The One Adored (The One Trilogy Book 3)

by North, Alexandra

  I practically choke on my beer. “You mean ‘Nichols’. Harvey Nichols the department store.”

  “That’s what I said - didn’t I?” Colin sips his drink in abundance.

  “No - nipples were on the tip of your tongue.” Gino interrupts, belly laughing at his crude joke as James joins us.

  “It’s all these bobbing boobies - they’re everywhere!” Col waves dramatically. “Honestly Jamesy, I don’t think I’ve seen this many bare breasts since we last visited the chicken section of Holdgate Farm shop and you know how much I cook, darling…not! I’m all of a fluster.” He drains his drink, slurping noisily. “Ahh, and now my Penis Colinada needs a refill. Darling, will you fill me up?” He points his empty glass at me and I hear everyone laugh at the intended pun.

  Playing along, I gently brush his hand, as I take the empty from his fingers, gazing deeply into his eyes. “Of course I will, your wish is my every desire - what next, a slow comfortable screw, or sex on the beach.” I lick my lips at him.

  Colin holds his hand to his chest and in a mock faint says, “Ooh, Seb, I can see why she fell so hard, you are a fucking master with that Silver tongue of yours - I can’t continue these shenanigans, I’ll be cheating on my Jamesy - sorry boys I’m done.”

  The lads behind are clapping and I slap Col on the arm jokily.

  “You did good Col.” I wink at him.

  “I was the one supposed to be making you feel all hot and bothered and uncomfortable - ha ha you dirty boy.” He flutters his lashes. “Talk about being confident in your own sexuality.”

  “Who put you up to it Col?” I smile.

  “Chris.” He raises his brows, fanning himself.

  That didn’t surprise me. I wasn’t bothered, Colin was great and we were having harmless fun but as I locate my ex-roommate standing behind Nathan, a maleficent grin on his face, I feel as though he had hoped that I’d not take the joke as well as expected.

  “Surely all these boobydoos are making you straight men happy?” James continues, his ruddy complexion glowing even in the blackened club lighting.

  “I’m always up for a strip club.” Andy the architect roars, and is slapped on the back by Chris and several of my work colleagues in agreement.

  Gino, Nathan and I just shrug. There was a time and a place in a mans life and mine had been and gone. Now all I wanted was to enjoy a few beers with my mates and stumble back to the hotel. This weekend meant another weekend closer to marrying Lucia.

  “If your pecker doesn’t go up with all these nipples flying around, you can come sit on my lap for the night, Nathan - you’re gay, no doubt about it.” James Marcell winks at him slyly and I watch my brother visibly gulp. Colin we could handle but James Marcell, Lord of the Manor in all that tweed, was a whole other issue.

  “Only joking, Silver, Abby and Lucia are a cut above the rest and have more class in their little fingers than any of the little minx’s in here - why would you want Cava when you can have Dom Perignon?”

  “Well put James, very true. Right, speaking of drinks, I’m off to the bar, refill anyone else, besides Colin, I will order you a drink but I refuse to order you a Penis Colinada, that is just wrong.”

  I collect their orders, before leaving them to it and heading off in the direction of the bar. I could have had drinks ordered to our booths but I needed a minute to catch my breath and take the night in. Once out of the members only area I find myself in the main part of the club, music thumping around me and order a drink taking a stance at a rail that overlooks the dance-floor. The music was good that night, Lu would have loved it, the Dj was worth his weight and I feel my shoulders begin to move as I relax. I’d go back to them all in bit, I just needed a few minutes away from Chris and Andy and laddish banter. Really, I should have just come out with Gino and Nathan, it would have been so much simpler.

  I return my attention to the crowds below abandoning their inhibitions, the way Lu would if she were here, their bodies swaying in time to the beat, all different cultures, races, styles of dress. I flitter back and forth across the busy dance areas, people-watching for several minutes, enjoying the ambience and am about to head back in to rejoin my the other stags when suddenly something catches my eye.

  A woman.

