* Amelia *

I had no choice but to listen to Willem as he talked. He never spoke in a rush and his deep accented voice got to me every time.

At least that's what I told myself as I allowed myself to drown in his words. . . and in his wolfish grey eyes.

The man was irresistible and I was drawn to him like white on rice. It disturbed me that I couldn't pull away.

His very presence demanded my attention. I sensed a quiet authoritativeness in him and I was both delighted and troubled by it.

"My mother left us a couple of letters, " I told him. "I haven't opened them yet."

"Any idea what they're about?"

"Not really. She meant for us to open them on our first and fifth wedding anniversary." I looked down at my left hand where my wedding ring was desperately trying to make a statement.

Willem followed my gaze and his eyes rested for a long while on my hand before he spoke. "Marry me for real, Amelia, and then one day, a year from now, we could make opening the letters a realization."

My head snapped up and my eyes narrowed at the words coming out of his mouth. "We are married for real and I've decided I no longer want to be."

"Your mother always believed in this relationship — in me. She trusted me to take care of you and I won't let her down. We owe it to her to at least try."

"That's not fair. Don't bring my mother into this."

"It's not about fairness." He plated a slice of red velvet cake and handed it to me. "Francois makes the best cakes. Actually, I don't think Francois knows what bad cooking is."

"You're lucky to have him," I said, cutting a small piece of cake with my dessert spoon.

He took a bite of the cake. Chewing slowly, he closed his eyes and smiled. And just like that, his face changed. Softened. I wanted to see more of that side of him.

"He's expensive, but he's worth every penny." He opened his eyes and they appeared nearly translucent in the sunlight. "Aren't you the least bit curious about where this might lead?"

"Curiosity killed the cat," I said, falling back on a phrase my mother used to say a lot.

"No, he didn't. He seduced her. That's all."

I laughed. "I know where this leads. I'm just another notch on your bedpost and soon enough this excitement will wear off and you'll go back to ignoring me like I never existed."

"You don't let go easily, do you? Do you know the arrangement I made with your father all those years ago? Why he let me marry you?"

I paused, the spoon suspended in midair on its way to my mouth. "What arrangement? My parents told me that your father wouldn't pass the business over to you unless you were married."

"That's partly true. After my brother died of cancer, my father wanted me to take over the company. Two months into the job, some partners managed to embezzle about 5 million dollars right under my nose."

"That's a lot of money."

"It is. I had to come up with a plan and your father, he had those restaurants, but they weren't doing well."

My ears perked up at his words and I dropped the spoon back on the plate. "So, you bought them and then expanded. I'm certain two restaurants alone wouldn't come up with all that money in time."

"Correct. I built fourteen more restaurants all over the Caribbean just like the ones your father had. They all have the same name and we kept most of your father's recipes. The restaurant business can be profitable if you market right and make sure that the food is always on point."

"Where does our marriage come into this?"

"My brother was married to Tessa, the woman I left with the other day. My father wanted to merge our business with her family's business. And in order for the merge to happen, her family wanted me to marry her. My father agreed."

"But you didn't?"

"My father and I don't always see eye to eye. We have a strained relationship. He dictated everything about my life and I refused to let him choose my wife."

"So you chose me? A gullible seventeen-year-old with her head in the clouds." I had to laugh at the situation. My seventeen-year-old self had been eager to fall in love and just as eager to live out the rest of her days with a stranger.

"My professed marriage to Tessa came up during conversation and your mother made me an offer. Your father was in debt, almost half a million, and your mother was scared for your future. And I wanted to prove a point to my father. That merger wasn't happening, not if it meant I had to marry my dead brother's widow."

I bit my lip and stared out at the ocean, lost in blue thoughts. "I didn't know any of this. My father never told me that he sold the restaurants or that we were having money problems. Medical school was ridiculously expensive. How did I miss all of that?"

"Your shares in the restaurants saw you through medical school, and sometimes as children, we tend to believe our parents have everything under control until they tell us otherwise."

"Who bought the shares?"

"I did. They were my gift to you."

"So now I'm indebted to you?"

"You're not. It's all legit and they belong to you only. I can show you the paperwork when we're back on St. Maarten."

"This is so much for me to wrap my head around." I turned away from Willem and wrapped my arms over my tucked knees. My toes came off the blanket and dipped into the sand.

"Your father kept you in the dark to protect you. He didn't think you'd understand. And after your mother passed, he didn't want you to look at him differently."

"It's weird. I always saw my dad as this successful restauranteur. Growing up and all through medical school, I got everything I needed and more. Why didn't he tell me?"

"Don't be too hard on your father. He did what he thought was best for you, and that included keeping you away from me."

I angled my head to stare at Willem, admiring the way his curls fell forward on his forehead. "And, was he right to do so?"

"I think we have a better chance now at making this marriage work. I had a lot of growing up to do back then. I had the responsibility of running a multi billion dollar company at a young age while raising my s—" He stopped midsentence and scratched his head just as a teenage couple scrambled down the beach, the girl screaming at the top of her lungs trying to stay ahead of the chase.

Once the couple was out of earshot, Willem turned his attention back to me. "What was I saying?"

"Responsibilities," I supplied, albeit in a suspicious tone. The way he suddenly stopped talking was just too weird. I had a strong feeling he didn't stop because of those kids.

