by C. L. Quinn
He shifted back to Margot. Was she in love with him?
Ideally, he should get them alone and use compulsion to answer all of his questions with speed and accuracy, but he didn’t. He stayed in the chair and watched the couple as they bonded over steak, wine, and a perfect winter night.
Because this wasn’t about speed and accuracy. It wasn’t logical, or practical, or easy. He was a man watching the woman he loved with another man who loved her as well. He was a man wondering if she loved someone else. Tonight, he was a man who might walk away from here with a broken heart. So, no, practicality didn’t have a place in this.
A bottle of white wine was delivered to his table, the server compelled to continue normal service. Xavier leaned on the table, holding a glass of the wine, and watched every movement, every smile, every blink, as Margot enjoyed her date with Jonathan.
Margot laughed at a silly joke, her eyes sliding to the right again. For the past half hour, she’d noticed the huge man who sat a few tables from theirs. How could she not notice him? He was magnificent, like a Greek god.
He wore a suit jacket, but had shoulders so wide, they looked like they would tear right out of the thing if he flexed his arms. Nothing about him seemed to fit with this place. She glanced at Jonathan’s beautifully coiffed hair, well-cut, kept in place with hair gel from where it had been finger combed. Her eyes moved back to the big man and to long hair that didn’t look like it had been combed recently. She kind of wanted to comb her own fingers through it though. He looked like the type of man found on the covers of those silly fantasy books, the type of man made for sex. For just a moment, she let herself go there, and wonder what it might be like to lie beneath all that raw animal magnetism, a primal male built for sexual gratification and nothing else.
Stop, girl, you’re letting Freddie’s wild imagination take you to places you don’t want to be.
The strange thing was, he hadn’t taken his eyes off her the entire time she had been sneaking peeks at him.
No, Jonathan was her type, no doubt about it. She turned her full attention back to him. Just ignore the giant man and enjoy your dinner.
“I’ve packed a variety of clothing choices. So you’re saying that I can take out any sweaters or thick socks?”
“I guarantee it. The car will pick you up tomorrow morning at eight.”
“Sounds great. I’m excited, Jonathan. This is my first vacation in, let me see….ever.”
Leaning closer, Jonathan pulled her hand to him and kissed it lingeringly, his fingers sliding up her arm. “It won’t be your last, Margot.”
Yes, he was getting serious. It had only been a little over a month. Wasn’t it too soon?
Her smile must have pleased him, because he responded with a brighter one, and pulled away to cut his steak. “I have to meet with Burt tonight after we’re finished to prepare for my absence, but as of tomorrow, I’m yours for three weeks, no interruptions.”
“Three weeks with no work? I’m not sure I can handle that.”
“Oh, you’ll be able to handle it.”
“I can’t wait.” In spite of her determination not to look at the stalker guy again, her eyes moved to the right and they collided with his. Immediately, she tore her gaze away and stared into her plate. What was his deal? He was making her uneasy.
“I’m going to run to the ladies room. Would you order dessert? Something sinful, of course.”
“I like sinful.”
Lifting from her seat, Margot kept her eyes averted and headed into the ladies room. After visiting the stall, she stood in front of the mirror, checked for stray hairs that might have escaped her clips, made sure her reapplied lipstick looked good and stopped to stare at herself.
“You should just go ask the guy what the fuck he wants.” Then she laughed at her ridiculous response. “Might as well tell him to take a picture, it’ll last longer.” God, how many times had she told that to young men when she was growing up in the Bronx?
Dinner was nearly over anyway, Jonathan would drive her home, where she could get into her comfies and relax for a little while. She needed to, since she knew that the next three weeks would have no down time at all. American vacations were rarely relaxing.
As she pushed out of the ladies room, the tile-lined hallway led back to the dining room, she moved around a corner and plowed into a man leaning against the wall.
“Oh, I’m sorry…” Her apology cut off as she looked up and saw that she’d collided with the huge man that had been staring at her all evening.
