A Sanctuary for Elle (8 page)

She startled as a deep voice murmured, 'You can come in if you like, Elle.'

Elle squared her shoulders and strutted in, her heel
s giving her extra height and confidence.  'What are you doing here, Mark?  I thought I told you to stay away.'

'Why are you always asking me what?  Why are you here?  What are you doing?  I would have thought it plainly obvious. I'm settling in.'

'You're
what?!'

'I'm settling in.  To my house.  Getting comfortable, you know, that sort of thing.'

'Hang on, your house?  What do you mean YOUR house?'

'I mean mine, my house.  My house.'

A horrible feeling coursed through Elle as she struggled to comprehend wha
t he was clearly telling her.  Surely he didn't mean that he had bought the house.  He must mean for his work. Surely.  Well, maybe?

'Mark, did you buy this house or did Mark-Anthony and Co Property's buy this house?'

Mark smiled, a satisfied expression filling his face.  'I bought this house Elle. I alone.  Its not for the company, its for me.  To live in.  To settle.'

'Don't you have another house you could settle in?' Elle spat out.

'No I don't.  For a property man,
you'll probably be surprised when I tell you that this is my first personal buy.  My first house.  And it's a beauty!' He spread his hands behind his head and linked them, leaning back and chuckling at his own words.

Elle saw nothing remotely funny about i
t.  'I am not living next door to you! Are you insane! I told you I never want to see you again, I explain how I'm disgusted with your methods and you do this! What on earth possessed you?  I don't want you here!'

'Well, Elle.  Thing is, its not for you to
decide. You're kinda stuck with me.  This is my house, that over there is your house.  Looks like we're neighbours, sweetheart.'

The endearment did nothing to dampen Elle's anger.  She huffed an exasperated breath out noisily and turned to stalk away.

Bef
ore she could reach the door she suddenly felt a strong male hand circle around her wrist.  Mark pulled Elle around to face him with a tug on her arm.  She found herself thrown close up to Mark's chest.  Ready to argue her fury with him she lifted the eye
s
to his and found desire on his face.  Clearly evident, he was staring at her with an intensity that took the her words away.  He lowered his head and Elle felt herself incapable of doing anything to stop him, didn't want to stop him.  His mouth captured
h
ers and delved.  No gentle kiss today, he plundered her, all the pent up emotion and frustration he had been experiencing coming out in waves of passion.  He slanted his mouth across her and let his tongue find hers.  Elle responded instinctively, opened
h
er mouth and meeting his demands with her own.  They held each other tight, arms wrapped around each other.  Elle found herself swept away with his passion, oblivious to everything apart from the feeling of his lips on hers, exploring and arousing and cre
a
ting such sweet sensations in her.

Mark was in heaven. She tasted incredible.  He felt himself grow hard as she moved her lips with his.  He had never felt this magnet-like attraction with any other woman.  He moved his hand to cup her breast and felt Ell
e start beneath him.  Elle dragged her mouth from his and pushed his hand away.

'What am I doing?' she exclaimed to herself, lips swollen and pink.  Mark watched her battle with herself his gaze riveted still to her lips.  'I need to leave, and I'd appreci
ate you not doing that again. I'm still annoyed with you, you know?' Elle was confused.  He was someone to hate wasn't he? And yet, when he had kissed her... It was just too much.  She needed to think.  Elle backed up and then turned and fled to the front
door.

As she headed down the path away from the handsome devil she heard him call, ' See you again soon.  Neighbour.'

Elle didn't acknowledge his comment but instead rolled her eyes and carried on.  Neighbour indeed.  What was he doing? What were his plans
? Buying it for himself made no sense to Elle, he surely had ulterior motives.  Be probably planned on being close to so that he could convince her to sell.  The more she thought about it, the more it made sense.  Maybe he thought kissing her would make h
e
r more willing to submit to his plans.  Well, there was no way he was ever buying her house or The Sanctuary.  No, she felt at home here and no-one was going to take that away from her.  Not even that dark, delicious devil Mark.

The following morning Elle
was still stewing over her newly acquired neighbour.  The more she thought about it, the more she grew annoyed with the fact that he had invaded her territory and also felt he could grab her and kiss her whenever he felt like it.  Well, maybe he needed a
b
it of a lesson when it came to how he could treat her.  She was not going to just put up with his games. 

Elle decided she would try and ignore him for a bit.  Give him a bit of the silent treatment.  She would pretend he wasn't there and get on with the
rebuild of Sanctuary.  Elle busied herself in the front garden, finishing off the flower beds she had been working on.  At 8am Mark emerged in his suit and headed down the garden path.  'Good morning Elle!' he called out cheerfully.  Elle looked his way a
n
d gave him her most glowering stare.  He stopped and planted his hands on his hips.  'Still mad eh? Are you seriously not going to talk to me?'  Elle ignored him and carried on planting the Cosmos plants she had bought.  Mark walked down to the end of his
path and over to where Elle was kneeling.  'You can't ignore me forever you know.  Sooner or later you're going to have to talk to me.  Like it or not, there's something between us neither one of us can ignore.  We will talk Elle but I will give you some
s
pace until you're ready.

With that, Mark walked off down the path and climbed into his car.  He rumbled down the gravel path and then shot off down the road.

Elle released the breath she had been holding. Damn, insufferable man! But what made her more furi
ous was that he was right.  There was something between them, she realised that.  Try as she might to ignore it though, it was always there.  She felt it every time they were in the same room.  Some kind of electricity, a magnetic force drawing her to him.
  She wanted to stay cross with him.  For her grandmother's sake.  A little voice told her that maybe she should hear him out though.  Oh well, he was gone for the day now so she could get on with her plans.  She finished planting the final Cosmos and wen
t
back inside. 

