Heaven Sent

by Rochelle Alers

Everyone was more certain about her future than she was. David wanted all of her, and Luz Maria predicted she would marry him and give him children.

  Why was it so difficult for her to accept the inevitable? Was it because of Xavier? Or was it because she did not want to love and lose again?

  David limped into the large kitchen behind Serena, returning the warm smile of a petite woman stirring a large pot.

  “Doña Maria, this is Señor David Cole. Señor Cole, Doña Luz Maria Hernando.”

  David took Luz Maria’s right hand and placed a kiss on her knuckle. “My extreme pleasure, Doña Maria.”

  The older woman blushed furiously as she stared at the tall man’s bowed, graying, black head. Her vision had manifested itself. She hadn’t seen David Cole’s face clearly, but she recognized his smile immediately. It was his dimpled smile she had seen in her vision; a smile his children would inherit, along with Serena’s eyes.

  “Mucho gusto de conocerlo por la primera vez, Señor Cole,” she returned shyly. What she wanted to say was that she’d already met him several times in her dreams—and it was indeed a pleasure to finally get to meet him in the flesh.

  “Señor Cole will no longer take his meals in his bedroom,” Serena announced, watching the warm interchange between the cook and her father’s guest.

  “I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Luz Maria stated, withdrawing her fingers from David’s loose grip.

  “Much better. Thanks to your tea and soups.”

  Luz Maria turned her attention to Serena. “Will you be taking your meals in the dining room?”

  “No. We’ll eat here in the kitchen. Please sit down,” she said to David. “I’ll join you in a few minutes.”

  He nodded and sat down, unaware that Luz Maria watched him as his gaze followed Serena as she left the kitchen, disappearing from his line of vision.

  “Tea, Señor Cole?”

  His head came around slowly and he stared at Luz Maria as if he had never seen her before. “Sí,” he replied absentmindedly.

  Serena retreated to David’s bedroom and stripped the bed of the soiled linen. She quickly and expertly remade the bed, then dimmed the lamp on the bedside table before drawing the silk-lined, pale drapes over the French doors. She repeated the motions in her own bedroom before she returned to the kitchen.

  David’s gaze never left Serena’s face as he spooned portions of sancocho—a flavorful Caribbean stew laden with yellow and white yautía, name, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, green and ripe plantains, beef, and corn—into his mouth. He ate everything except for the small chunks of meat. The sensitivity in his left cheek would not permit him to chew without experiencing some discomfort.

  She speared a slice of ripe plantain, wiggled her eyebrows at him, then popped it into her mouth. His gaze moved slowly down to her mouth, visually tracing the outline of her lips. His smile faded when he recalled the texture and taste of her moist, hot mouth. Within the span of a second he relived the sensual encounter that had left him gasping and dizzy with spent passion. And what he wanted to do was relive that passion with Serena over and over again. He watched her form words, not hearing any of what she was saying.

  “Are you all right?”

  He nodded, blinking rapidly. “I’m sorry. My mind was elsewhere. What did you say?”

  “I said that if you don’t want dessert we can go into the living room, where you can try out the piano.”

  Wiping his mouth with a napkin, David stood up. He’d reached for his cane and taken several steps before she attempted to rise. She waited, watching intently as he took several steps, then waited for her to precede him.

  “What other instruments do you play aside from the piano?” Serena asked once they were seated side by side on the piano bench.

  “Guitar and percussion.” David rested his fingers reverently on the keys as if he feared contaminating them.

  “That explains the calluses on your fingers.”

  “They come from hours of playing the congas.”

  Seeing his fingers poised over the keys made her aware of the breadth of his large hands. He struck a chord, the sound resonating melodiously throughout the space. It was apparent that her mother had the piano tuned regularly.

  She was mesmerized as he went through a series of scales, his fingers skimming over the keys like a waterfall. Her gaze shifted from his fingers to his face. He’d leaned forward, eyes closed as if he were in a trance, and played everything from Joplin to Handel. When she registered the distinctive notes from Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue she joined him in a duet.

  David’s piano playing was masterful, and it was the first time since she’d sat down to take lessons that she’d actually enjoyed playing the piano. They shared a wide grin as the last note lingered, then faded into a hushed silence.

  Curving an arm around his waist, Serena rested her head against his shoulder. “You’re incredible.”

  The fingers of his right hand encircled her neck. “You’re pretty good yourself.”

  “Not half as good as you are.”

  “That’s only because I have longer fingers.”

  “Don’t be modest, David. It’s not becoming.”

  Lowering his head, he brushed his lips against her ear. “When are you going to change your opinion of me?”

  “Never,” she whispered. “I’ve gotten used to your arrogance.” And it wasn’t his arrogance she liked. She liked the man.

  “How often do you play?” he questioned, his warm breath sweeping over her bare lobe.

  “Not often. But I usually play here at La Montaña because I like this piano.”

  David nodded, his fingers caressing the side of the Steinway. “It should be played every day, because it’s truly a magnificent instrument.”

  “Was your transition from musician to businessman difficult?”

  “No,” he admitted with a smile. “I had majored in music education and minored in business administration.”

  “Why business?”

