An Affair To Remember: The Palace

by tarskeewee08

John sat back sipping his whiskey watching the entrance to the restaurant. He'd been hopeful that she would come and this was his second round to settle his nerves. Lowering his glass he looked up as she appeared.

Wearing a black cocktail dress her shiny raven black hair was hanging silkily down her exposed shoulders and bare back. The dress draped outward from her hips stopping above the knee and flowing in fluid chiffon scarves that breezed around her thighs when she moved. The halter top carved out her flat tummy and lifted her ample bosom roundly upward enhancing her goddess like figure.

The left side of her mane was scooped behind her ear to reveal the diamond tear drop earring that gleamed when the light caught it. She scanned the room and finally seeing him. Her eye makeup dark and smoky gave her wide doe like brown eyes a seductive look under her long lashes. He saw her glossy dark copper lips curl into a sexy knowing smile. Holding her small beaded clutch bag in her hands she stepped down and headed to his table. He smiled at her confident strut and knew his sunshine was all grown up.

Rising when she arrived he stepped around and pulled out her chair. She accepted the seat still finding it had to look him in the eye. John returned to his seat and signaled for the waiter.

"What will the lady have tonight?" he asked when the waiter approached
"Dirty Martini three olives" she said looking over at the waiter who nodded and walked away.

"Dirty Martini eh?"
"Something wrong with my drink choice?"
"Not at all sunshine."

Evangeline looked at him wanting to scream. She wanted to demand he explain himself immediately and cut with all the penetrating stares mixed with sweet words. The waiter returns with her drink and she accepts it. Drinking from the glass her eyes never leave his.

"The present you left today" she said lowering her glass
"What about it?"
"I can't accept it. I put it in my safe and I want you to come to the office tomorrow to collect it."
"It's yours Evangeline, I won't you to have it. I should have given it to you the last night we shared for you to remember me by."

Evangeline glared at him. "What? You are kidding right? I mean what did we share exactly John? A bootie call from a pub that extended over two weeks…I didn't even know your name."

"I was a cad then that much is true, but my name is John Thomas. It's John Thomas McBain. Most of my friends called me John Thomas. You assumed it was a last name."

Evangeline sipped her drink and cut her eyes away from him. "You had no problem with that assumption."

"This is true" he said drinking his whiskey

Sitting up straight she looks up from her drink at him. "Okay out with it. What is this important thing we needed to discuss?"

"You sure are angry with me." He said staring at her
"Why did you leave without a word John?"
"I had a wedding to prepare for."

Evangeline closed her eyes and tried to grasp what just came from his mouth. She knew it would be painful tonight but the words cut into her stealing her breath. "Whose wedding?" she asked slowly
"Mine…"
Opening her eyes they glistened with anger and betrayal "You bastard!"
"I am that. I'm a blimey idiot and a coward. I know that now but then I was so caught in my duty that I was unwilling to fight for what I want."

"You used me?" she asked her voice cracking.
John shook his head sadly and looked at her with love. "I was in Cambridge on a bender, not looking for anything in particular when you breezed in the pub. I thought we'd have some fun but I soon realized you were more than that. You made me want to escape the arranged marriage I faced"

She frowned at him still trying to hold in her tears "Arranged? It was 1991 for Christ sake…"

He smirked and looked down at his whiskey in his glass. Rotating the glass slowly he watched the amber colored liquid swirl around. Bringing the glass to his lips he gulped down the bitter poison and grimaced "I'm a direct descendent of Sir William George McBain, Earl of Munster. My marriage was planned for me at birth."

"So you used me!" she snapped
"I fell in love with you sunshine…"
"Lair!" Evangeline said slamming her hand on the table, causing the table next to her to turn and look at them. She knew that most in here knew she was a Buchanan and this appeared to be a date in their eyes but she didn't care. She wanted this out in the open.

"I was bloody wrong for taking you to bed that night. I felt like a blimey idiot, I did. I had every intention of forgetting you but I couldn't" he says looking up into her eyes. "I couldn't eat, sleep or drink without wanting you sunshine. So against my own better judgment I went after you."

"You robbed me of the right to make an informed decision on whether I should get involved with you. You led me to believe we had a future. All the time you were being a selfish pig and using my feelings for you to warm your bed!" she said stammering over her words do to her own rising agony over his betrayal.

"I know that now, but even as a young lad I never had any hopes of love. Love was not something we McBain's valued or experienced. Women to me were expendable and that's the sad truth. But sunshine you took me by surprise and I didn't know how to handle it" he said leaning across the table and searching her face.

"Sam told me how hard you took it when I left and I wanted to bloody shoot myself in the head for causing you that pain. I told Ming to take care of you and make you forget I ever existed."

"What!" Evangeline shouted "Ming knew this?"
John looked at her. "Yeah, she found out the last day we spent together. Sam was and is head over heels for her…"
"Is?"
"Their married"

Evangeline blinked several times shocked. She lost contact with Ming six months after her return to Princeton, she had no idea she reconnected with Sam. She never mentioned him in her letters.

