Heart in the Field (24 page)

           
He sat down on the side of the bed
and reached over to touch her hand. She felt the movement and her eyelids
flickered, and she smiled, her teeth pressing into her bottom lip. “What’s
happening?”

           
“I took a shower. You’d better as
well. Then maybe we should have some dinner.”

           
“I don’t want to leave here.”

           
“Me neither. Shall we stay the
night?”

           
“I’d like that.” She scraped her
hair away from her face with her hand. “This has been wonderful. You were
right. Great sex is an answer. However, it’s all still there waiting afterward.
So, if afterward doesn’t have to come until Sunday, then that’s all the
better.”

           
“I understand.”

           
“I’m not sure if you do.”

           
“Well, I do. I was a lonely kid. My
parents were old and sent me off to boarding school when I was pretty young.
Summers it was camp. They wanted to be by themselves, and I respect that.
Except I also believe they took on a responsibility when they had me, and they
didn’t really acknowledge it. They gave me the physical comforts, but
emotionally they left me out.” He made a face. “And that’s truth time for me.”

           
“Do you get along with your
parents?”

           
“Merely on a
superficial level.”
He wished he hadn’t started this conversation, but
felt that it was time to tell someone, and that someone was Serena. There was
no question she was the right person to tell. He rubbed his hand over his naked
thigh. “I was in the way, I was sent away, so I chose a career that kept me
away.”

           
“Then why bother coming back?’

           
“Because they’re old, not in very
good health, and they need help, and one side of me feels responsible for them.
I think I might be hoping to salvage something of the past and bring it into
the present, so my memories of them are now, not then.” He glanced at her.
“Heavy stuff, huh?”

           
“So that’s why you’re home?”

           
“That’s why I’m home. Hopefully by
the time my contract is up I can persuade my parents they should move to more
comfortable digs and I can be satisfied at leaving them.” At that time he’d
also have to leave Serena. That thought didn’t sit well with him at all.

           
“They don’t want to move?”

           
“No. They’re being stubborn.”

           
“Like you,” she whispered with a
little smile. She reached up to him to caress his jaw. “You get a stubborn,
little-boy look sometimes.”

           
Feeling warm inside that she’d
noticed that about him, he clasped her fingers with his. “I suppose I inherited
that.”

           
“So where do your parents live now?”

           
“Above my father’s
jewelry store.”

           
“He still works?”

           
“No. He’s had some heart attacks, so
he hires a guy to clean watches, which is his only business now.”

           
She squeezed his fingers. “I would
never have guessed your reason for coming home.”

           
“Why? Because you think I’m cold and
unfeeling?”

           
“Yes.
To be
honest.”

           
“I’ve had to be that way, Serena.
It’s kept me sane.”

           
“I know. I’m the same way.”

           
“I figured that.” He leaned down to
kiss her mouth. Her lips were soft beneath his and he felt a slow moving heat
flood his body. This was more than mere
sex,
it was
for everything she gave him.

He tucked himself beneath the covers with her. Their
mouths fastened together once more and their bodies clamored into an embrace.
He went into her with no thought of anything other than she was beginning to
feel lovely and familiar. Later, when she knelt before him, melted into a
fusion of sexual euphoria, Nick wasn’t sure how he was going to feel about all
this tomorrow.

•

           
“What’s the time?” Serena whispered
through the dark. Her hands reached out to touch Nick and she drew herself
closer to him. Outside the street was now quiet in the dense darkness.

           
She felt him stretch out for his
watch. He squinted into the face.
“Midnight.”

           
“Appropriate,” she whispered. “I was
always awake at midnight when I was a child. I never slept very well.”

           
He replaced the watch on the bedside
table and lay beside her. “So do you prefer working evenings instead of days?”

           
“It’s okay.” She thought he seemed a
little withdrawn now. They had finished making love the last time about an hour
ago. They’d been sleeping on and off. In between she’d been thinking about how
she was going to reconcile this weekend into her life.

           
She stroked his shoulder. “Are you
tired?”

           
He glanced at her and she saw his
teeth flash white.
“A little.”
He eased over beside
her and took her into his arms. “Let’s try and get some sleep.”

           
Serena supposed she did sleep,
because she awoke to the smell of fresh coffee and the clinking of cups.

           
Nick was wearing unsnapped unbelted
jeans and his shirt open overtop.
“Room service.
Aren’t you starving? We forgot to go for dinner.”

           
“We ate a good lunch,” she said. It
was daylight now. Sunlight flickered behind the blinds.

           
“Almost a day ago,” he said. “Okay.
This is the menu. Coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice, warm croissants, butter,
marmalade, scrambled eggs, hash browns that look like chips, you know me and
chips.”

           
She laughed. “It sounds delicious.
I’ll get some clothes on.”

           
“No need.” He lifted a thick terry
robe from the end of the bed. “Complimentary. Slip into this.”