  Lowering his eyebrows, he glared. “Because my father deemed it. He expected business to be my major, but after a somewhat passionate altercation we decided to compromise.”

  A knowing smile trembled over her full lips. “I take it you’re used to winning?”

  He arched a sweeping eyebrow. “I don’t know what it is to lose,” he admitted quietly.

  She shuddered as if a breath of cold wind had swept over her body. At the same time, a warning voice whispered in her head that David Cole could be a formidable adversary, as was Raul Cordero-Vega. She shook off her uneasiness.

  “Did you always want to be a musician?” David did not answer her right away, and she thought perhaps he hadn’t heard her question.

  “Always.” Another hushed silence ensued. “There was a time when my parents thought I was hard of hearing because I didn’t respond when they spoke to me. What they didn’t know was that instead of hearing people speak I heard music notes, notes in perfect pitch.

  “Whenever my older brother and sisters sat down for their lessons I lingered in the room, memorizing every note. A week after my sixth birthday I began my own lessons. Everyone was shocked, including the instructor, when I went through the beginner’s book in four weeks.”

  “Were you a musical prodigy?”

  “Oh, no. I was just a possessed pianist who practiced a minimum of three hours each day.”

  “It paid off, because you play beautifully.”

  “Will you let me play for you when we return to the States?”

  “Where?” she whispered, her husky voice lowering seductively.

  “At my home in Boca Raton.”

  “Will I need a special invitation?”

  “Of course not, Serena. My home is yours. You can come to stay—forever, if you so choose.”

  She slipped off the piano bench and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows, her gaze fixed on the all-encompassing darkness punctuated by strategically placed lights illuminating the perimeter of La Montaña.r />
  Screams of frustration and fear echoed in her head. Fear that she knew her own destiny, and frustration that Luz Maria’s gift had become her curse because she was unable to rally the defenses she needed to stave off David’s deliberate seduction.

  She found it eerie—no, unnatural—to know that the man sitting at the piano would be the one she would marry even before she was given the chance to fall in love with him.

  But could she love him? Could she trust him, or any man, enough to open her heart to love again?

  Turning slowly, she met David’s gaze as he sat watching, waiting. Her mind told her to resist his pull, but her body refused. If she hadn’t lain with him, then she would be able to turn and walk away. Something within her called out to him, and she could not and would not walk away, because she knew he was to be a part of her life. He was her destiny!

  David reached down and retrieved the cane resting beside the piano. He managed to find his footing with greater ease than he had since he woke up and found himself at La Montaña. What he wanted to do was fling the object across the room and walk unaided. He wanted to sweep Serena up in his arms and climb the staircase to his bedroom for an encore of what they’d shared that afternoon.

  He wanted to relive the blinding passion, merging with an uncontrollable lust, that made him fuse his flesh with hers, and his former trepidation about having unprotected sex vanished the moment he filled her body with his seed. In that brief, dizzying moment of lingering lust he wanted Serena Morris as his wife and the mother of his children.

  “I’m ready to go back to my room.”

  Serena nodded, moving quickly to his side. “I thought you would want to try out the guitars before going back upstairs.”

  “Tomorrow.” The single word denoted finality. Tomorrow Raul Cordero-Vega would return to La Montaña and tomorrow would be the time for him to reveal his innermost wishes to Serena.

  Tomorrow, she repeated to herself, leading David past the living room staircase, along a narrow passage off the kitchen, and through a door that led to the staircase at the rear of the house.

  “My brother and I used to sneak in and out of the house using this route.”

  Following her lead, David trained his gaze on her back. “Were you ever caught?”

  She smiled at him over her shoulder. “Once. I stayed out past my curfew and thought I was going to get over when I managed to slip in the back door that Gabe left unlocked for me. What I didn’t count on was my father waiting for me in my room. He’d waited so long that he fell asleep on my bed.”

  David chuckled, remembering his own youthful escapades. “What happened?”

  “I undressed in the dark, and when I got into bed I startled him and he swung at me and bloodied my nose. My screams woke up the entire household. Mother thought he’d deliberately hit me, and she let loose with a stream of colorful expletives closely resembling profanity, shocking everyone. Poppa stared at her as if he’d never seen her before, then walked away without saying a word to defend himself.

  “They avoided one another for several days before I went to my mother and confessed what had happened. She told me that I had come to her just in time to stop her from leaving her husband. She showed me the tickets she’d purchased. She was going to return to the States, taking us children with her.

  “I begged her not to leave, because I realized at that moment I loved my stepfather too much not to have him in my life.”

  “How was it resolved?”

  “I apologized to him, while my mother grounded me for a month. Gabe was given two weeks for being an accomplice.”

  “How old were you?”

  “Sixteen.”

  Wincing, David thought of how he’d acted out at sixteen. He’d gotten into situations that his parents claimed had turned their hair white.

  He chuckled under his breath. “Did you ever break curfew again?”

  She shook her head. “No way. Not after seeing my mother go off like that.”

  They reached the top of the stairs and stood outside the door to his bedroom. The sound of a clock on the drop-leaf table in the hallway chimed the hour. It was ten o’clock, and she couldn’t believe that they’d spent more than ninety minutes playing the piano.

