Twelve Days The Beginning

Chapter Twenty-Two

The second that Elise entered the ballroom she could feel Vaughn’s eyes on her, as if he had been watching the door to see if she would return. Closing the door behind her, she looked across at their table and immediately their eyes connected. Reading the question in his, she gave a brief nod and made the rest of the journey across the room, outwardly showing a level of bravery that she was far from feeling.

This ‘going commando’ business was a completely new experience for Elise and she was still trying to get her head around whether or not she liked it. Even though she knew that she was well and truly covered and that there was only one person in the room that knew she was minus her underwear, she still couldn’t help feeling bare and vulnerable.

Aware of a pair of very dark eyes watching her entire journey, she made it back to the table in record time, keen to sit down before she did something stupid like tumble over a non-existent lump in the carpet and allow the majority of the assembled guests to witness her virgin commando moment.

Slipping into her seat, she noted the unmistakable glint in Vaughn’s eye and immediately began to doubt if she had done the right thing. What had seemed reckless and exciting in the solitude of the ladies room a few moments ago now felt slightly crazy and definitely more than a little dangerous.

“You’ve returned then, Miss Grayson – are you feeling ‘refreshed’ after your visit to the ladies room?”

Quickly Elise glanced around the table to see if anyone else had heard his comment and maybe read into the innuendo but they were all far too busy with their own conversations to take any notice of Elise and her lack of underwear.

“It’s a little cooler in here now, don’t you think?” Vaughn said deadpan, and Elise only just resisted the urge to punch him again.

As if sensing her awkwardness and enjoying every minute of it, Vaughn continued to tease her mercilessly until she was on the verge of getting up and walking right back out, retrieving her underwear from the bin on the way!

“Will you just stop it?” she hissed “I can’t believe you asked me to take off my underwear and now you’ve done nothing but tease me about it since. Can’t you see how uncomfortable I feel with all of this?! It’s not as if I make a habit of attending posh dinners without wearing any knickers!”

The instant the words left her mouth a feeling of complete terror hit her as she belatedly realised that they were no longer alone. The waiter was standing at her shoulder ready to deliver their main and he was standing so close to her, that there was no way he had not heard every single word.



Her ultimate shame now complete, she waited until the waiter had placed her food – he somehow managing to keep a commendable poker-face - and then she rose from the table walking as fast as her legs would carry her back out of the ballroom.

Her cheeks were on fire and she pressed the coolness of her palms against them as she headed back towards the ladies room to retrieve her underwear. Why, oh why did she think she could do this? Surely letting a man such as Vaughn dictate to her was exactly the same thing as allowing Dale to run her life? Perhaps what she really needed was time alone - with her knickers on!

A strong arm grabbed her as she was just about to push through the door into the ladies room and pulled her back into the alcove where they had stood just a short while earlier.

She wasn’t surprised to see it was Vaughn – who else would it be? She had known that he was likely to follow her; she had just been hoping to make it to the sanctuary of the restroom before he caught her up.

Angrily she rounded on him, grateful that they at least didn’t have an audience out here.

“You knew he was there, didn’t you?” she demanded, “Why the hell didn’t you stop me, you bastard – I can’t begin to imagine what he thought. No doubt he’ll be telling all his friends and they’ll be having a right laugh at my expense. You can’t possibly understand how humiliated I am. This is just perfect – just PERFECT!” she almost shouted.

Breathing heavily, she stopped, trying to calm herself down a little. She was already embarrassed enough, there was no point in making another scene. The foyer was quiet but she knew that anyone could walk by at any moment and she really didn’t want to be remembered at this conference for all the wrong reasons.

Vaughn was watching her impassively, his expression giving little away; the only hint of a reaction his infuriating half smile, which tugged at his far too kissable lips.

“Have you quite finished?” he asked, referring to her rant.

“Hmph...” she said childishly and turned her head to the side, away from his all-seeing gaze.

Gently, Vaughn turned her head back around to face him and waited patiently until she engaged her eyes with his before he continued.

“To answer your question – yes, I did know that he was there but it seemed a shame to stop you when you were in full flow. I didn’t realise that it would upset you so much. I was hoping that if I teased you when you first got back to the table, it would help you to relax but I obviously got it wrong. I am sorry Elise – really I am.” His eyes shone with sincerity, all trace of humour long since gone.

Elise considered the validity of his argument for a moment and realised that in the last few minutes she had been so consumed with being mad at Vaughn that she had totally forgotten about her knicker-less state so maybe, in some twisted way, his logic had sort of worked.



