12. Roxie
Was Henry acting the way he was, and saying things just so he could have sex with me?
No. Sex was not his motivator.
So far, he’d been more focused on pleasing me rather than himself.
My butt was completely numb by the time I stood up again.
Flicking sand away, I reluctantly made my way back to my sister’s caravan. The sun was setting, and the air had cooled enough to be pleasant. But that was the only good thing about this moment.
By the time I saw the van in the distance, I decided that I’d head home tomorrow.
“Hey, Roxie,” Todd greeted me as I entered the annex.
“Hi. Where’s Priscilla?”
“She’s taken Piper up for a shower. Hey, don’t worry about what she said. She really is happy for you.”
I rolled my eyes. “She has a funny way of showing it.”
“I know. But you know what she’s like.”
“Yeah, I do.” I nodded.
“Join me in a drink?” He held up his beer, his eyes pleading with me to agree.
“Sure.”
“Great. Take a seat.”
He stood, and as he disappeared into the van, I plonked into a camp chair. Todd returned with a glass filled to the brim with wine. “Cheers,” he said with his beer raised.
“Cheers.”
I sipped the wine and realized just how thirsty I was.
“So, you really like Henry, huh?”
I looked into Todd’s dark brown eyes. “Yes. He’s the first man I’ve met in years who I actually want to spend more time with. He seems to be pretty special.”
“Well, go for it then.”
I blinked at him.
“I mean it. You deserve it.”
“Thanks, Todd. That means a lot to me.”
“Why don’t you invite him over for a barbeque?”
“Pfft, not yet. I don’t want to scare him off.” I chuckled, trying to make light of it. Yet it was true to a degree. I wasn’t ready to share Henry with my opinionated family. But even with that thought, I was looking forward to the day when I could show him off.
The next couple of hours were consumed with Priscilla trying to justify her earlier comments and Todd trying to get me drunk. By the time I left them to go to the magic tree, I was both tipsy and tired of talking.
There was nothing I could do about the alcohol coursing through my veins, but I switched my thoughts away from Priscilla’s repeated comments about Henry being too old to what wonderful things Henry was going to do to me.
When I crested the hill between the road and the beach, I was surprised to see several people dotting the shoreline. Families had brought tables and chairs and camp lanterns down to the sand and based on their settings, they looked to have been there for hours. Kids still played soccer, despite the limited light. Music pumped in a competing concert from two different sets of speakers.
Laughter filled the air.
The party atmosphere wiped away my sister’s negative vibes and put a skip into my step. Our magic tree was decorated with a couple of hanging lanterns, and my heart fluttered with the acknowledgment that Henry was already there.
The second I saw him, I burst out laughing. Henry had a Santa hat on, and it made him look both cute and sexy.
“What?” he spread his arms wide. His smile was wide too.
“Merry Christmas.” He stepped out from under the tree and greeted me with a quick kiss. His hands touched my hips, and his sexy scent delighted my senses.
“Merry Christmas. Did you have a nice day?” He squeezed my hand in his and led me to the table and chairs he’d set up.
“A quiet one. What about you?”
“A noisy one. Piper started squealing at about six o’clock this morning, and it pretty much stayed that way all day.” I had absolutely no intention of mentioning my fight with Priscilla.
He poured us each a glass of champagne, and just as the glass met my lips, an explosion in the sky made me jump, and of course, I spilled the drink down my top.
A burst of color from the fireworks was enough to distract Henry while I vigorously wiped the liquid from my chest.
He stood and held his hand toward me. “Come on.”
I clutched his hand, and together we walked further onto the sand. The sky lit up with endless fireworks. Red. Green. Blue. Henry positioned me in front of him and wrapped his arms around my shoulders. I rolled my head back, and when he nestled closer, I sighed at the wonderful sensations coursing through me.
Even though we shared the beach with fifty or so other people, I felt like it was just the two of us. Henry had the most incredible way of making me feel special.
About twenty minutes after they started, the fireworks hit a grand finale, filling the sky with thousands of colorful sparkles. Then just as suddenly as it started, it ended.
As we returned to our spot, families began packing up their things.
“Now, where were we?” Henry asked as we returned to our seats.
“We’d just poured a drink.”
“That’s right. Oh, I bought you something.”
“You didn’t. Oh, Henry, I didn’t buy you anything.”
“You didn’t have to. I found these and thought of you.” He handed me the gift. It was beautifully wrapped in gold paper with a white silk ribbon that was tied in a bow.
I huffed out an excited breath and tugged on the ribbon. Henry’s eyes shimmered, confirming he was as excited as I was. I peeled open the paper and frowned at the box for a moment. Then I burst out laughing. “Binoculars.”
