Yours to Savor (33 page)

Or above me
? she thought slyly.

“Alright.” Brandon leaned down to place one last kiss on her lips. He started in surprise when Sandra jerked her hands up and pulled him deeper.

When he emerged, he looked only a little unsteady.

“Breakfast is on the table. This time, I had it brought up.” He winked, and went to get his phone. “This is the last thing I have to do in Seattle. I’m returning to Ocean Shores after. Maybe I can drive you?”

“Of course,” Sandra smiled.

“Or, even better… maybe we can take
VEGA
.”

Sandra furrowed her brows. “Your boat is here?”

“My
yacht
, darling. You’re going to have to get used to calling her that. And, yes. Remember our first date, out over the water?”

“On your…
yacht
,” Sandra said deliberately. “Of course. Why?”

“I didn’t lie when I told you I had a meeting when I took you to shore. Only, the meeting was in Seattle. And booked for the next morning. I sailed here from Ocean Shores.”

“Oh. I thought…” she stopped. “Actually, I don’t know what I thought. How’d your car end up here, then?”

“Clarisse drove it. If we take
VEGA
, she can drive it back.”

Sandra felt a little surprised that he’d let his assistant drive such a powerful vehicle, but seeing how anxious Brandon was to go, she decided not to ask. “I’d love to sail back.”

“Good.” With that, he strode out the room. Every stride had purpose. Brandon never failed to look impressive, Sandra decided.

Long after she heard the elevator doors open to take Brandon down, she sat up in bed.
Breakfast?
she thought idly. But, she was too amazed to consider eating.

For the first time in more than fifteen years, she’d slept in.

For the first night since the fire, the nightmares hadn’t woken her after she’d slept more than seven hours.

Was that all it took?
The embrace of a man who made her feel protected? The embrace of a man she felt she could
trust?

This whole time, she’d been searching for something else, something that would put an end to the dreams. She thought back to the move with Henry to Dallas.
Henry may have been older than her. He may have been keenly smart. But, in all other areas of life, he’d been a child.

Brandon was a man.

He was a man who made her feel comfortable, and extremely desired. Sandra was a woman of strong resolve, but for the first time in her life, she’d met a man who was
stronger
. Moreover, he unleashed something within her… something primal and sexual that had lain dormant for a very long time.
For my whole life, in fact.

Henry had never come close to awakening such feelings in her. But, in the span of a few days, Brandon had surpassed every man Sandra had ever known.

The way her heart fluttered now as she thought of him told her that Brandon…
is someone I’m dangerously close to falling in love with.

The admission shocked her. Sandra knew better than to be so free with her emotions. She had risked getting hurt. But at the same time, she’d never had a man impact her being so
completely
before. Just two weeks ago, she’d been toiling away in her dead-end job, trying to get a grip on her life, to find that missing
something
that would let her live her life without her constant nightmares. And then Brandon had popped up out of nowhere to whisk her away on the greatest adventure of her life.

It didn’t even matter that she’d only known him for a week. It didn’t matter that she’d only spent one
full
day with him. The heights he’d helped her reach were astounding.

She and Brandon had been in such perfect harmony yesterday. She’d never experienced anything like it. The way he opened her world sexually, the way every sweet kiss threatened to steal her soul away… those things made him very easy to fall in love with. He’d exhausted her last night, taking her through the full range of emotions. But, it wasn’t
physical
exhaustion that had let her sleep in. She’d tried that route before; it had never done any good.

It was the feeling of being
content
that did it, she realized. She
trusted
Brandon. Somehow, someway, that
trust
worked on her mind so that for the first time in sixteen years, she woke up completely freed from the guilt of her sister’s death.

No, she’d been wrong—Brandon’s kisses didn’t steal her soul away. They did something much better.

They purged her of her demons.

Sandra rolled off the bed, waddled to the closest to reach for a fluffy robe.
Breakfast?
she mused again. She walked through the long hall, into the kitchen… and gaped when she saw what was on the table.

Steaming trays of hot food, kept warm by portable gas flames, covered the whole surface. Anything her heart desired was there: oatmeal, pancakes, scrambled eggs, poached eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausages, waffles, cereals, colorful fruits, jams, breads, muffins, and some dishes so exotic Sandra wasn’t quite sure what they were. It was like someone had brought up the entire breakfast buffet. All of it was enough to feed a classroom full of children.

A piece of folded paper hung off the edge of the table. Intrigued, amused, and completely unsure whether to be delighted or outraged at the profligate amount of food, Sandra opened the note and read it.

Again, I find myself not knowing what you like best.
So, I had everything brought up, in hopes you see something you like.
Maybe it can make up for the dinner we missed.

Brandon.

Sandra smiled, tucking the note into the pocket of her robe. She’d keep all the notes he wrote as mementos, she decided. Then, she sat down at the table to begin the most satiating breakfast of her life.

Brandon came back later that day, surprising Sandra in the shower. When they emerged more than an hour later, Sandra discovered a new outfit spread on the bed: jeans and a blouse, but both much more expensive than anything she owned. Brandon smiled and told her Clarisse had picked then out for her. Sandra tried to protest. She insisted again on returning the clothes from that first shopping trip, but Brandon told her everything had already been packed in his car and was on its way to Ocean Shores. Sandra could see no way to argue with those logistics.

