by Lexy Timms
“Not as beautiful as you,” he said.
She smiled at him shyly and then let out a happy sigh. “It would be so nice to sleep out here tonight. Together. Under the stars.”
He reached for his glass of juice and took a gulp. “Why don’t we?”
“Where on earth would we sleep?” she asked. “I don’t know if sleeping on sand that could get wet is a very safe idea.”
“There are some hammocks out here,” he said. “We could sleep in those.”
Her entire face lit up. “Really? I’ve never slept in a hammock before.”
He chuckled. “An entire luxury villa all to yourself, and you get most excited about sleeping in a hammock.”
“It sounds like fun,” she said. “We can sleep out here by the ocean. Under all these beautiful lights.”
She looked up at the lit palm trees, the smile on her face reaching her bright green eyes.
“Okay,” he said. “When we’re done eating, we can sleep out here for the night.”
After eating, they cleared everything away and headed upstairs to change. Allyson put on a short, silky nightgown while he got into some swim trunks.
As she reached for her handbag, she raised an eyebrow as she looked him up and down. “You’re not seriously going to sleep in that, are you?”
He crossed his arms over his bare chest and looked down at her. “It’s warm out. Besides, if you share a hammock with me you’ll get to sleep next to this all night long.”
Allyson laughed. “In that case, come on.” She grabbed his hand and they headed back down to the beach.
Dane led her to a crowd of palm trees where several hammocks had been attached to trees. Still holding her hand, he helped her onto one of the hammocks and then lay beside her. Wrapping his arm around her, he pulled her close, the hammock swaying underneath them.
She gasped. “Oh wow, this is so much more comfortable than I thought it would be. It’s like floating on air.”
“We got married right there.” He stretched his hand out and pointed down the beach to where they had just picnicked.
Allyson snuggled up to him. The sensation of her soft, warm body was making his blood run hot. “Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.”
“Yes, it is,” he murmured. “How would you like to spend it?”
She bit her lip. “I’d like to spend it trying to get back home before Christmas Day.”
His heart started to pound. Whatever it was that had been troubling her these past few days, the answer was in New York. That was why she was still so focused on going home. That was why she could be back in the place they had gotten married and be barely present.
As much as he wanted to figure out what was going on, starting another argument right now wasn’t going to work. She had promised to tell him the truth. Somehow, that had to be enough. He was determined to trust her. Even if it meant he couldn’t confront her tonight.
Planting a kiss on the top of her head, he said, “I know you’d rather be in New York. But let’s try to get some sleep right now, and focus on getting home in the morning.”
“Thank you for being so understanding,” she said softly. “This can’t be easy for you.”
It wasn’t. But trusting his wife was the right thing to do.
Dane held her close until he slowly drifted off to dreamless sleep.
A loud ringing sound make him jerk awake. He stared down at his wife, still confused by the sound. Allyson stirred beside him, but didn’t open her eyes.
The ringing was coming from inside her handbag, which she had set on the sand under the hammock. Swinging out of the hammock, Dane reached for her bag to retrieve the ringing cell phone. It was probably one of her family members.
Stifling a yawn, he answered the phone. “Good morning.” Night was fading, and the early morning rays of the sun had turned everything into a hazy gold.
“Hello...is Allyson there?” A man’s voice. Not Cameron’s. One he didn’t recognize.
Suspicion made Dane narrow his eyes. “Who’s this?”
“Phillip Beckford,” the man replied, annoyance in his tone. “Could you put Allyson on the phone please?”
Dane sauntered away from the hammock, tension making him clench his fist. “Look, pal, I don’t know who the hell you think you are but I’m her husband. You’re calling a married woman early in the morning.”
“I see,” Phillip muttered. “So, she hasn’t told you. The way I see it, she’s the one who’s been calling me non-stop for the past few days. I understand why she wants to see me so urgently, but there are rules about these sorts of things. This is a very delicate matter, and now that I see she hasn’t told you I’d rather not come between a man and his wife. You understand, don’t you?”
He gritted his teeth in rage. “No, I don’t understand. What hasn’t she told me?”
“Speak to your wife first, and we can discuss this later.” Phillip hung up.
Dane was gripping the cell phone so tightly he thought he might break it. So, she had been unfaithful. Allyson had gone behind his back and betrayed him.
There had been so many betrayals this year. But the one person he had never expected to knife him in the back was her. At least he could trust her. Or so he thought. Now he knew better. What a fool he had been.
Hadn’t his mother warned him? Hadn’t she told him that all Allyson wanted was his money and nothing else? Allyson didn’t love him. How could she when all he had to offer was wealth and status? His wife had probably gotten bored with him.
What was left of his heart squeezed so painfully he thought it might stop beating. The anger was impossible to contain. Underneath the volcanic rage was something else. Humiliation. Shock. Sadness. Never in a million years would he have thought their marriage would turn out this way.
It didn’t matter that she had never loved him. Because he still loved her. Even now that he knew what she had done, he still loved her more than he loved himself.
Despite his love for her he walked away from the beach. Left her behind without a backward glance. Dane didn’t know if he would ever have the heart to sell the villa. All he knew was that he was going to pack his bags. Pack his bags and never come back.
