by Meg Buchanan
“What is it?”
Natalia shrugged.
One of the older waiters brought over the bottle of wine Natalia had ordered. “Will you play for us tonight?” he asked as he poured a little into her glass. Noah managed to understand that.
Natalia tasted the light golden wine, nodded, happy with it, then shook her head. “Not tonight.”
The waiter half-filled Natalia’s glass and then Noah’s. “The young man?” he asked.
“No,” said Natalia. The waiter made a disappointed noise and went off to serve another table.
“They know you play?” Noah asked.
She reached for her glass. “That is how I earned enough to feed Eva and myself when I first came to this country. I played the violin here most nights. Julia is Gregor’s daughter. His wife stayed at home looking after Julia and her brother and sister, so she could care for Eva too, and I’d come here and play.”
“How long did you do it for.”
Natalia frowned a little as she counted up on her fingers. “A very long time,” she said finally. She nodded at the pianist at the grand piano in the corner. “I see they have managed to replace me.”
She looked beautiful in the flickering candle light. He couldn’t wait to peel the dress off her and relax in the spa bath. Or the shower. Maybe both.
They were almost finished their first glass of wine. Noah was topping up Natalia’s when the pianist stopped the background music she’d been playing and started thumping out a triumphant march. He looked up from the wine bottle and the half full glass, and saw Julia leaving the kitchen with a waiter behind her carrying a giant wooden chopping board. The food on the board rose in a heap topped off with the red eyes and feelers of a crayfish. The procession was headed for their table.
He put the bottle down and watched. The closer the tray got the more seafood it seemed to support.
“What the hell?”
“The start of your feast, Lion,” said Natalia.
“That’s the entrée?” He’d expected the food here to be all elegant tiny portions like he’d seen going to the other tables.
“The chef’s special.” Natalia smiled over at him.
“Bloody hell. I didn’t know a seafood platter was Russian.”
“Kai moana and caviar,” laughed Natalia.
She moved his glass and hers to the side to make way for the platter.
“Impressive.” A second waiter arranged empty bowls and finger bowls filled with warm water and towels beside them. Next came a smaller platter with dipping sauces of every imaginable colour. A third platter held little rounds of bread, and buns and small loaves of every texture.
Noah looked over at Julia smiling proudly at the feast. Okay, it was over the top, but he liked seafood, and this was the most spectacular platter he’d ever seen. The crayfish on top of everything else seemed to have caviar running down the centre of its back, there were oysters, prawns, mussels still in their shells, a couple of huge crabs, and some fried stuff he couldn’t identify, surrounded and poked out from under the crayfish. “Thank you,” he said to her. “I’ll enjoy the challenge.”
She laughed like she’d understood him. Maybe the Russian spoken around him was just for show, and they all spoke English too.
“Where do I start?” he asked Natalia after the procession had gone.
“I think with the oysters.” She delicately picked up a half shell with the oyster floating in its own juice and holding her other hand under it fed it to him. “I think we should make sure the rest of the night is as wonderful as the day has been.”
He let the oyster slide down the back of his throat. The fresh salty, slightly bitter taste reminded him of sex. But when he was with Natalia most things did. He searched the platter and found another. He fed it to her as delicately as she’d done.
He kissed her as she closed her eyes and savoured the taste.
“I can’t wait to fuck you,” he whispered.
Her eyes opened, and she smiled that lazy smile she kept for when she was aroused.
“Be patient, Lion. Eat first. Julia has planned the perfect menu.”
Chapter Twenty-One
When they got home, he lounged back in the one of the soft armchairs in the bedroom. He’d taken off the jacket but still had on the rest of the clothes Natalia had found for him. All his other appetites had been satisfied by the feast. Now for the final one. Natalia had told him to wait for her in their room the way she’d done last night. Maybe she’d planned another surprise.
Natalia came in, still in the black evening dress and the shoes she’d been in at the restaurant. She hadn’t been planning another surprise.
But, he had plans. He’d filled up the spa bath, found a few bottles of stuff that smelled good and poured them in then waited for her to come back.
“Who was Eva’s father?” he asked, just to say something really.
Natalia walked over to the dressing table, her head tilted to one side, took out an earring. “A friend of my father’s.” She pushed the little butterfly back onto the earring and put the earring on the glass top. The diamond made a small click and then sparkled in the light.
“Were you living with him?”
Natalia nodded. “My parents had sent me to him, so I could improve my violin skills. He was a great violinist. World renowned.” She reached behind her neck and unclipped the necklace. It went on the dressing table with the earrings.
He leaned back in the chair again. Crossed one shiny, borrowed shoe over the other. Watching her undress was as good as helping her out of her clothes. When she knew he wanted to watch she moved slowly and deliberately, tantalising and teasing.
She tipped her head the other way. “He told my parents I had a great talent too, and if they allowed me to live at his home he would give me lessons.” And took out the other earring. ´They didn’t know he would take my body as payment for those lessons. My father’s friend beat me and raped me. I was young and frightened of him and frightened no one would believe that this great man would do such a thing. I never told anyone.”
