Chapter 8
1779 Words
I didn’t bother to turn around. He was only a few inches behind me but not close enough to catch the eye of the rest of the assembly. Yet I felt his breath on my neck. Carmichael had put on background music that, at this distance, could drown out any of our words.
“I’d like to discuss what happened again,” Connor whispered.
I couldn’t answer him because Elvis, Soraya and his sons had come to say goodbye to us. Elvis pretended to have a lot of work the next day while glancing sternly at Elias and Wassim, who seemed to have had too much Cognac. I understood then what were the real motivations for this hasty departure.
“I don’t think there’s any need to go back to that,” I told Connor when the twins left.
“Listen,” he said, “I know I shouldn’t have looked at you that way tonight, but you intrigued me a lot.”
He put his hand on the crook of my back. His touch caused an electric shock in all my limbs, and an unbearable heat ran through my spine. Memories of our scorching night raced through my mind and only consumed me more.
“That’s not the point,” I managed to say, stepping away from him.
“So what? Are you sorry for having slept with me?”
“You could say that!
“You seemed to take responsibility for your actions.”
“Oh, but I’ll take them on,” I said. “On the other hand, I accept being taken for the last of the imbeciles a little less.”
“I don’t understand. It was you who left that morning!”
“The best decision of my life, after that terrible mistake.”
This time he grabbed my arm, and I had no choice but to turn around to face him. His gaze pierced me, and I read some pain there.
“I want to see you again,” he said firmly. “I want a relationship with you.”
The surprise must have read on my face because it took me a few seconds to come to my senses after such a statement. But the murderous words I had heard remained firmly anchored in my head. So I pulled myself together quickly.
“A shame for any woman, uninteresting, banal, and a second choice compared to her mother!”
He looked like he had taken a punch in the stomach as he delved into his memories, trying to figure out where those words had come from, certainly remembering having said them. A gleam in his eyes confirmed that he had finally found it. He pales and grabs my arm again.
“But you’re mistaken…”
“Oh, no,” I cut him off. “I’m not mistaken because I heard what you thought of me just a few hours after that infamous night. Sorry to have been a disappointment in your eyes!”
“Am I disturbing, perhaps?” asked Carmichael, who hadn’t been able to ignore the end of our conversation.
He glared at his brother, and I lowered mine, embarrassed. Connor let go of my arm and grabbed my hand.
“Indeed, my brother. Izzy and I were going for a ride.”
I looked up with an expression of utter incomprehension. He had called me Izzy, or had I dreamed it? And why did it touch me so much to hear it from his mouth?
“Is that what you want, Isabelle?” asked Carmichael.
“Uh... Well…”
“What’s going on?” said my mother near her husband.
The cup was full. My flushed cheeks betrayed my excitement, and the words stuck in my throat didn’t help.
Carmichael exchanged a look with his wife. My mother raised her eyebrows, then put on an odd pout. Carmichael put on a contrite expression, and then I understood. They were communicating by thought.
“How are you? Aren’t you bothered?!” I called my mother telepathically.
My mother flashed surprised eyes and a smile, which soon faded at the sight of Connor’s hand in mine.
“Carmichael is worried, but I reassured him. He doesn’t know your character yet, and I told him that you would know how to defend yourself against Connor’s strange intentions. Besides, what is his hand doing in yours?”
Carmichael must have heard my mother’s thoughts, for he frowned doubtfully.
I couldn’t contact him. I knew it was death that had linked their minds as if stepping to the other side had created an invisible connection. But only my mother could share her thoughts with me. We assumed that our direct kinship gave us this gift. I suddenly found myself thinking that if one day I were to die, I would doubtless have the telepathic power to converse with my uncle and my stepfather. But, hey, I wasn’t going to risk dying and maybe not coming back to prove my theory.
“Everything is fine!” I said, furious, guessing they continued to discuss without my knowledge.
