Unlikely Love: A Romance Single (18 page)

Just when she thought he was about to stop, he sped up even faster, and in perfect harmony, she felt his entire body tense up as hers did. Her eyes clenched shut and their lips stayed pressed together, not moving. Through their pants, a blinding light spread across her body, over and over, making every inch of skin tingle. Every hair stood to attention, and with one last clench of his buttocks and one final thrust, his body crashed back into the bed, free of tension.

Still tingling, she kept her eyes closed and they panted and gasped for breath, their sweat soaked bodies pressed together. His fingers ran from her hips up to her back and his knees lowered as his strong arms wrapped around her. She felt him soften as he arched his hips into the firm mattress, pulling her down onto the bed next to him.

Still gasping for air, she found the spot in his side where she fit perfectly and lay her head on his chest placing her hand on his rising and falling stomach.

They didn't speak as they both drifted off to sleep. They didn't need to. She was sure the feelings she had where being reflected from Nolan, and they were bouncing and echoing off the walls.

The sleep started to take her mind, and Nolan's sharp breathing slowed down letting her know that he was joining her.

As she let the darkness fill her mind, she had one thought circling around in her.

What they had just done was more than sex.

So much more.

“What's all this?” Delilah rubbed her eyes as she sat up in bed.

A tray of fresh fruit and cereal with a glass of orange juice sat at her feet. Her legs were under the covers, but she didn't remember getting into the bed. Nolan was sat in the wicker chair, wearing his white underwear as he peeled an orange.

“Julia owed me a favor,” he winked.

“Breakfast in bed?”

“Only the best for you,” he winked cheekily again before tossing a segment of the orange into his mouth.

Shaking the sleep from her eyes, she dug her spoon into the grapefruit, but it wasn't long before Nolan was crawling across the bed to gently kiss her neck. He kicked the tray to the floor and they found themselves naked again.

The same thing happened again when she was in his shower washing off the makeup she'd slept in and again when she sat on his bed, drowned in one of Nolan's shirts.

He couldn't keep his hands off of her, and that's how she liked it. She'd never wanted someone over and over so much, it actually made her dizzy.

The sun hung high in the sky as they lay in each other's arms, naked and sweating from yet another round of fun. Delilah wiped the hair from her eyes, knowing that she'd have to wash it again. She planted her head into the nook of his arm and let out a long and content sigh as she snuggled around his body.

She thought about the week ahead, and her heart fluttered gently. They had almost an entire week together, with no plans. An entire week to spend in each other's arms, getting to know each other even better, and that excited Delilah.

Just as she closed her eyes ready for an afternoon siesta, a loud banging from the hallway made her sit bolt upright. She listened intensely and shook Nolan off as he tried to drag her back into his arms.

“Delilah? Delilah are you in there?” Marcus' voice echoed throughout the hall.

It wasn't long until his fists were banging on Nolan's door, demanding to see her.

“He'll go away,” she whispered to Nolan, resting her head back on his chest.

Nolan laughed and rolled over on to her, pressing his naked body down onto hers, quickly joined by his lips.

She thought Marcus would get bored, but he kept running between the two doors, banging and demanding.

“Delilah! It's about André!” he cried, “If you're in there -”

“Shit,” she mumbled, pushing Nolan off quickly to throw the shirt Nolan had been wearing over her shoulders.

As she hurried towards the door, she loosely buttoned it up and rested her arm under her breasts to make sure it didn't flap open.

“Who's André?” Nolan asked from the bed

“Just somebody from the label,” she smiled manically over her shoulder.

He relaxed his face and nodded before jumping into his jeans.

“What do you want Marcus,” she smiled through gritted teeth through a crack in the door.

“I've been knocking for 10 minutes!” he shot at her as he looked her up and down.

She pulled the shirt tighter together and attempted to smooth down her matted bed hair. It was written all over her face that she'd spent the day doing more than sleeping.

Nolan wandered out onto the balcony, leaving Delilah to slip through the door, gently closing it behind her. With the shirt just about touching the tops of her thighs, she crossed both of her arms as the little maid at the end of the hall widened her eyes as she pushed her cleaning trolley towards them on the hall.

“It's André,” Marcus's usually tanned face turned a pasty shade of white, “he got his manager to call the hotel. He's on his way.”

“What do you mean he's on his way?”

“As in, he's on his way from the airport.”

“What?” she cried, pulling the shirt tighter.

“He's in a car right now, on his way here.”

“How did he find out where we were?”

Marcus looked shiftily to the floor. This had Tony written all over it.