“You…” she whispered.
“Aye. Me.”
His voice was deep, and even just the two words he’d spoken caused chills to run up her arms. He was Scottish?
Wait, hadn’t Freddie said something about Margot having a Scottish lover? Was this the man? No. Not possible. This man, if she’d ever been with him, she would never have forgotten him. He filled the room and made her heart pound.
“Excuse me,” she muttered, her eyes downcast, and started to pass, but he slid strong hands up her arms and gently held her there.
“Lass, look into me eyes.”
Margot couldn’t have refused him for anything at that point, his voice so beautiful and, oddly, familiar. She lifted her gaze and felt heat infuse her body. Lightheaded now, she admitted that he had the most beautiful eyes she’d ever seen. She could fall into them.
“Answer me, lass. That man ye’re with, does he make ya happy?”
What? This stranger was asking if she was happy with Jonathan? Of course she was, he was a good man. She should just walk away from him. Instead, she had to answer him.
“Um…yes.”
“Ya don’t sound sure.”
“Yes,” she said with finality.
The man moved so close, she could feel his warm breath on her cheek. His voice dropped even deeper.
“And he keeps yer bed hot? When he touches ya, ya melt and have to have him? Sex with him is wild, and ya come so hard that ya want him again as soon as ya do?”
Why would he ask that? What the hell was wrong with this man? She wouldn’t answer such a personal question for a complete stranger!
“Ha…” Margot swallowed hard as her mind raced, the question so unexpected. Overly aware of this man’s fingers caressing her skin too near to her breasts, she had to tell him the truth, and she didn’t know why. “He’s a gentle lover.” Her eyes collided with the stranger’s eyes and locked in. “No. There’s no heat. He takes good care of me, and I enjoy sex with him, but…”
Her focus softened as she searched his. “I only felt that once…I can’t seem to remember when…but I remember the fire, I remember lights…” Her fingers slid down past her belly, caressing just above her legs. “And pleasure I never knew existed.”
Heat moved along her back, down along the edge of her buttocks, moisture surged between her legs, and Margot suddenly realized that the man had pulled her close and his hands had dropped, now caressing her along those areas.
Pushing away from him with force, she nearly hit him.
“What the fuck? Do you want me to call security or are you going to leave? Right now!”
Xavier didn’t move. “Ya don’t want me to leave, Margot.”
He knew her name? He knew her name. So he had to be the man Freddie had been talking about.
“Who are you? My assistant said that I dated a Scottish man once. Are you him? Did I go out with you once?”
“You went out with me and let me into you.”
Keeping away from him, she scanned him, top of that unruly hair, down through too tight clothes, jeans that showed an impressive mound, to scuffed boots. Squinting, she shook her head. “I don’t know you. Freddie’s mistaken. Not only did I never date you, I certainly never had sex with you. Look, there’s some kind of confusion here, so how about you get out of here now, don’t bother me again, and I won’t call the cops. That’s the best deal you’re going to get, Scotsman.”
Scotsman. From her, it was
an endearment.
“I understand. Stay still.”
Once again, surprised that she obeyed, Margot couldn’t object when he moved behind her, his fingers warm against the back of her neck, and began to pull at her hair. The pins came free and her painstakingly secured curls fell all around her face.
“Shake yer head,” he commanded, and Margot did it with no thought and no delay.
Why the hell was she doing this?
“That’s the beautiful woman I love, not the prim and frigid woman dinin’ with the man on the balcony tonight.”
Xavier pulled Margot into his arms, too close, his lips on hers, his tongue slid between them, and just when he felt her begin to kiss him back, when he felt her fingers curl around his arm, he moved away and pressed her back.
“I’ll go. But I’ve found my answer, lass, and I’m not finished here. Ye’ll see me again. Have a nice dinner.”
Astonished, she watched the strange man stroll to the stairway and disappear.
