Immortal Darkness (Phantom Diaries #3) (4 page)

Aaron pulled me into his arms. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize this would freak you out.  I didn’t bring it here to scare you.  I can take it back if you want.”

“No, that’s okay. I want to read it.” I pulled back to look up at him. “I really appreciate you thinking of me as you found this. I think it’ll help me understand a lot about everything; about myself and about Kristine. I can’t help but feel there’s so much more to her story.” I paused suddenly feeling an intense need to open Kristine’s journal and finding out why she haunted Eric and what she wanted with Aaron and I. “I’m more curious to find out what that is more than you could possibly know.”

I shivered again and this time he seemed to feel the cold that I felt.

“Is it just me or is it a freezer in here?”

“I must’ve turned off the heat when I left for Paris. I just got in and didn’t get around to turning it back on.”

He left me to find the thermostat.  “This thing is reading just over seventy degrees.” Shaking his head he turned to look at the windows. “But it’s freezing.  Did you leave a window open?”

While he went to the window in the living room, I went to check the window in my bedroom.  “Everything is shut tight.”

“Look, something is obviously wrong with the heating system… or something.” Walking past me, he grabbed the suitcase I’d set by the door, then opened my hall closet and pulled out a warm coat, hat and scarf. “Here, put this on before you get sick. The stage awaits you and I can’t have you going on there with a cold.”

“Aaron, I’m sure it’ll warm up in a minute.  The system is probably just a little slow to warm up.”

“I can’t take that chance. I can’t leave you here to freeze all night.” He opened the door. “Come on.”

“Come on?  Where?”

“You need to be in a place that is safe and warm. I think it’s best if you come back to my place.”

I chuckled and shook my head.  “Aaron… I can’t possibly do that. I have a lot to do here.  I want to unpack, do my laundry, answer my messages and get things ready for the week to come.  Besides, don’t you think it’s a little awkward for me to be spending the night at your place when I’ve just refused your marriage proposal?”

“Absolutely not. Just because you don’t want to get married doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. It doesn’t mean I don’t still care for you and want what’s best for you.  It doesn’t mean I won’t do all I can to make sure you're well taken care of.”  He reached for my hand and threaded his fingers through mine, his eyes soft and filled with affection.  “Despite everything, I can’t help but believe you still have feelings for me… even just a little.” 

His grin, shy and boyish, held such hope.

I nodded.  “Of course I still feel something for you, Aaron.”  What that was I wasn’t exactly sure, but I certainly held great affection for him.

“Look. I’m not doing this to make some moves on you.  Admit it, this isn’t just a matter of a faulty thermostat or open window. It’s spooky in here. You can almost feel the ghosts leaking in through the walls. If you won’t come to my place, let me at least take you somewhere safe.  How ‘bout for starters, I take you somewhere for some good coffee.  It’ll warm you up and we can decide there where you go after that.”

“Aaron, please…”

“Annette.”  He licked his dry lips and looked around the room before bringing his tired and heartbroken gaze back to me. “Listen, I understand your innocence. You're young and naïve… inexperienced, and I by no means say that in derogatory terms, just frank honesty. I think your inexperience might leave you unaware just how heartbroken you left me. I brought you to France, to meet my family, to propose, and you ran off.  You literally ran off and left the country without a single word to me.”

I cast my gaze to the floor, ashamed of my behavior, but loathed to be reminded once again how ineptly I’d acted.

“Please, this isn’t an attack on your character, but my need to let you know about mine. I’m a bit more worldly than you. I’ve been around a time or two. I’ve known women who are calculating, manipulative, and cunning. They can take a man’s heart and trample it with their elegant heels, all while keeping their immaculately manicured claws firmly around his wallet. I know how to keep my heart under wraps, keep it safe. I’ve travelled the world and have seen it all… but you.  Nothing in my life prepared me for you, for how I would come to feel about you. You can’t begin to imagine what it was for me when I found Rupert’s ring on my dresser.”

He held my gaze with an intensity that shook me.

“In my heart… in my gut, I knew right away what it meant, but I didn’t want to believe it. And when Mother told me you’d left, I didn’t want to believe that either. I searched everywhere for you, desperate to find you and prove my mother wrong.  I wanted to believe you’d gone off to roam the grounds, after all, a marriage proposal was a lot to think about. My search for you led me to the very place Kristine had plotted to have Rupert killed.”

“Aaron,” I said softly, hurting for all the pain I’d caused him.  “You don’t have to tell me all this.  I know I was wrong and…”

“No, I need to tell you this. I stood there, in that very deadly spot and looked out over the Aragon property, very much as Rupert must have done that day. I stood there, Annette, and saw it all.  I saw just how vile and ugly a woman’s heart could be.  I saw Kristine’s love for Eric and her desire to get Rupert out of the way; to take only what she wanted from him, and to take his life in order to attain it.”  He swallowed the ball of pain that’d accumulated in his throat and looked thoughtfully at me.  “Throughout all that, I saw Rupert’s love for Kristine. Undying, unending, undeniable. She needn’t have plotted to kill him for he would have gladly died for her, so deep was the love he had for her.  For all the pain, for the constant betrayal, he still loved her and still wanted her.  Had she come to him to ask for his forgiveness, he would not have hesitated… anything to get her back… anything to have her in his life.”