John saw her surprise and smiled, reaching inside his jacket he pulled out a discolored square shaped envelope and put it on the table. Evangeline looked down to see her handwriting. "I kept this all these years sunshine, I never forgot the warmth and love you brought to my heart."

Slowly she reached across the table to take the envelope. When her hand grasped it he reached and grabbed her wrist. "I couldn't bring you into my world. The cold hard truth is my family wouldn't have allowed it. I let you go for your own good. Actually you were never really mine to have."

Releasing her she pulled the letter back from the table and opened it with shaky hands. She forgot what she wrote to him and tears rolled down her cheeks to read her own painful words.


John,

I don't know what happened in the past two weeks between us. I only know that you made me feel things I didn't know I could feel. I've never met a man like you and I gave my heart and soul to you freely, trusting that you were doing the same. I know that now that was untrue. I was nothing more than an American roll in the hay for you.

Why you chose to use and abuse my trust this way I have no idea. I do know that I didn't deserve the way you treated me. I know that you didn't deserve the love I gave you. I could write and say that I hate you or wish you ill will. But I can't, because the truth is I am just in love with you today as I was that magical night in that castle. I hope you find what you seek from life and that you get everything you deserve.

I choose to remember our times together fondly, and I will carry you with me always.

Your Sunshine
Evangeline

Folding the letter Evangeline put it back in the envelope. "So Ming found you"
"Ming always knew where I was. She was the one that demanded that I let you go."
"I can't believe this..."

"Sam told her that I was contemplating pulling out of the wedding. He explained who and what I was. The day she found out she arrived at the castle livid. Screaming that I used you and threatening to beat me to a bloody pulp. Ming was fiercely protective of you and your happiness. She demanded I tell you that night and let you go. The last night we spent together you lay in my arms glowing with love and adoration for me. I couldn't bring myself to tell you that I deceived you. Instead I held on to you and tried to remember the touch of your skin and scent of your hair. I walked away damn near barmey and feeling like an arse."

"Ming told you to leave me?"

"When we got back to Oxford Ming gave me your letter. She asked that I never contact you unless I was prepared to call off the wedding. Of course I wouldn't and she came to my royal crowning six months later with Sam."

"So you're married?"

John looked down and wished he hand another shot of whiskey. The question picked at a painful truth. "Widowed….my wife Caitlyn died 10 years ago, four years into our marriage, she died in childbirth"

"Childbirth?"

"Unfortunately she and my son are in heaven now."

Evangeline looked at him stunned. All of this was too much to handle at once. Downing the last of her martini she scanned the Palace for the waiter. John watched her silently. She felt her head spinning from drinking on an empty stomach.

"I hope you don't mind but I took the liberty of ordering for you, love." he said as the wait staff brought out their food. She asked the waiter lowering her plate to bring her another martini and he nodded. Looking into her plate she saw the grilled tuna and her stomach burned. Looking up at him she held possessively to her tears refusing to cry over the betrayals heaped upon her 14 years ago.

"I was a joke wasn't I." she choked out. "I mean here I am sleeping with the Earl of Munster and everyone knew it but me. Did you laugh at my girlhood crush? Did you go back to the pub and down a couple of pints trading stories on your conquest with a dumb inexperienced black woman from south Philly? I bet that made for some interesting stories back at your country club hunh."

She glared at him and accepted the drink from the waiter taking large gulps. He shook his head sadly. "Evangeline I never stopped loving you. I've followed your life and happiness through the years. I read of your wedding to Kevin Buchanan 10 years ago, right around the time my wife and child died. I wanted to come to you, to beg your pardon. I desperately wanted to seek solace in your arms. Alas it wasn't to be so I watched from a far praying you found the happiness that eluded me."

She looked at him amused "So Ming went to your wedding.."
"Ming is a professor at Oxford and she's married to Sam. They have two kids. She wants to see you"
"What?"
"She knows I was coming for you. She knows I never got over you"
"Coming for me…..are you mad? I'm a married woman!" she hissed waiving her 3 ct diamond in his face.

He sat back smiling confidently "Unhappily married"
"Go to hell!"
"I did my homework Evangeline, I know that you haven't been happy in a long time"
"You don't know shit!" she growled through her teeth. She was embarrassed at her crass remark but the martini had loosened her lips and her emotions were going crazy.

"I know that you've changed. You've hardened and become jaded. I also see a profound sadness in you that rips at my heart, love." He says wanting to reach for her.

He sees her glare darken her brown eyes into black coals blazing with anger and distrust "I know that you didn't do what you said you would do in that letter, you closed your heart to happiness and settled just as I did. We barely knew each other then so I get you not recognizing me at first. But we felt each other and that experience changed us both love. I bloody well have never been the same."

