“You seemed very distracted tonight,” he replied. “Is there something I should know?”
She couldn’t believe he asked her that. She wondered if he knew and he was waiting for her to confess everything, she couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t do it.
“I don’t understand,” she said as her heart raced in her chest. “I am fine.”
“Are you sure?” he asked. “I was afraid you might be getting cold feet.”
“Of course not,” she lies, feeling a little sick.
“You know I love you,” he said and he kissed her hand. “I will make you happy, I promise from now on you will come before everything else. I know I upset you not coming when I promised and I’m sorry, I love you so much I promise I will never put anything before you again.”
“I know,” she replied as the tears weld up in her eyes. “I love you too.”
He kissed her softly on the lips and hugged her gently.
“Sweet dreams,” he whispered. Then he kissed her forehead and stood up and left.
Emma dropped her face into her hands and cried. Jonathan was such a sweet lovely man. And she did love him. She just didn’t love him enough. She wished she could but she just couldn’t.
She knew it wasn’t fair to lie to him but she just couldn’t tell him the truth. She knew the truth would break his heart. She wished there was some other way but she knew there wasn’t.
How was she ever going to tell him the truth? She turned off her bedside lamp and slid under her covers. She turned over in her bed and buried her face in her pillow and cried herself to sleep.
Chapter 18
Emma stood out in the night air. It was an unusually mild night for the middle of February.
She glanced over at Zach who was standing nervously about ten feet away from her. He glanced at her and smiled, then quickly looked away.
She wondered what it was he wanted to talk to her about. There was a lot she wanted to ask him about too. But she wasn’t sure if she could find the right words.
The truth was, all though she was angry with him for, as she saw it, abandoning her. She was really hurt by what he did. But despite that she did still have very strong feelings for him. He was her soul mate. But she couldn’t let him know how she felt, at least not until she knew how he felt first.
“Are you warm enough?” he asked her finally saying something. “Cause we could go somewhere else, somewhere warmer.”
“I’m fine,” she replied sounding colder than he had ever heard her before. She didn’t even look at him. He thought she seemed angry with him and he didn’t really know why.
He walked over and set down on the picnic table they had sat on the first night they met.
“Would you like to sit down?” he asked signalling to the other side of the bench he was sitting on.
“I’m fine” she replied once again. He didn’t understand her hostility. She wouldn’t even look at him. He had so much he wanted to ask her but he didn’t know where to start.
“I’m sorry, I am a little confused,” he finally said. “But you seem really angry with me, I don’t understand”.
“Are you kidding me?” Emma replied surprised by what he said.
“Emma,” he said equally surprised by her reaction. “I know you have moved on and I’m glad you’re happy, really I am but...”
“But what Zach?” she snapped and as soon as she had, she regretted it. “I am sorry, I can’t do this”. She turned to walk back into the pub.
“Emma, please!” he begged, jumping up from the bench and following her.
“What is it you want from me, Zach?” she shouted spinning around to be almost face to face with him. “Do you want me to say I thought about you every day? Or that I regretted marrying Jonathan? Do you want me to say I love you and can’t live my live without you?”
He didn’t reply.
“Yes” she said, this time a little calmer. “Yes I thought about you, I thought about you nearly every day and I missed you so much sometimes I thought I was going to burst but you broke my heart. And it was Jonathan who picked up the pieces. He knew I didn’t really love him but he loved me anyway. He tried so hard every day to make me love him the way I should have but I couldn’t. But despite everything, we had a good marriage. He made me happy. Happier than I thought I could ever be...”
She broke down. She missed Jonathan so much. He had become her best friend. She wished he was with her right now.
“I am sorry,” he said in a softer voice. “I never meant to upset you.”
He stood up and took a hanky from his pocket and handed it to her.
She took it and wiped her eyes. She couldn’t face going back into the pub now. She walked over to the bench and sat down.
Zach walked over and sat down next to her.
“Jonathan sounds like a good guy,” Zach said softly.
“He was,” she replied as she wiped her eyes with the handkerchief.
“Was?” he asked confused by her choice of words?
“Jonathan was killed in a car crash,” she explained. “Last May. He was on his way back to the office from a meeting and a truck ran a red light. He was killed instantly.”
“Emma, I am sorry,” he said honestly. He was truly heartbroken as he thought of what she must have gone through, and then to be left alone with two young children “I had no idea.”
“It’s ok,” she sniffed “How could you have known?”
“How could you have known what?” a voice said startling them both. They both turned around to see who it was.
Emma saw a girl standing at the door of the pub. She recognized her but couldn’t place her.
“Joanna,” Zach said jumping to his feet. “You remember Emma?”
Emma couldn’t believe it was Joanna standing in front of her. She looked completely different than Emma had remembered.
“I remember,” she replied in her usual dismissive tone she always used when she spoke to Emma. “Zach, what are you doing out here? I was looking all over for you.”
“I will be right in to you,” Zach replied.
But before anyone had a chance to say anything else, Jack came rushing out from the pub.
“Emma you have to come with me now,” He said completely ignoring Zach and Joanna.