           
She rose from the bed, aware of her
nakedness and slight cool air of the room caressing her flesh. Behind her, Nick
slipped her into the terry robe and he leaned over her, kissing her nape and
tying the belt at the same time. Then he ran his hands down her hips, and she
could feel him pressed against her, and she felt the same honey-damp heat
invade her that had been her constant companion for the night.

           
But she moved away from him and
teased. “Let’s eat first.”

           
They sat in armchairs either side of
a small circular table and made short work of the food. They lingered over
coffee and when her cup was empty Serena stood up. “I think I’ll go for a
shower.”

           
Nick also rose. “Not so fast.”

           
She placed her head to one side.
“What do you want?”

           
He came closer. “What do you think I
want?”

           
She made her eyes big. “Not that
again?”

           
“Yes, that again.”

           
She untied the robe and shrugged it
from her shoulders. Naked, she walked to the bed and sat down on the edge.
“Come here.”

           
He undressed and came to her,
aroused. She took him in again, wondering, now that she was wound up, how she
would ever wind down?

           
When she finally went to her shower,
she still felt restless with lust.

           
“One last condom,” Nick said, poking
his head around the shower curtain where she was standing, lathered beneath the
pounding hot shower. He climbed in with her.
“Shame to waste
it.”

•

           
Holding hands, they strolled through
the bright sunlight to the van. Serena felt well loved, and wondered why she
had never tried anything like this before. Maybe Nick was right. Maybe she
could just go for the moment and leave unscathed at the end.
Except,
when she looked at him, she felt great surges of love for him.
She
squeezed his fingers.

           
He grinned at her. “It was
fantastic, Serena.
Really fantastic.”

           
She rubbed her arm against his.
“Does that mean it was better than great sex?”

           
He gave her fingers a return
squeeze. “Sure does.”

           
“Greater than
greater sex?”

           
“Wondrous sex.
Perfect sex.”

           
She left it at that. At least she
was with him. If she was lucky, she had six months to look forward to, maybe even
eight.

           
Nick swore and leaned over, pulling
a ticket from beneath the windshield wiper. He didn’t bother looking at it. “I
should have moved the van behind the hotel once we’d checked in.”

           
“It’s okay. Steel will pay it. Just
put it in with your expenses.”

           
“But it was parked all night.
Someone might guess what we were doing.” He pocketed the ticket. “I’ll pay for
it myself.”

           
“Don’t tell me you have a sense of
decency?”

           
He gave her a grave look. “Of course
I do.
Especially with you.
You wouldn’t have gone to
that hotel room with just anyone.”

           
Was it so obvious she was the type
of woman who had to be in love with her man to make love with him? She tried to
make light of his comment so he wouldn’t guess.
“Oh, yeah?”

           
“Don’t fool with me, Serena.” He patted
the pocket containing the ticket. “I don’t like this.”

           
She didn’t think there was much to
worry about but she didn’t say any more about it. Nick was holding open the
door of the van for her, so she climbed in. He tucked himself in beside her and
started the engine. He really did seem annoyed by the ticket, and the
atmosphere had changed between them from euphoria to tension.

           
He grumbled over the slow traffic as
they inched their way through the crowded Sunday streets. Once they were on the
highway, he drove fast. The miles were soon eaten along The Queen Elizabeth Way
through the Niagara
Peninsula. Then they were
crossing The Burlington Skyway over Lake
Ontario, now on their way around the
lake and east to Toronto.

           
Nick’s moodiness was in contrast to Serena’s
body, which was still with his in high ecstasy in the shower. Their love making
had been more poignant, less of a hurry, longer and even more stimulating.

           
She glanced at Nick’s profile. She
felt she knew it better now. She knew the thick line of his dark hair, the
ridge of the scar beneath his flesh, the way his beard grew a little fuzzy from
his jaw. His eyes weren’t always cold. Sometimes they grew dark and showed his
needs.

           
They were nearing Toronto. She could see the city buildings and
the tower behind a faint haze. Across the blue sparkle of Lake Ontario,
that forced a horseshoe out of the surrounding land, was Niagara-on-the-Lake
and their hotel room.
A nice, secret place for secret doings.
A midnight that hadn’t been full of hell.

           
“What do you want to do?” Nick asked
as they sped along

           
It was a typical sunny Sunday
afternoon by the lake, with people jogging, walking, cycling and skating. She
wasn’t sure what one did after a weekend of love. “I’ll go home, I guess.”

           
“Do you want me to take you home
now, or do you want to come to my place for a while? We should eat. We can
order Chinese.”

           
She didn’t really want to go home
right away. She would only wander around and make her life miserable. “Chinese
sounds good. I’ll have to phone Ginny, my neighbor, to make sure she feeds
Pascal for another day.”

           
“Did she know you were going to be
away last night?”