Seducing Her Beast (9 page)

“You needed to have your reality check,
Wayne
. I guess it worked.
The incoming number is from your own home. How is Lily?” she asked.

“Thank you. You were right. I needed a reality
check.”

“You’re welcome. Don’t worry about it,
Wayne
. We’re all here for
you. You have your friends you can count on.”

He smiled. “Is Richard there? I want to
apologise to him, and also, I think it’s time you made your way over here.
Don’t you guys have somewhere to be?” he asked.

“Yes, we’re getting ready. The nanny should be
following us up. Richard doesn’t want me to spend the whole time on my feet. I’m
sure that man would be shocked by how much work parenting is. Anyway, here he
is.”

The phone passed hands. He heard muttered words
and then the sound of kissing. Richard came on the phone several seconds later.

“I take it I was right?”

“Yes, I was wrong.”
Wayne
chuckled.

“Put it down to having the lawyer instinct. It
messes with everything. Are you happy?” Richard asked, getting down to
business.

“We’ll get there. This has put a dent in
everything. I shouldn’t have left and should have just talked to her. I’m
learning from my mistakes.”
Wayne
ran his fingers through his hair as he looked out of his study window.

“As long as you’re
going to fix it.
I love you like a brother. I don’t want you to be in
any kind of pain.
You or Tony.
We’re all a family with
our wives.”

“I can’t wait until that smug bastard has
kids,”
Wayne
said, remembering the gloating look
Tony had had when
Wayne
went a little insane after learning about Lily’s pregnancy. At the time she’d
been terrified, and he didn’t want to scare her. He’d kept all the fear
tightened down. Maybe that was what they needed to do. Spend some time opening
up about their fears. He filed the thought away for thinking about later.

“Even though I know it will be with my sister,
I’d love to see the panic within him. He’ll be older than us when his first is
born.”

Wayne
spent another few minutes talking with his
friend catching up on other facts. Once they were done, he hung up and went
into the kitchen. He knew how to cook the bare essentials, bacon, eggs and
toast, but with a lot of stuff Lily did it better. Anyway, he’d make the effort
to do something special for her.

He put a couple of pans on the oven top then
went to get the ingredients he needed to make her an omelette. Not a very
romantic breakfast, but at least it was the one thing he knew how to cook.

After he heated the pans he grabbed the eggs
and began making the omelettes. When they went under the grill he grabbed a
couple of plates. He leaned under a counter and pulled out a booklet.

Frowning, he turned it over. It looked like a
scrapbook, something similar to what a child would make. He flipped it over and
saw a family photo of their family.
Wayne
smiled. There were a few decorations on the front page. All of them were
personal and to make it look pretty.

He opened the page and took a seat at the
counter. It was a book of memories. Every point within her culinary life, Lily
had documented. He chuckled when he saw one of the curries she’d made. Beside
the picture of the curry was a warning about the horrid taste. There were
several pictures of them and then a section on morning sickness.

It was part of their life in a large book. He
saw where she’d glued another book underneath.

“Wow,
please don’t feed me this,” Lily said, pulling the frying pans out of the
grill. The omelettes on top were black. He’d been oblivious to the passing of
time.

“Sorry,”
he said.

“I found
this.”

She stood
next to him.

“I didn’t
know you were doing something like this.” He closed the book running a hand
over the cover.

“I’m a big
believer in documenting every new part of our life.”

He reached
for her pulling her close.
Wayne
inhaled her scent and knew their life was going to be okay.

Chapter Nine

Over the
next week
Wayne
kept to his word. He refused to take any business calls. Anything that could be
handled by someone else was passed along. Lily loved having him all to herself.
When they were together the twelve years that had passed melted away. He took
her to lunch to take time out of shopping. When they weren’t shopping or
wrapping presents Lily was baking in the kitchen.
Wayne
spent a great deal of time on
decorations. He purchased more lights, and at night she saw how awful he was at
working on a straight line. She made mince pies and cookies. Several nights
carol singers came ‘round to the house. They’d left the gate open to allow the
freedom of festivities.
Wayne
warned about the dangers.

He took
her to the jewellers to have her ring size tested. Lily refused. She didn’t
need another ring. He’d promised to owe her a favour if she agreed to do this
for him.

“A
favour?” she asked.

“Yes, I’ll
give you anything you want.”

She smiled
recalling all the dirty thoughts that had rushed through her mind at the time.
Lily topped the last of the mince tarts when she heard a curse come from the
dining room table. Wiping her hands on the towel she moved into the dining
room.

He glanced up when she chuckled.
Wayne
glared at her. He
had cello tape wrapped around his whole hand. The doll he’d been trying to wrap
looked nothing like a doll.

“You could help me,” he said.

“I will. I’ll get you a cup of tea.” She left
him fighting with a toy to go and get the beverages. When the kettle finished
boiling she poured them both a cup of tea. She glanced down at her finger and
felt the loss of his rings. Lily wondered when he’d find the time to give them
to her.

Their problems seemed so petty now. She would
do anything to get the rings back on her finger. Over the last few days she’d
hinted as much.

Shrugging her shoulders, she pulled out the
tray of mince pies to let them sit on a cooling rack.

Lily took two then walked back into the dining
room. When she’d put the cups and plate down, she helped
Wayne
with the toy. He really didn’t have a
knack for wrapping.

