she jerked up, tangled her leg in the skirt and started to fall backwards.

  His hands shot out, he caught her and pulled her against his body.

  She talked about her family a great deal, nearly all the time. At dinner she told him stories of her mother, father, grandmother and some man with the strange name Fazire who she obviously adored. Every time she spoke of them, her eyes would light with love. He’d never seen anything like it, never experienced that kind of devotion. Never let his heart melt enough to realise he had it from Laura and Victor.

  And he wanted it, but from Lily.

  “Nate, you must take me back to your parents,” she pleaded, her eyes meeting his. “I like them. I don’t want them to think I’m… I’m… wanton.” She was underlining her words with great regularity and Nate had to bite back his laughter.

  “They won’t think your wanton.” He could barely say the word without laughing. He definitely was smiling.

  Her eyes rounded further then they narrowed dangerously.

  “You think this is funny,” she accused.

  He bent his head to kiss her but she arched against his arm at her waist and dodged him. His hand went between her shoulder blades and forced her closer.

  “It is funny,” he told her.

  “It… is… not,” she enunciated every word carefully and he found, to his surprise, he liked her when she was angry. When his mother was angry she became mean and spiteful and said hideous things. Danielle was exactly the same. Laura rarely became angry.

  Lily was entirely different. Lily was spirited and hilarious and Nate knew somehow that she couldn’t be spiteful if she had to do it to save her own life.

  “Lily, calm down and listen to me.”

  “I am calm!” she shouted not the least bit calmly, her outburst surprising even her and that subdued her. She bit her lip and her eyes slid sideways. Then she sighed before admitting, “Okay, maybe I’m not calm.”

  Finally she stopped moving enough for him to kiss her and he brushed his lips lightly against hers.

  When he had her attention he asked, “Do you remember what I said when we came into this room?”

  She thought for a second and then nodded.

  “What did I say?” he asked.

  “Well…” she hedged.

  He pulled her closer and reminded her even though he knew she hadn’t forgotten, “I told you, if you got in that bed with me, I was never letting you go.”

  She stared at him, her eyes filled with wonder and all traces of anger simply ebbed away.

  “Do you remember me saying that?” he pushed.

  She nodded.

  “Do you remember you agreed?”

  She nodded again.

  “Did you get into bed with me?”

  “Well, you kind of threw me into the bed, or sort of… pushed me.”

  At that, he finally allowed himself to let out a sharp bark of laughter. She was just too much.

  Once he had himself under control, he realised she’d relaxed against him and her body had become pliant.

  His tone gentled. “Fair enough. So, once I threw you in, did you leave?”

  She shook her head.

  “Do you want to leave now?”

  She stared at him a moment and he held his breath.

  Then she sighed and shook her head again.

  He let out his breath, his relief so great he had trouble coping with it. So he set it aside and slid his hands under the camisole.

  “Now, let’s get you out of these clothes and back into bed.”

  He pulled the camisole up again but this time her arms came up of their own volition.

  “Nate?” Lily called as he tossed her camisole aside.

  He was gliding his hands across the smooth skin of her back and staring at the flawless skin of her shoulders.

  “Mm?”

  “Nothing.”

  His eyes found hers and they were uncertain. He misread her mind and bent to brush his lips against hers again.

  “Come to bed.”

  She sighed again and nodded.

  * * * * *

  Lily had always slept alone.

  Except a few times at sleep-overs with her best friend from grade school, Colleen. Colleen had a big double bed and they’d slept there together.

  That was it, her entire experience of sleeping with another human being.

  Therefore she had no idea how to sleep with a man.

  She was pressed against Nate’s side, his arm underneath and wrapped around her, his fingers stroking her hip.

  When he took her clothes off (again) and took her to bed, he made love to her again.

  Well, not exactly, as he didn’t come inside her even when she asked him to. He told her he didn’t want to hurt her. Instead, he did things to her with his hands and his mouth and took her to that beautiful place while he watched.

  She would have been immensely embarrassed by this but once she’d had her body and pulse under control, she looked at him and he was looking at her as if she’d just announced she’d cured cancer. She couldn’t be embarrassed when he looked at her like that.

  And then he’d pulled the covers over them and tucked her against his side and seemed, as she was finding was usual with Nate, to be quite happy in complete silence.

  Lily was not happy. Lily was thinking about what she’d promised and what that meant.

  “Um… Nate?” she said against his shoulder where her head was laying and she had an unobstructed view of the wall of his chest.

  She liked his chest, it was strong and broad and muscular. She liked it just as much as his hands and now she had even more reasons to like his hands, even love them.

  “Mm?” This was a low rumble that seemed to come from somewhere deep inside him. She found she liked that too.

  “What does not letting me go mean, um… exactly?”

  His fingers stopped their lazy stroking at her hip and his hand flattened, his fingers digging into her.

