"Do you remember what happened to Matt and Nicole? They're not staying here, I checked. At least, they're not registered under Matt's name or Nicole's."
His words penetrated the last of the fog that surrounded her. "They went on their honeymoon. They left," she squinted with the effort of recall, "to catch this really early flight to some island someplace. They're going to be gone for a week and then they'll be back in D.C."
"In Washington, D.C.? Is that where they live?" Donnie asked.
Angelique attempted to nod again, then put her hands on her temples when that proved too painful. "Yes, they do. Matt is a professor at Gallaudet University, you know that famous college for the deaf and hearing-impaired. Nicole has a studio in Georgetown where she makes jewelry. Really beautiful jewelry," she said. Thinking about her friends made her smile in spite of everything. "They've been my best friends since high school. We were always together, the three of us. Whenever I'd get into trouble in Atlanta, I'd take off for D.C. until the heat was off." She laughed softly. "I don't know what I'd have done without them."
Donnie was drinking coffee while she made this recitation and he tried to listen to her every word but for some reason he kept focusing on how cute she looked in the too-big robe with the towel wrapped around her head. She really was a beauty, sitting in the sunlight without a speck of makeup to disguise her natural prettiness. He should have been more upset about the situation, but was surprisingly relaxed and calm.
"Why are you so calm about this? You don't seem the least bit upset," she accused him. "You're acting like this is just nothing, like it's all a big joke."
What Angelique didn't know was that this was the real Donnie; he was always a cool head in a crisis. One of the reasons he'd been so successful in business was because he was clearheaded, logical and unflappable. His relationship with Angelique may have been out of his control, but when chaos reared its head he was definitely the man to have on your side. Acknowledging her concerns with a nod he set his cup down and reached for her hand across the table.
"I'm sorry, Angel, I don't want you to think that I think this is a joke or something. I guess you don't know me well enough to know how I roll, but this is just the way I handle things," he said with a squeeze of her hand. "But trust me, baby, I'm not trying to treat this like it's nothing. Here's the thing, Angel: we can get this annulled with no problem. We can do it here or we can wait until we get back to Detroit. Nothing to it, we just say never mind, we were just kidding and it's like it never happened. We just go on with our lives and no one will have anything to say about it."
Instead of taking away her concerns, Donnie's words seemed to multiply them. She suddenly couldn't look him in the eye and excused herself. When Donnie came into the bedroom to find her, she was sitting in the middle of the bed looking lost. Alarmed by what he saw, Donnie joined her on the bed, sitting on the side.
"Angel, what is it? You should look relieved, baby; we can make this all go away," he said soothingly.
Angelique didn't answer at first, but then she looked at him with an expression so bleak it wrenched his heart. "I don't know if I can make you understand. If my family knew about this, they'd flip out, all of them. This is like the worst thing I've ever done and for me that's saying something. Nobody in my family has ever screwed up as much as I have and this is just the topper. I got drunk in Las Vegas and got married in some sleazy joint to somebody who can't stand me. That's just disgusting, Adonis, it really is," she said sadly. She was sitting yoga style and suddenly leaned forward and put her elbows on her knees and her face in her hands.
Donnie watched her obvious misery for a moment before swinging his legs up onto the bed and pulling her into his arms. "Don't do that, Angel. It's not like you were in that sleazy joint by yourself, you know; I was there, too. And I was at least as drunk as you were, so I'm no paragon of virtue, either," he said comfortingly.
"Oh, don't be nice to me," Angelique said. "That just makes it worse because you're not like me. You're good, like that perfect family of yours and those perfect brothers of mine. Nobody's going to think any less of you because of this, but they're going to be on me like white on rice. And I can't blame them, honestly I can't. Crazy stuff follows me around, it always has."
By way of answer, he pulled her onto his lap and held her closer. "Angel, nobody's going to find out about this," he told her fiercely. "And if they do, they'd better mind their own business if they know what's good for them. We're adults, we're not children. This is between you and me and nobody else, okay?"
Angelique was so enjoying the novelty of being comforted that she didn't say a word, she just leaned farther into his shoulder and sighed, a soft sound so poignantly sad it wrenched his heart.
"Now what is it, baby? Why do you sound so sad?"
"Because. Because nobody in my family or your family has ever made a mockery of marriage like this; it took me to really screw it up. Marriage is supposed to be sacred and forever and important, it's not supposed to be something that happens because you're too drunk to know what you're doing. I never really thought I'd get married, but now if I do I'll always know that it's not really my first marriage. I don't care what annulment means, this is still my first time getting married and look at what a mess it is. This is so typical of me," she said with a slight hiccup. "You don't even like me." She buried her head in his shoulder, making the turban fall off and her still-damp hair fall forward in disarray.
"That's not true, Angel," Donnie said softly. "Now that you're not biting my head off every two minutes, I like you just fine. And you like me, too. Admit it."
She laughed softly as he cuddled her and demanded that she confess her true feelings. "You think I'm cute and you want me, Angel, you know you do. Say it! Say you're crazy about me!" he said comically.
By now she was giggling at his foolishness and almost forgotten the fix they were in. She sat up straighter and looked him in the eye. Putting one hand on his shoulder and the other on his face, she smiled. "I like you a little bit, I think. You've been very sweet to me and I really appreciate it," she said nicely.
Donnie didn't pay her words any attention; he just kissed her, lightly and sweetly. Then the passion that was always just under the surface began its inexorable rise to the top. He increased the pressure on her lips and they parted to his seeking mouth, the warm sweetness of her tongue driving him into a minor frenzy of desire. The warmth of her body lit a flame in his and he forgot everything except the feel of her lithe body in his arms. Unconfined by clothing other than the terry robe, he could feel her lissome frame and it wasn't enough, it wasn't nearly enough. His big hand started sliding up her bare leg, pushing the fabric aside. A soft sound from her increased the desire; he was burning for her, a hot thirst that only she could quench.
A sudden knock on the door caused Angelique to come back to herself and she leaped off his lap with a look of horror on her face. She backed away from him and dashed into the bathroom without a word leaving him to deal with the knocking. She leaned against the closed door of the bathroom, her heart pounding like a piston. What had she almost done? She'd almost succumbed to the unexpected that's what. Finally, she had enough strength to leave the solidity of the door and sit on the vanity bench by the marble counter. She took deep breaths to slow her heartbeat and eventually it worked. Adonis Cochran had been holding her, kissing her, seducing her wearing only a robe with nothing else on, and she'd loved every second of it. If she were to be honest, she knew that if the knock hadn't sounded at the door, she'd be in that big bed wrapped up in Adonis and not another thing. Her heartbeat had returned to normal and the heat that had consumed her had finally ebbed but she wasn't ready to face Donnie. Maybe I'll just stay in here the rest of my life; he '11 never notice, she thought glumly.
Donnie tapped on the bathroom door, calling her name as he did so. "Angel, baby, come on out of there. Our clothes are here and we can get dressed and leave. I didn't mean for it to go that far," he said sincerely. "I wasn't trying to put the moves on you, but you're so beautiful, I..." He stopped speaking and smiled because Angelique opened the bathroom door a crack and was looking at him with a carefully neutral expression. "Come on out. I won't bite you and we do need to talk, Angel."