Our Hearts Entwined (24 page)

A little after five thirty Eric was finally dropped off at the entrance of the town house complex. Natalie stood slowly, relieved that he’d shown up and not willing to comment on his tardiness.

Eric stopped in front of her as he dug his keys out of his pocket. “Thanks for waiting,” he said before moving up the steps and unlocking the door, holding it open for Natalie. “Ladies first,” he said politely, his voice flat and unemotional.

“Thank you,” Natalie whispered, stepping inside and waiting for Eric to follow.

“Why don’t you take a seat. I really need a shower. Then we can talk ok?”

“That’s fine,” Natalie nodded, moving over to the couch.

“You know where everything is if you want a drink or something,” he told her with a wave of his hand as he headed for the bathroom.

As she heard the door click shut, Natalie’s stomach started to churn faster – she had been so nervous all day and now the prolonged waiting was really starting to make her feel ill. Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t stomach anything right now. So she chose to sit and wait in the quiet of the room.

Ten minutes later, Eric opened the bathroom door and stepped out with his towel wrapped around his waist, a burst of warm steam following him as he headed towards his room to change.

Natalie’s mouth went dry at the sight of his naked torso, lean and firm, the images of their time together flashed through her mind. Her heart lurched in her chest and she had to fight the tears that sprang into her eyes as she imagined a life without him.

When Eric exited his room, he was wearing a pair of army print cargo shorts and a simple white t-shirt, his bare feet padding softly along the floor boards as he walked toward her, running his hands through his damp hair and letting his breath out slowly as he took the seat diagonal to her.

For a while they sat in silence as Eric weighed his thoughts, and Natalie continued to wait for him to speak. “This situation is really difficult for me Natalie. I don’t know what to do,” he started.

“What do you mean?” she asked when he didn’t continue.

“I’m so angry at you Natalie, and at the same time I want to be with you – but I don’t feel like I can. I don’t know what to do,” he repeated.

“I see,” she replied in a small voice, her heart aching as her worst fears were being realised. “Eric, I’m in love with you. I can’t stop thinking about you and I would do
anything
to make this right. Just tell me what you need and I’ll do it,” she pleaded.

“I need this to not have happened. I need you not to have hurt Mia,” he stated simply, his eyebrows furrowed as his eyes searched hers. “How can I possibly trust someone who lied the way you did? How can I trust someone who is willing to drug another person in order to get what they want? I just don’t see how this could ever work.”

Natalie’s eyes welled with threatened tears as she shook her head and opened her mouth – wanting to say something, but not having the right words. “I’m sorry,” she whispered eventually, a tear sliding down her cheek as she closed her eyes.

Reaching out, Eric touched her face to wipe the tear away. “So am I Natalie. I want you. I want you so badly right now that it hurts me, but how? How do I get past this?” he said, leaning closer to her, his voice softening as he absently ran his thumb across her cheek.

Natalie’s hand flew up to meet Eric’s as he touched her face, her tears flowing freely now as she held his hand, relishing his touch as it flowed through her body, giving life to her heart and breaking it at the same time.

Her chest heaved when he withdrew his hand and pressed his lips firmly together, looking at her with troubled eyes. For Natalie, the loss of his touch caused a surge of desperate longing and regret to burst from her heart.

“I wish I could change things Eric. If I could go back I would. I’d introduce myself immediately. But I didn’t – I fucked up and I got trapped in the lie. I did so many stupid and reckless things to keep it going and then I didn’t know how to get out of it. I’m sorry Eric, I’m so fucking sorry!” she cried, reaching her hands out to him but capturing nothing as he stood and took a step away from her.

“I think you should go home Natalie,” he said calmly.

“What?”

“I need… time. I can’t think with you near me,”

Natalie rose from her seat and stepped closer to Eric. “Doesn’t that tell you something Eric?” she asked, her voice small and slightly breathy, as she placed her hands on his firm chest. “I can feel your heart,” she whispered, moving closer, wanting desperately to find herself in his arms again.

“Don’t Natalie,” he said, wrapping his hands around her wrists and taking her hands off him, holding her in front of him. Her hands balled into fists as she pushed against him, suddenly wanting to fight, wanting to beat her hands against his chest until he stopped pushing her away.

“No Eric! Don’t chase me away! –
Please!
Don’t do this! I love you and I know you love me!” she cried, fighting against him, desperate to touch him.

Eric released her hands and instead caught her face, pulling her roughly towards his mouth and crashing his lips into hers. Natalie instantly melted against his body, her hands gripping at his shirt as she leaned against him, their lips working together as they moaned into each other’s mouths, their bodies on fire with desire as the link they shared seemed to swirl around them in the air, wrapping them both up in each other.

When they finally separated their mouths, Eric leaned his forehead on hers, breathing heavily, his eyes closed and brows furrowed. “I don’t know what this is Natalie. It feels like I love you, but how can I? I don’t even know who you are,” he told her in a hoarse whisper.

It was as if the air had been pushed out of Natalie’s lungs when she realised he wasn’t going to change his mind. Shaking her head, she stumbled backwards, “No, no, please don’t do this,” she pleaded.

“I’m sorry,” he said, reaching out for her, still wanting to comfort her despite his own warring emotions.

Holding a shaking hand out for him to stop, Natalie picked up her bag. “No, don’t Eric, just don’t – you don’t get to be nice after you kissed me like that and then threw me away,” she said, making her way to the door. “I’ll leave as soon as I can get a flight. You won’t have to see me anymore,” she said before opening the door, barely able to see through her floods of tears as she fled, leaving Eric standing in the middle of the room breathing heavily from their interlude and wondering if sending her away had been the right thing to do.