  A blonde woman, with long hair, dancing like her life depends upon it.

  I watch her slim barely- covered body in a bright red dress, moving in time to the rhythm, face lifted up to the audience above, she looked so free and was smiling and attractive and searching the crowds. Instantaneously our eyes lock and I’m hit in the stomach. I know her and I know she’s just recognised me.

  It’s like parts of a jigsaw have just been pieced together, heavy cogs that haven’t spun for years, now oiled and grating in my ears as they begin to move. How did I not see this? A sudden dawning realisation. I smile wryly.

  But now she was running.

  I set off, pushing people out of the way, not caring if I knock anyone flying. I head down a flight of stairs and in the direction I last saw this woman disappear. I can’t let her get away; she needed to answer some serious questions. I needed to figure out what the fuck was going on.

  As I make my way through the bottom bar area, its floor bouncing from the base of the music I begin to panic. Am I going mad? I did see her right?

  I look behind me, considering whether to backtrack and head back to my friends, or start to feed my way through this new crowd of people but how could she have embedded herself within them so fast? Shit! She is nowhere to be found.

  Then I see a flash of red, just outside the glass fronted entrance and within seconds I’m stepping through those doors and facing my past. The woman in red is waiting for me, her dress billowing in the wind, blonde hair flapping around her face. Her face deadpan but accepting of her fate. It was time to resolve this once and for all.

  “Hello, Sebastian.”

  *******

  “Hello - we meet again.”

  “So, you found me. Aren’t you the clever one?”

  “Fate found me. I wasn’t looking, but you just landed in my lap.”

  “Lap dancing hey? - never would have put you down for one of those guys.”

  “Let’s stop. We need to talk and not here and a whole lot less of the pleasantries.” I make a quick call, keeping my eyes on her at all time. Within seconds my limo comes into view.

  “You always were smooth.”

  I ignore her snide comment and with a hand gesture for her to step into the car add, “After you.”

  “Where are we going? I have friends in the club - they’ll wonder where I am.”

  “You can text them on the way to my hotel.”

  I watch her chew her lip, internal conflict obviously eating away at her. You’re not getting away this time, so just get in the bloody car.

  “You have one hour.”

  I nod. That should be enough to figure out why a woman I’d had a one-night stand with years ago, was now disguising herself as someone else.

  We arrive at The Devereux, and I assist the slim woman who’d not spoken a word to me on our short journey, from the Limousine. Guiding her with a hand at her elbow, more to stop her escaping than out of any gentlemanly duty, we enter the impressive foyer, her heels clicking on the black glittered marble floor. I have a quiet word with the night manager before we are promptly shown to a private meeting room. I order us coffee and two whiskeys. I remembered she’d enjoyed scotch on the rocks.

  As the door closes behind us, I walk towards the window, sensing her take a seat at the table.

  “So, you’ve got me here, what do you want with me Sebastian - I’m not sure how I can help you?”

  “Oh, I don’t think that that’s the case, do you? Dawn!”

  Her teeth graze her lip, and I watch her shoulders slump, her controlled persona slipping visibly.

  “I wasn’t sure you’d remember me, even with my natural hair colour?”

  “I rememb
er you, Dawn. I knew, the night I saw you at The Gilded Fox I recognised you, despite the drab clothes, dark hair and no make-up. You had me doubting myself and that pisses me off.” I roll my lips in annoyance. “Why? Why not just say that we’d met?”

  “I don’t go out like this in public very often anymore and never in the day.”

  “But why?” My brows knot together.

  “It’s…complicated.”

  “Fuck complicated. Cards on the table now, you tried to give Lucia a warning the other night, and a couple of weeks before some psycho ran her off the road - its all far too coincidental. You know something and I intend to find it out!”

  I watch her pour milk into her coffee and stir before taking a sip. “You always did want your own way - snapped your fingers, turned on the charm and got what you wanted. I was just garbage that got thrown away at the end of the night - used goods - a notch on your silver bed post if you will.”

