A Steele of an Affair Part 1
This story takes place ten years later. No, Laura and Remington are not together.(I know, I know, but just read it.) He did have trouble with the INS and was stranded out of the country. They tried to work it out, but it did not happen. So Remington just stopped all contact with Laura, thinking she would be better off letting him go. He signed some papers so that the agency was in her name and she wouldn't have any problems except for the fact that she had to make a life without him. She even went looking for him in London but never found him. She knew that if he wanted to stay hidden from her, he could. So she went back to the states and started her life without him.
Present Day:
"Harry, my boy, come here quick!"
"Where is the fire, Daniel?"
"Look at the television."
"Daniel, you know pop music is not for…OMG!" Harry fell back into the chair and stared at the woman on the screen who was doing a very seductive dance while wearing a very revealing outfit and singing in the most wonderful voice he had ever heard. It can't be! No way! She would never do that? Or wear that? But, oh my, it has to be!
As Harry sat on a plane to the United States from London, he was deep in thought. Had she lost her mind! What would her fan dance have been like? My God, I know I never got over her but seeing her like that…. I must find her and see if she is happy at least. Did I turn her towardher wild side when I stayed away? With that last thought, he sat back and fell asleep, dreaming about Ms. Holt.
"Laura, that was amazing! Thank you so much for doing that," said Mr. Barkley. "I know your case is over with, but I would never have been able to replace your act in the show on such short notice."
"It was no problem," Laura replied. "I had a lot of fun doing it. I now have fulfilled my fantasy of being a pop star." She tilted her head back and laughed. With that Laura went back to her dressing room to get out of the outfit she was wearing and to head home for the evening. She hopped into her BMW Z4 Roadster in metallic deep sea blue and drove home in silence, letting her hair blow wildly in the wind. After some time, she picked up her cell phone and called Kevin. "Hi, Kevin, it's me. Yes, I did enjoy myself. Are the kids in bed? I'm on my way home now."
The next morning Laura was in her office, thinking of all the things she had to do at home and work. Life isjust so overwhelmingright now. I need to get away for a few days. Wow, where did that thought come from? If he were still here, I would swear he put that in my head somehow! God, why is it that tenyears later I still think about him? Pull yourself together, Holt; you will always think about him. Laura grabbed her purse and told Mildred she was leaving for lunch.
He was sitting outside the parking garage, trying to get up the courage to go upstairs and see if Remington Steele Investigations was still there when a BMW Z4 Roadster with a license plate that read "L HOLT" flew by him.
A Steele of an Affair Part 2
Seeing her made him realize he had never stopped loving her. He was just fooling himself into thinking he had.
He followed her but not too closely as he knew she would spot a tail in a second. He was stunned when Laura picked up a young lad from school. Was this Laura's child? The boy did not look anything like her. Oh, bloody hell, was Laura a mother? A mother to another man's child? This thought hurt him more deeply than he had ever known it could. Did he think she would become a nun after he left? Damn, he might just have to face the fact that she did go on with her life without him and that she was happy.
After work that day, Laura picked up little Adam from school and then dropped him off at his grandmother's house. As she drove home, she let herself get lost in the music.
Harry was happy when Laura dropped the little lad off as he needed the disturbing image of Laura as the mother of someone else's child out of his mind. The next stop was a rather large, impressive-looking house. When Laura pulled her car into the garage, Harry realized this must be her home. Damn, he thought, much too big a house for her to live in by herself. As he was trying to gather the nerve to go and talk to her, the garage door opened again; Laura came out, put a suitcase in the trunk of her car and pulled back out onto the street.
So the chase was on again, he thought. Well, it never was slow-paced when he was around her, he thought, with a smile. He hoped the chase did not come to an abrupt stop at LAX, as he would lose her there.
Laura then pulled up to a health club; she grabbed her gym bag out of the back of the car and went in.
Harry tried to decide what to do: go in and try and follow her or stay here and wait for her to come out. Knowing Laura, she could be in there awhile. So he followed her in and tracked her down to an Extreme Step Class as the sign on the door read. He then noticed a running track above the classroom; he went up there so that he could watch her. My God, he thought, while watching her work out. He'd never forgotten how beautiful and sexy she was, but the reality of it struck him hard. The sight of her was stirring up feelings in him he'd forgotten he had. He watched for an hour before the class ended.
Laura was grabbing her water bottle and towel when a pair of hands touched her shoulders, and a kiss was cast upon the back of her neck.
Steele of an Affair Part 3
"Kevin, what are you doing here?" asked Laura.
"I came to see if I could talk you out of this decision you've made. You know how I feel; it's not what I want," he said.
"Kevin, we've talked about this," stated Laura. "I am doing the right thing. While I'm gone, you will see that I'm right. We can both use the time apart to think."
