Cherry Girl

14

Five years later

Blackstone Security International, Ltd. was housed in a sleek high rise building off the Liverpool Street station in downtown London. My new place of work. The company did a great deal of global business and had need of a receptionist with some fluency in the languages of Europe. I had Italian and French down well enough—I was still working on the German and the Spanish.

As it turns out, this job was perfect for me in a lot of ways. I’d missed England in the nearly six years since I’d been gone, so it was lovely to be home again and close to my family. Three years in Italy, and two in France had allowed me to experience other places and practice the native languages first-hand. And since there would be opportunity for travel around Europe, the job at Blackstone Security was sort of a combination of both worlds for me, and I liked that.

When Mum suggested I apply for the position, I’d thought it was because a friend from her card club had suggested how well suited I was for the job. Frances Connery was executive assistant to the owner and a longtime friend of my mother’s. My brother, Ian, had also put in a word for me apparently. He was a high-powered London solicitor now, and Blackstone Security International was one of his top clients. He worked in the same building only two floors down, so we saw each other quite a bit. Sometimes a little too much because I’d discovered just how much all the ladies loved Ian. And the reasons behind it. Disgusting hearing how good your brother was in bed. Bleh. Talk about someone who needed to settle down.

My new job seemed almost too good to be true, and I’d been only been working there for about two weeks, when I found out why.

“The team is back today from the job in Madrid. You’ll get to meet Mr. Blackstone finally. He’ll probably be in later than usual though from all the traveling. I’ll introduce you to him and the rest of the crew as soon as they all get in. Coffee, dear?” Frances, my immediate supervisor, gestured to the pot in the break room.

“Yes, please. I still have so many people to meet before I know everyone that works here.” Several were always out on large-scale team jobs, so that the whole company was never all together at the same time.

“Not to worry, my dear.”

She handed me a cup of coffee that I immediately started doctoring with sweetener.

“Well, I hope I’m a good fit for them, you know, Frances?”

“Oh, you are, dear, you are. You’re doing an excellent job so far, and I know Ethan will be pleased to have someone with your skills here at BSI, now that there is so much international work for them.”

“Thank you for that. I’m really loving it here. I’m nearly done with the contract from the Italian consulate and can get started on the others later today.”

“You’re a gem, darling,” she said, breezing out of break room with her coffee.

I got back to work at my desk, engrossed in translation and fielding calls when the most handsome man came through reception. Handsome didn’t really accurately describe him though, stunning was more like it. Dark hair, blue eyes, tall, built, serious, and acting like he owned the place. The light bulb went on. This was Ethan Blackstone, and he actually did own the place.

“Morning,” he said, with a nod and a thorough look at me.

“Good morning, sir,” I said as he passed. He used his key code, and walked through to the main floor.

I blew out a breath and hoped I’d passed the boss’s screening. This job really suited me and I wanted it to stick.

I preferred to take my lunch and eat outside in the courtyard if the weather was decent. If I had any extra time, I’d pull out my Kindle and read for a few minutes. I loved reading fiction of all kinds and found that if I purchased the popular books in other languages, it helped me stay sharp, and gave opportunity to master the ones I was still working on. Right then I was enjoying JR Ward’s Lover Unbound in Spanish and really captivated by the angst of urban vampires fighting extinction in the modern world. Until the space on the bench beside me was taken up, that is.

“Hello gorgeous, what have you brought for me today?” He poked a finger into my floral lunch bag and peered in.

“God, Denny, don’t you ever stop?”

He took a grape from my bag and popped it into his mouth. “Why should I stop? You’re back in England, and you work somewhere near, because you come out of that building over there like clockwork to eat your lunch.” He nodded his head toward my building.

“Because I’m not interested?” I gave him a fake smile.

“Aww, baby, don’t be harsh. I just want to take you out and show you a good time, you know, for old time’s sake. What do you say?”

I set down my Kindle and gave him a patient look. “I say, dear Denny, for about the tenth time, no thank you.” Not for old time’s sake, or new time’s sake, or any future time’s sake are we ever going out together.

God, I could only imagine the scenario he’d have set up for “showing me a good time.” No. Just no. I wasn’t going back to an ex that had cheated on me with some slut in a back alley behind the pub.

Even though I wouldn’t ever consider him, I had to say, Denny Tompkins surprised me in where he’d ended up. I’d have placed bets on prison. But according to him, he hadn’t been to prison and was gainfully employed at his father’s import business. I could only imagine what illicit goods they imported, but it was better than the street dealing I was pretty sure he used to do. Maybe still did. Who knew? He’d been persistently stalking me on my lunch hours since he’d spotted me down here in the courtyard on my second day of work.

“Are you finally going to tell me where you work today, baby?”

“Stop calling me ‘baby’ and no, I’m not. It’s called an invasion of privacy, Denny, and you need to stop.”

He smirked at me and tilted his head, his dark wavy hair falling over his eyebrows and making him look dreadfully charming. He might be a hooligan in a suit, but he was a very handsome man all the same.

“You’re tough now, Elaina baby. What happened to the sweet young thing you used to be with me?” He put his hand on my leg. “We had good times together.”

“She grew up. And watch how you talk to me. And stop groping me,” I said firmly, while brushing his hand off my leg.

I remember how relentless he’d been with me after Neil left for Afghanistan, and before I went to Italy. I couldn’t shake him then, either. Ian finally had to step in and make him stop pestering me to be with him again. He just wanted me back in his bed, but I wasn’t interested. Denny had the persistence gene for sure, but was too dense to understand that no man would take Neil’s place.

No, that spot was a permanently empty placement.

“All right, then. Until tomorrow, baby.” He leaned in and gave me a peck on the cheek. He also reached into my lunch bag again and stole a few more grapes before sauntering off.

I rolled my eyes and tried to get back into my book, wondering how in the hell, out of all the places in London, my new job put me smack dab in the same locale as my ex, Denny Tompkins. No luck had I, apparently.

With that thought, I gave up my decadent vampire book and gathered my things. I sought out the newsstand for some foreign papers instead. Reading the news in Italian or French kept me up to date with the foreign headlines, and sharp in a different way than just reading the language.

“That’ll be two pound fifty.” Muriel, the newsagent on the corner was quite the character. She looked like something between a homeless crone and a Gypsy fortuneteller with her habit of attempting to predict the future. Her eyes were the most amazing greenish-hazel though, unlike any colour I’d ever seen. Just stunning.

“Here you go, Muriel, and keep it.” I handed her a fiver.

“Ye be an angel ta me, so bless ye.” She flashed me a horrific toothy grin. “Gimme your hand, girl. I’ll read ye.”

She took my right hand and held it at an angle. She traced over the lines of my palm with her gnarled finger and muttered as she named them. “Life, Health…Love.” Her beautiful eyes snapped up to mine at the last one. “Ye have love comin’ yer way, girl. True love is a comin’ for ye.” She smiled again.

Muriel’s declaration rattled me. I pulled my hand out of her grasp, mumbled a quick “thanks” and left quickly with my newspapers; sure she was just trying to validate her fortuneteller act with me.

Seriously? True love was coming for me, huh? I wanted to laugh, but I didn’t. The particular words she’d used, were ridiculous because I knew her prediction was totally false. I had only one true love, and I’d told him a long time ago…to never come for me.

I’d returned from lunch when Frances buzzed though and asked me to make my way down to the executive offices with the translations I’d done.

This was it. Meeting time. I tried to suppress the nerves suddenly making me jittery and prepared to leave my station.

I hurriedly gathered up my paperwork and folders and went to open the door using the security key code on the access panel. I punched in Z-A-R-A and got the door open successfully, but my paperwork not so much. The edge of the folder got jumbled on the door frame and I lost hold of it. The contents spilled out all over the floor at my feet.

“Well, shit.”

I dropped down to pick up the pages, mortified and praying not too many people saw my blunder, when two well clad male feet stepped into my line of sight.

“Let me help you with that,” he said, dropping down and beginning to pick up the mess of papers scattered at our feet.

“Thank you,” I managed, too embarrassed to make eye contact when he handed a stack to me.

He rose up and so did I. Determined on organizing the pages in my now very untidy folder, I was distracted and not paying close attention when I offered an introduction to my helper. “Sorry for that. I’m Elaina, the new reception—”

I drew my line of vision up a very large-suited chest, and met eyes I had looked into before. Dark, beautiful eyes, that had burned back at me with love in moments of deepest intimacy. Eyes I had loved…

I lost the rest of my words.

My heart hammered. Speechless didn’t even begin to cover it. Breathless and dumbstruck needed to be in there too, because I dropped the folder again and heard the papers dump out in a heap at our feet with an airy swoosh.

“N-Neil.”

“Elaina,” he said stonily.

The hard frown on his face proved he was just as surprised to see me, as I was to see him.

15

For fucks sake! Elaina was the new receptionist?!

My heart skipped and stuttered from inside my chest as I tried to process this bit of information. Frances had just mentioned to me, not a half hour ago, that we’d hired a new girl. Never in my wildest dreams…

Well, it all made sense to me now. I figured out who was behind it in an instant. And was going to kill the miserable sod just as soon as I could get my hands around his traitorous neck. Mum Morrison would get a pass on the strangling, but I was greatly annoyed with her as well.

But first, I needed to look... Five years since my eyes had rested on her. Even longer than that at a close enough distance to reach out and touch her. I dragged a hand along my scalp instead, gripping the back in a handful of hair and pulling hard until it stung.

Now this was a mind fuck in the purest sense. I was barely able to keep myself contained, my mind and my body operating at odds and totally independent of one another. My Elaina—the woman I’d never stopped loving, the girl who’d captured my heart all those years ago, and who I’d painfully LET GO—was here before me claiming to be newly employed at BSI.

Fuck me into next week! And then some more.

My thoughts were totally lost in a jumble of shock and disbelief.

Eons might have passed, I don’t know, but yes, this was indeed a fuckin’ blow to my sensibilities. I needed a drink, or a pitcher, or maybe I’d just sleep in the pub tonight. And I definitely felt a headache coming on.

“I—I didn’t know…” she began. “Nobody said—I—I’m—ahh…”

I didn’t register what she was saying because I couldn’t. I just stared.

So, here she was again right in front of me. As beautiful as ever. More beautiful even than I remembered. No longer a girl of eighteen trying to find her way, but a woman of twenty-five with the confidence to go with the maturity.

Her confidence might be a tad lacking at that very moment though. Those midnight-blue eyes reminded me of a deer caught in headlights. It took great effort on my part to keep from touching her. To reach out and embrace her was instinctual, and I wanted to, but I controlled the urge and waited for some kind of response from her. After all, she’d been the one to leave me hanging without letting me have my say. The wound from that gash to my heart was still there, freshly ripped open and dripping metaphorical blood down the front of me. I’d waited this long, I could wait some more.

“Wh—what are you doing here?” Her throat moved as she swallowed hard and made me want to put my mouth there and taste. I craved the experience of remembering the flavor of her skin, but more than anything, I wanted her to acknowledge me again. I wanted her to have to look at me, to talk to me, to accept me being near her. And, if I knew anything about Elaina, it was that she would try to flee from me again.

“I’m Chief of Operations here at BSI.” I let that sink in for a moment and watched her beautiful complexion grow pale before my eyes.

“You work here.” It was not a question, but a statement, as if she were trying to convince herself of this bit of news.

And I know just how you feel, darlin’.

She pulled her hand through her hair and drew it down to rest in the hollow of her throat, like she was trying to protect herself. Interesting watching her terrified reaction to my bomb drop. Strangely, it made me happy at the same time. If she was instinctually seeking protection from my proximity then it meant that seeing me again was having some sort of effect on her. Good. If she was this affected by me just being there, then it had to be nothing compared to what I was experiencing in her presence. For so long, I’d wanted to be this close to Elaina again. So long. It almost felt surreal to finally get my wish after aching for it to happen. Years, I’d waited. I’d figured it would happen eventually because I was still close with her family, but I suppose I couldn’t really prepare myself for the actual reality. And, not like this. Working together in the same office? Jesus, God, and all the angels!

I felt numb.

I was indeed numb as I spoke my answer, not really quite sure how to break the news to her, when she was right in front of me.

“Every day since its founding over five years ago.” I nodded slowly, trying to keep it cool with her. “I served with E—Ethan, in the SF.” I gestured with my hands up. “Yeah, all this was waiting for me when I came home from the war.” But you weren’t, were you, Elaina? I could be a bastard when I felt like it, and I have to say, I felt like it right then. Fuck, but I was entitled to something more than this stilted, chilly reunion. I’d known her since forever and we were reduced to this awkward silence and distance after where we’d been together? But that was the problem wasn’t it? The part where we’d been together. And all the intervening years when we hadn’t.

The whole thing was pretty fucked up. But, I was used to that in my life though. Lots and lots of fucked up had made its presence known to me over the years. I didn’t remember a time when it hadn’t, but Elaina was never part of all the bad in my life. She was the good. Only good…at least that’s how I remembered it...until the very end. The ending of us had nearly destroyed me.

I hoped for some kind of reaction from her, something. Anything at all would do.

“Oh, okay…” Her eyes flickered over me for an instant and then down and to the side. This was all definitely a surprise for her, too. Good. Again.

I saw her breathing hitch, and remembered what she’d been like when I’d had her beneath me and about to come. Those sexy breaths of air as she’d shuddered around me. The tight grip of her pussy squeezing around my cock when I was inside her…

I couldn’t help what I said to her next. “Looks like we’re going to be workmates, Elaina.”

“Ahh...yeah.” She did something that I wasn’t expecting then. She bit down on one side of her bottom lip and pulled it into her mouth a little, a look of discomfort flashing across her face as if experiencing pain. That’s what it looked like at least, and I felt some kind of small victory. The comment about this job “waiting” for me was a dickhead move on my part, but it came out of my mouth and I wasn’t calling it back. It was the truth even if it gave me no satisfaction. She moved to pass me in the space of the pathway. “Frances is expecting me in her office…we’re going over some contracts I’ve just translated...”

“Would those be them?” I pointed to the floor.

“Shit.” She dropped down again and started grabbing up the pages, the short black skirt she wore riding up quite nicely along her legs as she worked. She was clearly embarrassed and I could see the flush in the tops of her cheeks as they reddened.

My cock reacted the instant I saw the rosy blush appear in her skin. Just like old times.

I bent down to help once more and caught a whiff of her perfume, the scent taking me right back to six years ago as if only mere moments had passed. “Do you think you’ll be able to get that file down the hall to Frances or shall I escort you?”

Inhaling sharply at my comment, she snatched the last paper from my hand and shoved it sideways into the folder. “I should be able to make it this time, thank you,” she said with a bite of sarcasm.

“Good luck, then,” I said, standing up yet again and offering my hand to assist her. “Focus, Miss Morrison.” I forced a smile.

Surprisingly, she accepted my hand and let me pull her back up. At least there was some contact. Hands. My hand was on hers and I didn’t want to let go. I wanted to tug her against me and carry her off somewhere private. I wanted to demand to hear her story and I wanted to make her listen to mine. We deserved that much. Both of us deserved at least that little bit of honest communication for closure if nothing else.

Elaina released my hand and attempted to tug her skirt down without losing the file for a third time. Quite the feat for her apparently, and I had my doubts about whether the file would make it safely to Frances’s office or not.

I very much enjoyed watching her try though, just as I enjoyed the view of her magnificent arse from behind in that short skirt as she walked away.

My sweet Cherry Girl was back in my life whether she liked it or not. I knew where she lived and I knew where to expect her every day for work. I would get to see her and she would even have to talk to me. I was her superior here, and she didn’t have a choice in that.

She might still hate me and never give me another chance with her, but we’d just have to see what happened, now wouldn’t we?

I had a task that needed my attention, or rather a best mate that needed murdering.

I went straight out, left the forty-fourth floor and down to number forty-two. I sailed past Ian’s secretary holding my hand up to her surprised protest and barged into his office.

He was speaking into the telephone but I ended his call for him. I stabbed the red button several times and disconnected him.

“What the fuck, Neil?” Ian glared at me. “I’m taking a call of business here. Do you mind?”

“Yes, I do in fact mind very much, you meddling cocksucker! What in the fuckin’ hell are you on about bringing Elaina to work at BSI?”

Ian sat back in his leather desk chair and folded his hands in his lap, looking smug and cocky. “My sister needed a job, and well, it’s a perfect fit for her…in every way. Frances, Mum, everyone agrees.” He flipped his dark blue eyes, which matched Elaina’s to perfection, up to peg me hard. “Wouldn’t you agree as well, mate?”

I pointed at him, my outstretched finger visibly shaking. “I would agree that you’re a fuckin’ arsehole, how’s that for agreement?”

Ian shrugged, picking up the telephone and redialing. “Sticks and stones, brother.”

“How about staying out of my business…brother.” I was so angry at being played, I knew I had to leave before I committed a heinous assault on the bloke I considered my brother, even though by blood he wasn’t. “Fuck off, Ian,” I said, turning to go.

“You’re welcome, Neil,” Ian called out cheerfully. “We’ll talk later at the pub.”

16

I slammed into the house I’d grown up in and started yelling.

“Mum, how could you?” I demanded, throwing my purse down on the table and kicking off my heels. “You knew Neil worked at Blackstone Security, didn’t you? You set me up, and Ian too, the bastard.”

“Now, darling, please don’t be upset, but think about your new job and how much you’ve loved working there in just the short time you’ve been employed. It’s a marvelous opportunity for you. And I know you love Neil despite whatever happened between you two,” she admonished.

Yeah, and this is not news to me, Mum. I glared at my mother; totally unbelieving she’d done something so manipulative and underhanded to me.