  “It means you aren’t going anywhere.” His voice sounded somehow tight.

  “Tonight?” she asked, deciding it best to ignore his strange tone.

  “Tonight, tomorrow night, the next night, the next week.” He stopped but only because he was finished talking not because what came after next week wasn’t included in his statement.

  This idea warmed her very soul but she was a practical Indiana girl. There were other things to consider.

  “But I live in Somerset,” she told him.

  “Now, you live here,” he returned as if it was as easy as that.

  Her body jerked in stunned surprise at his announcement and she lifted herself to her elbow, reaching down at the same time to grab the sheet and pull it up to her chest. He was blithely unconcerned with his (rather wonderful) nakedness but she was not.

  She stared down at him. After one date he expected her to move in with
him?

  “I own a house in Somerset,” she explained.

  His eyes moved to hers and they were unreadable. “We’ll visit on the weekends.”

  She gasped.

  “But I have a job in Somerset!” she informed him.

  “Resign. You no longer have to work.”

  She gasped again, this one even more shocked than the last.

  “I’ve been working since I was thirteen years old!”

  Something shifted in his eyes as she glared at him and she realised that she’d surprised him somehow.

  She had indeed been working since she was thirteen. Neither her parents nor her grandmother thought idle children were a good thing. She had a paper route that she did every morning, not to mention she’d gone to work at one of her father’s friend’s golf courses, picking up the balls on the driving range all day Saturday. When she was able to work legally, she’d found a job at a fast food restaurant for a year. At Oxford she definitely had to work and pulled pints at a local pub.

  She didn’t tell Nate any of that nor did she let him comment but continued to speak.

  “I don’t know how not to work. I wouldn’t know what to do. What will I do?”

  He came up on his elbow and faced her, his hand moving the hair from her neck to behind her back.

  “You can shop, go out to lunch with Laura. She’d love it.” His voice was soft and his eyes were on her mouth and he obviously thought this was a satisfactory answer.

  As much as she liked shopping, she couldn’t do it every day. It wouldn’t be fun if she could do it every day. And she had a mortgage, she had credit card bills, she had to work.

  “I need a job,” she told him determinedly.

  His head was descending.

  “Then get a job,” he said against her lips. He was pressing her back on the bed and she didn’t resist. She couldn’t have even if she wanted to, which she didn’t. He came over her and then he kissed her. Her belly was warming up for a full-blown gymnastic extravaganza, she could feel it.

  “Nate…” she began, this time far less fervently as her voice was quivering.

  But finally he took her seriously.

  He lifted his head, his voice was low and determined and his eyes were completely black.

  “Lily, I’ll take care of you. Always. Whatever you want, just ask and I’ll get it for you. You’ll never need for anything, want for anything, not while you’re with me. I’ll take care of everything.”

  Then, the subject closed, he kissed her again and when he did all thoughts of jobs, mortgages and credit card bills swiftly exited her mind.

  Much later she learned how to sleep with someone. Nate pulled her back against his front, wrapped his arm tightly around her waist and buried his face in her hair.

  Lily fell asleep thinking it felt rather nice.

  Chapter Ten

  Lily’s Ending

  Lily was worried.

  How she could be happier, more contented and at peace than she’d ever been in her whole life, and be so damned worried all at the same time, she did not know.

  Things with Nate were wonderful… no, splendid… no, magnificent.

  Well, most of the time.

  He worked quite a bit. Even at his age (he was only 28!), he was the Executive Vice President of two divisions of his father’s company and he took his job for his father very seriously. Deadly seriously. It was almost like he owed his life to that job. Nate left before Lily woke up every morning, and Lily was an early riser, and didn’t come home until after eight o’clock every evening.

  Sometimes she’d have dinner ready when he’d come home. Other times he’d call her during the day to tell her he was going to take her out to some fabulous restaurant (so fabulous, Nate was significantly taxing the limits of her wardrobe). Twice they’d been to Victor and Laura’s for dinner.

  Every night he’d make love to her (and mornings besides), most nights more than once and each time was better than the last.

  She’d gone back to Clevedon the second morning after their first night together. She’d told him she had to give Maxine notice and work that notice out at the store. He hadn’t been happy but she’d put her foot down telling him the truth, that her mother and father would never forgive her if she just quit a job and didn’t work out her notice, it was bad form. Eventually, sensing how important it was to Lily because she repeated it, over and over, in a louder and louder voice, he gave in. It was the only time he didn’t go to work early. Instead he took her to the train and kissed her on the platform, kissed her in a way that made her not want to go.

  “I’ve changed my mind, I’m not going,” she whispered against his lips.

  He’d smiled against hers and she had to admit, she really liked it when he did that.

  “Now,” he murmured also against her lips and she really liked that too, “I don’t mind that you’re going.” He kissed her lightly and finished. “I’ll see you at the weekend.”

