One Desire

by Rice, Rachel E.

  “But I don’t drink,” I said to him.

  “But of course you will. It’s your birthday.” I opened my mouth and he interrupted.

  “If you’re going to be with me, you will have to learn to drink.” Did he mean something more? But how could he? He was getting married soon. Maybe through all his drinking it had slipped his mind, and I thought it was time to remind him.

  “I can’t be with you because you’re getting married, and we’re not friends. I don’t travel in your circles.”

  “Well we will have to do something about that.” I glanced at him and his smile never changed. It was as though he had a secret that he was enjoying and he couldn’t tell anyone.

  “I don’t have many friends. When you’re as rich as I am, you never know who your friends are. But I know we’ll be friends because you could have gone somewhere else with someone else but instead you spent your time waiting for me to sober up. Only a friend would do that.” To my surprise, he passed his thumb across my chin and held my face as he kissed my cheek. The warmth from his hands filled me to my core and took me on a journey of bliss.

  I looked at his impossible handsome drop dead gorgeous face and I shook my head. I was just a young woman with desires who wanted someone to love and love me. I didn’t care whether he was rich, I didn’t care that he was Brandon Charles, but I cared that he ignited something in me that had never been, and now he was officially my one and only desire.

  Oh no, I didn’t want to be his friend, I wanted to be his lover.

  He took my hand and placed it around the glass. “Please drink with me.” The male flight attendant whose name is Gary anticipated Brandon’s wants. Brandon glanced up and gave a slight tilt of his head and he obediently poured the Champagne into two crystal glasses and turned and left immediately. Whenever Brandon’s glass was low he would show up and fill it.

  I stared at the glass. “Don’t tell me you’ve never had a glass of Champagne,” Brandon stated with a wide closed smile knowing the answer before he asked.

  I bit my lip and said, “No. Never had any before.”

  “Where have you been?” I knew he didn’t expect an answer and I would have explained that I had been buried in books all my life. “You’re in for a treat. I’m going to be your mentor for a day.” He smiled taking in a large gulp.

  “But I have to be home early tomorrow morning.”

  “So do I, but you don’t see me complaining.” His gaze never left me and he stared at me with those heavenly eyes and long dark lashes. I felt hypnotized, and I knew if he wanted me in any way, I would be in trouble and it would be the death of me. “Now drink because we have a lot to cover in a short period of time.”

  I reached for my glass and drank hurriedly. Then I looked to Brandon for acknowledgment for a job well done. His eyes followed me and a smile crept on his lips slowly, and when I had finished the wine, he called for another.

  Finally I had to tell him I had had enough to drink and that I didn’t know whether I could walk off the plane. He said he would carry me and that was when sobriety took hold and I declared that I would walk from the plane on my own. There was only a few moments for a nap and I leaned on his shoulder and took a snooze.

  When we arrived in Maine a limo parked waiting to take us to a restaurant. We were drunk, at least I felt drunk, hungry, and sleepy. We arrived at a small specialty restaurant. The outside of it appeared rustic. An old replica of a small schooner set in front of it, but in the inside the décor was old European glamor. “This is beautiful,” I said. The waiter showed us to our table with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. I swore I saw a whale in a distance.

  “Do you like it? Now wasn’t it worth it?” Brandon said to me standing until I was seated.

  He was worth it. But I didn’t say that.

  “It was worth it,” I confessed.

  “How do you feel?”

  “I feel like a princess,” I said to him. I picked up the folded napkins and set it on my head. He looked at me smiling one of his secret smiles.

  “Then that does it. You are a princess. My princess. When does a man find a girl like you? Only once in a lifetime. You have made me as happy as I am trying to make you.” He reached for my nervous hand. I wasn’t use to compliments except from my parents and you can’t count them because they would say anything to make me feel good about myself. I needed to hear someone else tell me.