“And he is so good to me…” she trailed off, taking a sip of her six o’clock gin and tonic while trying to look innocent. She was damn good at it too.

“Did Neil suggest to you to get me to apply for the job? Did he ask Ian to recommend me?” Realization dawned and I felt the urge to thrash somebody. “Wait—what do you mean Neil is always so good to you, Mum?” I was absolutely fuming with the knowledge I’d been duped by my own family to bring me back to England, and to Neil. But something didn’t ring true with my theory. Neil did not act like he was expecting me. In fact, he looked completely and utterly shocked at seeing me again. Nobody had told him I’d been hired, I would bet my bank account.

It all made sudden sense. My family was conspiring to get us back together.

Not. Going. To. Happen.

“Well, Neil’s always been a lovely boy, Elaina darling. You know that about him. Such a help, especially after your father died.” She took another healthy slug of her G&T and sniffed. “He—he checks in on me quite regularly, my dear, I just never said anything to you about him because he specifically asked us not to bother you with it.”

“Is that so, Mum? Are you taking me for a walk later? Down a plank? Set out over the shark infested ocean?”

I was in shock at what they had done.

“Oh, don’t be so melodramatic, Elaina.”

“MUM.” My mother really needed to take her own advice about the melodrama but she ignored me and kept right on singing Neil’s praises.

“He took care of the service on my car and helped me when that horrible storm knocked down the elm tree in the front. Why, I just don’t know how we’d manage around here if it wasn’t for Neil. You know I think of him as a son and I always have.” She sipped again and then peeked up at me with the raise of her elegant brow over the rim of her glass.

Unbelievable. I crossed my arms beneath my breasts and stared at my mother as if she’d grown a second head. Completely at a loss of how to respond, I gave up in disgust and headed to the bath for a very long soak in the tub.

I made sure to shout extra loud down the hall so she could hear me before I slammed the bathroom door. “Missed your calling, Mum! You should’ve been an actress on the stage!”

While the tub was filling, I rang my brother on my mobile.

“How’s my baby sister?” He sounded quite cheery on the other end and I could hear background noise that sounded like he was probably in the pub.

“Fuck you, Ian.”

“Yeah, well this is not the first time today I’ve heard that exact sentiment—”

“Why am I not surprised?” I yelled, right before I hung up on him.

During my bath I had some time to think without other distractions getting in my way. The shock of seeing Neil again was powerful, and the hurt was still there.

Definitely still there.

Seeing him daily was going to be very hard on me. Oh god, how on earth would I do it? Could I do it? I didn’t want to give up my job but thought I might have to.

I really didn’t know anything about Neil’s life since our break up, other than that he’d respected my wishes and never tried to come after me. He’d read my letter and done as I’d asked. How could he have left Cora after she was having his baby? I knew he wouldn’t have been able to do it, and I was right. I’d seen her coming out of the clinic right before I was off for Italy and she was already showing, a nice little baby bump on her neat tidy figure. That was Neil’s baby growing inside her. His child, that he would never abandon.

I didn’t know he’d landed a fabulous job in London after the army. I’d always imagined he’d made a career in the military all these years, because he’d already achieved rank of Captain last I’d known.

To be fair though, I’d told my mother and brother, that if they tried to interfere or pass along messages from or about Neil, I’d never forgive them for it. I’d announced my plans to take be an au pair and said I wouldn’t be sharing the details of our breakup, so not to ask. They had honored my wishes apparently. I’d known back then, that I’d never be able to hear all about his life after me, and survive. Letting him go early in our relationship had been the better choice for my survival. Moving on to a life without him had been terrifying and agonizing for me, but it was better than killing us both slowly.

I knew things about myself and about my feelings for Neil. Hell, I had the evidence of him, and what he’d meant to me tattooed on my back.

I knew I’d be unable to share him with Cora, or even his child, the instant she gave us her big reveal. No possible way I’d ever manage it. I am not perfect, but I’m honest about things I know to be fact. It would have killed me to stay, and I would have become bitter and vindictive, and destroyed Neil’s love for me anyway.

It was clear from his reactions that they’d been together and made a baby. He never denied it to me so I knew it was true. I forgave Neil that part of it. We weren’t together when he slept with Cora, and he’d just come home from a long lonely tour. I understood. But, I also understood that Neil would never abandon a child that was his. I knew his character, and with the way he’d been abandoned by his father as a boy, he’d never do the same to his own.

I stood to get out of the tub and reached for a towel. As I did I saw my cherry blossoms reflected in the mirror. On my back, right shoulder, where they would always stay. Why had I gotten it done?

Selfishness.

It was my little part of us to keep forever. Cherry blossoms in sky blue. My memory. Mine alone, that nobody could ever take away from me.

I hoped Neil was happy now. I truly wanted that for him, but it didn’t change what I had to do for myself in order to survive the loss of him.

I knew what I knew. I’d have been completely unable to share him with Cora, no matter how limited their relationship. She would forever hold a piece of him, and I would covet that precious part of him that had been stolen from me. The familiarity Neil would have had to maintain with Cora surely would have poisoned our love and torn it down until there was nothing beautiful left. Just heartache. And cruel jealousy. And hurt. I couldn’t do that to Neil. He didn’t deserve it after the childhood he’d lived through.

It made me a horrible person, true, but I could live with that understanding about myself. I was selfish when it came to love. I was selfish with Neil. And I just couldn’t bear to endure the pain I would have brought to us both.

His child would be five years old now. I wondered about that baby. Boy or girl? Dark chocolate eyes with blonde hair, or more like Cora with her strawberry-blonde curls and light eyes? Had Mum and Ian met the child?

I finished drying off and hung up the towel. As I shrugged into my robe, I left the right shoulder off and studied my tat once more in the mirror. It was a beautiful piece of art. I had no regrets about having it now, or ever. My tiny little piece of Neil’s love safely preserved in my skin.

The only bit I had left.

Despite the fact I wanted to kill him, I was still sittin’ at the bar getting pissed with him regardless.

Ian set down his mobile and hung his head. “Everyone keeps telling me to sod off today. That was Elaina by the way.”

So Elaina was angry too. Well great, we had some common ground at least. We’d both had the earth ripped out from beneath us. I poked Ian in the shoulder.

“Why? Why the f-fuck did you bring her to BSI…? Why’d you do th-that?” Four pints in and I was really pissed drunk. Good thing I’d walked here because I sure as fuck wasn’t able to drive. “Yer tryin’ to kill me, brother?” I slurred another question at him.

Ian waved me off with his hand like I was a distracting gnat buzzing around his head. “The two of you are fuckin’ ridiculous with your pining and your tats and your lost love. Get over it already, and do somethin’ about it, why don’t you.” Ian narrowed his eyes to focus. He was at least as drunk as me. “Mum and I couldn’t stand either one of you anymore so we helped you along a bit. Just a li’l bit o’ help, is all.”

“Well, that was fuckin’ stupid of you then. She doesn’t want anthin’ to do with me, an’ now we have t-to work t-together.”

“No, yer fuckin’ s-stupid. She’s in love with you st-still. An’ you are with her. I’ve seen yer cherry blossom tats an’ how you are when the other person’s name comes up.” He tapped his head and nearly stabbed himself in the eyeball. “I see things. I know things.”

I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. “Don’t you tell her about the tat or I’ll b-b-bash you, Ian.”

Ian’s face cracked an enormous grin. “Yer such a fuckin’ idiot right now. Ya don’t know much do ya?”

“What tha bloody h-h-hell does that mean?”

“I’ll let ya figure it out on yer own, b-brother, but I’ll s-s-say this much…” He poked a finger into my forehead. “Yer not tha only one with ch-cherry blossom t-tattoos.”

The words of the song hit me like a brick to the head as I listened to Hendrix on Spotify. Music was part of my life and I couldn’t imagine being without it, but today the lyrics fit too perfectly with the reality of what had happened with Elaina and me. It did nothing for me. But make the ache more persistent.

A broom is drearily sweeping

Up the broken pieces of yesterday’s life

Somewhere a queen is weeping

Somewhere a king has no wife

And the wind, it cries Mary

Not Mary. The wind was crying…Cherry.

I’d kept my distance at work from Elaina over the past few days. She’d done the same with me. It was strange, because for some reason, it wasn’t as painful for me as I thought it would feel. Having her nearby was very soothing after so long of wondering where she was, how she was, what she was doing, who she was with. I finally knew the answers to all of those questions.

But, I also had new ones to ponder.

Ian’s drunken confession in the pub had piqued my curiosity a lot. According to her brother, she had a cherry blossom tattoo somewhere on her body. Interesting. And why would Elaina do that?

I could only think of one reason why she would.

Same reason I’d gotten mine.

I dug around in my desk drawer until I found it. A flash drive of photographs I’d taken nearly six years ago. I made sure the door was locked of course, and told Susie to hold my calls.

The pictures loaded up in a slideshow format.

Nearly two hundred images: cherry blossoms, Elaina under the falling blossoms, selfies of us in the boat together, some close-ups of a blue dragonfly sitting on a cherry branch. I remembered the dragonfly photos specifically. I’d printed one out and taken it to the tattoo artist when she’d inked me, so she could get the design right.

Blue dragonfly in the cherry blossoms sitting right on my chest over my beating heart.

I scrolled through the line of photos, one by one, remembering everything as the images loaded. Again, it was a strange sensation. I thought I had forgotten the memories, or at least hidden them away so deep that I wouldn’t remember. But that wasn’t the case at all. The sights and sounds and emotions in memory came right up to the surface all in an instant as easily as if our weekend at Hallborough had just happened.

I kept clicking the right arrow faster and faster until the series changed to times after we had returned home.

I stopped clicking and stared, unable to take my eyes away.

Elaina. Naked in my bed. Her eyes were on me, head tilted to the side, her beautiful hair splayed out, her perfect body soft and languid from being touched, kissed, and loved by me only moments before.

I’d asked her if I could have some pictures of her like this to take with me and she had generously said yes. How strange to know that just hours later, our time together ended in the most heartbreaking way. A moment in time, captured in an image, that meant my whole world on the day it was taken.

I clicked forward to the next picture, very aware that I had taken more than just the one. God, she was beautiful then. She was still beautiful, and inside this very building, where I was sitting right fuckin’ now!

I could leave this office, go out to reception and look at her with my own eyes if I wanted to. I could ask her to dinner or out for lunch. I could get close enough to smell that heavenly perfume she wore, or shampoo she used on her hair, or whatever the hell it was that smelled so good. I could listen to her voice addressing me when I asked her a question. I could even reach out and touch her in a gesture socially acceptable for workmates.

I could do all of that.

If I wanted to.

I kept my arse in my office chair and studied the naked pictures of her instead.

And thought about giving my cock a tug and using them to get me off.

17

For custom arrangements on display in reception, the florist delivered twice a week. I kept looking over at the magnificent display, of what looked very much like cherry blossoms in a light blue vase, the long branches of pale pink blooms distracted me terribly. Was it possible that Neil had somehow requested them? They were so specific an arrangement… My Spidey senses were picking up on something with him, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

It was pretty apparent from the last few days, that he was avoiding me. I accepted why he would want to, but it still wasn’t fun for me to sit at my desk and see him go by without saying much beyond a simple greeting. It made me very sad, but I didn’t know what to do about it. And I didn’t know how to make it any better for either of us. I was left wondering so much about what was on his mind.

I didn’t see a wedding ring on his finger but that didn’t confirm anything. Lots of men didn’t wear them. I’d yet to be invited into his office so I’d not seen any pictures he might have of his family, or…Cora and their baby—

“So, how are you settling in? It is Elaina, right?”

My sad thoughts were interrupted by the boss who was leaning on the counter above my station with a coffee cup, flashing that handsome chiseled face at me with an extra dash of charm thrown in.

“Yes, Mr. Blackstone, I’m really enjoying this job a great deal.”

“Oh, it’s Ethan. We’re very informal here in the office.” He winked at me. “In fact, I don’t mind if you call me E.”

If I didn’t know better I’d think he was flirting with me. Jesus, he was runway-model handsome. Women must fall at his feet regularly.

I laughed nervously. “My brother calls me E as well, but he’s the only one.”

“That’s right. I knew that.” He gave his head a tap with the heel of his hand. “Morrison is your brother. Good man to have a pint with, or three,” he joked.

“Yeah, that’s my brother all right, always willing to be somebody’s drinking partner.”

“It’s never a good idea to drink alone,” he said softly.

I nodded and smiled, unsure of how to respond.

“Well, I just wanted to give you a personal welcome and say that I’ve heard nothing but good things about what you’re doing here for us. Keep up the good work, Elaina, and please, if you need anything don’t hesitate to ask, okay?”

He smiled warmly but held his stare for a little too long to be just a friendly welcome. Yeah, it was an invitation all right. All I would have to do is let him know I was available and Mr. Blackstone would probably give me a time and a place.

“Okay…yes sir.”

He tsk’d and cocked a brow at me. “Ethan, remember?”

“Ethan.” I smiled, waiting for him to go.

Thankfully my switchboard lit up at precisely that moment. “Blackstone Security International, how may I direct your call?” The line was dead with dial tone only. A second call lit up the board almost immediately, and again I picked up.

Ethan lifted his coffee mug in a farewell salute, as I dealt with switching calls through, our little chat officially ended.

He punched in the key code and headed back through to the main offices. But as the door opened, I could see Neil standing just behind it, his mobile up to his ear. Ethan stepped around him, continuing in the direction down to his office, while Neil just stood there stonefaced. He stared me down from inside the doorway until it closed between us, cutting off our view of each other.

“Blackstone Security International, how may I direct your call?” I got dial tone again and frowned at my switchboard. Something weird was happening with the phone lines.

I thought about my short conversation with Ethan.

The boss was an interesting man. Besides being off the charts handsome, he was also very well-mannered and socially adept. But there was an edge to Ethan Blackstone that didn’t quite fit. Something that didn’t feel very mannerly or even particularly social. I felt secure around him yes, but this was a man who could do some serious damage to a woman if she was fool enough to let him. Make no mistake about it. I had no intentions of being that woman so I wasn’t worried in the slightest, but some girl would…someday.

I pushed my way into his office and got right up on him.

“Don’t even think it.”

Ethan pulled back a little and cocked a brow. “Don’t think about what?”

“I’m not blind, you know,” I scoffed. “I saw you on camera, flirting, swinging your cock around up front just now.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “What in the mother fuck are you railing on about, mate? Did you hit your head or something?” He opened his desk drawer where he kept his cigarettes.

I leaned over him, hands planted on the desk. “Not gonna happen. Not with her,” I whispered right up against his face, my neck so tight it might snap.

“The new receptionist, you mean? Elaina?” He was eyeballing me by then.

“That’s right. She’s off limits, and you can tell that to your wandering cock and balls, too.”

“Easy there, mate. I was just being polite.” He lit up one of those Djarum Blacks he liked so well, the spice of clove scenting the air between us. “Making her feel welcome as a new member of the team is all. I’d not had a proper chance to do that yet.”

He exhaled right in my face. Probably because I was still up on him, but it didn’t deter me one iota. “Forget it, E. I’m warning you.” I tilted my head and crossed arms over my chest to keep from doing something I would regret. “Leave off with Elaina. She’s not going to be another of your one-night bang buddies. If you’re in need, go find it somewhere else.”

Ethan looked me over good, his blue eyes chilly as he took another drag on his ciggie. “You know her. I suppose you must since Morrison is her brother. Am I right?”

I managed a nod.

“You want to talk about it?” he asked carefully.

“No, I don’t.” I shook my head.

“Right, well, no worries then. I was only giving a welcome and being nice. You know I don’t fraternize with employees on the job. I’d never do that to a subordinate.”

“Not during working hours at least,” I grumbled. I’d known E to tap an office girl or two, but to be fair, he’d only gone for the ones that worked away from the executive suite on one of the other floors.

Ethan snickered and leaned back in his chair, the cigarette hanging off his lip. “Are you all right, Neil?”

“No,” I said, dropping myself into a chair opposite his desk.

We sat there in silence for a bit, him smoking, me breathing it in second hand, the smell reminding me of Afghanistan, taking me back to other times and other places. Places where I’d been with Ethan, a long time ago when things were different. He was very quick, and I imagined he’d puzzle it all out in another moment or two.

“Elaina’s the girl, isn’t she? The one from years ago, that you…lost, right before that last tour.” He lit up another Djarum.

“Yes. It’s her.”

I put on my coat and peered out the window from the forty-fourth floor.

Well, shit.

Late leaving work tonight and it was already completely dark outside. The fall weather had arrived in full force, too. The temperatures were dropping and the rain was falling.

The ride home on the train didn’t worry me, but the walk to my house from the station most certainly did. Maybe I could call Mum to come pick me up in the car.

But I didn’t like to do that. It was a risk I really couldn’t take and I knew very well why. Mum would be well into her G&T’s.

I was pondering calling my brother on the small chance he wasn’t already committed to Friday night happy-hour somewhere, when Neil stepped through to reception.

He wore a solemn look on his face and his coat on his back. With his briefcase in his hand, he appeared to be leaving work for the night, same as me.

“I’ll take you home,” he said, walking ahead of me toward the lifts.

I stared at him in surprise. This was the first time he’d really spoken to me since that first day, and it made me wary.

He stepped into the lift. I stayed rooted in the hall.

After a moment, he poked his head out, his hand holding the door open. “Well, are you coming?”

“What? No. I’ll take the Tube like I always do.”

He shook his head slowly at me. “You’re not walking home in this pissing rain in the dark, Elaina.”

“I’ll ring Mum from the station to come and collect me.”

“No, you won’t ring her, and we both know why. Get in.”

