Chapter 2


Isabella sat up in the bed quickly. "Are you there?" she called out into the stillness of the room. Nothing. Pure silence engulfed her as she sighed and lay back against the coolness of the purple satin sheets on her king size bed.

It had been six months since she had gotten the call that would change her life forever. The words echoed through her head like it was only yesterday.

" I’m sorry ma’am. We couldn’t find his body. More than likely we won’t be able to find him until the spring thaw" the sympathetic snow patrol officer had told her.

She was angry. She had begged him not to go skiing for his bachelor party. She knew from the start that something bad was going to happen because she had that sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. She knew that feeling too well and had learned to follow it, for it had kept her safe numerous times before. Scott had laughed at her; told her it was all just pre-wedding jitters. He had told her that this was his last ‘hooray’ before they were married and he just wanted to go have some fun with the guys. Reluctantly she agreed not to fuss at him about going, knowing his love for her was true. He had promised that when he returned, they would be married and he would devote the rest of his life to giving her anything and everything she wanted. Together they would start a family, watch their children have children of their own and sit together on the front porch of their home and laugh about the ‘old times’.

That promise would be lost in the cold Colorado Mountains just a few days before Valentine’s day, the day of their wedding. She had waited for three long days for any word on his condition and she had paced the floors, praying for 72 hours straight, hoping for a miracle that would never come.

She finally received the call she had dreaded just two hours before they were to be married on that Saturday afternoon, the sheriff telling her the search had been called off due to heavy snowfall and that her fiancé had officially been pronounced dead. Her world had changed forever at that precise moment and inside something had died right along with Scott - her heart.

The first three months after his death she dropped twenty-five pounds easily. She wouldn’t eat, the food nauseating her and sleep tormenting her throughout the night. She begged God to have mercy on her soul and take her away from this life that she no longer wanted to live. Instead, she muddled through each day, barely able to function, barely aware of her surroundings.

On what would have been Scott’s twenty-ninth birthday, her life began to change in an odd sort of way. She had once again begged for death to take her, crying herself to sleep. It was then that she began to have dreams of a mysteriously sensual man that slowly willed her to live again. Night after night he invaded her bedroom, loving her, caressing her body tenderly, whispering words of love in her ear. At first she was frightened, but soon she looked forward to sunset and her ‘midnight’ date.

Her best friend Taylor noticed the change in her and was excited, until Isabella explained the reason behind her new take on life. Fearing that her friend was losing her mind after all that she had been through, Taylor called the doctor.

After reluctantly agreeing to take a few psychological tests, it was determined that these dreams were simply her mind and body healing the wounds that threatened to destroy her very being.

Unconvinced, Taylor did all she could to keep a close watch on her friend. Something about these dreams disturbed her to the core.

The phone rang early the next morning, waking Isabella from her slumber. Groggily she answered.

"Mm, hello?" she mumbled.

"I’m looking for Isabella…," said the voice on the other end of the line before being cut off rather quickly and sharply.

"This is she. Who is this?"

"My name is Jack Mitchell and I am a lawyer here in the Metropolitan area. It seems that you are the beneficiary to a rather large estate and I need for you to come to my office this afternoon if at all possible" he said nonchalantly.

Isabella sat upright in the bed, wiping sleep from her eyes. "I’m sorry, Scott’s estate has already been settled. Goodbye!" she said as she hung up the phone. When it rang again, she simply picked the receiver up and hung it up again quickly. She couldn’t deal with this. Tears began to form in her eyes as she took the phone off the hook.

"I’m not doing this, I refuse!" she said as she got out of bed and headed straight to the shower.

After allowing the water to heat up, she stepped in and stood underneath the pulse of the water, her mind racing. Her chest became tight, her heart beating wildly as she remembered her dream the night before. He had been in her bedroom. Not just in her sleep, but actually there in the flesh. She began to touch herself, working her fingers into her flesh the way that he does when he is with her. She sank to the bottom of the shower, the hot water engulfing her body as she slipped one finger inside of her own heated core and used her thumb to massage her ‘button’. She could feel him touch her, feel his breath on her neck, feel his erection pressing against her thigh as she brought herself to the edge of oblivion. Her knees began to tremble, a fire raging within her depths as her orgasm sent her spiraling over the edge. She stood slowly, grasping the walls of the shower to control her balance. "Come to me, my love. I need you!" she whispered.

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His eyes flew open, his heart pounding to the sound of her voice calling to him. He smiled as he whispered back to her, "I’ll be there tonight my darling and tonight, you will be mine."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

That afternoon as Isabella rushed to clean the house, something she had not done since Scott’s death, the doorbell rang. "So much for having a maid" she mused out loud. Irritated at the interruption she quickly answered the door.

"May I help you?" she asked.

"You are as beautiful as he described" the man said as he stared into her pale blue eyes, his mouth slightly agape.

"Excuse me?" she said startled. "Who are you and who are you talking about?"

"I’m sorry" he stammered, extending his hand to her, his eyes barely aware of anything other than her simplistic beauty. "I’m Jack Mitchell. I called earlier."

