Revengeful Deceptions (23 page)

Dominique needed to go out before
her friends arrived. She knew she should have returned it but she couldn't, it
was engraved. She wanted to give Adam the Christmas gift she had gotten him several
weeks earlier. She had wrapped the Tagheuer watch herself and wanted to give it
to him today. She wanted him to read the inscription, it was simple, Love
always, Dominique. She had wanted him to know that she loved him well before he
had mentioned the words the night of her accident.

Pam and Rob arrived on Christmas
Eve day to find Dominique happily baking in her tiny kitchen. She had gone
about shopping and getting everything ready for her dear friends earlier in the
week and when Pam and Rob walked into the brownstone, they marveled at how
wonderful everything looked. After giving them a tour around the small
apartment, Dominique and Pam stood in the kitchen talking while Rob went out to
the car to get the rest of their bags.

“Dominique it is so good to see you
and you look amazing! Even after everything that's happened to you, you still
manage to have that wonderful glow that all pregnant women get. I'm jealous,”
her friend hugged and kissed her.

“Well don’t let that glow fool ya
Pam, she laughed, “I'm still healing and my ribs hurt like crazy some nights
but the Doctor said I was lucky and that I’m healing just fine.”

Pam gasped, “Oh Dominique, I can't
believe you’re really going to have a baby. I am so happy for you. Now tell me,
what
do you
want?” she giggled.

“Oh, it doesn’t matter to me,
but... I would not be opposed to the idea of having a little girl,”
   
Dominique smiled as she remembered that she
and Stephen had talked about having another child.
It just wasn’t in the
cards,
she told herself.

“Dominique maybe you can give my
wife here some pointers, we've been wanting a kid for a long time now,” said
Rob who was reading the pregnancy results.

“Me? Give you guy’s pointers? All I
can say is bop like rabbits,” she joked.

“I feel like going out, how about
you guys? You feel like going for a bite to eat?” She asked her friends, even
though Rob worked in Boston he rarely had a chance to take in the sights and
Dominique was hungry.

Although she was only a few weeks
along, she had used the excuse of her being pregnant to allow herself to
indulge in food and she liked to indulge very often. As they walked past
Mistral's, Pam peeked inside the window.

“This place looks wonderful, let’s
try here.” Dominique didn’t want to let on that this was the last place she had
wanted to go. Wanting to make her friends happy she agreed to go inside.
Dominique hoped that it would be to packed with holiday shoppers’ looking for a
quick lunch, but the waiting line was at a minimum and as they sat at the bar,
Dominique shared with her friends that this was the restaurant that Adam had
taken her on their first date.

“Oh Dominique, I am so sorry, come
on let's go somewhere else,” said Pam who had already stood up to leave.

“Non-sense Pam don’t be silly, it's
fine really, and the food here is excellent. Come, sit back down and enjoy your
drink.”

“Only if you’re sure Dom, because
if you’re not, you just say the word and we can go.”

“It's perfectly alright Pam,
really.”

  
As Dominique pointed out the beautiful decorations to Pam, she heard her
name being called.

“Dominique? Dominique I thought
that was you. Squealed Adam's Cousin Nicole. Dominique had met Nicole during
thanksgiving weekend and even though the two had barely met they bonded
instantly.

  
“Nicole,” Dominique stood up and hugged her friend. “Nicole what a
wonderful surprise, what are you doing here?”

“Oh we got to Wellesley yesterday
and I had some last minute shopping to do so Adam was kind enough to bring us
into the city. How are you Dominique? I heard about the accident, I heard that
they haven’t even caught the guy yet, you must have been terrified. I'm glad
you’re alright though,” she said, sounding genuinely concerned.

  
“I am doing alright Nicole thank you for asking, oh how rude of me, let
me introduce you to my good friends Pam and Rob, they are visiting from New
Hampshire to spend the holiday with me.”

As Nicole shook their hands, Adam
appeared from behind her.

“Nicole our table is....”