I paused, unsure how to respond, tempted by his direct command but afraid to be so close to him again. The inside of a lift was very small quarters. And Neil was such a big man. And, he would be in it with me. Intimidating as hell was a good descriptor for him at that moment.

“The lift, Elaina?” He cocked his head impatiently. The lift bell dinged and I saw the G lit up in red on the panel, indicating he was heading down to the parking garage.

“No, thank you.” I shook my head at him. “I’m taking the Tube home.” I let the doors close Neil inside the lift where he was still frowning at me from behind those beautiful features he’d been born with.

Relief spilled through me and I closed my eyes for a moment.

With a steady hand, I calmly pressed the button to call another lift. When it arrived, I made sure to select the street level because I had a feeling Neil might insist on taking me home tonight.

He knew too much about me. He knew the station and how far I had to walk from there in order to arrive at my home. He knew my mother’s drinking habits and that she couldn’t drive to come for me. He knew Ian was busy somewhere as it was a Friday night. Neil knew everything.

Elaina was living proof that it was very possible to want to protect someone and strangle them simultaneously. Metaphorical strangulation, of course, along with some other things I could think of doing to her.

Christ in heaven, I was going to lose my mind if I didn’t spot her in the next minute or two.

Once she ditched me at the lifts it’d been a race across town to beat her train to the station. Not easy to do in Friday evening London traffic. Throw the rain in on top of it and it was a bloody mess. The strangling still seemed a viable option to me at the moment. That, or kiss her until she couldn’t breathe.

I had a trump card though. I’d called her mum and tattled; right before assuring her I would find Elaina and bring her safely home. Mum Morrison still loved me even if her daughter didn’t.

Yeah, it would make Elaina spitting mad but I didn’t care. She could join my fuckin’ hell club. I’d spent the past week in a continual state of madness from this whole cocked up situation. She’d have to just deal with it. And me.

There she was, slogging through the sideways rain with her head down. I could spot those legs of hers anywhere. A hundred years could have passed and my brain would still have remembered exactly how she was made.

I flashed my headlamps at her and pulled up beside the pavement.

She lifted her head in surprise as her eyes went wide.

I pushed open the passenger door.

“Get in.”

She just stood there, her rain soaked hair plastered against her face, challenging me.

“Did you call my mother, Neil?”

“I did indeed, now get in the car,” I barked, ready to jump out and drag her in if I had to.

“That was stupid of you, then,” she yelled, throwing her arm out.

“Not nearly as stupid as walking home in a torrential rainstorm in the middle of the goddamn bloody night!”

She turned away and started walking again.

I saw red and it was all reaction after that. The Rover was up on the pavement blocking her path and she was looking at me like she wanted to slice off my balls and feed them to her pet alligator. “What is the matter with you, Neil?” she screeched.

“Right now, it’s your stubbornness,” I bit out. I pointed to the empty seat. “Now get your defiant arse into the MOTHERFUCKIN’ SEAT OF MY CAR!”

She did it.

The interior of the Rover was silent except for the pounding of the rain. The earthy smell of water filled the air and mixed with the scent of her hair and wet coat. I think we were both in shock.

I’m sure I’d never shouted so loudly before to any person. These extreme emotions were starting to get to me. I was the guy who kept his cool and a level head. I didn’t even recognize myself anymore.

I looked over at Elaina sitting beside me, her arms folded across her chest, hair dripping, eyes straight ahead, and so utterly beautiful even in this bedraggled state, that it hurt to have her so close. It hurt because she was still so far away from me and I didn’t know how to make her let me back in.

Her mobile rang from inside her coat pocket. She rolled her eyes as she pulled it out and answered the call.

“Yes, Mum. I’m with Neil right now and he’s bringing me home.” She paused listening. “I’ll tell him. Okay. Bye.”

I couldn’t imagine what she was thinking. She wasn’t talking and she wasn’t fighting me either, she just sat there in the front seat of my Rover, so very still.

I reached over her for the belt to buckle her in and could see she was shivering.

“You’re cold.” I cranked up the heat and backed off the pavement, straightening out the wheels and parking it up against the curb. The windscreen wipers methodically passed back and forth between us.

“M-mum w-wants you to s-stay for dinner,” she chattered blankly, still staring forward out into the dark rainy night.

But what about you, Elaina?

“I’m sorry for screaming at you,” I said softly.

I wished she’d look at me, but she wouldn’t…or couldn’t after our terrible shouting match.

And so, I just sat there and watched her, the heater inside the car working overtime, making the air warmer by the minute.

“It’s okay,” she said finally, wiping one side of her face with her fingers. Was she crying?

“Elaina…look at me, please.” I waited while time seemed to slow down to a crawl.

She turned her head toward me, her chin up and trembling like she was guarding herself from falling apart.

“I didn’t know you worked there. I wouldn’t have taken the job if I’d known. They tricked me into applying, and I just don’t want you to think I did this on purpose—”

I cut her emotional ramble off with two fingers to her lips. “I know. I know it was them and not you. Don’t you worry about it.”

She froze when I touched her, looking fragile enough to shatter at any second.

I dropped my hand away, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to run it around the back of her neck and draw her up against me. I still wanted her. Despite everything that had happened between us, all of the betrayal and abandonment—my heart just didn’t care about any of it. She was here. My Cherry Girl was here right beside me.

18

Neil drove me home. I was numb and it wasn’t from the cold rain. Subdued was a good word to describe how we both were after that blow up on the pavement. I’d never seen Neil lose his temper like that. So angry. He’d driven his car up onto the pavement for Christ’s sake.

He pulled into the drive of my house and I found the courage to ask him.

“Are you coming in? Mum wants you to stay.”

He turned and met me head on, his big hands still gripping the steering wheel. “What about you, Elaina? Do you want me to stay?”

“Well, is it—is it all right for you to be here?”

He looked puzzled by my question.

“What?”

He wasn’t going to make this easy on me apparently. I swallowed and went for it.

“Are you married?”

His eyes widened for an instant. “Come again?”

“Don’t make me ask that again, please.”

He paused for a minute before responding, as if he really needed to choose the right words. “I’m going to chalk that one up to the fact you’re not yourself right now. You’re soaked through to the skin, and we’ve had a row that’s upset both of us—but did you just ask me if I’m married?”

“Yes,” I whispered.

He scoffed and shook his head, looking away from me now and out the window. “No. I’m not married.”

“So you and Cora didn’t stay together?”

He flipped back toward me. “Umm, no,” he said slowly, shaking his head again, his lips slightly parted.

“Why didn’t you, Neil?”

“I didn’t want to, Elaina.”

Fear had started to bloom in the pit of my stomach and I suddenly felt ice cold again. “But the b-baby…I saw Cora after you left. She was pregnant and showing. I saw with my own eyes.” While Neil sat glaring at me, a thought rushed through my mind. Oh no. “Did she lose it?”

“No, she didn’t lose it. She had a son.” Neil had turned away again, as if he couldn’t stand the sight of me. He was answering my questions while speaking to the window and looking out at the rain.

“Oh. What’s his name?”

“I don’t know. I only saw him one time and she didn’t tell me.”

“You don’t—you don’t see your son?” This wasn’t the man that I knew. I didn’t understand any of this. Why didn’t he see his son or even know his name?

He turned back to me once more and told me why, his eyes full of sadness I could read clearly even from the dim light inside his car. “I don’t see him because he is not mine.”

I shuddered as a chill rushed through my whole body and froze me. I was speechless for a moment, unable to speak, afraid to look at him. Terrified for what else I’d see in his eyes.

I don’t see him because he is not mine.

“But—but she said—I saw you with the doctor scan…You never denied it…

I don’t see him because he is not mine.

“I wrote you a letter. I told you I understood why you had to be with Cora…”

Neil didn’t react at first. He just looked at me, his expression growing darker and darker as understanding dawned for both of us. I realized why he was so angry.

I don’t see him because he is not mine.

“Oh, God.” I slammed a hand over my mouth, trying to quiet the rising panic flooding me.

As if that would work.

Involuntary reactions, nothing more.

He still hadn’t said anything. Neil was letting me do all the talking, giving me plenty of rope to hang myself on.

“If he wasn’t your baby, then why…why didn’t you say something? You let me go and didn’t tell me…Neil—please say this wasn’t all for nothing.”

I could feel the hysteria letting loose. The truth dawning on me with such brutal force I could barely breathe.

I don’t see him because he is not mine.

He leaned in very close and grabbed me by the shoulders, forcing me to own up to my horrifying mistake, gripping tightly and shaking me a little with every sharp bite of each word he spoke.

“Why did you leave without ever giving me a chance to tell you anything? You just left me there on the eve of my deployment. You let me go. Didn’t you love me enough to even listen at all, Elaina? Was I not worth even that much to you?”

I closed my eyes as my heart collapsed in on itself. My tragically grievous error now apparent, I had nowhere to escape. What had I done? I’d been the cause of so much needless pain for the both of us, all because I’d been afraid to listen and to share any part of him with anyone else.

Silent tears poured out of me as I tried to find the words. “No, no, noooo.” I sobbed, “I saw her pregnant—we all believed it was your baby…even you believed it…” I lost the ability to say any more. What could I say to him, anyway? What words were there to offer?

Very few. Actually none at all.

I’d not stayed around to find out the truth back then, why should he believe anything I said to him now. I couldn’t fathom why Neil was even beside me at this very moment, giving a thought to my needs and seeing me safely home at night. I didn’t deserve it from him. He must be doing it only out of a sense of devotion to my family, after all, they’d never let him go. I had been the only one to do that.

I spoke. The words came out of me and they were all I had to give to him. Words. Bitter sawdust in my mouth—that gave no comfort, only more pain—in the realization of what all this really meant about me and him, and our long years apart.

“You were worth it, Neil. You were. I wasn’t though. I—I—I am so sorry…”

He closed his eyes, still holding onto me, as if he couldn’t bear to hear the confession of my regret.

From somewhere deep inside me, a source of adrenaline started pumping because I pulled out of his tight grip and got the hell out of his car. I bolted.

Running was something I was really good at.

I managed to stumble inside the house, ignoring my mother’s comments about trying to walk home alone in a storm, her inquiry about Neil, and wasn’t he having dinner with us? I don’t know what I said to her.

I reached the safety of my bedroom, somehow. A sanctuary of sorts. A place where I could weep in solitude, and in peace. I’d figure out what to do tomorrow.

I just wanted to sleep and grieve for what I had done to him. To us.

To even accept it, hurt so much, I was afraid to close my eyes for fear of what my dreams would be like once I finally slept.

I had to see for myself. There are some things a woman cannot take on good authority and this was one of them. I had to see her and ask her why she’d done it. She may not tell me, and more pain was surely coming my way for my efforts, but I had to ask.

I stood on a street, looking at a house in a Barnet neighbourhood, the address of which I’d pried out of my brother. The house where Cora lived with her husband.

Just as I was about to cross the street, the door opened and out came a mother with two small children. A little boy holding her hand, and a younger girl in pink, riding in a pram. It was her. Cora looked mostly the same, maybe not quite as fit as before she’d given birth to two kids, but it was her.

I followed them to the park.

It didn’t take long to understand how apparent it was that Neil was not the father of her son. The children were very dark with skin that couldn’t have come from Neil and his Anglo DNA. At one point, the boy came over to where I sat on my bench and dug around in the sand pit with some toys. He was a handsome little lad, but not Neil’s son. This little boy’s father was Black.

“I thought it was you sitting here.” Cora had spotted me and made her way over. “I heard you’d returned to England.”

I stared up at her and asked one word. “Why?”

She sat down on the bench beside me.

“Why did I tell Neil that my little Nigel belonged to him? That’s a story that you won’t like to hear I’m afraid.”

“Tell me anyway,” I said, numbly. Here it was. The truth behind everything I’d sacrificed on the back of a lie and my fear of losing my heart.

“I’m not proud of what I did to him. Having children of your own changes your perspective on things though. I’ve learned a lot since. But basically it came down to survival.”

“Survival, Cora? Who’s survival?”

“I needed money and Denny Tompkins came along at just the right moment for it. He hated Neil for taking you away from him. I told Denny I was knocked up and without any good prospects, and that you and Neil could just sod off together in lover’s land. He offered me a tidy sum to show my scan to Neil and tell him the baby was his. I did my part and Denny made good on the payment.”

“So, I left Neil over a lie.” It wasn’t a question I was asking. Just greater understanding of what I had done.

Cora was still beside me. No harsh words or gloating, she only shared the bare simple truths.

“Denny didn’t make out so well though. You wouldn’t take him back and a few months later you went away to Spain.”

“Italy…I went to Italy.” Even the sound of my own voice was nearly unrecognizable to my ears.

Cora kept talking. “Wherever you went, you were gone, so Denny didn’t ever get you back. I owed it to Neil to tell him though, and I did that as soon as I could. He even saw us in the market once and gave his regards. It all worked out. Nigel married me and we had little Allison not two years after Nigel Jr., so yeah, it all worked out in the end.”

“It didn’t work out for me,” I said, staring out at all the busy children and parents in the park.

“So, why didn’t you ever ask him about it then? Neil would have told you what I told him, that the baby wasn’t his.” I could tell she was staring at me with a puzzled expression.

So simple a question. Why didn’t I ever ask him? Why didn’t I stay and try to work it out with him? Why didn’t I ever give Neil the chance to tell me what had really happened?

“I don’t know,” I whispered.

I watched it all. I followed her at a distance and surveyed her visit to the park with Cora. I was still trailing her, curious as to where she was off to. It probably made me a sick bastard, but I was stalking Elaina and had no intentions of stopping.

Thank Christ Ian had rang me to say what he thought his sister was up to. She wanted Cora’s address and that meant Elaina was going to confront her.

Observing their exchange in the park surprised me, though. I read their lips through some of the conversation thanks to the high powered lenses I was privy to in my line of work. The surprising part was precisely how non-confrontational their exchange was. No screaming catfight for me to break up. No hair pulling or gloves thrown down. Nothing. They were both very well behaved throughout the whole thing. At the end of it Cora asked her a question about me. I could tell she asked her a question because I got the words why and Neil clearly, through reading her lips.

Elaina answered her very shortly with just a word or two. And then she got up off the bench and left the park. I saw her brush at her eyes a few times. Her head was down in the autumn wind, a long, trailing blue scarf blowing back away from her body as she walked.

She looked to be crying and it was easy to see she was upset, but I left her alone. She would resent what I was doing, and I would’ve too if the tables were turned. We were both private people.

I watched her walk to the nearest Underground station and go down to the trains.

There was no choice but to follow in the Rover and make a guess as to where she might end up. I texted Ian and told him to ring her and find out for me.

I had to be there for her. I was going to be there for her.

There was no place else for me to be.

19

I vowed to never set foot in The Racehorse again. Never. Bad things had happened here. The worst sort of decisions had gone down inside these old walls. I’d lost so much, and gained so little, from encounters in the little Hampstead pub tucked away in the community where I’d grown up.

I gestured to Bert behind the bar for a refill and drank while waiting for him to show up.

It took a bit of time, but eventually he got there. I heard his motorbike pull up first, and that’s how I knew he’d arrived.

The swagger in his step, the self-satisfied smirk on his face, both were very telling of what he thought my invite was all about. What misconceptions poor Denny was under.

“Hey gorgeous, I have to say that getting your text absolutely topped my day.” He buzzed my cheek and sat down beside me at the bar.

I took a gulp of wine and looked him over. “Really. And why’s that?”

He leaned in close to me, his long hair falling over his forehead in a rakish wave, the looks of which helped to serve his bad boy image I suppose. Through all the intervening years since my time with Denny, I could say the whole concept he had going on, did absolutely nothing for me anymore.

I smiled a little…and held myself back from reaching out and squeezing my hands around his neck until he choked.

He spoke low and close. “I’ll take you back to my place and show you if you like.”

“Ahh, an invitation…other girls should be so lucky.”

“You can be, baby. Just like old times.”

“Old times, Denny?”

“Yeah, before you ran away, baby.” He wagged a finger at me. “You should have never run away. You made me pretty lost, when you took off for Europe—”

As Denny blabbed and spewed his twisted notion of me out of his too pretty lips, I felt myself centering. All of my energy and focus boiled together into a white hot rage that had to find an outlet somehow. To hold it inside any longer probably would have killed me. I was able to control the rage initially, waiting for my moment, but once he said those words out loud, You should have never run away, I truly lost my mind.

Denny was right, you see. I should have never run away.

I ran away from Neil when I should have stayed.

An out of body experience is a strange sensation. You feel very detached and the sounds in the room become muted. Your body floats above the ground and you can see everything so clearly. It happened to me at the bar. I knew it was happening and I welcomed the altered state of my reality with open arms.

I watched myself calmly from above as I morphed into something rather animalistic, a demon that resembled me, pounding away on Denny Tompkins. Anywhere on his body where I could make contact was satisfactory. I hit, and slapped, and scratched. I tried to rip his hair out of his scalp. My red wine was thrown along with my purse and whatever else I could get in my hands to hurl at him.

I could hear a woman screaming in an otherworldly cry. She didn’t even sound human, but the terrible pain and anguish she felt was clear to anyone that heard it.

Eventually, I realized that the woman was me.

Denny got in one good defense blow once the surprise of my attack was over. He shoved me off him and sent me sprawling down to the floor, my body sliding backward, taking out chairs and stools from the force of the fall.

“Get off me you crazy cunt!” he screamed, welts from my scratches rising up on his skin, blood trickling the corner of his mouth. “What the fuck is wrong with you, you fuckin’ whore?!”

“You know what it’s for! You earned it for what you paid Cora to do to Neil. You paid her to lie to us about the baby. I hope you rot in hell, you filthy, degenerate, cocksucker!”