Chapter 11
When Allyson woke up there was no one beside her. For a second she didn’t understand where she was, and she panicked. She sat up suddenly, wobbling on the hammock, but managed to slip out safely onto the soft sand.
Anxiety was making her heart hammer wildly. Dane. Where was Dane? Where was she?
She blinked, the sunlight distorting her vision. Then her surroundings came into focus. Outside. They had fallen asleep together out here. Under the stars.
But her husband was nowhere to be seen. Her bag was still on the sand. Maybe he had gone inside to eat breakfast. She reached into her bag, searching for her phone so she could figure out what time it was.
No phone. Frowning, she grabbed her bag and walked across the beach. Had Dane taken her phone?
Oh crap. The snowstorm. What if something had happened to her family overnight and they had tried to reach her?
Her chest tightened as she raced by the swimming pool and into the villa. “Dane!”
She searched downstairs first, calling out to him. When she realized he wasn’t downstairs, she rushed up to their bedroom.
Allyson flung open the door and inhaled sharply. “What are you doing?”
Dane turned to face her, his blue eyes like ice. “Packing.”
“Are we going back to New York?” she asked. “Has the snowstorm passed?”
“We aren’t doing anything,” he responded. “I’m getting out of here.”
He meant it. Her husband was already dressed in one of his perfectly tailored Italian suits. Ordinarily she would have thought he looked handsome all cleaned up like this, but there was something emanating from him. Something between icy indifference and white-hot rage.
Not only was he immaculately dressed, he was also packing one of his suitcases.
“What’s happened?” Her voice sounded shrill to her. Shrill and desperate.
“You don’t know?” he asked with a snarl. “I find that hard to believe.”
She reached a shaking hand out to him, but he ignored it. Turned his back on her and returned to his packing. “What’s wrong, Dane? You sound...different. Not like yourself.”
“And you haven’t sounded like yourself for weeks,” he said. “I guess now you know how it feels.”
“Please. Speak to me.” She squeezed her eyes shut, doing everything in her power to fight back the tears. Allyson had no idea what was wrong, but she had never seen him like this. There were times when they had argued. Disagreed. Even broken up. But this was different. His anger was so palpable, but it was like he was trying so hard not to let her see it. Trying and failing, because she could see it. She could sense it.
“There’s nothing left to say.” He shut the suitcase. “You got all the money you wanted. Now you and Phillip can go spend it.”
“Phillip?” She blinked in confusion. “Who the hell is Phillip?”
“Phillip Beckford?” Dane turned back to face her. The ice in his eyes had turned into flame. Her husband wasn’t simply angry. He was hurting. There was so much pain and disappointment in his eyes. “I trusted you, Allyson. The only person I trusted more than myself was you. And you played me.”
She pulled her hand away from him and placed it over her stomach. Her insides were churning. This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. Everything was supposed to be perfect. Now her hopes had been dashed. All her plans ruined. “Please don’t jump to any rash conclusions.”
“What other conclusion could I possibly come to?” He glared at her. “You’ve been distracted for weeks. At first, I thought it was work, but work isn’t why you’ve been running off to call strange men. Work isn’t why you disappeared for two hours yesterday without explanation. It isn’t why you’d rather be anywhere else but here with me. Admit it. You used me for my money, and now that you have it you think you can flaunt your relationship with this guy.”
Tears stung her eyes. “How could you believe that? You really think I’m capable of such a thing?”
He stared at her, an expression of pure pain on his face. “Truthfully? I still can’t believe it. The Allyson I know could never do something like this. But you’re the one who told me you had a secret. It can’t be a good secret if it’s been making you act this way.”
“You’re going to leave me?” A painful lump formed in her throat.
“I thought it would be better if I left the villa,” he said. “It’s better for the both of us if we get out of each other’s way. At least until we figure out how to end this.”
“You want a divorce?”
“No,” he said passionately. “I want you. But you don’t want me. I can’t force you to love me—”
“I love you with all my heart and soul,” she blurted out. “I haven’t shown it very well lately, but I love you, Dane. I can’t live without you.”
He took a step towards her. “You love me?”
“More than anything.”
“So, you’re not having an affair?” he asked.
She shook her head and quickly brushed her tears away. “No. I could never do that. Never ever.”
“If you’re not cheating then I’ll stay,” he said. “As long as you love me, I’ll stay.”
“You don’t care that I’m keeping a secret from you?” she asked.
“Of course, I care,” he replied. “But you’re entitled to your secrets. I’ll just have to figure out how to live with it.”
“No,” she said firmly. She had put him through so much pain. This uncertainty wasn’t fair to him. “You don’t. You deserve the truth, Dane.”
He took another step towards her. They were standing so close she could feel the heat of his body.
“What is the truth, Allyson?” he asked.
She placed a hand on top of the hand that was already on her stomach. Her entire body shivered. “I’m pregnant.”
Silence.
The pained expression on his handsome face seemed to melt away right before her eyes. It was like someone had flicked a switch and his entire demeanor changed. The blazing heat in his gaze turned into momentary surprise. And then, tenderness.
