Chapter 12
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES" Nicole exclaimed excitedly from on her knees facing the couch as she studied the small pile of brilliantly sparkling diamonds in the palm of her hand. She had managed to find five of them just like that, laying right there in plain view after she'd removed the seat cushions for inspection. Now if only finding the next three before Daniel returned home could be as simple so she could finally get Xander off her back. She was just about to slide her hand into one of the crevices to explore when she heard the familiar sound of the elevator door sliding open from the hallway outside the apartment, leaving her no other choice than to abort her mission for now. She grabbed the cushions and scrambled to return them to their correct positions, then began crawling on her knees to her purse which she'd sat down on the accent table just next to the front door when she'd arrived earlier so she could stash the diamonds in there for safe keeping. When she heard the shuffling of feet right outside the door, she made a marked effort to pick up the pace which only caused her to lose her balance and go crashing down to the floor. Her arms had automatically swung out in front of her in effort to brace herself for landing, but by the time they got where they needed to be it was too late, causing her to fall flat on her chest. The impact resulted in her hand releasing the the diamonds, sending them flying into the air briefly before landing on the carpet about a foot ahead of her.
That's it. I'm toast, she warned herself as she heard the rustling of the door knob. How in the world was she going to explain this one to Daniel. She made one final attempt to lunge toward the diamonds but it was already too late. Daniel had already swung the door wide open and there was no escaping her predicament now. At least she had assumed it was Daniel.
"Well if this isn't a sight. What if I had been Daniel, hmmm? How on earth would you explain this to him?"
"Xander? What the hell are you doing here," she hissed at her unexpected visitor as she attempted to push herself back to her knees. "Where's Daniel?"
"I don't know," he proclaimed innocently as he slipped an arm around her waist to aid her to her desired position. Well, it was a true statement. He might have some knowledge about WHAT was happening to Daniel as they spoke, but he didn't know for sure WHERE it was taking place.
"What do you mean, 'you don't know," she growled angrily at him as she attempted to remove the arm around her waist that had been lingering far too long for her liking after offering it's assistance. "And why the hell aren't you at the Inn? What the hell are you up to, Xander?"
"Well, it came to my attention that my new employee needs a little extra supervision when I happened to catch her lying around on her back while on the job. I'm here to make sure that she follows her instructions from here on out."
"What the hell did you do to Daniel," she said, staring up at him from her knees with a worrisome look in her eyes.
"I see that you found five," he said, deliberately avoiding her question as he squatted down to scoop up the recovered jewels which he swiftly tucked away into the inner pocket of his jacket. "Only three more to go."
The next thing he knew, his back was hitting the floor and Nicole was sitting on on top of him with her legs straddling him at the waist. Her hands were at his shoulders and she leaned into them, channeling all the strength she had to keep him pinned to the floor in this position.
"You are going to tell me exactly what you did to Daniel," she screamed angrily as she dug her nails into his shoulders for added emphasis although it proved to have little effectiveness due to the multiple layers of clothing he wore.
"Oh, come on love, relax. Daniel is going to be fine," he said chuckling jovially. His amusement over the situation only infuriated her more.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?" Her hands had left his shoulders and were now going straight for his neck.
His hands, which were left quite free, grabbed her at the wrists and managed to tame them to her sides using very little force. This prompted her to begin jabbing her knees into his sides in effort to inflict some kind of pain on him.
"You know, you're really turning me on right now," he cooed to her seductively. "I really wasn't expecting this from you until at least our third date."
"WHERE IS DANIEL!"
He had been enjoying getting a rise out of her but her furious scream proved to be a bit too much, prompting him to make a move. Putting his hands to her waist while he shifted his weight, he was able to effortlessly roll over on top of her where he immediately covered her mouth with his hand.
Although the gesture was an act of urgency and desperation which usually called for unbridled force, Nicole couldn't help but notice there was a gentleness in the way he handled her. God knows with the size of those arms of his, he was certainly capable of causing her some severe discomfort while attempting to control her, but not once did he ever inflict even the slightest degree of pain on her.
"Shhhh," he breathed into her ear, his lips lingering there indefinitely after issuing her the subtle warning and as he continued to explain. "There is no need to get all excited. I assure you Daniel is going to be fine. I simply made some arrangements to get him out of our hair until the diamonds are found." He removed his hand from her mouth without feeling the need to give her instruction. Besides, he wasn't about to free her from her current position of being pinned beneath him so if she started to scream again, quieting her would be an easy fix.
"What did you do to him, Xander" she asked again, her chest heaving rapidly from her racing heart which was surely a side effect of her concern for Daniel's safety. Or maybe it's because you enjoy the way Xander man-handles you just a little bit. Oh, shut up you!
"I didn't do anything except make the call to have him roughed up a little bit. Nothing serious, of course. Uncle Victor would have my head if he knew I hurt his precious little godson."
"You are such a son of a bitch!"
"I suppose I am in my own way" he replied agreeably, cocking his head to the side as he pondered her accusation. "But so is he, made clear by the way he is with you. I would never treat you the way Daniel does."
"Oh, you got that right. Daniel would never keep me tied up for the night, or threaten the life of a little girl I love so that he could keep me in line and force me to do his bidding!"
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, love. You won't listen to reason willingly so you've left me with no other option but to use whatever means necessary to get you out of this hell you've been living in. I'm trying to get you to see the truth."
"The truth? The truth about what exactly," she said defiantly as she made her first attempt to wiggle out from beneath him but, with his full weight resting horizontally on top of her quivering body, there was no escaping for her unless he decided he was ready to let her go which she soon enough discovered he was not.
"That you're not in love with Daniel," he answered with all the confidence of a world renowned expert on the subject of her feelings.
