Seeing Red (41 page)

“There you are. We finally meet.” Jill’s heart
stopped. Without having to turn around, she knew exactly who was
right behind her, speaking with that velvety eerie voice full of
promise yet trepidation. Slowly, but with all the courage she could
muster, she let go of Oliver’s hand and turned around.

“Darling.”

“Rocco.” Jill said matter-of-factly. He took a step
towards Jill, closing the gap between them.

Oliver quickly stood in front of Jill to block him.
“Rocco.” He nodded.

“You must be Oliver.”

“You know my name?”

“Of course.”

Jill walked around Oliver and was standing right
beside him. He grabbed her hand.

“What do you want, Mr. Taylor?” Oliver asked.

“Please, call me Rocco.”

“Okay. What do you want, Rocco?”

“I want to finally meet the daughter that I didn’t
know I had.”

“Well, there you are. Now you’ve met her. Is there
anything else?”

“Oliver, please.” Jill chastised Oliver. “I’m sorry.
He’s a little nervous. It is nice to meet you, Rocco.” Jill
extended her hand.

“Why is he nervous about meeting me?”
He doesn’t
know about the journals.
Jill squeezed Oliver’s hand, hoping
that he realized that too and wouldn’t mention anything.

“No reason. Just because you came out of nowhere
after twenty-two years and you kind of tranced me into knowing your
name. Oh, and you broke into my apartment and left me a stalkerish
note.”

Rocco threw his head back and laughed out heartily.
“My dear, I needed to know how much I could disclose to you when I
met you, and now I know you are as talented as I am. I would love
to speak with you more about this. May I interest you in
lunch?”

“Um . . .” Jill looked up at Oliver.

“It’s up to you, Jill, but I’m staying if you decide
to have lunch with him.”

“Well, I guess lunch would be okay.”

“Okay, follow me. Let’s go to my suite. I’ll have
lunch sent up.”

Jill looked at Oliver again and he shrugged. She
never felt happier to have Oliver with her than she did right at
that moment.

They followed behind him. He was just as she had
seen him: red hair and glasses. But instead of wearing a suit, he
was wearing a flowery shirt with tropical flowers on it and white
linen pants and sandals. Very bohemian, unlike her visions of him
at his yoga room or office or wherever it was. Oliver squeezed
Jill’s hand tightly, and he bent down and whispered, “Breathe,
Jill. I have you. Nothing’s going to happen. I promise.”

She nodded and gave Oliver her biggest brightest
fakest smile.

If Jill and Oliver thought that their suite was big,
they had no idea what big was. Rocco’s bungalow was twice the size
of their suite. The front door was made of glass, and it had an
uninterrupted view from the front door to the clear back doors that
led to the ocean. A butler was setting up a table on the outside
patio, which was walking distance from the clear blue beach that
brought back so many memories for both Jill and Oliver.

“Please have a seat. What would you like to
drink?”

“Just water for me, please.”

“Me too.”

“Sparking or flat?”

“Sparkling, please.” Oliver said and Jill nodded in
agreement.

“This is beautiful. Do you live here?” Jill asked
Rocco.

“No, I live in Texas. But this is the largest suite
we have, and being an owner has its perks as you can see.”

“You live in Texas?”

“Yes. When you moved to Texas, I started seeing
visions of you. Before that, I didn’t know you even existed.” Rocco
said.

“Oh. Well, that answers one question. I was
wondering why you wanted to meet me all of a sudden.”

“I want to talk to you about your abilities,
Jillian. When your mother was pregnant, I always wondered if you
would inherit my gift of vision, but she left and I thought you
were both dead.”

“Why did she leave?”

“I think she was afraid of my intensity. She sort of
knew about my abilities but didn’t know the extent, and then I kept
subjecting her to tests.” He was surprisingly honest, Jill
thought.

“This is all so overwhelming. I hope you understand.
I have so many questions. I don’t even know where to begin.”

“I know you do, dear. I want to answer them all for
you, but this isn’t the place. When you get back to Texas, I would
like you to come out to my lab and stay with me for a few days. I
want to show you some things and show you how to understand your
gift. I am sure you’ve never explored it completely. I’ll answer
any questions you may have then.”