  For a reason she could not explain, Serena could not look at David. She felt like a breathless girl of eighteen, away from home for the first time. What she felt was similar to what she’d experienced when she went on her first college date. She hadn’t known whether to kiss the young man or unlock her door, then close it quickly, before he could kiss her or ask to come in. In the end she’d closed the door.

  And that was what she should’ve done earlier that afternoon. She should’ve walked out of David Cole’s bedroom and shut the door behind her and stayed out. But she hadn’t.

  She had consciously denied that she felt anything for David—that he was someone whose life she helped save; it was only after she had permitted him to make love to her that she realized that she did feel something, something deep and so profound that she offered more than her body. She had offered up her heart.

  “Good night, David.” She turned and walked to her bedroom, feeling the heat of his midnight gaze on her back.

  David watched her walk away, wanting to go to her, but didn’t. He knew she was uneasy about what had passed between them earlier that afternoon, and he wanted to give her time to sort out her emotions.

  Sleeping apart would also give him time to assess his own feelings; he had to admit that Serena Morris claimed a part of David Claridge Cole that he hadn’t offered any other woman, for it was the first time he’d ever engaged in unprotected sex. He could’ve stopped to protect her, but a force beyond himself would not permit him to. A force and a power that shattered his rigid self-control.

  He stepped into his bedroom and closed the door. Leaving the cane on the doorknob, he moved over to the bed and sat down. Smothering a groan, he lay across the firm mattress and closed his eyes. He ached from head to foot, but that pain was bearable. He wasn’t certain whether he could bear the pain of rejection, though, if Serena decided not to share his future with him.

  She helped save my life. She offered me a second chance and I owe her. And because I owe her my life I want to share it with her. His eyes flew open and he stared up at the faint shadows on the ceiling. Owing Serena had nothing to do with falling in love with her. You love her! The admission whispered in his head like a song’s refrain, and before the sun rose to signal the beginning of another day he believed it.

  Chapter 18

  June 17

  Serena woke early the following morning and managed to run two miles returning to La Montaña to begin her day. She walked into her bedroom and found David sitting on the rocker in the sitting area. The scent of his aftershave filled the room, and she noticed that he was already groomed and dressed. Instead of the shorts and T-shirt she’d purchased for him he had selected his own shirt and slacks. The swelling had gone down, and he’d slipped on the leather sandals.

  He stood up and suddenly the space seemed dwarfed by his impressive height. “Good morning.”

  Removing the elastic band from her hair, Serena shook out her damp curls, smiling, “Good morning to you, too. How are you feeling?”

  His inky-dark gaze moved slowly over her face and body before a slow smile crinkled the skin around his large eyes. “Wonderful.”

  Her eyebrows arched. “I see you’ve managed to wash and dress without help.”

  He held his arms away from his body. “I’ve given up the cane.”

  “You’d better not move too quickly, Sport.”

  His smile widened. “I’ll take it slow for a couple of days.” He closed the distance between them taking slow, measured steps. He noted her wet tank top and shorts. “Where do you jog?”

  “Along the beach.”

  “How many miles do you do?”

  “I was lucky to get in two miles this morning. The heat is too oppressive to try for more.”

 
; David stood in front of her, admiring the dewy softness of her moist face. Reaching up he cradled her face between his hands and lowered his head.

  She pulled back. “Don’t. I’m wet.”

  He tightened his gentle grip on her delicate face, inhaling the scent of her perfume under the layer of moisture lathering her body. Ignoring her protest, he moved closer and brushed his lips over hers.

  Pulling back, he studied her intently before again flashing his winning smile. “I just wanted to give you a proper good morning.”

  Her fingers curved around his strong wrists. She unconsciously counted the strong, steady, beating pulse. Lowering her gaze, she smiled up at him through her lashes, causing his breathing to falter slightly. “Thank you.”

  The seductiveness of the gesture jolted David, igniting the all-consuming passion welling within him. He’d awakened unable to believe the emotions assailing him whenever he thought of Serena. The realization that he’d made love to her, and the vivid recollection of her response, left him reeling. He thought his mind had conjured her up. He’d recalled the deep, velvety softness of her skin, the scent of her perfume mingling with the aroma of her body’s natural fragrance, the weight and feel of her firm breasts in his hands, and the moist heat of her femininity as it closed around him in a strong, gripping pulsing that threatened to propel him from his bed and into hers.

  He’d left the bed, flung open the French doors, and stood on the veranda watching the sun rise, waiting for his traitorous body to return to a state of calmness.

  And in the full sunlight he became fully cognizant of the changes within himself. He’d laughed aloud when he realized that a little slip of an American born, Costa Rican bred woman had stolen his heart. He’d traveled the world to the adoring screams of thousands of women, and not once had he taken any of them into his bed or into his heart. It had taken a business trip, his last business trip to Costa Rica, for him to fall and fall hard, and for the daughter of his nemesis.

  He’d admitted that he was used to winning, and he was. However, he was prepared to lose the Limón banana plantation if negotiations with Cordero-Vega failed. But he was not prepared to lose Serena. He’d taken a solemn oath that he would not return to Florida without her.