Forgotten Love (Derrien Island Trilogy) (27 page)

“Thanks, I had a long rest
last night!” replied Natasha.

“So, what
are your plans for the morning and can a friend squeeze in some time with you?” asked Lucas hopefully.

“I am going swimming here at the beach
shortly. It’s been a while since I enjoyed a good sea bath. You are welcome to come along if you want although you don’t exactly seem to be dressed for it,” replied Natasha noting the crisp white shirt and dark blue slacks he wore. She felt relieved that he wouldn’t be able to join her, it wasn’t a good time!

Noting her critical visual
sweep of his attire he said, “Hmm, I don’t seem to be dressed for that. Can I convince you to come to lunch with me instead and then I can take you to the hospital,” he offered.

“No, that won’t be necessary. Besides I would have to go upstairs to change to do that. I just want to relax and enjoy the sea this morning.”

“Okay, what if I run back to my hotel and change into something more beach-friendly? I found a room at a hotel not too far from here,” he said.

So the subtle approach was not working, thought Natasha. “Listen Lucas, I need to talk to you about something,” she said suddenly looking quite sombre.

“What is it?”
he said with raised eyebrows at the sudden shift in her tone.

“I want to thank you for coming here with me but I am afraid that you
might be feeling a little out of place right now. You don’t have to stay, I’m fine now,” said Natasha fidgeting with her hands slightly.

Lucas could see that Natasha was trying to let him down the easy way and it hurt. He would admit that
!

“Is it Marcus? Is that why you are pushing me away all of a sudden?” asked Lucas getting straight to the point.

“You are right, it is Marcus. I felt so awful yesterday watching you walk away at the airport. I had no idea Ashley had arranged for him to meet us and I don’t think you deserved the embarrassment. The truth is that I treasure your friendship but my marriage is not over yet and until those papers have been signed I don’t want to cloud the issues,” she explained.

“Cloud the issue
s? Natasha you have known how I felt about you for months now. You know how much I love you and I told you I would wait, but the more I see the more I think I may be waiting in vain! Have you forgotten what your contract says?” asked Lucas bitterly.

“
You don’t need to remind me about that darned contract. I am hoping that I can use my recent successes as a bit of leverage to renegotiate some of the terms.”

“
Natasha that is not how things work, your contract is a binding document and you will lose all that you have worked for up till now if you don’t fulfil the requirements. The music you produced belongs to the label whether you are there or not!” he said gravely hoping that she would snap out of this fantasy world she was refusing to let go of.

“Look Lucas, I am aware of the risks but I have to try something. I
never wanted to lead you on. I thought I made it clear that we would keep this as a friendship!”

“Friendship
?” he exclaimed loudly. “There’s that word again! I cannot tell you how much I have grown to hate it now!” said Lucas getting frustrated. It was bad enough that he had to find a hotel away from Natasha but now she was asking him to leave politely.

“
Your reaction is exactly why I think it is best that you leave. I have to talk with Marcus while I am here and we need to decide what we are going to do about our marriage. Having you here waiting in the wings is not fair to anyone, most of all you! I haven’t made you any promises,” explained Natasha hating that she had to defend her actions to Lucas.

This was all going so wrong, thought Lucas. Having Marcus show up yesterday had been unexpected and he kicked himself all night for not trying to finalize their hotel bookings elsewhere before arriving on Derrien.  But
Natasha was right, she was still very much a married woman and he was the one who was trespassing illegally. But he was way past caring now that he was pushed to his limits. He had bent over backwards to make sure she got the career she wanted, called in favours, and now he was being tossed aside like someone useless?

“
I can’t accept that Natasha. You need me and you always have because I know how to help you through that world out there. You need someone who understands how that world works and is prepared to love you and stand by you through all of what will come your way. Marcus doesn’t have a clue how to do that for you. All he has ever done is to hold you back but those days are over. You just need to see that!”

“Lucas, I am the only one here who is qualified to say that my marriage is over! You have no right!”

“I don’t have any right?” echoed Lucas incredulously. “I am not going sit back and watch you make the biggest mistake of your life by going back to Marcus. You may not know it but we can be great together and I think that it’s time that I showed you just how much,” he said with a determined glint in his eye.

As he finished speaking he
reached out and grasped the nape of Natasha’s neck and brought his mouth down to hers for a crushing kiss. He hoped that she would not push him away and that she would feel something. He hoped that the kiss would ignite any dormant feelings she might have for him, but the firm pressure of her hands against his chest as she pushed him away and the unyielding nature of her lips told him everything he needed to know.  He’d already lost. He leaned back and allowed his hand to fall away slowly.

Natasha could see the very pained expression in Lucas’ eyes and knew that she was breaking his heart in this very instance but she had to honour her marriage, even if she was not sure how things would eventually turn out. Just the uncertainty of that should have filled her with fear but instead she felt a peace radiating within her and she knew that she was making the right decision concerning Lucas.
He was her friend and nothing more and she had always made that clear to him!

“
Lucas, I’m sorry, I just can’t! I don’t love you in that way.”

“Yeah,
I’m sorry too!” he said closing his eyes and exhaling forcefully. “I’m not giving up you know! You will come to your senses before this trip is over. Talk to your soon to be ex-husband and see again why you left him in the first place. If you choose to stay here with him I will back off and I will back out of your life completely. But if your divorce is finalized, I want you to know that I am going to do everything in my power to win your heart!” said Lucas with a very determined expression on his face.

