by Ewing, A. B.
“Felipé and I have been married a little over four years. He is a very rich and powerful man in my country, so defying him is like signing your own death certificate. In the beginning, he was so attentive and loving, but it took less than a couple of months for the abuse to start. At first, it was a slap ever so often. Then, the accusations came together with the fist. I could not so much as look at another man for fear of what he may do. My pride is what made me stay. I was too ashamed of what people would think if they knew the kind of man I married. Then Genevieve was born. After that I was doomed. He threatened me, told me if I left, he would kill her. So I stayed.” Her eyes never once wavered as the words spilled from her mouth, her already swollen eyes, glistening with the promise of tears.
“I honestly believed I could bare it for her sake. That was until I woke one night with a strange man above me. Felipé sat in the next room while that man abused my body. It turned out that I was a pawn in a bet that he had lost. The next day I did the only thing I could. I called Raphael. For far too long I was afraid to let him know, but I could not stay with Felipé any longer.” Once again Constance paused, her hand fidgeting nervously as she tried to gather herself to continue.
“Rafe came to my rescue, bringing me to New York. But Genevieve had to stay. Felipé told lies about me. Said I was not a good mother. He said that I was leaving him for Rafe, so the government did not want her to leave with me. It is a good thing that there is one thing Felipé loves more than himself—money! It took a little over three months but Rafe was finally able to buy my daughter’s freedom.” Getting to her feet, she once again took a place close to Dahlia.
“I explained this because I wish for you to fully understand my situation. Rafe is the closest thing I have to family and while I may love him, it is not in the way you believe. I am afraid because of what I have suffered at the hands of my husband. It will be a very long time, if ever, before I can feel that way for any man. Plus, this man loves you too much.”
Dahlia’s heart swelled with compassion as this woman bared her soul. To speak of the things she had endured for the last four years, to a complete stranger would be not be an easy task, yet here she was. Dahlia truly admired this woman.
“Now that I have said my part, I think is best I leave you two alone.” Constance disappeared into the bedroom to return shortly with Genevieve in her arms.
Speaking to Raphael she said, “We will be in our room. Do not worry about us, I will order us something to eat.” Sparing Dahlia a glance, a brief smile crossed her lips. “You have a good man, Dahlia. Please do not allow your anger and hurt to destroy your chance of being happy.”
Dahlia quietly watched as Constance exited the room, shutting the door behind, leaving a dreadful silence behind. Her eyes drifted to her husband, her heart beat quickening as his eyes arrested hers. Buried in the depths, glowed his undeniable love for her. Raphael was a man in a million. He may not be perfect but he was the closest one to perfect God had ever made. To think that she could have lost him because of her stubbornness was heart wrenching.
His reaction to her supposed lover was not quite what she had expected. The burning rage that was fueled by his jealousy was nothing like she had ever experienced before. Even though he had been angry he had been cautious enough not to physically hurt her. Yanking her hand away so suddenly was not one of her brightest ideas because now she would have bruises to show.
Physically her husband would never hurt her, but her inability to trust him completely was her downfall. She was letting one bad phase of her life cloud her judgment. Once, she had jump to conclusions and both she and Raphael had suffered for almost five months. Yet here she was doing it again. She had not even given him a chance to explain.
Her husband was a kind, humble, loving man. Constance was a friend that needed help and in spite of all problems his marriage was facing, he sought to offer her that help, to protect her and her innocent child. How could she possibly chance losing such a selfless man?
Visibly tense, he leaned against the bar, his eyes still holding hers. She didn’t know what to say to him after misjudging him so badly. She had deliberately toyed with his feelings and then she had sunk the knife further by letting him believe there was another man in her life. Please, don’t let it be too late, she prayed.
She believed Constance. The woman’s earlier reaction proved that she was emotionally scarred, but Dahlia still needed to know more. Nervously, through dry lips, she questioned her husband, “Why did she have to stay with you? I mean, you are a man, she is a woman. Didn’t you think people would jump to conclusions?”
“At the beginning, no, it did not cross my mind, but when people started assuming we were lovers I welcomed it.” He answered straight faced.
Absolutely confused, she asked, “You were glad people thought you were lovers? I don’t understand. Why would that make you happy?”
With determined steps, Raphael left where he stood, to bring himself to a halt before her, the tortured expression on his rugged face—revealing so much of his inner turmoil to her. This man loved her, not Constance. He looked as if he was going to touch her, but rethinking his action he dropped his hand back to his side.
“When you left me, I became a walking target for every single young woman. They were constantly throwing themselves at me, each one hoping to be the next Cavos bride. I cannot begin to explain how frustrating it was. They would be outside my door waiting when I got home from work, dishes in hand. These women were like vultures. It did not matter how many times I said I was not interested, they persisted.” He paused, rubbing the back of his neck as if to dispel some weight. Looking at him closely now, she could see the signs of strain on his face. He looked so tense.
“I was having a very difficult time handling your absence together with everything else, but to everyone I appeared to be doing just fine. I think I may have been the on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Constance’s arrival was a blessing in disguise. From the very first day, everyone believed we were lovers, so they stopped hounding me. Constance ended up serving a very unlikely purpose and even though her cause gave me something to occupy my mind, you were never far from my thoughts, Amor. I promise.” He pleaded for understanding.
