Yanecia - Nora Roberts- Garden Trilogy - Red lily

HEAT LIGHTNING SIZZLED in the sky, broody bursts, as they drove into Memphis. The traffic was as sulky as the night, but Harper seemed immune to it. They might have limped into the city, but the air was cool in the car, and Coldplay simmered out of the speakers.

Every so often he’d take his hand off the wheel to lay it over hers. A casually intimate gesture that made her heart sigh.

She’d been right to say nothing of that vision, or apparition, whatever it had been, in her bedroom mirror. Tomorrow was soon enough.

“I’ve never had dinner here,” she said when he pulled into the hotel’s lot. “I bet it’s wonderful.”

“One of Memphis’s finest jewels.”

“I’ve been in the lobby. You can’t come to Memphis without seeing the Peabody’s duck walk. It’d be like not seeing Graceland or Beale Street.”

“You forgot Sun Records.”

“Oh! Isn’t that the coolest place?” She shot him a stern look. “And don’t think I don’t know you’re laughing at me.”

“Maybe a chuckle. Not an outright laugh.”

“Well, anyway, the Peabody’s got an awesome lobby. You know they’ve been doing that duck walk for over seventy-five years.”

“Is that a fact?”

She gave him a little shove as they walked toward the hotel. “I guess you know all there is to know about the place, being a native.”

“Finding out more all the time.” He led her into the lobby.

“Maybe we could have a drink in here before dinner, by the fountain.” She imagined something cool and sophisticated to mirror the way she was feeling. A champagne cocktail or a cosmopolitan. “Is there time?”

“We could, but I think you’ll like what I have in mind even better.” He walked with her toward the elevators.

She glanced back over her shoulder with some regret. All that gorgeous marble and colored glass. “Is there a dining room upstairs? They don’t have one on the roof, do they? I’ve always thought roof-top dining was so elegant. Unless it rains. Or it’s windy. Or it’s too hot,” she added with a laugh. “I think roof-top dining’s really elegant in the movies.”

He only smiled, nudged her inside ahead of him. “Did I tell you that you look beautiful tonight?”

“You did, but I don’t mind certain kinds of repetition.”

“You look beautiful.” He touched his lips to hers. “You should always wear red.”

“And look at you.” She ran her fingers down the lapels of his dark jacket. “All duded up in a suit. The rest of the women in the restaurant won’t be able to eat for envying me my good luck.”

“If that’s the case, we might just have to give them a break.” He took her hand as the doors opened, then led her into the hallway. “Come with me.”

“What’s going on?”

“Something I hope you’ll like.” He stopped at a door, took out a key. He unlocked the door, opened it, gestured. “After you.”

She stepped inside, her breath catching as she saw the spacious room. Her hand fluttered up to her throat as she crossed the black and white checkerboard tiles into a parlor where candles flickered, and red lilies speared lavishly out of glass vases.

The colors were deep and rich, long windows adding the sparkling lights of the city. In front of one, a table was set for two, and a bottle of champagne sat in a gleaming silver bucket.

There was music playing, slow, soft Memphis blues. Stunned, she turned a circle, saw the spiral staircase that led to a second level.

“You . . . you did this?”

“I wanted to be alone with you.”

Her heart was still in her throat as she turned to face him. “You did this for me?”

“For both of us.”

“This beautiful room—just for us. Flowers and candles, and God, champagne. I’m overwhelmed.”

“I want you to be.” He stepped to her, took both her hands. “I want tonight to be special, memorable.” And brought them to his lips. “Perfect.”

“It’s sure off to a good start. Harper, no one’s ever gone to so much trouble for me. I’ve never felt more special.”

“It’s just the start. I ordered dinner already. It’ll be up in about fifteen minutes. Plenty of time for us to have that drink. How do you feel about champagne?”

“I feel like I couldn’t settle for anything less right now. Thank you.” She leaned to him, took his mouth for a long, warm kiss.

“I’d better open that bottle, or I’ll forget the lineup of events.”

“There’s a lineup?”

“More or less.” He walked over to lift the bottle from the bucket. “And just so you can relax, I gave Mama the number here. She’s got that, your cell, mine, and I made her promise to call if Lily so much as hiccups.”

He popped the cork as she laughed. “All right. I’ll trust Roz to keep it all under control.”

She did a little spin, just couldn’t help herself. “I feel like Cinderella. Minus the evil stepsisters, and well, the pumpkin. But other than that, me and Cindy, we’re practically twins.”

“If the shoe fits.”

“I’m going to wallow in this, Harper, I may as well just tell you that. I don’t know how sophisticated I can be when I just want to jump up and down, go racing around to look at everything. I bet the bathrooms are amazing. Do you think that fireplace works? I know it’s too hot for a fire, but I don’t care.”

“We’ll light it. Here.” He handed her a glass, tapped his to it. “To memorable moments.”

She held the moment, the glow of it. “And to men who make them happen. Oh, wow,” she said after the first sip. “This is really good. Maybe I’m dreaming.”