  I frown. Her cool and collected manner was rather disconcerting. Did she have a screw lose? Perhaps I needed to tread more carefully here?

  “That was never the case. You and I shared a night together of mutually beneficial gains. I was under the impression when you left in a hurry the following morning that you were the one who regretted our dalliance.”

  Her hazel eyes assess mine for truth. False eyelashes fluttering and I know I’ve softened her somewhat with my compliment. It hadn’t been a lie though, she had left, however it had been a relief - another drunken mistake after a night watching Lucia go home to bed with Niall. Another night fucking some random woman instead of my best-friend.

  “You never called me?” Dawn whispered.

  “For that I am sorry.” I sigh. “I honestly believed we had concluded our business together.”

  “I wasn’t some hooker?”

  Crap! “No, of course not. I didn’t mean that - I meant I was under the impression you and I both wanted a one-night stand without complications or further contact.” She’d never made that clear but I had. I didn’t do relationships back then.

  “Problem was, we don’t always get what we want - do we Seb?”

  I feel a chill creep down my spine as her words conjure up major concerns. What did she mean?

  “You went on with your life, like I’d meant nothing to you, like we hadn’t shared something special together. You were the first man to ever make me feel beautiful, safe and free - you let me be myself during sex, you cherished me. You have no idea what I gave up for you - gained from our night together. What I’ve lost.”

  I run my hand coarsely across my head, raising my eyes to the ceiling - shit, this was getting all a bit much. Did this woman have feelings for me? I didn’t even really remember our night together, I’d been so drunk at that Dinner Dance. I feel pretty bad.

  “Look I’m sorry, Dawn. I didn’t know you saw our night as more than what it was. You’re right I should have called afterwards but it would only ever have been to see if you got home alright. I wasn’t the relationship type.”

  “All that seems to have changed.” Bitterness oozes from every pore.

  “Yes, it has but Lu and I have always been meant for one another. In fact the way I played around in the past was to protect myself, drown my feelings until she came to that realisation herself.”

  “Hmmm. She’s very lucky.”

  “I am the lucky one.”

  The Scotch is drained next and she shudders at the harshness. “You’re right you should have called but not to see if I got home Ok.”

  “Oh? Why then?”

  “I wouldn’t have been home then, I was at the hospital getting 12 stitches, here,” she holds back her fringe baring a faint scar over her right eyebrow, “and 2 broken ribs strapped up.”

  “WTF? What happened?” I shout. Jesus this was getting worse by the second - had she been mugged on the way home. No wonder she was bitter?

  “My husband happened - that’s what.”

  I frown. “Your husband?”

  “Yes Sebastian, keep up. My husband. He wasn’t happy about me rolling in the next morning, after the dinner dance, smelling of another man and looking all dreamy. Not happy at all.”

  “You’re married?”

  “Was.”

  “But, why didn’t you tell me? I never would have…”

  “Slept with me? I know! That’s why I didn’t tell you. I needed a night with a sexy doting man, who knew what a woman wanted in the bedroom. I needed a night of passion. I’d been dead inside for so long and you were my ticket. I was stupid enough to think you and I had a connection and that it could lead somewhere. More fool me!”

  Fuck! I’d played this so badly. “Dawn, what happened when you returned home?”

  “My husband went ballistic. He beat me black and blue, something he’d done before many a time and I called an ambulance.”

  “Why didn’t you call me?”

  “And play the martyr card? For fuck’s sake Sebastian I do have some pride.”

  “So why the disguise? Why the cloak and dagger routine - you’re obviously now rid of the bastard so you’re free to do as you will, surely?”

  Her sharp intake of breath makes me turn and I see unshed tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Dawn - I shouldn’t have said that…”

  “No, you’re right, it may seem odd to change my appearance, my clothes, hair, dull my sexual appeal to men, but I do it so he can’t find me!.”

  “Who?”

  “My husband.”

  “But if you’re divorced, surely you’re over - if he is still hassling you there are things we can do, restraint orders that can be put in place.”

