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So beautiful. So alone.
But now she is alone no longer! Now she is with me!
Oh, it was the most tentative of achievements simply for her to accept his company as she was doing, but for all that he knew he had come a long way since that first sighting of her. She was no longer walking away from him, walking out on him, rejecting his overtures, his company. And that, he knew, was an achievement indeed!
But the way ahead—the way he so wanted to guide her towards, for both their sakes—was uncertain, and he had to move with care, with caution. For one rash, rushed move could send her fleeing from him again.
And he did not want that! Did not want it with an intensity that was almost palpable. This was, as he had promised, his very last attempt to win her—and he might lose her yet! Yet now, as he greeted her, he knew that his dominant emotion was pleasure—the pleasure of letting his eyes rest on her, on how lovely she looked, her pale beauty set off by a long, flowing dress in hibiscus-red, floral and graceful. It was gathered at the waist and the bodice was softly clinging, with a wide, low ruffle framing her shoulders. Her fair hair was loose, but drawn back from her face with pearl-edged combs, and her only jewellery was a mother-of-pearl pendant.
He came and stood beside her, not standing too close. He did not want to crowd her at so tentative a stage of his careful, wary courtship. He looked out, as she was doing, over the lush gardens spreading below the cantilevered terrace, the verdant greenery hardly visible now in the gathering night except where the torches had been lit and at the faintest line of light from the far horizon.
‘This really is just exceptionally beautiful,’ he breathed, his eyes roaming the vista before him.
Celeste turned. ‘Isn’t it?’ Her cautious, brief smile met his. Admiring the hotel and its grounds was safe. ‘I just can’t get over how idyllic it is.’
Idyllic it was, Rafael knew, but he also knew, with sombre recognition, that as in every paradise there was a serpent here. The serpent that lay coiled deep within Celeste, engendered by whatever dark trauma had wounded her so long ago, making her feel she had to keep apart...alone.
But as his eyes rested on her he felt the swell of emotion and resolve filled him.
I will draw her to me so that she is no longer apart...alone! So that she can share with me what I so wish there to be between us!
‘What can I get you to drink?’ His own voice penetrated his thoughts. He welcomed the question. He must keep the atmosphere between them light, easy—companionable. Nothing more than that for now. In order to let her come to feel comfortable with him.
As anticipated, she asked for mineral water, and he went off towards the bar. Behind him, Celeste’s eyes followed him. Although the hotel was deluxe, formal dinnerwear was not required, and Rafael was wearing smart but casual trousers and an open-collared light blue shirt, the cuffs turned back. As he came back to her, a drink in either hand, she saw how lean and strong his wrists were, how the natural tan of his skin tone contrasted with the pale brushed cotton of his shirt.
He’d brought a beer for himself, and he sipped it thoughtfully as they stood in a silence that was not, she realised, strained, but which seemed—impossible though it must surely be—natural and easy... They looked out over the darkened gardens, letting the warm night air waft over them. Beyond the gardens the susurrating sound of the waves breaking on the shore was still audible.
As more guests gathered on the terrace, their conversations rising, Rafael turned to Celeste. ‘Shall we go and eat?’
She nodded, setting down her glass beside his on the ledge of the balustrade to be cleared away.
‘Which restaurant did you choose?’ she asked.
‘I played safe and went for the fine dining French cuisine one,’ he answered. ‘I wasn’t sure how you were on other styles of cuisine.’
