by K. M. Scott
"You're trying to guilt me into going?" I joked. "But what about the idea of people seeing you smile? What will that do to your reputation?"
He rolled his eyes and turned to drive. "I hadn't thought about that. Well, then. It's settled. I'll remain cold and impersonal in public and nobody will know the real me. Except you."
I knew it was selfish, but I liked the idea of the world thinking he was cold. There was something very special about Tristan only feeling comfortable enough to drop his cool facade with me.
We got to Tony's to find the entire restaurant deserted. Peering in through the front window, I saw no one inside. Disappointed, I turned toward him. "I don't think they're open."
Tristan brushed it off and took my hand to lead me inside to a table in the back. A waitress appeared almost instantly to take our order, and as he told her what we wanted, I wondered where all the other customers were.
She walked away toward the front of the restaurant and I asked, "Don't you think it's weird there's no one here?"
He got a strange grin on his face. "No. Not at all."
The lights dimmed throughout the building except where we sat, making me feel there was definitely something odd going on. "Tristan, they're turning the lights out. I think they might be closing early tonight."
I looked around to see where the waitress had gone to and when I looked back at Tristan, he was on one knee on the wood floor next to me and beside him sat a small robin's egg blue colored box. In the palm of his right hand was a smaller black velvet box. He pulled back the top and there sat a gorgeous diamond ring. I'd never seen anything so stunning, and even in the dim light of Tony's, the stone was brilliant.
"It's...oh, my God, Tristan. I don't know what to say." I covered my mouth with my hands and tears began to roll down my cheeks.
"Say you'll marry me."
At that moment, I was sure there wasn't a happier person on the entire planet. As I looked down into those eyes so full of love for me, my heart felt fuller than it ever had before.
"Yes. Yes! I'll marry you, Tristan."
He slid the ring onto my finger and took me into his arms as I cried tears of joy. This was more than I'd ever dreamed could happen in my life. I kissed him right there in Tony's Pizza Heaven and right in front of the waitress, who was standing there with our tray of pizza and crying herself.
The blonde looked down at Tristan with a look of anticipation. "Did she say yes?"
Looking into my eyes, he smiled. "She said yes."
"She said yes, everybody!" the woman yelled toward the kitchen, where a chorus of whistles and clapping exploded. She placed the large tray of pizza on the table and smiled at me. "Congratulations. You're a lucky girl. It's not every guy who arranges a proposal like this."
She left us alone, and I turned toward him. "How long have you been planning this?"
"Since Venice."
I looked down at the dazzling ring on my hand. I guessed the diamond was at least two carets and was set in a platinum setting and band. To say it was gorgeous was an understatement. It took my breath away.
"And you got the people here at Tony's to help you?"
Tristan took a bite of pizza. "I figured it would be easier to get you to say yes if the restaurant wasn't filled with people."
"So you paid to have the restaurant closed to everyone but us?" I asked in disbelief.
Nodding, he smiled. "You sound surprised. Of all the things I've spent my money on, this is the best one. It's not every day a man gets to propose to the woman he loves, and if it costs a little money, that's okay."
I glanced down at the ring sitting on my left hand and back up at him. "A little? I'm not sure I'm ever going to get used to your idea of a little money."
"I've told you before, Nina. I would spend ten times that amount to make you happy. That's all I want."
Leaning over the table, I kissed him sweetly, tasting sauce and cheese on his lips. "I'm the happiest woman in the world because of you. Don't ever doubt that."
With a wink, he smiled and said, "Good. Now eat your pizza before it gets cold."
Chapter Twenty-One
Later that night as we laid in each other's arms after making love for hours, I heard the all-too-familiar vibration of Tristan's phone on the nightstand near his side of the bed. In seconds, his mood changed from the blissful happiness we'd shared all night after his proposal at Tony's to sullen and brooding. His shoulders grew tense under my fingers, and in seconds he was gone from our bed to answer that phone I'd grown to hate.
