Chapter 25: Chapter 25
“I’m sorry Brad for insulting you,” she said quietly as she took a step back, but she didn’t get very far when he snaked an arm around her waist and brought her body flush against his.
Her lips parted and she stared up at him with wide eyes.
“You were wrong so you owe me a kiss?” His eyes twinkled with mischief as his dimples popped out in his cheeks.
She gasped, recalling the familiar words he’d said many years before.
“You remember the last time I said those words, Natalia?” He whispered softly, his voice wrapping her in warm velvet. She wanted to tell him that she would never forget what followed after he’d said those words, but all she could do was nod. Her body was now on fire for him. From the moment she’d locked eyes with him in the gym, her body had come to life as if it had lain dormant for fifteen years. In truth, it had. No matter how many men she dated, she always compared them to Brad and always found them lacking in some way. He was never far from her
thoughts and many times she’d wondered what would have happened to
them if they’d had more time to explore the attraction that had developed between them all those years ago.
He traced his thumb across her full bottom lip and she shivered at his touch.
Then he lowered his head to press his lips against hers and her entire body instantly went up in flames. Hot sparks of fire sizzled across her skin at the first brush of his mouth against hers. She moaned softly, opening her mouth to his searching tongue. She stroked her tongue against his, tangling it with his, sliding it into his mouth to taste him. She moaned again when she tasted the heady sweetness of his mouth. She loved the taste of him, the feel of him, hell, everything about him. She lifted her arms to tangle her hands in his hair, holding him even closer to her.
She deepened the kiss, ravaging his mouth with her own as she drew his tongue further into her mouth and nipped gently. He groaned at the same time he dipped his hands to her ass and brought her firmly against his hard length.
She instantly responded to his primal call as wet heat seeped from inside her to dampen her panties as her sheath clenched and unclenched as if begging for him to slide his engorged length between her thighs.
She clung to him, her limbs wrapping around him like a twisted vine, pulling him deeper into her embrace.
She had no idea if they would have actually made love in his bedroom with his parents only a few feet away had his brother not burst in at that very moment.
But at the sound of the door being flung open, they sprung apart.
Brian glanced back and forth between them with a wide grin on his face, his expression unapologetic.
“You’re such an asshole, you know that? You really need to get a girlfriend, or a dog, or something to divert your attention away from me,” Brad complained as he straightened his clothing.
“Whatever, little brother. Dad and I need help outside and Mom wants Natalia to autograph all the CDs that you bought for her.”
“Get out, Brian.”
Brian ignored him as he turned his attention toward her, flashing her a hundred watt smile. “You know Brad is infatuated with you. He’s like your number one fan—”
Brian never got the chance to finish when Brad pushed him through the doorway and slammed the door in his face.
She grinned as Brian laughed all the way down the stairs.
“We better get downstairs before my parents send him back up here.” She giggled when Brad rolled his eyes. “My brother is an ass. Nobody probably wants either one of us. He was probably just being nosy.”
“Still, I better get going soon—” “Have dinner with me again.”
She glanced up at him and the look on his face tugged at her heart.
She wanted to tell him that she had no desire to have a repeat performance of the disaster that was the tail end of their dinner date last
night, but instead, she found herself saying just the opposite, much to her surprise. “Why don’t you meet me back at my hotel suite at 7pm? My treat, alright?”
She knew dinner—at her suite—alone—was probably not a good idea, but she could not think of one reason to change their plans when he
smiled and his tiny dimples creased his cheeks.
“Great. I’m looking forward to it,” he said in a low voice, his eyes lingering on her lips, causing a slight tremor to race down her spine.
Before she could once again reconsider the wisdom of their dinner plans, he ushered her out of his room and followed her downstairs.
As soon as she got to the family’s sitting room, she realized there was some truth to Brian’s words. Barbara had indeed pulled out every last one of her CDs and had them neatly stacked in a pile. Laughter bubbled up inside of her when Brad’s mom held out a marker, a bright smile on her face.
“Mommmmm,” Brad groaned behind her.
She glanced over her shoulder and grinned at him. “It’s fine. Go help your dad. I’ll come say good-bye when I’m done. Go,” she said with a firmer tone when he hesitated.
He let out a long sigh and shook his head, but not before he shot his mother a warning glance, as if to say don’t pester her too much.
Natalia glared at him until finally he got the message and just left them alone.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I couldn’t pass up this opportunity.”
She turned back around to face Barbara and smiled. “Of course I don’t mind. I am happy to autograph whatever you have.”
She crossed the room and sat down on the couch beside the woman and signed each and every case with a personal note. She was about halfway through the extensive and complete collection when Barbara’s unexpected words caused her pen to slip.
“I’m so glad that I finally got the chance to meet you in person. Brad is a very guarded person, so I knew you had to be a very special woman to have had such a lasting influence on my son.”
Her eyes snapped to Barbara’s face, to meet the woman’s probing stare. She felt naked under her knowing gaze, forcing her to let out a nervous chuckle. “I think you got it wrong. It was Brad who influenced me, not the other way around.”
“He may have influenced you in the process, but it wasn’t until after he got to know you that he found the courage to stand up to his father about his love for art. He nearly gave Theodore a heart attack when he told him that he was going to double major in pre-med and architecture.”
Natalia shook her head. “But I had nothing to do with that. That was all Brad.”
Barbara lifted her lips into a patient smile. “Oh really? Then why did your name come up at least a dozen times during that conversation. Brad went on and on about how courageous you were, how you were
committed to using your talent and not seeing it go to waste. How you had very little but managed to do so much with what you had—”
“He said that?”
She chuckled. “Oh dear. Over and over. And that was just the beginning. He’s one of your biggest fans and I know he’s followed your career over the years.”
She stared at her in disbelief. “Are you serious?” “Completely. You left quite an impression on Bradley—”
She snorted. “Yeah, I’m sure. Most likely the wrong one,” she said as she rolled her eyes and resumed signing until the gentle touch of Barbara’s hand against her arm forced her to stop.
“Natalia, Bayside is a small town and it’s not easy to keep secrets here.” She instantly froze, recognizing the implication of the older woman’s words. She narrowed her gaze, her eyes searching Barbara’s face for the disgust she expected to see, so she was shocked when the older woman smiled, her eyes full of warmth.
“When Brad became quite taken with you, I must say I was curious. The person that other people painted wasn’t the one that my son saw—”
“The person that others saw was just as real as the one that Brad saw. I just chose to show him another side to me, a deeper side to me,” she said quietly.
“I disagree. I think the person you presented to my son was the real
Natalia,” she said as she patted her arm and stood to her feet. The older woman crossed the room and bent down to pull out a photo album from a bookshelf. Brushing it off, she walked back toward the couch and once again took a seat.
“Natalia, I try never to judge people on face value alone, because I of all people know that there is always more to a person than what we first see—.” She flipped open the album and ran a hand across several pictures that took up two full pages.
Curiosity filled Natalia as her eyes roamed over the dated pictures before her that looked to be from the sixties. It took her but a moment to
recognize Barbara and only a half second longer to recognize the familiar face of the woman who stood next to her in most of them.
The same dark hair, those same hazel eyes, and the same haunted look that used to burn in the depths of her own gaze, that a picture never failed to capture.
She gasped at the same time she lifted her eyes to Barbara’s face. “You knew my mother?”