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When we come out of our private table, the woman in yellow and her group is already gone. After making sure Mrs. Mac gets into her taxi safely, I walk back to the main house.
“Clayton!”
I halt my steps, knowing who that voice belongs to.
Donovan Fletcher strides toward me while gesturing to his gorgeous companion to turn back and follow his bodyguard, no doubt heading for her room—or their room.
“Clayton Hartley. What a surprise.” Fletcher extends a handshake. “You should’ve introduced yourself to my associates earlier. We could’ve struck a deal.”
“I thought you were here for a romantic dinner.”
“I’m thinking outside the box, my friend. Why can’t you have a business meeting at a resort full of the tallest animals in the world? We’re aiming high.”
“Too bad the giraffes have been asleep since sunset.”
He releases a cynical chuckle. “How is it going with the Air Force?”
“We’ve reached the sky. Goodnight, Fletcher.” I swing around, taking the long route to my room.
I took this vacation knowing that I would be alone, but this walk has once again exposed the deep crack inside me. I’ve stopped feeling the need to be with anyone since my last break-up, but now I wish I had someone in my arms.
I wish I hadher.
No science can explain how I feel about that woman. But Mrs. Makena’s wisdom might just help me make sense of it:You’re just waiting for someone who needs you.
That stunning woman didn’t say it in a word, but she yearned to tell me her story. Why didn’t she tell it to her boyfriend? She needed another man to listen to it—and, dare I say, walk it with her.
Love may be the holy grail in every man’s life. But bonds are formed in times of need, and strengths prevail when the going gets tough. If your partner doesn’t need you, what’s the point of holding her? Comforting her? Supporting her?
As long as you need her equally.
5
ISABELLE
I’m trembling. It’s nothing new. When Don wants me in bed, I always tremble in disgust and hopelessness.
But tonight, something else is stirring me inside. My shivers aren’t because of the anticipation of foul flesh and disgusting man breath, but I’m reacting to something unexpectedly thrilling.
That stranger in the dark came to me through some kind of godly intervention.
I’ve been without a man since Nando’s death. And I’ve been without love for even longer. In fact, I’ve forgotten what care and love are since I lost my parents, my only protection. But that stranger’s presence was soothing beyond belief, and our subsequent exchange of stares prompted me to let down my guard.
And that was the miracle that made me tremble—in excitement.
The dinner with those businessmen was a disgrace. They were there with their wives, but they couldn’t stop leering at me. As Don had instructed, I only smiled, drank, ate, and talked when I was talked to. And as he had pre-empted, he hung on tight to me—those men could look, but I was his.
I left for the ladies’ room for a reprieve rather than to relieve myself.
A reprieve I got, and then some.
When I opened the door, dreading to go back to the dinner that might’ve as well been a funeral, that chiseled, diamond-shape face appeared like a poster. Impossible, too perfect as far as my life is concerned. Then, when my eyes finally adjusted to the dim light, I saw the whole him—a man, standing like a safe house with its door open. The fire keeps the inside warm. A refuge that I desperately seek.
I could’ve returned to the bathroom to sort out my wardrobe malfunction, but I stayed on, unable to squash the urge to feel him and let him feel me. And I was rewarded. I even absorbed his breath when he placed his mouth so close to my ear. He smelt as a man should—the unidentifiable scent of himself, one that my brain associates with kindness and safety.
It was too intense for a first encounter—for both of us. While I did slightly better than him, he lost his nerve and never recovered.
Without knowing the man behind the face, if everything was black and white, he had all the hallmarks of a first-class Casanova. But eyes don’t lie. And it goes both ways—eyes expose lies, and at the same time, the window to the soul reveals kindness too. When a man has affection, his eyes will always show.
