Twelve Days - The Beginning (8 page)

Chapter Ten

It had taken them another two hours to find the dresses, so consequently Elise found herself running late for visiting hours at the hospital. Throwing her car into the first available space, she ran into the building and took the stairs two at a time, arriving only a very commendable ten minutes late.

She checked in with the nurse at the ward station and was surprised when she was informed that Dale already had a visitor. Wondering who on earth that could be as Dale had no family locally, she rounded the corner and headed to his bed only to stop short in her tracks, disbelief pouring from every fibre as she took in the appearance of Dale’s other visitor.

It was Vaughn. Of course it was.

Vaughn had come to visit Dale in the hospital. What the hell was he playing at? For a brief second, panic flooded her as she thought about Vaughn telling Dale about all of the events of yesterday. Everything - every minute detail. How would she ever convince Dale that it was untrue and harmless? She knew that he would see right through her and there’d be hell to pay if he realised that she had actually been kissing someone else. And not just kissing either. Although they had been interrupted, Elise knew that she would have struggled to stop.

This was bad. Really bad.

Nervously, she approached the bed as quietly as she could, hoping to catch some of the conversation before they became aware of her presence. Unaccustomed to seeing Dale look so helpless, she took a moment to consider his appearance in the traditional hospital gown and bed, surrounded by monitors and other typical paraphernalia.

The alcohol had by now well and truly worn off and she could begin to see glimmers of the old Dale again. His dark blond hair was in desperate need of a wash but it was falling in its usual wavy and slightly-unkempt manner and his face appeared more rested and less lined. There were obvious signs from his fight; bruises and cuts marring his face and one particularly ugly cut just under his jaw which was where she presumed Vaughn had landed the final blow. Seeing her husband vulnerable like this tugged at her heartstrings and, not for the first time, she felt saddened at what he had let himself become.

His unusual sandy coloured eyes - almost tiger like - had been what had first attracted Elise to him but over recent months and years, they had lost some of their humour and sparkle. At times when she looked at him, it was like no one was there at all.

But with the alcohol gone, there was life back in his eyes and as she watched him conversing with Vaughn, she saw glimpses of the lost little boy that he had once been. Dale’s childhood had been difficult and was not something that he really talked about although Elise knew the story and had seen photographs of him at an early age. His expression then was one of vulnerability and the parallel between the child of years gone by and the man today scared her. She was sure that his behaviour was linked to more than just their personal issues, but

Dale refused to open up to her and so she was left to draw her own conclusions, however inaccurate they might be.

Finally sensing her presence, Dale looked up and his eyes connected with hers.

“Elise! We were wondering what kept you. Vaughn has just been telling me all about his new role in your company. Sounds very exciting!”

Elise moved forward, every nerve ending humming in fear at what else he may have said but also feeling aching awareness of being in such close proximity to Vaughn again. He was wearing casual clothes today, jeans and a relatively tight fitting dark t-shirt which did nothing to hide the body that she knew was under there. He was devastating and she began to feel the effect of just looking at this man bubbling away at her core. She swallowed over a suddenly dry throat and almost stopped breathing when he turned to face her and the full force of those eyes fixed onto her face - his now trademark half smile gracing his lips. Her fingers itched to touch that mouth and smooth out that smile and her heart rate picked up as she imagined how he would react if she did just that. Bloody hell – she was in big trouble. And all of this was playing out right in front of her husband.

The world shifted and she began to feel as if she in an alternate universe as she finally registered that Dale was not yelling at her and was continuing to converse easily with Vaughn, who had turned back to the man in the bed - seemingly unaffected by her presence. Dale and Vaughn had apparently gone straight from one knockout punch to new best friends and Elise wondered how the hell that had happened. Was there nothing or no-one that this man couldn’t influence?

“Hey. You look much better! How are you feeling today?” She decided to go with addressing Dale in the bed and ignore the imposing presence to her right.

“Yes, much better. I can’t wait to get home although they said I have to stay in ‘til tomorrow. Something about extra tests. You would have thought I’d got enough pin holes in me already.” He grumbled and then extended his arm to indicate the man to his left. “So, how come you’ve never mentioned Vaughn to me before? I’m sure I would have remembered if you had?”

Elise searched for an underlying tone or a threat in his words but did not find any and took comfort in whatever calming influence Vaughn appeared to have on her husband.

“Vaughn is new to the company.” she said, “I only met him myself yesterday so I didn’t really have time to tell you about him. He’s my new boss.” she added, to clarify their working relationship.

“I know,” Dale said, “he was just telling me. Rather him than that pretty-boy you insist on calling your friend. Why the hell you have anything to do with that guy, I don’t know. He’s completely insane.”

Elise decided to ignore that comment; out of the two of them she was fairly certain that Cole was the least insane.

“I was worried about you yesterday” she continued, all the while aware of Vaughn absorbing every word. “You tied it on fairly heavy – what on earth is going on with you these days?”

That, she knew, was a rhetorical question. They both knew what was going on but until Dale was willing to face up to his demons, nothing would change.

“I don’t really remember much,” he said, “I remember you leaving for work but from then, up until I got here, it’s all a bit of a blur.” Dale shook his head as if to encourage his memory cells to respond. “Vaughn has been telling me that he was the one that gave me the knock-out punch – he came to apologise.”

