Second Chances (84 page)

“We’ve had memorable conversations at night....”

“Jewelry in the morning,” he chimed in.

Smiling, she continued.  “A balcony in Brazil is where I first confessed my love.”

He pulled her closer, kissing her head.  “And on a balcony in Paris you agreed to marry me.”  He studied their rings while holding her hand.  “But that isn’t what I was thinking of when I mentioned Aruba.”

“No?”  Isabella asked quizzically.   Without thinking, she propped her feet up on the edge of the table, and her gown slipped down her legs, exposing her toned thighs.

A wide smile broke across his face.  “This is what I was remembering,” he said quietly, running a hand down her outer thigh.  She shivered unconsciously at his touch.  “You were shivering then, too,” he murmured against her silky hair, still caressing her thigh.  “That night you were wearing only a bathrobe over a camisole and panty set.  You looked so sexy I very nearly lost control.”  He laughed softly.  “The next morning, I was so afraid then that I might have scared you away.  I loved you even then, you know?”

Isabella could scarcely concentrate as she sat there focused on his touch.  Somehow she managed to whisper, “No, I had no idea.” 

He grew more daring now, running his hand down the back of her thigh, rounding over her buttock.  All the while he prepared to encounter the silky panties that he gave her with the gown.  His hand moved slowly, haltingly, until he had encircled her and found the bend in her hip.

Isabella smiled, knowing what he searched for.   In anticipation of his next move, she dropped her leg down.  His hand traced down the crease, coming to rest in her warm, carefully waxed lap.  He inhaled sharply.  She shifted, turning slightly.  Isabella prepared for his next move.  Every fiber of her being expected him to lift her gently, lovingly, longingly, onto his lap.  She wasn’t disappointed, for a moment later he had smoothly slid her onto him.

Gabriel lifted her face to meet his lips, wearing a sultry smile.  His kisses came slowly at first, with his hand carefully exploring unknown territory.  Isabella tried to focus on the kiss, but with every movement of his hand she grew more distracted, until at last she wrenched her lips from his to throw her head back and gasp.  She was either overly sensitive from having been chaste for so long, or more likely, Gabriel knew how to touch her.

She wondered for a moment whether he had become at all affected by their foreplay.  Laying her head upon his chest helped her uncover the answer to that question.  Gabriel’s heart beat seemingly out of control.  Feeling far less self-conscious than when she first walked through the balcony doors, Isabella smiled slightly as he continued to caress her.  Yet before she could truly relax, she found herself being whisked back through the gauzy curtains to be gently deposited on the bed. 

Gabriel rested on his side, leaning over her, gently stroking her cheek and pushing stray hairs away from her face.  He began with a soft kiss on her forehead, then the kisses trailed over to her lips, which had been ready and anxiously awaiting the arrival of his.  She opened eagerly to allow his tongue access to hers.  He teased and taunted, nibbling her lower lip.  She emitted a soft moan.  Now the kisses traveled down her neck to her shoulders. One side after another he kissed as he pushed her spaghetti straps off her shoulders.  Isabella was treated to a few more moments of kissing down her neck and in between her heaving breasts before he found his target.  Her nipples, already excruciatingly hard, nearly throbbed under the expert maneuvering of his tongue and fingers.  Isabella could feel a tingle growing in the pit of her abdomen, and a vaguely familiar warmth.

He stopped for a moment and looked at her.  Her eyes opened expectantly.  “Is something wrong?”  She asked him anxiously.

Now Gabriel moaned.  “Oh, Bella, if you only knew what you do to me.  I just have to...pace myself.  It’s been a long time.  You know?”

Smiling, she reached for his face with both hands and pulled him upward to meet her lips.  They kissed for a moment before she sat up and flung off her gown.  He inhaled sharply at the sight of her naked body.  “What?  You’ve seen me naked before,” she chided him, biting her lip.

“Oh, but I’ve never been able to fully enjoy it as I will now.  Just knowing that there are no limits is invigorating.”  He laid down upon her, caressing her, as she ran her hands over his back and buttocks.  Much to her surprise, Gabriel shivered repeatedly at her touch.

She smiled as she looked into his eyes and murmured quietly, “Now who’s shaking?”

He blushed for a moment before pushing his pelvis into hers so that she could feel him, hard as steel, warm and throbbing with desire.  The only thing separating them: one flimsy pair of silk boxers.

Enjoying his excitement, Isabella rolled him onto his back.  She kissed his ear lobes, feeling his response in the form of the fingers tightening on her back.  She kissed and tickled with her tongue down his neck, pausing momentarily to give a gentle bite to the base of his throat.  Down she continued until she reached his boxers.  She straddled him, sat back and ran her fingers under the elastic waist band, watching his eyes shut and hearing his breathing accelerate.  She hastily pulled off the boxers so that he, too, lay exposed.  She hadn’t really studied him before, but at this moment, now that she had, she wondered if she was ready for him.

