by Alyssia Leon
Nathan was here.
Nathan.
Looking like her every fantasy in his tailored black overcoat, dark suit, and light grey dress shirt a shade darker than his silver eyes. But those eyes that stared back at her looked tired, his features haggard, and his thick dark hair was tousled as if he’d run his fingers through it countless times.
The investor meeting, had it not gone well? Was that why he looked so worried?
Her first response was to reach out and soothe him, and her hand rose halfway before self preservation kicked in and she snatched it back. She was the last person he’d come to if something was wrong. They weren’t that sort of close. What had it been between them? Sex. That was it. Just sex.
Folding her arms across her chest, she glared at him. “What are you doing here, Nathan?”
“Yeah, Just what are you doing here, Travers?” Bill came to stand beside her in the doorway, his crossed arm pose mirroring her own.
Lisa pushed her head through between them and goggled at Nathan.
Nathan’s dispassionate gaze flicked over all of them before coming back to rest on Aura. “Aura, We need to talk.”
“Really? I can’t think about what.” She clenched her jaw and stared at him mutinously.
Bill uncrossed his arms, moving into an unconsciously aggressive stance. “She doesn’t have to give you the time of day if she doesn’t want to.”
Nathan shot him a warning look, his silver eyes narrowing to glittering shards. “When I need your opinion, Bill, I’ll ask for it.”
Setting his jaw, Bill took a quick step out of the apartment towards Nathan, and Lisa who’d been leaning against him fell forward with a yelp, only saved from face-planting on the concrete floor by Gary doing a flying grab from behind her.
Nathan hadn’t moved an inch, his haughty gaze steady on Bill, and Aura rushed in between the two of them.
“Fine. We’ll talk,” she said to Nathan.
Bill frowned. “Aura, You don’t need to—”
“I do. I need to. It’s all right, Bill.”
The look she gave him spoke volumes, and with a shake of his head he stepped back, his eyes understanding. “If you need anything, we’re here,” he murmured.
She shot him a grateful smile and nodded, then turned back to Nathan. “We’ll talk downstairs.”
He inclined his head in agreement. “After you.”
With a last glance at her staring friends, she moved past him and went downstairs as he followed.
By the time they silently descended the three flights of stairs to reach the ground floor foyer, the chill in the evening air was biting into her. She wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed her bare skin below the short sleeves of her green t-shirt.
“Here, put this on,” Nathan said from behind her.
He shrugged off his overcoat and draped the warm heavy garment over her shoulders. It swamped her, and enveloped her in the oh-so-familiar wood and musk scent of him.
Bittersweet memories surfaced. The feel of him against her skin. His mouth against hers. Things they’d never have again, and she moved to take off the coat. “Thanks, but I’m fine.”
His impatient hand stayed her. “Keep it on, Aura, or you’ll freeze.” And he pulled the coat tighter around her.
“Look. What is it you wanted to talk about, Nathan?”
He glanced past her to the stairs where a young couple were coming down. They nodded at her and Nathan in friendly greeting before exiting the building.
“Not here,” he said. “My car’s outside. I can… take you home. We’ll talk on the way.”
Well, she might as well go home. She couldn’t talk to Nathan and then return to Lisa’s apartment as if nothing had happened. She wasn’t looking forward to answering her friends’ questions, not when all she’d want to do once he left her was curl up in her bed and cry her eyes out. At least back home, she’d be alone.
With a resigned nod she followed him out of the building to the car park.
The black Bentley was parked in one of the bays and George was leaning against it, waiting for them. He smiled and opened the back door for her as Nathan went around the other side.
Once seated in the warm interior, she let Nathan’s coat drop from her shoulders. It kept the delicious scent and touch of him far too close for comfort. She squeezed back into her corner, keeping as far from him and his distracting, overpowering masculinity as possible. Ten minutes. She could hold herself together for the ten minutes it took to get to her house. She could listen to whatever he had to say knowing she had a quick getaway.