When Adam walked out of the men's
room he wondered who Nicole was talking to,
probably some friends from the
neighborhood,
he thought to himself as he made his way over to the table.

  
When he saw Dominique his heart sank, he had never seen her looking so beautiful.
He wanted to pull her into his arms, fell the warmth of her body again; he was
always so cold now.

He tensed, “Dominique hello, it’s
nice to see you, how are you feeling? I see you remember Nicole?” he tried to
sound casual.

“Hello Adam, I'm doing much better
thank you and of course I remember Nicole. These are my friends Pam and Rob.”

  
Pam immediately noticed the intense chemistry between the two, even
before either of them spoke a word.

Dominique wrapped her sweater
around her tight, the moment she did it she felt stupid, she knew she was far
from showing.

With a very firm grip, Rob shook
Adam's hand; it was
all that
he could do not to punch
the guy in the face for abandoning his friend in her time of need.

  
“Well Nicole, give my best to your family and be sure to tell Muriel I
said hello and Merry Christmas!”

“I will and Merry Christmas to you
Dominique, it was nice meeting you guys,” Nicole said to Rob and Pam. “Enjoy
your stay here in Boston.”

Dominique waited until Nicole was
making her way to she and Adam's table.

  
“Adam, Merry Christmas, have you been out long?” She asked wanting to
know if he got his gift. She had gone to his place earlier in the day to drop
it off and seeing that he wasn’t home she let herself in and left it along with
a card and her key on a side table next to the door.

“No, I’ve been carting Nicole
around for most of the day, why?” He asked concerned.

  
“Oh it's nothing, I just wanted you to know that I stopped by earlier to
give you your Christmas present, but when I saw that you weren’t home I let
myself in and left it for you on the table. Oh but don’t worry, I left my key
there too.”

A look of sadness spread across his
face. He had forgotten that he had given her a key; he was even more upset that
she had given it back.

“Dominique I'm not worried about
the key,” he said appalled that she would think he would be.

Dominique couldn’t stand it
anymore, here it was Christmas, and he had promised her that he’d make it
Merry. She should be spending it with him. No he wasn’t going to ruin her
Christmas.

  
“Well Adam, Merry Christmas,” she said coldly before turning her back on
him and rejoining her friends.

Adam reached out to touch her but
pulled away at the last minute.

“Merry Christmas Dominique.”

As Adam turned and walked away Pam
held her friends hand, she knew that turning her back on him was the hardest
thing she had to do.

“Adam? I don’t know what got
between you two but it's obvious that you two love each other. You need to
squash whatever it is that's made you go your separate ways and tell her how
you feel,”  said Nicole.

“It's complicated Nicole.”

“What’s so complicated? You love
her don’t you?”

  
“Yes I do.” Even as he said the words he strained his eyes through the
crowd, just to see her, just to have one more glance before she walked out of
his life for good. For a moment he thought that he could be content with seeing
her at random times such as this, but that was something that he knew his heart
couldn’t take, he'd have to have all of her or nothing.

“Well than that’s all you need
Adam, that’s all you need.”

  
“No, cousin, I’m afraid not,” he said as they finished their drinks,
“Come on let's head back to Wellesley, but before we do I’ve gotta stop at home
real quick, it'll only take a minute.”

While he left his cousin sitting in
the car, Adam returned to his condo, the moment he opened the door, he saw the
small box along with a card and the key, “just like she said,” he muttered to
himself.

  
His cousin could wait he told himself as he sat down and opened the
card.

Written on the inside of the
romantic card was a loving note from Dominique. She must have written
this weeks
ago, he told himself as he read it aloud.

  
Adam, if anyone would have asked me what I
was planning on doing for Christmas this year I would have said, absolutely
nothing. But, in a few short months, you changed that and in a good way! Adam,
you make me laugh, you make me smile and yes sometimes cry, but not in sorrow
but in joy, for you have made me believe in miracles Adam Caruso, and I thank
you for that.

