Moments In Time: The Complete Novella Collection (8 page)

“Really? She told you?”

“Every chance she gets. Why do you sound
surprised?”

“I’m not. It’s just interesting, that’s
all.”

Nick drew in a breath and removed his arm
from my shoulders. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“Wait a second.” He stood. “What kind of
host am I? Let me offer you some of these treats first.” He went
over to a table laden with fruits, mouthwatering miniature cakes,
chocolates, and a bottle of champagne. “Do you have any
preference?”

“No, pick anything,” I said. Actually, I
would have died for those chocolate éclairs with the green frosting
on the top—maybe peppermint.

He brought over a small plate with an
assortment of sweets, including the éclairs I had longed for, and
two glasses of champagne.

I reached for an éclair and popped it into
my mouth. Chocolate and mint, definitely
.
It melted as soon
as it landed on my tongue. “Delicious.”

“Glad you like it.” He took a deep swallow
of champagne and placed the glass on the coffee table. “So, I was
about to ask you a question.”

I nodded, still chewing.

“Since the first day we met, have you
thought of me at all?”

I swallowed the sweet in my mouth and licked
my fingertips. “Have you thought about me?”

“You really like to answer questions with
questions, don’t you? Or is it just with me?”

I laughed. “Really? I had no idea. Okay,
I’ll go first.” What was the point of beating around the bush? The
man liked me or he wouldn’t have brought me here. “I did. A lot. I
was surprised to find you were a celebrity.”

He shook his head. “I’m not a celebrity. I’m
a normal person. People like to exaggerate. I thought about you
too. I couldn’t get you out of my mind. I was afraid I wouldn’t see
you again. When I saw you at Stalford, I was pleasantly
surprised.”

“You had a great way of showing it.”

“Pretending not to know you was wrong. I was
just taken by surprise and didn’t know how to react.
Elizabeth—”

“Was the jealous kind. You mentioned that
already. Anyway, you’re forgiven.” I reached for another
éclair.

“That makes me very happy. Since we have
that sorted out, will you forgive me for this as well?” He cupped
my cheek with his warm palm and kissed me full on the lips.

Fireworks went off in my head, and my skin
prickled with heat. “You’re already forgiven.”

“For this, too?” He moved his lips from mine
and kissed my forehead, my eyes, my cheeks, my neck.

Electricity charged through me. “Yes.” I
moved closer and pressed my lips onto his.

He nibbled on my bottom lip and kissed me
deeper.

This was better than any chocolate. Our
first kiss had ensured we wouldn’t forget each other, but this kiss
was something else. Charged, electric, both passionate and
tender.

As he moved his lips against mine and traced
my tongue with the tip of his, my world turned. I was drunk on
him.

Nick wove his fingers through my hair,
trailed my scalp with his fingertips, setting it on fire. I had
forgotten how good this felt. Or had it ever been this good with
Chris? I wasn’t sure anymore.

“I want you,” I whispered, without knowing
how the words had come from my mouth. I startled and pulled back,
my whole body pulsing.
Please don’t stop
, I thought. I
couldn’t bear it if he left me hanging on the edge.

“I want you, too.” His voice purred like a
new car’s engine. He cupped the back of my head with his right hand
and drew me in for a passionate kiss that left me reeling. Then he
caressed my closed eyelids, my throat, and my ears with his soft
lips.

As waves of desire swept me into the
unknown, I felt pressure on my nipples. Nick had one in his mouth
and the other between a forefinger and thumb. He had unbuttoned and
slipped off my dress without me even noticing.

I moaned. My nipples felt like they might
burst, like cherries ripe for picking.

Nick stopped and rose. Our eyes remained
locked as he undressed himself. Then he helped me out of my
panties, and pulled me to my feet.

Pressing hard against me, he guided me to a
nearby wall and before I knew it, he had lifted me up and my legs
were wrapped around his strong, firm waist, cradling him.

As his lips probed my mouth and he pressed
me harder against the wall, I pushed at his firm chest. “Condom?”
No taking chances for me. Why complicate my life further?