  Maxine, at first, had not been happy.

  “I’m never giving you time off again!” she’d yelled. Maxine was somewhat dramatic so Lily was used to her yelling.

  “But Maxine, I just quit,” Lily had replied gently and sensibly.

  “Tell me about him. What’s he done to you?” Maxine demanded to know.

  Maxine had never known Lily Jacobs to even look at a man, much less date, much less drop everything in her life to move to London for some bloke she’d known three days.

  Lily told the story, the full story, leaving nothing out. She would have left out the sex parts but Maxine was insistent that she wanted it all.

  When she was finished, Maxine contradicted herself.

  “You’re not working out your notice. Get back to this man, get back to him now!”

  “But, the store…” Lily resisted.

  She loved Maxine and she loved that store and she would miss it. It was hidden down a cobbled alley, had a front window that was just two feet up from the cobbles, the window filled mostly with a window box chock full of dazzling flowers. Both sides of old, tiny front door were flanked with enormous, gleaming, cobalt blue flowerpots that also blazed with colour and trailed luscious greenery. The shop was crammed with fun, funky clothes and jewellery made by local artists. But best of all, it was filled every day with Maxine who was what her grandmother would call, “a character”.

  Maxine went on with her drama. “Blast the store, it’ll survive. We’ve been talking for an hour and one customer came in and didn’t buy a thing.” Then she’d leaned in, her violet eyes dancing (Lily fancied that Maxine looked a little like Elizabeth Taylor, violet eyes and dark, dark hair but, it must be noted not unkindly, Maxine was an Elizabeth Taylor in her chubby, older years). “Most girls never find a man like that, Lily. You hold on, you hold on for dear life.”

  Maxine, Lily knew, read romance novels too. Lots of them.

  So Lily had called Nate’s answering machine, left a message and told him she’d be home two weeks earlier than expected. She went to her ramshackle house and did what she needed to do, packing a couple of bags. Nate had told her they’d be back and frequently so she’d have plenty of time to get more of her things. She felt funny leaving her house but it wasn’t going to grow legs and walk away whereas Nate already had legs and she never wanted to give him a reason to walk away, and after awhile, after she knew Nate better, they’d come to a different arrangement.

  But now he wanted her in London. He wanted her with him and he was wonderful, handsome and smart. He was a fantastic kisser and even better with his hands and other parts of his anatomy and he thought she was funny.

  And he looked at her like, well, like she was beautiful.

  He was everything she’d ever wished she would have, everything she wished for Fazire to give her.

  And she was going to hold on to him for dear life.

  * * * * *

  The first week with Nate had been fantastic; the only thing marring it was dinner at Laura and Victor’s. Jeff and Dan
ielle had been in attendance and even though Victor and Laura seemed pleased that Nate and Lily were together (not exactly pleased so much as over the moon), Nate’s siblings did not.

  Danielle said catty things about Lily’s outfit and her accent, things which made Victor’s lips thin and Laura blush with ire but it was Nate who said, “Danielle, enough,” in a way that everyone at the table knew it was enough and Danielle stopped immediately, if rather mutinously.

  Then, if that wasn’t bad enough, after dinner, when Lily had been coming back from the powder room, Jeff was waiting for her. He cornered her as in literally cornered her, against the wall in a corner, blocking her path with his body so she couldn’t get out.

  “I can’t believe you chose him, Lily. I can’t believe it. Do you know who he is?” Jeff was talking low and fast and looking at her as if she was a juicy steak and he was a rabid dog.

  He was also scaring her half to death.

  “Jeff –”

  “I don’t mind that you’ve slept with him, I don’t care that he had his filthy hands on you. You and I can start again.” She stared at him open-mouthed and speechless. She didn’t know they’d started at all. “But once you know who he is, what he is, where he came from… Lily, you have to know.”

  Lily interrupted him, saying, “I chose Nate.”

  She wanted to get away from him, needed to get away. He was revolting, vile and now, frightening in his hatred. She didn’t know what he was talking about and she didn’t care. Lily realised she’d been right the first time she met him; there was nothing to like about him at all. He was talking about his brother, for goodness sake.

  “Lily, once I tell you –” He went on, moving closer to her and lifting his hand like he was going to touch her.

  “I choose Nate!” she snapped, not wanting him to touch her, angry at his cornering her and angry that a man such as Nate would be strapped with a spoiled, snotty, adopted brother like Jeff. Further she was angry that Laura and Victor had such a son. “Step away,” she demanded.

  “Lily,” he said her name like a plea.

  “Step away!” she repeated.

  “She said, step away.”

  This came in a deep, lethal voice from behind Jeff and Jeff jerked his head around just as Lily’s gaze shifted over Jeff’s shoulder and they both saw Nate.