George took his place in the driver’s seat and locked eyes with Nathan through the rear-view mirror. “Sir?”
Nathan nodded and pressed the button for the privacy glass, sealing Aura and himself in the spacious back portion of the car. The car pulled out of the bay and he turned to her. “I never apologized, and I wanted to—”
“Forget it.” She frowned at him, her cheeks burning as anger lanced through her.
So he’d come for this. He’d come all the way to Yorkshire so he could apologize and make himself feel better for the way he’d treated her.
His huff of laughter was short and mirthless. “This isn’t easy for me, Aura. I don’t usually place myself in a position where I need to beg forgiveness.”
“No, of course not. You usually don’t feel the need to apologize, no matter what you do.”
“But with you, I do. It hurts me to think I might have hurt you.”
“Not might, Nathan. You did hurt me.”
“Christ! I can’t even do this right.” He shook his head and turned away from her to stare out of his car window.
He looked so lost. Nathan, who was always so sure of himself, looked like he didn’t know what to say next. Well, now she knew what he was here for. He wanted to apologize. He wanted a clean break.
And she wanted his love forever.
Those two worlds were never going to meet. What they both truly needed was to end this whole sorry episode, tie it with a bow, and go their separate ways.
She reached out and placed a placating hand on his arm. “It wasn’t all your fault, Nathan. I’ve been following you around like a lost puppy for years and throwing myself in your path ever since I was old enough to be a nuisance. For what it’s worth, you handled me fine all those times.”
“No, I didn’t.” He looked at her, his eyes hard. “I treated you like dirt most of the time, and then at that wedding I jumped to conclusions because I thought… I couldn’t see past my own rage and jealousy.”
Her breath caught. “You were jealous?”
“I’ve always been jealous about you, Aura. No, make that possessive. To see you with another man tears me up inside. It’s not a feeling I’ve ever had for another woman and it scared me, even when I was a teenager. So I chose to have nothing to do with you.”
“But, if you’d only said…”
He shook his head. “I was a coward, wasn’t I? I even went so far as to date women as different from you as possible. Dark hair always brought up too many memories of you. It was easier to stay away than question what I was feeling. ”
She stared at him, her eyes wide. “Wh–what were you feeling?”
“That you were a part of me.” A small smile touched his lips. “Even when you were ten and I saw you for the first time. It was crazy and I refused to accept it then.”
“And now?” she whispered.
He laughed. “I thought I was being smart. I thought if I had you, I’d be rid of this constant craving for you. It’s why I came to Langley. It had nothing to do with the accident.”
Budding hope withered in her heart and she looked down, clasping her hands in her lap. So that was what their brief relationship had been about.
He placed his fingers under her chin and tilted her face up so she was looking into his intent silver eyes. “It didn’t work, Aura. If anything, you’ve burrowed even deeper into me. So deep now that I can never let you go.”
/>
“But… you only asked me to marry you because you thought I might be pregnant.” She fought back tears.
He grinned. “I want us to have babies, lots of them, and I hope to be a good father to them, but I need you more. I’ve come to realize that I’ve been adrift all these years, and it’s only when I’m near you that I feel like I’m truly home. I want your smiles and your laughter, and I want to be the one to wipe away your tears.” He gently thumbed away one tear that had escaped her at his words.
She smiled “Nathan…”
His eyes held hers, the shine of uncertainty still in them. “Be mine, Aura. Tell me you’ll marry me.”
“Yes. Oh, yes.”
With a ragged groan, he pulled her to him, crushing her against his solid body as he took her mouth in a kiss that claimed her absolutely as his.
She revelled in it, her heart near bursting with joy as she opened up to him and gave him everything she was.
She could have stayed in his arms for all eternity, but too soon he pulled away. Pressing her hands into the warmth of his chest over his shirt, she stared up at him uncertainly. He smiled down at her and placed another kiss on her lips. Then he reached into his inside jacket pocket and taking out a royal blue jeweller’s box, opened it.