  “Already done. The man is a master at tracking my every move. He doesn’t even really want me anymore, just wants to play with me like some little pawn. He’s evil, pure evil. I’ve worked very hard to ensure he thinks I’ve dropped off the face of the earth. He doesn’t even know my mother - he never met her and wouldn’t allow me to see any of my family the whole time we were married.”

  “Jeez Dawn, you’ve been through it. How long were you together?”

  “We met through work, he was an accountant at my firm and we had a whirlwind romance. Within four weeks we were married at Gretna Green. Fast you may think but I had butterflies in my tummy and scales over my eyes.”

  I reflect upon my conversation with Lucia, pressuring her to marry quickly and our talks about Gretna Green and instantly feel ashamed, she was worth so much more than that.

  Dawn continued a smile on her face. “We were so happy, we honeymooned in a quaint little cottage in Scotland, were so in love and then we came home - then everything changed. Then the mental and emotional abuse began, which eventually lead to physical abuse. In total we were only married two years but I only lived with him for 9 months. Any longer I’d be dead - I nearly was.”

  “What was the tipping point? How did you get away?”

  “A month after our indiscretion, I realised something, something that meant I had to leave. I told him and he blamed you.”

  “What?” Why me?

  “He thought I was leaving him for you, Sebastian.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he couldn’t believe that I would leave him for any other reason. He had fixated upon that night, my one-nighter for a month, taunted me, picked at me, made my life a living hell and I couldn’t take it any more. In the end he beat your name out of me.”

  “Oh. My. God! NO!” I rush to her side, to console her. The woman was nothing but a stranger to me, a warm body I’d shared a cold night with a few years back but I felt her pain and couldn’t let her spill her emotions without some form of comfort. “Go on.” I encourage her gently.

  “You mentioned earlier that I’m now rid of the bastard, you see that was always his intention.”

  Confused I shake my head. “I don’t get it.”

  “Sebastian the night you and I had a drunken sex, I got pregnant.We never used protect
ion.”

  The room closes in on me at those last three words and I stand up, feeling backwards for the wall. Whoa? My mouth dries, I can’t compute the words - she’s pregnant? No it was ages ago. I have a kid? Speak man. I open my eyes wide and breathe heavily.

  “What did you just say? You had a kid?”

  Her eyes fill again and a tear slides down her cheek. “I found out I was pregnant and knew that I had to leave him, if not for me for the baby’s sake. I knew you were not the type to want anything serious, you’d have been in touch by then..”

  I wince as she pauses but I place a hand over hers in support.

  “…anyway, I had every intention of contacting you after I’d got settled on my own - you deserved to know you would be a father and I wanted you be involved in some way. I was going to move in with my mum, who was coming back from Jersey - we were going to buy The Gilded Fox together and raise the baby. I had it all planned. I was packing my bags, when he came home early from work one day. He’d hacked into my email account and found one of my emails to my mum. He knew everything. The rest you know.”

  “And the… baby?” I hesitate. I can’t believe it but I need to know, need to know if I have a child out there I can claim no matter what.

  “He threw me down the stairs. I broke my pelvis in four places, had cerebral bleed on the brain and needed surgery for both. I lost the baby in the fall. I miscarried, haemorrhaging so badly they had to perform a hysterectomy. I can no longer have children.”

  I’m flooded with a huge sense of loss. Not the loss I’d experienced when Lu had miscarried, when we’d lost our baby and I’d grieved but a definite emptiness fills me for a child that I hadn’t even known could exist.

  I take Dawn in my arms and let her weep, her arms cradling my neck, sobs wracking her body for an age. I had a responsibility to this woman no matter how hard she’d tried to keep the details from me.

  “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I could have supported you, been there? Dealt with this psycho?”

  She nods in understanding at my query. “ I couldn’t take the risk of him finding me. He knew who you were, or rather your name.” She shrugs her shoulders. “Selfish I know but I had to protect myself. I reverted back to my maiden name, reinvented myself as the ultimate plain jane and told everyone I lived in The Lake District.”