Love Found Me (A City Love Novel, Book 1) (20 page)

She'd well assume her focus-- they'd all still been too busy to notice she'd been gone.

Climbing the steps toward the upper deck, the yacht was all lit up like a gigantic Christmas tree. The optic white behemoth glittered against the backdrop of black sky. The view was amazing.

But still, she was flustered. She'd felt like she'd gone in circles. She paused with her hands on her hips, trying to fathom the maze of decks again.

Danielle spun on her heels, "How'd I get to the roof of this thing?" she said, just as she rounded the curve of another staircase. And then, a few paces later-- there it was.

"Finally, the sundeck," she muttered and sighed in relief.

By the time she'd reached the sundeck, she'd felt a tug jerk her entire body into the side of a sturdy marble structure. She didn't realize it yet, but suddenly, the roar of an engine had hurled her over the edge of the marble and into the pit of a spa pool.

Maybe she spoke too soon.

When suddenly, she'd heard a union of footsteps trampling layers of cabin. Out of the blue, she heard a gruff voice order, "Go see about her?"

She could tell by the force in number that it had now come to a choice in survival. Danielle knew once the propellers spun a second time after she'd first heard them before going out cold that Barton and his fiends would now be on the move. Problem was, she still hadn't gotten all the answers she needed and she didn't know if she ever would.

Danielle heard the gravelly snarl of one of Barton's fiend's say, "She's gone."

She raised up out of the marble pit just enough to hear a bit more clearly.

"I don't care what you have to do. Find her and take care of it." The evil commandeering cadence in Barton's voice made her stomach churn, as he looked up from a roll of C-notes. "Oh, and tell Jules we're ready," he added, as he stuffed a wad of money into his lapel pocket.

"Jules?" Her words rang out as she stiffened a silent scream. Just as she'd thought:  She smelled a trap.

"Oh my god, he is involved. That's all I needed to hear. Why'd I have to be right about him... why would he do this to me?"

Tears welled her eyes as she sunk back down into the hollow where the jolt had hurled her only seconds ago. Sliding downward against the smooth marble, she didn't even feel the chill that embraced the night air across its veined finish. Yet again, her brain hadn't quite clicked into the reality of what she'd just heard, as she cupped her hands over her mouth and tucked her body deeper into the center of the pearlized marble.

"This is a nightmare. I know I'm gonna wake up soon," she pinched her left arm... then, cringing quietly pinching it harder. "Nope. Nothing," she rolled her eyes and added, "I'm still here."

I can't believe this is happening to me.

Roman... He's--

Danielle forced herself to think calmly. If this were a dream or some kind of warped reality, she'd wake up. Maybe she'd been stuck in some out-of-this-world continuum that had nothing to do with the crisis she'd been left to deal with.

Heart racing, she swiped a phantom ponytail that whisked past her shoulders, brushing against the pristine white onyx a second later. She was a quivering mess of confusion, jiggling like jello on the inside of her. When she'd suddenly stretched out her leg, her stiletto snapped back in the process, gliding her headfirst onto the hard wall of the spa pool's embankment.

Unfortunately, a few moments later, her idyll was interrupted by a sharp lunge around her neck and mouth. Danielle's heart thumped hard as she struggled, giving a hard elbow into the assailant's gut. When he loosened his grip, she tore away in an instant.

Flinching, she shifted further away from him, as his breathless panting echoed. Danielle came to a halt, as she braced her body against the top lip of the spa pool while tiny beads of sweat percolated her forehead. She was leaning, resting alongside the marble trying to fill her lungs with energy.

She was still gasping for a breath with her torso walling a barrier between him and the slick veined shell. Danielle could feel his warm breath threading her hair, riding its heat over the ambience of the marble mosaic.

But then a moment later, she'd whisked back around. As she'd turned around, she would not believe the sight that faced her straight in the eyes.

Chapter Eighteen

Danielle paused a weighty silence. She was mortified, completely mortified. The sudden hard hit had stung a heavy blow to the both of them. Her head had long settled its throbbing, while the madwoman all but zapped right out of her. The muscles in her jaw were still jumping, but then suddenly they completely stopped.

Her widened eyes swelled tears as she looked across at the man staring back at her.

"Roman Jules," was all she said.

His name was the one thing her pout lips--steadily stirring vengeance--could stand to utter.

She'd barely muffled another sound, only a sobbing pain rose up out of her chest, as she turned and looked away from him. Clearly, irritation edged her tone for several painstaking seconds.

Pushing her hair from her face, she straightened. Danielle's heart all but froze when her eyes suddenly burned straight back into Roman's. Her rage was fused with how clearly he hadn't thought the truth mattered in their relationship. At this point, she was intent on never having anything to do with him ever again.

Her eyes daggering his bowed physique was all that her body could compose at the moment. She'd thought about the instant she'd ever laid eyes on him again, and the piece of her mind she'd give him. But right now when he'd looked up at her face, breathlessly panting, "Dani--" she was staring back at him with that same stare of fuming pain when she'd watched his suspicious activities at the helipad, only with even more rage.