At her husband’s easy reference to Vaughn, Elise stiffened a little. It was clear that Dale was still in the dark about everything that had happened yesterday and she was grateful to Vaughn for his silence. Whilst she was feeling uncomfortable with the passion that had flared between the two of them, she was scared to realise that she didn’t actually regret it, and coming to that realisation whilst at her husband’s hospital bedside, was not something she was particularly proud of.

She could feel Vaughn’s eyes watching her as she continued to look at her husband and a telltale heat began to course through her.

“That was good of him.” she said, addressing Dale and continuing to ignore Vaughn in the hope of desperately trying to calm his effect on her.

“I know,” Dale replied, “Sounds weird but I’m actually grateful to him.”

Grateful?

“If it hadn’t been for him, I don’t know when I would have stopped. Seems like I was pretty wild and, as much as I dislike pretty-boy, I don’t want his murder on my hands!” He laughed humourlessly.

That was one way of looking at it she supposed, but if he hadn’t been so over the top in the first place then Cole would never have jumped in to defend her. Even though Dale was showing some remorse, she knew that he would never fully acknowledge his issues and admit that ultimately, he was the one at fault. He would still rather blame Cole for some nonexistent crime that he had long since decided that Cole had committed, than accept responsibility for his own actions.

Elise blew out a frustrated breath. This conversation would just go round and round in circles so she decided to change the subject and summoning her resolve, turned to address Vaughn.

“Mr Granger – it really is very kind of you to visit my husband and offer your apologies. We both appreciate your er.. part.. in this situation but I think Dale and I both agree that no apology is really necessary.”

For the first time since she had arrived, she risked looking at him properly and instantly regretted it. His eyes were studying her, scrutinising her and following her lips as they moved over the words when she spoke, tracing the outlines of her face and then dipping lower,
roaming over her casual jeans and t-shirt and finally lingering on her breasts. As his eyes came back up to meet hers, she couldn’t miss the unmistakable heat in them and shivers began to form somewhere in the base of her spine and travel throughout her body. She repressed a shudder and crossed her arms over her breasts to prevent Vaughn from seeing the pointed evidence of her arousal brought about by his brief inspection. It was a fruitless gesture. Vaughn was well aware of the effect that he was having on her. That infuriating half smile when she looked back up at him indicated that he knew all too well what she was trying to cover up. The way this man made her feel was just insane, and Elise knew that she was way out of her depth.

Nervously she darted her eyes to the bed – if she was aware that Vaughn was mentally undressing her then surely so must Dale be. Thankfully, he was lying back with his eyes closed and she realised that Vaughn must have already known that. He seriously didn’t miss a thing.

She turned back to Vaughn, realising that he had not responded to her statement. This situation with him was becoming too close for comfort and she had an overwhelming urge to get him to leave – right now. She had no idea what game he was playing; all she knew was that by him being here, it was getting increasingly dangerous and she needed to get him to leave. He had no right to look at her like that. Maybe if she could convince herself that she felt no reciprocal attraction then she would stand a chance of getting away from this madness unscathed. She needed time alone with Dale, time to begin to help him to mend and heal, and to deal with whatever the future held for them. She couldn’t do that whilst her brain was scrambled by six-feet of scorching testosterone.

“I think you should leave now,” she tried again “Dale is tired, he needs his rest.”

She wondered absently if he was in the habit of making hospital calls or had he made an exception for her? It didn’t matter, but oddly, she found that it did.

“Elise...” it was the first time he had spoken since she had arrived, his smoky voice rolling over her name.

“I am pleased to see your husband – recovering.” he said, a glint of mischief visible in his too dark eyes. “It was quite a knock he took to his head.”

“Why are you here Vaughn? What the hell do you want?” Elise began to panic as she registered his expression and went straight into panic mode, convinced that this was it - he was going to mention what had happened between them yesterday.

“I needed to see him – sober.” Placing his fingers gently under her chin, he lifted her face up allowing their eyes to lock. “I needed to see what I was up against.”

Elise shivered involuntarily as their eyes continued to hold. Gathering every ounce of strength she removed his fingers and looked away.

“I don’t know what you think this is, Vaughn.” She glanced back to the bed and, hearing Dale lightly snoring, she took a few paces away and lowered her voice.

“We shared a ‘moment’. That was all. We were overwrought, emotions were running high – it was a release. It was nothing. A brief coming together in a time of need.”

Vaughn had also moved slightly away from the bed and reached over to lightly grasp her upper arm as she finished speaking.

“Look at me, Elise,” he commanded, shaking her gently when she refused to comply. “Look at me, dammit.”

Hesitantly she raised her eyes, unprepared for the hardness she saw on his face.

“Don’t you ever refer to what happened between us as nothing. It was a hell of a lot more than just a ‘moment’ and you and I both know that. You can deny it all you want but this is real and this is going to happen. If you cared anything for your marriage then you would never have let me touch you, let alone kiss you like I did.” He paused and shook his head.

“Your marriage is over, Elise, and you need to wake up to that fact.”

Shocked, she stood speechless at the simplicity with which this man had summed up her life. She had no reply or at least nothing that made any sense and so she stood waiting, feeling increasingly out of control.

He leaned closer into her and brushed his lips against her ear, re-igniting the shivers. His hand drifted down her arm and came to rest on her left hand, his fingers seeking and finding her ring finger which he lightly touched, before bringing his hand back up to cup the side of her face. His breath was hot and heavy in her ear.

“I am going to fuck you, Elise, soon. And you are going to love every minute of it.”

With a final lingering kiss on her neck, he collected his jacket from the chair and walked out of the hospital ward without a backward glance.