He pulled me into his arms, but refrained from pulling me too close. “I understand the love Rupert had for Kristine. I understand that intensity, that depth of emotion. It’s the same love and devotion I have for you. It’s irrational, more so when you realize how rational a man I am.  I’ve tried to fight it, but I can’t help how I feel. I can’t help what I feel for you.  While you might see a man of the world, an Aragon, the owner of the Opera House, but the simple truth is that I’m just a man… a man who is in love with you.”

“Aaron,” I whispered, touched by all he’d said.  Cupping his cheek in my hand, I wished I had the ability to sooth all his pain, but knew there was little I could do.

He pressed his cheek heavily into my hand and closed his eyes.

“All right,” I murmured. He’d done so much for me, had been there every time I’d felt blue or insecure or inadequate. “I won’t let you down, Aaron.  From the very first moment I met you, you’ve been there for me. I want you to know you can count on me as well.”

Turning his lips into my palm, he kissed me, then pulled me into his arms.  “Good,” he whispered into my hair, his voice filled with relief, with restrained joy. Bringing his lips to my temple, he muttered words of hope for our future, of time and space that would allow our love to grow, of the blessing of my part in his life.

It all sounded so perfect, so promising.

As he brought his lips to my cheeks and slowly kissed his way to my lips, my own longing and desire for him grew. I forgot about the proposal, about everything and sought only to erase the pain I had caused him, only wanting to put aside the memories of the proposal, and reassure him of the affection I held for him. I did not want to marry him, yet I did care for him.

Was it simply the lack of pressure that left me feeling so willing to succumb? Had the weight of that diamond on my finger been so suffocating? 

With ardor and passion, his lips took possession of mine. Indeed, he’d been around, he’d known women and he’d gained experience; the experience to play his lips against mine in a way that left me weak, to run his fingers along my tender skin and leave it begging for more and to hush words of love and desire in my ear.

He cupped my cheeks, reluctantly pulled his lips away from mine and looked into my eyes, his gaze brighter than it’d been just minutes earlier.

I couldn’t help but admire his ability to be so candid, to show himself so vulnerable.

“Come,” he said softly as he reached for my hand to lead me out of my apartment.

In silence that was bathed in a new sense of serenity, a new sense of comfort in each other’s presence, we rode down the elevator and headed out to his waiting car and driver.

“Where to, sir?” the driver asked.

Aaron put his hand reassuringly to my knee.  “Home, Wilfred. Take us home.”  His playful glance played in the air a moment before he brought his eyes to me with a teasing wink.  “I have something I want to show you.”

Chap
t
er 3

T
he city was alive and exciting. People walked the streets, shopping, talking, eating. Cabs honked their horn at the slightest hesitation cars showed at green lights. Buses elbowed their way through it all, squeezing their large bulk between the tiniest space by surrounding cars.

Through the havoc that was New York’s streets on any given night, the driver easily maneuvered Aaron’s car, bringing us to Aaron’s building.

I glimpsed Aaron’s sly grin as we rode up in his personal elevator.

“What are you up to?” I asked.

“You’ll see.”

The elevator opened directly into his spacious and luxurious apartment… filled with red roses.

“Aaron!” I couldn’t help but smile.  “These are all so beautiful.”

He beamed. “I know you returned the engagement ring, and I understand you don’t want to get married…” He turned away and scanned the room then muttered softly, “For now.”

Plowing through the dozens of roses he reached for a briefcase on the dining room table and flipped it open. “Realizing you didn’t want to marry me was difficult, and on the long flight back to New York I managed to bring myself to a place where I could accept it… understand it. However, as we made our approach, as I scanned the New York skyline, as I realized I was coming home, not only here…”  he spread his arms out and gestured at the lavish apartment, “but also the Opera House.  And then it suddenly struck me.  You ran away without saying anything.  You didn’t even want to see me.”

With an old thick binder in his hand he turned to me. “I almost panicked at the thought.  I mean, leaving me behind was one thing, but I would hate to think that my foolish need to push you into a marriage you weren’t ready for could actually push you away from the opera.”

Stepping to him, my lips parted, I was eager to set the record straight, but he continued.

“I don’t want whatever has happened between us to affect your role at the Opera House. I depend on you.  The whole cast and crew depends on you. I would hate to see you leave because of me. Please tell me you’ll stay on.”

“Aaron, my role at…”

“I’ll do whatever you want in order to keep you with us.  Give you a bigger dressing room, get you a private driver, arrange to have the finest caterer fix meals just the way you like them.”

Charmed by his effort, I chuckled. “You don’t have to do any of that, Aaron.”

He set the binder down and came to me. “I want to do all that. I want to do what you want.” His eyes pierced into mine and held me. “I want to make you happy, Annette. I mean that.”

Still chuckling, I reached for his hand, eager to cut through the tension that had so quickly grown. “Of course I’ll stay Aaron. I love the Opera House. I love everyone there and have no intention of going anywhere.”

With a blend of enthusiasm and relief, I leaned into him. “Thank you,” he murmured as he kissed my brow.