For several long moments, she couldn’t move. What the hell had just happened here? Her hand moved down and pressed between her legs. She was completely turned on. But how….why? For a strange, possibly dangerous, nutcase?
Lifting her eyes, she noticed Marina at her podium in the distance, watching her.
Marina smiled. “Me, too,” she whispered, and although Margot couldn’t hear what she said, she could read her lips clearly.
God, how embarrassing!
Jonathan would be wondering where she was. Pulling on her dress to make sure it was in place, she pushed the mass of hair back and tried to pin it as she hurried past Marina.
“He’s sexy,” Marina commented to Margot.
“Um, I wouldn’t know.”
Marina noticed how flushed and agitated Margot was.
“I think you do. Here.” Marina turned Margot around and quickly pinned her hair into a semblance of a bun.
“Thank you,” Margot said and walked toward the balcony. It took a lot to rattle her, but she admitted, something about that man did. Not his boldness, and not the weirdness of the interchange, but something deeply disturbing that wasn’t right left her edgy.
Taking her seat back at the table, she tried to smile.
“Everything all right?” Jonathan asked.
“Sure. Of course it is. Say, I’m ready for some decadent dessert. Maybe something as tall as the Empire State Building?”
“It’s coming, love.”
After Jonathan poured another glass of wine and handed it to Margot, he was surprised when she chugged it.
“Jonathan, could you stay with me tonight?”
“Ah, you know I would love to, but I’ll be working at least the next four hours after we finish dinner just so I can remain uninterrupted on our trip. But tomorrow night, I’m going to rock your world.”
Margot nodded. “I know. I look forward to it.”
While her lips still held the smile, she knew that it didn’t make it to her eyes. Sadness creeped in as she looked at this wonderful man. He wouldn’t. He never had…rocked her world. Just a few hours ago, she had considered the idea of having a life with him, but she suspected now that it would never happen.
That Scottish man might have been a stranger to her, but he’d seen something in her that she had known, but ignored.
Jonathan didn’t make her heart slam, or her libido rev. He didn’t make her pant just at the idea of him naked and entering her. And he was too good a man to saddle with a woman who would never love him like he needed to be loved. He needed someone who would think he was her hero.
She wasn’t that woman.
Fifteen
Margot wandered through her apartment, another glass of wine in her hand, the lights off, the balcony door open, the big polar bear coat wrapped around her. She’d removed all of her clothes, they’d felt too confining, but slid the coat back on when the outside air cooled the room too much.
Frigid winter air swept from outside in, wrapping itself lazily around the woman who had been pacing for twenty minutes. Sliding her shoes back on, she would roam out onto the spacious balcony, watch the view below, which always made her happy, then take another spin around her sofa. Sometimes, often, with a stop at the liquor cabinet to refill the glass, and then back out to look at Central Park.
She had always known that she would never tire of that view. Now, well past its honeyed autumn colors, the park was covered with a light dusting of white. More snow was forecast and by morning, the park would be glittered and lovelier than ever. Leaning over the balcony, she sighed.
The plan had been to be somewhere warm, drinking cocktails surrounded by tiki torches on a tropical island by tomorrow night. That wasn’t going to happen now. After talking herself off and on the relationship with Jonathan all night, she’d finally decided. It was off.
If that fucking weirdo hadn’t showed up tonight, it would all have been fine!
No, it wouldn’t.
She was drunk, and God, it felt good. After making the final decision, she felt good. Like things were the way they should be again. Like she was free to be herself again. Margot pulled the pins from her hair to watch them bounce on the stone balcony floor.
How did that crazy man know so much about her? And why did she find it impossible to stop thinking about him. Twitching between her legs kept assaulting her the rest of the dinner and worse now that she was alone in her apartment.
“Go to bed, lady,” she said out loud. “You have to break a man’s heart tomorrow morning.”
The doorbell to her apartment chimed. Who the hell? She glanced at her cell phone. One a.m. No one she knew would be here at this hour.