"Laura, we can talk this out together."
"No, Kevin, I am all talked out."
"Will you at least let me walk you to your car and see you off?"
"All right, let's go."
Harry was feeling very low as he watched Laura walk out with this bloke. He was not close enough to hear the conversation, but he knew Laura must be close to this man or he would not have gotten away with kissing her neck like that. Laura would have decked the guy right on the spot. Is this her husband? he asked himself. Dear God, please don't let her be married. He watched as this man and Laura walked to her car, chatted a bit and then kissed each other goodbye. It was not a quick peck on the cheek , but it was not a hot, passionate kiss like the ones he and Laura had shared back in the days. Maybe I still have a chance, he thought. Then he said aloud, "She, is so beautiful. H ow could I have walked away from her? I pray I can get a second chance."
As Laura drove up the coast, she knew she had made the right decision to get away from it all for a couple of days. She needed to think about everything. Her career was great; the agency was a big success, and she had more clients than she could handle. On the personal end, something was missing. Kevin was a good man but not the great love she always dreamed of. She needed to stop thinking for the moment; she would have plenty of time for that. She then turned up the music and sang along while driving along.
Harry watched her drive and was impressed with the way she handled the BMW. It seemed a perfect fit for Laura. Her driving used to be more hazardous, he thought, and laughed. She seemed so comfortable and relaxed. He was really enjoying watching her. He hoped that watching would not be all he'd do.
A little while later, she pulled up to a beach house right on the ocean front. She looked as if she didn't have a care in the world, he thought, as he watched her get out of the car and go into the house.
Harry hid himself behind some trees and watched Laura walk along the shoreline. She looked like an angel in the moonlight. He had the strongest urge to go up to her, put his arms around her waist and tilt her chin up to give her a kiss.
After her walk, Laura went back into the house, took off her ring and placed it on the table. She knew that with this decision, she was doing what was best for her. She felt in
her heart and head that it was the correct one, and she felt a big heavy weight being lifted from her. Once in her life, she had known the greatest love of all, but it had slipped away. She vowed to herself right then and there that she would never let that happen again.
Harry kept trying to get up the courage to approach Laura. He kept thinking that someone else would be showing up soon.
The next afternoon as Laura was lying on the beach, she caught a whiff of a familiar scent from the past. She told herself she was losing her mind, and she tried to shrug it off. She was tired from her morning run and started to drift off. Her last thoughts before falling asleep were of him. She felt his lips on hers, and the spark they ignited in her was exciting and familiar. She slowly opened her eyes, not wanting the dream to end, only to look into the gorgeous blue eyes she remembered so well.
A Steele of an Affair Part 4
They stared at each other without a word spoken for what seemed like an eternity. Then they both said "hi" at the same time and laughed together.
"What are you doing here?" Laura asked.
"I must confess I followed you, "he stated.
"That I figured out," said Laura sharply. "I mean here. I thought that after you went into hiding, I would never see you again! It's been ten years!
"Laura, at the time, I thought I was doing what was best for you."
"So you got to decide my life? Why is it that every man in my life thinks he knows what's best for me?
"Laura, I was stuck out of the country for God knew how long! I could not ask you to give up your family, your agency, your life to stay with me! We'd never even told each other we loved one another! Or shared that magical moment together!"
Laura screamed, "You said you would never leave me!"
"I did what I had to do!" he screamed back.
"No, you did what you wanted! You never even gave me a chance to make up my mind!"
"Well, would you have stayed if I had asked you to?"
Laura sputtered, "I… I…"
"See, of course, you would not have; therefore, I made it easy for you."
"You think it was easy on me that way?"
"Well, no, I. …"
"Hell, no it wasn't easy! I had to explain to everyone where the hell Remington Steele was!"
"You see, it was always about the bloody agency! Never about us!"
"Of course, it was about us! I LOVED YOU!"
"No, it was never about us, maybe paper work. … What did you say?"
"I said I loved you!"
"You did? "
"Yes, " Then, in barely a whisper, Laura said, "I still do."
"You do?" With that he walked closer to her and placed his hands on each side of her face: there lips met and they melted into each other's arms in the most heated and passionate kiss they had ever shared. "Laura, I love you, too. God, I have missed you so much."
"I missed you, too."
"I never stopped loving you."
"I never stopped loving you either," replied, Laura.
"I should never have left you," Harry stated. "Do you think you can ever forgive me?"
"I hope so," said Laura, "but we do have a lot to talk about first. A lot has changed since you left."
"Yes, you are right about that," he said.
A Steele of an Affair Part 5
"Let's go into the house and get some lunch and wine; we can talk about everything on the patio," stated Laura.
"You make lunch, Laura? I don't wish to sound ungrateful, but your culinary skills could leave me deathly sick or starving!"