“No way. She’s not going.”

“Oliver? Stop it.” Jill looked at Oliver.

“This is all so much to take in. I’m sorry, Rocco. I
seem to have lost my appetite. Rain check?”

“I can fix that, you know? I can make you hungry
again and I can help you relax.”

“I know. I felt it last night at the gala. That’s
one of my many questions.”

“I understand. I’ll be in touch. I hope that’s okay.
I know how you feel. I can feel it. You want to know more and I can
tell you more. I can teach you more. Here’s my card. Please call me
next week, as soon as you get back, I hope. I can have someone pick
you up and bring you to my office. We have lots to discuss.”

“We’ll see.” She stood up to leave, nervously.

“Are you okay, baby?” Jill was pale.

She gulped. “Yes, Oly, I’m fine.”

“May I give you a hug goodbye? I have dreamed about
giving my daughter a hug since I found out you existed.”

“Um, yeah. Sure.”

He walked to her and opened his arms, and she walked
into them, and they embraced, just like in her dream. She relaxed
into him, and she felt unexpectedly comforted, all the tension
subsiding. When he let her go, he gave her a small kiss on the
cheek. “I look forward to seeing you next week, my dear.” Then he
whispered very quietly so only she could hear, “This one is better
for you. He’ll bring you peace.”

“I know.” She whispered back.

Jill and Oliver walked out of the bungalow hand in
hand. Jill was quiet, and when they reached a safe distance, Jill
bent over and put her hands on her knees and took a few deep
breaths.

“Baby, are you okay?” she shook her head.
Definitely not okay.

“Not even a little bit.” She replied between
breaths.

“Come on, let’s get some air.” He pulled her closer
to the beach. It was a beautiful day, and the ocean was vast and
deserted on this side of the island. They were the only people on
the beach.

He led her down to sit on the sand a few feet from
the beach. Seagulls chirped above them, and the sound of the
crashing waves and the whispering wind was peaceful and
hypnotizing. She knew he was giving her some time to get her
bearings. He was sitting right next to her and had one arm around
her shoulder, and she scooted close to him with her head on his
shoulder. She began to sob uncontrollably.

“Jill?”

She shook her head. She needed quiet. She was
overwhelmed. She folded her arms around her drawn-up knees and
rested her head on them, looking out to the ocean. Her father was
proposing to teach her about her psychic abilities. What she had
always thought to be a curse, he thought of as a gift. Rocco seemed
intense, but not bad, definitely not a murderer. But murderers
don’t really go around wearing neon signs that say “murderer.”

She realized that she probably didn’t even have a
choice as to whether she met him or not. He knew who she was now
and was not going to relent. She understood that the emotions she
felt around him were entirely controlled by him. When she hugged
him, he willed her to relax. He was a powerful man in many ways,
she realized. Jillian silently prayed that he was not as bad as the
journals had let her to believe or that he had, at the very least,
changed. She would have to be very careful about the information
she gave him; she couldn’t mention the journals or the murder
charges she had discovered. She was scared but intrigued. She
wondered if he could read her thoughts. That last sentence he told
her about Oliver made her think he could read minds—at least he
could read her mind, and if that were the case, there would be no
keeping secrets from him.

First thing when she returned to Texas, she would
call Rocco and see him. But she would need to be extremely careful
in meeting him, because now, she was irrevocably sure that Paul and
his men were following her, and she didn’t want to lead them to
Rocco or have them suspect that she knew something that she really
didn’t know.

She would have to be very careful, because if Rocco
was her enemy, she wanted him caught by Paul, the asshole, but if
he wasn’t, she would need to protect him. Sitting there on her
semi-deserted beach in silence helped with the decision-making. She
would acquiesce and meet with him when she returned, secretly.

There were a lot of people she would have to avoid
and deceive in order to do anything secretly.

Oliver was soothingly drawing circles with his
thumbs on the back of her neck, looking out at the sea. It brought
back so many memories. Her eyes were still watery. She had been in
love with the boy that made her that necklace for so long, and that
boy was not Alexander. She needed to stop thinking of Alexander and
focus on what was right in front of her. He was better for her. She
knew that. Hell, her estranged father even knew that!