“Don’t go anywhere,” he said and walked into
the bedroom. He returned already wearing the condom. Easing me off
the floor again, he whispered, “anything else?”

I shook my head. Now that that was out of
the way, I couldn’t wait to have him inside me.

He wrapped his hand around the nape of my
neck. Our eyes met and he entered me with just his tip.

I moaned as the sweet spot between my legs
pulsed with longing.

“Want more?” he asked, grabbing my bum with
both hands, squeezing.

“Oh, yes!” I begged, trying not to
scream.

“How much more?”

“All of it.”

“Say please.”

“Oh, please, I want all of you.”

He chuckled into my neck then heaved me
higher up the wall and thrust himself deep inside me. He squeezed
my bum tighter and slid out and then in, over and over again until
I was lost in pleasure.

“You like that?” He flicked my collarbone
with his tongue.

“Do you need...to ask?” I gasped into his
shampoo-fresh hair. I moaned, sighed, and even screamed as he drove
me to the brink of ecstasy.

Together we rose and fell, and then I
gripped his arms, dug my nails into his skin, ready for the fall.
Soon I exploded, arching my back and pressing myself into him.

“That’s it, baby,” he whispered, as he
thrust faster and deeper into me. Then his muscles contracted and a
deep-throated roar escaped his lips. He thrust a few more times and
stopped, still holding me tight. “My goodness.” He kissed my lips.
“That was fantastic.”

“Yeah,” was all I could manage to say. Every
nerve tingled.

After a few more minutes in the same
position that had brought us so much pleasure, he eased me to the
floor. Then he got a fluffy white robe and helped me into it. “Is
it safe to say we’re no longer strangers?”

“Yes.” I laughed. “It’s nice knowing
you.”

***

“Tell me about your brother, the one you
were lighting a candle for,” I asked. Hours had passed, and we’d
made love several times. I was lying next to him in a queen-sized
bed, his arms wrapped around my naked body, our legs entangled.
Talking about his brother could be a thorny topic, but I wanted to
know everything about him.

Nick stiffened, but he kissed the top of my
head. “There’s not much to tell. I only knew him briefly before he
died.”

I lifted my head and gazed into his eyes. “I
don’t understand.”

“We didn’t grow up together.”

“So you met as adults, and then he died not
too long after? That’s horrible.” My heart went out to him.

He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them
again. “Yes. He was murdered by a deranged woman.” His jaw set.

I froze. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean
to...”

He sighed and ran a hand through my hair.
“It’s all right. But let’s not talk about painful topics tonight.”
He rolled me over to my back. “Tonight, let’s just enjoy each
other.” He ran his palm along the length of my body, brushing my
breast, my stomach, my thigh. “Tonight, I want only you. Again and
again.”

I giggled softly as he kissed me, and we
melted into each other again, the conversation forgotten.

But before I drifted off to sleep in the
arms of the man I now knew I never wanted to live without, thoughts
of his brother returned. Something nagged at me.

He had been killed. Just like Chris.

Sunlight poured through the window and
coated the white sheets in gold. I’d been awake for hours.

I rolled and turned to face Nick, who was
still fast asleep, one arm curled over his head, his dark lashes
resting on his cheeks, hair disheveled. I wanted to wake him, to
see his eyes once more.

Leaning closer, I scattered butterfly kisses
on his forehead, his nose, his lips. I prepared to plant another on
the side of his neck when a dark, dime-sized, kidney-shaped mark
caught my eye. So small and easy to miss, but I’d seen it before.
On Chris. The exact same birthmark. Same size, same place.

A knot formed in my stomach, and bile rose
up my throat.

Why would Nick have the same birthmark as my
dead fiancé? It made no sense. But my gut told me there was more to
Nick that I didn’t know—and wasn’t sure I wanted to. I peeled the
sheet from my body, grabbed a robe, and tiptoed to the bathroom. I
closed the door but didn’t lock it, so as not to raise
suspicion.

Gripping the basin with both hands until my
knuckles whitened, I squeezed my eyes shut. With every fiber of my
being, I wished what I’d just seen meant nothing. That it was a
simple coincidence.