He drew his fist back to strike me but he never got the chance. Neil clocked him in the jaw which took Denny Tompkins down. One punch. Out cold, on the scarred floor of The Racehorse.

Neil scooped me up and carried me out of there. He buckled me into his Rover and drove us away. I cried in the seat beside him and fell into absolute despair.

With each tear that fell, the weight of my anguish grew heavier.

Neil didn’t ask anything of me. He didn’t say anything at all beyond a quick check to see if I was injured. “Are you hurting anywhere?” he asked.

Only my heart. “No. I’m fine. The calm after the storm.”

I didn’t say another word after that, not even a thank you for taking Denny before he could beat me.

He let me be and drove us to my mother’s house.

When he came around to open my door and helped me out, I was grateful, because I was suddenly so exhausted I wasn’t sure I would make it on my own two feet.

I didn’t have to worry about that either.

He carried me inside the house.

I had to close my eyes. It hurt too badly to be so close up against him, to feel his skin, to smell his scent, to look at his beauty, and know that I had given it all away. Given it all away for a lie.

Neil laid me on my bed after pulling off my jacket and scarf. He took off my boots and tucked a coverlet over me. I allowed him to take care of me because I was physically unable to do any of it for myself at that moment.

I rolled onto my side and burrowed under the warm blanket. I slept.

The sound of laughter woke me from my sleep back from the dead. I heard Neil talking with my mother. The smooth deep roll of his voice was unmistakable to me. Just something I knew which was buried deep into my memories of the house and our time spent in it together. He’d been there so many times, and helped cook so many dinners, that hearing him gave me a feeling of nostalgia—comfort, from such long known and welcomed memories.

So, he’d stayed here after my meltdown with Denny? I couldn’t imagine why he had. Maybe Mum had pressed him to stay and eat since he wasn’t able to the night before.

Don’t think about that night.

I checked my bedside clock.

I’d been asleep for four hours. What in the hell had they been doing for all of that time I wondered. Well, no, scratch that. I didn’t want to know. The two of them were peas in a pod and they always had been. My mother and Neil had no problem spending time together period.

I hauled myself out of bed and into the bathroom. Bloody hell, I looked a fright. Like a cross between a bush baby and Lily Munster: my eyes were so wide, and my skin so pale.

This repair job was gonna take an extra minute or two.

I went to work on brushing my teeth, washing my face and combing out the rat’s nest camouflaged within my hair. I decided on some yoga pants, and a long jumper in pink with blue piping at the neck, hem and sleeves. It was really soft and I could sort of hide in it which was exactly the look I was going for that moment. I pulled my hair up into an untidy knot and shoved my feet into my baby-blue UGGs.

In fact I’d love nothing more than to hide in my room for the next week, but I knew my mother, and she would never allow such a thing. Not when we had a guest in our home. I was surprised she hadn’t already been in to drag me out.

“Elaina?” She tapped on my door and called through.

Think of the devil and she appears as if by magic.

“I’ll be out directly, Mum.” I answered.

I sprayed on a spritz of Light Blue by D&G and took a deep breath.

Time to face the music. Or rather the Mummy and McManus foodie show.

I followed the sound of their chattering down the hall and into the kitchen. Huge surprise there. My inner sarcasm was going to have to take a back seat for a bit, I realized. This was not the time or place to let loose with it.

I watched them for a moment, working together from the doorway. I had to admit they were rather adorable as I listened in on their conversation. Neil had called her Mum for years and years, and was as much of a son to her as Ian. This was very apparent to me as I eavesdropped and observed, both of them wearing matching chef aprons, Mum with her hi-ball glass of G&T, and Neil with his Guinness.

I headed for the coffee pot and the cup cupboard.

“How was your sleep?” he asked to my back as I dumped sweetener into my coffee.

“Very much needed,” I said, shielding myself behind the enormous mug and taking a sip of scalding sweet coffee.

Mum came over and felt my forehead with the back of her hand. “Darling, I hope you’re not ill with some horrible flu. Probably didn’t help you were out walking in the freezing rain last night.”

I ignored her reminder about the very traumatic events of the previous evening. I could only take so much. The night’s revelation had gotten me out onto the proverbial ledge and ready to jump. After what Cora revealed, when we spoke in the park, I was barely clinging on by my fingernails.

“No worse for wear, Mum,” I lied, pressing a kiss to her cheek.

I plastered on my best smile and beamed it in Neil’s direction, faking my cheerfulness all the way.

“What are you two concocting for our dinner? Sounded like quite the party going on in here.” I made a face. “In fact you woke me up with it.”

Neil leaned up against the butcher block counter and studied me. Totally relaxed in his jeans and long sleeved black shirt with the sleeves pushed up. Such a beautiful man. He’d grown into his big body—even more handsome with the added years of maturity than he’d been when he was younger. His hair was lighter than I remembered though, as if he bleached the ends. He had a new tattoo on his forearm too. I knew exactly what it was as soon as I saw it. Jimi Hendrix’s signature. So very Neil to get that inked on to his skin.

It wasn’t easy to see him like that and not remember what that body looked like without the clothes. And when he was making love to me with it.

Okay, that hurt. I gave myself an emphatic and harsh mental slap on the hand. No more wandering thoughts about the past or what I’d walked away from. I couldn’t indulge or I’d never make it, and Mum and Ian would be visiting me at Bethlem Hospital where I’d be wearing a tight white coat with a very long wraparound belt.

“Well if you didn’t wake up you’d never be able to get to sleep tonight,” he said, taking a drink of his Guinness.

“Right,” I said dismissively. “So what are we having?” I peered toward the oven. “Whatever’s in there smells divine.” I inhaled.

“That’s Mum’s perfect roast beef and potatoes,” Neil told me.

“Oh, but Neil went out and bought the nicest piece of beef while you were sleeping, Elaina. He’s thought of everything, even a lovely dessert he’s going to make for us later,” Mum chattered cheerfully.

“Ahh, nice. What will you make?” I asked.

“Fool.”

“That sounds…umm…interesting?—I think.”

He laughed. “A fool is nothing more than cooked fruit stirred into freshly whipped cream. Easy, right? If I can make it, then anyone can.”

“And tell Elaina what the cooked fruit is, dear,” Mum told him with barely suppressed glee.

“Oh, yeah, I thought about it and decided to go with…cherries.” He gave me a boyish grin and pursed his lips together to keep from laughing outright.

I rolled my eyes. “Funny. You two are absolutely hilarious together. Make sure to top my portion of Fool with extra fruit, please.”

The act I was playing would be difficult to maintain for much longer before I snapped. It was all fun and games until somebody got hurt, just as the old saying went. I could only march in step for so long before I fell out of formation. The more attention he paid me—the sweet gentle teasing, the kind remarks, the smiles and winks—the worse I felt. It just taught me more about what I’d left behind. What I’d never really have for myself again.

Oh, it was nice that we could be civil to one another now. The über awkwardness was behind us it seemed, but how was I supposed to just go forward with Neil? Former lovers now friends? And for how goddamn long could I stand it? Working at BSI was going to be torture. I should probably start looking for another job.

The utter emptiness inside me, the lack of motivation to find anything remotely good about this scenario with Neil and me, had just up and died.

Later, after dinner had been cleared away and we were onto our Cherry Fool, which had turned out very nice, the fun and games just got more surreal.

“Neil darling, tell Elaina all about your wonderful inheritance.”

“Oh, I’m sure she doesn’t want to hear about that, Mum,” he said, focusing on his creamy dessert as a way to avoid the topic.

My ears perked up instantly. Again, I’m the last person on earth to know things about Neil, and the details of his life. But whom did I have to blame for that? I breathed and told my fluttering heart to settle down and start getting used to it.

“Yes I do,” I blurted.

“Yes she does,” Mum said, speaking at the same time as me.

Neil’s eyes softened as he looked up at me and I knew what he was on about.

You’re trying to gentle the blow because you know how badly I’m struggling with this.

He knew me so well.

“You’ve gotten an inheritance? But from whom?”

“A great uncle I’d never met. He was the brother of my gran. No living children and I was his closest blood relative.” He shrugged. “Nobody was more surprised than me.”

“When did this happen?” Stupid question to ask him. You know the answer will hurt.

“While I was still deployed.” He shifted his body in the chair. “The solicitors had to wait on me to come home. It was months before I could get up there to see the place.”

If I’d stuck around I could have helped him while he was gone.

“Yes, and Neil has a beautiful house on an estate in Scotland, Elaina. There’s a good deal of land for hunting and a lake where you can fish from a boat. Ian’s been up there with him on hunting weekends before. The land is so stunning in photos…oh, and tell her about the cherry trees, darling.”

He looked uncomfortable while Mum gushed about the lovely Scottish country estate that everyone in the world knew he owned, but me, apparently.

I set down my spoon and focused on him, giving him my full attention and a smile. Somehow I knew what was coming would be painful to hear. Premonitions happen sometimes and this one was gonna hurt.

“There are cherry trees on the property,” he began. “An unusual variety that blooms twice in a year. In the early spring of course, but in autumn, after all the leaves have changed their colours and fallen down…they come into bloom for a second time. They call it Autumn Cherry.”

That’s not fair.

When he finished speaking, I blinked to keep my eyes from flooding. I thought I did a pretty good job considering the words that had just come out of his mouth, and the hidden meaning within them. They come into bloom for a second time.

“It sounds very lovely. I hope to see pictures some time. And congratulations, I’m so happy for your good fortune.”

He nodded his head in acknowledgement.

I pushed my chair out and got up from the table with a smile…I think. I was certainly trying my hardest to pull it off anyway.

“You know…I’m going to have to excuse myself for the night.” I brought my hand up to my temple. “My head is just pounding something awful and I think the best thing for me is to just give it up and get back in bed.”

Neil’s soulful eyes rested on me as I babbled away; no judgment, none of the harsh anger I’d seen in them before, just kindness and acceptance. I couldn’t look into them anymore. Too painful to realize I would never be the recipient of those eyes looking at me out of love.

“Mum, Neil, thank you for a smashing meal. It was superb. Goodnight.”

Neil pulled up to his feet in deference to me standing, his manners still functioning perfectly after all the years of training by his gran.

“It was my pleasure.”

I turned and left the dining room. I held myself together until I was just in the doorway—when I heard him say it.

“Feel better, Cherry.”

My legs actually gave out enough to cause me to lose step when he said it. Like the slice of a blade across the back of my Achilles. Or across my heart.

I would have made it safely out of there if he hadn’t called me Cherry.

Damn you to hell, Neil McManus.

20

Elaina avoided me like the plague during the following week. I watched her carefully to see if I could make a crack in that armor she’d built up, but had very little success. She would talk to me, and that was about it.

I left things on her desk when she was away from it. I’d offer to take her home after work hoping I could get her alone for an hour or two and make some real progress, but she ditched me at times when I was unable to leave, or made Ian drive her.

I didn’t give up though. I had some hope you see.

I’d been there when she’d learned the truth about Cora and me, and seen what the revelation had done to her. The truth—opposed to what she’d believed all these years—had devastated her.

Elaina had rage, anger and great regret brewing inside her over our break up. I’d seen her go after Tompkins and witnessed the raw fury that possessed her when she was told about the alliance between Cora and Tompkins to break us apart. I’d never known about their illicit deal, and it was probably a very good thing because I would be locked up for murder right now, no doubt.

The attack at the pub had been the great leveler, an event which opened everyone’s eyes to what had really happened, and to the choices that had been made nearly six years ago. By her. By me. Elaina wasn’t the only one at fault. I’d not gone after her or forced her to see the truth when I should have done. I allowed her to believe a lie because my pride was too great to take the fall on the idea that someone who loved me could just let me go like that.

Yeah, the scars from the past are cocksuckin’ motherfuckers, aren’t they?

But I figured something out about her and me. I learned that regret gets you nothing but a bigger pile of shit to shovel around. And so I made a decision. I decided not to muck around in the regret shit pile for even one more day.

It was impossible for Elaina to convey an aura of not caring about me anymore, when I’d seen her try her damnedest to kill the man responsible for tearing us apart. With my own eyes.

Being optimistic with the hope that she still loved me did not seem like such a stretch anymore.

Now all I needed to do was to convince her of it.

I’d arranged for some subtle hints like the florist arrangements in reception, but cherry blossoms in blue vases weren’t going to cut it and send her back into my arms, or my bed. Not with the way she was locked down so tight. I believed we could get past the hurt and misconceptions. I believed we could love each other again. If I wanted her in my life, then I needed to step up my game.

And my Cherry Girl needed a push.

Earlier in the week a notice had been delivered from the Personnel department for me to report for scheduled self-defense training. The gist of the email was this: all employees were required to take a basic course in self-defense maneuvers. As BSI provided security for high profile clientele, one could never assume a lunatic wouldn’t show up with grievances. To that end all staff must be thoroughly trained in defense to be prepared in the event of such an incident.

What a pleasant thought. Especially as my desk was the first line of defense for said lunatic if they came to see us via the forty-fourth floor. They better teach me some damn good moves then.

At lunch that day, Frances gave me directions of how to get to the training facility and what to expect. I checked my watch. Three more hours.

All week I’d had Neil up my arse demanding I allow him to take me home. I’d always said no, or tried to find an alternative through Ian. If the weather cooperated, I brought good shoes for walking in my bag and changed at the station. Unfortunately the weather was not my friend at the moment. Pouring rain and very cold, just like the night Neil and I had our blow up. The reminder of that night put me in a very foul mood, and because I knew he’d insist on taking me home anyway.

Aaaand, there was his email sitting in my inbox when I got back from lunch.

TO: emorrison @bsiltd.co.uk

No ditching me today. I’m driving you home. N

I had a legitimate excuse to use on him though, and that made me grin as I replied to his message. I was not going to allow him to bully me over it. Quite frankly I didn’t even know what he was doing lately. Leaving coffees and treats on my desk when I stepped away. Emails. Texts. He had to be watching me on a security cam in order to know when I left my station. Privacy much, Neil? And what a waste of his work day. I was thoroughly annoyed with him.

TO: nmcmanus @bsiltd.co.uk

No, I can’t. Have a required self-def. training class today after work. E

Take that, Mr. Overbearing, I thought as I pressed send.

My victory was very short lived.

That and the fact he must’ve been sitting at his desk with his email open because he replied almost instantly.

TO: emorrison @bsiltd.co.uk

I’ll wait for you to finish your class then.

His response made me angry and I told myself I wasn’t going to stand for it another second. I kept reminding myself of that as I left my station and passed through the doors. I marched my way straight down to his office.

His secretary, Susie, smiled at me as I passed by her desk. I smiled back and said hello as if it were the most normal thing in the world to storm into Neil’s office with intent to murder him. No apologies for speaking the truth.

Then I barged in.

His head snapped up from where he’d been studying his computer screen. Probably composing another direct command to me via email.

“No you won’t.” I said tightly, my arms folded beneath my breasts.

The corner of his mouth turned up a little as if I amused him. It made me want to smack it off him.

“Oh I most definitely will, Elaina,” he said very softly.

His jaw ticked and his eyes roved over me leisurely. From the strappy black heels on my feet, up my legs, over my body, to linger in the vicinity of my breasts a little longer than the rest, and then kept going north until he rested them on my face. The look he gave me was one of pure, abandoned, dirty, sex. I could feel it crackling in the air between us and the effect was one that rendered me wet between my legs and struggling for breath in an instant. If he tried anything with me I was doomed. I swallowed and tried to hold back the shiver threatening to reduce me to a quivering mass on his office floor.

He saw everything.

This is bad.

“Why—why are you doing this to me, Neil?”

“Doing what? Driving you home so you don’t have to walk in the rain?”

“Yes! No, I mean—I mean why are you doing this?”

“This?”

“Don’t be an arsehole for making me say it.”

“Sorry, babe, but being an arsehole suits me right now. What is the this that’s bothering you so much?”

“Neil…please stop. I—can’t take it from you day in and day out.”

“But you’re wrong about that, beautiful girl. You can take it.” He winked. “And you still haven’t told me what the this is, Elaina. He tilted his head at me then, now he was the one with arms folded.

I can’t take him calling me beautiful girl and winking at me, I do know that! I was so out of here.

“Well, I’m waiting.”

He was going to make me say it, the bastard. What was wrong with him at the moment, anyway?

“Pursuing me at work every day like it matters,” I finally yelled. “If you don’t want m-me—then why are you on me every goddamn day?”

Oh, God. Did I just ask that?

He stood up from his desk and took a step in my direction. He didn’t say anything as he stalked forward. I don’t know what he intended to do when he got to me, but the instinct to run flashed through my head. Neil was a dangerous predator right, and I was pretty much the helpless prey.

“What are you doing?” I demanded, backing up until I was pressed against the wall.

He just kept coming at me until I was penned in, his arms blocking an exit on either side of my shoulders.

“I’m showing you that running away is not gonna work anymore, Elaina.” He brought his face up close to my neck and inhaled. “Mmmmm…you don’t really want to run from me now anyway. I can smell it.

Dear Lord.

I shook my head at him trying to ward off the intoxication from his bloody scent of pure male domination that did far more to render me useless than alcohol ever could.

“What do you want from me?” I whispered up against his stubbly jaw, my lips so close, I could press them against his skin with barely any effort. I couldn’t hold back the whimper that escaped me.

He removed one hand from the wall and touched between my breasts with the backs of two fingers. He drew them up slowly, dragging them along my sensitive skin, higher until he reached my throat and then my neck, up my jaw and then finally to my lips.

I was so aroused; I probably could have an orgasm if he told me to. It wouldn’t take much for me to arrive at that blissful place with him. It had been so long since we’d been together, but my body remembered. All. Too. Well.

