prickling through a chill that breaks out all over my body in goose bumps.
“Come on, it’s cool enough up here to make a fire.” Nico releases me and my body is disappointed to lose contact so soon. He holds my hand and steers me through the dark house into a room at the back. After he’s made a fire I can see the enormity of the fireplace. It’s made of stone and I feel dwarfed by the sheer size of it.
“Wow, it’s…incredible.” The words don’t do enough to describe it. The light from the fireplace casts a soft glow on the room and I can see that the walls of the room are all glass. It’s too dark to see anything on the outside, but I imagine that I would be looking out at a lake if the sun was shining.
Nico is still standing by the fireplace, but now he’s watching me as I take in the beauty of the room. “Jesus, Babe, you look like an angel standing there.”
I smile at his compliment, I’ve never been good at accepting compliments, but with Nico, the way he speaks to me, I believe every word he says. I know I don’t look like an angel, but to Nico, I do at this moment. Neither of us moves, both content in what the light finds for the other to see. Then his eyes find mine and everything else fades away…the darkness, the fireplace, the room, everything. None of it exists anymore. It’s just us and everything seems so simple. It’s one of those moments in life that you feel a shift. Like everything you’ve done before has lead to this point and whatever happens from this point on will be different. I don’t know how or why, but I’m as certain of it as I’ve ever been of anything in my life. I’m in love with this man, and the realization doesn’t even scare me. Not the slightest bit.
Nico walks to me slowly, his eyes never releasing mine. He stops as he reaches me, falling short of contact between our bodies, but just short. We’re standing so close I have to tilt my neck back and look up at him to keep our eyes locked, but I don’t dare move for fear that one of us will blink and the moment will be gone. He raises one of his big hands and softly brushes my hair back from my face, his touch is so tender and gentle. Slowly, he lowers his head down to mine and I think he’s going to kiss me, his face is so close to mine that I can feel his breath on my lips, but he doesn’t. He stops so we don’t have to lose the contact of our locked eyes. And then everything I felt shift is confirmed and my world changes.
“I love you, Elle.”
I don’t have to think about my response. Because there’s never been anything in my life I’ve been surer about. “I love you, too.”
Then he kisses me. Sweetly. Gently. Passionately. Really kisses me...in a way that I’ve never been kissed before. It’s not a prelude to sex or foreplay. It’s love. Pure and simple, it’s love pouring from both of us and connecting in a kiss. And in that moment I realize, I’ve never really been kissed before. I thought I’d been, but I wasn’t. There was absolutely nothing before this kiss, and I can’t wait to see what comes after.
By the time we break for air, I’m holding onto his shoulders in order to keep upright. Without his arms wrapped so tightly around me, I would be a puddle on the floor. My knees are weak and my arms are shaking and then there’s the tears. The tears have welled up in my eyes and I can’t stop them from falling when he looks at me that way. I’d heard people say they cried tears of happiness before, but I’d never given the term any thought. But that’s what they are and they start falling. Streaming from my eyes as I smile up at the man that I’m madly in love with. And he with me.
He smiles back down at me and wipes the tears from my eyes. “You’re smiling and crying.”
“I know…I think fifteen years of holding back my emotions just got the best of me…and now you’re in trouble.” I laugh as I speak, realizing how ridiculous it must sound, but it’s true. I haven’t felt anything for fifteen years, really, and now I’m overwhelmed with emotions I hadn’t even realized I was capable of anymore.
Nico smiles before he reaches down and lifts me into his arms, cradling me tightly against his chest. I wrap my arms around his neck. “What are you doing?”
“I’m taking the woman I love to bed to make love to her.”
“Oh.” His words are like music to my ears.
The next morning I wake to a familiar warm hand on my exposed back, rubbing gently up and down my spine. I turn my head to face the man I’ve professed my love to and he smiles at me. “Mornin.”
“Morning.” I smile back and can’t help that it’s a goofball smile, I feel satisfied and happy and completely and totally in love. I can’t remember the last time I felt so relaxed. Telling Nico about my past has lifted a weight off my chest that I didn’t even realize I was carrying.
Nico laughs at my smile. “I want to take you out onto the lake this morning before it gets too hot.” He pushes my hair covering part of my face behind my shoulder and kisses my cheek.
“Okay.”
“I could get used to this new agreeable woman that you’ve become.” Nico lifts up and kisses my bare back, just above the sheet that is covering me from the waist down.
“And I could get used to waking up to this.” He trails sweet gentle kisses up from the small of my back all the way to the nape of my neck.
“Come on, before we don’t leave the bed all day.” He abruptly stops kissing me and I miss the warmth of his body covering my back instantly.
I groan loudly, very unladylike, “Or we could just stay in bed all day?” I attempt to persuade him with an invitation.
“Not a chance. There’s a dozen places I want to have you here.”
“Have me?” Is he saying what I think he’s saying?
Nico pulls back the sheet, exposing my naked ass, as I still lie face down on the bed. I’ve not yet made any attempt to move. He groans and smacks my ass playfully.
“I’m going to have you on the little island that’s in the center of the lake. I can’t wait to see you spread eagle in the middle of that patch of grass under the tree.” I begin to sit up and I watch as Nico’s light green eyes turn stormy. There’s no hiding when he wants me and I love it. It’s raw and real and he doesn’t try to mask it for something it’s not. Nico drinks me in and then takes a deep breath before his eyes return to mine. “And maybe even bent over the captains chair before we leave the dock if you don’t hurry.”
I expected the lake to be pretty, but nothing I could have imagined comes close to what I see when my eyes first take in the stunningly picturesque scenery right before me. Nico brings me a cup of coffee as I stare out the wall of glass where the darkness hindered my vision the night before, and wraps his thick arms around my middle as he stands behind me. “Beautiful right?”
“It’s stunning. It doesn’t even look real. It’s all too perfect.” I truly am in awe. It’s not that I don’t stop to appreciate nature, but the times that I do have become few and far between the last few years as I’ve thrown myself into my work and the city.
“I’m glad you like it.” Nico squeezes me a little closer as he speaks.
“How could anyone not like it?” The trees are in bloom and the entire perimeter of the crystal clear sparkling lake is lined with tall purple and orange wildflowers. I wonder for a moment if they were planted, but then I think better of it and realize that nothing man-made could possibly be that beautiful.
Nico sighs, it’s a sound of contentment. Happiness. I know because I feel the exact same way. “Do you come up here often?”
“I used to.”
“Why did you stop?” Nico doesn’t respond right away and it makes me think there is a story, something difficult that made him stop.
“I started coming here when I was fifteen. Preach used to bring me up to fish the lake. Sometimes my brothers would come, once in a while even my mom when she could get a full day off, which was rare.”
I turn myself in Nico’s arms…sensing the part of the story that made him stop coming was near. I look up at him and he continues with my full attention. “We had a good many parties up here after I won fights.” His face is smiling as he recalls some of the good times. “Preach won’t allow electricity, so my brothers and I used to fill the back of a pickup truck with coolers.” He chuckles at the thought. “We could get a dozen coolers filled with beer in the back of a short cab.”
I smile watching him, he has such nice family memories. Families coming together to celebrate their success around a lake filled with love and laughter. Something I longed for most of my younger years.
“So why did you stop coming?”
