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  The wind blew a cool breeze sending a chill up Stella’s spine. Her arms were crossed over her chest, trying to hold onto the little warmth she had left. She could not remember how long she had been standing over the gravestone, feeling the emptiness of her life surround her. She could feel the strain in her legs telling her she needed to let go, but she couldn’t bring herself to move.

  He was dead because of her.

  She had let herself fall so deep, feelings she had supressed for so long were now all too real and it frightened her. She once thought she knew what true love was many years ago. It wasn’t until she met Tristan she truly discovered the true meaning of the love between a man and woman.

  A gentle tear fell down her cheek. If they had never met she wouldn’t be standing here, wouldn’t be feeling what she was feeling. She loved Tristan with every being of herself; she’d fallen completely and utterly in love with him. She had let herself experience feelings that she had buried long ago, making a promise never to feel like that again, to never let herself be hurt and feel the burden of love.

  Yet here she was. The harsh reminder of the tragedy of love.

  Forever Yours

  NICOLE SALMOND

  Copyright © 2012 Nicole Salmond

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author, except in brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews are permitted.

  This is a work of fiction. The names, character, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover design by Kerry Ellis

  Cover art © Depositphotos/Dmitriy Shironosov/Nataliya Dvukhimenna/Raya Hristova/Сергей Клешнев

  Used under license from Depositphotos

  To all those people in the world like me who believe life is about taking chances, dreaming big, and living without regret.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  To my beautiful husband, who no matter how crazy and ambitious my dreams are he always supports them.

  You are my life, my love, my everything.

  To Evelyn, my crazy little girl who showed me that even the simplest of things can be amazing. She helps me remember every day that life is meant to be full of laughter, challenges, love, and even the occasional tantrum.

  A huge thanks to all my family and friends who have helped me in this journey. Your support and help is greatly appreciated!

  And lastly, to the wonderful Jessi! Without your constant nagging and repetitive text messages telling me to hurry up and send you more chapters, I would never have finished this book. Your freakin awesome and I love you!

  I might even write a book next time about cowboys ;)

  CHAPTER ONE

  Stella knew she couldn’t say no to her sister, she had been running around the unit for the past half an hour debating on what to wear and giggling like a school girl. She had been pulling out all the playing cards for a month now, trying to get this guy to go out with her. He had finally given in and agreed to go out to dinner with her, confusing Stella, as Claire was very good looking and never had any trouble with guys. But this guy was different; he had seemed resistant to Claire’s obvious charms and had made her chase him until it had become her life’s mission to get a date from him.

  Claire knew it was her turn to do the night audit shift so she had spent the last ten minutes begging and bribing Stella to cover her.

  “You’re the best Stel!” her sister said as she brushed a quick kiss on Stella’s cheek. Stella observed Claire as she took off across the room, taking one last glance in the wall mirror giving it a self-assured smile before grabbing her handbag off the kitchen bench and walking to the door with a skip in her step. “Don’t expect me back until tomorrow morning,” she giggled, giving a playful wink before closing the door behind her.

  Stella and Claire had come to the agreement three months ago to share the night audit shift, although Stella was initially against it, Claire had proposed a very compelling argument.

  At the time they needed a place to rent in the Gold Coast, however they had a hard time finding anything in their price range as they both worked part time. Stella had graduated from University four months ago and moved to the city to find a job as an Accountant, unfortunately she had been unsuccessful and had to settle as an administration assistant at an accounting firm until a job opportunity came up, which she was soon discovering to be very rare.

  Claire was three years younger than Stella, a young carefree spirit. She saw the world as an adventure and made it her life’s mission to conquer it. There was no such thing as ‘can’t’ in Claire’s life. Stella admired that about her; unfortunately she had learned the hard way that life wasn’t always rainbows and butterflies. She had found it easier to focus her life on her career and ambitions, there was no room in her life for surprises and adventure.

  On her search for a job and her sister’s search for adventure they landed themselves at the Gold Coast. They grew up in the country so they were unacquainted with city living and the cost of living including the high rental costs, which Stella cursed frequently about.

  Claire had discovered a local hotel needing someone to be the night auditor and had an agreement that instead of being paid a wage, as the work was unpredictable and someone needed to be on call all hours at night, they would get a unit rent free and have access to all hotel facilities. It was a perfect solution to their problem. They moved in momentarily and agreed they would take turns each night to do the night audit shift. Claire was adamant she would uphold her end of the bargain, but of late Claire seemed to always be coming up with an excuse to not comply with her terms of the agreement. It was hard to say no to Claire. Her smile was contagious and Stella couldn’t help but feel the need to see her sister be happy and free.

  The job entailed being on call all night, something Stella initially wasn’t fond of, but soon discovered it was easy work and they rarely had to leave the room apart from the occasional late check-in, or the naked person locked out of their room. Yes, Stella unfortunately had the honour of being on duty that night and dealing with a poor naked guy whose wife had locked him out of the room because he was too drunk to even put his own clothes on. As unamusing as it was at the time, she found herself laughing about it now.

