As I Breathe (One Breath at a Time: Book 2) (38 page)

Oh my god, I almost fell over. “You do,” I barely whispered, out of breath. Finally, that was all I needed to hear.

“Yes, very much. How can I not. One look at you and any man would fall into a powerful “like” with you. And when you open your beautiful lips and speak and your heart shines through, well, it’s all over then.” I grabbed my upper thighs trying to stop my legs from shaking, feeling speechless.

“
Oh my gosh.” I covered part of my face with my palm, hiding the rising heat in my cheeks. “You’re embarrassing me.”

Rain approached me...he removed my hand from my face, and placed both his palms on my cheeks. He held my face so still, inches from his and stared deeply into my eyes. “My only intention is to prove that to you when the time is right. That’s it...and one day it will be right...” he whispered something that I couldn’t clearly make out.

Before I could respond, surprisingly Rain leaned down and kissed my forehead and then hugged me. I couldn’t move outwardly, inside I trembled erratically. I thought I could feel his heart against mine. The chemistry between us was paramount. I wanted to be held forever by this man.

“
Can we relax now?” Rain released me, while keeping his eyes on me he stepped backwards and retrieved the two full glasses of champagne. By then, the bubbles had all settled.

I stood there, paralyzed, watching him move across the floor although he possessed a powerfully masculine aura his movements were elegant. Neither trait outshined the other.

In hindsight, I should have immediately told him how I felt about him, too. What stopped me? It was something he’d said that still pinged me. I felt like I was missing something. Something profound and meaningful. A mysterious, covert message was definitely laced between his words. One I had missed at the time, but I chose to let it slide.

My father told me once to listen to what a man says, they usually tell you from the start how they feel. We women are the ones that misinterpret what they clearly tell us. When a man tells us, “I’m damaged” we hear, “I will bring excitement to your life.” We refuse to hear the truth and always believe that we can change or save them. The problem was Rain wasn’t saying too much. When a man doesn’t talk about himself it could be that he is hiding something.

His confession that he liked me continued to wash away my chagrin and possibly my good sense too. I wondered why he didn’t kiss me on the mouth.

Perhaps it was because of unfinished business with his ex. That was actually very admirable of him, and a rare quality amongst men. I sensed if he’d kissed me we both knew there would be no stopping us. It wasn’t the right time as he had said.

There was no longer any doubt that Rain liked me as much as I did him. What else did I want? An insurance policy, of course!

I felt that he was similarly as wary as I was of the inexplicably strong attraction between us. An attraction that spurred feelings that I couldn’t wrap my brain around, it was more than his magnificent looks that drove me to the edge. So much more.

I needed to be patient for once in my life. I didn’t want to blow this opportunity with Rain. He said he’d return from his trip soon. He had clearly reassured me of this. I needed to relinquish
all
doubt and allow a real relationship to develop. I feared when the time came to get closer intimately we’d end up devouring each other. I craved for him to become a part of my everyday life. All I wanted was to begin a life with this man. What was it about Rain that made me want to skip the dating phase and fall into our future? He was the one and worth waiting for—I knew this as surely as the sun would rise and fall. He was the man of my dreams.

A flagrant emotion rose in me, as I studied his every move. I was spellbound by every inch of him. In an instant, I realized I had handled our miscommunication completely wrong. That was a definite and one thing I knew.

I watched intently as he approached me...

“
This will be one of the best champagnes you’ll ever taste.” He handed me the long stemmed glass. “Until the next time I serve you.”
Who talks like that?

“
I’m sure it’s lovely.” Rain certainly made excellent choices when it came to purchasing the finer things in life that were available to a mortal man.

My eyes danced across his strong chiseled unshaven face. His lips parted to speak. He inhaled long definitely holding back what he had intended to say. Something shifted in his eyes perhaps he wanted to avoid any more confusing statements.

“May I make a toast?”

I lifted my chin and looked at him ready to respond...

Then, there it was, a faraway look in his eyes, something arduous staring down at me. I hadn’t been able to read him all afternoon, but his expression was unmistakably troubled, yet unreachable. I could feel the brick walls that guarded this man’s heart quietly break, but not break down.

In the first moments that I met Greyson Rain de’ Bluche, I considered him a god, but now I realized he was human like me and had been broken too. What happened in the past that seemed to have made him a prisoner? I wanted to know all his secrets. I blinked, breaking his eye contact, no longer able to behold his sadness.

I lowered my head feeling a tinge of doubt returning. “Yes of course—” I paused and glanced up into the grayness of the room, pushing away any lingering doubt. After all he had offered me to stay. There was no misinterpreting that he wanted to get to know me over time. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized my trust issues ran so deeply. I reasoned that I couldn’t disappoint him by leaving.

“
Are you staying?” His deep voice penetrated my senses. A hint of concern echoed in his words.

“
Yes, I want to stay longer,” I said, grinning largely.

“
Excellent answer,” Rain’s accent resonated. A subtle expression of relief splayed on his face.

Screw it!
I thought I could do better than that. “Let’s live in the moment.” I relented, raising my champagne glass into the air.

Rain smiled and raised his glass to the rim of mine. The light in his sensual gray eyes returned.
“A temps,”
he said, gazing into my eyes with a strong intensity.

“
To time,” I repeated in English. Why not? There was something profound about the two simple words, followed by the perfect pinging echo when our glasses made contact. Our eyes met as we both took our first sip. The flavor of the champagne burst in my mouth, pure perfection. “It’s delicious.” I licked my lips sensuously.

“
I’m pleased that you like it.”

My eyes fell on the tray of food, just then my stomach piped out a noise. “I think I’m pretty hungry now, too.” I giggled. “Did you hear that?” I palmed my belly.

