Boxed Set: At the Billionaire’s Command – Vol. 1-3 (11 page)

So, Daniel had continued to write. The tone was different, less angry and less sure of himself, but he continued to believe that my disappearance was voluntary. He was beginning to doubt my desire to see him again. Hadn’t he wondered this before? And it always came back to his omnipotence: I want you therefore I have you…

26 July 2012 5:02

[Julia, where are you? If you’re having problems, I’ll come and get you. Why does it always go straight to your voicemail?]

26 July 2012 5:20

[Has something happened to you?]

26 July 2012 5:30

[Something must’ve happened to you. I can’t see any other explanation.]

He took his time, but he’d finally asked himself the right question.

26 July 2012 5:47

[If something has happened to you, I’ll never forgive myself. I should’ve asked Ray to accompany you.]

26 July 2012 6:11

[I’ll continue to write to you in case you can read my messages. I’m looking for you and I will find you.]

26 July 2012 6:28

[Is everyone asleep in this city? Nothing and nobody will stop me moving heaven and earth.]

26 July 2012 6:56

[Julia, I’m going mad with worry.]

26 July 2012 7:19

[Ray didn’t find out much from the airport. He has a list of the stewardesses on your flight and is contacting them, because it must’ve happened on the plane. I’m afraid someone has kidnapped you, that they wanted to get at me through you. I’m so sorry, Julia.]

All these messages one after the other allowed me to imagine Daniel’s night. I could sense his anger, his turmoil and his questions. I imagined him restless, pacing up and down, and waking Ray in the middle of the night. I could feel his concern starting to show, growing and overflowing. It hurt to know I’d made him go through that, but at the same time I was pleased he was concerned and about everything he was doing to find me, because that proved he liked me. Even if he didn’t say it like that and even if he brought everything back to himself yet again, thinking that anything that happened to me was aimed at him.

26 July 2012 8:46

[We spoke to one of the stewardesses. It seems that you were taken ill, but the idiot didn’t know which hospital you were in. We’re calling them all.]

It was 9.10 am when I called Daniel’s number. He answered at the first ring.

"Julia?!"
I could hear in his voice that he was stressed, but also relieved.

"Hello Daniel, I…"

"Where are you?"
His voice was its usual smooth self once again.
“The American Hospital."

"I’m on my way. I can’t wait to see you again, Julia."
(Silence).

"Me too Daniel."

Barely five minutes after I’d hung up, someone knocked at the door. Here already? No, it wasn’t Daniel who entered the room but Vincent.

"Hello! How are you?"

"Fine."

"You don’t seem thrilled to see me. Am I disturbing you?"

"No, not at all. I was expecting someone else. But I’m pleased you’re here."

"Would you prefer me to leave if you’re expecting someone?"

"No, stay. Did you rest a bit?"

"As you can see", he said with a wide smile, lifting his head, sticking out his chest and extending his arms out horizontally. "Rested, showered and changed!"

"Fresh as a daisy!" I said, laughing.

"Is there anything you need?"

"No, thank you."

"Do you know when you can leave?"

"Should be this evening. I’m waiting for the doctor to confirm it."

"Good, so we can…"

He was interrupted by the noise of the door being thrown wide open. Daniel burst into the room, his face tired but smiling. But when he saw Vincent, he stopped dead, his face contorted, staring daggers at me.

"What is this young man doing in your room?" he asked, approaching the bed and turning his back to Vincent.

"Daniel, I’d like to introduce Vincent."

"I didn’t ask who he was, I asked what he’s doing here!" he shouted without turning round.

"Would it kill you to be pleasant?! You can’t just turn up here not knowing anything, full of assumptions, and be rude.”
While I was talking to Daniel, I discretely moved my head in response to Vincent who, a few metres behind Daniel, had indicated that he could leave the room if I wanted him to.

"So come on, explain. What do I need to know?"
Vincent slipped away.

"Why did you react so aggressively? Vincent was sitting next to me on the plane, he helped me when I started to feel ill; he told the stewardesses, collected my luggage, managed to find out where I had been taken and it was Vincent who sat with me until I woke up."
As the tears rose in my throat, my voice started to shake and my speech became slower. It was a bit unfair to turn Vincent’s help into a reproach against Daniel, but I wanted to show him that he was wrong to get carried away.