"No, I am in love with Daniel for your information," she rebutted with the typical over-exaggeration of a bad liar.
"Oh, I believe you think you are. You certainly want to be, because settling down with a man like Daniel means you've changed your wicked ways. You blame no one but yourself for every shitty thing that's happened to you in life and you think that by redeeming yourself, good things will finally come to you. If you can get Daniel to love you then your transformation can be declared a success because, after all, Daniel is the poster child for all that is good and wholesome in the world and the authority on right and wrong. Problem is though, you haven't really changed at all. The only thing that has changed is how Daniel perceives you because you're bending over backwards to become the woman he wants you to be. It's a truly fucked up situation because everybody in this town worships Daniel, and you have no one around who is team Nicole to be your voice of reason."
"And if there was, what would this voice of reason say?"
"That you are absolutely perfect just the way you are and anyone who can't see that isn't worth a minute more of your time."
Come on, Nicole. Say something, anything, and stop staring into Xander's demon eyes for the love of God! But the look in his eyes couldn't have been further from demonic. It was every bit as warm, inviting, and seductive as the gentle whispering of his voice in her ear. "How can you say that? Daniel is a wonderful person."
"Yeah, so he keeps reminding everyone. He especially likes to do that with you, doesn't he? He just loves putting you down and pointing out your flaws because it makes him feel so much higher up on that pedestal of his. Bastard deserves everything he's about to get tonight. I'm only sorry I couldn't be the one to do it."
She began to shake her head from side to side. His face was so close she nearly inadvertently brushed his lips with hers when her head turned in his direction. "This isn't even about Daniel, is it? You're doing this because-"
His lips were on hers in an instant, partly because he sought to stop her from making what would probably be a dead-accurate assumption about his true intentions for her, but mostly because he could no longer fight his overwhelming desire to show her how he felt in the best way that he knew how. To his delight, she not only didn't make even the slightest attempt to resist, she used every one of her limbs to bring him closer to her by entangling them with his. She kissed him back with feverish desire, and if he dared to pull away for even a fraction of a second, her lips went on a desperate search for his until they were reunited once more. Her willingness to accept his affections allowed his hands to finally begin to explore other regions of her body that he'd declared off-limits until he received the green light signaling it was safe to proceed and as one hand began massaging one of her breasts, the other gently cradled her face as he continued to kiss her relentlessly.
She began to reciprocate moving to this next level by slipping her hand underneath his jacket in attempt to initiate the peeling away of the layers of his clothing. When he caught wind of what her quest was, he pushed himself to his knees, taking on the position she'd had him in earlier, sitting on top of her with his legs straddling her at the waist. He only intended to remain in this position long enough to perform the task of removing his jacket for her, but when she raised herself up to reach for him, he removed himself from her body to allow her to move freely, wherever and however she wished.
She was on her knees as well now, and as he just about had his arms freed from the sleeves of his jacket, she went to work on unbuttoning his shirt as she resumed their briefly interrupted kiss. After the third button or so, she lost her patience trying to navigate the tiny buttons back through their holes with her trembling fingers, prompting her to complete the tedious task of removing his shirt by ripping it off instead. She could tell her display of passion excited him which automatically escalated her enjoyment of the act as well.
As much as her lips longed to remain forever trapped in their embrace, she couldn't resist the opportunity to back away and admire the now completely unveiled, perfect chiseled body she knew had been hiding beneath all those expensive suits all the while. She stared deeply into his eyes as her hands began their examination of his biceps, lightly squeezing each one to evaluate their firmness.
There was so much he wanted to say but he didn't dare speak for fear of saying the wrong thing which could potentially put an untimely end to this most welcome, unanticipated encounter in an instant. He would have been happy with just the kiss he thought he might be able to get away with tonight. He never would have imagined in a million years that she would be ready to go all the way so soon, but there she was kneeling before him with eyes begging for him to take her. He gripped her gently at the wrists, then rose to his feet, pulling her up right along with him. Keeping her sprained ankle in mind, he immediately swept her off her feet into his arms, and kept his eyes fixated on hers as he carried her off to Daniel's bedroom.
He lowered her to the edge of the bed and immediately sat beside her and waited to receive some sort of signal that she hadn't changed her mind somewhere between there and the living room. When her arms began to reach around her back with the obvious intent of unzipping her dress, he seized her at her wrists and returned her arms to her sides as he began to kiss the back of her neck. Slowly, after releasing one of her hands from the position he demonstrated they were to remain, he began to unzip her form-fitting blue dress, sending his lips on a journey down her spine to explore this new found territory. When the zipper reached the end of it's track, he placed both hands at her shoulders and began to peel the dress away from her body, sending the loose fabric falling to her sides at the waist. He stole a moment to peer over her shoulder and observe the look of her breasts in the lacy, black bra before his lips found their way back to her neck and his fingers worked at unfastening the two tiny hooks holding the undergarment together. Once it had been removed, she fell to her back and beckoned him to fall on top of her using only her eyes to communicate her wish.
His lips immediately found their way to her bare chest, causing her to begin panting and moaning from the sheer ecstasy brought on by the feeling of his warm tongue on one of her most intimate body parts. Although he was already prepared to satisfy her every need, her verbal display of satisfaction heightened his arousal, prompting him to begin sliding off his pants to leave adequate room for expansion. Eager to follow suit, Nicole began to push down the bottom half of her dress, then allowed Xander to take over when he willingly offered to finish the job.
With the pair of them down to a single item of clothing still covering their lower halves, he fell back on top of her and returned his lips to her mouth and one hand to her breast while his free hand ventured toward the only remaining uncharted territory of her body.
And then the telephone rang, causing everything to come to a screeching, irreversible halt.