“Indeed I did. Let’s eat.”

My eyes widened and glanced towards the food. “Looks yummy.” I smiled and tucked a long tendril of hair behind my ear. Finally my nerves settled despite that my stomach gurgled, which made Rain and I laugh in sync.

“Why don’t we sit here,” he said, eyeing the steps of the pedestal. “And I will tell you the rest of the story behind the spa while you nibble on these.” He picked up the small plate of finger foods and placed his hand in the small of my back, guiding me forward.

“
Okay...that sounds great.” Then, I wondered if he mind-controlled my answers earlier?
Damn, he still rattled me.
I realized I wasn’t in control of anything that happened that day, or in the last minutes, of course, that was in hindsight. At that moment, I had crossed into uncharted territories that I knew little about, again in hindsight.

-35-

Legend Has It

We both took a seat on the pedestal that led up into the antique bathing tub. I sat on one of the higher up steps, and Rain sat lower so his face was level with mine. Feeling jittery, I rocked my knees slightly back and forth. I rested my hands nervously over my kneecaps to hold myself steady.

“
Where should I begin…?” He paused dramatically to smile at me. “The bath was forged by a blacksmith, Marc Chanel, in the early nineteen-hundreds. His lady friend and artist, Adrianne Reilly, she did the fine artistic details. Of course, I added the spa features—

I interrupted before he could finish. “Oh dear, I could never afford something this special if that’s what you’re thinking? Not right now anyway. I’m sure it’s priceless.”

He placed his hand over mine, and his gaze caressed my face. “You are right...there is not a price that anyone could put on this,” he said with a meaningful edge. I almost felt like he was referring to me instead of the spa.

“
I could only imagine what that would be. It’s so exquisite.” I slightly arched my brows, scanning the spa. “When I was a teenager my father forced me to go on a trip to this boring little town in Florida, it was actually then that I reluctantly fell in love with anything old. I mean antiques. Although I did meet my first crush there, it just so happened that he was too old for me at the time too. Anyway, that’s another story.” I felt my cheeks heat as I glanced up at Rain.

Pull it together Brie!

As an author I tended to speak my mind, it was one quality I gave to at least one of the characters in each of my novels. Allowing the words to flow freely through them, jotting down all the relevant information at once, unfortunately in real-life dialogue you can’t edit yourself once it’s out there.

“
First love,” Rain pointedly said and paused. “Our first loves are worthy moments in life to share with others.” He smiled sincerely. I figured he was only being polite.

“
Mine was short lived.” I laughed.

“
Yes, mine was too.” His smile faded. Time for a subject change. I didn’t want him to think about whomever it was that had caused his smile to wither. First rule in meeting someone new, don’t talk about exes. We’d almost fallen into that trap today. I kicked myself for bringing up the subject, but how was I to know his past love was seemingly something more profound than mine.

“
Hmm. So, do you like going on treasure hunts for antiques?”

“
Yes, as a matter of fact I do.”

“
I do too when I’m not busy writing, of course.” His eyes followed mine as I spoke. “I’ve only collected a few pieces. I would never part with any of them. They’re so special to me. For some reason, I gravitate to the ones that have a sweet story behind them. But, what I own is portable and inexpensive, nothing quite like this.” I gleamed into his eyes, reaching for one of the pastries resting on the silver plate.

Feeling famished from all the shopping that day, I needed a little sugar-pick-me-up. Rain had one of those hypnotizing voices that could act as a drug, inducing sleep. Trust me when I say that he was the type of man a woman would fight off the urge to sleep if it meant staring into his gorgeous unshaven face. There would be no sleeping when he would be around, as in sleeping—going night-night, unless you had fallen asleep in his strong arms.

His smile began in his eyes and landed on the corners of his lips, tilting upward, ever so subtly. “Yes...I understand...you seem like the type of woman that would collect jewelry boxes.”

I bit my bottom lip. “Hmm, how did you know?”

“Oh, just a guess.”

I peered at him suspiciously. “Have we ever met before—at the antique mall maybe?” I smiled nervously. I certainly would have remembered him, perhaps he saw me there, considering he is in the business. God, the thought of that made me cringe...when I go antiquing I usually wear a long vintage dress from the 30’s, combat boots and a floppy hat. Yikes!

“No. I don’t believe so. I would’ve remembered you from there.”

“
Hmm, okay...well, tell me more about this beautiful spa...I can’t wait to hear about the love story. I hope it’s a happy one.”

A dark shadow crossed over his face. “Perhaps, I should tell you another time.”

“Oh dear...it doesn’t have a happy ending, does it?” I asked, playing with the odd shaped crispy treat. I was waiting for the perfect moment to devour it.

“
Brielle, all love stories are happy. Sometimes they have sad endings, but they all begin with love, so that is what makes them worth telling.”

“
I like the way your mind works...so please tell me more... tell me the story. I don’t care if it’s sad.” And I didn’t, I could listen to him talk about nothing all night.

“
Thank you Brielle, and yes, of course, if you are sure you want to hear it?”

“
I do. Unhappy ending and all.” I frowned slightly, furrowing my brows. I took a small bite of the tube-shaped flaky pastry. It burst with the flavor of vanilla bean and orange peel, overfilling my mouth with a huge dollop of unexpected whipped cream.

“
Uh, you have—” he said smiling, revealing his beautiful set of white teeth. Damn, his smile reminded me of Dwayne Johnson, known best as
The Rock.
Rain’s eyes smiled along with his mouth.

“
Oh my goodness. What is this? It’s so delicious,” I said excitingly. I had a weakness for anything sweet. My mouth watered.