Danielle Steel - The Promise

She found a pale fawn cashmere dress which molded her figure breathtakingly beneath the fur coat, and she stopped at the hairdresser and let him do her hair. It was the first time in years that she had worn it back, revealing her whole face. She bought big wonderful gold earrings at the costume jewelry bar, and a beige satin rope with a gold seashell on it. Beige suede shoes and a bag, and the perfume she had always loved best, and she definitely looked ready for lunch with Dr. Peter Gregson. Or just about anyone else. She was a woman who would have stopped any man's heart.

Her last stop was at Shreve's where, as though by prearranged plan, she found precisely what she had wanted but hadn't known she would ever find. It was a little gold face made up as a watch fob, and she knew that Peter had a pocket watch he was fond of and occasionally wore. She would have the date engraved in it for him later, but for the moment this would have to do. She had it gift wrapped, hailed a cab, and arrived at the restaurant just as he was sitting down. She thought she might explode with joy as watched his face while she approached. There were a number of others in the restaurant who watched her appreciatively too, but none with the tenderness of Peter Gregson.

“Is it really you?”

“Cinderella at your service. Do you approve?”

“Approve? I'm overwhelmed. What did you do all morning? Run around shopping?”

“But of course. This is a special day.”

She did things to his feelings that he had thought couldn't be done. He wanted to kiss her there, in the restaurant. Instead he held tightly to her hand, and smiled a long happy smile. “I'm so glad you're happy, darling.”

“I am. But not just because of the face. There's the show tomorrow, and … and my work, and my life … and … you.” She said the last word very softly.

The moment meant so much to him that he could only make light of it. “I come after all those things, eh? What about Fred?”

They both laughed and he ordered Bloody Marys for the two of them, and then he thought better of it and changed the order to champagne.

“Champagne? Good heavens!”

“Why not? And I closed the office for the afternoon. I'm as free as can be—unless, of course—” He hadn't even thought of it—“you have other plans.”

“Doing what for God's sake?”

“Working?” He felt sheepish for even asking.

“Don't be ridiculous. Let's go do something fun today.”

He laughed at her answer. “Like what? What would you like to do most?”

She tried to think and couldn't come up with anything, and then she looked at him with a broad smile.

“Go to the beach.”

“In January?”

“Sure. This is California after all, not Vermont. We could drive over to Stinson, and go for a walk.”

“All right. You're certainly easy to please.” But beach walks with him had become special to her and she wanted a special place to give him her gift. She wasn't sure if she could hold out till then. But she did. She waited until late that afternoon, when they were walking hand in hand along the windswept beach. The furcoat protected her from the stiff breeze that was coming in with the fog.

“I have something for you, Peter.” He looked at her in surprise as she stopped walking, as though he didn't quite understand, and then she pulled out the little gift-wrapped box. “I'll have it engraved, if you like it.”

“Marie, that's outrageous. You shouldn't … I didn't want.…” He was touched and embarrassed as he opened the little box, and delighted when he saw the beautiful fob. He put an arm tightly around her shoulders. “Why did you do a thing like that?” he scolded softly.

“Because you're such a creep and you never do anything for me.” He laughed at the mischievous look in her eyes and this time took her in his arms for a long, tender kiss that told her all that he felt. And this time, she kissed him as she never had before, with her body as well as her heart. It made him hungry for her in a way he could barely control.

“You'd better watch that, young lady, or I'll rape you here on the beach.”

She swept open the coat with a teasing smile and laughed. “So?”

He only laughed back and pulled her into his arms again. What an extraordinary girl she was, and how well worth the wait she had been. He could let his feelings soar now: she was no longer his patient. “Darling … Marie….” She silenced him with a long hungry kiss, and he pulled away for a moment, wondering if he was reading into her response the feelings he wanted to be there. But a current of desire was running between them that he knew he wasn't imagining. “Shall we … maybe we'd better go back.”

She nodded quietly and followed him back to the car, but her expression wasn't as somber as his, and when they reached her apartment, she turned and looked at him with a smile. “I have something else for you, Peter. I'd like you to come upstairs if you have time.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

She walked up the stairs ahead of him in silence, and when she opened the door of the apartment, she didn't turn on the lights. She walked straight across the living room, turned her easel away from the window, and then turned on the light. What he saw was her landscape with the boy sitting partially hidden in the foliage of a tree. She had finished it for him before she left on her vacation, but she had been saving it for this day, if not for this moment. He looked at her now as though he didn't understand.

“It's for you, Peter. I started it a long time ago. And I … I finished it for you.”

“Oh darling—” He walked toward it with bright eyes and a gentle look on his face, as though he couldn't believe what she'd done for him. It had been a day filled with emotion and surprises. For both of them. “I can't take that I already have so much of your work. You give it all to me, and then you have nothing left to exhibit.”

“You have photographs, Peter. This is different. This is a sign of my rebirth. It's the first time I've painted again. And… this painting used to mean a great deal to me. I want you to have it. Please.” There were tears in her eyes now, and he walked toward her and took her into his arms.

“It's exquisite. Thank you. I don't know what to say. You've been so good to me.”

“You don't have to say anything.” And then she kissed him in a way that said it all, and this time he was sure, too. He didn't need to ask. He simply walked into the bedroom with her and, trembling with desire, slowly slipped off her clothes. And in the soft light of twilight, with the music of the foghorns bleating softly in the distance, they made love.

Chapter 20

“Darling, can you zip me up?” She turned her graceful ivory back to him, and he kissed her shoulder.

“I would much rather zip you down than up.”

“Now, now, Peter, we don't have time.” Marie looked at him warningly and they both laughed. He was wearing a dinner jacket, and she had just put on a beautifully cut black dress with soft dolman sleeves and a narrow waist in a fabric that allowed one to see her silhouette but nothing more. It was a striking dress, and Peter was suitably dazzled.

“I hate to tell you this, my love, but no one is going to be looking at your work. They're all going to be looking at you.”

“Oh yeah?”

He laughed at her obvious disbelief and straightened the tie he wore with a soft blue shirt and his dinner jacket Together they made a very striking couple.

“Did they hang everything the way you wanted them to? I never got time to ask you.” When he had awakened at eight that morning, she was already gone. But late that afternoon he had arrived at her apartment, and an hour in bed had shown them that they had only begun to feed their hunger for each other. Then they had shared a half hour in the bath, catching up on each other's day. It was almost as though they had lived this way for years.