Swept Away: Resolution Part 12

"When we had our one-night stand." I adjusted my clutch in my hands and then continued. "Oops, I guess two-night stand. Is that even possible? Can one have a two-night stand?"

"What?" His voice was loud, and I couldn't stop myself from laughing heartily. My laughter only increased as Jakob did a slow burn.

"I'm joking, goofy." I touched his jacket lapel lightly, and I could feel his heart racing. "I haven't slept with Blake, and I've never seen him naked. Stop acting like a jealous boyfriend."

"So you haven't slept with him?"

"You know that!" I exclaimed. "I told you that when you first met him. You know he's just my friend."

"Hmm," Jakob responded.

"What is your problem, Jakob?" I sighed, no longer laughing. "We don't have time for this right now."

"No problem." He sighed and grabbed my arm. "Let's go in now. It's time to get this party started."

"My stomach is rumbling," I said lightly. "I'm so nervous."

"I know a way to stop the nerves."

"Oh?" I looked over at him, wondering if he had some sort of pill to give me. "What's that?"

"s.e.x."

"Jakob!" I hissed at him. "Not that again. I'm not about to f.u.c.k you at a masquerade ball. Especially not tonight."

"What if I told you that I've been dreaming for over a year about pushing you up against a wall, sliding that dress up and entering you swiftly?"

"Huh?" I said, confused.

"I know you attended the last Bradley Ball." He leaned toward me. "And I wanted you badly then as well. In fact, I even had a dream after that night that you and I were-"

"Okay, I get it." I blushed and cut him off as another couple pa.s.sed us. "You never told me that before."

"I didn't think it was important until now."

"And it's important now, why?" I gave him a side glance.

"Because tonight it might happen."

"Jakob!"

"What?" He laughed. "I'm still a man, and you're my woman."

"Tonight is not the time to be thinking about kinky s.e.x."

"I disagree."

"You think tonight is the night to be thinking about kinky s.e.x?"

"No, that's not what I disagree with. I disagree with your characterization of kinky s.e.x. s.e.x at a ball isn't what I cla.s.sify as kinky." He paused. "That is unless you want to tie me to something again."

"Jakob!"

"What? Did you bring some handcuffs?" he whispered, and laughed.

"Focus, Jakob. We're nearly inside."

"Whatever you do, don't let them separate us. And keep your cell phone on." Jakob frowned as he glanced at the high slit in my dress. "You look s.e.xy as h.e.l.l, by the way." He growled. "Way too s.e.xy."

"Shouldn't that be a good thing?" I asked with a smile as I reapplied my deep red lipstick.

"Not in this case. Not when you know how h.o.r.n.y I am." He shook his head and grabbed my hand, and we made our way into the main ballroom, where the ball was being held.

The room was dark and packed when we arrived. I watched some of the couples on the dance floor gliding across the room like swans, sensuous and graceful. The mood seemed light and cheery, and I could hear people laughing while exchanging flirtatious smiles and surrept.i.tious fondlings. A few couples kissed pa.s.sionately in the corners of the room, and I stared, mesmerized, at one man who was publicly groping his date's b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"How are you feeling?" Jakob asked me lightly as he took my hand.

"Overwhelmed," I said honestly. "I feel like we're in an action movie like True Lies. I'm Jamie Lee Curtis, and you're Arnold Schwarzenegger."

"I'll be back," Jakob said in a deep Austrian accent, and I laughed.

"Be serious, Jakob," I said, and chastised him. Now was not the time for us to be goofing off. "Can you see Blake?" I asked him softly as we both looked around.

"I don't know," he said. "Can you text him and see if he's here? I don't know who anyone is right now. It's so dark in here, and the masks aren't helping."

"I don't understand masquerade b.a.l.l.s," I said as I tried to make out Rosie and David. "What's exciting about wearing a disguise?"

"You tell me." He shrugged. "You're the history buff."

"I don't know about masked b.a.l.l.s." I shook my head as we walked around the perimeter of the room.

"I think masked b.a.l.l.s were started by men who liked kinky s.e.x and didn't want anyone to know," Jakob said as he pulled me toward him. "It's the only thing that makes sense."

"There's a man staring at us," I said softly into his ear as I felt someone staring me down. "Across the room to the right of us. He's wearing a bright red mask." I shivered as I looked at him. "He reminds me of the devil."

"So maybe my father is alive after all," Jakob joked, but neither one of us laughed. He looked toward the right, but the man had already disappeared.

"It might have been Steve or David," I said softly, but I wasn't convinced. The man's stare had been intent, and his body stocky. Much stockier than Steve's and David's. "Do you think we were stupid to come here?" I said, suddenly feeling really afraid. What had I been thinking? I felt like a sheep in the lion's den.

"What other option did we have?" Jakob said, his voice serious for the first time that evening. "Right now, Steve and Rosie are holding all the cards. But we know some of those cards, and we have a contingency plan if they try to cheat."

"What contingency plan?"

"We have Blake."

"What's Blake going to do?" I mumbled as I looked around the room. Blake had no strength. If this was a setup, we were dead.

"Bianca, listen to me. We're going to be okay. I promise. I'm not going to let anything happen to you." His eyes bored into mine. "I have five men in here with us."

"What?" I looked at him in shock. "What five men?"

"Don't worry about it, but I've got us covered."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Sometimes the less you know, the easier it is."

"You can't keep things from me!"

"Important things," Jakob said casually as he looked around. "I won't keep important things from you, but this wasn't something you needed to know. The fewer people who know, the better for us."

