Chapter 6
Charlie and Devon had given each other much to think about.
She mulled over what he had said the next day while she was painting, and he thought about her all day.
His description of his marriage sounded tragic to her, a waste of two lives that had surely impacted their son as well, even if Liam said he had forgiven them, but what a terrible way to live, for all three of them.
She and Jean-Louis had been so loving to each other, and he had been so kind and generous to her, and they had adored their baby Axel when he was born, and after.
Jean-Louis had lived for them, and it had nearly killed her when Axel died.
Devon couldn’t imagine a woman like Faye, or how she and Charlie had continued a loveless travesty of marriage for twenty-three years.
And keeping their finances intact seemed like a poor excuse to maintain the marriage.
But she respected what he had told her. He had made it clear that he intended to stay married, although he claimed it didn’t interfere with his independent life at all and for all intents and purposes he was a free man.
It hadn’t deterred Devon. She appreciated his honesty, and she was just as attracted to him as before.
Charlie walked around in a daze all day, relieved that she wasn’t upset that he was married, although he was sure that she would have preferred it if that wasn’t the case.
She was the first truly available woman he had ever been attracted to, and he was relieved to know that she wasn’t merely an illusion, or an obsession—she was real.
It opened the door wide for him to pursue her, and he could hardly stay away from her all day.
He couldn’t resist calling her at five o’clock.
He had thought of nothing else all day. She had looked so beautiful as they talked in the candlelight the night before, with her hair glowing copper in the light, and her eyes bright, filled with trust and hope.
She was the most loving woman he had ever met, and the most compelling. All he wanted was to be with her.
“Can I interest you in a walk on the beach?” He liked walking early in the morning or at sundown, when it wasn’t as hot and there was usually a breeze.
“I’d love to, maybe tomorrow. I’m just finishing a painting, and I don’t want to leave it right now. Do you want to come over in a while?”
“I’d love that,” he said in a husky voice, which gave her a thrill. She wanted to see him too, but she was in an awkward place on the painting she was working on.
“Seven o’clock?” she suggested, squinting at the painting. “I could try to cook dinner for us, but you might never want to see me again,” she said, and he laughed.
“I can bring pasta and cook for you. My repertoire isn’t too varied either, or we can go out.
” He wanted to see her, he didn’t care when or how.
He didn’t want to waste a minute. All the barriers had been removed, in his eyes, with his disclosure the night before.
And she had accepted the situation he was in.
Other women had walked out as soon as he said he was married, whatever his arrangement was with his wife.
And some just wanted to have fun, or were married too.
He had always said that his being married was a given, and a number of women were willing to play by his rules.
It meant that they had no future with him, which they accepted for a while, and when they found that it was true, they left.
Devon didn’t have her eye on the future, she was only living in the present.
She had long since learned how unreliable the future was, no matter what plans one made.
Charlie arrived at seven, in jeans and a black T-shirt, after his walk on the beach.
And Devon was still wearing the shorts and pink tank top she’d been wearing while painting all afternoon.
She had just finished a small painting of a brightly colored bird that had caught her eye that morning.
It was like a beautiful little jewel. It was still sitting on her easel to dry, and she was cleaning her brushes when he arrived.
And she had a splash of peacock blue paint in her hair.
The painting of the deer was on another easel, finished and drying.
She looked so beautiful and natural and innocent when he walked into the room, with the last rays of sun pouring over her hair like molten gold, that she took his breath away, and he walked across the room and kissed her so hard and so long that she couldn’t breathe when he stopped.
“I missed you today,” he said in the same husky voice she had heard earlier.
His obsession with her had gotten the better of him all afternoon, and he could think of nothing else.
Without stopping to ask her, he slowly peeled off her tank top, and held her breasts in his hands and bent to kiss them.
She didn’t stop him, and reached down and unbuttoned his jeans.
The brushes she’d been cleaning fell to the floor, as she and Charlie devoured each other like two starving people.
Twenty-three years of a life without love overwhelmed him, and sixteen years of her own loneliness turned into a tidal wave of desire, as he carried her to her bed not far from where they stood.
Their clothes vanished instantly, and their bodies took over, begging for each other and crying out for love.
They fit together like two pieces of a puzzle, and were driven to heights neither of them could remember.
It was dark in the room when their lovemaking ended, and they lay next to each other, trying to catch their breath. Charlie looked at her and smiled.
“I’m sorry, Devon…I went crazy thinking about you all day.”
“Me too,” she whispered with a small smile, running her hand lightly over his body again.
They had been swept away by their passion, with no regrets.
She propped herself up on one elbow, lying on her side as she looked at him seriously.
“I’ve never made love with a married man before,” she said thoughtfully.
“It didn’t seem right.” And she knew that technically, it still wasn’t now.
But after everything he had said, she didn’t feel guilty.
He had said he was a free man, and she believed him.
She had given herself to him heart and soul.
“I’m not married in that way,” Charlie reminded her. “And it was never like this.” For an instant, he felt as though Devon owned him now, and the thought of it terrified him and excited him all at the same time, and he wanted her again.
They made love until they couldn’t anymore. They ended up in the shower, with the hot water pelting down on them. She looked up at him adoringly, and he thought he had never loved any woman more. He had never known anyone like her, so full of talent and kindness, passion and tenderness.
“I never want to leave you again,” he whispered to her.
He knew it was too soon to say it, but it was how he felt.
They both had years of pent-up emotions and unfulfilled dreams and longing to bring to each other.
“Are you hungry?” he asked as they got out of the shower and he admired her perfect body, as she admired his. They had come far in a short time.
“I’m too happy to be hungry.” She smiled at him. “Are you?”
“Starving,” he admitted. “I know an all-night diner in Bridgehampton. Do you want to go?” he asked, and she laughed.
She was pleasantly exhausted but willing to go anywhere with him.
They dressed and locked up the barn, and twenty minutes later they were on the way to Bridgehampton.
The diner was like something out of a time warp, and there were lots of young people there, and some truck drivers off the main road.
Charlie ordered a steak, and she had waffles that were delicious, and when they finished, they went back to the barn.
They took off their clothes and climbed into her big comfortable bed.
They were too tired to make love again. It had been a perfect night, and she smiled thinking that it was the first time in years she had spent the night with a man.
The moonlight was shining through the tall windows in the barn, and Charlie whispered to her. She was already half asleep.
“I have to leave early tomorrow. I have a meeting.”
“Uh-huh,” she mumbled and drifted off to sleep, as he looked down at her with love in his eyes, and then fitted his body around her, and fell asleep himself.
—
When Devon woke in the morning, Charlie was gone.
She vaguely remembered his saying something about a meeting but she couldn’t remember what.
He had left her a note that said only, “I’ll call you…
thank you for the happiest night of my life…
love, C.” It had been the happiest of hers in a long time too.
She thought about him as she drank a cup of coffee.
He was starving for love in so many ways.
She had been alone and lonely for such a long time, and she had lost so many people she loved.
Now Charlie had appeared, like an answer to a prayer.
She hadn’t even been praying for a man in her life.
She accepted it as it was. She didn’t want more than she had.
She thought love was behind her, in the past, and now here he was, exploding with passion and love.
It changed everything. She wondered what they would do when he went back to California at the end of August. He said he traveled all the time, so hopefully they would work it out.
And she had four commissions to do between September and the end of the year, so she had her commitments too.