Mortal Desire (18 page)

I shook my head.

‘I’d just like you to hold my hand,’ I said.

A tear rolled down her face. She stood and walked around to me, and held out her hand for me to take. I placed my hand in hers, and she led me to the sofa where we sat in silence, with our hands connected.

I rested my head on her shoulder. She put her arm around me and kissed my forehead. How could silence be so loud in communication?

Her steady breathing and the warmth of her body lulled me to sleep. When I woke later in the night, my head was resting on her chest, my arms wrapped around her and our legs entangled together.

I moved slightly, and then felt her fingers move through my hair. She was so soft and warm. I had never been so close to a mortal human before.

‘Oh … Sarah,’ I said and I sat up in alarm. I ran my fingers through my hair, embarrassed at falling asleep while she was here to see me.

‘It’s okay Liam. There is no need to be sorry,’ she said quietly, touching my arm. ‘I can stay with you tonight if you like, considering ...’

I looked at her, tempted by her suggestion of company. But, I think I needed alone time now, to sort out the direction of my life.

‘Thank-you, but …’ I couldn’t find the words to say to her.

Our eyes connected before she stood and walked to the door and opened it. I followed her, and stood close to her, almost falling into a heap on the floor at the thought of her leaving me.

‘Thank-you,’ I managed to whisper.

She placed her hands on the side of my face and then kissed my lips lightly.

‘Ow …’ I responded. I pulled my eyebrows together, and then put my fingers to my damaged lip.

Sarah placed her hands onto my shoulders and looked into my eyes deeply. ‘Call me, at any time. Okay?’ she said, and waited for my nod before she turned and left.

I closed the door, turned around, squeezed my eyes shut and put my hands behind my head. The temptation to pull her into my arms and kiss her deeply was hard to resist. I wanted to wrap my body around her and create our own bubble where nothing bad could ever happen.

Sarah … what are you doing to me?

I did not go to bed that night. I couldn’t.

There would be no blue mass of light to connect to the spiritual realm.

There would be no blue mass of light hovering over me whilst I slept.

I was alone, truly alone for the first time in four hundred years. And it felt like a punch in the gut. A twisting of a knife in the heart. A smothering over my face making it hard for me to breathe.

But breathe I must, in order to die …

CHAPTER FIVE

A hot cup of tea fuelled me enough to get me to work. I donned my elevator uniform and stood obediently outside Elevator Thirteen, as I had been groomed to do, greeting people politely and helping to remove burdens from their day.

But my burden remained, hidden behind my mask.

The day meant nothing to me as I mourned the loss of my Friend, my Protector, my Guide. The serving of people who ventured up and down the building in the elevator were but a smoky haze on my memory, except for two occurrences.

The first happened at 10am precisely. The elevator doors closed and my lift ascended to the thirteenth floor. When the doors opened, Mr. Bellini stood waiting for me with his hands around his back.

‘Lock the elevator at thirteen!’ he demanded, and then proceeded to his office.

I assumed that I was to follow him.

I stood waiting at his door for him to invite me in. He simply gestured, pointing to the seat for me to sit in—the black chair of doom.

‘I offer my condolences at the passing of your … uncle,’ Mr. Bellini said. Darkness settled over his face.

‘Thank-you Mr. Bellini,’ I said. I lifted my chin and narrowed my eyes at him. He was as trustworthy as a politician.

He stood then. ‘I will see you in four more days Mr. O’Connell, oh and ah … did your uncle knit the scarf that you wore around your neck this morning?’ he asked me.

I frowned, cautious of his words.

‘I saw you enter on the security camera this morning wearing a knitted scarf,’ he added.

‘Oh, I see. No, my uncle did not knit the scarf for me,’ I added when I stood to leave.

My heart began to pound, and an odd tingling sensation travelled up my spine. I shook his hand and looked into his eyes, wondering if I stilled possessed some of my immortal abilities with planting thoughts into minds.

I re-entered the elevator and returned to the ground floor, troubled by Mr. Bellini’s remark about Albert knitting. Nobody could have possibly known that Albert was a knitting nerd, his recently added hobby.

At 4pm, a group of ladies entered my elevator. All of them exited except one. It was Sarah. She stood opposite me and leaned on the handrail. When the elevator descended, she pushed the stop button.

‘How are you?’ she asked, looking at me seriously.

I looked down. ‘As expected I guess,’ I replied before looking at her again.

‘How is your lip? I am sorry that I hurt it kissing you last night,’ she commented. Her eyes wandered over my lips.

I looked down again and smiled crookedly, remembering the soft touch of her lips on mine, even though it was painful. ‘I think that it needs more of your kisses to make it better,’ I said to her in a quiet voice while she closed the space between us, and then ran her finger lightly over my bottom lip.

