Tell Me I'm Dreamin' (38 page)

Ulysses crossed the room and touched her for the first time. He caressed her cheek where a single tear traveled down the velvety softness. “I am sorry that I have hurt you in my process of finding myself. But now that I have found myself, I have come to find the woman I love, and claim her for my own.”

He wrapped her quivering body in his strong, muscular arms. Then he kissed her. The taste was unbelievably sweet with an underlying passion, and an unfulfilled need lit a liquid fire within them.

Reeling from the effect of the kiss, Nadine's body became limp, so ready was she to give in and ease the torture that had plagued her nightly since her return to the States. Yet her mind and her pride were more difficult to persuade. Her newfound self-acceptance and love demanded more than a few words and a kiss.

Nadine pulled away. She forced herself to walk over to the sliding-glass doors and out onto the terrace where the wind whipped her spongy cinnamon twists away from her face, and repeatedly popped the material of her wide circular skirt. “But how could someone else's words convince you of my sincerity, when my own could not?” Her voice was carried on the wind.

Ulysses came up behind her and placed his hands on her upper arms and his face in her soft bed of locks. “No one else's words did, my sweet. It was responses to your own words that convinced me I was wrong. Each night I would read the pages of Gloria's letters that addressed your thoughts and feelings about life—”

Shocked, Nadine moved away from him, pushing back the hair the wind kept blowing in her face. “How did you get my letters?”

“I wanted to find out more about you . . . so I hired a private detective.” He spoke hesitantly. Ulysses knew how incriminating his words sounded and how wrong he had been. “He was the one who bought your old bedroom set.”

“What! How deceitful can you be?” Nadine asked in full-blown indignation. “I hope you got your money's worth,” she said, disgusted.

“‘I did and more,” was his throaty, remorseful reply. “But there were so many things that caused me not to trust you, Nadine. You knew of the cliff dwellers' symbol, but you claimed you had never been to Eros. You never spoke of the onyx carving that was hidden in your drawer. The same carving that had been stolen from Sovereign only weeks before. I did what I thought I had to do to protect Eros' treasures and learn more about you,” he confessed. “But in reading those letters over and over again, I discovered the woman they had been written to. They were responses to an unbreakable belief in the goodness of humankind, and how you planned to make a difference, not just in your hometown, but in the world. Your dreams were so grand for one so naive with no experience.” Ulysses smiled and his eyes softened as he spoke. “And I knew that kind of resolve could never be broken in a human being. Not for money or glory. Not for anything.” He looked at Nadine, and he could tell she was listening once again. “Then Gloria contacted me about some of the things she had purchased at the sale. She told me they had become such a hit amongst her friends and family, and then of course, you became the focus of our communication. It was Gloria who told me what actually happened the night of the book sale. About how you found the carving with the manuscript inside among the artifacts at the library/museum, and how Basil had threatened you with my losing Sovereign if you refused to meet him or told me. A person who could love so unselfishly, Nadine, could surely find it in her heart to forgive.” His dark, searing gaze bore into her leery hazel one.

“I can't believe you.” She held on to the anger she felt against him. For some reason it felt more comfortable than giving in to the love she knew she harbored inside. “You deceived my grandmother with some phony antique lover, read my private letters, and now present yourself as Honest John, is that it?” She laughed, almost out of control. “Well, you can take—”

Ulysses grabbed her and picked her up in his arms before she could finish her rebuke. “No. I don't need you to tell me what I can take.” The passion behind his words was a living thing. “But I don't want to take it, Nadine.” The feeling of her soft body against his was edging him on. “You gave yourself to me once before, my sweet, and will do so again before this night is over if I have anything to do with it.”

Ulysses was incensed by her refusal to accept his apology. He crossed the threshold of the sliding-glass doors with a flailing Nadine in his arms, then plopped her unceremoniously down on the king-sized bed.

“What do you think you're doing?” she asked, breathing hard.

“Whatever I have to do.” Ulysses pinned her to the bed. His hungry lips sought hers, but Nadine evaded him, twisting her head from side to side, the only part of her body she was able to move freely, her small frame being no match for his larger one.

