“She called me about two weeks before you were released.”
I smile softly, and he raises a brow.
“What?”
“I just…I like knowing that while I was in there, you were thinking about me.”
His eyebrows furrow together, and he opens his arms, gesturing me over. I stand from my seat and settle myself onto his lap, surprised at how comfortable he is. I mold into his chest, my knees against his abs. He pulls me close. “Of course I did, Darcy.”
“You were so mad at me.” I remember the fights that seemed to never end.
“I was. Doesn’t mean I didn’t think of you.”
I close my eyes, listening to the soft thump of his heartbeat. There’s suddenly a remote in Benjamin’s hand and music, the full crooning of none other than Frank Sinatra.
“Dance with me.”
I slide off of him and rise, taking his hand. He walks me to the terrace, the ocean a splendid backdrop behind us. He tugs me close, lacing our fingers together by his chest.
The song is a slow ballad, an emotional testament to true love.
Benjamin’s tenderness, his grazing lips against my knuckles, has been consistent since we arrived. The storm of the past year of our lives has finally passed, and here we are, devoted in the highest possible way to one another.
“I love this song,” I say quietly.
““Night and Day.” It’s one of my favorites. I thought it was a fitting song for us.”
“It’s perfect.”
We dance our first dance, with no one but each other to know.
***
Our trip passes in a blink of an eye. Trips to exotic towns, scuba diving, hikes, fancy dinners, days completely consumed in sun. Benjamin’s like a machine, determined to fill each day with an experience I’ve never had. When we’re not out, we’re on the grounds of the villa, rarely ever clothed. The fun seems as if it will never end, that we’ll be able to make our own strange life here in this place, and yet the sunsets descend rapidly until there’s only one day left to soak all of this up. It all rushes to me while I’m packing.
“The car will be here at seven a.m.,” Benjamin announces, entering the room with our bathing suits that dried overnight.
Oddly enough, my eyes are tearing up, my chest inflated with reluctance. Benjamin, a mind reader, wraps an arm around my shoulder from behind, urging me into him. I bite my trembling lip as he kisses my cheek.
What the hell is wrong with me?
He reaches out and stops me from packing with a gentle hand. “What’s going on?”
I shake my head, unable to speak.
“Why are you crying? What happened?”
“I’m being stupid.”
“Something’s obviously upset you.”
“No, that’s what’s stupid. It’s the opposite.” I roll my eyes at my fluctuating emotions.
“You’re crying because you’re happy?”
“I don’t know why I’ve been so emotional lately.” I sniffle when he wipes the tears away.
“Look,” he says, his green eyes alight with admiration, “we had a perfect week, and I’m sure we’ll have many more of them together. We can do this as many times as you’d like. Nothing has to change,” he promises. “We can be this happy.”
***
Lounging in a hammock, experiencing the true definition of being lost in relaxation, Benjamin listens while I read out a selected chapter of a manuscript to him, torn between asking for a full request and passing.
“It’s a bit morbid,” he says when I finish. “I mean, the entire family is terrible to each other.”
“The synopsis says that the brother kills his sister in the end, but it’s a twist.”
“Damn. And I thought my family had set the bar on dysfunctional households.”
I set the iPad aside, enjoying the way his fingers dig into the base of my foot, massaging deeply. I fall silent, in a tranquil state.
“I wish I had the type of family that could be a family to you.”
I’m shocked by the admission. His family, apart from his sister, hasn’t welcomed me into their lives, and I doubt that will change when Benjamin announces his elopement to them.
“You’re the only family I need…you and the family we make together.”
“You’d like children?”
I nod, feeling the exact moment this conversation deepens. It’s odd this subject has never come up before. “Eventually, sure. It would be nice. Have you ever thought about kids?”
He’s noticeably quiet, and it dawns on me that I already know his answer. Benjamin hardly has time for me. He’s juggling this whole other world I’m barely apart of and then enters mine, devoting the rest of his time to us.
“I never thought of it. My job takes so much time,” he says, confirming my suspicion. “I wouldn’t want to bring a kid into this world and treat him the way my father did with me. I would want him to know me.”
I understand that. We both have jobs now that take up a lot of time.
He holds me close. “Right now, you’re all I need.”
***
The initial screech of the alarm on the night table jolts me out of sleep. I flinch and peel my cheek off of Benjamin’s chest. He raises his arm off my back and reaches over to silence it.
“What time is it?” I roll onto my pillow that hasn’t been touched all night.
He drags a hand over his face. “Five.”
“It’s too early.”
“The car is picking us up at seven, and I was hoping to get a swim in before that.”
I don’t remember falling asleep again, but when I resurface, blinded by a sliver of light pouring through the closed curtains, Ben is gone. It’s 5:30, which means he’s probably out in the water. After a quick brush of my teeth, I step onto the terrace in my bikini, searching for a sign of movement in the ocean.
The sun is already rising, halfway to its usual place in the sky. I finally spot him a ways down the beach, his long arms slicing through the current, and set off toward the beach. I’m up to my calves in sea water when he spots me. He smiles and pushes his hair from his face, slicking it back in shiny waves. The black swim trunks are plastered on his muscular thighs, conforming to his masculine shape.