Chapter 8

Elle went to her handbag and searched for the A4 envelope which contained the deeds to 'The Sanctuary' and the keys.  She fished out the keys and decided to face her past.

Elle had been almost putting this moment off.  She was a
little nervous about seeing the inside of The Sanctuary again.  She knew it would bring back so many memories and make her think of her beloved Grandmother.  She had been just about holding herself together but to be back inside the grand hotel, the plac
e
where Elle had first lived with her Grandmother was going to effect her.

Elle was also feeling a little overwhelmed at the project that was ahead of her.  In theory it was great, he would restore The Sanctuary back to its former glory.  But in practice, h
ow did she actually do that?  She had no experience with that kind of thing, had no idea about how to do the work involved.  But this was a new chapter of her life she reminded herself.  Time for new experiences, learning how to do new things.  A little m
o
re confident, Elle headed out the front door.  Elle wandered over slowly, drinking in the view of the house.  It really was magnificent she thought, its large stone structure decorative and attractive.  And the backdrop.  Well, just stunning.  The hotel n
e
stled on the gentle rise of the hill, if you walked  another 100 metres down the hill, you were led to a cliff which overlooked the sea.  The sea curved around to form a bay, a beautiful, picturesque inlet. 

Elle breathed in the fresh sea air.  The wind l
ifted her hair and he shook it away from her face.  She really was lucky she thought.  Who else could claim this beautiful place as their inheritance? 

Elle reached the large, ornate door of The Sanctuary.  It was almost twice her height and flanked by tw
o white pillars either side, reminiscent of Ancient Rome.  The door was painted a deep maroon red.  The paint was peeling and looked in urgent need of a new coat.  Elle pushed the large key and heard the tell tale click that told her it had unlocked.  Ell
e
pushed the door forward and both doors swung aside.

Elle's breath caught as the magnificent reception area stood before her.  She was suddenly thrown back to when she was a child and the first time she had ever stood in this place.  Her grandmother had le
d her in the front door and she had stood, still as a statue, taking in the her new surroundings.  From the door, a huge, high ceiling room stood before her, marble floors with more stone pillars standing proudly at the sides.  A large desk stood a little
way ahead with the reception facilities for guests to check in.  behind the desk was the most beautiful staircase Elle had ever seen.  The base began at both sides and wound its way up to meet at the middle so a little balcony.  The stairs were wide and l
i
ned with red carpet.  The hand rail were a beautiful wooden design with carvings swirled into the ends.  The balcony overlooked reception and the marble expanse that created the front of the hotel.  From the balcony the stairs converged on a landing which
then led upwards to the first floor.  Elle remembered dressing up as a child in her grandmother's gowns, traipsing down those steps pretending she was a princess or a queen or sometimes a fairy godmother. She had had a wild imagination and loved making up
stories with herself as the main character.

Elle brought herself back to reality and walked over to the front desk.  Nothing stood there now apart from the oak carved wooden desk.  It was still beautiful and wouldn't require much to restore it to its form
er use.  Elle pulled the pad and pen from her pocket and made a few notes as to what she would need along the way.  She wrote, computer, front desk.  This would remind her what she would need to buy. 

Elle slowly walked up the stairs on one side, paused a
t the balcony and looked out at the front of the building.  She wrote down painter, electrician.  She would employ painters to re-coat the walls and building, it was far too huge a job to conceive of herself.  It was a dingy colour too, the lack of light
c
ausing shadows. She would need an electrician to check the electrics were safe and secure and to connect it all again.  She doubted the electrics had been used for some time.

Elle turned and walked up the next set up steps to the second landing.  She then
headed left where the rooms began.  She opened the door to the first and saw a traditional room with only a double bed base in it.  The walls needed a paint and it needed some furniture.  The en-suite bathroom still looked as she remembered.  It would no
t
need much to restore, its beauty lay in its traditional, old fashioned design.  She wrote down, paint rooms, furniture, showers installed? And plumber.  She would require a plumber to get the water running again, something she noted was not happening as
s
he turned the tap on and nothing happened.  The plumber could also install showers into the various bathrooms, a luxury guests would like she thought. Baths were not always everyone's cup of tea these days, despite how much Elle enjoyed a long, luxurious
s
lumber in a bath.  No, there were days when only a shower would do. 

Elle walked from room to room.  She found it was the same things that would need doing.  The rooms needed painting, the painters she employed could do that.  They needed some additional furniture, Elle could do that online and get some items delivered.  T
h
ey also needed a little bit of decoration, some paintings, some flowers, some little touches to add a little something extra to them.  Maybe the paintings could come from local painters she thought, scenes from around North Wales as the scenery was so bea
u
tiful.

The bathrooms would need work doing so she would need to employ several plumbers to get started on upgrading them a little.  And the electrician she reminded herself.  She had a few phone calls to make.

Elle decided to head on upstairs to the private quarters her grandmother had held at the top of the house.  The second floor had originally been the attic.  When her grandmother had first run The Sanctuary she had lived and worked in the building.  The tw
o
houses next door had not existed, they had been built once The Sanctuary had become successful and had yielded a good return.

Her grandmother had turned the attic space into a living room, bedroom and adjoining bathroom.  When Elle had arrived, her grandm
other had redesigned again so that Elle had a little room, just off the living room.  It had been small but cosy and they had lived together very happily.  This was their little sanctuary, away from the hustle and bustle of the hotel.  Elle had spent hour
s
of happiness up in her little hideaway. She had imagined herself as Rapunzel, up in her tower and had often put her braided her hair out of the window and hoped for a handsome prince to climb up it and save her.