Evangeline stared in his face not sure what to say, finally opening her mouth she was surprised at what came out "I love my husband"

He smiled slyly "But are you in love with him?"
"Doesn't matter I won't betray him!"
"As he betrayed you?"
She blinked in surprised indignation that he delved into her personal information. Feeling overwhelmed and trapped by his penetrating stare she grabbed her clutch bag and rose. "I need some air." Rushing to the patio she nearly collided with a waiter in her haste.

Rex Balsom sat at the bar watching the exchange between Evangeline and the strange man. He'd been following her for two months and she never even drove over the speed limit. He thought her husband was paranoid. But now he knew different.

She walked in here like some temptress and though he was across the room he witnessed the exchange between those two as it added electricity to the air. Watching her down her drinks he observed her body language. This was personal for her which spelt bad news for his client.

The man gave her an envelope and she read the letter and yelled at him. Rex decided to move in closer to get a better advantage but just then she jumped up and fled to the patio. Soon after the man left the table and went after her. Drinking his beer he smiled. He lived for this shit, finally he got to have some fun…Putting down his drink he threw some bills on the counter and grabbed his camera. He headed for the side exit so that he could get pictures from hedges surrounding the balcony. These pictures should fetch him a handsome bonus.

Evangeline stood on the patio wheezing. The wind caught her hair and blew it away from her face wiping at the old and new tears streaked across it. She knew he was on the patio with her before he said a word. Folding her arms and hugging herself she looked up in the sky that sparkled with a million stars glowing like diamonds. She was reminded of the view from his balcony in the castle and how magical it was.

John stepped close enough to smell the fragrance of her shampoo. She was so different now. Gone was that sweet trusting innocence that turned his playboy heart into her captive slave. Now she's cold and bitter. It killed him to acknowledge that he was the one that robbed her of her hope and faith in love.

"I'm so sorry for hurting you sunshine."

"Why did you come back here?" she said weakly "You don't honestly think that after all of these years I would come back to you. I mean you yourself said I wouldn't fit into your world."

She felt his hands touch her shoulder and slide down her arm. "I make my own world now. No one decides my happiness but me."

"Well good for you" she said sarcastically.

"Evangeline, I've dreamt of this moment for so long. I know you don't trust me but I bloody well wish you would start by forgiving me."

Turning around she looked at him. He was standing over her with love and desire in his eyes. Slapping him across the face hard his hair fell into it and he moved his hand to his jaw dealing with the blow that he somewhat expected. Grabbing her he forced a kiss on her that she fought initially but when his tongue rolled into her mouth she melted. Wrapping her arms slowly around him she felt him lift her and pull her close.

She hadn't felt a kiss like this since she lost him. She didn't even know that this type of passion in a kiss still existed. He ran his hands across her hips and behind as she moaned longing for more. Kissing him deeply it felt as if they were the only two people in the world. Why didn't she know that this was what she was missing? How could she have been so blind to the truth?

His tongue left her mouth and he began to kiss and suck at her neck as she tilted her head moaning his name. Suddenly realizing she was in a public place she opened her eyes to see Blair and Todd Manning walk onto the veranda. Pushing from his embrace, she blushed as they looked at her shocked and turned heading in the opposite direction.

John stood before her breathing hard his blue eyes gleaming revealing his lustful thoughts.

"I can't do this with you!" she said touching her lips. John stared at her and said nothing. "I can't just throw away my life because you decide after all these years that you want me! You don't get to come here and turn my world upside down. Damn you and Ming for playing with my heart!" she snapped running off the balcony.

John tries to stop her but she escapes his grasp. Looking up he sees the couple at the other end staring at him curiously. Blowing out a frustrated breath he nodded politely to them and ran his hand through his hair. This was going all wrong. He shouldn't have pushed her so fast. Leaning against the stone railing on the balcony he shook his head. This would be harder than he thought. Nonetheless he was determined to take her back with him and her fear of being hurt again would not stop him.

Rex lowered the camera and smiled. "Damn Kevin you were right after all, your wife definitely has divided affections."

He was proud of the shots he got on the balcony they would fetch a pretty penny. Hell he could make even more money if he sold them to the banner. Deciding to find out who the man was she was with first he stuck the camera in his bag. If he was someone of extreme importance then he may use this information for other purposes. Chuckling he walked deeper into the forested bush proud of his accomplishment.

Llanfair

Kevin rolled over feeling Evangeline slide into bed with him. He opened his eyes sleepily to see her staring at him. Before he could ask if she was okay she kissed him hungrily. He pulled her to him and started to kiss her back. Within moments she was straddling him make desperate demanding love to him. He couldn't believe her aggressiveness and wondered what drove her back into his arms. Whatever it was he took full advantage and made love to his wife relishing every second of feeling her again.

When they were done she lay underneath him and he listened to her cry softly to herself. He promised that he wouldn't push her but he was growing increasingly alarmed for them. He would call Rex Balsom first thing in the morning to find out what was going on with his Vangie. Pulling her closer to him he stroked her until she fell into a fitful sleep. He loved her still.