"Ahh, but Mr. Steele, you've been gone for many years now. You have to taste the fruits of my labor before you can tell me what you think of my culinary skills."
"Point taken, Ms. Holt, carry on." Harry watched as Laura prepared a tarragon lobster salad to perfection. "Why Laura, I am impressed. You put this lunch together with a skill I did not know you possessed."
"I possess more skills than even you know about, Mr. Steele. Will you get the wine and glasses and follow me out to the patio?"
"As long as I get to find out about these skills, eh?" he said with a quirk of an eyebrow and a crooked smile.
The first few minutes they ate in silence, just staring at each other. Damn, he still looks so gorgeous, Laura thought, with those blue eyes, dark hair, lean body and smile of his. Ahhhh! That kiss we shared a while ago enflamed all those feelings that are still there. Oh my, are they ever still there!
He watched her eat, making note that she was as beautiful as ever. He couldn't help thinking how that kiss they had just shared had resurrected lingering feelings.
"Laura, I must say this lobster salad is outstanding. You have inspired me to find out what other new skills you possess that I don't know about."
At that comment Laura laughed and said, "Maybe, in time, some of them will be revealed. But enough with the small talk, Mr. Steele, let's get down to the important stuff and start talking and answering each other's questions so that we can see if and where we go from here."
"I very much agree with that, Ms. Holt; I have a lot of important questions to ask you too."
A Steele of an Affair Part 6
"First, how did you get back into the States? Are you legal?" asked Laura.
"Laura, you wound me."
"Just answer the question, Mr. Steele!"
Harry put up his hands and said, "Okay, Laura. Yes, I am in the States legally. It turns out I have a name and a father."
Laura choked on her wine over this piece of information.
"You know how Daniel always called me Harry?"
"Yes," said Laura.
"Well, Laura Holt, meet Harrison Chalmers. Daniel is my father."
Laura was stunned and speechless.
"Daniel finally confessed to me about two years ago; I even have a birth certificate."
Then Laura asked, "How do you feel about it?"
Harry answered her as he laughed, "I was very angry with him at first, especially since he had kept it from me for so many years; I could have really used the information to clear up the INS mess. But, of course, I forgave him. I always wished he was my father. I couldn't forget everything he did for me and all the years we spent together. I didn't want to give that up. I tried to stay mad at him for not telling me, but I soon realized that was his way of keeping me with him. See he only told me this information two years ago. He was afraid of losing me so he held off telling me."
"I suppose, then, I should call you Harry instead of Mr. Steele?" asked Laura.
"Yes. As funny as it may sound, now that I have a name, it means so much to me. Daniel always called me Harry anyway. And you called me Harry before I left, so it just feels right. Daniel is the reason I am here with you today," stated Harry.
"Oh, how so?" asked Laura.
"Well, the other day Daniel called me into his study to show me a rather underdressed, sexy woman, singing in a lilting voice and doing a fan dance on the television."
With that Laura said, "Oh," and turned a very bright shade of red.
"Laura, I must say I was rather stunned, but I could not keep my eyes off you; the Laura Holt I knew would never have done that on television--maybe in a wine cellar, but never on TV."
"The Laura Holt you knew has changed, and that side of her shows up more often now than when you were around. Also, I was on a case!"
"Ah, now why did I not think about that?" Harry asked
.
"But I must admit," said Laura, "I had so much fun doing that. It was a lot of work though."
"Well, Harry said with a crooked half-smile and a raised eyebrow, "I would love to see more of that Laura Holt, eh?"
"Okay, enough about my singing and dancing career," Laura declared. "What have you been doing for the last ten years? Or do I not want to know? Back to the con game with Daniel?"
Harry sat back and said, "I've, been dreaming about your fan dance, … and now I have another dance to fuel my imagination."
"Harry! FOCUS!" exclaimed Laura.
"All right, Ms. Holt, your way it is. I have been working in investments; all perfectly legal, I assure you. Now it's my turn for questions, "Harry said. "Laura, I don't know if I really want to hear the answer to this one, but I must ask it. Laura, uh are you married?"
Laura took a deep breath and sighed before she answered him. "Yes, I am."
A Steele of an Affair Part 7
Harry didn't know what to say. What he'd feared the most had just come true. Laura was married. He fell back into his chair and just stared at her.
Laura's cell phone rang. "Hi Kevin," she said as she opened her phone to answer it. "Yes. It is? Okay, about fifteen minutes ago." As she talked to Kevin, Harry got up and tried to leave. Laura jumped in front of him and gave him a look that told him to sit down. When she hung up, she looked at him and said, "Where did you think you were going?"
"I was just going to give you some privacy to talk to your husband."
"No, you weren't. You were trying to leave! It's just like you to start running away again!"
