“Okay, good. I came to see if you wanted to go out to dinner, but now it seems…”
“Like a bad time to take me out in public,” she said with a watery laugh. “I know I carried on and I shouldn’t have. I just got upset. I’ll be fine. It’ll all be fine.”
“You know the kids would be okay. Not that they don’t need their mother, because they do, but they have me, too.”
“They don’t even know you. They wouldn’t be comfortable just moving in with you if I died!”
“Well, then don’t drop dead, okay? We should do something about the fact that they don’t know me. Like maybe an introduction, a play date.”
“Yes, yes, we do. I’m sorry,
I just—”
“Go from zero to sixty in one second like always? Yeah. I remember. I wasn’t saying I wanted you to die so I could swoop in and take the traumatized motherless children back to my lair. I mean they should know me. I want to know them. And not just as someone they see occasionally. I don’t want to be a guest star in this.”
Bella shook her head. “I want you to be in their lives,” she said, breaking into tears again. “You’re such a good man, and they need you more than anything.”
“I know I don’t know them, but I love them with everything I have.”
“I know you do.”
“I feel this powerful love and bond. I never knew you could love a stranger this much.
“That’s what I thought during my pregnancy.”
“There are places in my heart I didn’t even know existed until I met them.”
“They opened up my heart too, and I love them unconditionally.”
“I’ve never been a father before…”
“They deserve your love. And I want you to drown them in it.”
“Bella,” he said. “I know I’m far from perfect but when I look at the beautiful kids we created, I know I finally did something perfectly right. You and the kids are the greatest things to have ever happened to me.”
“Oh, Harvey.”
“I love, you, Bella.”
“I love you too.”
“I don’t know what happened to us,” she said. “We used to be so happy, and then I lost you, and it about killed me.”
“It about killed me too.”
“You think I just left without giving it much thought. But it shattered my world, and I wept for months. I missed you more than anything.”
“My biggest mistake was letting you go. I should’ve come after you.”
“I should’ve told you.”
He wrapped an arm around her, his whole body telegraphing patience and calm while she stormed and wept. He rubbed her back in slow circles. At last, her tears subsided, leaving his shirtfront wet from her weeping. Her breath came in short gasps as she tried to settle down. She clung to the fabric of his shirt, wrinkling it probably beyond repair. He kissed the top of her head soothingly. Soon, everything in her cried out for his comfort. She couldn’t stop herself. She looked up at him, her parted lips trembling only inches from his. Everything she felt was in her eyes, every unspoken longing, every declaration of love, every long, fearful night without him showed on her face.
It was too much for Harvey. He kissed her then. Her lips were soft, tremulous beneath his and he gathered her into his arms. It was the work of a few seconds to rid her of the bulky robe, to strip her down to her skin. She had been alone, afraid, thinking of her mortality. He needed to comfort her. He felt the pull of her sadness, her loneliness and it was too much for him to stand. His entire body was drawn to her with a physical need to provide comfort, to join with her and blot out what troubled her. Her beautiful aquamarine eyes were so bright with tears, so sorrowful and pleading. Harvey could no more have resisted her mute plea than he could have stopped breathing.
He scooped her up in his arms, her cool naked flesh in his hands, and placed her tenderly on the bed. Harvey unfastened his cuffs, unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it to the floor. She lay back, almost helpless, on the pure white sheets, her creamy skin pebbled with goosebumps from the chill of the air conditioning. He gave a half smile as he thought of ways to warm her back up. As his gaze raked her body, he watched with satisfaction as her nipples pebbled into hardness at his searching glare. Her flesh responded to him, before he even laid a single finger on her as if she were his to command. That heady thought made him harden as he stripped off his pants. Soon he’d left a pile of Armani on the floor, and crawled onto the mattress beside her.
She turned toward him as a flower would turn its face to the sun, seeking the warmth and life there. Huddled against his chest, she felt fragile, broken, not like the articulate, sexy powerhouse he worked with. He wrapped both muscular arms around her, unwilling to let even an inch of space exist between them. He felt her relax slowly, melt against him. Then, at once, they were kissing, the ebb and flow of their tongues a hazy, surreal heat. He was atop her, pressing her down into the soft mattress with his weight, his knee between her bare thighs. She ground against his leg, and he felt her wetness, her need against his skin.