He pushed his two fingers into my mouth. I let him.

“I want this, Cherry.”

He brought his lips very close to mine, his fingers still on my tongue, probing, slick from my saliva.

“I want this mouth screaming my name when I’m inside you and you’re about to come. I want you in my bed so we can fuck all night long…over and over until you’re a slave to it—just as you used to be.”

My eyes rolled back in my head, and I was really grateful for the wall because I would have slid down to the floor in a boneless heap if it wasn’t bracing me.

I had her exactly how I wanted her. Hot, sexed, and submissive. Better than I remembered. And, bloody fuckin’ hell if I was out of my mind with wanting, barely coherent of what I said to her. Or did.

It was on with my Cherry once again.

The flowery scent of her skin wound me up something fierce to the point I was thinking about nothing else but getting my cock into her. I was going for it right then with her in my office. And the fuckin’ desk would just have to do. In a few minutes it would become a literal fuckin’ desk.

I was figuring what the best maneuver would be to get her from the wall to where I could make a place to lay her out in all her cherry-haired glory so I could push my way back in. And make her see what was so clear to me. She wanted me too. I knew she did, down deep in my bones.

Oh yeah, the vision was all coming together in my mind beautifully. Me picking her up and hauling her over onto my desk. My fingers finding the button that locked the bloody door so nobody would interrupt. My mouth on her throat making its way down to savor breasts that tasted sweeter than honey. My palms pushing up the tight black skirt that caressed her arse, before moving them along to the inside of thighs I would spread wide for—

Ethan busted into my office and ruined everything.

Motherfuckin’ cunt of the world!

“Look at what’s just arrived, mate. I had to come tell you in person. It’s fucking amazing—” Ethan cut off whatever he was saying mid-speech and backed out of the door, muttering something about coming back later.

Yeah, you do that, E.

I might just have to kill him for that.

While I was mentally eviscerating Ethan for his untimely visit, Elaina made good her escape. She gave a little squeak, ducked under my arm and took off. I tried to hold her back but she was too fast and had just enough leeway to skirt the other way and bolt.

My hand snatched at empty air.

But I could still smell her. The gentle flowery scent that I loved, above all others, was still present in the room even when she wasn’t.

I went over to my desk and sat down slowly. Slow was the operative word due to the state of my cock. My dick was so hard by that point, I could have used it to punch in the numbers to dial up Personnel.

“BSI Personnel Department, Helen speaking, how may I direct you?”

“Helen, this is Neil. I need to know who’s on the board for self-defense training for Elaina Morrison, today at five.”

“That would be Terrence, Mr. McManus.”

“Thank you, Helen. Just need to free up some bodies and tweak the timing a bit. You’ve been very helpful.”

I dialed again.

“Terrence Shaw here.”

“Terrence, this is Neil. I’m going to have to pull you off the SD training for Elaina Morrison. You’re scheduled for five o’clock today. We need you on another job.”

“All right, boss. Just tell me where you want me and what time,” Terrence replied easily.

Good man that Terrence. Might need to see he gets a nice bonus at Christmas for being so agreeable.

“Right. Well something’s come up that is definitely taking priority for today. Miss Morrison will just have to be rescheduled for some time next week. Got a pen?”

I ended the call with Terrence and leaned back in my chair, feeling pretty damn smug about my master scheduling skills. I was learning how to play the game, and I had to say it felt really good to have a plan. For the first time since she’d reappeared back into my life, I knew what I was going to do.

I checked my watch.

Two hours.

Two more hours until I had her alone in a room with me.

This time? There weren’t going to be any interruptions.

21

By the time I made it back to my switchboard I was a shaking mess of confusion and worry and hormones. A stop at the loo to put myself back in order hadn’t helped much. I knew enough to realize I was in deep, serious trouble, but then I also didn’t have any earthly idea about how to get out of it either.

Neil wanted to fuck me. In his office.

And I would have let him.

What in the hell had gotten into Neil? Caveman plus Greek god equaled big problems for me. If Ethan hadn’t interrupted we would’ve been going at it hard on his desk at that moment. Jesus Christ…

I sat there for a minute and tried to process what had just happened with Neil in his office.

What did all this mean coming from him? Was he trying to torture me?

Did he just expect I would sleep with him whenever the urge struck? Was that payback just then for leaving him all those years ago? Was he just being a manipulative bastard and trying to guilt me back into his bed because he thought he might get away with it?

Well, if so, then he was a delusional bastard as well as a manipulative one. I sat and seethed in my chair, getting angrier and angrier with every moment that passed.

I opened up my email and started typing.

TO: nmcmanus @bsiltd.co.uk

If you think I’m allowing you to drive me home tonight you are bloody dreaming. LEAVE ME ALONE.

I had some hope he really got my message, both literally and figuratively, because this time he didn’t reply. Maybe some sense had been smacked into that thick head of his when the boss caught him trying to have sex with an employee on work premises. Wasn’t my fault. This one was completely on Neil. He made the mess. He could sort it out.

Once five o’clock rolled around, I’d calmed down enough to think about my self-defense class. Maybe I’d learn some techniques I could use on Neil if he tried to seduce me in his office again.

Would there be a next time? There can’t be a next time, stupid.

I told myself to shelve the matter for the time being, as I had to focus my attentions on the class I was about to attend. I left the locker room adjacent to the training facility dressed and ready. The memo had suggested comfortable clothes and shoes for the class, so I’d brought a bag along with me today with trainers and work-out gear.

I came out into the main room where I was supposed to meet the instructor, someone named Terrence. The classes were one-on-one, to maximize the benefit of the time allocated. Apparently BSI didn’t mess about when it came to this stuff.

The lights were on, and there was a Power-Point set up in the back, but I didn’t see anyone in the room.

“Hello?” I called out but was met with silence.

I walked over to the mat in the center and looked around the room. Typical work-out facility with weight machines and treadmills, free weights and assorted equipment for training in the martial arts. Probably did the whole Krav Maga thing here too. It was quite the rage and I had friends that never missed a class.

I’d keep an open mind, but I wasn’t into that sort of thing really. I preferred taking walks outside, or maybe Pilates, or yoga in the park. I was into more mellow forms of exercise than what could be had indoors behind the walls of a gym.

I heard the sounds of the double doors opening behind me and turned to see.

Not my instructor named Terrence.

Neil?

Neil. Dressed all in black, nylon joggers and a long sleeved dry-fit that followed the form of his chest and arms like a second skin.

He walked slowly towards me; his eyes predatory again as they devoured me.

“There’s been a change of instructors. I’m afraid you get me.”

“What the h-hell?” she stammered, her expression one of furious beauty, as well as utter contempt.

That’s very good. She can use it to her advantage.

“You cannot be serious,” she said, her mouth falling open in surprise.

“Oh, I’m very serious about self-defense training for all employees at BSI.”

“That’s not what I meant, Neil, and you’re very aware of it.” She stomped her foot and pursed her lips together in a sexy pout that sent my cock into instant hardness. I wanted to kiss those angry lips of hers until she yielded to the inevitable.

Me, her—gettin’ down to it. Once I cracked that hard outer shell she’d encased herself in, I’d have a way to reach her, and we could figure out the rest.

I shrugged at her and asked, “Shall we begin?” I held out my arm with the palm up, directing to a position on the mat where she should stand.

“No!” she shouted. “We’re not beginning anything.”

“You are here for a required class, yes?” I started pacing her, slowly in a circle. She turned her body to follow me. “You must be trained in self-defense.” I pointed both fingers at her. “I’m here to teach you.” I pointed my thumbs back at my chest, all the while still circling her, making her more and more uncomfortable as the seconds passed.

It’s always good to have a plan.

“But you can’t just come in here and be my instructor after what—what just happened in your office but three hours ago!”

“I don’t see any other instructors in the room, do you?” I looked around at the walls for dramatic effect. “Just me.” I tightened my circle, getting closer in distance, and watched her eyes grow dark. My taunts were making her angrier by the second.

“This isn’t right, Neil—f-for you to be doing th-this to me,” she sputtered.

“There you go again with that word, Cherry. This is such a nebulous term in my opinion. I really think I need to demand a solid definition for your usage of the word this.”

“Why are you being so cruel? Haven’t I suffered enough, you sadistic arsehole!”

“Did it make you angry, Cherry? Do you want to beat me right now for what I tried to do to you earlier in my office?”

She glared and panted in short breaths, her beautiful breasts heaving under that tight pink sports top she wore. I desperately wanted to tear it off her and see her naked tits.

Soon.

I kept at her. “I would have you know, if E hadn't come in when he did?” I held my hands out in show of surrender. “Well, you know I would've had you spread out on my desk and screaming my name in under two minutes—”

She slapped me hard right across the face, the sharp sting bolstering me to finish the task at hand.

“Shut up! Shut your dirty mouth, you bastard. Why are you saying such things to me? Why are you taunting me so cruelly?”

I held out my hands, offering my body, offering myself to her.

“That's right, Cherry, let it all out. Hit me. I can take it. Say what it is that's made you so very, very angry with me. It is me, isn’t it? It’s me that you’re angry at.”

She paused, breasts still heaving, her fury on the verge of release when I let her have the rest.

“Time for the truth now, beautiful girl. Come on.” I gestured toward my chest. “No more lies, no more fading away into the background and giving up. Truth only. Say it out loud so I can hear you! SAY THE FUCKIN’TRUTH TO ME NOW.”

She hit me over the chest, arms and face, with all the wrath of a volatile female, enraged, and fighting her way closer to me with every smack and slap she dealt out.

“You didn't come for me. You should have come for me in Italy, and told me the goddamn truth. You let me believe in something that kept us apart. I loved you, and you let me stay away when you could have come for me! YOU DID THAT, NEIL.”

She collapsed against my body then, crying in great anguished sobs, the fight gone out of her, the truth finally revealed.

I held her close and cradled her head against my chest. Against my heart where she had always been, even when we were apart. Where she would always be.

“I know,” I said against her ear so she could hear me clearly.

I took her face in my hands and lifted it up. My Cherry’s face was wrecked with tears, and streaked with black eye makeup, and yet, the quiet stillness of her as I held her there to me, made her appear so beautiful. It was the truth of the moment I guess. We were finally there on the same page, at the same time, reading the same fuckin’ book.

“I know, I know, I know, Cherry Girl. I was so wrong. I should have come for you.” My thumbs caressed her cheeks as I held her, trying to make her understand. “I am so sorry.”

I kept her face very close, held in my hands and brought my lips to hers.

She flinched.

“Let me, Cherry. Let me in now,” I whispered softly, my plea both a request and a command.

I tried again, and this time she accepted my kiss. Her soft lips quivering under mine in beautiful acquiesce. I deepened the kiss. I showed her all we'd missed in the intervening years. I showed her how good it could feel to have your lover's tongue in your mouth. I showed her my love.

From there, things got crazy, to the point I was supremely grateful for disabling the video surveillance for this room.

I walked us to a padded wall and set her back up against it. Nothing was going to stop me this time. Nothing.

Not even her.

Neil’s hands were all over me; his tongue was in my mouth, his body swallowing me up. I couldn’t do much more than let him take me.

I was on fire, everywhere, and my mind was lost in the taste and the scent of him as we consumed each other in the training facility room, up against a padded wall.

He jerked up my sports top and growled when my breasts spilled out. It was a sound of hunger and emotion as he looked at me. My nipples were already hard, aching to feel his mouth on them again.

I threw my head back into the wall in ecstasy, when I felt that first exquisite touch of his tongue tasting my skin. He sucked, and bit, and licked at my nipples, and made me delirious with need. I held the back of his head to my breasts as he worked them over.

“I need you now,” he said on a harsh breath.

“Yes…” Nearly incoherent with desire, I didn’t care we were in a public room. Didn’t care. Didn’t think about anything beyond Neil and being as close together as we could get.

He’d already pulled away and dropped down to his knees. His hands went up to the waistband of my yoga pants and yanked them down. Hard. Knickers came with. He put his lips on the mound of my pussy and kissed softly, as if he were giving it a sweet greeting after so long being parted.

Well, it felt like it. My body knew his as intimately as was possible to know, and yet, here we were together in a brand new reality.

“Lift your foot for me,” he said, before dragging my right leg free from knickers and yoga pants in one fell swoop. He left the other leg alone. We only needed one side unrestricted to accomplish the goal here.

Neil was back on his feet and kissing me before I could hardly take a breath, his hand sliding up my hip and over to the front, covering my mound with his whole hand.

“I want you, Cherry.” He slid two fingers in between the lips. “Right here, right now.” His fingers kept probing me, going deeper through the slick wetness he’d created, to find my clit.

I cried out when he made contact, the burn so good I knew he’d make me orgasm in another minute. He plundered my mouth with his tongue and my pussy with his fingers, sliding back and forth over my clit until I couldn’t help but shout when the climax hit. His mouth over mine muffled the volume of my cries as I rode it out on his talented fingers.

I felt him working the front of his joggers with his other hand, getting his cock out and ready for me.

“Here we go, beautiful girl,” he said into my eyes as he lifted my legs off the ground and opened me up. I felt the head of his cock kiss my entrance an instant before he buried himself deep inside me. “Fuuuuck,” he moaned, “you’re tight around me.”

“Oh, God…” We both paused as we slipped into place together for the first time in many years. The awareness of what was happening between us, overwhelming. I let my thoughts drift as I clung to his strong arms. My back shifted into the soft wall over and over as the deliciously huge length of him stretched me decadently. In and out. Faster and harder we worked at it, our mouths glued together, our bodies struggling for the peak until I got there first, my inner walls clamping down reflexively around his cock.

I cried out as it happened, again, unable to move anymore, only capable of taking what he continued to give me.

Neil’s eyes burned into me as he started to come, his penis growing harder and fuller as it jerked and swelled in the peak of his own orgasm.

Time slowed and mellowed, our foreheads pressed together, Neil still gently rocking into me, but now in the way of a caress. He kissed me softly, lovingly. It all felt very beautiful and right, but as my body came down from the high of the sex, reality dawned about what we had just done together.

“I’m going to put you down, okay?”

I nodded, the lingering pleasure being replaced by worry.

He pulled out of me carefully and set my legs down to the floor, steadying me until I had my balance. I felt so much wetness this time. I realized it was more than I’d ever felt before, just as I looked down upon a stream of shiny semen rolling down my thigh.

“Oh no…you didn’t have a condom.” I bent down to the floor to franticly thread my foot back into the open leg of my knickers and yoga pants, now feeling panic about what Neil would think, or say.

I pulled them on and my sports top back down to where I was decent and thought about running out the door. I really did.

Neil must have made an accurate assessment of my emotional state because he grabbed me by the upper arms and held me firmly to him. “It’s okay, beautiful girl. Everything is okay.”

“But—but we didn’t use—but you came insi—”

Neil kissed me on the lips, probably to shut me up more than anything, but it did help a little. “It doesn’t matter,” he shook his head slowly back and forth, “because I don’t care about condoms anymore with you.”

I started to cry, all the emotion was just too much and I needed some privacy. “I—I need to get myself cleaned up and d-dressed to go home.”

“Shh, don’t be scared. It’s okay, Cherry. I’ll help you.” He kept running his hand over my hair as he soothed me with words.

“Neil?”

“I know a place. Come with me.” He held my hand and wouldn’t let go. Not one time did he release my hand as we took the lift back up to the forty-fourth floor, or later when he snuck us through a back entryway, that led to a locked door, which opened into a private suite behind his office. “This is mine and nobody else has access but me.”

“I can take a shower?” I asked, now very unsure about everything and everyone. Even myself.

“Of course.” He still had my hand in his and brought both up to his lips and pressed them in a soft kiss to the back of mine.

“What happens now, Ne—”

He kissed me firmly on the mouth, a demanding kiss of entitlement, his tongue pressing forward to find mine, moving in deep swirls. He finished in his own time, the intent to take charge of the situation very clear in his method.

“I’m keeping you here.”

“What?” I asked him, my arms now clasped around his neck, holding on to keep my legs from buckling and sending me to the floor.

He smiled at me and found my lips again for another kiss, this one sweet and gentle and slow. My legs didn’t feel any stronger.

“You’re staying with me. Tonight…in this suite.”

22

I knocked. “Elaina? Is everything all right?”

Nothing but the sound of the shower running.

Her silence worried me a little. The explosive nature of our reunion only verified how much of a struggle she was having with our training-room shag, and all of the emotions attached to it. Hell, I was dealing with more emotions than I cared to, myself. But more importantly, I didn’t want her thinking too much.

Over thinking things was often the path to doom. We were both guilty of that one.

No, I wanted my Cherry Girl alone and private just as we were, dependent upon me to show her the way back…to the idea of us.

My plan was still intact.

I knew what she needed, and I would make sure she got every little bit of it.

I tried the doorknob after a minute and surprisingly, it opened. I stepped into the steamy air of the bathroom. There she was just sitting in the shower, her back up against the wall and her arms wrapped around her knees. She looked lost, biting down on her bottom lip by pulling the whole thing under her teeth. I wanted to suck and nibble on that bottom lip until she was breathless and not thinking about things that scared her anymore.

My beautiful girl needed me right now. She was also gloriously wet and naked.

I didn’t say anything, just stripped down to my skin.

Naked was the way to play this. There would be no boundaries between us then. And keeping her naked would keep her in the room with me. She couldn’t run away if she didn’t have anything to wear. I had some intelligence after all.

Her eyes flipped up to watch me as I undressed. And then, they widened when my shirt came off. That was the moment I knew. I knew that she saw it.

I stepped in and sat down opposite her on the shower floor. Face to face, body to body, hot water falling between us, droplets from the spray bouncing everywhere, coating our skin and hair. Wetting us both.