“I'm sorry De -”

“Stop him,” she freed one her hands and pointed it firmly in his face, “he doesn't get inside of this hotel.”

“How can I do that?”

“I don't care, just stop him.”

She opened the door and slipped back inside, giving Marcus one last stern look. With the door closed, she leaned against it, banging her head against the wood several times. With her fingers running through her matted hair, she tried to think of what she could do to fix the situation. Could she explain the it to Nolan without him freaking out? She didn't know how to explain that she had a fake media boyfriend who was in a car on the way to the hotel to win her back.

“Everything okay?” he called from the balcony.

“Fine,” she faked a '
fine
' voice, but it sounded high pitched.

He slid open the balcony doors and walked towards her, “you sure?”

Smiling and nodding, she relaxed her face and tucked her hair behind her ears.

“Industry drama,” she said as casually as she could manage, “it's not important right not."

“Are you sure?” he stood in front of her, and reached out to tuck another strand of hair behind her ear, “You look pretty shaken up. And you're shaking!"

He rubbed her arms over his shirt. She tucked her hands into her armpits so he couldn't see how much they were trembling out of control.

“It's cold in here, isn't it?”

“No,” Nolan laughed, before looking at her suspiciously, “It's like, 90 degrees in here.”

“Did I say cold? I meant hot?” she dug her nails tightly into her side through the material of the shirt.

Nolan gave her another quizzical look before unbuttoning his jeans, letting them fall to the ground.

“You know, if you're really cold,” he reached out and moved Delilah's arms to her side and started to undo the mismatched buttons she'd fastened in a hurry, “I know something we could do to warm up.”

She stared down at his quickly thickening shaft, but her eyes wandered up the dark trail on his stomach, all the way up to the dark shadow on his jaw, before meeting his eyes.

“Actually,” she pressed herself into the door, and crossed her arms over the shirt, “I was thinking maybe we could go out and do something?"

Nolan bent down to pick up his jeans, “I thought we were going to stay in today?”

“I fancy a change of scenery,” she shrugged and widened her eyes, “It'll be fun! I'll go and get dressed.”

“Meet you in the hall in 10?”

“Make it 5!” she called as she snatched her room keys from the dressing table.

When she was inside of her room, she tore off Nolan's shirt and jumped into the first clothes she could find. She didn't care what they were. She didn't smell them to see if they were clean, she just knew she had to get out of
Paraíso
as fast as she could.

She wasn't going to let André ruin what she had found.

“Ready?” Nolan asked as she locked her door.

He was wearing a pair of brown shorts and a white muscle top that hugged every part of his enviable body. Delilah on the other hand, was wearing a pair of very short and creased white shorts and a pink vest, that she was now starting to realize had a huge stain on the front of it. Her hair was scrapped back into a ponytail and there wasn't any of makeup on her face. The Delilah who had arrived at
Paraíso
would never have dared to go out in public looking such a way, but the Delilah dragging Nolan down the hall didn't want to ruin the one good thing she'd created in a long time.

“Are you sure everything is okay?” he asked again as Delilah practically dragged him down the stairs.

“I'm just eager to get outside,” she called back.

“Where do you even want to go?” Nolan's voice was filled with suspicion.

“Anywhere. As long as I'm with you,” she hated lying to him, but at least that part was true.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, she told herself that she was doing it to protect Nolan, but the truth was, she was covering her own ass.

“Julia, move!” Delilah snapped as the short woman slowly swept in the entrance.

“You!” she pointed at Delilah, “Shut up!”

Nolan laughed, but Delilah wasn't in the mood for laughing. She was about to tackle Julia out of the way, but when she heard the sound of a soft engine dying down and a door open, she stood on her tiptoes to look over the huge and messy bun that sat on Julia's head.

The driver jumped out of the car and quickly ran over to the backseat. That sort of treatment was reserved for a small list of people. Pop stars, actors, politicians and models. As the door slowly opened, she wished that there had been another mix up. Perhaps there was a glitch in the system and the rich and famous of the world were being sent to a tiny backstreet hotel in the underbelly of Madrid.

She prayed and prayed, but when she saw the legs of a very expensive suit hit the cobbled road, her heart dropped to the ground. Julia's bun bobbed up and down, blocking the view. She jumped up on her tiptoes. It was only a brief glimpse, but just from the chiseled high-cheek bones, olive tinted skin, dark slicked back hair and two dozen roses in his hand, she knew her prayers hadn't been answered. She tiptoed again to see André pull his reflective aviator glasses off. With his pale green eyes, he stared up at the hotel sign with disdain, causing his mustache covered lip to curl upwards.