“Maybe it did help a little,” she conceded begrudgingly, “but you’re still not off the hook completely. You have no idea how much I am trusting you tonight, which for me is huge. I need to know that you realise how much this is costing me.”

Vaughn looked down at her, his eyes shining with barely concealed wonder. There was an honesty about his features as he continued to regard her and she started to think how much she had over-reacted and of how childish she had been.

“Elise, please believe me when I say that I realise how difficult everything is for you and that if you have decided to trust me, I am truly honoured. You are a beautiful, independent and determined woman who has coped with a life that no one should have to cope with. To have you here with me now is just beyond unbelievable and I do not want to do anything to jeopardise any chance that we may have. I will never knowingly hurt you – ever. I promise.”

Elise looked up at Vaughn and watched as the words formed from his beautiful mouth. This man was continually laying everything on the line for her and all she ever did was rant and rave at him. For the first time she considered what this situation must be like for him and it made her realise that perhaps she wasn’t the only one a little out of her depth.

“Vaughn, can I ask you something?” she asked, continuing on with her train of thought.

“Yes, anything – you know that.”

“Have you ever had a relationship with a married woman before?”

He looked surprised, as if that was the last question he had expected her to ask.

“No I haven’t.” He answered, and she could see from his expression that he was being totally honest.

“Why then? Why now? Why me? Why not keep away from all of this hassle? Surely this must be costing you too? I guess I just don’t understand why you would want to take all of this on.”

He paused a moment and then spoke, his sexy voice almost caressing as he formed the words.

“I don’t have the answers, Elise. All I know is that since the moment I first laid eyes on you, you have dominated my every waking thought and a good few of my dreams too.” He chuckled lightly, “For me, there is this connection, this need to be with you - almost sometimes more than my next breath. It makes no sense but it is there and I am done with denying it. It’s hard for me to know that you are married, to know that you live with another man, share his life, eat meals with him, watch TV with him, sleep with him.......” he stopped a moment, and ran his hand through his thick dark hair allowing it to flop back down across his face, “But I need you in my life, so much, more than you can possibly realise and so I will take whatever part of you I can get. I can’t begin to tell you how much it kills me to know what your husband does to you but I respect your decision to deal with him however you consider best. All I ask Elise is this – please let us have tonight. One night. Even if it’s only ever one night. Please? I need this.”



Elise reached up and placed a hand on his cheek, amazed to feel dampness there. She dragged her hand further down and rubbed her thumb across his lip, watching as he took it into his mouth and sucked on it, the movement unbelievably erotic.

She knew her answer; she had always known her answer. There had never really been any question. And now this beautiful man deserved to know too.

Taking a deep breath she raised her eyes to his and poured all of her emotions out with just one look and three words.

“Yes, Vaughn,” she said simply, “Yes.”

They stood there for an inordinate amount of time looking at each other, lightly holding hands and occasionally holding each other. The enormity of the situation was sinking in for both of them and they needed to process it in their own way, individually and without words.

Eventually they decided to return to the ballroom – the others would be wondering where they had got to – and for the sake of propriety, Vaughn released her hand as they left the alcove. Still they didn’t speak and just walked along silently; side by side, completely caught up in the moment and this, their undeniable connection to each other.

Although they had only been gone for a few minutes, for Elise it felt like a lifetime. Just like when she had been to the ladies room earlier, another weight had been lifted off her shoulders now that she had finally acknowledged her attraction to Vaughn. She had accepted it. Understood that it was something that needed to be dealt with, addressed, experienced and given air to breathe. Not something to be swept under the carpet in the hope that it would disappear. She had been fooling herself that this wasn’t going to happen. It was always going to happen; from that first e-mail a few short days ago, exactly as Vaughn had said.

As a result she now had to work out how to deal with the rest of her life and she didn’t have the first clue how she was going to do that.

Tonight though, she could forget. Just for this one night – forget.

Everything else could be dealt with tomorrow.



The others had almost finished their meals by the time they returned to the table and after the quiet emotion of their time in the alcove, Elise was immediately hit by the level of noise and frivolity coming from all around. The wine was flowing, the food was wonderful and everyone in the room appeared to be succumbing to the atmosphere. In another time and another place, Elise would have revelled in this but she was still feeling nervous and unsettled from the enormity of what had occurred between her and Vaughn.

Regardless of how right her decision felt and of the undeniable problems that she and Dale had, he was still her husband, she was still a married woman and she was still trying to comprehend that her marriage was finally finished.