The screaming, however, had rendered the last part of his words incomprehensible.

"Right," he continued. "I still have responsibilities, but it's different now. I'm a thirty-year-old man who knows what he wants. I'm not giving up on us until we try."

"I like your determination, but I don't know what to say. I came here open minded, wanting to try, but along the way, something changed."

"We're strangers getting to know each other and we can't let those initial encounters determine what the rest of our relationship is going to look like. Just say yes for now. And after one month we'll reevaluate. If you call it quits after that, I won't pursue you."

"Being with you like this scares me," I whispered. "I'm scared of how much you seem to want me."

"Me wanting you like this doesn't make me a bad man. Drop every bad idea you formed about me in the last eleven years. Get to know me. The man I am now."

"What about Tessa?"

"What about her?"

"You need to cut off whatever you have going on with her."

"Tessa is part of the family, so I can't get rid of her for good. But rest assured, there's nothing going on between us now."

"Don't lie to me, Willem. I'm a big believer in woman's intuition. I'm going to find out whatever it is you're keeping from me."

He nodded once. "I will tell you everything in due time."

"Alright, honesty is all I'm asking for right now. Do you know how to swim?"

"Yes."

"Good. I'm going to dip my toes in the water and I need a lifeguard."

"You don't plan on giving me an answer today, do you? I need to know where we stand."

I stood up. "Give me one good reason why I should make things easy for you?"

"Schatje, I never want anything that comes to me easily."

"Good, me neither."

I ran down the beach, the sand warm beneath my feet and Willem followed right on my heels. Shirtless, he was a sight to behold.

The waves broke at my feet and I waded in slowly. Although it was warm outside, the water was still cold.

Next to me, Willem dived in headfirst. It was a while before his head popped back up further in the deep.

His caramel skin glistened with water droplets and I couldn't keep my eyes off of his broad shoulders. Wet, his blondish curls turned a light brown and fell forward on his face.

I turned around in circles, weaving the water through my fingers. Anything to stop me from jumping into his arms like a desperate little girl.

My body was hot with desire — like a cat in heat. Even from this distance, I could feel his gravity, calling me, compelling me closer.

If we weren't meant to be, then why did I feel so unhinged and yet put together whenever I was around him?

He came up behind me, slowly, engulfing me in his shadow. I shivered even when it was thirty degrees outside.

He took a tendril of hair that was hanging by my ear and tucked it away. "Everything about your brain says fascinating, but your body is nothing but pure sex. I cannot help but admire everything about you." His voice rang deliciously low and sexy in my ear.

My eyelids fluttered shut.

This was the moment. The moment I knew he had me in his grasp. The moment I let my guards down because I was tired of resisting.

Right in front of me was everything I ever wanted. A man to call my own – if I let him. Somebody to come home to after my long days at the hospital. A father to my future children.

"One day," he drawled. "I will have you to myself and I'm going to undress you slowly. I'm going to make love to you until the sun comes up and the roosters start to sing."

I turned around in his arms, needing to see his eyes, searching for the truth. "Don't break my heart."

"Is that a yes?"

"Not exactly. I have to think about it some more."

"Take your time. I'm not going anywhere and neither are you. Consider yourself kidnapped for the next twenty or so days. So, no more running away."

"You have a thing with kidnapping?"

"It's only you that I want to kidnap. That's how bad I want you to myself."

He wanted to kiss me. I could see the heat in his eyes and instead of leaning into him, I pulled away, denying myself the pleasure of his lips.

As the sun sank slowly into the ocean, we packed up our picnic basket and headed back to the villa.

We entered through the foyer and as I was admiring the different houseplants, Willem decided to enrich my world view by sharing a few plant anecdotes that he'd picked up from Filo.

I followed him through the living room, another spot where nature and architecture came together so well. Dark brown wood in the all white interior blended perfectly with the plants in the room to create a mini Garden of Eden.

From there on, we cut through to the kitchen to return the basket. A beautiful young woman with Latin features and long dark hair that I hadn't seen before was standing behind the counter.

As soon as we entered and she laid her eyes on Willem, she ran full speed into his arms and rested her head on his chest.

"Thank you so much for letting me come here. This house, the view, ah-may-zing." She released him, jumped, and did a little dance before hugging him again.

He cleared his throat and then carefully peeled her off of him.

"Xiomara, this is my wife, Amelia." He turned to me as he spoke. "Amelia, this is Xiomara, the housekeeper."

Xiomara swung her head to look at me and I had to gawk at the thick black hair tumbling down her back. She wore a cut off t-shirt, revealing small but full breasts, jean shorts that were shorter than short, and blood red high heeled pumps.

I wondered what kind of housekeeping job this was. The girl was more appropriately dressed for how-to-keep-a-man kind of keeping.

Xiomara smacked her lips together without smudging her dark red lipstick. "Wife? You never told me you were married."

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I forgot to mention that I dropped my iPad recently and that I'm now writing this story on my phone.

I apologize in advance for extra mistakes I might have missed. The autocorrect is quite annoying. I know I can turn it off, but I write faster with it turned on.

And please, don't forget to vote and comment if you're liking this story. I hope you're having a wonderful day.