She stared wide-eyed at the solitaire cushion-cut emerald surrounded by a sparkling halo of diamonds.
“It’s a platinum aura ring,” he murmured. “It reminded me of you.”
“Nathan, it’s beautiful,” she breathed.
He slipped it on to her finger, and brought her hand to his lips. Then raising his head, he grinned. “We’re here.”
The car had stopped and she looked out the window as George came to open her door. “Nathan, where are we?”
He merely smiled and opening his door, stepped out.
Frowning, she gathered up his coat and wrapping it around her shoulders, stepped out of the car on to the tarmac of an airport.
A white mid-size jet stood waiting to one side of the Bentley, its air-stairs down.
Nathan came to her and slipped an arm around her waist. “I told you I’d take you home, and from now on that’s with me, wherever I may be.”
She stared at him incredulously. “And if I’d said no?”
“Then I’d have had to persuade you.” He grinned. “I can be quite persuasive.”
She laughed at his self-satisfied expression, and he caught her to him, dipping her into a kiss that stole her breath. Her cheeks flamed when he finally let her up.
“I need to get you home,” he growled. “I’ve been going crazy with not being able to hold you.” He herded her towards the airplane where a uniformed flight attendant was waiting at the top of the stairs.
She showed them to a plush, cream leather two-seater in the middle of the plane. A polished dark wood coffee table stood in front of it with a tall vase of red roses on one side. The interior was more like a luxury living room than a plane, with another cream couch opposite theirs and a row of matching armchairs behind.
Her first time on a plane, and Aura sat down and stared at the beautiful cream and gold decor, not noticing until after the fact that Nathan had buckled her in.
The flight attendant left after telling them it was an hour and a half to London, and she’d be serving their meal once they were airborne.
As soon as they were alone, Nathan put an arm around her and placed a kiss on her curls as she rested her head on his shoulder. “I still need to apologize,” he murmured into her hair.
She looked up at him with questioning eyes.
“For being a fool and putting us through all this in the first place.” He stroked her cheek with his finger. “I never knew what love was growing up, or at least, I thought I didn’t. I was scared that if I ever got too close to someone, I’d lose them, so I refused to love. But you, my darling, loved enough for both of us, and for that I’m grateful beyond words.”
The plane taxied down the runway and she stared at him, her heart in her eyes. “I was always waiting for you, Nathan. It was only you. No one else could have taken your place in my heart, though…” She gave a cheeky smile. “I might have tried…”
His eyebrows rose. “Bill?”
She nodded.
“Thank god I came to my senses in time,” he said with a shake of his head. “Though actually, I have your mother to thank for that.”
“Mum? What did she say to you?”
He chuckled, and the sound vibrated through her body, warming her. “Plenty. But ask her for yourself. She’s waiting for us in London.” He examined the ring on her finger. “I think she’ll be pleased with how things have turned out.”
She laughed. “You have Mum waiting in London? You really weren’t going to take no for an answer were you?”
“No, my darling, I was not.”
And he claimed her mouth in a soft, searching kiss as the plane took flight, and she pressed herself to him, happy to be anywhere in this world, as long as she was with him.
Epilogue
Two Years Later
“Aura, you’re on.” One of the London Fashion Week assistants indicated for her to go on stage.
Aura ran a nervous hand over her curve-hugging, knee-length red dress and stepped out from the wings. The bright lights of the catwalk briefly dazzled her, but even before her eyes adjusted, the entire marquee erupted into applause.
The tall models in her jewel-coloured creations, gathered either side of her and accompanied her down the distance of the catwalk as she beamed and waved to the dimmed out rows where the audience sat.
It had taken two years, but finally her brand ‘Aurora’ was on the international stage.