“That’s terrible.”
“Yes. It was.”
“Why didn’t you tell your parents?”
“I couldn’t tell them because he kept me hidden from them. He made excuses about why they couldn’t see me.”
“They didn’t suspect anything?”
She shook her head. “By the time I told them what he had done, I already had Eva. He had bribed the doctor who delivered Eva to keep the delivery a secret.”
How could he have known her for six years and not asked about any of this? Why hadn’t he been more interested in her past? He answered his own question. Because she had never volunteered any information, it had seemed like she didn’t want to talk about it.
“Did he still mistreat you after Eva was born?”
“He still beat me.”
“What happened when your parents found out?”
“He was a very powerful man. So, nothing happened. That is the way world works.”
“Not in this country.”
Natalia gave a snort. “So naïve, Lion.” She walked over to him, rested her hands on the arm of the chair and brushed a kiss across his lips.
“What do you want?” she asked as if dismissing what she’d just told him and wanted to go back to what they normally did.
“I’ve run a bath for you.” He’d ask her again when she seemed more receptive. He still wanted to know more about her.
She looked over at the spa bath. “So, I see. Are you joining me?”
“Not yet. I want to watch you undress and wash,” he said.
She straightened up and slid the zip down. In the mirror behind her, as the dress opened he could see her slim back and waist and the top of her buttocks.
She slowly pushed the straps of the dress off her shoulders and let the dress fall to the carpet. So lovely.
She walked over to him naked except for the shoes with heels like knitting needles.
&n
bsp; She straddled his legs, kneeled on the edge of the chair, and rested her hands on his shoulders. Her full breasts level with his mouth.
“Are you sure you won’t join me? You said you wanted to fuck.”
“Not yet. Tonight, I’m in the mood to watch.” He whispered his lips across her breasts and touched her between her legs. “I’m unpredictable.”
She kissed his forehead. “Not very.” She pushed herself off his lap and walked over to the spa bath.
He watched as she sat on the edge of the bath and removed her shoes.
“How did you finish up here?” he asked. Maybe he should have ordered her to leave the shoes on. See what that looked like.
No, he didn’t want her to break her ankle.
She stood and turned then leaned over the side of the bath, swished a hand through the water testing the temperature, and displaying her body for him. The bruise was still there. He still felt guilty about that.
Then she carefully lowered herself into the water. “After Eva was born… It’s hot,” she said.
“Too hot?”
“No.” She leaned back against the headrest. “I’ll get used to it.”
“After Eva was born…?” he prompted.
She picked up the sponge from the side of the bath.
“After Eva was born, I became frightened for mine and my baby’s life and ran away.”
Natalia ducked down under the water, then came up again. The bath water streamed off her face.
He unfolded from the chair and came over to her.
He knelt beside the bath and took the sponge off her. Someone had hurt her. It destroyed him just to think about it. He gently held her hand and carefully washed from her fingers to her shoulder, her skin flushed and pink from the heat of the water.
“Then you came to live here?”
She shook her head and lay back against the curve of carved marble.
“Not at first. I ran to my parents’ home. I knew they would protect me and Eva. But he followed and demanded I come back to him. He said I had seduced him, and now he wanted to marry me.”
“But you didn’t marry him?” He dipped the sponge in the water again and slowly washed the other arm. The perfume of whatever he had added to the water drifted up to him in the steam. She looked like a mermaid laying there, her hair damp around the edges.
“No. Anyway he lied. He didn’t want a wife. He only wanted a punching bag and the baby’s mother to care for his daughter. He was no longer interested in raping me. I no longer had the body of a child. But he said that by taking Eva when I ran away I had stolen from him and he would kill me if I didn’t bring her back.”
“Fuck.” He slid his arm under her knees and the other around her back. He lifted her out of the water enough to hold her and kiss her. Her arms went around his shoulders, and water soaked into his clothes, the front of his shirt and pants were wet now.
Natalia shook her head. “It is lucky I know a good drycleaner in this town. Tomas will not appreciate us repaying his hospitality by ruining his clothes.”
“It looks like he can afford new ones.” He gently lowered her back into the bath. “Lean forward.”
She sat up. He gathered up her hair, draped it across one shoulder, and washed her.
“Did you go back?”
“No. My father decided that for me to be safe, I should leave the country, and take Eva with me. He had another friend, and the friend had this house and the restaurant we have just been too. He said he needed someone to look after the house.”
“You became his housekeeper?” He ran the sponge down her back then up again and across her shoulders.
Natalia shook her head. “No. He had a cook and a housekeeper already. He just wanted someone in the house. I flew half way across the world with my little girl to be safe from her father.”
“And you worked at his restaurant?”
Natalia nodded.
“For how long?”
“Until Eva left for New York. I was fourteen when my father’s friend first raped me. I was sixteen when Eva was born. I was seventeen when I arrived here.
“How old was Eva when she left?”