  Stella stretched out her arms and legs on the couch, preparing herself for an uneventful evening, she had hoped anyway. Grabbing the remote she scanned through the channels until she found the Friday night movies. ‘The Notebook’, or ‘Groundhog Day’ was the selection for the night. She pondered briefly on the thought that her life was like Groundhog Day; waking up, working, sleeping. On the days she didn’t work she would find herself at the beach. She had a love for the water and enjoyed experiencing it as much as possible. Her growing love for the beach, sand and surf gave Stella a golden sun kissed tan which highlighted her dark long blonde hair and blue eyes.

  She ended up settling for ‘The Notebook’. It was an epic love story, one that every person could only dream of having. She fantasized about her own life being so exciting, past experiences had made her doubt true love like that existed though. The male sex was only interested in one thing, and it definitely wasn’t love.

  ***

  Stella approached the hotel lobby walking cautiously towards the two glass sliding doors, eyeing the two men outside dressed very formally in black suits.

  Half an hour earlier she had received a call informing her of a late check in for the penthouse suite. She was curious who would be checking in to a suite at 11 o’clock at night, generally all guests who booked the penthouse suite made arrangements weeks, even months ahead, not
half an hour before check in, especially when it cost easily over a thousand dollars a night. She pressed the red button on the wall next to the sliding doors to open them, allowing the guests to enter the lobby.

  “Mr Bentley I take it?” she questioned the two men in front of her. One of the men nodded in agreement.

  “Welcome, if you’d like to follow me to the counter I’ll check you both in and then I’ll show you to your room,” she said as she swiftly walked towards the main counter.

  When she turned behind the counter glancing up she noticed only one of the men followed her, the other still standing outside near the parked car.

  Stella clicked through the hotels computer system checking she had all their details. “I’ve already got all the information I need from you, including your credit card details for security reasons, so I’ll just grab your room keys and luggage trolley and I can show you up to the room.”

  She moved to the back office, grabbing the penthouse keys and luggage trolley, and wheeling it out into the lobby. She walked the suited man to the hotels front doors to meet his friend, handing him one of the keys as they walked.

  “Miss..?” the man spoke to her.

  “Green,” Stella responded.

  “I understand the hotel has a strict confidentiality and privacy policy?” he questioned her.

  “Yes Sir.” Where had that come from? she thought.

  “Then I trust you will follow it?”

  What was going on? Why did he just ask her that? Stella wondered. She was taken aback by his questions, hesitating before answering him, “Of course.”

  He nodded, “Good”.

  They reached the hotels doors and she pressed the red button, putting the trolley in the door to stop them from automatically closing.

  Trying to disregard the man’s strange question to her, she helped the men collect their suitcases from the car boot, taking them to the trolley to load. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted one of the suited men opening the backseat of the car and talking quietly into it. She watched curiously as a third man stepped out from the car. He looked to be in his late twenty’s, dressed differently than the other two men.

  He was wearing dark faded jeans, and his broad-shoulders made the white shirt he was wearing hugged his muscles. He had brown messy hair and was tall, standing confidently next to the two other men. But of all his stunning features, it was his eyes that caught Stella’s attention; they were a deep mahogany brown. His look burned intensely into her, his eyes seductive and dark, and she found herself needing to catch her breath. He had an aura about him that made her want to stop and stare at him for hours, studying his strong facial features, loosing herself in his eyes.

  She watched as he walked towards her with grace and confidence, clutching a guitar case. Stella suddenly realised she had been staring, dropped her gaze and held her hand out to grab the guitar case from the man. “I’ll grab that for you.”

  He jerked the case back from her, smiling at her. “No its ok, I’ve got it,” his voice deep and soft.

  She politely smiled turning her head to one of the men. “You’ll be in parking space 210. If you head out of the parking bay and turn left, it will take you down to the underground car park. You can use the key in the lift to get to the penthouse suite. You’ll need the combination 4724.” The man gave a nod and turned back to the car. She motioned to the other men, “Follow me then.”

  She led the men through the lobby to the lift, once inside she pressed the combination into the keypad for the penthouse suite and waited for the men to come in next to her. She watched as the doors closed, the trolley had made the space in the lift confined and she could feel her shoulder rubbing up against the mysterious man.

  She could feel his eyes on her; she suddenly wished she had made a bit more of an effort with her hair. His gaze made her uncomfortable, was he always so abrupt? Surely he knew she could see him staring at her. Stella could feel his eyes moving down her body. She cursed the hotel’s uniform; it was a light blue coloured shirt with buttons down the front, hanging loosely on her. Her black knee length cotton skirt also did no justice to her body as it hung freely from her hips. The hotel seemed to enjoy giving all their employees uniforms that were one size to big. She could only imagine what the mysterious man was thinking.