Elaina reached out her hand and touched my tattoo with trembling fingers. “You got this to remember us?” she whispered in awe.

“I did.”

“It is beautiful,” she whispered again, as she traced the design with a fingertip, studying the ink carefully. “A dragonfly in the cherry blossoms…”

“Beautiful like you, Cherry.”

“Why did you have it done?—You got it…p-put on after I was…gone?” Even with all the water falling around us, I could see the tears pooling in her eyes as she asked the questions.

“Because I never stopped loving you and knew I never would. I wanted you forever in my skin.”

A sob came up from out of her throat in a burst of air. She closed those glassy dark blue eyes of hers, and her whole body softened in what looked like great relief.

“So did I,” she said softly, her eyes still closed and her lips still quivering.

Then she turned her back to me slowly, her head tilted to the side, extending her elegant neck. She reached around and pulled her wet hair off to the left, leaving her right shoulder exposed. As I gazed at her perfect skin, I almost stopped breathing when I saw the most stunning tattoo of cherry blossoms and branches done in sky blue and pink. It was very Asian in design and exotically inked, and also larger than I would expect for her slim body. Elaina didn’t have any other tattoos, so for her to have such an impressive image placed permanently on her back, was a gesture of how meaningful our relationship was to her.

Fate can be beautiful and that was an example of one of those times. Don’t ever forget such moments...or the gift of them.

My heart skipped a beat or two as I stared. I’d forgotten about what Ian had told me—his cryptic drunken comment about me not being the only one to have a cherry blossom tattoo. I’d been so focused on the events playing out between us, that it had slipped my mind. She’d never worn any clothes that would allow it to show.

“I wanted you forever in my skin too, Neil.”

I traced the air above the design with my finger, just the tiniest little bit above the skin so I wouldn’t wake her. I wanted you forever in my skin too, Neil.

My Cherry was in bed with me and she was asleep. I didn’t want to disturb her but that didn’t stop me from looking and enjoying.

She lay on her side—her body stretched out like a Greek goddess on a dais—the sheet partially draping over her body, but showing enough skin to make me want her again.

The wanting would never be a problem for me. I only had to think about her naked and I was ready. I’d had so many years of practice doing that, you see. Too fuckin’ many.

I vowed I would never be in that situation again with her though. Aching for her when she was lost to me. Afraid of trusting in the only person that could make it right for my heart. So much wasted potential. Wasted time.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked in a sleepy voice.

“You’re awake, Cherry Girl?”

She rolled back over to face me, placing her two hands under her cheek on the pillow. “I am.”

Her eyes moved over my face, studying me with the contented expression of a satisfied female. She looked happy again. She looked peaceful.

She had the look of a woman who was staying with me.

An expression I would have killed to have seen, if only for just one time, in the last six years.

“I was thinking about how beautiful a sight it is to have you naked in my bed. To have you close enough, where I can reach out and touch your warmth just like this.”

I brought my hand to one of her breasts and caressed its softness, plumping the swell first and then ending with my fingers, drawing on her nipple, making it harden.

She gave me a sexy purr and a half smile.

“To smell the scent of you and me, after we’ve been making love together.”

I buried my nose at her chest and drew it up, inhaling the unmistakable smell of sex, mixed with her intoxicating scent.

She arched her body closer and breathed a little heavier. My words and deeds were getting her hot.

“To taste the sweet flavor of you.”

I covered her whole mouth with mine and plunged my tongue inside for a thorough taste, while my fingers found their way into her pussy lips for a slippery welcome. I pulled my hand back and popped those three fingers into my mouth, sucking everything off in a decadent show.

Another sexy moan as her eyes flared wide. Yep, she was getting’ hot for more.

“To show you just how much I love you, and that I can never bear to be without any part of you, ever again.”

She looked down at our bodies under the sheets, seeing how hard my cock was, yet again, how much desire I had for her.

“I’m thinking about how I’m the luckiest fuckin’ bastard on the planet because you’re here with me.”

I rolled her onto her back, splitting her legs very wide with my hands behind her knees, making her calves rest on my arms. I sank my hips down into all that heaven of hers to find my center target. My cock aligned perfectly against her pussy, and I loved the flare of her eyes, and the breathy sound from her throat, that intimate contact brought out in her as our parts touched.

She wanted more from me and my lad, and that was pretty much all I needed to know. Lad was willing, ready and able. Time to let him go again.

We’d been shagging determinedly since she showed me her tattoo in the shower. Making love so many times, I couldn’t imagine she wasn’t sick of me by now. Not a condom in sight. Felt too good going bare inside her to even consider. I hoped she didn’t mind if we had lots of kids because I’d never wrap up again with her.

But, by some miracle, she wasn’t sick of me, because she her eyes didn’t lie. She had the look I remembered from long ago.

My beautiful girl was perfect in every way, and she showed me just how perfect by welcoming me every time. Every fuckin’ time. And it was so good. So good it belied words for expression.

How blessed was I.

“And I can do this,” I murmured roughly, finding her hands with mine and bringing them up over her head, pinning her underneath me, preparing her body to take me in.

She gasped in a breath, her eyes flaring up at me in submissive passion, her lips parting on the gasp.

I thrust deeply— as far as I could go—the swift, sweet burn of her tight inner muscles clenching around my cock, in a sensation of pleasure so intense, it pulled a shout from me.

“Ahh, yes!” she cried, accepting the whole hard length, and curling her fingers into mine where they intertwined.

I was lost. We could do this over and over and each time it felt better, more intimate, more effortless in the way we moved together, greater perfection in the way she accepted me.

We went slower, at a more leisurely pace, but no less intense than the other times. Making love to Elaina was not something to be rushed after all. I would always want to make it last.

I held her arms up with one hand and filled her with as much of me as I could manage. Cock, tongue, the fingers of my other hand. Whatever I could lick, penetrate, suck, or touch on her body, and still keep the pace.

I wanted another explosive climax out of her. I wanted to see the orgasm on her face when it happened. I wanted to feel the convulsive grip around my cock, and to hear the words she used to shout at me when she came.

The words.

I wanted the words from my Cherry, again.

Words that meant everything to me in regards to us.

Our rhythm increased, long slick slides of coming together, then moving apart before colliding into each other again and again and again.

I helped her along by circling her swollen clit with two fingers.

“I’m—I’m…c-c-coming,” she moaned with the softest whisper, “Neil...”

Such a beautiful sound and so fuckin’ sexy, it made me start to go off. My balls tightened up the instant she told me, rendering me a slave to her sweet cunt wrapped so tightly around my swelling cock.

Say it, Cherry. Say the words to me.

I kept going, plunging harder…faster…deeper.

She started to shudder and shake. Her mouth opened in an O and her head fell back, pushing out her breasts in a beautiful arch.

Say it!

I could feel the contractions of her walls gripping and the burn down low, right before the spunk shot up the shaft.

Fuckin’ say it, beautiful girl. I was gonna die if I didn’t hear the words from her.

“I love you!” she cried.

“Again,” I returned, still riding her hard.

“I love you so much, Neil.”

I shattered.

There is no other word to express my experience in that moment. The orgasm shattered me. Elaina’s declaration shattered me. My love for Elaina, and her acceptance of that love, shattered me. My Elaina loving me back, shattered me.

We crystalized together in a volcanic culmination of intimacy and pleasure that could only be felt. No description possible.

Minutes later we were still panting. Bodies still joined, hearts still pounding, separated only by the skin and bone that encased them.

“I see something worrying you on that beautiful face of yours.” I traced her brow and then moved down her jaw, and finally to her lips, which were puffy and red from what I’d been doing to them for hours. “What is it?”

“You have to drive me home soon.” She yawned sleepily.

Umm…I have you naked in my bed. Do you think I am fuckin’ stupid, beautiful girl? I couldn’t help the grin that spread over my face. “Well, I think you must have forgotten something you said to me earlier then.”

“I’m sure I said a great deal of things to you earlier.”

“You did. Things like ‘yeeees’, ‘don’t stop’, and ‘give me more of your big cock, baby.’”

She poked me in the ribs and tried to get in a tickle but I grabbed her hand, knowing I was in for a lifetime of sneak attacks now that she knew my secret.

“You pompous idiot, I did not say that,” she laughed.

“But this one I have in writing, Cherry. You sent me an email at precisely 2:58 pm that said, and I quote, ‘if you think I’m allowing you to drive me home tonight you are dreaming.’”

She smiled as understanding dawned and shook her head at me. “You still haven’t worked it out quite right, mister. What I actually said was that you were ‘bloody’ dreaming.”

I couldn’t resist a kiss and gettin’ in a good handful of her perfect arse cheeks, pulling her against my hips so she could feel what her body did to mine.

“Ahh, right you are. So in deference to your earlier wishes, I’m going to have to turn you down now, on taking you home.”

“Hmm…well, you are a very conflicted person then, aren’t you?” She raised a brow and clucked at me.

“No. Not at all. Why do you say that?”

“I seem to remember that I told you to ‘leave me alone’ as well, and you certainly ignored that request.” She pointed her eyes down below my waist where my cock was half-hard again. “Obviously.”

She laughed out loud, the sound of her making me so happy. Hearing the easiness in her, knowing we could amuse each other with silly idiotic comments and teasing, was incredible.

“I love you,” I said.

“I love you,” she said.

“But I’m still not taking you home.”

She frowned at me and pulled her lip into a pout. “I have no clothes for work in the morning.”

“Where are your clothes from today?”

“I suppose they’re still in my bag in the ladies locker room down at the training facility where you seduced me.”

I chuckled, realizing her sharp wit was going to give me lots of enjoyment from here on out. “You want me to go down there and get your bag for you?”

The warm feelings of amusement died a quick death when she glared at me like I had all of the intelligence of an earthworm. “I can’t wear the same clothes to work as yesterday. People will know.” Apparently I had a great deal to learn about ladies clothing etiquette. She shook her head at me and yawned again, covering her mouth with the back of her hand.

I pulled her close, pressed my lips to her hair, and stroked down the long silky length of it with my fingers. I loved touching her cherry hair, and gratefully, she already knew that about me, and had never minded my obsession. “I’ll take care of it. Go to sleep now, Cherry.”

She was soft and pliable in my arms, snuggling in and getting comfortable for sleep when I heard her tell me again in a drowsy voice. “I love you.”

The sweetest words.

The alarm on my mobile woke me. It took me a moment to figure out exactly where I was, but the soreness of my body reminded me as soon as I stretched. I looked around the en suite he had secreted back behind his office. Was this one of those bachelor pads used for meaningless sex? I had to admit, it didn’t fit Neil’s style from what I remembered, and yet, as I studied the pristine condition of everything from bed sheets to wall art, the place didn’t appear to be used very often, either.

Where was he anyway?

Regardless of wherever Neil was, I had to shower as soon as possible and dress in my work-out gear so I could hop on the train for home. I couldn’t very well show up to my workstation in what I’d worn the previous day, and I certainly couldn’t wear trainers and sports bra with my skirt from yesterday either. I needed appropriate clothes to work in, and even though it would make me late to go home and get them, it couldn’t be helped. I looked at the time again and bolted for the shower.

Washing my body in Neil’s shower was almost something I didn’t want to do. In a way, I was washing him away. So much sex last night. He’d made good on what he’d said to me in his office yesterday… I want you in my bed so we can fuck all night long…over and over until you’re a slave to it—just as you used to be.

He’d gotten his wish. I was a slave to it again. And we had.

I hurried in the shower, becoming more nervous about the time.

When I stepped back out in the bedroom I saw there had been a sneaky delivery.

The bed was made and laid out upon it was my Burberry wool dress, brown on the top with a black skirt, boots, and my blue plaid overnight bag. I checked the bag and found my brush and hairdryer, make-up kit, knickers, bra, perfume, tights…everything I needed to prepare myself for the work day. Amazing.

He really was good.

I saw a note poking out from under the bag.

Cherry,

Thank you for staying. For that precious gift you gave to me. I can’t ever take back what I said to you last night. It’ll never change for me. The evidence is inked onto my skin forever. And onto yours too. I love you, beautiful girl.

xo N

P.S. I snuck out and got some things from your mum so you can get ready for work. I’m stealth that way and she loves me tons, plus she always answers my texts. (don’t be jealous)

P.P.S. If you’re wondering where I am, it’s down in the training facility [where I seduced you] having a work out. I need to keep strong so I can continue to take care of you as a good man should. XOX

I pulled his letter to my chest and held it there. And cried for how happy my man had made my heart.

23

“Please tell me it’s safe to come in this time.” E stuck his head in through the door after he rapped on it. “Are we behaving today? And more importantly, do I need to secure some legal representation—you know, somebody specializing in sexual harassment in the workplace?”

I looked at him and gave him my best deadpan expression, letting him continue on with his spiel, as he seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.

“Although, you must realize it will be a bit tricky as legal just happens to be related to the woman you’ve been trying to shag at the workplace.” He mimed a grimace. “Sounds pretty bad, like you’re going down, mate.” He stood there flapping his gob happily in the door way until I couldn’t stand it another second.

“All right, are you done yet?”

E came in and sat in one of my chairs. “Do you mind?” he asked, gesturing to his shirt pocket where he kept the smokes.

“It’s fine,” I said, watching him light up and take a drag.

He grinned at me. “Well, I’m waiting.”

“And you can keep on waiting too, because I’m not talking.”

E cocked one brow at me. “You christened the en suite too. Impressive, mate. When you jump, you really go in at the deep end.”

“Piss off,” I told him. “How in the goddamn hell do you know that? Those suites aren’t monitored.” He’d been harassing me for years about why I never used the en suite the way he used his. I’d always told him it was a waste of money on me because I’d never take a woman there. Now, he’d made me a liar.

He laughed. “I saw Elaina coming out of yours, looking very…hmmm…how to describe her overall demeanor…” He tapped two fingers to the side of his head. “I know! She looked very…satisifi—”

“—Enough! You been taking fuckin’ acting lessons there, E? Better not hold out for a career in film though, because you suck at it. Best to keep your day job.”

He ignored me and kept flapping on. “Come to think of it, you look a little more relaxed yourself. Like you’ve worked some of the edge off. Was the bed comfortable in there?”

“You can stop now. Please stop before I have to shut you up. And, it will look very bad if I have to go to the brig for killing the boss, which nearly happened yesterday, by the way.”

He laughed some more, shaking his head, but then he gave me a genuine smile, something he didn’t do very often. “I’m glad for you, mate. I really am. She’s lovely and you both deserve this.”

“Thanks.” I sighed deeply. “Six years is a long time to wait for someone. But we’ve worked everything out now, and…well, I’m just not letting her out of my sight again.”

He nodded thoughtfully, losing the teasing tone and becoming serious as he smoked his clove cigarette in my office. “Six years…yeah, that is a long time.” I could imagine where his mind may have taken him in the moment. Poor bastard had been through the worst kind of hell and survived it intact, when most men would have ended the pain and taken the easy way out. Lots of veterans came back with demons and did just that. His experience in the war amounted to the very worst there was, but yet, Captain Blackstone still had bollocks of steel, and the Victoria Cross to prove it.

“You love her.” He didn’t ask, but simply made a statement.

“Completely.”

“Ahh.” After another moment of reflection he asked, “How did you know you loved Elaina?”

“It’s not something you have to figure out, E. The decision is made for you. When the right girl comes along…you’ll already know.”

He shook his head in dismissal as if he couldn’t imagine such a thing ever happening to him. Lots of women had tried their best to catch him. I’d witnessed it for years, but I’d never seen him even look at any of them beyond a shag or two. Everyone knew Blackstone did not do repeat business with pussy.

I remembered to ask him why he’d come to find me. “Hey, what were you on about yesterday when you busted in here, anyway? You never said what was so important.”

His expression changed again. This time to one of pride. “Guess which firm got tapped to secure the RF at the Games?”

“Her Majesty?” I couldn’t help bolting up out of my chair in excitement for what this meant for BSI. This was bloody huge.

“Yeah. They asked us to do it.” Ethan was grinning from ear to ear.

TO: emorrison @bsiltd.co.uk

How did you like your breakfast? xo N

Since Elaina ran the switchboard, texts on her mobile were hard for her to manage. So were calls, so our best mode of communication was going to be email when at the office. Oh, I could still see her at her station via the bank of security cameras that played out doings all over the floors housing Blackstone Security International, but the most important one for me would always be reception area on the executive level, forty-four. I had Elaina programmed to display on the biggest monitor in my office.

She didn’t care for me spying, so I didn’t advertise the fact to her, but I sure loved to be able to look up and see her while I was at my desk working. It just made me happy to be able to see what she was doing, who came into the offices, watching her move around and talk to people. I’d been starved for so long; it was painful to have to look away sometimes.

TO: nmcmanus @bsiltd.co.uk

I loved the cherry scone, but I loved my clothes most of all. Thank you for the note too. You made me have tears. P.S. Good ones xxE

Her sassy comebacks made me smile, and made me hard. I would have gone out to reception and picked her up, carried her back to bed and made love to her again, if I could have gotten away with it.

TO: emorrison @bsiltd.co.uk

I have an important question to ask you. xo N

I knew she would hit me with something snarky and hilarious right back. That was the fun part. Anticipating what she would say, and knowing it would be a surprise anyway.

TO: nmcmanus @bsiltd.co.uk

Well mister, you should know that I always say ‘no’ first, to anything and everything, as a general rule. xxE

P.S. You should also know that it is not pleasant to have to imagine the texts that went back and forth between my mother and my man last night. Bleh.