“Seventeen.”
He did another calculation. “You lived here for sixteen years?” No wonder she knew where everything was.
“That is right.” She leaned back again and closed her eyes. “Now you know my story, Lion. She slid under the water again then surfaced. “No, more talking,” she ordered.
Chapter Twenty-Two
She pushed her hair back, lay in the water and closed her eyes. Her perfect body a little flushed and all his for three more days. He shaped her breast with his hand and then ran his palm down her stomach until he found the sensitive spot between her legs. The man in the boat, she’d called it when she first taught him how to please her.
He’d never hurt her like Eva’s father did. His mind drifted back to how he reacted to being told he couldn’t see her for six months. He’d never hurt her again, he amended. Her head dropped back, eyes closed, and lips parted as he caressed her under the silky water. He had been planning to watch her, but this was more fun.
He studied her face as he took her to arousal, and then beyond, making the subtle changes to what he did that would prolong it for her for as long as possible, then when she couldn’t resist any longer she climaxed. Slowly she came back to him.
“Come and join me,” she murmured.
“Right.” Now he wanted to join her. He had a whole fortnight of not fucking to catch up on. He stood up, stripped off, then stepped into the spa bath as ready as she was. “Turn on the jets.” He wanted to see what making love with the water hammering into him from all sides felt like.
He lowered himself into the bath. It didn’t feel too hot. The water bubbled around him. Natalia moved enough to give him room and then hooked her legs over his just as soap bubbles started forming on top of the surface of the water. They multiplied like someone was blowing a bubble pipe. Almost immediately, the bubbles covered the whole surface and started rising higher.
Natalia patted at the pillow of bubbles.
“What did you put in the water, Noah?”
He shrugged. “Bath oil, I thought.” He could just see her face and her knees above the bubbles, and they were still rising. It must have been bloody bubble bath.
“I’ll turn off the jets.” She sat up a little. Now he could see her shoulders above the bubbles, but only just.
“No.” he grabbed her hips and pulled her close, her feet behind his waist. “I’ve never fucked in bubbles before.”
As they moved, the bubbles rose higher around them and tumbled over the edge of the bath onto the tiles.
She held his shoulders and leaned back to take him in deeper.
He felt her nails dig in and she rose up.
They lay quietly in the bath. She leaned into him, and he had his arms around her his chin on the top of her head. The water had cooled. The bubbles had turned to scum. Bath water flooded the floor and their clothes and the towel lay sodden on the tiles. He felt consumed by that sad feeling that sometimes came over him after really great sex.
Maybe that’s why people tended to make love at night, in bed, so they could go to sleep afterwards and avoid feeling like this. Or it could just be the story of why Natalia had to come here to live.
There were a few things about that story that still puzzled him.
“Did the owner of the house live with you and Eva when you were here?” he asked.
She turned in his arms enough to see his face.
“Is that what you’re really asking, Lion?”
He shrugged. He wasn’t sure what he was asking, but there were a few holes in her story.
“You want to know if I fucked him too. Don’t you?”
“Did you?” Did he mind if she had? He wasn’t sure about that either.
She sat up and pulled away from him. Then stood. He watched the water stream down her body.
“Not at first,�
�� she said. “That isn’t why he offered me and my child sanctuary.”
“When?” He watched reach for a dry towel from the pile on a table near the bath. She wrapped it around herself. Then stepped out of the water.
“After a few months. He was a kind man. I was living in his house, and I could see the way he looked at me. It was a way of keeping Eva and myself safe and secure.”
“How old was he?”
“Why do you want to know such things, Lion?” She padded through the bath water on the tiles leaving footprints that closed up behind her almost immediately.
“I’m interested. How old was he?”
She sat at the dressing table and let the towel fall away from her body. She opened the top drawer and took out a hair brush.
“He was my father’s friend. Work it out for yourself.” She slid her hand behind her neck under her hair, collected the mane of hair into a ponytail and started to brush the ends.
He sat up and gripped the edge of the bath and levered himself to standing then climbed out of the bath too.
“Let’s see,” he said. He counted the things she had told him off on his fingers. “Your parents sent to stay with a friend of your father’s. He raped and beat you. You became pregnant and had a baby. You ran away from him, and he threatened to kill you if you didn’t come back. So, your father got another friend of his to bring you here. And it sounds like you paid your rent with your body.”
“That is a very judgemental way to look at it, Noah.” Natalia put the brush down, tipped her head back and ran her fingers through her hair. “Desperate women often make that choice, and I was very young and very frightened. Tomas is a nice man, and he became a father to Eva. It was Tomas who took her to New York. He planned to open another restaurant there and needed to be there while it was being built. Eva went with him, so she could continue her training as violinist. She lives in his home in New York.”
“So, you put Eva in the same precarious position your parents put you in.” He was being judgemental again but couldn’t help it.
Natalia stared at him and then shook her head. “No, Lion. Tomas is Eva’s father in every way that counts. I trust him completely.”