He pulled that face a lot.

What did Delilah ever see in him?

“Let's go through the back way,” Delilah was already impatiently dragging Nolan towards the dining room, stepping in Julia's pile of dust.

“Delilah, just stop for a second!” Nolan cemented his feet into the ground, and stopped letting her pull him.

Yanking on his arm, she glanced through the glass windows. She could see the murky pool and the tiny wooden door in the concrete wall. It was like staring at freedom, but she knew she wasn't going to get there without a fight.

“Please Nolan, you have to trust me,” she said through gritted teeth as she tried to shift his solid frame again, “I promise I'll explain the second we're away from this place.”

Nolan narrowed his eyes on her, causing the corners to crease. She could tell he was trying to work something out, but she couldn't hang around. It would only be a matter of time before André found his way into the dining room.

Delilah imagined what it would be like if the shoe was on the other foot. How would she feel if a gorgeous European model appeared out of nowhere, claiming to be Nolan's girlfriend. Could she forgive him? Could she look past the obvious and listen to the explanation? She wanted to think she could, but just from the slight twinge of jealousy in her stomach, it was obvious she was lying to herself.

“Lead the way,” he relaxed his face and shoulders, letting her resume her pulling.

She dragged him through the doors out onto the stone courtyard. The pool boy who Marcus had tried flirting with was fishing empty beer bottles out of the pool, and a wary looking elderly couple were nervously sunbathing under the shade of a palm tree. The woman glanced over at her husband and gave him a look that read '
you booked this place, you're going to pay
'.

“Delilah! Delilah my flower,” a distinct and thick French accent called out throughout the dining room.

She didn't dare glance back and she prayed that Nolan hadn't heard it, but when he planted his feet firmly on the ground again, she knew she wasn't in for such luck.

“Someone just called your name,” Nolan scratched the side of his head with his index finger.

“Did they?” she said frantically as she stared at an advancing André through the dirty glass windows, “I didn't hear.”

“Delilah, stop it!” Nolan barked loudly, “What the hell is going on?”

Delilah dropped his hand and stopped trying to pull on his arm. Instead, she reached up and stroked his face with both of her hands, forcing him to look her directly in the eyes. How could she hurt those beautiful, dark eyes?

“If you feel anything for me Nolan, you'll keep walking and you won't turn around,” she knew it was a low blow, but she was scrambling for a way out.

Nolan's eyes turned cold and his brow dropped as she screwed up his face. André called out again, in his sing-song voice as if he was a prince in a Disney movie. The distinct click of a camera bulb made Delilah spin around to see a man with a huge camera in his hands, scrambling over the wall. He clicked again, and again and again, distracting Delilah long enough for Nolan to turn around, and for André to catch up.

“Delilah, my beautiful English rose,” his tongue rolled the '
r
' of '
rose
', “I am so glad to find you.”

“Delilah?” Nolan stared down at her.

She could see it in his eyes. He was figuring it out. The cat was out of the bag.

Nolan gripped her wrists and pulled her hands away from his cheeks. He watched as she spun around to see André brandishing the biggest bouquet of roses she'd ever seen. All the while, the click and snap of a camera captured every single frame. Delilah had no doubt that somebody on André's side had tipped off a local photographer.

“Who is he, Delilah?” Nolan stood face to face with André.

“He's nobody Nolan, honestly. He's nobody,” she urged, “please, let's just go and I'll explain everything.”

“Why do you run from me, my pretty?” André opened his arms in a comical fashion.

He probably thought he looked dazzling and heroic, but he just looked pathetic. Delilah had mistaken his over the top attitude as him being nice to her, but it turned out they were starring in a movie and it was incredibly bad acting.

“I'm not
'your pretty'
André. I'm not your
'flower'
or your 
'English rose'
. Just piss off.”

“So you do know him?” Nolan spun around to face her, his face filled with confusion.

“Sort of,” she shrugged, reaching for his hand.

Nolan took a step towards the pool pulling both of his hands away.

“I'm your boyfriend, of course,” he ran his free hand through his stylish hair.

The words burnt like a cigarette against her skin. Hearing him call himself her 'boyfriend' was the biggest slap on the face, knowing the truth about the 'arrangement'.

“Nolan, it's not what it looks like, I promise!” she urged, trying to connect with his eyes for long enough to show her true feelings.

Nolan wasn't returning her look because his eyes were firmly screwed up on André.

“Delilah, come to me,” André took a step forwards and handed her the roses.