They walked to the marina, which was only a few minutes away. Brandon’s
yacht
was the most impressive of its size. There were bigger boats there, of course, but
VEGA
had a sleek elegance to it, much like his Ferrari.

“Why’d you name it
VEGA
?” Sandra asked as she stepped up the gangplank.

“
Her
,” Brandon corrected. “I named her
VEGA
after the star. Vega is the brightest star of the constellation Lyra, and the fourth brightest star in the northern hemisphere.
VEGA
was specially designed and built for me. It was the fourth most expensive yacht commissioned in the Arzana Navi shipyard.” His eyes glimmered with unspoken pride. “I’d wanted a yacht like her for a very long time, and I thought
VEGA
an appropriate name.”

“I like it,” Sandra said, before climbing up into the captain’s quarters.

Later, somewhere in the pristine waters that seemed far past the reaches of civilization, Brandon turned the engine off and stifled a yawn. “I’m going to go downstairs and take a nap for a bit,” he told her. “You won’t get bored without me, will you?”

Sandra peaked up from the book she was reading on her Kindle and gave him a smile. “I think I can take care of myself.”

“In case a storm hits, you know how to steer,” Brandon winked. Sandra’s eyes widened in horror at the prospect, but Brandon laughed and kissed her on the forehead. “Wake me in an hour, will you?”

Forty minutes later, Sandra finished the final chapter of the book, set her reader down, and stretched her arms. A faint rain had started outside. She went out to the bow, filling her lungs with the fresh, clean scent of the ocean. She didn’t know how long she stayed there, just staring out at the beautiful water, before she heard Brandon’s voice behind her.

“Sandra? I was wondering where you went. What are you doing out here?”

She turned, and found Brandon leaning forward with arms outstretched above his head on the doorframe. He’d changed into a black tank top for his nap, and the long fibers of his muscles flexed and danced as he swung back and forth. His wavy hair was all matted, taking the shape of the pillow he’d dozed on.

“I like the feeling of water on my skin,” she told him, taking a deep, invigorating breath. A light drizzle pattered against the deck from the gray sky overhead, mixing with the salty spray of the sea. Sandra brought her tongue out to taste her lips. “It reminds me of my childhood.”

“Does it?” Brandon raised an eyebrow. “You never told me about your childhood.”

“I never talk about it with most people,” Sandra explained. But then, she felt an unexpected braveness blossom within her. “But, for some reason, I feel like I can, with you.”

“Of course you can.” Brandon stepped out into the rain. He came up to her, wrapped both arms around her waist, and nuzzled on her neck. “You can tell me anything.”

Sandra let the wind carry her hair into his face. With Brandon’s warm body pressed up against hers, she decided that
love
was very much within reach.
Real
love—not the type she pretended with Henry. “I don’t talk about it because my older sister died when I was a little girl.” She hadn’t said those words to anyone in over two years. But what came next, she hadn’t said to anyone,
ever
. “I saw her die. And, almost every night since then, I see the same thing in my dreams.”

“Your nightmares,” Brandon said slowly. He turned her around to look her in the eye. “Sandra, I had no idea. When you told me about them this morning…” he trailed off and shook his head. “I’m sorry. How did she die?”

“It happened at a house party,” Sandra said. It felt… strangely liberating to speak of Chloe’s death to a living, breathing person. Somehow, Brandon had gained more of her trust in three days than anybody else had in her whole lifetime. “My sister broke curfew to go there. I saw her leaving our house. I didn’t want her to get in trouble, so I didn’t tell my parents. Instead, I sneaked out to follow her. I went to bring her home.” She took a deep breath. “But I couldn’t. I failed her. When I got to the party, there were so many people, and everyone was so much older than me. I pushed through, and saw my sister disappear through a doorway. Before I could reach her, there was an explosion in the basement. Most of the people got out, but my sister wasn’t so lucky—what, what is it?” Sandra stopped mid-sentence, perplexed at Brandon’s expression.

A ghostly look crossed Brandon’s face when she mentioned the explosion. “What was your sister’s name?”

“Chloe.” For a split-second, Sandra saw something very much like fear flare in Brandon’s eyes. “Brandon, are you alright?”

“Fine,” he said, but his ragged voice betrayed the lie. “How old were you when it happened?”

“I was nine. Chloe was sixteen.” Sandra peered deeply at Brandon. There was no doubt in her mind he’d become uneasy. He didn’t meet her eyes. “Brandon, is something wrong?”

He blinked a few times before answering. When he looked back at her, it was as if he were seeing her as an entirely new person. “I’m… so very sorry for your loss,” he whispered. “I… I heard about the fire. Sixteen years ago? In Chicago?” He ran a hand through his hair. “It was all over the news. ‘The Fire That Destroyed a Neighborhood,’ as one of the newspapers called it. I just never… never expected it to involve
you
.”

“You
know
about it?”

Brandon nodded. “Yes. I don’t think anybody who lived in Chicago at the time doesn’t. So that… that’s what you see in your nightmares? That’s why you don’t sleep in?”