Thinking it over she realised that she wasn’t actually sad about that; for her, the marriage had been dead for a long while and she registered now that the little bit of love that she had clung on to had in fact only been sympathy for Dale, and more than a little grief for the loss of something that had once been so precious to her. She didn’t know exactly when the love had died but she knew with absolute certainty that it had.

What scared her now was not the relationship that she was potentially going to explore with Vaughn but more how she was going to speak to Dale and make him see that this was the end. Unquestionably, he had contributed to that and over the last five years he had proved himself to be increasingly volatile; to the point where she was beginning to struggle to cope with the worst of his rages. The thought of what the future held both physically and emotionally was terrifying but for the sake of giving her and Vaughn this one chance, she decided to shelve all of those worries for another day. It wouldn’t change things however much she worried about it so she may as well put them away in another compartment of her mind and enjoy what she had right now.

Taking her seat next to Vaughn at the table, she was relieved when he reached under the table to hold her hand. Her fingers were frozen and the warmth of his hand started to breathe some life back into them. She looked across at him and their eyes connected; an understanding passing between them, which had been missing before. They were in this together – whatever this was – and that was good enough for her at the moment.

Deciding she was no longer hungry, she pushed her plate to the side and allowed the waiter to remove it – thankfully, a different waiter from before so she was at least spared any further embarrassment. Vaughn had begun to eat some of his but as he only had the use of one hand he had admitted defeat with chopping up the steak and left his too. She loved the fact that he refused to let go of her hand even for a second, his warmth transferring to her and making her believe that everything would be alright. Somehow.

Celeste and Roger were still deep in conversation; their chairs even closer together than before and Elise could see that Roger’s hand had also disappeared under the table. Catching her friend’s eye, she gave her a discreet thumbs-up and Celeste immediately blushed. This side to Celeste was a revelation - she was used to her friend being loud and proud, the life and soul of the party – but this gentle man seemed to have broken right through her defences and Elise sincerely hoped that this was the start of something good for Celeste. God knows she deserved it too.

Dessert was now being served; a beautiful chocolate fondant that everyone demolished enthusiastically. Elise watched as Sam and Tilly fed each other mouthfuls from time to time; Vaughn must have noticed too and he took a spoon of his own dessert holding it out to Elise for her to taste, just stopping short of allowing her to have the whole spoonful. He put the spoon with the remainder of the dessert into his mouth, all the while keeping his eyes locked onto hers. It was easily the hottest, sexiest thing that Elise had ever experienced and she could feel the unmistakable dampness of her arousal starting, the whole experience made even more raw by her lack of underwear. She blushed and looked away. It was ridiculous how readily she responded to this man and it was becoming more and more difficult to hide.



Vaughn took the hand that he was holding under the table and moved it across to his lap and down, encouraging her to feel his hardness. Her eyes widened as she made contact with him, shocked to realise that he felt even harder than he had in the alcove at the start of the evening.

Vaughn continued to look steadily at her for a while before leaning forward and whispering softly in her ear. “Just so that you know, I feel it too – big time.”

His breath whispering against her ear sent shivers down her spine and she shuddered. He smiled at her, watching her body react to his and then he gently moved her hand away from his lap and back onto the relative safety of hers. Their fingers were still entwined.

The dessert had been cleared away and a band began to set up over in the far corner next to the dance floor. From the look of it, it was a jazz band; a five piece, all slightly older men who were dressed in immaculate red pinstripe suits with bow ties. Two of the players had saxophones; another had a trumpet and a fourth, a trombone. At the back of the set sat a drummer and Elise read the name of the band on the skin of his bass drum – ‘Four Men and Bill’. A slightly odd name, which no doubt had some history to it, but as long as they were good, it really didn’t matter to her what they were called.

Presently, they started to play – a really upbeat number – and Elise found herself being dragged onto the dance floor by Celeste who had temporarily extricated herself from Roger’s side. As they left the table, Vaughn and Roger moved seats to sit side by side and Elise could feel a pair of dark dark eyes following her every move.

When they reached the dance floor, they picked up the rhythm and did a good imitation of a jive style dance along with most of the other people on the floor. Letting go like this felt wonderful and it wasn’t long before Elise felt the music start to work its magic, the beat finding its way into her body and becoming absorbed by her soul. Celeste was also dancing with abandon, her eyes alight and shining with happiness. They giggled as they stumbled and crashed into the other dancers, hastily apologising before carrying on in their haphazard way. Elise couldn’t remember the last time that she had completely let go like this and it felt good – damn good.

As the number came to an end, Celeste indicated that she needed a trip to the ladies room and Elise followed her, keen to get the gossip on Roger. Celeste however beat her to it – pouncing on Elise the second they entered the quiet of the ladies room.