She accepted the heavy bouquet, and stared down at them in a stunned silence. The perfumed scent of the bright, red roses stung her eyes like poison. The camera clicked and flashed, and the elderly couple were peering over their sun loungers to get a front row view of the pop star and model.

Click, click, snap.

“This isn't happening,” Nolan laughed, running his hand across his jaw.

Delilah's fist tightened around the roses. She felt a stray thorn bite into her skin. That bite broke her stunned silence and ignited her anger. André tried to wrap his arms around her and the roses, but Delilah pushed him away. With every ounce of her force, she struck the roses against André's chest, sending petals flying everywhere. It was André's turn for the stunned silence. She did it again, and again, and again. She kept beating him with the roses, sending more and more flowers fluttering around the courtyard. They landed over all of the sun loungers and in the murky pool. They danced around the elderly couple who were whispering amongst themselves and they danced around Nolan, as he stared blankly down at the petal covered floor.

“You've ruined everything,” she screeched at André, her voice suddenly hoarse.

“Is this the man who you cheat on me with?” he cast his arm out to Nolan, “I fight him to prove my love.”

“There is no love!” she cried, “This relationship isn't real.”

Click, click, snap.

"Relationship?" Nolan echoed.

“Why do you say these things?”

“Because it's true!”

Nolan's eyes darted up from the ground, landing emptily and coldly on Delilah. She could see him fighting back the tears with every ounce of his strength.

“I will not give you to this ordinary man,” André announced dramatically, casting his expensive suit jacket to the side.

He unclasped his cufflinks and rolled up the sleeves of his crisp white shirt, before planting himself in front of Nolan. They were of similar heights, but Nolan's shoulders and arms eclipsed the skinny French model. Nolan stared blankly at André.

Delilah watched, helpless as André swung back his entire arm and punched Nolan squarely in the jaw with a clenched fist. She watched in slow motion as Nolan stumbled backwards. She thought he was going to fall into the pool, but he regained his balance and staggered on the spot for a moment. What happened next, she didn't expect.

Click, click, snap.

Nolan's fist quickly planted in the center of André's model perfect nose. It wasn't long before they had each other locked in a vicious fight. Every time Nolan threw André to the ground, André would bounce up like a ball and charge himself at Nolan again. She wanted to scream and jump between them, but her mouth wouldn't open and her feet wouldn't move.

Click, click, snap.

Nolan grabbed André's arm, as if he were a ragdoll, he spun him and tossed him into a pile of stacked sun loungers, sending them crashing everywhere. Just like the
Terminator
, André rose from the wreckage, his perfect hair ruffled and bruises already appearing on his unmarked skin.

Click, click, snap.

He gritted his teeth and growled like an animal, before charging with all of his force at Nolan. Nolan picked up one of the sun lounger as if it weighed nothing and just as André was about to impact, he swung the plastic chair, sending André flying through the air. His hands scrambled trying to grab something that wasn't there, but he crashed into the water like a large rock. Water splashed all over the elderly couple and the woman let out a loud scream, letting everyone know things had gone too far. The pool boy jumped back and ran towards the hotel.

As André bobbed around in the water like a child who couldn't swim, Delilah turned stunned to Nolan. She didn't know what she was expecting, but when his furious and dark eyes caught hers, she knew she wasn't going to get what she wanted.

He'd won the fight, but he'd lost the war.

“Nolan, please -”

He quickly held his hand up to silence her. With his other, he wiped the trickling blood from a fresh cut on his jaw. The look in his eyes said it all, and it broke Delilah's heart.

“Goodbye Delilah,” he said sternly.

He turned to the door, paused and bowed his head. She pleaded and hoped that he was going to turn back to look at her, but he didn't. With his head still bowed, he walked towards the door and disappeared into the dining room, leaving Delilah to clean up the mess.

Click, click, snap.

She wanted to chase after him, but her feet wouldn't move. She wanted to beg him to let her explain, but would it make a difference? She knew she was no better than his ex-wife.

André scrambled out of the pool and stood on the water edge with his eyes screwed up from the chlorine. Water dripped from every part of his expensive suit, and the gel from his hair slid down his bruised face, mixing with the blood that poured from his lip.

“Delilah,” he panted, “I won. I love you. Come to me.”

Her feet suddenly unfroze and she charged at him, hands primed. They struck his chest and with an echoing screech, she pushed him back into the water. The woman let out a loud gasp and the pool boy returned with Julia scurrying behind.

Numb, she turned and walked through the wreckage. She could hear Julia's shrill voice screaming, demanding an explanation, but she wasn't listening.