Isabella lay on top of him for a moment, waiting for some reaction.  There was none.  It was as though Gabriel were waiting for her to make the next move.  She reared up.  His eyes opened.   Positioning everything just so, she whispered lustily, “May I?”

His mouth opened, but before he had an opportunity to say anything, he was plunged deep inside her.  Neither one moved for a moment.  He looked at her concerned.  “What about...?”  She saw him glance toward a pack of Trojans on the night stand.

“You aren’t ready for more children?”  He looked as though he didn’t know how to respond.  “I mean, I don’t mind if you don’t.”  She bit her lip hard while waiting for an answer.

He shook his head and tears formed in his eyes.  “I love you,” he whispered.  Then he rolled her over and they rushed into each other, again and again.   Isabella could feel the pressure building, the coiling tension, the sensation of balancing on the edge of an active volcano.  She could feel Gabriel growing larger and impossibly hard.  It aroused her more than anything to feel the power associated with being able to excite him.  It had never been like this for her before.  Suddenly, she could feel him erupt within her, her body pulsing wildly around him.  They cried out in unison then collapsed, clinging together.  He lingered but a moment within her.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, obviously embarrassed.  “It’s been a while.  I promise it will be better next time.”  He was blushing.

The next time, less than an hour later, was better. 
And the third time, just before dawn was phenomenal.  They watched the sunrise from the terrace, wrapped in a bed sheet that they shared.  Then they scurried back to bed.  They snacked on the strawberries, sipped the champagne, and fell mercifully to sleep.  Their bodies lay so closely together that not even a ray of light could pass between them.  For the next three days they exited the room for nothing but food and to give hugs and kisses to the children, who had been spending time enjoying the hotel pool and much of Rome with Maggie.

When at last they emerged, ready to lavish their attentions on more of the world than just each other, it was to explore the countryside and select some souvenirs for their place.

“I swear nothing else will fit,” Isabella warned Gabriel as they purchased another enormous stoneware pot.  “I don’t know where we will put one more thing,” she added as he purchased yet another tapestry.  “This is crazy,” she muttered while he arranged for the shipping of two paintings she made the mistake of mentioning she liked.

“Let me worry about that, beautiful one,” Gabriel responded with a smile.  “Didn’t I tell you we would have a magnificent art collection?”

On the plane ride home, Isabella suddenly looked at Gabriel with alarm.  “Where are we going to live?  My word!  We never talked about where we would live.  I can’t live in Montreal during the week, Gabriel.  It is too far a drive to the studio.  Yet, the same is true for you.”    Suddenly her mind raced, trying to find a compromise, a logical solution to her newly realized challenge.

Almost on cue the stewardess delivered a special package for Mrs. Gabriel Charmant.  Isabella found it to be terribly exciting, since she had had little opportunity to answer to that name.  For the moment, the dilemma over their living situation passed.  She untied the bow, and opened the small square box.  After pushing aside a layer of tissue paper, a platinum castle key chain had been revealed, and on it, two keys.  She held them up in her hand and asked Gabriel, “What’s this?”

He smiled widely and answered, “I thought it was obvious.  These are the keys to our kingdom.”

She tilted her head to the side and studied him momentarily, wondering what he could possibly mean by that.  He wouldn’t have...?  No, he couldn’t have...?

Isabella would make that discovery soon enough.  Gabriel picked up his BMW at the airport, loaded them into it with their considerable amount of luggage, and then began the drive home.  She relaxed slightly when she discovered that they were, in fact, driving south.  Maybe they would be staying at her barn after all.

Admittedly, Isabella didn’t pay much attention to the drive.  She busied herself with studying her new rings, still getting used to having them on her finger.  Then, just as she tired of that, Gabriel reached out to her.  She turned her attention to his hands.  They were soft gentle hands that had never known a day’s hard labor.  She smiled thinking how wonderfully they touched her, how well he now knew every inch of her.  Resting back into the seat, she sighed contentedly.

A moment later, he glanced at her and nodded at the driveway ahead that led to a place Isabella had never seen before.  “Where are we?” She asked as they turned up the long private drive, flanked on either side by tall maple trees creating a natural canopy over head.

“Exactly halfway between both our worlds,” he replied with a proud smile.  “I thought we should always live our life in a compromise.”  He gazed at her lovingly.  A new thought occurred to him.  “Your life is going to be so very different now.  You know that, right?”

“How so?”  She wondered genuinely confused.  Did this marriage come with unexpected obligations?

He took a deep breath.  “Well, you will no longer have to do much of anything that you don’t want to do.  We have a driver to bring you to work every day and pick you up, if that be your wish.  We have a cook, so that I keep my promise.”

She smiled.  “About only having to cook when I want?”  He nodded and she leaned over to kiss his cheek.

“We have a permanent nanny, as long as Maggie wishes to stay with us.  What do you say, Maggie?”  He asked, glancing at Maggie in the rear view mirror, seated next to Kyle in the back seat.