  “I’m attracted to you in the worst way,” he said and my heart jerked and my heart stopped. “I may sound disingenuous but if you knew me you would know that my word is my bond, and I don’t say things lightly.”

  “I don’t know you Brandon Charles. Maybe it’s the drinks that’s causing you to say this.” I pulled my hand from his hand and he claimed it once more and this time he placed both hands over mine.

  “Not only are you beautiful on the outside you have inner beauty.” He paused searching for my eyes. “Three drinks of Champaign is nothing for me, I can down ten shots of Tequila and still stand. Trust me I’m completely sober.”

  The waiter brought out the Lobsters. “How did he know what we wanted?”

  “It’s a Lobster restaurant. I don’t think you can order Chinese food here,” he said gazing into my eyes, and then braking into laughter, “besides it’s my family’s restaurant. We have a cottage on the beach. Would you like to see it?”

  “Only if I have enough time to make it home by sunrise.”

  “I’ll try to get you there by then, princess.” I noticed that he didn’t promise me. But I didn’t protest because I loved the way his voice called me princess and the way his eyes sparkled each time he did. I didn’t want the night to end. I wanted it to go on and on and on.

  Chapter 4

  That night was the best of my life. We left the restaurant for a stroll on the beach. The steps led down to the sand with the ocean waves rolling in and out. I looked up to see a large new moon in the starless sky. When we reached the sand I kicked my heels off my feet and Brandon bent to scoop them up. He glanced at me and said, “I see you are adventurous and reckless.” He paused and stared at me as if reading my mind. “But, you don’t want anyone to see that side of you,” he whispered after pushing my hair behind my ear. His touch, his words, his voice, I pictured him lying over me looking in my eyes and asking me to marry him.

  “How would you know that I’m adventurous and reckless?” I said curious to know if he really knew me. I hadn’t given him any indication that I was remotely like that.

  “Looking at those shoes you have to be daring and sexy. I can see you dancing,” he said with a smile that curled his lips upward. “What are they, six inches? On the outside you dress conservative but a woman’s shoes can always give her away.”

  “What? Do you and your frat boys just sit around and discuss women’s shoes? I think there are more serious issues in the world,” I said smiling inward but on the outside, I had to hold up an impression of being a serious girl. I wanted him to know that I wasn’t the type to have a one night fling. If he was testing me I had to show him that I was not that kind of woman.

  He thought my statement was funny and he said, “Well not quite.” My eyes narrowed. He didn’t want to lie to me. “Well, yes, we do discuss girls.” Another smile. “A lot. For the record every day.” He went further with the conversation. “What else would spoil, rich, smartass young men do with their spare time? After playing every game on our gaming consoles, and getting an A in all our classes, we get bored. We discuss women and how to to…” He stopped to search for the right words.

  “Fuck them,” I said. After I found the right phrase, I walked away from him grabbing my black strappy spiked heels from his hand. The shoes weren’t mine and I didn’t want to admit that I had borrowed them. He stood a few seconds and ran to catch up with me.

  Brandon turn me around to face him. “See what I mean. Who would have thought that that word was in your vocabulary?”

  “Touché.” And I walked a
way in silence. He ran to me again and draped his jacket over my shoulders and brought his long arms around me, nuzzling my neck. I smelled his scent on his coat, and I wanted to drink it in. The freshness of his smell, and the ocean air drew me to him. The chill of the night’s air didn’t make me curl into his arms. It was his smell. I read somewhere it’s someone’s scent that will either attract or repel an individual, and Brandon’s scent attracted me in such a way that I couldn’t bear to leave him. But I’m a realist and I knew I had to go. I turned to tell him that I had enough of the fairy tale life, when he said in a low murmur.

  “We’re here, princess.”

  I looked up and around. “You call this a cottage? It’s a mansion.”

  “You should see the other homes. I want to show them all to you,” he said in a quiet seductive voice.

  “Haven’t you forgotten one thing?” He glanced at me which let me know he hadn’t forgotten. His furrowed brow and expression said he hoped I had.