But then suddenly, without saying a word, she balled one hand into a tight fist at her side. She was slowly clenching her hand even tighter until she'd lunged at him with smoldering eyes. She was coming at him fast, her inner muscles tightening so taut that her veins started to poke through her flesh. And not a moment too soon, she'd pounced on him again, striking a heavy blow to his torso with all the strength in her. 

Her heart raced as though the pain she'd felt was releasing from the inside of her all at once.

And then she punched him in the chest for a second time. She didn't let up, hardly feeling any sting at all when she gave him another smack into his shoulder, barely catching a breath to her lungs.

Danielle was rising high and low on his heavy body. He'd felt the pain in his gut thump hard, the second her fist left it. At this point, he could barely keep her from hurting him, without hurting her. He knew he had to hold back his strength long enough to plead, "Wait!"

But, before she could react and come back with another blow, his hands withdrew from its futile barrier. And then he was moving slower still, losing his anchoring on the bench seat. His hand wrenched his shoulder with a grip loosening by the second. Roman was bowing back and forth trying to quell the stomach muscles that were still painfully thumping on and off-- and then on again.

He had never looked so done in. He would've laid down his arms to her femininity. He couldn't lay a hand on a woman. He wouldn't dare ever attempt to, no matter the position facing him. But his momentary disconnect would either cause him to face her rationale or perhaps take into the account how he'd shattered her heart into a thousand pieces.

And, surprisingly, he'd held out this long. Barely seconds later, his hand slid down his limbered arm, as he'd clutched the sting still pulsating his gut.

"Dani--" he choked on a breath as he repeated, "Wait."

Even so, his voice beseeching, and his panting teasing close to her lips, she was coming faster again, until suddenly he fell back against the tiled edge of the spa pool and away from her fists. Roman's words instantly trailed away the moment his back thumped hard against the solid marble shell, as his leather cushioned the fall.

And now there they were seated in the hollow of a spa pool, having it out for reasons that could have in fact been a total misunderstanding. Staring the embankment in the face, the hard wall of marble only shielded each other from the peril looming outside its shell rather than the threat they'd posed to each other within it-- all for the sake of love.

Before he had even realized what had happened, his eyes shifted a slanting glance at her fist suddenly stalled in midair. He was still panting, his brow percolating another layer of sweat.

Despite the breeze lifting the tides in heavy rifts, splashing the yacht with a force in rhythm with his throbbing, Roman sat perfectly still. His bronze features glowed against ornately patterned white onyx and indigo as he straddled across the tiled mosaics slicked in little shimmering pieces, mirroring sparkling glass.

It was a Zen-master's dream. Opulence and luxury. Glorious calm. Rejuvenation under the stars and at sea.  The spa pool could've housed five comfortably. Sleek tile decked the floor and surround in a glimmering bowl of pearlescent and purplish-blue mosaics. But, this ample retreat wouldn't be fit for soaking tonight. Despite the fact, it was small enough that his six-foot-four frame would mash into hers more than a couple of times.

Danielle's heartbeat, which had barely slowed, kicked back into overdrive. She wasn't about to let him off easy. Taking a deep breath, she fisted her arm backward reeling to pound into him even more. Roman saw her hand fisted like a tomahawk aimed straight for him when his eyes widened.

Suddenly, he propped himself up on the seat, drawing back in the split second he'd gotten a better look at her gaze and where she was aiming--
this time
.

He suddenly shook his head, feeling incredibly defensive, as alarm bells rang loud and clear in his brain. He tried to suppress it when he'd swallowed instead. But then, in the lowest octave possible he bit back a shout in impulse, "No. Wait." The words tore straight from his mouth, "Danielle, stop!"

Words didn't seem to get her attention, as he'd tried to keep his voice to a minimum. Roman stiffened into an even tighter position, cupping his groin with one hand, as he wedged his other hand in defense of her fist.

And then she flung herself toward him again. This time he'd managed to pull her closer, his arms folded around her.

But, the way Danielle pulled away out of his hold would have made any man fret his chances of kindling any kind of love.

She floored straight into the broad wall of his chest a second later. When her hand slipped against the tiled seat, landing her at the very heart of where her arms left his only seconds ago.

His taut brawn cushioned her fall onto a heart that was pulsing like crazy. But now, their panting was just moments away from shifting him toward a state of arousal.

Roman's voice was steadily breathing a chain of low groans to her ear. But, she'd hardly even known it when she'd stifled her own need instead of pleasure, the need for him to feel the kind of pain she'd been suffering in the hands of a fraud. 

Their panting still echoed long after Roman had suddenly folded his arms around her, running his hand across her cheekbones. Fortunately, this time, she wasn't in such a hurry to let go. His gaze was stuck on the rise and fall of her breasts pouring ripples through the glittery fabric of her bustier.

He was just recording the heat rippling through his arms-- the way her silken skin felt on the edge of his fingertips. He'd just remembered how the brush of her soft hair swept across his mouth, placing him in a daze for seconds on end. He was computing every last second to memory, when Danielle suddenly lunged backward, sweeping his arms off hers. "Get off me. I said
get
off of
me
."