“Yes.” He said, totally seriously. “Next time you’re up in the magic tree, you’ll have a much better view.”
“Oh my God. You’re hilarious.” I leaned toward him, and our lips met. Everything about our kiss was delightful. The feel of his lips pressed to mine, the gentle touch of his hand to my waist, his scent, his warmth. Henry.
He’d brought a selection of food, and I ate a wedge of Jarlsberg cheese on a cracker to try to soak up the alcohol I’d consumed. Our conversation flowed easily, and again, I had the curious feeling we’d known each other forever.
“Oh hey.” I clicked my fingers. “It’s my turn for your twenty-question game.”
He cocked his head. “That it is.”
I raised my glass and sipped as I contemplated what to ask. So many questions rolled through my brain. But then I remembered the one question I’d already asked that he had yet to answer.
“Well, I did ask you a question yesterday, but you dodged it when we got a little bit sidetracked.” I didn’t finish, hoping he’d pick up on my train of thought.
“Sidetracked?” He burst out laughing. “Is that what you call it?”
I giggled. “No, I call it incredible.”
He gazed at me. Really, truly looked at me. I hoped he wasn”t reading my brain because if he did, he’d know that Henry had entered my mind; no, it was more than that, he’d gone deeper. I was fairly certain he’d entered my soul.
“I call it incredible too.” He huffed out a sigh. “My wife and I used to have amazing sex.”
“Oh,” I was caught off guard. “You did, did you?”
“Yes. Mind-blowing, actually. You should be grateful because she taught me everything I know.”
I nodded. “In that case, I’ll be eternally grateful.”
“It was why our relationship was so special. We talked about everything. And I mean absolutely everything.”
“So, what happened?”
He reached for the bottle and topped up my drink. Then he nursed his bottle in his hand and leaned back in his chair. “Helen and I met in our mid-twenties. We had a whirlwind relationship. One year after we met, we were married on a beach at Il Pellicano, Porto Ercole, in Tuscany. Have you heard of it?”
I shook my head, but the way he’d spoken the name of the town with a rolling Italian accent was so sexy I wanted to hear it again. “Where?”
“Il Pellicano, Porto Ercole, in Tuscany. It’s beautiful and exclusive and very expensive. After our wedding, we traveled Europe for a few years, getting odd jobs where we could and making the most of every little village we stayed in. We really did have the time of our lives.”
“Sounds wonderful.”
He reached out and touched my hand. “Let me know if I’m talking too much.”
Henry had a comfortable way about him. It had been a long time since I’d felt so relaxed next to a man. As the waves crashed into the shore the nearly-full moon hovered in the black sky, and Henry talked about his history, I reminded myself just how lucky I was to have found him. I shook my head. “I want to know everything about you, so please don’t stop.”
He nodded as if he’d expected that answer. Maybe he felt the same way about me. I hoped so.
“Something changed in Helen when she turned thirty. It was like some kind of internal switch had been flicked. She began stressing about the way she looked. Constantly dieting, though she didn’t need to. She also increased the amount of makeup she wore and how often she wore it to the point where I never saw her without makeup. I hate that stuff, and I’d ask her not to wear it so much, but she didn’t listen. That’s one of the things that attracted me to you.”
“Oh.” I giggled. “Well, you saw me in a pretty horrible state, so I figured things could only improve from there.”
“I have a feeling we were meant to meet.”
I rolled my bottom lip through my teeth. “Me too.” I believed in destiny, and as I took in Henry’s features, I couldn’t believe what fate had dished out. He was movie-star material. His features were perfectly symmetrical, from his elegant nose to incredible blue eyes that were framed with long, dark lashes. His cinnamon lips were full and perfect. Perfectly suckable, too. His jaw was strong and manly.
Henry was stunning.
A curious frown drilled across his forehead as he sipped his drink, and then he put his glass down again, reached for my hand, and tugged it onto his lap. “After Helen had our children, she loathed her body. Nothing I could say would make her believe me. I loved her, and the fact that she’d sacrificed her body to bring our beautiful children into the world made me love her even more. But all she saw was the stretch marks and sagging breasts. I didn’t care about any of that. But she no longer wanted to have sex with the lights on. Soon, she didn’t want sex at all. We went for weeks. That soon became months and years.”
“Oh.” I had no idea what to say.
“She fell out of love with me, and to this day, I still don’t know why.”
I huffed. My relationship with Nathan had a similar ending.
“Anyway.” Henry let out a huge sigh. “One day, when she was supposedly out with her girlfriends, I decided to drop around to my best mate’s place. He was always tinkering around with his boat, so when he didn’t answer my knock on his front door, I went around the back. And there they were, Helen and Wayne, having sex on the deck chair by his pool.”
I gasped and pulled back. “Noooo!”