Love Always,

Dominique

  
Adam could feel the tenderness of each word as he stared at the card. He
then carefully
unwrapped
the small box and opened it
to reveal the gorgeous Swiss made watch that fit him perfectly. Before he put
it on he read the inscription, Love Always, Dominique.

  
He wished at that moment that she was right there with him so that he
could thank her and tell her how much she means to him. He had a gift for her
too, one that he had purchased weeks ago, before everything went sour and now
he wanted more than anything to give it to her.

  
But he knew that his mother and father would be expecting him and his
cousin to come back very soon and if his maniac brother found out that he went
to see her, he would once again threaten to go after her. And if he knew one
true thing about his brother, his threats could be brutal and that they were
always followed through.

“Dominique I hope you know how very
much I love you,” he whispered out loud.

Chapter Twenty Two

Dominique was silent during the
walk back to her place. Rob and Pam didn’t press the issue of seeing Adam and
knew that she would talk about it when she was ready. 

Dominique wanted to get home, she
wanted to crawl into bed and cry and sleep, sleep until December thirty first,
when it would all be over.

  
But she knew that she couldn’t, her friends were over and what kind of
hostess would she be if she left them alone so that she could go in her room
and sulk. No, she'd do fine; once they got home she'd take a hot shower, put on
something nice and have a wonderful Christmas Eve, with her friends. Adam
didn’t need her and she didn’t need him. “So that’s that,” she whispered as she
caressed her belly.

“Hey Adam, um I think you’re going
the wrong way, this isn’t the way back to Wellesley hun.”

“I know Nicole I gotta make one
more stop but listen I’m gonna need you to keep your mouth shut and don’t tell
anyone that we stopped here okay? Can you do that?”

“Of Course Adam, you can trust me,
does this have to do with Dominique and your brother?”

Adam sat surprised. “What do you
mean my brother?”

“Adam do you think I forgot about
how at thanksgiving all was well until your brother said something that upset
Dominique so badly she jumped in a taxi and took off? It doesn’t take a rocket
scientist to know that something was going on and obviously still is. But don’t
worry, your secret is safe with me and besides, I like Dominique a hell of a
lot more than I like your brother so go on, I’ll wait here in the car.

Dominique had just gotten out of
the shower when the doorbell rang.

“Don't worry Dom, I’ll get it,”
Shouted Rob who had begun lighting the fire.

“Thanks Rob.” Dominique wondered
who it could be, maybe its Molly and Neal she thought as she strained to hear
the voices.

Muffled sounds was all that she
could here and in a moment Pam was knocking on her door asking if she could
come in.

“Who is it Pam?” asked Dominique
who could tell by her expression that it wasn’t Molly and Neal.

“Dom, its Adam, he says he really
needs to talk to you.”

“Pam, what should I do?”

“No, no Dominique don’t give me
that look, its time you decided on your own do you want to see him or not?”

Pam wore a hopeful look on her face
so Dominique took that as a;
you should talk to him look.

“Okay Pam I’ll talk to him.”

“Phew, see that wasn’t so bad,” Pam
smirked. She had wanted Dominique to talk to Adam; she just didn't want to have
to tell her friend what to do.

Okay, just give me a minute to
throw something on and then send him in.”

“Here in your bedroom? You sure you
don’t want me and Rob to go out and leave you guys here alone for a while?” Pam
joked.

“No its fine Pam, now go and make
him as uncomfortable as you possibly can,” Smirked Dominique. “I want him to
suffer, just a little,” she smiled at her friend as she closed the door. Even
though it was all coming to a head in almost less than a week, Dominique needed
to know where she stood with Adam, but whatever he said tonight, she was not prepared
yet to tell him about the baby.

Dominique dressed quickly in a pair
of satin lounge pants, matching tank and wrap around sweater. As she draped the
sweater over her shoulders Adam knocked quietly at the door.

The moment she answered the door
and closed it behind him, Adam felt the familiar twinge of desire rise inside
of him.

It was all he could do not to throw
her on the bed and ravish her body, a body that seemed even more voluptuous
than the last time that he saw her, but remembering that she was still healing
he decided against it.