But I couldn’t spend the rest of the weekend
with Nick. As long as I was this confused, I had to leave.

I needed to find out the truth.

***

I was brushing my teeth with one of the new
toothbrushes I found at the basin when Nick walked in, a towel
around his waist, his hair messy.

It would be so hard to leave him. Especially
since he looked so handsome. His broad shoulders, his smooth,
muscular chest and biceps made me want to touch him. But I feared
this thing between us might be more complicated than I had
anticipated. Maybe it wasn’t a simple story of boy meets girl and
falls in love.

“Morning, beautiful.” He kissed my neck,
picked up the other toothbrush, and squeezed toothpaste onto the
bristles.

“Morning.” I rinsed my mouth, trying to find
a way to tell him I had to go.

He held his toothbrush in midair. “Are you
okay?”

I wiped my mouth with a fluffy towel,
avoiding his eyes. “I’m fine. I’m sorry, Nick. I need to leave
today.” I looked up then.

Nick’s eyebrows shot up. “Where are you
going? I thought—”

“Home. I can’t spend any more time with
you.”

“Did I do something to upset you? Offend you
in any way? I thought we both had a wonderful time last night.”

“I did, I really did. It’s just that I
promised to help out at Oasis this weekend. I can’t let them down.”
Last night, when we took breaks between lovemaking, I’d opened up
to him about working at the shelter, and he’d been impressed.

I walked back into the bedroom, and Nick
followed, toothbrush still in hand.

I gathered my clothes and felt his eyes on
me.

Before he could guilt me into staying, I
slipped into my dress and sandals, grabbed my purse, and headed for
the door. “Bye, Nick.”

“Carlene,” he called, as my hand reached for
the doorknob.

“You don’t really need to go, do you?”

I bit my lip and didn’t respond for a while.
He could tell I was lying. But I saw no other way to remove myself
from this situation. “I do.” I opened the door and almost collided
with someone carrying a breakfast tray.

“Room service?” the woman asked.

I turned to look back at Nick. He had
ordered breakfast, and I was leaving him hanging. He cocked his
head to one side as if to ask if I’d change my mind.

I shook my head and walked past the woman
without looking back.

***

Back at my apartment, I switched on my
computer and opened the Internet browser. My shaking fingers flew
over the keyboard as I started a search.

First, I typed “Nick Johnson” and then
“Christopher Brown.” Nothing useful. There was a lot about Nick, as
I’d expected, and little about Chris, except about him being
captain of his football team in college.

I’d just closed an article when a thought
crossed my mind. Fingers shaking, I typed in “Nick Johnson and
brother.” Chris had been adopted, so there was a possibility.

As the search results came up, I slipped my
bottom lip between my teeth and bit on it, drawing blood. I clicked
on the first article: “Nick Johnson meets long lost brother.” The
first photo was of the two men hugging and laughing. One of them I
had loved, and the other I loved. The further I scrolled down the
page, the more I gasped for breath. Nick and Chris were not only
brothers—they were twins, separated at birth.

I clapped a hand over my mouth and darted to
the bathroom, fell to my knees, and retched into the toilet bowl as
tears flooded my eyes.

For one week, I couldn’t face the world.
Seeing Nick was out of the question.

How could I see him and not tell him the
truth? How could I listen to him talk about his brother when I kept
a devastating secret from him? It killed me to willingly choose to
walk out of his life, but it was better than being thrown out of it
when he discovered the truth. It would only be a matter of
time.

“But you love him. You can’t walk away from
a good thing,” Melisa urged. She was the only person I could bring
myself to talk to.

I placed her cup of coffee on the table in
front of her and cupped my own mug with both hands. The heat
comforted me. “You don’t understand, Melisa. He will find out.”

“Or maybe he won’t.”

I sipped my coffee and stared out the
window, watching the clear morning sky, listening to the sounds of
traffic outside. “It’s impossible to keep a thing like that from
someone.”

“And yet it happens all the time. For
instance, do you have any idea how many kids are raised by men who
aren’t their biological fathers?”

“Yes, until the child falls sick and needs
some organ only the real father can donate.”