“You look exhausted,” he says when he reaches me.
“You don’t,” I quip suggestively.
His brows soar with pleasure at the compliment. “Come in.”
“I’m thinking about it.”
“Thinking about it?” He grips my waist.
I glower at him. “You wouldn’t…”
“I actually would.” He adjusts his grip on my skin with a squeeze. With an inhale, I make a run for it, laughing wildly when he catches me within seconds. He easily heaves me into the air and over his shoulder, resisting my struggling as he directs us toward deeper water.
“Ben, put me down!”
“What was that? I can’t hear you!”
Waist deep now, he grabs my hips and lets me slide down his torso, holding me close. I’m desperately trying to maintain a disapproving scowl, but my glee surpasses the attempt.
“All right, I’m sorry,” he surrenders, tracing my face with his finger.
I squeal when he catapults me into the air and I drop, sinking into the salty ocean. Sputtering, I reemerge with vengeance. Laughing, he begins to hastily make his way out of the water.
“Oh no, you don’t!” I growl, and like a monkey, I latch myself onto his back.
“All right, all right. I give up!”
“You should have thought of that before.”
Plowing through the shoreline, he sets me down on the damp sand and makes a run for it. I follow him, determined to reach him. Then he freezes mid-run and pivots, catching me when I launch myself at him.
His kiss is rough, his tongue driving through my lips with crazed madness. I grasp his cheeks between my hands, meeting him with the same amount of breathless passion.
“I’m going to miss this,
” he says against my mouth.
Me too.
***
The clouds disappear on our descent, New York showing itself in all its majestic glory. There isn’t much that can challenge the aerial view of the city in unique beauty. After so long in flight, the ground should be very inviting. And if this were just a normal getaway that led to nothing consequential, going back to our lives wouldn’t be so life-altering.
But today, when we land, we will be very different from the people who boarded this jet.
We’re married. No one knows. Not my friends, not the press. And we mustn’t let the big bad city destroy us. In our very complicated past, our surroundings have been against us. Our jobs, our inner circle, the press…we’ve been the losing side for so long. A year ago, I was in prison. If there’s bad luck, it usually finds me.
This trip was the break I’ve been waiting for all my life, the piece of the puzzle that makes all the failed tries worth it. Benjamin is mine, for better, for worse, forever.
I fondle the wedding band on my finger absentmindedly while my head swarms with thoughts. The past week has been a dream, a dream where Benjamin is solely focused on our new marriage, on his bride. There were no dwellings on work or family problems or conference calls. Benjamin enjoyed himself, talking and laughing until he was blue.
To know that he will not be able to be that here isn’t negative thinking; it’s reality.
I fell in love with a business mogul, awed by his ability to grow. I’d never ask him to abandon that in any way. Loving Benjamin means loving the entire package.
His hand covers mine in my lap, his platinum band shining in the sunlight reflected from the window. “It will be fine, Darce.”
“What will?”
“Everything.”
He knows me well. I nod, leaning into him.
“I have something to give you.” Dressed in a dark chestnut-colored suit, he’s the spitting image of the businessman I met nearly two years ago.
“What?”
He releases my hand and digs into his travel bag. The small blue box he takes from it is a staple, a giveaway for lovers. Benjamin’s holding a ring, and despite having married him already, my chest expands.
“Ben…”
“Don’t say I didn’t have to.” He smiles, opening it.
“It’s true. I already have a ring.”
“Not an engagement ring.” He lifts an oval-shaped diamond ring from the cloth. The band is a slim circle of silver, delicate and bright. The diamond is flawless, and knowing Benjamin, he’d have inspected it thoroughly before purchasing. “If you don’t like it…”
“It’s almost too beautiful,” I say, awed. “How could I not love it?”
He slides the ring onto my finger, nestling it with my wedding band, then he kisses me, using up the remaining time we have left of our vacation smartly.
CHAPTER FOUR
We brave the airport, bombarded by reporters that have been set on us like hounds from the moment the door to the tarmac opened. My eyes are blind from the flashes of cameras, my hand clutched in Benjamin’s hand, which hasn’t loosened even the slightest since we encountered our first round of paparazzi. Dimitri met us outside the plane, having already spoken to Benjamin about the impromptu marriage on the phone. His services were desired today.
“Is that an engagement ring? Mr. Scott! Miss Fontaine!”
“No, there are two rings there!”
“Did you elope? A secret wedding?”
“Mr. Scott!”
***
Benjamin and I drop our bags onto the floor of my apartment.
“I don’t understand why he can’t just come here?” Benjamin complains.
He didn’t take the news of me staying with Kevin tonight too well.
“He’s having problems with Doug, and I promised him before we ran out and got hitched.”
“You are coming to live with me, right?”
“Of course I am. This is only tonight. I’m going to be warm in your bed for many, many nights to come.” I kiss his lips lightly. His features begrudgingly smooth, his demeanor lightening at my clarification.
“Nights? I think you mean years, Mrs. Scott.”