  “Your upcoming marriage,” I said.

  “We’ll discuss that later. Have you ever seen a cottage like this?” He conveniently changed the subject.

  “No. Never.”

  “Then let me escort you around and act as your guide.” He looped my arm under his. We climbed the stone stairs to the front porch which appeared to curve in a circle around the house. On the porch white wicker chairs, white wooden tables, and swings populated it. He hit a switch on his keys and the door opened. He walked in first and when he hit a button, the lights lit the whole house. Across the room, another view of the Atlantic Ocean and a fire in the fireplace.

  Glancing at me with a smirk anticipating the next question he said, “Don’t ask. But I know you will. The cottage has a caretaker and I like it comfortable so he has standing orders to keep the fire going this time of year.” He kissed my cheek, tilted his head and said, “Anything else?”

  I sucked in a long breath and looked at him and shook my head. “Now can we leave?”

  “You haven’t seen the entire house.” I rolled my eyes and flashed him a look. Yet I let him lead me through the house pointing to the kitchen, which was well stocked and finally into the bed rooms, which I felt were his intentions all along. My thoughts were to have fun with him and watch his maneuver of trying to get me into bed.

  I stood at the entrance to the master bedroom. The bed was draped in quilts. I looked at Brandon. “My mother’s hobby,” he said. “She made quilts out of my clothes I had grown out of when I was a child.” I could tell that she had plenty of time on her hands and that she was as possessive as any woman could be about her son. He shrugged his shoulder and said, “I’m her only son. You know how it is. I thought she would stop when my younger sister was born, but she still makes me her hobby.”

  “Yes, I know and if I’m not home by morning, my father will send out an amber alert and call the state troopers.”

  “Not to worry. The troopers know my family.” By the moonlight I saw a smirk on his gorgeous face. We stood together looking at the large moon and the waves crashing over my bare feet and the nearby rocks providing the background for a love story. Brandon pulled me into him. He passed his finger along my lips. “I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I want to show you the world.”

  “Are you serious? Am I that gullible that you think I believe you? You are getting married and this is what you’re telling me,” I said more hurt than angry.

  “You don’t know me Tyler. Ask Christina. I don’t say things unless I mean it.”

  Holly shit, so soon? I thought he would give me at least a day before he came up with some lame story.

  My body weakened when he leaned in to kiss me. My mouth opened wide to give access to his tongue. His tongue licked my lips and entered my mouth and a shimmer of ecstasy and heat coursed throughout my body. He held me in his arms with my arms around his neck and I felt his hard body next to mine in a way that I have never felt before. His breathing shallow and hard. My breathing, that of someone who had drowned, and his breathless kiss gave me back my life. I died the moment he took my breath from me with his deep sensuous kiss.

  The person I knew died and I was reborn when I lay in his bed and he leaned over me and said, “I have never wanted a woman as I want you. I have never wanted to be in a woman’s body as I crave every part of you. I have been everywhere in the world, but now I want to see the world through your eyes.” And he leaned in and covered my mouth with his mouth and it was a kiss to last a lifetime for me, but for him, maybe just tonight.

  He pressed his hard pulsating body into me and I felt his heated penis. I braced myself for what I knew I shouldn’t do, but with my passionate desire for Brandon, I would do.

  I opened my eyes and in that split second I had to decide whether I could lay with a man who would be married within a week and I may never see again. “What about the woman you’re going to marry?” I asked.

  “Why do you want to ruin our moment? You‘re daring, you like to live dangerous as I suspected. Let’s just live in the moment and enjoy our young lives and hold these memories forever. When will you, or me for that matter, ever find someone again that will make us feel the way we do now?”

  His words destroyed all negative thoughts. I wanted to push him away for being so casual about his marriage, but he wasn’t casual about me. I had never heard a man speak so eloquent about me. “I said that if you knew me you would know that I choose my words carefully. I meant what I said and I’m saying… I love you.” He whispered those words in my ear.