Mia sat in her hotel room, thinking about her life in general and regretting leaving the Johnson’s house so early – she hadn’t wanted to bombard them with questions on their first meeting, but she wasn’t sure if she was brave enough to go back there, or even if she really did want to know about who Natalie was as a person.

She had started a pros and cons list to help her decide whether or not she should go back. So far in the pro list she had three points – 1, to get birth mother information. 2, to find out about Natalie’s childhood (after all, it would have been hers as well had they not been separated) 3, because they’re expecting me to come back. On the con list, she only had one point – 1, because I don’t want to.

Closing the notepad, Mia slid it into the bed side drawer with a sigh, thinking that she was lucky she hadn’t sought out a career in journalism. Her questioning skills were severely lacking.

Rolling over on the double bed, she stared at the ceiling as if the answers to all of her problems could be found there. The more she thought, the more she understood how Natalie found herself pretending to be her. When Sandra embraced her, thinking she was Natalie – it would have been so easy to go along with it, to slot into her life and pretend that it was the news of the adoption that made her behave differently. If she hadn’t stiffened in the embrace, Sandra wouldn’t have looked at her so closely and it was possible that with a few easy lies that she could have assumed Natalie’s life just as easily as Natalie assumed hers.

Mia could admit to herself that the idea flitted through her mind. But she wasn’t a spiteful person and she didn’t see how trying to take over Natalie’s life would actually make her feel any better – it would make her feel much worse.

Mia was pulled from her thoughts by a soft tapping on her door. Frowning, she rolled off her bed and took the short couple of steps to the door, opening it cautiously, unsure of whom it could be.

“God, I’ve missed you,” Cayd said the moment their eyes met.

Mia’s heart leapt joyously through her chest, she hadn’t realised how much she was missing him until she actually saw him standing in front of her.

Without thinking, she jumped, wrapping her arms and legs around him, thankful when he didn’t fall from the force of her body colliding with his.

“I missed you too,” she whispered.

Cayd’s arms wrapped tightly around her as his mouth met hers with fervour, their tongues delighting in their reunion as he stepped easily through the door, kicking it closed behind him as leant down to place Mia on the bed, her legs still wrapped around him as she felt his erection grow firm and strong.

“Don’t leave me again,” he whispered, “I don’t want to be without you.” His mouth trailed kisses along her jaw and down her neck, his hand moving up her side to cup her breast, massaging it through her shirt, moaning as he felt her hard nipple press through the fabric.

“What?” she murmured, his words taking a while to filter through her hormone filled mind as she rocked her hips against him, his hands roaming over her body.

Suddenly, her eyes popped open as she remembered why she left in a hurry. “Wait,” she said, pushing him off her and sitting up on the bed, pulling her partially opened shirt closed. “I’m pissed off at you.”

Racking his hands through his hair, Cayd sat back on his knees, breathing out a loaded breath. “Mia,” he said, reaching out for her hand.

“Just tell me I was wrong. Tell me you had nothing to do with it all. Because if you were somehow in on Natalie’s deception Cayd… I don’t know what I’ll do – I couldn’t take it.”

Cayd moved closer to her on the bed, placing his legs either side of her so they could be face to face. Reaching up, he held her face in his hands, looking her directly in the eyes. “I promise you, I had nothing to do with her. She wasn’t my patient. I had no idea she was drugging you – but Mia, I need to be honest, I did know
about
her,” Mia’s eyes widened at his confession and she pulled her head back from his hands. “No, Mia, please – just listen. It’s not like that,” he told her capturing her hands in his and holding onto them firmly. “When Evelyn passed you over to me as a patient, she said that you clashed with someone she was already seeing – I didn’t know who. Then you came into my office and told me what was happening to you. That was when I realised which client you clashed with.

“All I knew about that client was that she was pretending to be her twin so she could date her twin’s boyfriend. Evelyn had shared the information with me on a professional level because she was worried about how far she would go with her infatuation.

“Mia, you have to understand that I couldn’t tell you. We are bound not to divulge our patient’s secrets. So as much as I wanted to tell you – I couldn’t. That’s why I had a private investigator follow you – I knew he’d find Natalie. I knew he’d be able to tell you everything I couldn’t.

“But even that was wrong Mia. I shouldn’t have used the information I had to guide you. When Natalie figured it out, well – she threatened to report me, it was only my threatening to have her arrested for drugging you that stopped her.”

“That bitch!” Mia hissed, even more annoyed at Natalie than she already was.

“Mia, no – that’s not why I told you this. I don’t want you to be angry with her. I want you to understand that if I had of just come out and told you, that all the years I’ve spent studying would have been a waste, and as much as I liked you, as much as I’d dreamed about seeing you again after we first met – I couldn’t risk it. So I guided you toward the answer instead.”

Studying Cayd’s face, Mia thought on the information he had just given her. “What’s changed then?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re telling me everything now – more than I need to know. What’s changed? You could have just said that she was a patient and you weren’t allowed to tell me anything.”

“The difference Mia, is that now I’m yours and I would throw away everything in a heartbeat.”

“How can you be willing to do that Cayd? We barely know each other,” she whispered.

Taking her hand he placed it on his chest, “Our souls know each other Mia,” he whispered, pulling her toward him, kissing her slowly, shifting his position as she climbed onto his lap and wrapped her legs around his waist.

“This is probably way too soon for me to say, but I think I’m in love with you Cayd,” she murmured, as she curled her fingers into his hair.

“I don’t think I am Mia, I know,” he replied, lifting her with ease and laying them both down on the bed, his hand lazily trailing up Mia’s side as it made its way to the buttons of her shirt.

“How do you know? If you’ve never been serious about someone before – how do you know?”

“Because I have never felt this way around someone before. The way I feel about you is so powerful – what else could it possibly be?”