She looked deeply into my eyes before she brushed her lips over mine with the lightness of a feather. I moaned at her tenderness and then deepened the kiss before I pulled away from her.

‘I will have no choice but to tell Liam that you have kissed another man …’ I whispered with a husky voice.

Sarah smiled at me with a twinkle in her eye. ‘And tell Liam that I am taking him to the movies tonight, and that I will meet him outside the building at 5:15pm. Okay?’

I ran my fingers along her jaw line. ‘Maybe I will tell him. Maybe I won’t,’ I replied, and kissed her, lingering as the elevator moved again.

‘Liam ...’ she whispered, before she stepped back from me and into the centre of the elevator car.

I smiled crookedly at her as she stepped out onto the marble floor and walked away from me. My day was getting better. The sun was beginning to shine.

The second occurrence happened when I walked out into the cool night air at 5:10pm. I covered my neck with the scarf that Sarah had given me, and noted a dark shadow to my left.

I turned to the right and masqueraded between a large pole and a palm tree and watched the vaguely familiar silhouette pace with a nervous disposition.

Two minutes later, a rounded figure descended the steps in his business suit. He stood partly concealed behind the landscaping, but clearly slid his hand into his pocket where he retrieved a yellow envelope. He folded his arms and hid the envelope at his side.

The person clothed in the colours of the night meandered near him, and then removed the envelope from the hand of the suited man, and walked off in my direction with his hands in his pockets.

I shrunk further behind my cover, memorizing the face of the man that lurked, and then turned to see that it was Mr. Bellini who had delivered the envelope.

I watched him enter the building again until he disappeared from sight, and then stepped out to wait for Sarah.

She appeared before me precisely at 5:15pm. ‘You okay Liam?’ she asked the moment that she saw me.

‘Ah … yeah … why?’

‘You look like you are paranoid or something … uncomfortable,’ she tried to explain.

I shrugged my shoulders. ‘One of those days,’ I brushed off.

‘Did you talk to Henry by any chance?’ she asked.

‘Would I be standing here if I didn’t?’ I asked, and raised one eyebrow at her, playing along with her game.

She smiled at me and tucked her arm through mine as we began to walk. ‘We, Mr. O’Connell are going out to dinner to celebrate Albert’s life, and then I am taking you to a movie,’ she said in a confident voice.

‘As long as the movie has fast cars and exploding aliens in it—I’m in,’ I said to tease her, knowing very well her dislike for that genre of movie.

‘But of course,’ she replied, and punched me in the arm.

‘Oooh, you are brutal Miss Flynn, please control your rage,’ I said.

‘And what if I don’t?’ she asked, putting her head to the side.

‘Then I will pick you up in the fireman hold and carry you down the street!’ I threatened.

‘Mmmmm—I like firemen,’ she replied flirting with me.

‘Just as well, because that is going to be my next job!’ I added.

She punched me in the arm again. I looked at her and narrowed my eyes, then lifted her up over my shoulder and carried her down the street.

‘Liam, put me down!’ she said sternly.

I ignored her and kept walking for another fifty steps, then stopped and landed her gently on the ground after sliding her down against my chest, against my abdomen, awakening a desire inside of me. She gazed into my eyes and slipped her hand around to the back of my head and into my hair before she moved her lips to mine and kissed me with wild abandon.

I moaned and stepped back from her when my lip started to hurt. ‘Gentle. I am still damaged,’ I said, and put my fingers over my lip where it had split again.

‘Sorry,’ she whispered. ‘You drive me crazy.’

I pulled her against me and wrapped my arms around her. ‘Pas besoin d’être désolé par l’amour!’ I whispered into her hair. ‘No need to be sorry my love,’ I translated.

She stepped back from me and ran her finger over my lips, before she kissed the side of my mouth so as not to hurt me. I took her hand in mine and brushed my lips over her knuckles, looking into her eyes with depth.

‘We had better keep going to get to the restaurant,’ she said with her other hand over her heart.

‘Indeed,’ I agreed, bowing my head slightly to her.

After ten minutes, Sarah stopped outside an Italian restaurant and looked up at me.

‘Appropriate,’ I said, and thought of Albert’s remarks and bantering between us in Italian. I followed her inside where we were escorted through the restaurant to a table.

We were seated opposite each other, close enough for an intimate conversation. It was perfect for the occasion. As the waiter filled our glasses with water, I ordered a red wine, Albert’s favourite.

‘I hope that you approve of the restaurant Liam, and that I have not added salt to the wound,’ Sarah said. She looked at me through her long black eyelashes.