"Mr. Mitchell, as I told you before, Scott’s estate has been settled. Now, if you will excuse me" she said trying to shut the door on him, "I have work to do."

"I’m sorry ma’am. This has nothing to do with Scott, whoever he is. If you would just give me a minute to explain."

She studied his face, trying to gather a ‘sense’ about him. He seemed harmless enough, standing there in his tan khaki’s and his button down tailor fitted shirt. He couldn’t have been more than thirty and he was boyishly handsome so she allowed him into the house naively. He followed her to the sunroom where he began to explain that this mysterious man had sought him out one night while he was having dinner with his girlfriend. The next day the proper documents were delivered to his office along with her address and phone number, showing that she was the owner of a piece of property right outside of town and had sole rights to a three hundred thousand dollar bank account.

Isabella was confused, but Mr. Mitchell assured her that everything was in order and completely legal. He handed her the deed to the property along with a check for the full three hundred thousand dollars. After signing a slip of paper acknowledging what she had received, Mr. Mitchell excused himself and started towards the front door.

"One last thing before I go. This gentleman never would give me his name, which I found quite odd, but he certainly had high praises for you. If I didn’t know better, I would say he was deeply in love with you" he said as he turned and walked out the door.

Isabella stood speechless at the door. After watching Mr. Mitchell’s car pull out of the driveway she immediately picked up the phone to call her best friend.

After explaining to Taylor all that had happened regarding the money and the property she now owned, Isabella did what any red blooded American woman would do upon receiving a large sum of money. She went shopping!

It was actually the first time she had been out of the house in close to a month and it felt refreshing and invigorating. She had put on a pair of white jeans and a white tank top, ran her fingers through her long blonde hair and grabbed her favorite Nine West sunglasses as she bounced out of the house.

Approaching her burgundy Toyota 4-runner, she felt a new sense of ‘peace’ in her life. It was if she could see past the rain cloud that had been hovering over her life since Scott’s death. It truly had nothing to do with the money; it was more due to her realization that there was someone out there waiting to love her, needing her as much as she need him. She knew that regardless of whether her ‘midnight lover’ was real or all just a figment of her imagination, someone needed her in their life and she sure as hell wasn’t going to find them hidden behind the walls of her house. She took a deep breath, sucking in as much of the country air as her lungs would possibly hold and released.

Once into town, she stopped at the bank and deposited the majority of her new wealth, keeping a little of it for shopping. She hit her favorite stores, buying whatever her heart desired, and some things she truly needed. She was drawn to one store in particular, one that was new in town.

This new store housed ball gowns and formal dresses for all occasions, along with every accessory you could imagine. The dress in the window caught her attention and when she stepped to the window for a closer look, her head began to spin. She dropped the packages she was holding and the people walking by began to stare at her in wonderment, a dazed look on her face. After a few moments of bewilderment, excitement and yet sheer terror, she managed to compose herself enough to go inside and inquire about the dress. She was met by an overzealous sales person..

"May I help you find something?" she asked enthusiastically.

"The dress in the window, do you have it in a size 6?" Isabella asked, as her eyes once again becoming fixated on the dress.

"I’m not sure. That is the only one that we have but I don’t know what size it is. Stay here and I will check for you."

The sales woman hurried to the window as fast her cramped little feet would carry her in those shoes. She cursed under her breath for wearing them on opening day, though there was nothing she could do about it now. She would surely suffer the consequences later that night and be forced to rethink her wardrobe choices the next day before work. She pulled the mannequin out of the window, almost toppling the rest of the display in her angst to find the size of the dress. After all, not one customer had been in the store today and she knew that this particular dress was the most expensive one they had for sale.

It would certainly boost her commission to sale it, but in her mind, she was sure that it would not be the right size. When she pulled the tag out of the dress, her heart soared. It was a size 6! Smiling proudly, she sprinted back to where Isabella was standing, the mannequin still in the clutches of her pudgy little arms.

"You are in luck today, madam. This is the only one like it in this area and it is a size 6 exactly! Would you like to try it on?"

Isabella slowly reached for the velvet material, thumbing it absentmindedly.

"It’s so beautiful," she whispered.

"I think it would look fantastic on you," the sales clerk said as she began walking toward the dressing rooms.

"I’ll take it!" Isabella exclaimed.

"Don’t you want to try it on first?"

Isabella glanced out the window of the boutique, the pink and purple hues in the evening sky alerting her to the time. Hurriedly she looked at her watch. 6:30 PM. She must get home, she thought to herself.

"No, I must be going, just wrap it up for me, please."

"If you say so," the clerk said as she placed the dress inside the garment bag gingerly.

Having paid for the dress, Isabella grabbed the remainder of her shopping rewards and rushed out the door towards her 4- runner. Her heart was beating excitedly, her palms sweaty, her body aching for his visit. She wasn’t tired at all, in fact she felt completely exhilarated, but she needed him. She needed his lips on her neck, his soft supple hands around her waist, his manhood pressing ever so gently against her thigh. She needed him to make love to her and nothing else would do! But the one thing that haunted her was the fact that she had yet to see his face. Was there a reason why he hid in the darkness? She dispelled that thought instantly and rushed home to find him.

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Chapter 3        Index