“I told you, Mrs. Charmant,” she said with a laugh.  “The minute I saw you two together, I knew this wasn’t going to be no temporary job, although you did give me a scare, Mr. Gabriel.  I just wait patiently, you see.  Maggie knows before you!”  She laughed her deep, hearty, welcoming laugh before wrapping her arms around the children, who squealed in delight.

“And of course there is a maid, butler, and gardener.”

“Of course,” she acknowledged shaking her head in disbelief.  “And just where shall we stack all these people, in your apartment or mine?”  She glanced at him wryly.

Gabriel nodded again for her to look up the driveway.  This time she discovered not more driveway before her, but an enormous Tuscan castle that would rival the Magic Kingdom itself.  And the realization of it all set in even before Gabriel’s words reached her ears.  “Neither, darling, we shall be living here.”  He watched her stunned face.

“But...how?”

“Think of it as a wedding present for us, from me and my father.”  He sounded the horn as they pulled up before the front entrance. 

All the servants assembled outside, in uniform, making the situation feel completely surreal to Isabella.  “I can’t believe it,” she laughed.  “All these people are going to rely on me to give them direction.  I don’t know if I can do that.”

“You’d better learn how,” Gabriel warned.  “Ten thousand square feet is an awful lot to clean while working full time.”

“Ten thousand,” she repeated numbly.

“Yup.  The master suite has eighteen hundred square feet alone.  Oh, and the lawns and gardens are on twenty acres.”  He seemed so unaffected by all of this.

He helped her from the car.  The children rushed to the house with Maggie at their heels.  Isabella stood outside for a few minutes looking around in wonder at her new home.  There were so many personal touches.  The design itself, Italian, a place meant to always remind her of their wedding and honeymoon.  The fountain in the center of the circular portion of the driveway was a miniature Trevi Fountain.  At last she walked up the marble steps with her hand through Gabriel’s arm. 

The servants greeted her, but she felt so overwhelmed by it all that she simply smiled and nodded at them.  She would have to make a point of getting to know each of them later.  Right now, she grew eager to tour the house.  As she examined all of the three floors, it became apparent that both apartments had been emptied of their possessions.

By the time she had completed the tour of the place, she had trouble just remembering the floor plan.   “This place is your canvas,” Gabriel reminded her.  “You decide what you want where, what color the walls are to be, and anything that needs changing.  It shall be done.  Have fun with it all.”  He kissed her cheek and headed off to the study to call his father and catch up on business.

“Oh,” Isabella said quietly. 

“What, darling?  I will be quick so we can enjoy our first night home together.  D’accord?”  His body was turned away from her, but upon seeing her crestfallen look, he turned to give her his full attention.

“Okay,” she conceded, “but my concern was that...well, I just wanted to call Jessie.”  She looked at him shyly.  “I have so much to tell her, you know.”  She hugged him close.

He smiled at her.  “Oh, is that all?  Use one of the other lines.  We have four.”  Then with a quick kiss, he turned and walked away.

Great.  Now she just had to find a phone. 

“I can’t wait for you to see it, but give me a couple of weeks.  I want the place to look good.”

Jessie laughed.  “I’m sure the palace is a mess,” she joked.  “So what’s it like?”

“Huge.  The master suite is larger than the house I grew up in.  It has three floors, which hold six bedrooms, each with their own private full bath.  I even have my own darkroom and studio.  Oh, and the servants have separate quarters on what is technically the fourth floor.  Get this.  We have two kitchens.  Two!  I asked why.  He said for entertaining.  There are two powder rooms, six fireplaces, an elevator, and seven Tuscan terraces.  Out back we have numerous gardens, even one large coy pond.  There is a three car attached garage, and a
guest house out back with two bedrooms, a bathroom, living room and a kitchen.  There is an enormous heated pool and spa with waterfalls. All the marble is imported from Italy.  We have a wine cellar with a pretty hefty collection already.  We received a lot of wine as gifts and we chose much on our journey through France and Italy.  Every time I ‘ooed’ or ‘ahhed’ there he bought whatever it was that provoked the response.  So now, in addition to the wine, I have landscapes from France and Italy, as well as some tapestries, and a huge pot to place.  Although I suspect that I have plenty of room for all of it.”  She sighed.  “Oh, Jessie, I just keep waiting to wake up.”

“Not this time, Isabella,” Jessie said.  “This time you get to live the dream.”

Ever since she and Gabriel had reconciled, Isabella had been nothing but blissfully happy.  Now, as August drew to a close, Gabriel worried when he arrived home and found her sitting in their vast family room, staring at their family portrait hanging above the mantle, looking forlorn.

“Darling, why are you so unhappy?” The question arose out of great concern.

“Oh, I’m sorry,”
Isabella groaned, “I just have to finish organizing for my big gallery opening.  Dr. Pam expects it to be something spectacular.”  She reached for his hand.  “Before you came into my life I had lost my passion for everything-- photography, life...  Every picture I took felt stale.  Now I am too passionate,” she laughed, pointing at the small stack of worn composition notebooks, threatening to topple over on the couch, and the photos scattered over every surface.  “Now I see beauty everywhere, in everything.  I don’t know how to decide…”