“You used to do this?” he asked.

She nodded, smiling.

“I thought you got it gift wrapped.” He mumbled
something else, which she didn’t quite catch.

“I may have come from money, but as you know my
dad lost it. Spending money on gift-wrapping was a waste of time. I was told to
make it look like it had been gift-wrapped.” She took the present from him, and
in a few quick movements she wrapped the doll. Lily wrote on a label then added
it to the other Santa bags she’d made over the years.

He grumbled some more. She tested the heat of
the mince pie then pressed it to his mouth.

“Eat and stop moaning. At least you have me to
wrap for you.” She moved all the paper and presents out of the way.

“How can I help? I thought wrapping presents
would be easier. I can’t bake, and I certainly can’t wrap. What the hell do I
have to offer?” he asked.

Lily chuckled. “Stop moaning. You’ve never
spent Christmas by actually doing anything,” she said. “It’s not about all
this. You care, and I know that. This will come in time.”

“You’re only being nice to me,” he said.

“No, I’m not.
Wayne
, I love you. You went to work, and I
did all the homely stuff. I love doing this, and to be honest it makes me happy
knowing you can’t do it.”

“Why?”

“Because it means I’m good at something.” She
admitted the hard truth. No matter how long she’d been away from her sister and
stepmother, the damage they caused still made her feel worthless at times.

He reached out to cup her cheek. “You’re good
at everything you do, baby. Don’t let them keep hurting you.” He stroked her
cheek making her smile. Her eyes watered at his sweet words.

“Thank you.”

“I mean it. I never knew how much went into
this stuff. It makes me proud to know you handled this all by yourself.” Lily
felt the blush rising up in her cheeks. “Anyway, there is something I wanted us
to do.” He leaned down and pulled something off the chair.

She saw the book of memories she’d been storing
away over their twelve years of marriage.

“You want to talk about my scrapbook?” she
asked.

“Not exactly.
I want to
talk about us. This is our time to put it all on the table and for us to
discuss our lives and our marriage.”

Lily took a sip of her tea thinking about what
he was asking.

“You want us to sit and talk about certain
memories of the past?” Lily asked.

“Yes, I think it will be good for us to get it
all out in the open.”

She took another sip of her tea wondering where
to start. Over the years there had been many instances where she’d wanted to
say something to him but kept it all inside.
Wayne
could be
very
closed off when he wanted to be.

“Okay, you look worried. Let’s just talk and
see where it goes. Our wedding day, what did you think?” he asked.

“It was so long ago,
Wayne
. These memories seem pointless now. We
both know we didn’t have the most conventional day. Why delve into them?” Lily
ran her fingers through her hair. Her finger felt empty without the engagement
ring and wedding band.

Discussing the past didn’t feel important when
there were so many other facts to take into account.

“I don’t want it to be a factor for us. I love
you, Lily.” He reached out taking her hand.

“Then don’t talk about it,” she said.

“We need to.”

“No, you were an ass,
Wayne
. Yes, you saw what you wanted, and you
did everything you could until you took what you wanted. Are you waiting for me
to blame you for the life I lead?” she asked.

“Yes, that’s what I want you to do. I feel like
I need you to rant and rave at me.”

“I don’t know if you’re joking.” Lily didn’t
understand. Their relationship had been fine.
More than fine
up until he decided to leave.

“How can I convince you that I’m happy?” she
asked.

He shook his head dropping his head in his
hands. “I don’t know. I don’t want you to wake up in the morning worried if I’m
not there when you wake up.”

Lily knew she’d freaked out the first morning
she’d woken up when she hadn’t seen him lying beside her. Was it her fault that
he was the person to leave like that first thing in the morning without saying
a word about his intention?

Instead of arguing with him, she got up out of
her seat and went to him. She lifted his head out of his hands and stared into
his eyes.

“I love you, Wayne. I don’t need to dwell on
the past no matter how much you think I do. Our seduction was supposed to be
about you finally courting me.” She kissed his lips. “Talking about the past
won’t change it. All we can do is
learn
from our
mistakes.” Lily stroked his
stubbled
cheek. The
Christmas shopping was making him lazy in the shaving department. She chuckled
at how tired he looked.

He’d come home from thirteen hour work days and
not looked as tired as he did right now. Being a homemaker was taking it out of
him. She stroked his hair and decided getting out of the house would be the
best idea. It was only lunch time, so they had plenty of time to drive to the
ice rink.

“Come on,” she said, pulling on his hand.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“You’ll see. Consider this the start of our
date.” Lily grabbed her jacket along with a pair of gloves, a hat, and a scarf.
“Wrap up warm.”

Five minutes later they were out of the house.
She gave
Wayne
directions to where she wanted to go.

He parked the car ten minutes later. She saw
the rink had several people on it already.

“An ice rink?”

“It’s an open ice rink. Come on. It’ll be fun.”
Lily got out of the car and led him over to the person handing out the ice
skates. She paid the guy for two pairs.
Wayne
grumbled but put them on in without much enthusiasm. Once she’d tied her laces
she began the weird walk onto the ice. The moment the blades hit the ice she
grabbed for the wall. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Her gloves didn’t
provide much grip. The snow and the cold didn’t change the fact she’d never ice
skated before in all of her life. In the movies they made it look so easy.