“If you are, I am, too.”

“That’s all right then.”

He touched her, skimming his fingers over the back of her neck, exposed by her upswept hair. Then with the lightest of pressure eased her toward him. The knock on the door brought on a wry grin.

“Prompt service. I’ll get it. Once they’ve set up dinner, we’ll be completely alone.”

HE MADE IT all happen, she mused. The big picture, the tiny details so the evening unfolded for her like the pages of a storybook. And because of him, she was sitting in an elegant suite, sipping champagne with the romance of candlelight, the shimmer of firelight. Flowers scented the air. There was a lovely meal she could barely taste through the anticipation bubbling in her throat.

Tonight, they would make love.

“Tell me what it was like for you, growing up,” she asked him.

“I liked having brothers, even when they pissed me off.”

“You’re close. I can see that whenever they come to visit. Even though they live away from Memphis, the three of you are like a team.”

He topped off her glass. “Did you wish for sibs when you were a kid?”

“I did. I had friends and cousins to play with, but I did. A sister especially. Somebody to tell secrets to in the middle of the night, or even to fight with. You had all that.”

“As kids, it was like having a personal gang, especially when David came along.”

“Bet the four of you drove Roz crazy.”

He grinned, lifted his glass. “We did our best. Summers were long, the way they’re supposed to be when you’re a kid. Long, hot days, and the yard, the woods, they were the whole world. I remember how it smelled, all green and thick. And this time of year, how you’d hear the cicadas all night.”

“I used to leave my window open a little ways at night so I could hear them better. I bet y’all got in plenty of trouble.”

“Probably more than our share. You couldn’t slip much by Mama. She had this radar, it was a little scary. I remember how she’d be in the garden, or in the house doing something, and I’d come around and she’d just know I’d been doing something I shouldn’t’ve been doing.”

She propped an elbow on the table, cupped her chin in her hand. “Name something.”

“The most baffling, at least at the time, was when I was with a girl the first time.” He drenched one of the strawberries in whipped cream, held it out for her to bite. “I came home having had my first sample of paradise in the back-seat of my much-loved Camaro, about six months after my sixteenth birthday. She came into my room the next morning, and put a box of Trojans on my dresser.”

With a shake of his head, he polished off the berry. “She said, and I remember this very well, that we’d already talked about sex and responsibility, about being safe and smart and careful, so she assumed that I had used protection, and would continue to do so. Then she asked if I had any questions or comments.”

“What did you say?”

“I said, ‘No ma’am.’And when she walked out the door, I pulled the covers up over my head and asked God how the hell my mama came to know I’d had sex with Jenny Proctor in my Camaro. It was both mystifying and humiliating.”

“I hope I’m like that.”

His eyebrows lifted as he coated another berry. “Mystified and humiliated?”

“No. As smart as your mama. As wise as that with Lily.”

“Lily’s not allowed to have sex until she’s thirty, and married a couple of years.”

“Goes without saying.” She bit into the berry he offered, mmm ’d over it. “What happened to Jenny Proctor?”

“Jenny?” He got a look on his face, a kind of half smile that told her he was looking back. “Why, she just pined away for me. She was forced to go to California to college, and stay out there and marry a screenwriter.”

“Poor thing. I shouldn’t have any more,” she said when he topped off her glass again. “I’m already half buzzed.”

“No point in doing things halfway.”

Angling her head, she sent him a deliberately provocative look. “Is part of the lineup you talked about getting me loose on champagne so you can have your way with me?”

“It was on the schedule.”

“Thank God. Is that event coming up soon, because I don’t think I can sit here and look at you much longer without having you touch me.”

His eyes darkened as he rose, held out a hand for hers. “Here was my plan. I was going to ask you to dance, so I could get my arms around you, something like this.”

She slid into them. “I haven’t found a single flaw in your plan so far.”

“Then I was going to kiss you, here.” He brushed his lips over her temple. “And here.” Her cheek. “And here.” And her mouth, sinking in slowly and deeply until that meeting of lips was the center of the world.

“I want you so much.” She pressed against him, burrowed in. “It takes me over. Take me over, Harper. I’ll go crazy if you don’t.”

He circled her toward the steps, stopped at the base and looked into her eyes. “Come upstairs, and be with me.”

With her hand in his, she started up, then let out a breathless laugh. “My knees are shaking. I can’t even tell if it’s from nerves or excitement. I’ve imagined myself with you so many times, but I never imagined I’d be nervous.”

“We’ll go slow. No rush.”

Her heart was beginning to trip and stumble, but there was one more thing. “Um, I’m using something—birth control—but I think we should . . . I didn’t bring any of those Trojans.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Should’ve figured you’d thought of everything.”

“Be prepared.”

“Were you a Boy Scout?”

“No, but I dated a few former Girl Scouts.”

It made her chuckle, and nearly relax again. “I think . . .”

She trailed off as she stepped into the bedroom. There were candles waiting to be lit, and the lamp on low. The bed was already turned down, with a single red lily resting on the pillow.