Marcus stared up at him as he advanced towards him. For a moment Nicole thought he was going to object, maybe even burst into a fresh set of tears. Looking at Philip from a child’s point of view, he would cast a rather menacing figure. Were she Marcus’s size, she’d be inclined to make a run for it instead of placing herself in his care. The way he frowned down at the boy didn’t help either. But Marcus was either too tired to care who carried him, or didn’t consider Philip quite so terrifying after all, for he didn’t complain when the big man picked him up.
Their pace accelerated considerably after that. They hadn’t been walking for long when they heard people shouting ahead of them. It soon became clear who they were, since it was Marcus’s name they were calling.
“Mama! Papa!” the child shrieked.
A few moments later they came into view, and Philip set Marcus down when he started wriggling excitedly in his arms.
“Oh thank God you’re safe,” Marina cried, hugging the boy to her. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
“Don’t you ever run off like that again,” Nick reproved, also hugging the little boy. “There won’t always be good people like Nicole and Philip to find you.”
“I won’t,” he promised solemnly.
“Thank you ever so much,” Marina said, turning to Philip.
“It’s Nicole you should thank. She was the one who comforted him.” Only because you didn’t seem to want anything to do with him, she thought irritably.
“We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. I think we should buy you dinner tonight,” Marina said.
“You don’t have to do that. We only did what anyone else would have under the circumstances,” Nicole replied, feeling a little embarrassed by the other woman’s gushing display of gratitude.
“Of course we do,” she insisted. “You found our son.”
Nicole decided not to argue with her, and they set off again with Philip bringing up the rear.
They were to meet Nick and Marina at seven that evening. Nicole slipped into the only dress she had brought with her. The rest she’d left for her mother to stow on board the yacht for its return journey. It was electric blue, body hugging, reaching mid-thigh, and another one of her mother’s gifts. When she emerged from the bathroom wearing it, she collided with the full force of Philip’s appraising dark eyes.
“You might be small, but everything is perfectly proportioned. You have a beautiful body, Nicole. A sweet little face, and the most adorable hair,” he said softly, reaching out to stroke the soft curls falling across her shoulders. She stared bemusedly back up at him. The seductive, sensual Philip was back.
Deciding to play it cool, she placed her hand against his shirt. “You don’t look so bad yourself,” which was the truth. He did look terrific in the pale blue shirt and gray trousers he was wearing. They weren’t the height of sophistication, but even in formal wear the rough edges of his character showed through. Not that she cared. Nicole wasn’t the epitome of sophistication herself. In that respect they were well suited. It was a pity that in so many other ways they weren’t, and it seemed Nicole wasn’t the only one who noticed it. Marina did too.
They had finished their entrees and main course when she asked Nicole to accompany her to the Ladies room. They had bought a hamburger for Marcus on the way back to the hotel, and after his ordeal that afternoon he was fast asleep before they even left for dinner.
Philip hadn’t been as uncommunicative as over breakfast, and when the two women left the table, he was giving Nick some legal advice on a business venture he was planning on undertaking.
They were standing in front of the basins when Marina turned to her. “I know it probably isn’t my place to ask this, but what on earth is bothering that boyfriend of yours? Surely he isn’t always so distant and aloof.”
That was coming straight to the point, Nicole thought. If she didn’t like the other woman so much, she would have told her to mind her own business.
“No, he isn’t always like that,” she replied, thinking of all the times he’d been anything but. It occurred to her that was always when they were intimate, and never when issues of importance cropped up. Her worried expression must have given her away, for Marina placed a concerned hand on her arm.
“You care for him a great deal, don’t you?” Marina asked.
“I didn’t want to, but now that do I’m determined to fight to develop a decent relationship with him.”
“It won’t be easy. You’re the social worker, so I’m sure you’ve already noticed that something is troubling him, probably has been for years.”
“Yes, his parents’ death. They died in a car accident,” Nicole admitted. “But he refuses to talk about it.”