“I like the sound of that,” I giggle, wrapping my arms around his neck. “He won’t be here for an hour, you know…” I begin to hint, but Benjamin’s one step ahead of me—and drags me further into the apartment.
***
“I’ve heard this place is good!” Kevin bellows over the roaring music we can already hear from the cab. Still unsure how to confess the past week’s events to him, I’ve hidden my hand from him the entire way here. He’s extremely bubbly tonight, which makes me wonder how messed up he really is. The line to the club is long and extends the entire length of the building.
As we walk to the end of the line, it dawns on me that I should have found a time to inform him of my new title in the cab. Nearly everyone in line watches us move, intrigued and probably wondering when my beau will make an appearance.
I shouldn’t be surprised when the woman in front of us spins to face us. “Are you Darcy?”
I bob my head uncomfortably. “Yeah.”
“Could I get a picture with you?”
“A picture? With me?”
“Yes.”
“Um, okay. I’ve never been asked that before.”
She hands over her phone to her friends and stands beside me. The years of avoiding cameras do me no favors. I can barely muster a smile, loathing the thought that this may become a reoccurring thing. Benjamin’s the famous one. He has to put up with this stuff. Not me.
“Mrs. Scott?”
I look up from the person taking the picture to see a man in a suit standing a few feet away. “You and your friends may come with me.”
With one look at Kevin, I witness the moment he goes from utter confusion to speech-rendering shock. Blushing, I tell the girls they can come with us, following the bouncer with my mute friend. When we’re past the rope, Kevin snatches my hand, lifting it into the light.
“Holy fuck!” he gasps upon seeing the large rock on my fourth finger.
“I didn’t know how to tell you,” I say, blushing wildly as I pull my arm back to my side.
“Please, Mrs. Scott, if you need anything, ask me personally. I would be happy to help you,” the bouncer says. He unclips the rope to the VIP lounge, and I redden even further.
“Thank you very much.”
We take the stairs to the balcony, losing the madness of the first floor. There are suits as far as the eye can see. Tables and loveseats fill the room, a bar along the wall stocked with every liquor imaginable. The lighting is dimmed, but that doesn’t stop most of the men in the room from locating the group of girls who just entered with Kevin and me.
“Is this all right?” I whisper to Kevin. “We don’t have to stay up here if you don’t want to.”
“This is the VIP lounge, babe. I’m more than happy here.” His eyes catch my ring again. “But I need a damn drink.”
With a quick goodbye, we depart from the girls and make our way to the bar. Taking a seat, I prepare for a lecture. Kevin orders us two rounds of shots, and the order makes my eyes bug out of my head.
“So we’re going there tonight?” I joke, crossing my legs.
“Tell me something, Darcy. Is that an engagement ring that just happened to have two bands to it? Or is that what I think it is?”
“I’m married,” I confess, ripping off the Band-Aid. “We eloped in Bali.”
He gapes. “I told you to see each other more. That didn’t mean run away and get married with no one but yourselves to attend! Doris is going to lose her damn mind.”
“He asked me, and I didn’t want to wait either. Kevin, it was everything I ever imagined. He was perfect…it was perfect.”
“You’ve been back a few months, Darcy, and nothing felt right, didn’t you say that? You and Benjamin were finding it hard to reconnect?”
“We found our rhyt
hm there. Kev, we were separated against our will. He was angry with me, and I was ashamed by everything that happened, but the love was never not there.”
He squeezes my hand. “Don’t get me wrong, babe. I’m overjoyed he put a ring on it, but I’m worried you jumped too fast.”
“We didn’t, Kev. I know we didn’t.”
A classic Kevin move, he realizes his next words may possibly offend and decides a different course of action…handing me the first shot the bartender offers. And like me, I fumble trying to detour the subject from me. The moment my throat is coated in liquor, the delightful burn sizzling my esophagus, I attempt the segue.
“How about you tell me what’s going on with you and Doug?”
“Nothing’s going on with me and Doug. That’s the problem.”
“Did you break up?”
“No, no. We’re still together. We’re just having problems.”
“Such as?”
He leans in, taking my hand. “We haven’t slept together.”
“Wait, what?”
“Exactly.” He leans back in his chair while I snap my jaw shut.
“It’s been…over a year, Kev. What’s the wait for?”
“Marriage,” he says, with a stern glower. Rendered speechless, I blink blankly. While waiting until marriage proves to be a beautiful sentiment, Kevin’s not one for abstinence. It’s tough to imagine how he’s gotten this far without straying, which only shows how much Doug actually means to him.
“Are you going to marry him? I mean, if you’ve waited this long, it must be for that reason, right?”
“I don’t want to get married,” he says with a shrug. “Ever.”
“Does he know that?”
“Yes. And somehow, we both still keep calling each other at the end of the day. It’s like this dead-end road that will lead us over a damn cliff, and yet we make the turn. It’s ridiculous. Some days I’m pissed at him, and some days I don’t care.”
“You love him,” I murmur, studying his reaction. I’ve seen that dead end many, many times and have managed to back up and avoid the cliff. The look I see on his face tells me he’ll do the same.
Possessed By You (The Consumed Series Book 3) Page 4