I laid there feeling cold without him next to me and wondering if now that we were planning to be husband and wife did I have a right to ask him what was going on with these calls. Whatever it was that he was dealing with each time that phone rang and it dragged him out of our bed, it tore at my heart that he obviously believed he needed to deal with it alone.
Straining to hear any bits and pieces of his conversation right outside in the hallway, I was able to make out only a few garbled words that meant nothing to me. He was only gone for a few minutes, but when he returned to bed he was visible shaken.
He laid down next to me and moved to take me in his arms as I'd been before. Pulling me close, he was silent but I sensed the tension coming from him in waves. I laid my head on his chest, and he began to coil my hair around his index finger over and over.
After a few minutes, I whispered against his skin, "Tristan, what is it?"
"Nothing. Just work. Let's go to sleep. We have a lot to decide tomorrow."
I knew he was referring to our earlier discussion of what kind of wedding we wanted or if we should just elope since neither of us had much family, but as he spoke of all that now, it sounded like something unhappy to him.
Kissing his neck, I whispered, "You can tell me anything. There's nothing you can say that will change how I feel. I hope you know that."
He sighed heavily and squeezed me to him. "Everyone has something they're ashamed of, Nina. All we can hope for is that the one we love can see past it."
His words were so cryptic they worried me. "I can't believe you have anything to be ashamed of. I'll never believe that. No one who has treated me like you have could have done anything so bad he should be ashamed."
Tristan kissed the top of my head and sighed again. "Sometimes we have to do things because others have done wrong. All I can promise is that I would never hurt someone like others in my position."
I heard the sorrow in his voice and wanted to ask about it, but it didn't seem like the right time. On the night that he'd asked me to marry him, I didn't want to fall asleep after talking about things that made him unhappy. I wanted to make him as happy as he made me.
Snuggling close to him, I whispered, "All that matters is that I love you and you love me. Everything else is out there. Always remember that and we can get through anything."
My words didn't ease his mind, and when he kissed me just before we fell asleep, all I could feel was his sadness.
In the middle of the night, I awoke to Tristan thrashing around in his sleep next to me. He was mumbling something over and over as he frantically shook his head. His body writhed as if he were in pain, and his face twisted into a terrible grimace.
"No! No! Don't...don't do this. Stop!"
I gently nudged Tristan's shoulder to wake him, but he shook his head violently as he pleaded for the people in his dream to stop. Pressing harder into his body, I finally was able to wake him. He stared at me in terror for a few moments before he realized it was just me there with him.
"You were having a nightmare," I said as he took a deep breath. He nodded, and I gently stroked his forehead drenched with sweat. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
"What was that?"
He shook his head as he sat up to get out of bed. "Nothing. Go back to sleep."
I reached out to touch his back, and he turned to face me. "Tristan, what were you dreaming about?"
His body sagged and he hung his head. "It wasn't a
dream. I have nightmares. I have since the accident. That's the reason I never stay after you fall asleep. I thought I could do it tonight, but..."
I listened as his voice sadly trailed off, so wanting to help fight whatever demons he was dealing with. "Come back to bed. It'll be okay."
"Maybe it would be better if I say in the other bedroom like I always do. They can get pretty bad."
Sitting up, I wrapped my arms around him and pressed my cheek to his back. "I wish you wouldn't. I'm not going to be scared off by a few nightmares. If we're going to be married, I have to know about even this kind of thing."
He took another deep breath and quietly said, "Okay."
Easing back onto the bed, he pushed his hands through his damp hair and closed his eyes. I laid my head on his chest and curled up next to him, hoping my presence helped to calm him. As he usually did when we laid in bed together, he twisted my hair around his finger over and over until just before he feel asleep when he stopped and whispered, "I love you, Nina. No matter what, don't ever think I don't love you more than everything else in the world."