“We were separated, Raphael. I gave you no reason to believe I was coming back. Why didn’t you take up one of those offers?” Dahlia could not understand why she asked such a question, when her heart was already singing at Raphael’s confession.
His forehead knotted as it always did when he was deep in concentration. It took so much effort for Dahlia not to reach up and smoothen it out with her touch. Dear God, she loved this man so much. How could she possibly believe that she could survive without him?
“You ask me why I did not take another woman to my bed, Amor?” He questioned. His hand tangled with hers at her side before bringing it up to place a tender kiss in its palm. Placing the same palm against his heart he asked, “Tell me, Preciosa, what do you feel?”
Of course he knew what she felt but she responded nonetheless. “Your heart.”
“Sí Amor, my heart. It only beats now because you are here with me. I swear, the first time I felt it again since you left, was when I saw you on the beach today.”
Hot tears pricked at her eyes. This man had the ability to melt her heart with just his words. “Raphael…”
“It is only the truth. When you walked away from me, I think you took it with you. That, my sweet one, is why I could not bed another. Without you, that part of me ceases to exist.” Such simple words, yet the effect was grand.
“Why didn’t you tell me all this earlier on? Why did you leave me to believe she was your lover?”
“I was afraid you would not believe me. I have not been the best husband to you, Dahlia; I have not given you many reasons to trust me so I thought it would be better if Constance explained it.” His explanation though weak, made sense, yet Dahlia pushed.
“Is that why you brought her here?”
He ch
uckled lightly, his handsome face coming alive as he spoke. “One day soon, I hope for you to meet Sean Patrick. I have spoken of him before. It is he who opened my eyes to the damage Constance’s present could cause. So I did what I had to do. I got Genevieve to her mother and then I came to take you back home.”
Thrown off base by his confession, she stupidly asked, “You came to take me home?”
“Sí! I brought Constance and Genevieve here for two reasons. I hope to find them a home here. I think she will feel safe here because it is one place Felipé will not think to look for them. My other reason was to have Constance explain why she was staying at my house. I did not think that it would get so complicated. I had hoped to explain everything before I took you home.”
“You came to take me home?” She asked again even though she knew she sounded like a complete air head.
“Sí Amor. I promised myself that I would let you be. That I would not force you to take me back, but I am sorry. I cannot allow this. I love you too much, Amor. These past months have been the emptiest of my life. I sometimes wonder, how I ever existed before you became a part of my life.”
“Raphael…”
Misunderstanding what her she was going to say he begged, “Please Amor, do not turn me down. If I cannot have you, then I wish for no one else.”
“Oh, Raphael… ” She cried, throwing herself into his arms.
“Dios, Amor, te amo. Do not ever leave me again. I am sure if that ever happens again…I will die.” Crushing her in his embrace he buried his head in her hair. “You will return with me?”
“Yes, I will. I will go anywhere with you. I am so sorry I did not give you a chance to explain. I can be so stubborn sometimes.” She offered in the way of an apology.
“No, Amor. If I had done right by you when our son died, none of these things would have happened. I was not a good husband to you and because of that I have caused you so much hurt, but I promise you Amor, it will be different now.” His heartfelt words pulled at her heart strings. But it was time she accepted some of the blame.
“It is not all your fault, my love. I must take some of the blame for our son’s death…”
“No…”
“Yes. I should have trusted that you would not have betrayed me. I should have been more cautious. But it is in the past now. We cannot change it but we can build a future together.” It felt so good to say it. She felt as if the weight of the world had been thrown off her shoulder. For the first time in months she breathed easily. Her hand moved up to the button of his shirt. She picked childishly at the first one, avoiding his eyes. It popped open, the tip of one finger grazing the flesh below.
She smiled mischievously when he sucked in a quick breath. “Dahlia, there is nothing I want more than a future with you, but there is something I must know.”
“What is it?” She enquired as her fingers slowly undid the next button.
“Earlier, you implied that you have been with someone else. Is it true? Has there been another man?”
Looking up at this strong, Latin man, she was humbled at the pain etched in his features. How could she have been so thoughtless, making him believe that she was with another man? “Come with me.” She whispered, taking his hand to pull him behind her; she made her way to the large door that presented the bedroom.
On the other side, she stood before him, while slowly discarding of the few pieces of fabric she wore. Standing naked and proud in front of this man, whose dark eyes had just turned to coal, she sought to assure him. Taking his large hands she placed it on her bare waist. Rotating slowly in his grasp she spoke. “All that you see before you, Raphael, belongs to you, my husband. From the moment I gave myself to you twenty-one months ago, to this day, there has been no other man in my life.”
“Then why would you tell me something like that, Dahlia? Do you not know what it does to me to think of you with another man?” His tortured voice troubled her heart.
Moving closer to him, she cupped his bruised jaw with her small palm. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I am sorry for the way I behaved earlier today. I shouldn’t have hit you.” Her finger sought to sooth the slightly discolored skin of his face.