"Fine," I said as we made our way around the room. "What should we do?"

"We need to dance." He grabbed my hand. "And wait. I'm sure Rosie and Steve will make themselves known to us."

"And then we meet your dad or whoever."

"Yeah." He nodded. "If he's behind all of this, I just don't know what I'll do."

I just nodded and allowed Jakob to guide me to the dance floor. After a few minutes of us moving silently to the music, I asked him, "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that dancing with you here is even more magical than I thought it would be," he whispered in my ear as he tightened his grip on my waist. His thighs pressed against mine as we glided across the room, and I held on to his shoulder, trying to concentrate on my steps. Jakob was a smooth dancer, and I could see that the movements came effortlessly to him. I needed to work a little harder, as I didn't have natural rhythm.

"I didn't know you were such a romantic," I said eventually, willing myself to relax, but my eyes were on high alert as we danced. I hadn't seen the man with the red mask again, and I wasn't sure who anyone else was, as everyone was in costume.

"I never used to be," he said as his right hand moved up and down my back. "I suspect that you're the one who brought it out in me."

"Like Jeremiah brought it out in your mom?" I said softly.

"I guess so." He nodded, his voice sad. "I just don't get it. By all accounts, Jeremiah was a horrible man. I mean, what did my mother see in him? Why would she love a man like that?"

"It's like you said before, the heart doesn't choose who to fall in love with."

"But still, some of the things my mom has told me don't add up." He stopped suddenly, and I stumbled to the side. I gasped as I was about to hit the ground, but he scooped me up in time.

"Sorry," he said as he held me to him. "I just remembered something."

"I hope it was something good." I pouted at him. "I nearly fell."

"It's a poem my mom wrote."

"And?" I looked up at him. "I love your mom's poems, but was it important enough to stop in the middle of the dance floor?"

"Come with me." He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the corner of the room, away from any of the groups that were starting to a.s.semble.

"What's going on?" I frowned.

"So this poem-I never thought about it before. It didn't touch me like some of the others. But I think it might be the most helpful."

"Okay? How? Please enlighten me," I said, frustrated. "What are you talking about, Jakob?"

"Listen to this," he said, and he closed his eyes. I stood there waiting for him to continue, but he was silent.

"Um, what am I listening to?" I asked, annoyed. "The sound of silence? Is that the clue? Was your mom into Simon and Garfunkel?"

"Bianca." Jakob laughed. "I'm trying to remember the lines."

"Oh, sorry."

"The poem has nothing to do with Simon and Garfunkel."

"I'm listening," I said. "And hopefully, not to the sounds of silence," I joked. Jakob just smiled and cleared his throat.

"'This man, this man of mine, is not mine. This man, this man of mine, is generous and kind. This man, this man I love, is all I could ever ask for. This man, this charming man, is wise and thoughtful. This man, this best friend of mine, is never going to be mine. This man, this man, this man, this charming man. This man of mine. This man that is not mine. This man was never mine. This is the man that I love.'"

"Wow, sad," I said as I felt tears welling up in my eyes, and my heart grew heavy. How sad it must have been for Jakob's mother to have been in love with someone that didn't love her.

"Did anything stick out to you?" Jakob asked me, and I thought for a moment.

"Um, that the man wasn't hers?"

"Aside from that, Bianca. Think."

"I don't know," I snapped. "What stuck out to you?"

"The word charming. It appears twice," he said, his tone excited. "It's as if charming was synonymous with the man she was talking about. The man she was in love with. Remember what the note from the island said?"

"Beauty and Charm. One survives and one is destroyed." My face paled. I could feel every beat of my heart pounding through my chest as we stood there. "So what are you saying?"

"Just think about it for a few seconds. My mom was in love with a charming man. And the note says that he was with a beauty." He touched my face and rubbed my cheek gently as his eyes surveyed me. "And I can confirm that if you look anything like your mother, she must have been really beautiful."

"So you think your mom was having an affair with my dad?"

"Yes, no, well, I don't know exactly. I think it's a possibility." He reached down and gripped my hands. "What I do think is that my mom wasn't talking about Jeremiah. He isn't known by anyone to be charming. The only person at this point who makes sense is your dad. I think that she was in love with him. And that had to be for a reason." His eyes gazed into mine searchingly, and I knew he was wondering how I felt inside. He was most probably wondering if I was going to have some sort of nervous breakdown. "I just think that maybe both of our parents had secrets we knew nothing about."

"And you think this confirms that my mom was having an affair with Jeremiah by default or something?"

"No." He shook his head. "I don't really know all the facts, but I think it confirms a lot more than anything to do with affairs."

"Oh?"

"It means that your dad was the man she always loved. Your dad was the one that got away. He was the one, not Jeremiah. It makes sense, if you think about it. The poems describe a man who's kind, sweet, charming, her friend. That didn't make sense in relation to Jeremiah, but it would make sense for your father."

"Your mom loved my dad?" I frowned. "My dad was the one who broke her heart?" I said guiltily, and looked up at Jakob with a worried expression. Was he going to hate me again? This wasn't the island, where we'd been strangers-if he blamed me now, my heart would break.

"I think so." He nodded. "He's the one she wishes she could have been with. When I was younger, she told me that outside forces kept her from being with the man that she loved. She blamed it on him wanting to marry someone better than her. I always a.s.sumed she meant someone richer because I a.s.sumed she was talking about Macy Vanderbilt, but what if she just meant your mom? That would explain her vehemence toward your family. Why she always seemed to hate your mom so much."

"She was jealous," I said, and sighed. "I'm sorry, I had no idea."