‘It is perfect, thank-you.’ I reached over and gave her a hand hug.

She looked at the menu, but I did not. I sat and watched her, caressing her face with my eyes, then down to her shoulders and the little bit of cleavage that she allowed to be exposed to wandering eyes.

‘Mmmmm,’ I sung to myself.

She looked up at me, questioning what I had just said.

‘Yum,’ I said.

‘So, what have you found that is so yum to eat?’ she asked.

I looked at her and smiled coyly. ‘Let’s make a new tradition—whoever sets the date does the ordering. I will eat whatever you order for me,’ I suggested.

She looked at me and giggled.

‘What?’ I asked and narrowed my eyes at her.

‘I was wondering if I could order …’ She blushed and didn’t finish her sentence. But then she added, ‘Sounds like a fun tradition to start. Until of course, when we don’t go out anymore, and then it becomes a bad memory,’ she added.

‘Sarah—have you ever heard the Chinese proverb about the red thread?’ I asked.

‘No, why?’ She looked up at me from the menu.

I shook my head. ‘Just wondering ... ’

The waiter arrived to take our dinner order. Sarah did not speak to him, but pointed to each of the choices that she had made. I smiled at her. She was delightfully refreshing, and she held my heart in her hands.

‘Albert would have loved you Sarah,’ I said, looking at my wine on the table.

She reached across and covered my hand with hers. I looked up into her beautiful green eyes and panic started to rise in my chest.

Did she know that I had changed from an immortal to mortal?

If I didn’t have the blue energy field anymore would she still be attracted to me?

What if she thought that I was about to inherit a bucket load of money from Albert, and she was latching on to me for the money?

‘He was dirt poor Sarah. He came into this world with nothing and left with nothing,’ I said after a moment, still looking at my wine.

‘But he had you, and to him that was everything Liam. I saw it in his eyes when he looked at you the other night. You were more precious to him than any material possession.’

I looked up into her eyes again to see tears forming, ready to fall from the catchment of her eyelashes.

‘Yes. Yes he did Sarah, and I cared for him in every way that I possibly could to ensure that he lived a happy life. I loved him like a son loves his father,’ I said. I took a deep breath to control my emotion.

The waiter stepped into our view with our meals. A magnificent plate of pistachios and parmesan crumbed chicken thighs, deep fried, served with mash potatoes, asparagus, red pesto sauce was placed before me, while Sarah had a traditional Italian lasagne.

‘Ah, a woman with good taste, thank-you,’ I complimented her.

She smiled at me. ‘You are welcome,’ she said in a gentle voice.

I picked up my wine glass and held it up. ‘To Albert, may you enjoy your new life in the spiritual realm, blissfully happy in the company of your family for eternity … per Albert, che tu possa godere la vostra nuova vita nel regno spirituale, beatamente felice in compagnia della vostra famiglia per l’eternità.’

Sarah touched her wine glass against mine, and I drank deeply, lost in silence.

‘Why aren’t you married Sarah?’ I asked after a while as we ate.

‘I … I have never felt that connection that I have been looking for,’ she answered. She looked at me for a long moment, and then back to her food.

‘What connection have you been searching for?’ I asked, interested by her definition of a “connection”.

She looked up to the ceiling of the restaurant searching for words I guess, before she spoke, and then she looked back at me, her face glowing. ‘Not just a chemical attraction of our physical bodies, but, a connection of the mind, and of the soul. A feeling like I belong with him, and that he will love me deeply for eternity, and feel protective of me so that I feel completely safe, and in awe of him. I guess, like it was destiny for me to meet him. That he was heaven sent,’ she explained with a gentleness of spirit.

I looked deeply into her eyes while she spoke, and felt my heart start to beat as one with hers.

She was the One.

She was the One that had been chosen for me. I had absolutely no doubt.

She was the One holding on to the end of my red thread.

‘You will find him Sarah, I am sure of it. I believe that those of us who are destined to marry have had a soul chosen for us to be our mate for eternity. I believe in love, even at first sight, the connecting of two souls so powerful that touches your heart and your spirit, the depth of your being, so that being parted from them can be unbearable.’

She took a deep breath as she gazed deeply into my eyes, her pupils dilated and her lips parted. I picked up my wine glass and kept my eyes connected to hers. ‘To happy endings,’ I whispered.

‘To happy endings,’ she repeated, her voice barely audible.

When our meal had concluded, I stood and held out my hand for her. A powerful sensation entered my body as she placed her hand in mine. I hoped that she felt it too. I no longer had my blue energy force to affect her like a drug, but love was akin to a drug, and this was love, purely and deeply.