To My Senses The Nicci Beauvoir Series Book 1 (42 page)

“
I can’t believe that. I
know the pain I caused you can’t be erased with a few kind words. I
knew that the night you came to the gallery and found me drunk.” He
sighed. “I realized then, that I couldn’t go through with Sammy’s
plan, because I had fallen in love with you. Nevertheless, I am
more than willing to wait and give it time. I’m not going
anywhere.”

“
Where do you propose to
spend all that time waiting?” I crossed my arms over my chest and
skeptically waited for his reply.

“
I bought a house in
Hammond. Your father helped me find it.”

“
My father helped you?” I
shook my head, making a mental note to confront Dad about that
later. “So this is a permanent move, then?”

“
For as long as it takes to
bring you to your senses.”

“
That may take years.” I
eyed him, suspiciously. “How do you plan on supporting yourself
through this long confinement?”

He cleared his throat. “I
don’t need to worry about money.”

“
Your Zurich bank
account?”

He fidgeted in his chair.
“That, and other things.”

I moved closer to him,
intrigued. “The spy business must have been very lucrative. Have
you given that up completely too, or are you going to disappear
every now and then for secret missions?”

“
No. I’m through with all
of that. I won’t be going out anymore. I’m a painter
now.”

“
I thought you people never
got to leave the business. Don’t they just knock you off in the end
because you know too much?”

“
That is not how it works
in my business.”

“
So tell me how it works,
David.”

His eyes flickered, as if
gauging how much he wanted to tell me about his past. “It was a
job, Nicci. I had an employer who sent me out on assignments. After
my time with you, I decided to quit my job. It’s as simple as that.
I always had plans in place to leave the business one day. You just
speeded up those plans.”

“
Plans? What kind of
plans?”

David looked out over the
empty tables on the patio. “Just plans.”

“
Care to tell me about your
business?” I asked, as I marveled at his profile in the evening
light.

“
No.” A smug smile edged
its way across his face.

“
Why not? I’ll bet you got
some great stories to tell?”

“
What about your stories?”
He turned to me. “Are you still writing?”

It was my turn to be
uncomfortable. “No. I haven’t written anything since you left. I
lost interest.”

“
Nicci, I told you to never
stop writing. You let something as insignificant as me stop you
from doing the one thing you were meant to do.”

“
I wouldn’t call you
insignificant.”

“
You are not listening to
me.” He grasped my wrist and pulled me closer to him. “Your talent
is a gift. It is not to be taken lightly, or discarded on a whim.
It is who you are and who you are meant to be.”

“
You’ve never read anything
I’ve written, David. How do you even know I can write? Talking
about talent when you don’t even know if I have any?”

“
I don’t need to read
anything to know that you can write. It’s not just the words you
put down on paper that make you a writer. It is your ability to see
the world in such a way as to make the rest of us open our eyes for
the first time, and realize we were missing something. Something
wonderful.” He let go of my wrist and patted it gently. “You have
that gift, Nicci. You can’t just stop writing and expect it to go
away. No matter how hard you fight the creativity inside of you, it
will come through, shining like a new copper penny, to blind the
rest of us with awe.”

The fire in his eyes when
he spoke was alluring as hell. “I, uh…don’t see it that
way.”

“
You will. You are still
young. The impatience of youth always seems to weaken the voice of
creativity. I found it was something that came with age and
experience. Once I had outgrown my youth, I could listen without
distraction to what was inside of me. You will, too.”

I rose from my chair. “I
need to call a cab and go home. I guess I’ll see you
around.”

He stood up next to me. The
scent of his cologne drifted past me and I became dizzy.

“
No need to call a cab.
I’ll take you home.”

My hand cut through the air
between us. “Oh no! That’s how this whole thing started. The last
time you said that, I got dragged to your place and you painted me
in the middle of the night.”

He came closer. “I seem to
remember you spent that first night on my sofa quite
intact.”

I tried to back away, but
another table blocked my escape. “I don’t think it’s a good idea
for us to travel down that same road again.”

He came right up to me and
lifted my chin to meet his cool gaze. His eyes were still the same;
still filled with an unwavering intensity. “I am going to take you
home. So stop arguing with me and do as I say, for
once.”

I removed his hand from my
chin. “You can take me home, but I’m warning you, I have
mace.”

“
Save it for Michael.” He
took my hand and led me away from the patio and through the doors,
into the house.

I waved at Val, as we
rushed past her. She saw David and me, walking hand-in-hand toward
the front door, and a delighted grin lit up her face.

“
Let me know where you want
the painting sent, pet.”

“
You can send it to Hammond
care of me, Val,” David called back to her. “She’ll be there soon
enough.”

Val clapped her hands
together, and did a little dance in the middle of the living room
floor.

“
She looks happy,” David
remarked, as we reached the front door.

“
Yeah, too happy,” I
muttered.

Out on the street, I
spotted the red Jeep Wrangler, sitting against the curb, a few
hundred yards from the house.

“
Parked far away for a
reason?”

“
Orders from your father.
He didn’t want you recognizing my car before they gave you the
painting.”

Gathering the long dress in
my hands, I carefully climbed into the jeep. “So how long have
ya’ll had this planned?” I questioned, settling into my
seat.

“
A few weeks. Why do you
think Val gave you an engagement party? It wasn’t to celebrate your
engagement to the moron. She wanted to arrange a meeting for the
two of us.”

I chuckled, shaking my
head. “Now I know how Kennedy felt.”