After all these years, she was wrong. It was Oliver
all along: Oliver, the person who had always been there for her,
always said the right thing, and never played games with her
emotions. He would be loyal. He would love her forever. The
understanding between them was so strong, as if they were connected
by blood. She looked up at Oliver, the beautiful Viking of a man
sitting next to her, quietly comforting her as he always did. The
ever-loyal, ever-dedicated Oliver. His eyes sparkled with intensity
and hope.

Jillian lifted his left hand and pressed her mouth
into the tender flesh on the inside of his wrist; his pulse
fluttered and raced beneath her lips. Her stomach was doing flips
as she watched him bring his lips down towards her mouth. She
closed her eyes, and her heart felt as if it would jump out of her
body. The look in his eyes and the fierce sounding crashes of waves
against distant mountains heightened the intensity of the moment.
If anyone interrupted this moment, she would kill them. Literally!
She had waited so long to taste him that her body was asking for
him to touch her. Jill melted into him as he reached her lips.

This was the moment that would define them for the
rest of their lives.

When their lips finally connected, it was a
profoundly slow, deep kiss, and the passion was . . . not
there.

The great question, which I have
not been able to answer is, “What does a woman want?”

-Helen

Alexander

Heather and Alexander sat nervously on the balcony
overlooking the ocean. Perhaps forcing the love of his life to kiss
a man who was in love with her was not such a great idea.
Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

“Relax, Alex. It’s going to be fine.” Heather tried
to comfort him.

“Hey, Heather? I’m very sorry about Ben. He’s an
asshole. You’re a beautiful person. You didn’t deserve that.”

“Thanks, sugar.”

He smiled at her, sadly. Jill and Oliver had been
gone nearly four hours. So many things ran through his mind. When
he heard the door to the suite open and close, he didn’t know what
to do with himself.

A few things happened simultaneously: First,
Alexander noticed that Oliver and Jill were holding hands. Second,
Jill looked flushed and disheveled; and, third, Oliver had a smirk.
Jill got on the tips of her toes, pulled his neck down towards her,
and gave Oliver a long kiss on the cheek. “I love you, Oliver.” She
then turned around, grabbed Alexander by the hand, and led him into
her room.

Alexander sat on the bed and began running his hands
through his hair, feeling scared and anxious.

“Sit.” Jill said, tapping the bed next to where she
was sitting. “You look like shit, Xander.”

“I’m thinking my plan was stupid. It’s a fucked up
plan. Why would I want you to kiss my brother? What the fuck was I
thinking?”

“No, it was a good plan. It finally helped us
resolve our issues.”

“So you kissed?”

“Yes, we did.” Alexander cringed.

“And?”

“Well, let me start by saying that one of the things
that I thought made me love you was this stupid memory of my
seashell necklace that I’ve cherished for so many years. I thought
it was from you. I thought you’d made it for me. You taunted me,
chased me, and made my life crazy. You challenged me, you fought
with me, and I thought that you gave me that present as a sign of
love, but it turns out you didn’t. It was Oliver, and you omitted
the truth yesterday when you saw me wearing it.” Alexander’s face
was sullen and full of shame.

He was not going to get the result he had hoped and
prayed for. “I was a little boy, Jill. I’ll make you a necklace
now. I’ll buy you a diamond necklace. Hell, if I could, I’d make
you a diamond necklace. I taunted you because I didn’t know how to
harness my feelings for you. We were kids. You know . . . Boys hit
those they love and all that bullshit.”

Jill smiled, “Let me finish.”

“Do you think you could speed it up? You’re killing
me.”

Jill laughed. “You were right.” She exhaled slowly,
“There’s nothing between Oliver and me. We kissed and it was like
kissing a brother. There was no spark. Nothing. Not for him and not
for me. We were just holding on to the familiarity of our past.
Never have I felt the way I feel when you and I kiss. I love you,
Xander, and I can’t imagine feeling the way I feel about you with
anyone else.”