  She watched as the numbers started to climb as they moved through the floors. She decided to break the awkwardness that silenced the room. “So what have you all been up to tonight?”

  “That’s none of your concern Miss,” the suited man behind them abruptly replied. His response startled Stella. She didn’t often get spoken to so rudely especially when the question was as innocent as that.

  The man next to her let out a light hearted laugh, lifting the tension in the lift. “Never mind about him. He is just a bit over protective.” He gave her a reassuring smile, she returned his with a small smile, still trying to process the reaction. Who was he, why had they come so late, and why was the man in the suit so abrupt and rude towards her? Their gaze held for a moment before the lift came to a stop and the doors opened. She quickly pulled herself from his eyes, reminding herself of why she was there.

  She motioned her hand forward, “After you.”

  He stepped forward, the suited man following him, walking into the suite. The mysterious man paused and looked at Stella as she pushed the trolley forward, clipping it on the gap on the floor between the lift and the tiles, nearly sending it flying. The man quickly grabbed it with one hand steadying it.

  “You right?” he asked.

  “Yes, sorry,” she grunted, lifting the front wheels over the gap, pushing the trolley forward.

  She walked into the penthouse room, aware that the man dressed in the suit had gone forward walking between the rooms, checking the place out. The other man stayed close to her side, walking in silence as they reached the open lounge room.

  “Where would you like your bags?” she asked the man.

  He shrugged and walked towards the door of the main bedroom. “Anywhere is fine,” he called over his shoulder. He disappeared into the bedroom, leaving her to pull the luggage off the trolley.

  He could have at least helped, she thought, frustrated by his actions.

  When she offloaded the last bag, there was no sign of anyone. She walked through the hallway glancing around trying to find one of the men. She followed the sound of running water coming from the main bedroom’s bathroom. Scanning the bedroom, she stopped still in her tracks. The mysterious man who had left her only moments ago to unload the entire luggage by herself, stood there shirtless, splashing water on his face. She could see his muscles on his back clench as he moved his arms, they were perfectly proportioned to his body. He was tall, maybe a full head taller than her, but that wasn’t hard as she wasn’t the tallest of people.

  “Are you finished Miss?” Stella was startled by the voice of one of the men behind her. She turned quickly, dropping her gaze from the semi naked man in the bathroom.

  “Yes sorry. I um…needed to find someone so I could run through the basics of the suite,” she stuttered, embarrassed he had just caught her gawking.

  “It’s ok Ben, I’ve got this,” the semi naked man spoke to the suited man, who gave him a stern look, turned and left.

  “Do you normally spy on people in the bathroom?” His question caught Stella off guard. She wasn’t expecting him to be so abrupt.

  “I wasn’t spying. I uh-” she stumbled with her words, not knowing what to say.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t tell if you won’t.” Winking he turned away grabbing his shirt from the chair and putting it back on. “So what did you need to talk about?”

  “I needed to show you around and give you a rundown of how everything works.”

  “No need, I’ll work it out,” he said very decisively.

  “But I need to, especially with penthouse suite guests.”

  “Like I said, no need to.”

  She tried to read his face but he g
ave nothing away. Cocky, rude, and stubborn. Jeez this guy had it all didn’t he? Stella thought. He just stood there with a stern look on his face, waiting for her response. It was standard procedure that she do this with every guest, especially the penthouse suite ones. She knew the hotel would be angry with her if she didn’t follow basic practices.

  “But-” she argued.

  “Are you always so argumentative?” He gave her a questioning look.

  She felt her temper rise, why was he being so rude? Before she could help herself she blurted out, “Only with obnoxious people like you.” Instantly regretting her outburst.

  “Obnoxious hey?” He laughed, “Nobody has called me that in a while.”

  Who was this guy? She couldn’t be rude to guests, but he was just so arrogant. He really got under Stella’s skin. “Just stating the obvious,” she said with a matter of fact tone.

  He looked at her and smiled, then walked towards the balcony. He opened the sliding doors, walking out into the cool breeze. Although summer was nearing an end, the days and nights were still warm. She felt as it brushed past the man and onto her body, cooling her nerves, preventing her from another outburst.

  Holding the railing he looked down onto the street, then watched the ocean; the waves crashing against the sand.

  She stood there for several minutes, not knowing if that was her cue to leave, or if he still needed her. Any other person who talked to her like that she would have left without hesitation, but she was too curious to learn more about this puzzling man. She slowly walked towards the balcony, looking at his face as his eyes focused on the ocean before him. She watched the sadness in his eyes. She wanted to ask him what was wrong, but she knew it would be impolite. He was the most confusing man she had ever met. One minute he was polite and considerate, the next an arrogant, confident guy before becoming sad and withdrawn.