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"It is beautiful here," I said, "Thank you for bringing me."
"I knew you would like it I haven't been here in a long time."
"Why not?"
"Beautiful things aren't enjoyable unless you share them with someone special." he replied. "Don't you agree?"
"I suppose." I said, trying to be cautious. Being with Thatcher in so romantic a setting. I found myself feeling as though I were teetering on the edge of some great precipice. If I let myself go. I would fall deeply into the mystery of the darkness beneath. I was both attracted to it and afraid of it.
His good looks, his charm, and his interesting personality were enticing in and of themselves, but much more so for me sitting in the warm night with a candle flickering on his face and the mesmerizing sound of the ocean softly soothing us beneath a sky so bright with stars it looked like the beginning of all time. I felt I had stepped into a fairy-tale world where magic was as common as daylight, where every word between us seemed like poetry, every sound around us part of the symphony, music composed for us alone, as if the whole world were suddenly devoted to one purpose: ensuring our happiness above and beyond the rest of the world.
"What kind of an answer is 'I suppose,' " Thatcher said, not settling for my caution. 'Beauty without the beloved is like a sword through the heart Something Christina Rossetti wrote that I read once and never forgot."
I turned away quickly. Of course, he was right, and of course, this was what my mother and my father must have suffered for so many years after having discovered a great love they were forced to give up. I couldn't help but mourn for them both. My heart ached.
"I'm sorry," Thatcher said, reaching across the table to put his hand over mint. "I didn't mean to be so deep and serious, especially tonight."
"No," I said, shaking my head, unable to stop the tears from clouding my eyes. "It's beautiful, and you're right."
I took a breath to get myself back on track,
"But according to your mother, you haven't been looking all that hard to find someone with whom you could share beauty and happiness."
"There's a lot my mother doesn't know about me," Thatcher said almost angrily, bet there was a lot your mother didn't know about you."
"Oh, yes," I said. laughing. "Oh, yes."
"There, you see." He reached for the wine list. "Let's have something special tonight. We've got to celebrate my settling another case favorably, among other things," he said.
"What other things?"
"Our being honest with each other. Willow. I actually like that name a lot. It fits you far better than the pseudonym."
He fixed that winning smile on me, holding me in the candlelike flame in his eyes until I realized it and looked quickly at the menu.
Careful, Willow De Beers, I told myself. You're getting too far over that precipice.
You're going to fail.
.
After a wonderful dinner and a walk along the beach, we returned to my hotel. The meal, the wine, the soft conversation, holding hands while we walked in bare feet, laughing and teasing each other... all of it gave me a pleasant sense of deep calm. He seemed to feel the same way. Neither of us said much during the ride. All that passed between us was an occasional glance and smile. He had kissed me twice on the beach, and the taste lingered on my lips. Caution and conscience flew off like ribbons loosened in my hair and carried into the darkness behind me.
Even after we pulled up to the hotel and he got out and took my hand, we said little. We walked through the lobby, barely noticing anyone or anything else. In the elevator, we stared at the doors
impatiently. When they opened. I felt my heart skip beats and then thump with greater anticipation. At my door, he slipped his hand around my waist. I opened the door and had started to flip the light switch when his other hand took mine gently and brought my arm down at my side.
He closed the door, and in the darkness, we kissed again, a long, warm, and wet kiss that made my spine electric, my breasts tingle.
"Willow, Willow," he whispered.
He lifted me into his arms and carried me to the bed. I looked up at him and watched him start to undress. All the while. I didn't move. It seemed almost like watching a scene in a movie, like watching something that was happening to someone else.
Shirtless, he knelt to kiss me and gently lift me so he could unzip my dress. He moved it over my shoulders and down my arms. There was just enough light coming through the windows to electrify his eyes.
"You're so beautiful," he said.
He cupped and kissed each of my breasts. I moaned and let my head go back onto the pillow as his lips traveled down over my stomach. In minutes, he had my dress completely off. and moments later, we were both naked.