Marcus
was standing the other side of the large potted palms that shielded him from the view of the couple seated on the waterfall. When he saw Lucas kiss his wife so possessively he was livid. He almost interrupted them but thought the better of it when he noticed his hands folded into fists which he was not afraid to use. Making such a scene in this hotel would not be a wise decision. When Ashley called him again that morning to tell him of Natasha’s plans to go swimming he was going to let her have the time to herself. But, then he remembered a place he wanted to take her for their anniversary and he decided that maybe if he was lucky she would be willing to shift her swimming location.

Now it was taking every ounce of strength in his body to remain where he was and listen to this man pouring out his heart to his wife a second time.
He was using every tactic he could to try to convince Natasha to leave him again.

As Lucas got up and made his way back toward the lobby, Marcus followed him out and making sure that Natasha was not following
as well, he called out to Lucas just as he was about to hail a taxi in front of the hotel.

“Lucas!” he shouted
.

Lucas looked up and seeing Marcus he dropped his h
ead and shook it while laughing.

“What’
s so funny?” asked Marcus tersely finally reaching his side.

“You know, you have a great woman in there and I don’t think you even know it!”
replied Lucas.

“Don’t you
dare talk to me about Natasha as though you have the right! I stopped you because I want you to know that you just came within an inch of leaving here with two black eyes and a busted lip. Natasha is still my wife and if I ever see you touch her or kiss her again while Nicholls is still her last name I won’t be so accommodating!”

Lucas
observed the narrowed eyes of the man who stood before him clenching and unclenching his fists.

“Well if we are getting our feelings off our chests, let me tell you something as well. This is your last chance to save your marriage, and I think you know that
better than anyone else and when you fail I will be there for Natasha,” replied Lucas.

“
You have a lot of nerve man coming here like this!” warned Marcus sensing the earlier rage intensifying once again.

“I have done nothing but what you should have been doing
all along, and you know what, Natasha appreciates that, and that is the basis of our friendship and I have no regrets about it. Maybe you should check yourself rather than running out here to deal with me!” said Lucas taunted. “Maybe if you spent less time feeling offended and more time listening to your wife you would actually have a marriage right now,” said Lucas boldly.

Lucas words hit Marcus like a
boulder, because it was exactly what he had discovered personally, but he did not need it handed to him by the likes of Lucas Johnson.

“Lucas, you know what, you are right!” said Marcus humbly noting the shock register on Lucas face at his agreement. “But, the im
portant thing is that I realized it and I have changed. But you need to let Natasha have the breathing space to make up her own mind. We are still married, and that means that you are messing with my wife and I have a right to say something about that. Now, this is my first and last warning to you! Stand aside and let us work this out alone!” said Marcus.

Without another word Lucas
smirked lazily and opened the door of the taxi he was standing beside, got in and drove away.

As
Marcus turned to walk back inside the hotel he saw Natasha standing a few feet away. He stopped in surprise not knowing she had followed them outside and wondered exactly how much she had heard.

“Tell me, Ashley again right?” said Natasha with a knowing expression on her face
and her arms folded across her body.

“Yes, you could say that, but I would have called you to make plans for today anyway,” replied Marcus now walking slowly toward her.

“I see that you and Lucas were getting acquainted,” she continued, nodding her head in the direction the taxi left in.

“In a matter of speaking, we were,” replied Marcus cautiously
hoping she heard as little of what just transpired as possible.

“Well
, I guess this is as good a time as any to have that talk, don’t you think?” asked Natasha.

Now that she was standing, Marcus could see why Lucas was having a hard time letting go and certainly why he wasn’t prepared to either. Natasha looked gorgeous in anything that she wore but today dressed in a pair of khaki shorts and an emerald green bathing suit that plunged in a V just below her cleavage
, she looked like a goddess. Her hair was pulled back and pinned with a tortoiseshell comb so that her high cheekbones seemed that much more prominent and her green eyes sparkled in the sunlight.

“What about your swim? Have you changed your mind about that?” asked Marcus.

“No. I still want to do that! Seeing the beach this morning after living in the city these past few months has made me appreciate why I love coming home here.”

Yes
, coming home was even better than she’d imagined. The circumstances weren’t the best but still just waking up to warm fresh tropical breezes instead of city air made a huge difference in her mood and energy levels already. Besides that, coming home meant seeing Marcus again and he looked so handsome. He was dressed in a blue and white board shorts with a white tee shirt and it suddenly reminded her of the day they met for the first time. She was so mesmerized by her immediate attraction to him then that she almost forgot she was injured.

She wanted to apologize and explain so much and even now she marvelled that he was still even speaking to her. She hadn’t been kind to him, but here he was still remaining open, still wanting to make things right. She didn’t deserve him at all and now that she was having more and more reservations about her job and the exacting demands of her contract, was it all really worth it?

“Yes there is no place like home,” replied Marcus wistfully as he studied the expressions flitting across Natasha’s face. Was that a tinge of regret he saw just now?

“No place like home!” she echoed.

“Okay great, I think we can combine the two then. I was hoping to take you away from here for the rest of the morning where we could talk more privately and the place I had I mind would allow you to still get your swim. Interested?”

Natasha smiled knowing that whenever Marcus proposed a mysterious outing in the past it was always more than impressive.