That’s the Cherry Girl I knew and loved. Christ, if she only knew how many times I’d stopped by her house to help her mum when she was still away in Europe. If Ian had been off on a business trip somewhere, her mum would ring me and ask for help. And I was always happy to stop by and help the woman who’d welcomed me as a son from the very first time we’d met. But, what nobody ever knew about was how I would go into Elaina’s bedroom and look around. Sometimes, I’d touched her things, even smelled them, to see if I could find any trace of her still left behind. I didn’t like remembering that part, but felt that it was too important of an experience to ever forget. If I remembered how much we’d lost, then it would help me to make sure it never happened again.

I still had more of my plan to put into action, and wouldn’t stop until it was fully executed.

TO: emorrison @bsiltd.co.uk

You’re going to want to say ‘yes’ to this one. Trust me. As for the texts between your mum and me? Don’t think about them. See? Easy. xo N

She got busy with some clients who came through, and it was a while before she could respond. I loved to listen to the sound of her voice speaking in Italian or French on the international calls, too. It was sexy as hell, and made me so proud of her for what she’d made of herself with no help from anyone, just her own initiative.

TO: nmcmanus @bsiltd.co.uk

I think you forgot to ask me the question, Captain. Focus, please. :P

I couldn’t wait to get her to my place that night. First time. My real bed. Total privacy and the luxury of knowing where in the hell she was and what she was doing for the whole night long. And, how she was getting to work the next morning (with me), and how she was getting from work back to my place again (with me). Huge fuckin’ window, with a city lights view of London. Just thinking about it got my cock throbbing. My Cherry Girl and I had a date in front of that window coming to us.

TO: emorrison @bsiltd.co.uk

May I drive you home tonight, Cherry?

Her reply came back to me instantly.

TO: nmcmanus @bsiltd.co.uk

Yes you may. (I love it when you drive me) *blushing*

I checked the time and blew out a sigh. Five more hours. Five more hours before I could make good on my promise, and have my blushing Cherry Girl right where I wanted her.

“When may I look?” I asked impatiently. “I want to see everything.”

“In another moment. Almost there.” Neil had a hold of my hand, leading me through his flat.

I kept my eyes closed, well…only because he told me to do it. One of the unspoken, but clearly understood quirks about us—an element of that made us work so well—was the way in which he was never indecisive with me. He always knew what he wanted, how to ask for it, demand it, get it, or if he must, how to take it. This combination of his large, commanding presence made the whole package of Neil a devastating elixir.

He liked to surprise me with little things and to spoil me. He’d helped me pack enough clothes to last through the next few days of work, without the panic of one of those weird nightmares where everyone has clothes on but you. Hate those.

After leaving my house and kissing Mum on the cheek and thanking her for allowing him to take me away, he’d wined and dined me at Gladstone’s, being the romantic, thoughtful man he’d always been, and still was. The wine, and the mouthwatering vision of him across the table, had left me a little intoxicated, and I knew I couldn’t be in safer hands than his. But, at that moment, he had my scarf over my tightly closed eyes and was leading me along blind, to something inside his flat he wished to show me.

“Now?” I asked again.

He stopped us and moved behind me, placing me where he wanted me with his hands on my upper arms. Next, I felt the silk of my scarf being untied from the back of my head with his large fingers tugging gently on the fabric. I loved Neil’s fingers. They worked a kind of magic on me. He touched me with them and I became a hot mess, desperate for him to do other things to me with more parts of his body.

My eyes were still closed.

“You can open them now, Cherry.”

It took me a moment to utter any words.

“I—I can’t believe how beautiful it is.” The dark night was illuminated by the millions of fairy lights of London.

He stayed quiet.

“This is what you wanted to show me first.” I reached out a hand and touched the glass. “The view out the window.” It was indeed, stunning. A whole wall of glass extending out over the city, both the old and the new, lit up and shining against the stark midnight-blue sky.

“Yes.” I felt him step back and break contact with me.

I turned my head and saw he’d moved to a padded bolster cushion and sat down on it.

“Do you remember what I asked you to do for me the first time we made love at Hallborough?” he asked softly.

“You wanted me naked against the view in the window.”

“Yes, that’s right, Cherry. You do remember…”

“I do, Neil.” I stretched my arms up behind my neck and dragged my palms up through my hair at the back of my scalp. “And now?”

I saw him swallow deeply and his eyes widen. I liked to hear his commands, so I waited for him to tell me. I loved the look of him right then too. Like a fierce golden beast waiting until the perfect moment to pounce upon his prey. I was the prey. Lucky, lucky, me.

“Strip for me in front of this window, Cherry. All the way down to your skin…so my London view is finally made the way I’ve always needed it to look for me in this house. This window—this view—you in front of it. Do that for me now.”

I steadied my racing heart and slowly stripped for my man.

He watched me do it in silence, in stillness.

I imagined this was something more for him than just a prelude to what was certain to be an orgasmic explosion at its conclusion. This was our second beginning.

Only his eyes followed my movements. They tracked my arms as I removed my dress and dropped it to the floor. They lingered on my legs as I unzipped my boots, then peeled off my tights. They glittered when my bra came off, and flashed when my knickers were released from my hand, to land silently somewhere on the heap of garments littering the furry rug beneath my feet.

He leaned back in his position on the bolster and looked at me some more, his elbows propping up his big body, legs stretched out in front of him, ankles crossed. He seemed in no hurry to rush me, but content to savor something he’d wanted for a long time.

I gave him as much time as he wanted, content to wait for the next request.

“Turn around, and look out at the view,” he said on a breath.

I did it, totally confident in the knowledge that nobody but Neil would see me. The photographer in him had organized this so there would be no backlighting. I knew my man well.

I heard the sounds of zippers and belts and clothes coming off. The thud of shoes and trousers being discarded, the clink of metal, as things were abandoned to wherever they happened to fall.

“Move your legs apart and put your palms forward on the frame of the glass.”

A shiver rolled down my spine as I complied with his request. I waited for something to happen, becoming more aroused and needy by the second, when suddenly, I sensed him very close, although I’d not heard him moving toward me.

I could smell the spiced, clean scent of him, and I heard a long, controlled breath being released along my back.

Then…his tongue took a long, wide lick forward up the seam of my pussy.

I shouted through the contact, unable to muffle the cries of extreme pleasure as he devoured my sex with his mouth. I arched back to give him better access and gripped the window frame to keep myself upright.

He was relentless with his mouth. And his fingers—gripped my hips firmly, kneaded the flesh, and held me apart so he could continue to fuck me with his tongue, until he knew I was climaxing. Oh yes, he would know when it happened. His lips would feel me, and his tongue would taste me. Any second it would happen…

So when he pulled away, I nearly fell down to the floor and wept.

I must have made sounds of protest, because he growled at my ear, “I know, beautiful girl…I know.”

Then his cock took the place where his tongue had just been.

We both shouted together as his enormous length burrowed all the way in, bumping the wall of my cervix with a sharp luxurious sting.

“I love you so much…” he moaned at my shoulder as he reared back. And then he powered forward violently. The pace was wicked, the thrusting fierce, the pleasure intense, as he found his rhythm with me. I floated away to a place where thinking was not possible, nor important. We both knew where we were and what we were doing.

It was finally right.

So very right…when Neil fucked me against the panoramic window of his flat, that looked out upon the city of London, in all her nighttime glory… So very right…when Neil claimed me for the second time in our lives.

He brushed his hand up and down my hip absently as if he didn’t want me to forget he was there.

As if I could ever forget when he was touching me.

We were now spooning on our sides in front of the window, snuggled into the thick fur rug on the floor. The rug was so decadently soft, and although I appreciated its cushioning from the hard floor, I didn’t need its warmth. I had my man right up against me to keep me warm. My body was burning with heat anyway, from what we’d just done together, and continued simmering for a good long while. I didn’t feel like I could ever be cold again.

“Thank you,” he whispered at the edge of my shoulder, pressing his lips there before moving them on to the next spot, little soft kisses on my skin in a trail up my shoulder to my neck.

“My pleasure,” I purred.

“Yours and mine,” he said.

“I’ve still not gotten a tour of your flat yet, you know.”

“You’ve seen the only part that’s ever really mattered to me though.”

“The window was that special to you, Neil?”

“Yes.”

He was quiet for a moment and then he said, “You don’t really need a tour anyway.”

“Why don’t I?”

“Because this is your home now. You live here.”

I stiffened in shock. “I don’t remember being asked such a thing.”

He rolled me onto my back and leaned over me, his hand coming up to hold one side of my face. “Cherry, will you live here with me? Make this your home? With me?”

His chocolate eyes glittered down at me, his thumb brushing back and forth over my cheekbone. The love in his eyes answered every question I needed answering. I knew he loved me, as I loved him. I didn’t really need him to ask me, because I knew I was home. Home was Neil. I wasn’t the young girl he’d loved before though. Long years had changed us both, but my answer was really, very easy, and simple.

“I love you…so yes,” I answered him with a kiss to those precious lips of his that knew how to love me so well.

Neil got up first, and then bent down to pick me up from the rug, kissing me sweetly, as soon as he was on his feet. He smiled at me and then he started walking, carrying me off somewhere, down the hallway of my new home.

I didn’t care where, and could only imagine his intent was to show me the bedroom where I would be sleeping from that point on.

24

“Just like my brother to be out of the country when there’s work to be done.” Elaina was checking her text messages as I drove us to her mum’s. “This is what he sent me: ‘Sorry sis, off to Paris. Big clients with deep wallets have me shouting Vive la France! Scotty can do without my help just fine. He’s bigger and stronger than me. –Ian.’” She scoffed at her mobile in disgust. “What an arse.”

“But think about if he did help move you into my flat how we wouldn’t be able to get rid of him after. He’d stay for hours and hours, drinking all my Guinness and expecting us to feed him.”

“That’s a very good point, Captain.” She turned in the seat to face me as I drove, a frown marring the smoothness of her brow.

“What are you thinking about, Cherry Girl? I see those cogs in your pretty head churning something fierce.”

“Well you should be keeping your eyes on the road and not the cogs in my head,” she retorted in that sassy way that made me want to do really filthy things, involving her pouty lips and my cock.

“You can tell me whatever it is, you know.” I reached a hand over and found one of hers. “It’s in my new job description. All part of being your man.”

She pulled my hand up to her soft sweet lips and kissed my palm. “It’s Mum. She’s been drinking more in the last few days and I’m worried about why.”

“Yeah, I noticed. And you think it’s because you’re moving out of her house?”

She shook her head. “Don’t think so. I was away for years and she lived alone. I’ve only been back for a short while so she couldn’t have gotten that dependent upon me in just a few weeks. Besides, her whole point of leading me back to London was to get us back together. She wants this for us. Why would it send her down now that her wish has happened?”

“I don’t know. And you’re right, it doesn’t really make sense.” Caroline Morrison’s strength and devotion to me had sustained me for many years. Her love and support had never been questioned. In my head she took over the role of mother that my gran had previously held. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her if she needed me. “Let’s try to get her to come to the flat with us today. She can see where we’re living with her own eyes and know she’s wanted, and welcome to visit any time she likes. I’ll take you both to dinner after we get your things sorted and maybe we can do some detective tag teaming, and pull it out of her.”

She sighed into the seat and gave me a half smile. “You are aware that when we chose to adopt you, we made out the better in the deal, aren’t you?”

I shook my head. “No, darlin’. I am the luckiest man in the world. I believe that, and I never forget when I gained Ian as a friend, I gained not only a brother, but a whole family.”

The minute we entered the house I knew something was off. It was far too quiet. Neil noticed too. I could see it in how his body tensed, and in the way he moved quickly but methodically, going through the house for clues.

“Mum?” I called loudly.

Silence.

“She was expecting us. She knew we were coming at noon to pack up everything,” I reasoned, now starting to really worry.

“Her car is here. Maybe she popped in to see a neighbour or something—” He paused, tilting his head up to the ceiling as if he’d heard a noise. He pointed up. “Your attic has the pull down staircase doesn’t it?”

“Yes, but why would she go up to the attic—”

A loud thump sounded right above us.

Neil was already up to the second floor and opening the latch that released the attic staircase to come down. He started climbing before the steps had unfolded all the way.

“Is she up there?” I asked impatiently.

I heard him say, “Oh, Mum, that’s no good.”

“I am fine, dear,” Her voice sounded like my mother, but when I made it up the stairs and saw her for myself, she didn’t look at all like my mother. She was very disordered, still wearing her robe, hair not brushed, definitely intoxicated and it was barely noon.

“Mum…what’s happened?” I sat down beside her on the old chaise lounge and put my arm around her. “Did you sleep the whole night up here? It’s freezing.” I rubbed up and down her arm to get some circulation and warmth into her.

She held out a hand toward the room and then let it fall. “Oh, Elaina…” She turned her head away from me in shame and sobbed quietly. Boxes of my father’s clothes, and mementos, were opened and strewn all about us, along with an empty bottle of Bombay Sapphire and Schweppes. The most significant item though, appeared to be what looked like a letter pressed to her breast.

I tried to make eye contact but she wouldn’t look at me. She just continued to cry with her head turned away, with that paper clutched to her heart.

Neil crouched down to meet her at eye-level. “What’s this, Mum?” He took hold of the corner of the paper. “May I read? Did something in this letter upset you?”

She allowed him to pull it from her hand.

“What does it say?” I demanded, knowing full well he hadn’t had enough time to figure out what it was about.

Sometimes you just know when things are bad. The sense of dread cloaking me affirmed without a shadow of a doubt, that whatever the letter contained—it was something very ominous.

Neil’s face went pale, and my heart skipped a beat as I continued to rub up and down Mum’s arm.

“It’s from the US Department of Defense in Washington D.C.” He looked at me with compassion in his beautiful dark eyes that loved me so well, and tried to soften the blow.

My hand flew up to my mouth in a gesture to brace myself. “Dad?”

“Yes. It says they’ve identified the remains of George Morrison through advanced DNA analysis. It is a request for the wishes of the family to be made known to them so…the final resting place for his bodily remains can be, um…resolved.” Neil hated to say those words to us. I could tell it hurt him to speak them.

“Oh…Mum…” Nothing else would form on my lips. I was so stunned, trying to process what the letter was asking of us, and worried about the present state of my mother I couldn’t really come up with anything better. What was there to say? Dad was gone, as he’d been since 11, September, 2001. This certainly brought up so much of the feelings I’d put away deep, deep inside of me. They shot straight to the top of the emotional queue, all in a split second. I couldn’t even imagine how Mum dealing with it…and that she’d kept it to herself and not told her children. Well, I could see how she dealt with it. By way of a bottle of Bombay.

And that scared the absolute shit out of me.

“Mum…when did you get the letter?” Neil asked gently.

She choked out another anguished sob and said, “It came a week ago Friday.”

I was afraid to ask the next question, but knew I had to. I looked at Neil and gathered my courage because I had a feeling about what she would say. “What do you want us to do, Mum?”

She snapped her head around to look at me, took my cheek in her hand and held it there. Tears streaming down her lined, but still beautiful face, she told me what she wanted.

“My darling, please—please go there and bring him back—bring Daddy back to his home—to the family that loves him. I cannot b-bear the thought of him being…th-there all alone…and so far away from us.”

“Okay, Mum. I will go.”

I answered my mother quickly because I already knew what she was going to ask me. Also, because there was no other answer I could’ve given to her. I would go to Washington D.C. to get my father and bring him home. No matter how hard this was going to hurt, I’d do what had to be done.

“And I’ll be right there with her,” Neil said, embracing both of us into his strong arms, that thankfully could bear the weight of two broken hearts.

The mortuary at Dover Air Force Base housed the remains for victims of the Pentagon crash on 9/11. I wondered how they’d handled the hundreds of families that had come through there, grieving for lost loved ones over the past decade. I mostly worried about how they were going to handle things with Elaina. I pulled her hand, clasped in mine, up to my lips as we walked down the hallway together.

“Okay?” I asked.

Her midnight-blue eyes blinked at me solemnly, and then she nodded. “I’m really glad you’re here with me.”

“Nothing could have kept me away. Wherever you go, so must I.”

Elaina mouthed the words “love you” to me as we followed behind the servicewoman who was leading us.

She stopped us at a room that appeared to be set up, just as a viewing area in a funeral parlor would be. Darkened lighting, rich décor with stained-glass windows, and even a platform of sorts. This whole experience was eerie. The very idea that this facility had returned partial remains, so many times, to so many families—the Yanks had been forced to make a room especially for that purpose—was depressing. I worried about what Elaina would be presented with. It didn’t take profound logic to understand that there wasn’t going to be a body for George Morrison. If there had been a body for him, it would’ve been identified almost immediately, not a decade later. There would be very little for the family to claim, and I ached for my girl, and her mother, and brother over it.

“Right through here is where you’ll take possession.” Staff Sergeant Knowles gestured with her arm. “The documentation is on the altar beside your father’s remains, and you’ll take that with you as well.” She gave instructions for Elaina and spoke to her directly. “This room is yours for however long you need it. When you’d like to leave, please use the exit out the hall and to the right. As you come out of the building, you’ll see the car waiting to take you back to your hotel.” She smiled placidly, as if she’d done her small speech thousands of times and could recite it in her sleep. “Whenever you’re ready though. Again, please take all the time you need.”

Yes, Dover AFB had done this far too many times for my liking. The Yanks had a protocol, which had been honed to perfection because of it. I hated the whole thing. I hated that George Morrison had been killed in a terrorist attack. I hated that a good man had been snuffed out needlessly, as so many others had been, in a pointless war, over semantics…and ideals that would never change any minds. Stupid.