Instantly, she was terrorized by the thought that he was trying to best her physically, and she resisted him until he pinned her arms above her head.

“I love you, Nadine Clayton. I have told you everything in my heart, but that does not seem to be what you want. I have wanted no other woman since having you.”

He managed to capture her lips as her head lay turned to the side. Like a man dying of thirst he drank of their moistness. Ulysses forgot about tenderness as he probed the inner recesses of Nadine's full lips, while continuing to restrain her.

The kiss felt like an eternity, as he demanded her submission through his expertise and fervor. “Stop fighting me, Nadine, and love me as I want to love you.”

Nadine's heart answered his plea, and she wanted to return his loving ministrations, but a residue of hurt was still there. “Let me go, Ulysses,” she commanded through clenched teeth.

He looked down into her squinting eyes filled with resolve and drew back.

“You hurt me, Ulysses. You hurt me like I have never been hurt before. I gave you everything I had and you rejected me. Thought I was some kind of fraud, when I was totally innocent. I never lied to you, Ulysses. Never.” She poured out her feelings as she remembered it.

“But you did lie,” he quickly retorted. “You said you did not have any kind of secret alliance with Basil, and even though it was to protect me and Sovereign there was no way for me to know that.” He probed deep into her gaze, his forehead crinkled. “All I knew was you had left my home, full of guests, and even your dearest friend to go to him. I did not know anything else until I spoke to Gloria several months later. Nadine,” he paused, “you must understand, of all men, Basil was my enemy. He hated me for who and what I am and he wanted to steal the only thing I had left of my parents from me, Sovereign. And in my eyes and in my heart, the only woman I had ever loved had betrayed me with
him.
I could not bear it, Nadine. And if it were true now, I would not be here.” Their gazes remained locked as they searched for the truth in the other's eyes.

Slowly, the flame of anger in Nadine's eyes was replaced by the fire of love. Although her mind had fought against it, Nadine knew she loved Ulysses, and as she probed his gaze she knew he loved her.

Ulysses recognized Nadine's surrender. He began to lower himself toward her, murmuring tender words as he kissed her hair, her eyes, her face. “You forgive me for staying away so long? Please say you forgive me.”

“I forgive you, Ulysses,” Nadine said, as her body involuntarily arched against his. She wrapped her arms around him. They hugged for a prolonged period of time until their closeness sparked the passion that their long separation had nurtured. Now, no matter how close they were, it was not close enough. They needed more.

As Ulysses made love to her body, he spoke of their separation. “I would see you when I closed my eyes, when I walked the land at Sovereign and in the statues and busts in the treasure room.”

“You haunted me as well, Ulysses,” Nadine confessed, softly.

A strange look entered Ulysses' gaze. “Nadine,” his voice was husky, “you must let me see you as I have envisioned all of these lonely months. Your memory has nearly driven me insane over the miles that separated us.”

Nadine nodded, unsure of what he meant, but she wanted to please him in any way she could, and she knew Ulysses would not hurt or abuse her.

Nadine watched Ulysses cross the floor and close the curtains in front of the glass doors. He looked about, then chose an ornate crystal boudoir lamp. Ulysses placed the lamp on the floor near an empty wall. When it was turned on the little light shone surrealistically inside the dark room. Ulysses stepped back from the illumination, and turned and reached out his hand to Nadine.

“I just want you to stand in front of the light. Stand as still as a statue with your arms outstretched before you, and your feet spread apart. So many times have I envisioned you this way. So many times have I stroked the cold stone of the statues of my private collection only wishing it was your warm skin beneath my hand. In my mind's eye you became one of the objects of art,” Ulysses told her with passion in his eyes. “Your arms perpetually reaching out for my love and affection. Would you do this one thing for me, Nadine?”

“Yes.” The word was hesitant, breathy.

Nadine crossed the room to stand in front of Ulysses. With reticence she raised her arms, and stood deathly still, her eyes focused on his face, several feet in front of her.