I woke up feeling happy and refreshed, and for the first time ever, I was still in his arms. I vaguely remembered him leaving during the night, and as I focused my eyes, I saw why. On the table near the window sat a glass vase containing an enormous bouquet of my favorite flowers, pink roses. They were a soft pink color and there had to be three or four dozen of them. I inhaled their soft scent and smiled at his thoughtfulness.
Tristan roused next to me, waking up much easier than I did. As soon as his eyes were open, he was wide awake, but there didn't seem to be any evidence of his nightmare now. "I remembered they're your favorite."
Propping myself up on my elbow, I wondered aloud, "Where did you get dozens of pink roses in the middle of the night?"
My question made him smile that gentle grin I loved to see. "I ordered them yesterday. They were delivered first thing this morning."
I shook my head in amazement. "Is there anything you don't think of?"
"Not if I can help it. I guess if you'd have said no my plan with the roses might have been for nothing, but a man should be prepared."
Nuzzling his neck, I said, "Did you think I would say no?"
"You can never be sure. If you had, I would have just had to work harder to convince you that you should say yes."
I climbed on top of him and straddled his hips. "I do love a man with a plan."
"Speaking of a plan, we need to decide on what we want to do about the wedding. For me, I'm all for eloping. I can see us getting married on some island and spending day after day in bed for weeks."
"Are you okay after last night?" I wasn't sure how to approach the nightmare he'd had.
Smiling, he casually brushed the topic away. "It's nothing. I'm told it's quite common for survivors to have them for a long time after an accident. I just hope I didn't frighten you. I had hoped I could go one night without them, especially since last night was..."
I pressed my finger to his lips and shook my head. "You didn't frighten me. I'd rather have you next to me, no matter what, than anywhere else." I didn't believe for a second that it was nothing, like he said, but I hoped when he felt he could talk about it that he'd know he could turn to me.
"Now about that plan."
Rolling my body, I slid up and down his quickly hardening cock. "Mmm...my sister would probably like to be at my wedding."
"Then we can fly her and anyone else to whatever island we choose. Jordan, your sister, her entire family. Whoever you want. But I say we don't wait."
He grabbed my ass and squeezed, exciting me. Sitting up straight on him, I slid the sheet down to reveal the swollen head of his cock. Running my fingers over the soft skin, I said, "Sounds like you're in a hurry. What's the rush? I already live here with you and sleep in your bed."
Licking his lips, he eased his hips off the bed, running his cock through my already excited pussy. "I want you to be my wife. No hurry. I just don't see any reason to wait."
I looked down into his gorgeous face and for the life of me I couldn't find any reason either. Running my fingertips along his hips, I grinned the smile of a woman about to have great sex. "Then I don't either. Name the date and I'll be there."
Tristan focused his gaze as if he were deciding on an appropriate date and said, "December 14. It's a Saturday. All we have to do is pick an island and tell everyone we want there. But first, I can think of something better to spend our time doing."
He pulled me down on top of him and kissed me long and deep as he slid into my body, filling me up. There were better things to do first.
I had the urge for a swim, so I headed to the indoor pool for some relaxing laps before I figured out how I was going to tell Jordan and Kim that in less than two months I wanted them to join me on some island Tristan had in mind for our wedding. I'd loved the pool since that first night he'd brought me here, but I'd only enjoyed it once or twice the entire time I'd lived in the house. A quick swim and then my plan was to have Jenson take me to Jordan's suite by late afternoon.
My hot pink and black striped bikini from two summers ago still fit, thankfully after all the dinners Tristan had treated me to, so I slipped it on in the dressing room adjacent to the pool and got ready to jump in. The crystal blue water felt so refreshing as I descended to the bottom at the deep end. As I swam to the surface, though, I felt something strange on my legs and before I knew it, I had no bikini bottoms on and they were floating six feet away on top of the water.
It was Jimmy Mitchell's pool party in sixth grade all over again, except no one was there to see me, thank God.
I swam my bare ass over to where the fabric bobbed up and down in the water and grabbed my bottoms, happy that the flashback to that summer in middle school was the most embarrassing part of my current mishap.