My own service in the very same war had made me somewhat of a cynic. Seeing troops die right in front of me was something my mind probably would never let go of. Lost friends and brothers, people you talked to, ate meals with. People you trusted with your life. Lost. Taken. Dead. Was hard for me to evade feelings of guilt, when I still had a life, and they no longer did. Why them and not me?

I also hated that the daughter had to be here claiming the few small bits of her father, a decade after his death so the family had something to bury. I hated what the circumstances of his death had done to Mum, to Ian, and to Elaina. It brought home the knowledge of how quickly somebody you loved could be taken away from you forever. Like Gran, like my own mother.

Sergeant Knowles gave a salute and left us, the sound of her boots in regulated step tapping out a beat as she departed, leaving us in quiet once again.

Elaina started forward to the altar, still holding tightly to my hand. She hadn’t broken down or been visibly upset by going there, but I knew it had to be very hard on her to be the one to actually make the trip. There was never a doubt in my mind about coming with her. She needed me and that was all. Family came first, no matter what. The Morrisons were my family.

We stopped at the altar and looked down at the two things placed there. An envelope and a small square box made of cardboard, with a self-closing lid and label marked with his name and address.

Elaina put her hand out and touched it. “It’s so tiny…”

I didn’t know what to say. I just put my arm around her and looked down at the small, tidy box containing some small portion of her dad.

A whole person reduced to what could fit inside a minute cardboard box.

“Let’s go now,” she said.

Elaina picked up the box and the envelope in her hands and looked up at me. Not much expression on her beautiful face, just a kind of blankness that showed me she was suffering from no small amount of shock. She had to be in disbelief at what she’d been given of her father to bring home.

“I want to leave this place.”

So I walked her outside of the building and into the sunshine. A few puffy white clouds in a clear blue autumn sky displayed above our heads. We both looked up at it and I imagined we were both thinking the same thought that didn’t need to be expressed out loud. This day was very much like the final day of George Morrison’s life.

I sat at the table in our hotel room and stared at the box. A box that held some small parts of my father inside it. So many emotions were boiling around inside my head. Things I’d put aside over the years because the passage of time does dull the ache when you have to live daily life. Also, I’d been a child when he’d died, so the more years that passed without him, made the time I’d had with my father become shorter by comparison. In a way, death is easier than letting go. When the person is gone, you have no choice but to accept that fact. Death is final. When they are still alive but lost to you, the grief stays alive.

But Mum had had many wonderful years with my dad. I thought about Neil, and how it would be for me if something like this happened to us. If he was just…gone. And there was never another chance to be together again. I shuddered. Yeah, G&T’s every day didn’t seem like something that far off the mark, when I put it in my terms. My mother had lost her husband, the father of her children, the love of her life. Who was I to judge how she handled her grief? I didn’t even know how I would present this—what should I even call it?—portion of my dad to my mother, when we arrived back home.

“Neil, I can’t bring him back to Mum in this…box. There has to be something better we can find.”

His response was to bring his hand up to the back of my neck and rub with his thumb gently back and forth. He’d been so good about everything, showing me, with his quiet strength and support, how much he loved me, and my family. I’d done a number on Neil when I’d left him six years ago. I realized now, how much my abandonment had hurt him to the point he was unreasonably worried about me going anywhere without him. I suppose he was still afraid I might not come back.

This was something I agonized over each time I saw the signs of his obsessive worry about me. It made me feel guilty and I didn’t like feeling that way. I knew he had me on surveillance in his office at work, that he could watch me at my station and hear me talking to clients and such. I was being patient with him for now, but I didn’t think it was healthy for us either.

“I saw some shops on the street like antiques and such. Maybe you can find something suitable in one of them. You want to go right now?” he asked.

“You don’t have to come with me, you know.” I sighed without meaning to. “I’ll be fine by myself. It’s just a block of shops on the same street as this hotel.”

He shook his head at me and frowned. “I’m coming with—”

“You don’t have to worry anymore, babe. I know I hurt you badly, and I own up to what I did to you by leaving like that.” I put my hand on his face. “But I’ll always come back to you. I love you and I can’t live without you. There is nothing that will ever keep me from my man again. I’ll always come back to you. Promise.”

The look he gave me nearly split my heart in two. His eyes turned glassy and he brought his head to my lap and just rested it there, saying nothing. He reached for my hand and clasped it against his lips. I ran my fingers through his hair with my other hand and we just stayed like that for a while. No words needed. We communicated just fine without them.

Decisions were permanent, and although we could regret some of them, we couldn’t call them back. I had made some poor ones. Neil had too. I guess the best we could hope for, was to love each other as honestly as possible on each day we had left together. And hope for many, many long years of those days in our future.

He still had his head in my lap when he asked, “I want to take you somewhere before we go back to London. Please?”

“Of course, my darling,” I answered immediately. “Wherever you go, so must I.”

25

From Washington D.C., Neil brought me to Scotland.

He told me he just wanted one weekend where we could rest and be together, without any distractions from work, or the myriad of other problems that had a way of taking one’s attention away from what you really wanted to be doing. He wanted me all to himself.

He’d also said that it was time for me to see his inheritance from the uncle he’d never met.

The whole idea of it still amazed me. Neil, a landowner, and from the looks of it, there was a lot of land involved.

“I can’t believe this,” I mumbled looking from the window as the car pulled into a long drive bordered with more trees.

“What can’t you believe, Cherry?” Neil was doing that thing where he liked to surprise me and gave virtually no information, just to torture me. Made me insane, but he sure seemed to be enjoying himself.

“This is a bloody estate with an enormous amount of land and, well, you made out like it was just an old house on a plot with some trees, not something out of Pride and Prejudice.”

“Is that Mr. Darcy’s house you mean?”

“Yes, it was named Pemberley, if you care to know.” I still hadn’t seen Neil’s house come into view, and was getting very impatient as I peered out the window.

“I’ll make a note of it.” He leaned over to give me a kiss on the side of my temple. “I know how you love your romance books. You’re always reading in bed.”

“And you’re always making a point to distract me when I’m trying to read in bed.”

“Damn straight, woman. Do you think I’m a moron or something?” He nuzzled my neck.

“Shhh.” I pointed stealthily in the direction of our cab driver with my finger.

“But I’m just kissing your neck,” Neil whispered, “that doesn’t make any sound.”

I continued looking out the window, and let out a scream about a minute later when our cab turned down what looked to be a private road.

“Who is needing a very firm “shhh” now, huh?”

I didn’t pay any attention to him. My eyes were riveted to what framed the road. Lining both sides of us were trees completely covered with white and pink blossoms. A surprise for November, but they were definitely blooming. The Autumn Cherry. It comes into bloom for a second time in autumn. All the way up the drive leading to his house.

“These are the autumn cherry trees you told me about…”

“Yes, darlin’. Aren’t they pretty?”

I didn’t answer him. I couldn’t because my vocal chords had frozen. I nodded my reply to him with my hand firmly attached to the window of the cab.

Rivers of tears were streaming down my face.

The next minutes were a blur as I indulged in an ugly-cry moment. Neil seemed to know what to do with me, though. Thankfully, he took charge of everything else in his life so competently, and, it seemed, me as well. He’d always had an uncanny ability to know when he needed to—the part about taking charge of me.

He paid the driver and sent him away, before leading me up the stone steps of his house on very wobbly feet.

Mansion was a much more accurate description of what I was staring at.

Four massive, white stone pillars held up the façade, which framed a beautiful door painted in a rich shade of dark blue. Yellow and grey stone, trimmed with white bricks made up the rest of it. The house was flanked by colossal pine and oak trees on a lush green park, that spread out for what seemed like miles.

He then greeted an older man, with graying hair, who appeared to be waiting at the top of the steps for us. Neil introduced him to me as Batesman, and the two of them had a small chat, while my knees felt like they would buckle at any moment. I made a valiant attempt to say hello and not frighten the poor man to an early death. Highly doubtful I could be successful on that one. Well, we would just have to wait and see if Mr. Batesman died in his sleep tonight, wouldn’t we? Wait, more importantly begged the question—Neil had a servant? In his Scottish mansion? On his frickin’ country estate?!

My head suddenly ached terribly.

I needed a ginormous glass of red and then a chaser of something much stronger. This was Scotland; maybe there were bottles of hundred-year-old Scotch down in the cellars left over from the smuggling days of Jack Sparrow and his ilk. I’d bet my sarcastic thought was closer to the mark than not.

I followed along as he led me by the hand, and felt more and more out of my element. My sense of security with him, of us, felt strangely threatened. This was all something new to me. A part of him I had no knowledge of, introduced into his life at a time when I wasn’t there. He’d learned everything of this place…without me.

I let him lead me along blindly, as I was no longer able to see anything of the inside of his magnificent house, my eyes so blurry with tears.

Neil knew what was going on with me, though. He always knew.

Without a word, he paused at the bottom of a huge staircase before scooping me up in his arms. He carried me up that marble staircase and brought me to a room with a four poster bed made up with a plush white duvet.

He laid me back onto the soft, fluffy down cover and hovered over me, his eyes flickering over my face, reading me, understanding how hard it was to let go of regret. He must have regrets, too. I knew he had them, and that they were the reasons he forgave me for mine.

“I know what you need, Cherry,” he told me, as he descended. “Let me take care of you.”

His soft lips kissed, and his warm tongue licked away every tear on my face, until any sad thought that weighed upon my conscience was set aside for that moment. He stripped me out of my clothes slowly, piece by piece, until I was totally naked and he could trail his hands and mouth over me.

Until no part of my body was left untouched. Until he’d given me too many orgasms to count. Until he’d made me feel reassured of my place with him, in Scotland. Yes, my man knew me well.

He left the bed and stripped out of his clothes. Less slowly than he’d undressed me. He was ready for me, well before his trousers landed somewhere on the floor.

When he returned, I sat up and pushed my hands on his chest, forcing him back down into the softness of the bed. “My turn.”

He smiled at me, his lips still glossy from what they’d been doing to me for the past glorious minutes, as realization dawned on his handsome face.

I got comfortable and took his thick cock in my hand, stroking up and down the velvet skin that sheathed the rock hardness underneath. I wrapped my mouth around the head of him and drew deeply, sucking to the back of my throat until I couldn’t take him any farther.

“Oh, fuckin’ fuck yes…” he growled, as I went to work on his beautiful cock.

And it was beautiful. Neil in the throes of passion was breathtaking to me. I wouldn’t say no to a picture or two if he ever offered. Golden male beauty with muscles honed to perfection, tight and straining beneath me, because of what I did to him. From what I’d made him feel. With all the love I could give to him with my whole heart.

I sucked him to the brink, until I was waiting for his release of semen to land in my mouth, when he pulled completely out of and away from me.

“No, I want—” he whispered harshly, before repositioning himself and lifting me under my arms. He hauled me back onto his lap, set me down onto his cock, and thrust inside me violently. He took control of his orgasm, as his mouth claimed mine, just as roughly as his cock had just claimed my sex. “Cherry, Cherry…Cherry—I love…YOU,” he chanted against my lips.

His hands gripped at my hips almost painfully, keeping our bodies fused together, his cock buried deep inside me even after he’d laid back into the softness of the bed, and brought me with him.

After we settled down from the rush, he pulled the duvet over us to keep off the autumn chill. I moved to rearrange my body but he gripped my bum and kept us connected. “Stay like this with me.”

I touched his face and held it. “Why?”

“Because I want to be in you.”

“Why?” I had my theories about what he was doing.

His eyes looked to the left, betraying his untruth. “I love being inside you after. I love you.”

“I love you too, and I think I know what you’re trying to accomplish.” I rested my chin carefully on his sternum so I wouldn’t hurt him. “It’s probably not going to work though. You know I’m on the pill. You’ve seen me taking them.”

He sighed slightly, his expression giving up in defeat, that I had routed out his motivation for coming inside me, instead of letting me take him in my mouth.

“Well, I hope they fail at some point, because you’re the only woman who’ll ever be mother to my kids.”

When I admitted to my caveman plan to knock her up so I’d never lose her again, she smiled. My Cherry Girl knew me so well.

“You don’t have to get me pregnant to keep me. I’ll stay either way,” she said sweetly, before resting her cheek to my chest.

I stroked up and down her back and pictured her and me with our future children. There should be a few, I thought. Boys and girls that looked like her, and never had to know a life without loving parents who were there every step of the way, helping them to grow, and become good people.

“I’ll still work on it, thank you very much,” I said. “I have a plan all sorted out, Cherry…and, as you’ve learned—” I coughed and muttered the words, “self-defense training classes” under my breath, “—I take my plans in regards to you very seriously.”

She giggled and snaked her hand down to my ribs for a jab.

“Oh, that’s gonna get you something for sure, beautiful girl,” I to her, as I rolled her beneath me.

I kept my promise to my Cherry Girl.

Over and over again.

Six weeks later

“HAPPY NEW YEAR.” The unanimous cries of guests rose up and then it got quiet as couples greeted each other with kisses to ring in the New Year. I didn’t care about any others, though. Just one person held my attention.

And my heart.

The party had everybody in high spirits, because the announcement had been made about BSI gaining the contract to secure the Royals at the London Games next summer. And it was a momentous accomplishment for the business. But, I had something even more momentous on my mind for that moment. The focus of which had everything to do with my Cherry Girl, who looked mouth-watering as usual.

She wore a chocolate-brown lace dress that hugged her shape in a way that should probably be illegal. Her sky-blue shoes and jewelry, the colour she loved so much, contrasting beautifully. Her unique cherry-colored hair, arranged on one side, in a long wrap of curvy waves. I’d have my hands buried deep into it later. When I got her home and her pretty dress was nowhere in sight.

As she sat on a window seat cushion looking like a princess, she held my face in her delicate hand and returned my kiss.

“Happy New Year, Captain,” she said.

“Happy New Year to you, beautiful girl,” I answered against her lips.

My chest bones felt as though they were going to fracture from the fierce pounding of my heart. I hadn’t believed I would ever do what I was about to do…in such a public manner. But, I did.

I went down to the floor on one knee and took both of her hands into both of mine.

A look of surprise came over her face, and then, a quick gasp as she became aware…

“Elaina…I’m going to ask you something. It’s a question I meant to ask you six long years ago and I did not. Now, for the second time in our lives, I am prepared to ask the question, and this time, nothing will stop me. You need to know something I’ve never told you about, because the time has come for you to hear it.” I pulled her hands up to my mouth and kissed them both. “You’ve always made me feel as though the reason I was born…was so I could find you, love you, and that you could love me in return. I believe that with all my heart.”

Her eyes filled with tears as she listened. Waiting on me patiently, as was her way.

I pulled out the heart-shaped, sterling-silver box I’d seen her eying in the antique’s shop in Washington D.C. and bought, just because I thought she liked it. It reminded me of her. Precious metal, finely wrought into a delicate design, but beautiful, bearing great strength to withstand the tests of time.

I held the box out for her, and then popped the clasp that opened it.

“Elaina Morrison, this is our second season. Will you be my Autumn Cherry and bloom for me a second time, marry me, and be my wife? With you, make it possible for me to be able to live a happy life, to achieve the reason for which I was born.”

I stared at what was nestled in the silver heart-shaped box. I looked at him, into the dark eyes I’d always loved—the colour of which matched the dress I was wearing—and answered the question he’d asked me.

“Yes, Neil McManus, I will marry you.” I reached a shaking hand out to touch his cheek, his jaw, his lips, and closed my eyes for just a moment to ground myself. “I want to tell you something, too.” I opened my eyes and traced over every part of his features, as beautiful now as he’d always been when he was just a boy of seventeen and winked at me over the dinner table. “On the night Ian brought you to us, I fell in love with you and knew I’d just met the boy I would marry someday. For me, it has only ever been…you.”

He smiled at me and took the ring out of the silver heart-shaped box. “May I?”

“Yes, you may.”

He slipped the aquamarine-blue diamond and platinum ring onto my finger, and then kissed me thoroughly, while still kneeling on the floor. I buried my hands into his hair and held onto my man.

My beautiful, brave, loving, caring man.

I pulled him up to his feet amid loud cheering and congratulatory catcalls, which were coming from well-wishers, who’d apparently been paying attention to what we were doing by the window. Didn’t care. Didn’t really notice much beyond my beautiful man and the shiny diamond in glittering blue on my finger.

Neil scooped me up and carried me out of that party in his arms.

Then, he took me home and made love to me in our bed.

“So…now that I’ve got your agreement to have me, when will you let me make this merger official?”

She snuggled up against the side of me, the whole warm, naked length of her connecting skin-to-skin with my body, like silver spoons in a drawer. “We just had a merger,” she teased.

“That sassy mouth of yours is something I hope never changes, beautiful girl.”

“I am making a note of that, Captain, just in case my sassy mouth gets me into deep water someday.”

I kissed her shoulder right over her tattoo. “You still haven’t answered my question, Cherry. When do I get to make you Mrs. McManus?”

She turned her body to face me and held my face as she liked to do. “How long was your final tour in the army?” she asked softly.

“It was ten months.”

“I will marry you in ten months then.” She kissed me. “I want to marry you when the autumn cherry trees are having their second bloom in Scotland.”

I nodded at her logic, understanding why she’d chosen that time. And also, because I’m not sure I could have spoken any audible words in that moment, my heart very full and finally at peace.

Then she spoke some more words that I wasn’t expecting to hear. Words that just reaffirmed how much love we had for each other and how fate, once again, demanded its due, and this time, worked masterfully in all its wisdom.

“I’m going to give to you…those ten months back. The ones that I took from us six years ago. Ten months of being here with you every night. Ten months of our life together, of doing all the beautiful things, and the mundane ones, too. So you will know that whether it’s ten months from now, or ten years, or any amount of years, nothing will change for me, Neil…I will forever be your Cherry Girl.”