Marina looked thoughtful for a moment. “He said something to me when we got back to the car park.” Nicole remembered seeing them exchange a few words, but had thought nothing of it at the time.
“It wasn’t so much what he said, but the way he said it. He told me to look after Marcus, because we might not be so lucky next time.”
Nicole understood exactly what she meant. Philip had witnessed the fine line between life and death. He’d seen the people he loved most in the world slip across that line.
“You must get him to tell you about it, Nicole. I have this awful feeling your relationship is doomed if you don’t.”
Little Marcus reminded Philip far too much of Michael. So many painful memories had surfaced over the past few days, making him wonder why everything had to return to haunt him now when he’d finally made something of himself and found a woman he really cared about. He sincerely suspected that was the reason. Because he’d allowed himself to fall in love, the shell he’d built around his heart had shattered, allowing all the pain of the past to pour back in. He’d opened himself up to emotion and now it flooded him with all its torment, as well as all its warmth, warmth for the beautiful red-haired woman who’d made him feel again.
He’d been awful to her today and not very nice to her new found friends either, making him wonder if he should just let her go. Nicole didn’t need him and all his baggage in her life. Her parents were bound to give her a hard time over him. The two of them were worlds apart.
But even contemplating the thought made him ache with loneliness, the same debilitating loneliness that had consumed him after his entire family had died. For the first time in years Philip felt lost and confused, not knowing which way to turn, and he hated that feeling.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
It was after ten when they parted company in the hall, the other couple thanking them again for finding and looking after Marcus.
“Perhaps we’ll see you at breakfast,” Marina said to Nicole. Philip was already heading for their room further along the corridor.
“If not, enjoy the rest of your trip. And I wish you all the best on that other matter.” She slanted a glance in the direction of Philip’s departing figure.
Nicole thanked her newfound friends, before they turned to unlock their door.
The room was in darkness when she entered, but before she could reach for the light switch, she felt Philip’s strong arms encircling her waist, pulling her up against his body.
“We have to make up for last night,” he whispered in the darkness, bringing his lips to hers. All coherent thought deserted her as she responded to the ardent demands of his mouth. He only had to touch her and she was lost in a haze of sweet sensation. Being in his arms felt so right, that Nicole wanted it to remain like this for the rest of their lives. She never wanted them to part, which meant they had to talk about the past. In order to secure their future she had to get him to open up about the loss of his parents.
With great reluctance she pressed her palms against his chest. “We need to talk,” she insisted.
“No, we don’t.” He moved in to kiss her again, but she forced herself away from him. She reached for the light switch, flicking it on.
Philip had turned away from her before she got the chance to see the expression on his face. Nicole deduced it wasn’t a happy one. She had cooled his ardor, after all.
“Why Nicole? Do you have some morbid fascination with horror stories or something?” he grated, still with his back to her. She moved to stand in front of him. Expecting him to turn on her again, she was surprised when he looked directly at her. Anger flashed in his gold-flecked eyes, anger and, yes, pain.
“No of course not. I want to talk about it because I think it will help you to get it out in the open. I think we were on the verge when we found Marcus... It has something to do with him, doesn’t it...?”
“Yes Marcus,” he said with a heart-felt sigh. “All right, if you’re so desperate to know, I’ll tell you what happened.”
He took a step closer, bringing his hands to her shoulders, gripping them tightly. Nicole stared up in dismay at the agony etching his face into a hard mask of bitterness.
“Three people died as a result of that car accident; my little half-brother, and later my mother and my sister. Yes, Marcus reminded me of Michael. He looked just like him at that age. My step-father was driving, and as usual, had been drinking heavily... Oh, yes I forgot to tell you,” he went on at the sight of her confusion.
“My real father died when I was five, and my sister three, twelve months after migrating to this country. He was in an accident at work, falling to his death on a construction site. My mother, unable to cope on her own, met and married Italian born Mario Palmiri two years later, talking him into adopting Elaina and I.”