Her words were heavy with irritation, as she looked across at him and said, "I mean it. Stay away from me." Danielle stiffened at that moment, just when her white leather ruffled off her shoulders.

Unfortunately, her mind kept playing all of those moments he'd looked her straight in the eyes-- all she could think of was his boldface deception. She couldn't hold back her frustration. "You hurt me Roman." Her words rang out rough in real-time when she'd bolted her fist at him, but instead it merely skimmed his left shoulder.

But for the moment, she'd been too angry to just forget what he'd done. She started her words, "I'll never forget..." and then she took a breath to collect herself. "You and your
painful honesty
," she added. The last syllables trailed a sonnet for a chorus line.

Even so, Roman still saw the beauty in her whether or not she was scowling. Especially concerning something he'd never gotten the chance to explain.

He hadn't expected anything different. Not that a man with his reputation should have figured otherwise. But he wasn't about to turn his back on the one woman that saw through his foolish play of hearts-- of a man hiding behind commitment.

His eyes were steady on hers when he said, "Danielle, it's not what you--"

Roman was still panting traces of stealthy breaths, when she cut his words saying, "I don't care
what
you say. I know what I saw."

Just then, clouds darkened the moon as he straightened against the rigid seat chiseled in the marble. His shadowy gaze struck her like lightning, enabling her to see his face clearly in a glimpse of moonlight's brilliant eye.

Traitor...
The word suddenly came to light, echoing in her mind, along with a frightening sense that he had come to finish the job.

Danielle fixed serious green eyes on Roman's face when she said, "I saw you with those men--"

Roman blinked. "Oh," was all he said.

"You traitor...  that's what you are."

Work wasn't just her life. Work was still ruining her chance at happiness and with the one thing that mattered more than career. In her mind, it wasn't easy forming the balance of love and relationships, especially after what had happened with Roman. But, now she'd needed more time to absolve the heaviness weighing on her heart. Especially now that the one man she'd seen as protector was just a traitor in her eyes.

Danielle folded her arms, and eased back onto the bench seat. "I have nothing else to say to you. We're through, for good this time."

Her words sharpened as he drew a tear to his eye because he knew that she loved him. He could tell from the way she'd bit the corner of her lip-- the sensual little way she'd curled her lip into her mouth. Just like their romantic moment at his computer after he'd kissed her. 

Roman saw straight through the anger. It was understandable; he didn't blame her for assuming the worst of him. And he had just realized in those moments alone at the garden, that he didn't want to be alone any longer.

He was sitting facing her with his arms sprawling the lip of the glowing white onyx that echoed peace, sparkling luxury and most of all--
privacy
. It was a quaint cubbyhole, like a secluded seaside floating atop a palace. Sumptuous and relaxing with unspoiled views of black moonlit waters, rippling ribbons of surfing foam. Waves rumbled in harmony. It was the perfect ambiance for a midnight under the stars.

Roman didn't try to fight it. There were a hundred excuses he could have made, but he couldn't lie to himself any longer.

Still for Danielle, coming into her own these past couple of years since the engagement -- even if it meant solitude, a table for one, and a lonely pillow-top mattress, was better than being with a no good lying cheater loser.

Skepticism was beginning to creep its way back to running rampant, but at the moment she was livid that he had the balls to ruffle her feathers with another blatant and outright lie-- She could only surmise just when she'd cut his sentence, he was edging to tell her--
Danielle, it's not what you think
.

Now she felt even sadder, and stranger. Who was he working for and why?

There was no place he could hide. No way to hide but from himself and the past crashing down around him, ready to ruin the best thing that had ever happened to him.

Dimly illumed by the star crazed sky, her eyes ladled its flashlight. From his angle, her lashes feathered stardust, and her lips were pout just waiting to be kissed. She looked absolutely stunning in his smoky, dark and deep eyes that smoldered a hunger to taste every last inch of her.

It was crazy to have to fight for love like this. But no matter how hard he was falling toward meltdown, he bit back the urge suckling his tongue that craved every morsel of her relentlessly intensifying.

Danielle squirmed, arranging her heels in a more comfortable position in the small center of the mosaic floor. As she fidgeted, she darted her eyes to the starry sky and surrounding barrage of barrel lights clapping a gentle tap against the yacht. She was relieved that this quiet corner was distant enough from the spotlight bridling the day's earlier tension.

But the rising anxiety facing her wouldn't stop riding her emotions.

Everywhere she looked, she felt his stare breathe into her. She'd caught more than a few of his surreptitious glances sliding into focus. But she knew that she had no choice but to stay put, or walk right into god knows what danger.  Suffering through the scent of clove, cedar wood and exotic vetiver only met her decision that it was worth the gamble not to defy her instinct.

Roman watched as Danielle's emerald eyes glistened in the moonlight against the sifting clouds. She could feel the soothing breeze sweeping her lashes as it brushed across her white leather. The air felt slightly cool on her exposed shoulders, but she'd hardly even noticed her jacket still draped off her arms, as she took one deep breath and then another to relax herself.