“Jack, what it is?” she asked sensing by his tone there was something wrong.
“Mom called,” he explained. “It’s Mia. Mia has been taken to hospital.”
“What wrong with her?” Emma asked with a familiar sense of panic.
“She didn’t say,” Jack replied. “She just said to get you to the hospital,”
“I will drive you,” Zach said. His voice startled her because she had forgotten he was even standing there.
“What?” Joanna asked horrified he had offered. “Why?”
“Well I haven’t had anything to drink,” he replied. “And my car is right there.”
“Thank you,” Emma replied truly grateful.
Then she remembered the rest of the group she was with. She turned to Jack. “What about Lou and Jenna”?
“Joanna, go in and tell Emma’s sister what is going on,” Zach said as he led Emma and Jack to his car. “Her name is Louise. She is sitting beside the fire exit.”
“Zach!” Joanna exclaimed feeling annoyed Zach was abandoning her.
“Joanna, just do it!” he shouted, feeling annoyed with her behaviour.
He turned his back on Joanna and showed Emma and Jack where his car was parked. Emma climbed into the back of the car and started to pray. All she could think about was the day of Jonathan’s crash. She closed her eyes tight.
“Jonathan,” she prayed quietly. “Please don’t take her from me. Watch over our little girl, I know I deserve all I get but she doesn’t please watch over her.”
The drive to the hospital seemed to take forever but finally they arrived. Emma jumped out of the car and ran into the hospital, followed closely by Jack and Zach.
She followed the si
gns to the emergency room and ran up to the reception desk. “My name is Emma Daniels,” she said to the receptionist breathlessly. Emma fought hard to push the memories of the day she lost Jonathan out of her head. “My daughter was brought in here a while ago.”
The lady directed her to where Mia was being treated. Emma ran down and saw her mother sitting on a chair outside one of the rooms.
“Mom!” Emma called out as she ran up to her. “Where is she?”
“The doctors are with her now,” her Mom told her obviously very upset. Emma could tell her Mom had been crying and Emma’s stomach lurched. This couldn’t be happening again.
“What happened?” Emma asked as panic took hold of her and her breathing quickened. She was struggling hard to keep calm.
They were joined my Jack and Zach. Emma looked at Zach as he watched her with concern. He wanted so much to wrap her in her arm and make everything all right for her. Despite everything that had happened in the past, he was still so deeply in love with her he just wanted to make everything better for her.
“She woke about quarter past eleven,” Helen began to explain completely unaware of the stranger who was standing there with her two children. “She was burning and very upset. I was going to give her something for her temperature. But while I was in the kitchen your Dad called out and said something was wrong. When I went back in I could see she was unconscious so I phoned an ambulance”.
“Oh God!” Emma cried and struggled to catch her breath. She could feel her legs buckle beneath her and she collapsed into the empty seat next to her. She couldn’t do this again. Helen put her arms around her daughter and tried to comfort her. “I knew I shouldn’t have gone out. I knew she was sick.”
“Emma, I am so sorry,” Helen tearfully told her daughter.
“Oh Mom,” Emma replied. “It’s not your fault. You did everything you could and I am so grateful for that.”
“Ms Daniels?” the doctor said walking out to where they were waiting. Emma could feel her stomach turn. “We have Mia stabilized but she is still a very sick little girl. We are not sure what the cause of this problem is but we are working on the assumption that it is virus or meningitis”
“Can I see her?” Emma asked
“Certainly,” he replied then looked at the others that were standing with her “But not all at once”.
“Mom,” she said indicating she wanted her to come with her.
“I should get going,” Zach said. He turned and he headed down the corridor.
“Zach,” Emma called out turning back to him. “Thank you.”
He just smiled and turned back and continued on out of the door.
Emma followed the doctor into the room where they had Mia. She was horrified to see her little girl hooked up to all the different machines. She looked so tiny lying there.
Emma picked up her hand and kissed it softly. Then she leaned down and kissed her fore head
“Mia, Mommy’s here,” Emma said as a tear trickled down her cheek and drop on to Mia’s forehead. Emma gently wiped it away. She closed her eyes and prayed for a miracle. She couldn’t do this again. She couldn’t sit by helplessly as someone she loved was taken from her again. She just couldn’t, it was too hard.
Helen rested her hand on her daughters shoulder.
“Emma, love,” she said softly. “Jonathan will look after her. I am sure he is with her right now fighting her corner.”
“I hope so Mom” Emma said and she wiped another tear from her face. “Because I don’t have the strength to say goodbye to someone I love again. If anything happen to her I don’t know what I would do.”
Chapter 19
~Five years earlier~
Emma woke up early the morning after Jonathan had arrived. She hadn’t slept too well. All she could think about was Zach’s face as she walked away with Jonathan. She lay there in the bed and wondered what the hell she was going to do.
Emma decided the only thing to do was to go and see Zach. So she dressed herself in a tracksuit and runners and pretended she was going for a run.
She ran all the way to Zach’s apartment. She buzzed the door again and again but there was no answer. A man came out the door and let her into the building.