He turned over the engine
and was about to pull away from the curb, when I touched his
arm.

“
What’s wrong?”

Feeling that long forgotten
tingle in my belly spark to life, I directed, “Take off your jacket
and roll up your sleeves.”

He curiously raised his
eyebrows and then shrugged. Removing his jacket, he rolled up his
white shirtsleeves, and then tossed his jacket in the
backseat.

He gave me a wary
side-glance. “Anything else?”

As that enticing tingle
spread throughout my body, I smiled. “No, just drive.”

***

We arrived at my father’s
home about twenty minutes later. David pulled into the
white-shelled driveway and turned off the engine. We climbed out of
the Jeep, and he followed me to the door. A nervous flutter danced
in my belly when I put the key into the lock. I hoped David would
just leave, having seen me to the door, but he didn’t. After
opening the door, I spun back around to confront him.

“
What do you want, a good
night kiss?”

“
I’ll settle for a
night-cap.” He pushed the door open and strolled past me into the
entryway.

I closed the door and threw
my purse on the landing steps. When I arrived in the living room,
he was standing in front of the fireplace, staring up at my
portrait. His face was filled with pride, and a profound sense of
contentment shone from his eyes.

“
It’s a fitting place for
it. I’m honored. I had forgotten how….” He left his words
unfinished and he ambled across the room to the sofa.

“
Forgotten what?” I asked,
remaining by the mantle.

He made himself comfortable
on the plush sofa. “I had almost forgotten the feelings I had for
you, that first moment I saw you. I painted that,” he pointed to
the portrait, “the first night I met you. As time went on, and we
became better acquainted, I filled in more and more of the details
of your face. To me, that portrait always represented us. It was as
if I were painting the reasons why I fell in love with
you.”

“
I wish you would stop
talking like that.” I slowly approached the sofa. “How you love
me…falling in love with me. It is very confusing. I am an engaged
woman.” I flashed Michael’s ring. “I’m not supposed to be
conversing with other men about how much they love me.” I plopped
down on the sofa next to him.

“
Why not? It seems like the
perfect time to air all the dirty laundry, before you make it down
the aisle. Let’s just say, I’m helping you figure out if this is
what you really want.” He shimmied closer to me on the sofa and put
his arm around me.

“
Oh please.” I brushed off
his arm. “I need a drink. Do you want one?”

I got up from the sofa and
went into the hallway. Heading toward the den, I could hear David
following me. His heavy footfalls reverberated throughout the
hallway.

In the den, I dashed behind
the bar and mixed David a bourbon and soda. While making my
screwdriver, I decided to stay behind the bar, feeling it was
better to have a large amount of furniture between us.

“
So tell me about the
moron,” he asked, lifting his drink.

“
Michael is a wonderful
man.” I hastily raised my glass to my lips, hoping the alcohol
would quell my growing desire for David.

“
Compared to me, or along
the general scheme of men?” He sipped his bourbon.

“
I don’t know why I am
having this conversation with you. I don’t know why I’m even
allowing you to sit in my house and drink my father’s booze. After
everything you did to me.” I banged my glass down on the
bar.

He gently set his bourbon
on the bar. “Still mad?”

“
My scars run
deep.”

“
So do mine.” He came
around the bar to me and cornered me against the sink with his
body. “I still have the scars on my back. Remember that night?” His
mouth came closer to my ear. “I remember.” His lips traveled down
from my ear around my cheek and hovered over my mouth. “Let me
remind you.” Then, he kissed me.

I had forgotten the
intensity of his kisses; that feeling of being transported away by
his embrace. Suddenly, the tingle in my loins became a searing
white heat. My will to resist him was fading quickly. Images of the
times we had spent together in bed were taking over my mind.
Desperate to regain control, I broke away and instantly felt the
faucet from the sink jab me in the butt.

“
No, David. I can’t do
this.”

He hovered over me, his
gray eyes were like two dark slits. “All right, Nicci.” He moved
out from behind the bar and headed for the entrance to the den. At
the doorway, he stopped. “Your father has my address. When you’ve
finished with this nonsense, I’ll be waiting.” He disappeared into
the hall.

A few seconds later, I
heard the thud of the front door slamming.

I stomped my foot on the
floor. “Bastard.”

I returned with my drink to
the living room and got comfortable on the sofa. Gazing up at the
portrait, I contemplated the fiery eyes in the painting.

The taste of his lips was
still on mine. The heat from his eyes still burned in my gut. The
smell of him was everywhere. Could I be so easily swayed by him
after just one kiss? He had hurt me and made my life insufferable
for months. Was I that infatuated with the man to be so overcome by
his presence? I laughed until the tears came to my eyes. He was
back! My heart was racing with excitement and my stomach was doing
somersaults.

“
You have been a fool,
Nicci Beauvoir.”

***

The next morning the light
from the downstairs window woke me just after sunrise. I rose from
the sofa, feeling stiff and a little sluggish, but for the first
time in months, I was warm with happiness. The chill of winter had
left me. I stretched and looked around the room. Everything was
different now. I could hear life humming all around me. Birds were
singing in the trees outside, and in the distance, a church bell
was ringing. I jogged to the stairs, listening to the world
awakening around me. I felt young again, with an unlimited energy,
as I bounded up the steps to my room.

I quickly showered and
changed. I put on an old pair of jeans and a fitted button-down
shirt. I laughed at my reflection in the mirror. It was just the
kind of outfit Michael hated; too tight in all the right
places.