Chapter 8
1084 Words
Cecilia
“Why don’t you look at me when we make love?”
Leon spit out his soup and began to cough. “Excuse me?” He said wiping his mouth. “What did you just ask me?”
I sighed, knowing it was too late to take back what I said but that I had to tread carefully.
“When we make love.. you don’t look at me Leon.” I said. “It’s always in the dark and you leave right after.”
Leon looked at me confused. “Why would I stay? I have my own room.”
“Yes I’m aware.”
“Then what’s the issue here?”
He pinned me with his cold grey eyes and I looked back at him, confused as to why he didn’t understand there was a problem.
“Leon, don’t you feel like something is missing? Some passion? Heat?”
Leon’s eyes grew cold and harder than before. “Where are you getting these ridiculous ideas from?”
“I just think that we don’t have that spark needed when we’re in bed together.” I thought back to how Gabriel looked at me and the way it made my body tingle. And how I wanted someone to always look at me like that, I wanted to feel desired and needed. I wanted to feel like the other person was going crazy thinking about having me.
Leon gritted his teeth and spoke loud and menacingly. “And where did you get the idea that we even needed a spark to begin with? Where have you felt it Cecilia?”
His warning tone brought me back from my fantasies and made my blood run cold. I shook my head and shrugged. “I overheard some of the ladies at the Martin party talking, that’s all.”
“Did you talk about us?” He asked furious.
I shook my head.
“Good.”
We finished the rest of the meal in silence but I felt Leon’s stare on me. I knew he was observing me, trying to find any clue as to why I had brought up the topic because he knew I was lying but couldn’t prove it. But there was no way that I was going to spill that his childhood friend was the one who had lit the fire to my imagination. Fantasies of what I wanted to do, feel and experience filled my mind everyday and I couldn’t get them out. I wondered if talking about them would help. But to who would I even talk to?
***
Rachel
“Have you heard anything from Cecilia?” I asked Enrique as we finished kissing our kids goodnight.
He shook his head as he adjusted Mary’s blanket. “No, not all. Not since she wrote a year ago that she had arrived at her new home.”
We walked back to our room in silence and I was lost in thought as I readied for bed. I heard Enrique laugh across the room.
“What are you laughing at?”
“I can hear you thinking all the way over here Rachel. It’s quite loud.”
“Oh shut it,” I said laughing too. I sat down and began to take off my leg brace and Enrique walked over to help. He got on his knees and unstrapped it, massaged my knee and then rubbed oils on it.
“You take such good care of me,” I told him and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
He smiled. “I love you, it comes naturally.”
I smiled in return but then frowned. I thought back to Cecilia and her husband. We hadn’t attended the wedding since it was in France, but I had seen him at our wedding. He was a distant and cold man. He had only congratulated me once and I hated the way I felt around him, I couldn’t imagine Cecilia had fallen in love with him, or him with her. He didn’t even look at her when they were together, and he seemed really irritated.
“You’re thinking loudly again,” Enrique tried to joke but I shook my head.
“I don’t think Cecilia is well Enrique. I have a bad feeling.”
He furrowed his eyebrows and crossed his arms as he stood. “What do you mean?”
Even though Enrique had been close to proposing to Cecilia, out of fault of us both, we both cared for her. She was young, beautiful, spirited and kind. Her and Vicente, Enrique’s friend, had helped us be together. We wanted only what was best for her.
“Call it a woman’s instinct, but I don’t think she’s happy.” I said.
“She told me she knew she wouldn’t love him. Or anyone for that matter.” He said helping me walk to bed.
“That’s not what I mean. I feel like she might actually need help, he doesn’t seem kind.. At all.”
“Do you think he’s hurting her?”
I frowned, not really sure what I thought. “I don’t know..”
Enrique sighed. “Well, Charles and Arthur were planning on going to France in the next month for business. And their parents live there now too I believe. We could ask them to check in on her.”
“Oh that’d be great! Those two can sniff out danger like dogs.” I said laughing.
Enrique laughed too. “Yes they can. Especially since Celeste can too, their senses probably heightened with her there. But nonetheless, they met Cecilia at our wedding, they’d know of something was wrong.”
I smiled thinking of the Harris brothers showing up at Cecilia’s door and to her rescue. Arthur was a former soldier and was almost as large as Enrique and Charles was tall and not as strong but extremely observant. Those two made an excellent team and I had no doubt they were a force to be reckoned with when they were together.
“I’ll write to Charles tomorrow,” Enrique said snuggling next to me in bed. He kissed my neck and slid his hands up my nightgown. “And you can write to Cecilia.”
Full of newfound determination and eagerness, I threw the covers back and scooted away from him. “Why not now??”
Enrique looked at me with wide eyes and utter betrayal as his body was disconnected from mine. “Now?!?”
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