Inevitable (7 page)

‘How does it feel, Bella? … how does it feel, to have the very fucking light taken out of your life, the warmth removed from your skin?’ My eyes filled with spontaneous tears at his callous, but very poignant words.

‘I’m back, Nate… you said I could come back.’ My words came out quickly and my voice started to rise with my almost plea and with the sudden constriction I felt in my throat, tightening with my rising emotions. I watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed, almost as if he was fighting the same feelings.

‘Back with the truth?’ he questioned, and my eyes immediately left his, in my guilt.

Slowly he pulled his board out of the sand and my eyes took in the sight as his muscles rippled with the exertion. Once it was out, he placed it flat on the ground next to my towel. Slowly he got down on all fours and crawled up the length of my body, very slowly I was being forced to lay back down flat, weak under his penetrative gaze. Drips of water touched various parts of my skin and I was surprised to see no steam rising as they hit. My heart was going berserk and my breathing was starting to increase like I was out jogging. Eventually he was laid out fully over the top of me, he looked like he was about to start doing press-ups, his wet hair falling into my face was the only part of him that touched me and I knew it was bloody deliberate.

‘Too fucking late, Bella… too fucking late… if you take a good look at me, you’ll see the real me… is no longer fucking here to come back to.’ His minty breath warmed the area around my mouth, as I watched him twist his head and start the process of gently lowering his lips towards mine. His eyes focussed only on my partially open lips. Time almost stood still as he came closer and closer. I struggled to swallow my building emotions, when abruptly he sprang back up onto the balls of his feet, simply by using his upper body strength. He picked up his board and started to walk away.

‘WELL FUCK YOU, NATHAN…FUCK YOU!’ I shouted at his retreating figure. I brought my hands up to cover my face in anguish and tried to control the tears that were bound to follow.

‘That can be arranged, Bella… that can be fucking arranged,’ he shot back, without even turning back to me.

I threw myself onto the ground and cried, I cried for everything we had been to each other and everything we seemed to have lost. At least the one question that had gone around and around in my head had been answered. It seemed the man I would always love, no longer loved me.

Life was so bloody unfair.

I made a promise to myself, I wouldn’t let him make me cry again, I deserved a lot of things, but that wasn’t one of them.

It had taken me ages to sort myself out. I couldn’t return to the house with a face that was blotchy and eyes so red rimmed, it would be obvious to everyone exactly what I had been doing. Eventually I had made it back with hardly any time to spare. I had showered, shaved and had my hair done in an almost record time. I had but five minutes left until I needed to be back in Frankie and Alex’s room to help the bride-to-be add her finishing touches.

Never before had I been so pleased about the colour choice of a room, the guest room I was in was in beautiful pale shades of blue and it gave the room a calm and cool ambience, and I needed calm and cool. Frankie’s impending nuptials had at least taken her attention away from me and for that I was extremely grateful, normally she would have seen straight through me, but luckily her eyes were on the prize and it had preoccupied her.

‘Bugger!’ I exclaimed out loud, as once again I dropped the stunning antique pearl necklace I was supposed to be wearing as part of my bridesmaid garb. Alex had presented it to me yesterday as his gift to the bridesmaid and I was in love with it already. The pearls were large but not ostentatious, and they had a pretty almost golden creamy quality to them, but the clasp was frustrating me. Either that or I was all fingers and thumbs after my last encounter with Nathan. The pit of my stomach was still somersaulting at his words and actions towards me.

Was it possible to love and hate someone at the same time?

I was beginning to think that it most definitely was. I know he was hurt, but did he have to be so extremely cruel and hateful towards me? I was starting to hate him, the way he was treating me was brutal, but somewhere deep down inside I knew that I still preferred his torture of me to being ignored by him.

What did that make me? Some kind of masochist? It beggared belief.

I was fumbling around on the floor next to my large bed, on my hands and knees, trying to find the necklace, as it had bounced off somewhere out of my view.

‘Mmmm… my favourite position for submission.’ The deep voice of my willing tormentor filled my normally quiet and calm space. I sat up quickly and stared at the physical specimen filling nearly the entirety of the oak doorframe. I had never seen a smart Nathan before and he was quite simply stunning. Navy blue tailored trousers and a white button-down collared shirt, which was untucked and only buttoned in the middle, revealing his abs at the base and his tattoos at the top and the sleeves were rolled up, showing his heavily tattooed forearms. His hair was still wet, from the shower I presumed, and for the first time that I’d ever seen, his hair was smart and not sporting the just-fucked look he normally wore so well. My eyes ran the entire length of him and I took in his turned up trousers and bare feet. Typical Nathan, he was smart for the wedding but had added little twists to his outfit that just of screamed of his attitude and non-compliance.

Recovering slightly from the feelings he churned up inside me, I managed to retort, ‘I believe my door was closed, I didn’t hear you knock… what the hell do you want?’ Standing up now and clasping my necklace tightly in my fisted hand, I stared at the man now invading my privacy with his mere presence. He moved and prowled towards me, eating up the space between us. Once he had entered my personal space, I heard him inhale deeply.