"He’s a bit pale, your good samaritan.”
His words were contemptuous, but his tone was not. I decided not to respond, he was just provoking me in return.
Daniel came and sat down on the bed and gently caressed my eyelids with the inside of his index finger to chase away the tears.
We calmed down in the ensuing silence and a different kind of tension arose between us.

"Forgive me. I’m exhausted. I was really scared."

Daniel’s hand had not left my face; he was stroking my cheek affectionately. After a while, he continued:

"The doctor monitoring you said you can leave this evening. I’ll come and collect you.
I smiled faintly and nodded my head in agreement

Daniel’s palm covered half of my face, from my forehead to my chin. He left his hand like that and I closed my eyes. This gesture said so much, it was so tender and so comforting. It said that all his worry was over, it said,
“everything will be ok”
, it said he had been waiting for this moment and wanting to touch my skin again. I sighed with relief and happiness at being with him and also with pleasure.

Daniel brought his face close to mine and his lips brushed against my lips. He did not press, just brushed from left to right, from bottom to top, as if he was looking through touch. I inhaled the scent of our reunion. Daniel ran his tongue along my lower lip, nibbling and brushing against it and then began again. His touch was so soft and so sensual that it made me tremble slightly. His lips sank slightly into mine. The pressure they exerted was precise and deliberate. His tongue slipped between my lips, inviting me to open my mouth and welcome it in. It found mine. And our tongues joined and merged together and our mouths twisted, devoured each other and became as one. All our waiting, all our memories and all our hopes were concentrated in the intensity of that kiss; it expressed all our desire. That kiss was so strong in its gentleness, so unknown yet familiar at the same time and so delectable. That kiss was like the very first kiss.

We caught our breath, forehead to forehead.

"I have to go."
Daniel took my lower lip between his and sucked it gently. He leant his forehead against mine again.

"I really have to go."
He kissed my eyelids, then stood up, adjusting his suit jacket as he did so. I watched him walk away.

"Really? Aren’t you staying?"
He was at the door, but he stopped and turned round. His expression revealed nothing of his recent passion.

"I really hate hospitals and I have some urgent business to take care of: two good reasons not to stay."
And me? Am I not a “good reason”? Is being with me not “reasonable”?

"I’ll come back and collect you. I’ll take you somewhere quiet, far from the bustle of the city… and far from Vincent,” he said, as he left the room.

A few minutes later, Vincent, who had wisely waited for Daniel to leave, came back into the room.

"Well, he’s not all that easy-going, your friend."

"I’m sorry about the way he spoke to you. He also apologised. He was waiting for me at the airport and he was mad with worry when he didn’t see me come out. He hasn’t slept all night. He wasn’t expecting to see you here…”

"And he’s very jealous,” joked Vincent.

"No doubt…"

Vincent spent the rest of the day at my bedside. His presence distracted me from Daniel’s absence. I would’ve liked him to stay with me, would’ve liked to be worth staying for. He was there, like an apparition and then he vanished again. He’d abandoned me; left me stuck in this cold, spotless hospital room. Then I appreciated the fact that Vincent was there, enveloping me in his reassuring presence. It did me a lot of good.

In the afternoon, the doctor brought me the results of my blood tests. Nothing irregular. He confirmed his theory of a “panic attack”, advised me to rest and to go and see a doctor if it happened again.
Shortly after this visit, I received a text message which forced me to say good-bye to Vincent rather earlier than anticipated:
26 July 2012 17:00

[Ray will be at the hospital in half an hour.]
I informed my new friend and told him how grateful I was for everything he’d done for me. We exchanged telephone numbers so we could keep in touch.

At five thirty pm exactly, Ray found me ready to leave

"We’re pleased to see you safe and sound, Miss Belmont", he said.
We laughed together as we left the hospital. Daniel’s car was parked in front of the entrance. Ray put my cases into the boot and went to sit in the driver’s seat, while I sat in the back, next to Daniel. The doors closed and the engine started.

"Ray, let’s go to Sterenn Park."

¹
Nobody should be punished for their thoughts!