She stopped at the end of the catwalk and squinted into the darkened crowd around her. Only the front rows were visible in the glaring spotlights overhead, and her eyes sought out familiar faces among the celebrities, journalists, and photographers seated there, but came up empty.
A huge bunch of red roses was passed up from the audience and a willowy blonde model beside her bent down and taking it, presented it to her.
Aura smiled, clutching the blooms close. Valentine’s Day had passed, but it was still February and she’d received an even bigger bunch of red roses just weeks ago, Nathan having decided he’d keep that little tradition going every year.
With a final wave, she turned and accompanied the models backstage, and was immediately grabbed in a bear hug.
“You were fantastic. The dresses. Everyone loved them. I told you you’d be famous, didn’t I?” Lisa bounced up and down with excitement.
With a laugh, Aura placed the flowers down and hugged her back. “You’re always right. Where are the others?”
“Right here.” Bill approached from the entrance to the audience seats, his arm around a lovely tall redhead who could easily have joined the ranks of the models there that day. “Congrats, Aura.”
He placed a kiss on her cheek, and his girlfriend Ellen did the same just as Gary followed Bill in backstage. He held a boisterous Jason by one hand and cradled his and Lisa’s year old baby daughter, Grace, up against his shoulder. He was chatting to Andy and Jasmine, whose little girl, Bella, ran up and tugged at Jason’s free hand, trying to get him to break away from Gary and go explore the colourful sparkling dresses hung up on racks all around the backstage area.
Aura let herself be swept up in her friends’ embraces and congratulations.
Bill glanced at the double doors leading outside through which groups of people were heading out. “Come on. We don’t want to miss the spread next door.”
Lisa took Grace from Gary. “God, I hope it’s nothing airy-fairy like lettuce with carrot shavings. I need something with more meat on it.”
“You’re in luck,” Aura said. “It’s us Brit designers showing today, so the caterers have gone with something more homely. You’ve got yummy things like top-hat chicken pie, and pink eggs and soldiers to look forward to.”
Bill pulled a face. “Mmm, pink eggs. P
erfect for whetting a man’s appetite.”
“Where’s Bella?” Jasmine asked, tugging Andy’s arm.
“And Jason,” Gary said, looking around his feet.
Ellen laughed, leaning into Bill. “They ran off to check out those wedding dresses over there.”
Andy shot Gary a wry look, and the two of them strode off together to gather up their wayward offspring.
“Coming, Aura?” Lisa nodded towards the double doors as Aura scanned the crowd leaving the backstage area.
“In a bit. You lot go on ahead.”
Lisa shot her an understanding smile and left with the others in the direction Andy and Gary had gone.
Just then, the crowds leaving through the double doors parted almost reverentially as a tall, dark haired man in jeans, black sweater, and a black fitted overcoat entered the backstage area.
Aura smiled at him and his silver eyes lit up, and the little black-haired boy in his arms turned and grinned on seeing her.
Nathan came and placed a lingering kiss on her lips. “Sorry we couldn’t stay till the end, but this little one here decided to get fussy as soon as he saw you on stage.”
She laughed and held her hands out to their fifteen-month-old son. Aidan jumped to her from Nathan’s arms, his silver-grey eyes, so like his father’s, gazing adoringly up into hers. She wrapped her arms around him and pressed a kiss to his chubby cheek.
“He’s probably sleepy too. It’s been a long day.” Her mother came up from behind Nathan and tousled Aidan’s black curls. “Your show was wonderful, love.” She hugged Aura.
“Thanks, Mum.”
“Why don’t you give him to me? George will take us home, and I’ll put the little one to bed.”
“You don’t mind?”
“Of course not. I’ve had my fill of crowds for the day.”
Aidan went to his grandmother without any fuss, settling with his head on her shoulder as she cooed to him.
Aura smiled as her mother walked away. George would look after her. They thought no one knew, but they’d been taking it slow and getting closer every day. She’d have to let her mother know that everyone was just dying for them to name the day already.