‘Here, let me,’ he offered, as he held his calloused fingers out, to take the necklace from me. Semi-reluctantly, I handed it over to him, but with a sense of relief that I could now legitimately turn my back to him and close my eyes. My hair had been put up earlier by the hairdresser and it had lots of loose tendrils that I knew he would have to move or pick up one by one, to avoid them being tangled in the necklace. What I hadn’t considered, was the time he would take doing it. It was like some strange, extremely erotic foreplay. The necklace was placed gently around my neck, caressing my collarbones, then it was pulled tight so quickly I gasped, my eyes opened and my hand flew to my throat. As the necklace was competently fastened and then released, the coldness of each pearl touched my burning skin. He lifted each curl and tendril slowly and separately, stroking them between his fingertips and then replacing them gently over the top of the pearls. Each touch of his rough fingertips sent electric currents coursing through my system and my bare arms broke out immediately in goose bumps. I knew that no one else had ever made me feel the way he did, and unfortunately no one else would probably ever do so again. Suddenly Nathan pulled me to him, my back to his front, and immediately I felt the lined contours of his rock hard body and his erection as it stabbed into the small of my back. With my increased breathing rate, I knew I had told him everything I had been trying so hard to keep from him.

As if he had ever been in any doubt.

My body sang out loudly to his whenever we were within sight of each other. That’s what he did to me plain and simple and my avoidance, it seemed, was futile.

‘A pearl necklace… eh, Bella? I remember the last one I fucking gave to you as you begged me for my cock… and by the way you’re trembling in front of me now, I know that you damn well remember it, too.’ I felt his breath in my ear as he whispered to me, my core muscles tightening involuntarily.

My Grecian-style dress was sleeveless and crossed over my boobs. He easily removed the straps from my shoulders and replaced them with his large hands, moving but barely touching my skin, every moment was the torture he so obviously meant it to be. Not for the first time, I felt it was possible for me to spontaneously combust at his touch. The feeling of pleasure was quickly replaced by a sudden burst of sublime pain, as Nathan bit down on my shoulder and then very quickly licked the place where abruptly every nerve ending had seemingly gathered.

‘I could make you cum… here and now…’ Nathan’s rasping whisper filled the shell of my ear and broke my trance.

‘Bella… Are you coming? Frankie needs you.’ Ruby’s voice got louder as she came closer to my room. ‘Oh… everything OK in here?’ she added. I couldn’t see her but knew she was now poised in the doorway taking in the scene.

‘Yep…she’s nearly coming aren’t you, darlin,’ added the bastard behind me, as he placed the straps back onto my shoulders, effectively covering up his mark I knew I would be wearing. Almost in a sleep walking state I took one step forward away from him and turned, I picked up my grandmother’s pearl-earrings box from on top of the quilt cover and called out to the retreating figure, ‘Ruby… wait up, please… Thank you, Nathan, for your assistance.’

I hurried out of the stifling room and fell into step with Ruby, who offered me a concerned look. I shook my head at her and tried to convince her with a broad smile that it was nothing. I could still hear Nathan laughing behind me as I knocked on Frankie and Alex’s door. I opened it and plastered a mask onto my face.

‘I’m here, gorgeous girl… sorry about the delay… I was having trouble doing up my necklace. Here’s your something borrowed.’

The wedding went by without a hitch. Just as the sun set in the pink and orange sky, my beautiful friend married the love of her life on the Blackmores’ private beach, by the soft glow of candles, which had been placed in the sand by Nathan and Scott, in the shape of a beautiful heart. The heart on a beach was a symbol that meant so much to the both of them.

‘Mine,’ came from Alex, and Frankie smacked his shoulder in her embarrassment. Alex was a typical alpha male and upon realising Frankie was very much now his, he stated it out loud for the small wedding party to hear. I knew about the little underwear she had decided upon, as a surprise for her husband-to-be, and as I watched him pull her quickly to him, it was obvious to me that he had just discovered his gift. He swept her up into his arms and carried her off the beach, whispering to her in deep gravelly tones, that thankfully for once I couldn’t make out. Laughter followed the newlyweds as he took off quickly and then broke into a run, with her in his arms shrieking. The few of us left behind laughed cathartically at their obvious love and infatuation with each other.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the bouquet heading straight for me.

Well, I was the only single one here, who else would she aim it at?

I caught it and stared down at the pretty combination of white roses and blue forget-me-nots. I pulled at a couple of the buds, straightening them out with my fingertips; flying through the air had very slightly altered the stunning arrangement. I was lost within my own thoughts. The sun had gone and I shivered in the slightly cooler breeze as I listened to the waves gently fondling the sand as they rolled up and down the beach. Ruby’s voice brought me out of my haze.

‘Is that OK with you, Bella?’ she asked.

‘Sorry… I was day dreaming… Is what OK?’

‘Nathan said you would help him tidy up the candles, if Scott and I go in and sort out the food for Alex and Frankie’s guests,’ she had very subtly gripped my forearm. It was evident in her manner that she hadn’t bought my “it’s all OK” body language from earlier.

‘That’s absolutely fine… it’s a great idea… it will only take us a few minutes and then we’ll join you,’ I tried to make my voice sound convincing and turned to see Nathan slowly walking around the heart, bending down his large frame and blowing out the candles.