I felt myself sway, and he reached up and placed his hands on my shoulders to steady me. An instant rush of desire passed through me.
Oh my goodness. Oh my…goodness.
“Did you come to Paris other times? Besides that day, I mean?”
He looked down sheepishly, then took his hat off and ran his fingers through his brown hair. If I hadn’t been so off balance, I would have thought it was rather sexy. Scratch that, even being off balance, I found it sexy as hell. I longed to push my own fingers through his hair, let them trail down those broad shoulders, and... I needed to cut those thoughts off now. Especially since Saryn was still standing only feet away.
“Yes,” he softly answered. “I came a number of times to see how you were doing.”
A familiar memory came to me. One I’d had over and over for the last eight years. I was in bed with this man as he made love to me. He kissed my breasts, whispered he loved me, and then slowly kissed up my neck and breathed my name into my ear. For the first few years, I hadn’t been able to see his face. I thought for sure I had simply used my Paris mystery man’s image purely to put a face to the man who’d filled my nights with the most amazing dreams. In my dream, I had always whispered his name back, but I could never hear the damn word. I would wake up frustrated and near tears. Now, I could hear it vividly.
“I love you, Linz.”
“Nolan, oh Nolan, I need you.”
My hand came up to my mouth, and I had to look away from him. It felt like more than a dream. Good God, it was a memory. Had they all been…memories?
“Linnzi, do you need some water?” Nolan asked.
I nodded as I mumbled, “Yes. Please.”
I watched as Saryn and Nolan exchanged a concerned look before she turned to get me water.
“I’ll get it,” Truitt said, quickly moving to get me a bottle of water. I hadn’t even seen him walk into the room.
When he handed it to me, I managed to give him a weak smile. “Thank you.”
He gave me a nod, then looked at Nolan. The two seemed to speak to one another without so much as uttering one word.
With a deep breath, I stared at Nolan. Our eyes met, and I instantly knew I had known this man intimately. He was looking at me like someone who was positively in love. It wasn’t just the way he gazed so intently at me; it was the strange connection I felt between us. The pull was so strong, I nearly leaned closer to him. I had to physically stop myself from doing so.
Why in the world would he come to Paris and spy on me? Why would he not want me to see him? Or better yet, where had he been after my accident? Were we together then? Had we broken up? Did we date in high school? Why hadn’t my parents told me about him? Why hadn’t Saryn mentioned him in the car yesterday? My mind spun with so many unanswered questions.
“Linz, are you okay?” Nolan asked. He reached over and laid his hand on mine, and I felt it. Lord, I felt it. My stomach dipped, and I pulled my hand away from him. Not because I didn’t want him to touch me. The feel of his touch made me instantly vulnerable. I immediately saw the hurt in his eyes, and I hated that it had been me who put it there.
“I’m…I’m sorry. It’s just, I don’t know you. Or, I mean, I don’t remember you, but I get the feeling we were…friends.”
The last word was more of a whisper.
A crooked smile appeared on his face, and if I had been standing, I was positive I would have dropped to my knees. That smile would melt any woman’s panties right off.
“Yes, we were…friends.”
I managed a smile as I looked at him with a slight tilt of my head. Suddenly, I felt a bit flirty. “Maybe more than friends if you came to see me in Paris?”
This time his smile grew larger, and I was mesmerized by it. He had the most beautiful blue eyes and handsome face. His jaw was square, and his skin looked so soft I longed to trace my fingers all over his face. I had no doubt in my mind that this man had a string of women lining up to be with him.
“Um.” It was all he said for about a minute before he cleared his throat and nodded. “How did you know I sent the flowers?”
I dug my teeth into my lip and watched as his eyes went straight to my mouth and then snapped back up. He felt it too. This insane connection. The longing and frustration I had felt for all those years because I knew there was someone out there…someone who woke up every morning like I did, with so much pent-up sexual frustration it nearly drove me mad. That same feeling was back in this one moment.
In my mind, I told myself not to tell him everything. But when I opened my mouth, the truth poured out. “I saw you sitting outside of the café.”
He frowned.
A nervous laugh erupted as I shook my head. “This is going to sound crazy, but then again, you were sitting there waiting for me, so maybe it’s not that crazy.”
“Go on,” Nolan prompted with a slight smirk.
“You got up and started to leave and I panicked. I grabbed my purse and followed you.”
His brows lifted while his eyes widened.
“I know!” I said with a disbelieving chuckle. “I think at the time I thought I might have known you, but I just had to find out for myself.” I tried to make that sound more plausible than ‘The moment I saw you I wanted to know what you would feel like inside of me.’
“Um, anyway, I saw you hand the cart attendant money and I assumed, or, maybe hoped, that when I got those flowers that they were from you.”
His eyes lit up, and when he smiled I had to suppress a moan. “They were from me.”
“Why didn’t you put your name?”
He didn’t answer me at first, only shrugged. Then he said, “I knew you wouldn’t know who I was, so there wasn’t a point.”
That made my mouth fall open, but instead of questioning him, I jumped when Liliana came running into the room. “Mommy! Nolan is eating the cake,” she exclaimed.
“Oh my gosh! What?” Saryn shouted as she ran out of the room.
“Oh shit,” Truitt said. He followed his wife and then turned back, grabbed two trays of food, and yelled, “It’s okay! I bought a back-up in case I dropped that one!”
I couldn’t help but laugh as I watched them dash away. I turned back and looked at Nolan who was smiling and looking at their retreating bodies as well.
It gave me a moment to really take him in without those intense blue eyes on me. I groaned internally when I realized my mystery man had blue eyes too. Had I seen his eyes that day in Paris? No, impossible. I had remembered them. Oh Lord … I had remembered him without even realizing it.
Those eyes. Lord above, those eyes. They were so blue they reminded me of the Mediterranean Sea. He turned back to me, and I fully took in his face. He had the slightest bit of facial hair coming in and my mind instantly wondered what it would feel like on my skin…and I swear I felt like I already knew the answer to that question in the dark recesses of my closed-off mind.
I looked away before my thoughts went anywhere else. What in the world was wrong with me? I knew we weren’t strangers, if I were to go by my dreams. Yet, I still didn’t know Nolan. At least, I didn’t remember knowing him.
“That boy’s a chip off the old block,” Nolan said.
“I’ll have to take your word for it. I don’t really remember Truitt at all.”