And then I heard a man's voice and there was a fresh new humiliation. I turned quickly in the water and saw Tristan's gardener before I raced flailing toward the side of the pool to hide myself. I only needed to see his face for a second to know he'd seen all that God had given me. Wriggling into the bikini bottoms, I tried my best to be cool.
"Hi. I didn't realize I wasn't alone. I'm Nina."
He hung back away from the side of the pool and smiled a shy smile. Nearly as tall as Tristan, he was thinner and less built but he looked like he was closer to my age than his employer's. His blue eyes focused on me for a moment before he realized he was staring. Looking away, he stammered an apology and finally said, "I'm Blake."
With my bottoms finally in their rightful place, I relaxed and moved away from the wall slightly. "Hi Blake. I've seen you before in the summer."
He turned his gaze back toward me and nodded. "I'm Mr. Stone's gardener. I didn't know you were in here. I was just cutting through taking a short cut to the back of the house. I'm sorry. I didn't know."
"It's okay. No harm done. Did you work here before Tristan bought the house last spring?"
A look of confusion crossed his face and he looked over my head toward the back wall. "I've worked here for almost two years, miss," he said in a far icier tone than before. "It's nice to meet you, miss."
He walked quickly toward the back door of the pool area before I could say another word. I returned to swimming wondering what I'd done to obviously offend him but with bigger things to think about. Ten laps later, I was ready to begin my day.
I climbed out of the pool and looked up to see Tristan standing on the deck next to the chair where I'd left my things. Dressed in a suit, he didn't look like he was there to swim. "Hey!" I said as I walked toward him to get my towel. "I thought you left for work already. I would have asked you to join me for a swim."
Tristan silently stared at me as I dried off. "I see you met my gardener."
Knotting the towel around me, I nodded. "Yeah. I think I offended him. Sorry about that. I must have said something wrong."
"You should be more worried about offending me."
&
nbsp; His tone was cold and matched the look in his eyes. Confused, I shook my head. "What?"
"You heard me."
I couldn't help but feel defensive. He was upset about something, but I had no idea what it was. Trying not to let things get blown out of proportion by either of us, I stood on the tips of my toes and kissed him sweetly on the lips. "I better get going. I have to tell Jordan and my sister the good news."
As I turned to walk away, Tristan caught me by the wrist. "Nina, you can't imagine I appreciate my gardener seeing you swimming half naked, can you?"
"Oh! That's what that sour face is all about." Then I looked around the room realizing what he was saying. "Are you telling me you have cameras in here?"
"You didn't answer my question."
I tugged my wrist from his hold. "You didn't answer mine."
"When you and I began all this, I told you that I'd give you anything to make you happy, but I expect certain things from the woman I'm with. One of them is that other men don't see you like I do."
His words came out like ice cold water dripping from his lips, but I saw beneath his cold facade that he was boiling mad. Part of me was pissed at being recorded doing something so innocent as swimming, and I questioned where else cameras were placed in the house. But another part of me loved seeing him this jealous over another man looking at me.
"Tristan, Blake didn't see anything intentionally."
"Blake?"
My choice of words was unintentional and equally as unfortunate. "It's not what you think. I introduced myself and he told me his name. If it makes things any better, he had no interest in talking to me and left almost immediately."
He cocked one eyebrow. "It doesn't."
Cradling his face in my hands, I smiled up at him. "Tristan, there's no reason for you to be upset. I promise there's no one else but you for me."
His expression remained unchanged, and I saw I wasn't getting through. Without another word, he turned and walked away, leaving me unsure where we stood but sure we could work out whatever it was later.
By three o'clock, I was ready to head out to see Jordan to cruise the bridal magazines and call my sister to tell her the good news too. I searched for Tristan, hoping to tell him I was leaving, but he wasn't in his office or our bedroom. As I walked down the hallway from our room, I heard his voice in the front living room and entered to kiss him goodbye.