I could sense light through my closed eyelids. My eyes blinked a little before they opened fully and saw a tall, wide window with small, square panels, whose interior shutters were folded down inside the frame. A slight breeze entered through the half-open window, inflating the diaphanous curtains like sails. The sunshine of a beautiful day flooded the room with a gentle heat. Everything was so quiet that I could clearly hear the song of the birds. I sat up a little, leant my back against the comfortable pillows and looked around the room. I’d never seen such a huge room. It was imposing in size and uncluttered in style. Its unusual dimensions, its high, white moulded ceilings, its minimalist furniture and its clean surfaces could have rendered it soulless and almost alarming. However, with its walls painted a bluish grey, its old herringbone parquet floor, its large iron bed covered in flowery material, its bouquet of fresh roses placed on a light wood bedside table and its few, yet beautiful, objects, it exuded an extremely charming, soft and intimate atmosphere.

Someone knocked at the door. Daniel entered and came to sit on the edge of the bed. He was wearing jeans and a white cotton shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and whose neckline allowed a glimpse of his smooth, dark torso. His eyes were shining and his whole face was smiling. There was something different in his eyes and in his general manner, which I couldn’t put my finger on.

"It was a long journey and you fell asleep in the car. I didn’t want to wake you when we arrived here, so I carried you to this room."
I imagined the scene, through my own rose-tinted romantic lens... I would have paid good money to see it.

"Here?"

"I would like to welcome you to Sterenn Park, Julia", he said, moving the hair which had fallen in front of my face. "My maternal grandmother was English and here, in Finistère, it reminded her a little of home. When she died, its ownership passed to me and I come here as often as I can."

I wanted to ask him lots of questions about his family, the history of Sterenn Park and his attachment to this place, but I especially wanted him to kiss me, here, now. I wanted to forget the incident, the fear and the hospital; I wanted this quiet, sunny room to be the scene of our reunion.

Following a slightly crazy impulse, I threw myself at his lips. Daniel did not respond; he just remained impassive. I moved back to look at him. My quick, clumsy movement betrayed my surprise and incomprehension. But Daniel seemed even more disconcerted than I was. We stayed there, a few centimetres from each other, staring at each other for what seemed to me like an eternity. And then suddenly, Daniel threw himself at me, took my face between his hands and kissed me with extraordinary passion.

We clung onto each other with a sort of rage and violence, as if this would be our last embrace. The urgency which drove us made us scratch, bite and moan. Although our encounters so far had been filled with incredible sensuality and extreme pleasure, they had never been this passionate.

Suddenly, Daniel broke away. He quickly unbuttoned his shirt, threw it to the floor and, with one hand under my back and the other under my thighs, he picked me up and lay me down across the bed. He leant over me and ripped off my clothes. My sudden nudity, the arousal and the slight breeze all combined together, gave me goose pimples. Daniel plunged his face into my neck. I could feel his wet kisses on my taut skin and his hot breath on my throat. His tongue traced the contours of my chest. He sucked my nipples so hard that my pleasure was tinged with a slight stab of pain.

Daniel was more passionate than ever and inflamed my body with his insistent caresses. He knelt at the foot of the bed, put his arms around my thighs and then powerfully pulled them towards him. My butt was right at the edge of the bed and my clitoris was close to his mouth. His tongue along my butt, his tongue on my clitoris, his tongue licking, teasing, tasting me, drinking me. His tongue making me wet and making me come.

My mind was hazy and lost in the headiness of my orgasm. My body was still quivering. I wanted to feel his weight on me, I wanted to feel him deep inside me. I didn’t want to wait any longer, I wanted him now. Daniel stood up, quickly removed his trousers, took a condom out of his pocket and quickly put it on his erect penis. He parted my thighs and rested my feet on the edge of the bed. Then he penetrated me with the haste which had gripped him too. His thrusting was fast and sent quivers of pleasure down the curve of my back. Our moans became cries.

I could feel my whole being glowing. I felt alive, so alive.
Daniel tipped his head back. His torso was pushed forward and his groin was seized with spasms. A second later, he fell on top of me, his hot skin pressed down on mine and I could hear the fast beating of his heart resonating inside me.