She ran up the stairs and knocked on the apartment door but still there was no answer. She placed her ear against the door and listened for some sound to see if Zach was in there.
“Zach its Emma,” she said knocking again. “Please if you’re in there let me in. I swear yesterday wasn’t what it looked like”. Still there was no reply.
“Zach, please!” she said leaning her head against the door. “Talk to me.”
“You know they lock people up for talking to themselves,” Zach voice said from behind her.
“Zach!” she exclaimed, relieved he hadn’t in fact been ignoring her. “I thought you were in there.”
“I woke up with the most horrendous headache,” he explained opening the apartment door. “Courtesy of yours truly, I went down to the garage to get some aspirin.”
Emma followed him into the apartment. He walked into the kitchen and got some water to take the aspirin.
“So that was Jonathan,” he said after he swallowed two pills. “He wasn’t at all what I expected.”
Emma simply nodded.
“If I am honest,” he added unable to look at her directly. “I don’t know what I expected.”
“Zach I had no idea he was coming over early,” she explain. “He just turned up.”
Zach didn’t say anything. He walked over and slumped back on to the sofa.
“Zach,” she said sitting down next to him. “Please look at me. He isn’t the one I want. I want you. That’s what I was going to tell you yesterday before Jonathan turned up. You’re the one I want to be with.”
“You sure?” he asked, unable to believe what he heard. He was so sure she had made her decision and he wasn’t the one she wanted.
“I am,” she nodded and smiled warmly at him. She laughed at how sweet he looked when he was jealous. She walked over and sat down next to him. “You are the one I want to be with and when I saw your face yesterday and I thought that I might lose you. I couldn’t bare it.”
Zach sat up and looked straight at Emma.
“You really mean that?” he asked.
“I mean it,” she reassured him. She kissed him softly. “That’s if you still want me? If you still want to marry me?”
“Of course I want to marry you,” he replied with a smile. “I would marry you today if you wanted.”
He took her in his arms and brought his lips to hers. Emma could feel the want in his kiss as he devoured her mouth. He pulled her on to his lap as he kissed her deeper. Emma could feel him twitch beneath her and desire raced through her. She wanted him too. But she had to get home.
“I really should get back” she said as she reluctantly dragged herself from Zach embrace.
“What?” he asked, surprised by what she said. “Why?”
“Because nobody knows I even left,” she replied.
“But you told Jonathan right?” Zach asked. “You told him about us.”
“Actually,” she replied nervously. “Not yet.”
“What?” Zach asked confused. ”Why not? I don’t understand.”
“Zach I have promised him I would spend the rest of my life with him” she replied surprised by his reaction. “I can’t just drop this on him; I need to pick my moment with him. This is something I am not proud of. I have never been unfaithful in my life. I don’t want to hurt him but I know I will and that isn’t easy”.
“But you are going to tell him?” Zach said sounding less and less confident.
“Yes,” she reassured him and softly kissed him on the lips. “Please trust me.”
“I do, I’m sorry” he said softening a little pulling her close to him once. “It’s just I can’t bear to share you with any one.”
“It won’t be for long,” she said and kissed him softly. She walk
ed to the door and turned back and smiled at him. “I promise.”
Before she could open the door he was behind her. He spun her around and pinned her to the door. “Emma I love you. I want you to never doubt that. I know you barely know me. But know this. There is nothing or no one in this world I want more than I want you. I want you right now.”
She stared up into his eyes but said nothing but she heart was pounding so fast in her chest she though it was going to explode.
His lips met hers as he reached for the waistband of her sweat pants. He pushed them to the floor. Emma quickly grabbed for the waistband off his trousers as she kick her shoes off and then her sweat pants. She reached into his trousers and teased the top of his cock with the tips of her fingers.
Zach hooks the rim of her panties with his fingers and, dropping to his knees before her, he slowly slides them down her legs.
Taking hold of one of her legs he places over his shoulder and he pressed his mouth against the apex of her thigh as his fingers gently explore her soft fold. Spreading her apart he claims her swollen clit in his mouth as he sucks and teases it.
Emma grabbed his head as she threw her own head back against the door and cried out in sheer pleasure. She could feel her body begin to quiver already. It was like he simply had to touch her and her body came alive.
Suddenly he dropped her leg and stood up in front of her. Grabbing her by the hips he lifted her up and pinned her against the door.
“I want you now!” he groaned breathlessly against her mouth. “Wrap your legs around me.”
He reached between them and released himself from his trousers before he pressed the head of his cock against her opening. Taking hold of her hips once again, he slammed hard inside her and stilled. Emma could barely breath, her head was spinning now.
Sex with Zach was always intense, but as he slammed into her once again it felt powerful. She could feel the need coursing through his body as thrust after thrust he claimed her as his. It was mind blowing.
She pinched her eyes closed as she absorbed the punishing pace as he drove into her again and again.
“Open your eyes, baby,” he commanded her, breathlessly. Emma snapped her eyes opened and locked them with Zach. “I love you Emma Kelly. You. Are. Mine.”
A Stolen Heart Page 13