My mother, surprised by my tone, took a slight step back. Carmichael narrowed his eyes, sensing correctly that his brother was no stranger to my condition. I squeezed Connor’s hand, and he narrowed his gaze in my direction. A smile formed on his lips, and I couldn’t avoid answering it. Then I pulled myself together and pulled him towards the exit. He let himself go and remained silent until I stopped on the stairs a little lower, where there was little chance that we would be disturbed.
“Listen, Connor,” I said after catching my breath, “I don’t want to argue with you anymore. You don’t owe me anything.”
“Yes, I owe you an explanation.”
“And too bad if I haven’t lived up to your expectations,” I continued, ignoring his remark. “I didn’t think that night, and all the fault lies with your brother and my mother for provoking such emotions in me. I’ve never been part of the caste community. I’ve never even touched a caste before you. I lived, until then, a more or less normal human life, so this undoubtedly had consequences. I can understand if you find me banal and ordinary, but compare myself to my mother by talking about me as a second choice! I can’t forgive that, because who asked you to make the comparison? You hurt me!”
“But damn, can I talk?!”
“And if you had so many grievances against me,” I continued without even listening to him, “which had also seemed obvious during the ball since you glared at me all evening, why don’t you just ignore me?”
This time I was done and looked up. His intense gaze caught me as he climbed a step, approaching closer.
“I didn’t want Carmichael to know about our relationship,” he said, climbing a second step.
His shirt hugged his muscles, and the urge to grab him by the collar crept into my mind. I had a hard time catching my breath as the vision of his youthful body burned my retina.
“And I don’t want Prisca to know either.”
Another step and he would be close, too close. But I couldn’t say a word anymore.
“You’re immortal, I’m sure,” he continued, his voice hoarse, “and you attract me. I knew almost everything about you, but I hadn’t imagined the effect you would have on me. You and your parents lived in my territory, so I had you watched. When I learned that you weren’t getting old, I wanted to know you. I should have done it, and we would have met under different circumstances. But I promised your mother to keep me away.”
“You made that promise?”
“Yes, but that promise was broken after you both came to the castle two months ago. And if I looked at you that way during the dance, it was because I didn’t want to admit your effect on me. And then, damn it, you’re immortal!”
“Okay, I may be immortal,” I said suspiciously, “which can’t be confirmed until after my death, which I hope to be as late as possible. What does it change between us?”
“I want to spend my life with an immortal. I want to have a woman by my side.”
“An ordinary, ordinary woman and a second choice?”
“But stop, damn it!” he said as he climbed the last step.
“So, you chose me because I’m the only immortal around? Is that supposed to convince me?”
“Listen to me! I want to get to know you better, okay?”
His hand suddenly wrapped around my waist, and his face approached mine. He inhaled my scent as I inhaled his. My lips called for his mouth, but I forced myself to look down, touched, I had to admit, by his statements. He put a hand under my chin and lifted my head. Hypnotized, I couldn’t tear myself away from his unfathomable gaze.
“I’m a calamity when it comes to expressing my feelings,” he confessed, “but you attract me a lot... And that night, I couldn’t resist. After more than two hundred and sixty years of existence, I couldn’t believe that a woman could be destined for me, yet that’s what I felt as soon as I saw you. So, at that moment, I understood…”
“You understood,” I repeated.
“And I took you with me.”
“With you,” I whispered.
“And I made love to you.”
“Yeah,” I said as a sigh escaped my lips.
“And I had never known such a night.”
“Neither have I.”
His gaze grew more intense, his hand tightening its grip around my body. His lips approached mine, which responded to this call. He kissed me as if all reason had left him. And as if mine had also abandoned me, I let him do it and welcomed his kiss, moved by his last words, while tears invaded my eyes.
I was aware that I barely knew him and was far from trusting him. But I didn’t stop him. Pleasure overwhelmed me, and I invited him to explore me as our bodies were lost in an avalanche of emotions and desire. I gave up all control, thinking only of joining him, swallowed up by the explosion of all my senses.
- Writer