His heated gaze trailed from the top of her head, pausing momentarily on her face, her breasts, then the covered triangle between her tender thighs. “There is nothing in this world as beautiful as you are.” The soft phrase poured from his lips as the gentle lamplight outlined Nadine's reddish-brown skin in a golden glow. In Ulysses' mind she was the epitome of womanhood, as her shadow loomed behind her.

Silently, he came toward her and descended down on his knees, placing pliant kisses on her feet, then traveling upward.

Nadine shook from the pure pleasure of it, and it was impossible to stand still as he continued his assault on her senses, calling her name over and over again. It was not long before Ulysses reached the core of her femininity. Tenderly he invaded the soft folds, exploring all of the components. It was far too much for Nadine to bear, and her knees nearly buckled. She cried out, and reached down to engulf his face within her hands. “I can't stand any more of this, Ulysses, you must take me. Take me now.”

Moments later he entered her, his movements reflecting his long period of abstinence. As new as Nadine was to lovemaking, even she was able to surmise it would not be long before Ulysses reached his peak, so she wrapped her arms about his body and began to speak of love.

“I am yours for eternity, Ulysses,” she professed. In the last throes of their passion, she once again shouted, but this time it was the impassioned call of her lover's name. “Ulysses!”

Chapter
35

Ulysses and Nadine climbed the stone-sprinkled path together, passing under the centuries-old stone doorway that led to the Mayan ruin Tulum. Spread before them were the remnants of a civilization that was still a mystery to tourists like them who came to walk within its walls. The pyramids and sacred buildings seemed to silently declare the spiritual beliefs of the people who built them.

For a moment Nadine felt swept away to another place and time, and she grabbed for Ulysses' hand to bring back a feeling of reality. She could tell he could feel it too. The presence of a culture that thrived long ago was strong.

“Ulysses?” she hesitantly called. “What happened to us back in the cliff dwellers' cave?”

He paused for a few moments before he spoke.

“I am not sure. But it is amazing how many things have changed on Eros since it all happened. Evidently, there were several large gems along with your diamond, and the cliff dwellers asked me to help them sell the stones through a jeweler I know on Barbados. With the money they were able to buy up a lot of the land on the island. Much of it came from Rodney. He did not want the burden of managing all of the sugarcane fields. He said he and Cassandra, who he recently married, had no need for them.”

Nadine tried to imagine the cliff dwellers as the owners of sugarcane fields previously owned by the Sharpes. It was perplexing.

“But although things are changing for them, the cliff dwellers remain the same in many ways,” Ulysses continued. “They still refuse to talk about their sacred rituals and beliefs, and more than once I have felt uncomfortable under their admiring looks, as if I have done something extraordinary.” Ulysses looked out over the blue water that edged the ancient ruin; his eyes took on a distant look. “I cannot tell you what happened in the cliff dwellers' cave, but to me, whatever happened, it is just one more thing that proves you and I were destined to be together.”

Ulysses gave Nadine a peck on the lips.

“Destiny, what an interesting concept,” Nadine mused. She thought about the dreams and the Caribbean stories that had been sprinkled throughout her childhood. She thought about how destiny and a strong will to go to the islands had landed her there. But most of all she thought about the manuscript and the Legend of Lenora, her legend. “Can you believe the cliff dwellers gave me that diamond?” she asked, still in awe of it all. “It's got to be worth a fortune. I have kept it locked away all this time because I couldn't bear looking at it. It reminded me of Eros and you.” She shoved him playfully as a Mayan boy came by passing out pamphlets. “Thank you,” Nadine said, taking the paper.

“Evidently, they believed you deserved it.” Ulysses put his arm around her. “And like them, I cannot think of anyone else who deserves love and riches more.”

But Nadine wasn't listening as she read the black print on off-white paper given to her by the boy. “Ulysses, look at this,” she said, feeling as if she had been struck by lightning.

“Lemuria rises again,” Ulysses read the headline out loud, then continued. “Three months ago, in accordance with the Mayan calendar, the prophecy was fulfilled. The seed was planted for Lemuria, Mu, the mother continent, to rise again. According to Mayan belief, this heralds the beginning of a new time on Mother Earth, Gaia. A time of peace, love, and harmony.”