Margot dropped her head. Unless it was Jonathan, changing his mind and stopping for sex. Oh, hell. Here she was, drunk off her ass, and breaking up with him.
It chimed again.
“Might as well answer, he’s not going away,” she murmured as she walked from the balcony into the living room and unlocked the door to pull it wide.
It was not Jonathan.
“What the hell are you doin’ here?” was the first and only thing Margot could think of. Was that her slurring her words?
Grinning, a bottle of some kind of liquor in his hand, the big Scotsman from Orion’s Belt stood outside her door.
Waving a hand at him, the rest of her wine sloshing out, she shook her head. “No, no, no. How the hell did you find me?”
Walking away from the door, Margot looked back.
“Oh, yeah, Freddie said I’ve fucked you before. But I know I wouldn’t have forgotten that, so what’s the truff…truth…ff…”
“Ye’re drunk, lass.”
“Just a little bit. Just a lotta bit. Answer my question, you ridiculously oversized sexy mythical creature. Who are you?”
“Lass, I’m the love of yer life.” Mythical?
Even drunk, the meaning of that statement made it through to her. “Love? As in, happily ever after?”
Tipping the wine bottle, she was surprised to see that very little remained. “Huh. I just opened that tonight. Love is a tennis score. People hook up, fuck, live together and make babies, but love, I have…haven’t ever seen it. Not myself. Really. Are you goin’ to open that bottle?”
“Not at the moment, as I think ye’ve had enough.”
“No. Nope. Naught. You messed me up tonight, Scotsman. Now I’m going to have to tell Jonathan that he’s been a good boy. Too good a boy.” She stopped long enough to let her eyes linger on Xavier. “It seems like I like the bad boys.”
Xavier moved toward her.
“Ya like me, is what ya like.”
Still propped against the liquor cabinet, Margot’s breathing quickened. “Yeah, I guess I do.”
“Ya want me.”
“I can’t deny it.”
“Can I ask ya, why did ya use the word mythical?”
“Because outrageously muscled men like you that turn a woman on instantly don’t really exist outside of bad romance nove
ls and chick flicks.”
“Ah. So how do ya feel about vampires?”
“Ooh. Even kinkier.”
He was only about twelve inches from her now.
Margot closed her eyes and sniffed, her nose in the air, her lips parted. “God, you smell incredible. I could eat you up.”
“Sounds like a good idea.”
“Have we really had sex?”
“Aye. It was life-changin’.”
This wasn’t her. Margot knew nothing about this man except that she’d never been this turned on in her life. And he was exactly what she wanted.
“You’ve messed up my relationship. Do you think that you can ever make up for that?”
“I think I can.”
“Good.”
Turning back to the bar, she tried to pour wine into her glass, but failed, and just as she spilled some more, big hands lifted the bottle and easily filled her glass.
“My hero,” she laughed, and took the glass.
Still wearing the fuzzy coat, Margot snagged one of Xavier’s hands and led him to the sofa.
Xavier had stared wordlessly at Margot. What an incredible vision! She’d opened the door, her hair loose and tousled, wearing a big furry white coat and high heels, and took his breath away. Then when she’d raised up the glass of wine she carried, and the coat parted to show that she was naked but for the shoes, he’d known that nothing in this world would stop him, he would be inside her soon.
He hadn’t come here to have sex with her, he’d come to release her memories and find out if she was in love with him and if he could take her home.
He could barely walk, he was so engorged.
Now, as she led him to the sofa, he knew two things.
Tonight, he would make love to the woman he had chosen as his mate for the first time since losing himself and finding himself again. And he had every intention of taking her home with him.
Now that they had reconnected, he would take his time in releasing her memory wipe so she could adjust slowly to who and what he was and the returning memories. They tended to blast back and could be difficult to accept.
He wasn’t the same person that he was then, but neither was she now. They’d both been through a lot these past few months, but it was time to see where they really were in this.