At her touch, the hands on her waist tightened a little, his eyes caressing her naked skin and as always her body began to heat. Brining his lips dangerously close to hers, his hot breath teased her skin. “Tell me, Amor, that I can make love to you and you will not run.”
Her skin prickled, her nipples pulled tight at the images his words resurrected. It had been so long since she had felt this way. So long since her husband had touched her. God, she had missed him. To answer his plea, she rose to her toes, her lips meeting his halfway. A hot burning sensation began in the pit of her stomach, rising to ignite a fire she thought to be buried. Moaning into his welcoming mouth she cried. “I love you, Raphael. Please, don’t let me go again.”
Arms around her like a protective shield he accepted what she gave. “Never, Amor. I will never let you go again. You are my heart, my soul and everything else that completes me, Dahlia.”
“Raphael?”
“¿Sí Amor?” He whispered against her waiting lips.
“Will you please shut up and kiss me?” She teased.
Raphael chuckled against her waiting lips. “Ah, Amor, I plan on doing so much more than kissing you.” He promised, before he finally claimed his prize.
****
Hours after, he lay with his wife in his arms. This is where it all began. Here in this room, in this bed—although, it was less than two years ago, it felt like an eternity. Dahlia’s head rested on his bare chest, her fingers drawing circles on his skin. One hand tangled in her curls, while the other covered her hand on his chest.
Much like another time she questioned. “Raphael…?”
“Hmm…?”
“Do you think it is too early to try for another baby?” Her voice brushed against his chest.
Her question caught him by surprise. Adjusting his head to see her more clearly, he studied her face. Caressing her cheeks he responded. “Amor, I promised you once that I would deny you nothing and that is a promise I plan to keep but I must ask. Are you sure you are ready for another child?”
Lacing her fingers with the ones that played along her jaw she answered, “Yes, I am. I have your love, Raphael; there is nothing more I want in this life except to have your child.”
Dios, she was so beautiful when she wore her heart on her face like this. Placing a tender kiss on her lips he promised, “If it is a baby you want, my sweet one, then so it shall be.”
Tracing her lips with his tongue, he smiled at her rapid response. Boldly, her hand moved down beneath the sheet to touch him. “Be cautious, mi princesa, you are asking for trouble.” He jokingly warned, enjoying what her touch was doing to him.
Breaking the kiss, her lips travelled down his chest and yet still lower, her hair trailing behind. From her new position she looked up at him, a wicked glint in her brown eyes. “No, my husband, it is you that needs to be cautious. Ten months is a very long time. I have been doing a lot of reading and there is so much I have learned. Let me show you.” She teased before she bent her head.
What was it that he was saying earlier about putting something in her beautiful mouth? Raphael groaned in ecstasy as his wife taught him exactly what she had learned.
****
Epilogue
When God created Adam and Eve, he made them perfect. Disobedience on their part caused them to lose it all, but by some miracle Rafe was able to find perfection again. Dahlia stood before the mirror, with earrings on both hands. From his position by the bedroom door, he admired her as she first brought the hooped earring up to her left ear, shifting her head a little so she could observe it carefully. He silently chuckled when she made a face, expressing a serious dislike to how she believed the expensive piece of jewelry looked. Tossing the gold hoop on the dressing table top, she put the diamond hanging earring to her right ear repeating th
e previous procedure. Rafe would love this woman even if she wore a sack cloth, but he truly appreciated the effort she made to accessories her already natural beauty. When she rolled her eyes in frustration and tossed the other earring next to the first one, Rafe intervened.
Strolling toward his wife, he could not resist admiring the perfect creature before him. The full length, white Vera Wang dress was the perfect choice for tonight’s proceedings. The fabric covered the majority of her body, except for the soft skin of her back. As his eyes skimmed over her, he felt the familiar signs of passion begin to mount in him. Her hair was loosely tied at the back of her head, a few strands flowing freely down the exposed skin of her back.
A soft giggle had him raising his eyes to confront hers in the mirror. “What is so funny, Amor?”
Tilting her head a little to the right, a seductive smile creased her full lips. Embracing her from behind, he pressed his arousal against the exposed skin of her back, succeeding in getting another giggle from her.
“That, my love, is what is funny.” She teased.
“You think a man in sexual anguish is funny?” He chided playfully, his large palms coming around to massage her new forming bump. Teasing the soft skin of her neck, he advised, “I am in pain, Amor, can you not feel it too?” He rubbed harder against her and found the sweetest satisfaction when her brown eyes dilated and clouded over.
He cheerfully noted, “I see you battling with the earrings. You cannot decide?”
A devious smile settled on his face when she licked her lips, swallowed, and pressed against him. Rafe knew exactly where this was going but they did not have time.
“The earrings, Dahlia.” He tried to free himself from the spell she was already weaving around him.
Shaking her head lightly, she tried to focus on his question by picking up the discarded objects. “I can’t decide for one. I want tonight to be perfect.” She worried.
“Look at me, Amor.” He commanded softly. When her eyes met his, once again, he continued, “I know how much this fundraiser means to you but por favor Amor, do not worry yourself too much.” The hand he was resting on her tummy tightened protectively.