  I wanted to ask him how did he know, but he anticipated my question again and he placed his finger on my lips and silenced me. He braced himself over me and his lips met mine and this time it was me who devoured his mouth. He bit my lip and sucked it gently.

  We kissed and lay on each other. He on top and then me on top of him not allowing for any light from the embers of the fire to find any space to come between us.

  We fell into each other’s arms and lay there. When we woke with the sun brimming over the horizon he sat up and he handed me the phone. “Call your parents and tell them you’re going to stay a week with Christina and you’ll contact them every day to let them know that you’re ok.”

  I nodded “yes.” It was not like me to do that but I discovered new found courage to lie to my parents. I had indeed changed. One night wrapped in Brandon Charles’s arms, I didn’t recognize me anymore because he was my one desire.

  Brandon darted out of the bed, still in his slacks and shirt. “I’ll call Chris,” I said. “And then I’ll contact my parents.” He headed to the kitchen giving me time to lie to my parents.

  I looked at myself and all I had on was a bra and panties.

  I wasn’t good at lying but for some reason they believed my every word. I never lied to them before, maybe that’s why they believed me.

  For some reason I felt guilty. Was it because I still held on to a part of myself that Brandon was trying his best to claim? After I shut down the smartphone I glanced up and standing before me was Brandon holding a distressed white tray filled with breakfast goodies of croissants, muffins of every choice, fruit, yogurt, and coffee. He place the tray eye level, “Do you like?”

  “I thought you may want to have breakfast in,” he said placing the tray on a large table, where I can look out at the Ocean. I grinned at the alluring and handsome man standing before me. I shook my head like a freshman girl who was mesmerized by the most handsome senior in high school saying hello to her. When I wiped the sleep from my eyes, I noticed that he had taken a shower and changed into sweats. “Don’t worry I have some for you too. Now eat.”

  I took the croissant and placed it in my mouth and drank my coffee. He stood with a smile showing his perfect white teeth. “I don’t drink coffee or tea but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yours,” he said. I opened my mouth to stuff another piece of croissant. “Did anyone ever tell you that you have a pretty mouth?”

  “No, it’s just a mouth,” I said taki
ng a bite out of the blueberry muffin. He smiled and placed a kiss on my forehead before disappearing into another part of the house. Brandon returned with new sweats for me.

  “If I’m going to stay here for a week, I will need undergarments too.”

  “No problem princess, after our walk on the beach, when we return you’ll have everything you need for the week. Just like that, now take your shower. I would ask you if we could shower together, but I know you would say no. But I’ll ask you every day.” He bit a piece of the croissant, looking at me with blue eyes, and a devilish smile, “I’m relentless.” And he gave me a wink and left with a satisfied smile.

  Chapter 5

  I exited the shower to find a closet stocked with an assortment of sweats, shorts, jeans, shirts and tees. Panties and bras of every color wrapped in beautiful boxes sat on the bed. Whoever bought the things, knew my size, from my bra size to the size of my panties and they were the most expensive underwear I had seen. I sat holding on to my chest to catch my breath. After I dressed in some white sweats, I went to look for Brandon to thank him. I opened the door to the library. He was talking on his smartphone gazing out the window at the ocean.

  He turned sensing my presence. “I’m busy. Out of town. Please tell your parents that I will join them for dinner.” My mind went into overload. When will he have time to join them because he is supposed to be occupied with me for another six days? What are his plans and should I ask him, I wondered.

  He shut his phone looking calmly at me.

  “Good, you look great for a walk on the beach.” He stood up from the wingback chair and crossed the room to reach for my hand. “What is wrong now princess?” he asked softly.

  I looked at him and wondered whether I should push for an answer or should I just enjoy being with him knowing that I may never get a chance again. I had to ask myself, did I want him so badly that I would throw away everything that I knew and believed in, and the answer was foolish, childish, and pathetic—the answer was yes.