"I was not running!"
"You were trying to leave!"
"I needed to think!"
"You needed to think? For how long this time? Another ten years?"
"If that's what it took!"
"Then maybe you should just go!"
"I tried; you stopped me!"
"Well, I'm not stopping you now!"
"Then, maybe, I will go!" With that he started to leave. Then he stopped, turned, faced Laura and asked her, "Do you mean it?"
"No, I don't. Please stay."
"Laura, I don't know what to say. You're married. I guess I should not have come here. I don't know what I thought. Well, never mind."
"What you thought? You thought that I would not go on with my life!"
"No, of course, you would go on with your life!"
"You thought that, maybe, I would become a nun? Spend the rest of my years pining away for you? Well, I have news for you, Harry! I did go on with my life. I made a damn good one, too!"
"I was hoping. …"
"Hoping that you could walk back into my life now, and we would just pick up where we left off?"
"I, ahh, …"
"Sorry, I didn't mean that," Laura stated.
"Yes, you did. And you were right," Harry said as he lowered his head. "I came back to make sure you were happy. The first time I saw you again, though, I knew I'd never gotten over you and that I still loved you."
"I still love you, too."
"You're married though, and I will not be the man that breaks up a marriage."
"I might be able to make this better," Laura said.
"How can you make this better? You went on with your life and married Kevin. You most likely have a big house and wonderful kids. Laura, you know I followed you here. What I saw brings about more questions."
"Go on, Harry, ask me anything."
"Anything, eh?"
"Within reason!"
"Of course. First off, I started at the parking garage to the agency building. I never made it upstairs because a certain very attractive PI tore out of there in a BMW Z4. By the way, I commend your selection of transportation. It suits you perfectly. I take it the rabbit died?"
"The rabbit and a bomb went to battle, and sadly enough, the rabbit lost. I so love my new car though. It drives smoothly and handles sharp turns and curves with precision. Enough about my car. The agency is still there, but it's called Laura Holt Investigations now and has been for some years. It's a big success, and I have more clients than I can handle."
"Is Mildred still around? I miss her."
"Yes. Mildred is the best. I don't know if I would have made it through the first year without her after you left. She is a full time PI now and has been for several years. I also hired two other full time PIs, Paul and Fred."
"Fred, as in chauffeur Fred?"
"Yes. He came to me one day and asked if he could start his apprenticeship, and I thought what a great idea. I must say I miss him as a driver, but he really has the gut instincts it takes for this business." Laura didn't want to tell Harry that it was not the same without him there.
"So, Mildred will want my blood when she sees me again, eh?"
"Oh, I don't know about that, but she will let you have it. She's called you a few choice words over the years.
"Okay, onto my next question." Harry swallowed and took a deep breath to brace himself for the answer. "When I was following you, I saw you pick up a young lad from school and drop him off at an older woman's house. Do you have a child?"
Laura sat back in her chair and looked him in the eye and said, "No, Adam is Kevin's child from his first marriage."
Harry was very happy to hear that. Suddenly, his stomach growled very loudly.
Laura laughed and said, "Come on, let's go into the kitchen and get some dinner before we continue this."
So they made their way to the kitchen and together prepared a great dinner. During dinner they laughed and joked and told each other about other things that had happened in the years they had been apart. They became comfortable around each other again, and both thought it felt like old times. After the dishes were all cleaned up, they started to make their way to the family room. Laura lit a fire in the fireplace and then turned to face the firelight with her back to Harry.
"I have something to tell you that you did not let me finish before," Laura said.
"What's that?" asked Harry.
"When I said I might be able to make this better. …"
"Yes?" Harry said
"When Kevin called earlier today, he called to tell me our divorce is final."
"Divorce? Final? What, Harry stammered."
Harry then came up behind Laura and put his arms around her waist and asked her, "Are you okay?"
Laura answered, "Yes. I feel as if a big heavy weight has been lifted from me."
"Were you married a long time?"
"Only a year, but it was doomed from the start."
Harry then moved her long hair away from the back of her neck and began placing gentle kisses there. "Laura, I missed you so much. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?"
Laura then turned around to face him while remaining in his arms and stated, "I don't see how I could not forgive you. You thought what you were doing was best for me; you put your feelings aside. I loved you then and I love you now. I don't ever want to lose you again."
With that they looked deeply into each other's eyes and melted into a deep passionate kiss. The kiss lasted a very long time with the passion growing more intense. When the kiss ended, their lips and hands began exploring different parts of the other's body. There were no words being spoken as they both walked toward the bedroom. Nothing more needed to be said; it was just right. When they reached the bedroom, they looked at each other with passion and desire as they undressed each other and explored the other's body. Each saw the love in the other's eyes. Finally, they shared that magical moment together.