“See what your little social work mind can make of this. They had been married no more than two months when his true colours started showing through. He used to hit my mother when he’d been drinking. He beat me whenever it took his fancy, and he interfered with my sister.”
“Philip!” Nicole protested, when his fingers dug painfully into her shoulders.
“You wanted to hear it. Now shut up,” he rasped, shoving her roughly away from him. “I was fourteen when the accident happened. My sister was twelve and Michael four. We were heading home from visiting my mother’s parents, an activity Mario always hated. So not only was he drunk, he was in a foul mood. Mum was protesting, pleading for him to slow down but he wouldn’t. I could see the speedo going up to one-sixty, way over the limit… And then he lost control. The car skidded all over the road. Lucky there wasn’t anything coming the other way, or he could have killed even more people.... the car rolled and we ended up down an embankment.”
Nicole watched him bring his hands to his face. She wanted to go to him, but he threw his hands away so abruptly, she stopped in mid-stride. Tears glistened in his eyes, and Nicole knew he was reliving that horrible night, as he heaved back an involuntary sob.
“Michael died in agony right there in front of me,” he said with a shuddering breath. “I stopped feeling the pain of my own injures when his broken little body went limp as he closed his eyes.”
“Oh Philip! Let me hold you,” she murmured gently, extending her hands to him, but he pushed them away.
“No. Don’t touch me. You haven’t heard the worst of it.”
“You don’t have to tell me any more if it hurts too much.” She hated to see him suffering like this, but it seemed as though once the memories had been unleashed, it was like a floodgate opening. It had gone beyond any comfort she could provide. He was going to have to cope with this in his own way, and for the first time Nicole wondered whether she’d made a grave error of judgment in thinking talking about it would help.
“Getting too much for you, is it? My sister ended up a paraplegic, and my mother suffered massive brain damage. They turned off her life support a few weeks later. I sat by her bedside and watched her die… But Mario, he staggered away from the vehicle with barely a scratch on him, and it took the police weeks to locate him. Want to know why he didn’t want to be found?”
“I could guess.” Nicole imagined he was feeling too guilty about having caused the accident.
“Could you? They were after him for dealing in illegal goods. He was a crook. Of course he was also charged with negligent driving and manslaughter. I went to court to give evidence on that count. I wanted to see him locked away for life, but the judge only gave him a few years. A few years for killing his wife and son, and maiming his step-daughter for life, a life that only lasted six months before she died of complications. The bastard is free now, no doubt destroying someone else’s life.”
Nicole stared at him as he started stalking across the floor. Her heart was breaking for him, and she had trouble containing her own tears. His had dried, to be replaced once more by his mask of bitterness. He had suppressed these intense emotions all these years, bottling them up inside. No wonder he was reacting the way he was. No wonder indeed.
“Our grandparents took Elena and I in, but they were pensioners. They couldn’t really cope with two mixed-up kids, emotionally or financially. Because Elena needed so much extra attention, they concentrated on looking after her. They thought I was big enough to take care of myself. I suppose I was, but at the time all I could think about was how damned lonely I was, how much I missed Michael and Mum...”
“Of course you did. That’s perfectly normal,” Nicole concurred empathically.
“It’s too late for words of sympathy now.”
“It’s never too late, Philip,” she disagreed.
“I learned to cope,” he went on. “Admittedly I went a bit wild. I spent most of my time on the streets. How I managed not to end up behind bars myself still amazes me. It wasn’t until I was sixteen that I realized what a mess I was making of my life. If I wanted to become someone I had some serious work ahead of me. I found a job selling stereo equipment so I could save up enough money to get through University. I thought I had come such a long way - until I tried to find a job as a lawyer. Without the backing of an influential family, the big reputable law firms were out. They didn’t want a nobody who couldn’t vouch for a clean background. They’d take someone like you. Nicole. Why you chose social work, when all you needed for a job with prospects was your father’s say so, is beyond me.”