“You’re pregnant?” His voice broke with emotion.
His eyes. The look in his eyes. They were so blue. And they were shining. She had never seen them look at her that way. There were tears in his eyes. Actual tears.
“Yes, and—”
The rest of her sentence never came out. Dane pulled her into his arms and hugged her so tightly she didn’t know where her body ended and his began. Then she was spinning and spinning. Her husband had lifted her up and had started spinning her around.
“You’re pregnant!” His strong arms were still holding her in a tight embrace.
For a second she felt nothing but euphoria. And then, as realization hit her, unease settled.
“Dane, wait.”
He stopped spinning her and she squirmed out of his grasp.
He cupped her face between his large hands. “What is it? Have I hurt you? You shouldn’t be standing up like this. Let’s get you into bed.”
She held up her hand. “Dane, I’m pregnant not sick.”
“What’s wrong?” He stared deeply into her eyes, probing down into the depths of her soul.
“I’m not completely sure that I’m pregnant,” she said softly. “That’s why I’ve been so distracted.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think I’m pregnant,” she said. “I took a pregnancy test weeks ago and it was positive. But I needed to be completely sure, so I went to the doctor to take a blood test. I was supposed to have gotten the results yesterday, but the snowstorm made that impossible.”
“That’s why you wanted to get back to New York so badly yesterday,” he said.
She nodded. “I missed my appointment because of the snowstorm. That’s why I took off without an explanation yesterday. I went into town to find a pharmacy. Then I came back here and took, like, five pregnancy tests. They were all positive. Five pregnancy tests can’t be wrong, can they?”
“I don’t see how they could be.” Dane released her face, then took her hand and led her to the bed. He motioned for her to sit and she sank down onto the soft mattress beside him.
“So, who is Phillip Beckford?” Dane asked.
“Dr. Phillip Beckford. My doctor,” she said. “He called?”
Her husband nodded. “Yes. He said you’ve been calling him a lot and he wanted you to call him back.”
“I’ve been calling him because I know he has my test results,” she said. “I want to know for sure, but he refuses to tell me over the phone. He can only tell me in person, and until I get back to New York I can’t know for sure. I’ve probably been driving him crazy with all my calls and texts.” She sighed in frustration. “I just wish he would tell me so that I can finally know for sure.”
He held her hand and squeezed it gently. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why keep it a secret?”
“Because I wanted it to be a surprise,” she said. “It was supposed to have been your Christmas present, but not knowing for sure has made things so much more complicated.”
“Allyson, this is the greatest gift I’ve ever gotten,” he said.
“And that’s what scares me.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “I wanted to know for sure, so I didn’t give you any false hope. I’ve already fallen in love with this baby. I want this baby so badly that I don’t know what I’ll do if it turns out I’m not pregnant. Or if it turns out that I was pregnant but ended up losing it since it’s in the early stages, and I’ve still been waiting for the test results. I’m afraid of getting my heart broken. That’s why I didn’t want to tell you until I got my results back from the doctor. I didn’t want you to be heartbroken if something bad happened.”
His hand skimmed up her arm, caressing it as if he
was touching her skin for the first time. Then he brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. Then he kissed it again. And again. “I love you, Allyson,” he said. “I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.”
When he looked up at her once more, his eyes were shining with tears again. He cleared his throat. “You are the bravest person I’ve ever met. You’ve been carrying all this turmoil inside for so long all by yourself. Unless...” He paused, as if realization had just dawned on him. “Cameron knows, doesn’t he?”
She shook her head. “No. He set up the appointment for me, so he knows I have some medical issue. But he has no idea what the issue is. I suspect he thinks I’m seriously ill, which is why he’s been so worried about me. I was afraid you’d be angry that he knew something before you did. Even if he didn’t know the whole story, I was scared that I was betraying you.”
“That’s why he’s been looking at you like that,” he said. “I thought it was because he had a crush on you or something. Allyson, it wasn’t a betrayal. You were just trying to do what you thought was right.”
Her eyes widened. “You really think Cameron has a crush? On me? I’m pretty sure everyone at Prescott knows that Cameron has a thing for Nadia Nakamura, not me.”
He laughed. “So, Cameron has a crush on our star snowboarder. That’s why he was so enthusiastic about the winter sports show. I thought it was because he had a crush on you, when the whole time he wanted to get closer to Nadia.”
“Nadia has a thing for him, too,” she said. “She’s been trying to work up the courage to give him her number.”
“But why are you still so focused on getting home for Christmas Day?” Dane asked. “You’ve already missed your appointment. Without your appointment, you couldn’t have given me the news as a Christmas gift.”
Allyson sighed. All the weeks of building tension were weighing on her shoulders. “I wanted to prove that I could be a good mom. If I could handle having a job, being a wife, and being a good hostess this Christmas, then that meant I had what it took to be a mother. I really wanted to prove that I could do it all on my own. Prove that I could be there for my family. If we’re going to be adding to our family, I need to be ready. And it looks like I’m not. I can’t even pull off a Christmas dinner.”