“Soooo.... – what gives with you and the boss man tonight then? He is seriously on fire for you – man, I could feel it from where I was sitting and I was fighting some pretty heavy vibes myself!”

“Ssshhhh....” Elise said nervously, worried in case someone else was in the cubicles and listening in to their conversation.

“What?” Celeste said all innocently “Afraid someone might hear? Honestly, Elise – no one needs to overhear anything - one look at the two of you together says it all. Jesus, you are one lucky girl. Our boss man is seriously hot – to have him look at me like that – I can tell you, I’d need a very long cold shower!”



Elise laughed, “’Leste, you are incorrigible – I’m amazed you’ve noticed anything other than Roger tonight – the two of you are giving off some serious heat as well you know!”

“Aha! So you are admitting there is something with you and the boss man – thought so!”

Elise groaned and realised that she was going to have give Celeste at least some of the story otherwise how did it look? Her cavorting around with Vaughn whilst her husband was sat at home. She knew that Celeste was very open-minded but she didn’t want her friend to think that this was normal behaviour for her – she just wasn’t that type of girl and she didn’t want anyone to think that she was.

“Look – he knows about Dale, about my marriage. He knows the full story and along with Cole has been really supportive. They both want what’s best for me and we’ve built some kind of a relationship based on that. I know I’ve only known the guy for five minutes but there is a - connection – between us.”

She took a fortifying breath before continuing, praying that they really were alone in the room.

“When I told you earlier about my marriage, I didn’t tell you the whole story because it really wasn’t the time but I need you to understand about Vaughn and me. I’m trusting you with this information Celeste, but God help me if you breathe a word of this to anyone.....”

She paused whilst Celeste shook her head earnestly, “Hon, you can trust me; I swear on my life.”

Elise nodded. She could trust her friend, she was sure of that. Haltingly, she began.

“About five years ago things started to go wrong between me and Dale. It doesn’t matter why at this point; just.....things changed. Around the same time, Dale started drinking fairly heavily which made his behaviour somewhat erratic. And he became temperamental and started to find fault with everything that I did. Eventually - inevitably I suppose - it turned into violence and he began to use me as something of a punch bag.” She paused there a moment, deliberately leaving out the full extent of the violence; her friend didn’t need to know that.

“Over the last couple of days, I’ve had the opportunity to do some serious thinking and tonight I finally realised and accepted that my marriage is over – it has to be. I can’t continue with this charade anymore and whilst I thought I still loved Dale, I realised that I don’t. How can I love someone who continually hurts me? This...attraction...to Vaughn is incidental but neither of us can deny its existence. I agreed tonight to give him a chance and to give us a chance; even if only for one night before I go back and sort out what I need to and get Dale out of my life and move forward. It’s something that I need to do whether anything happens in the future with Vaughn or not but for tonight, I am just going to let go and live. Please don’t judge me for this, Celeste – I need you on-side. It’s going to be a rocky road ahead.” She knew that with absolute certainty.

Elise looked up at her friend and was amazed to realise that the other girl had tears in her eyes. Celeste swiped at them and leaned forward to hug her hard.



“Oh my God, Elise – why didn’t you tell me any of this before? I had no idea. And of course I won’t judge you. You have every reason to have some fun and a life of your own. I will support you whatever happens and for what it’s worth, aside from the fact that he is without a doubt the most prime male specimen I have seen in a long time, I think Vaughn’s a decent bloke. I’ve never met Dale but if he ever hurts you on my watch,” she shuddered, “Let’s just say he won’t know which way’s up.”

Elise was unbelievably touched by her friend’s words. She didn’t know how she had come to be so lucky; first Cole and now Celeste. It felt really good to know that she had genuine support – she had a strong feeling that she was really going to need it.

Stepping out of their embrace, she suddenly she remembered that Celeste had referred to Vaughn as a ‘prime male specimen’ and decided she needed to stake her claim.

“’Leste....” she began, catching the other girls eye in the mirror, “As much as I appreciate you being there for me, you don’t need to get involved where Vaughn is concerned. You just concentrate on keeping your hands to yourself.” She smiled nervously. God, she sounded possessive.

Celeste grinned, her eyes sparkling mischievously. “He might be to die for hon, but seriously, Roger is hot in a way that even I can’t describe. You can keep your Mr Granger. I have no idea what the attraction to Roger is but I am really going to enjoy educating that man – if you know what I mean!”

Elise was very much afraid that she did and both girls dissolved into fits of giggles, leaving the ladies room with their arms hugged tightly around each other.