Love Never Dies (25 page)

Julia valiantly tried to
amuse herself over the next hour as she waited impatiently for Simon to return. She flicked through late morning religious stations and finally settled upon a talk show about people who had left their vast fortunes to their pets. Ninety minutes later she was pacing the room impatiently. Julia had had a great deal of time to think and once again spoke to Seth.

“I think I love your brother,” she whispered into the dancing TV screen.
“I hope you don’t mind so very much Seth, for I’ve been so lonely. Something about him seems so right.” She tried to send out a message to her lost lover and as always, the moment she did, a fiery response slammed back. Her body tingled as her heart ignited and she could almost hear Seth’s melodious voice.

“I want you to
live and love, sweet lady. Love my brother- it’s alright with me.” The message resonated through the room and heated her heaving chest. Grateful tears streamed down her face as the soul housed within gave her permission to love someone he had once loved. She lay back upon the crumpled spread and cried, finally dozing off only to be awakened by several sharp raps upon the motel door.

Five taps, then two, and Julia flung open the door, throwing her anxious body into his arms, her chest burning in unrestrained response to his love. Simon was sodden but she didn’t care
, and finding his lips kissed their chilly firmness. He grinned down at her and she had to laugh at his disheveled state. His raven hair, plastered under the now dripping cap, spiked comically while raindrops slid off the tip of his straight nose. His pants were so damp they shone darkly and his black leather jacket was even shinier with damp, the rain puddling about his frozen feet.

“I think I’d better change,” he suggested, giving an uncontrollable shiver.

“And take a hot shower.” She helped him remove his soaked jacket and he left his Rockports right beside the door.

“I’ll be out in just a few minutes.
I’ll hang my wet things on the wall heater and hopefully they’ll be dry within a few hours.” He swooped down, retrieving his only other clean outfit from the sports bag and hurried into the bathroom.

The rain continued to pour, punctuated by occasional flashes of lightning accompanied by thunder from the not
-so-distant Sierra Madres. Within fifteen minutes Simon re-entered the main room, drying his hair with a small white towel.

“Are you better now?” Julia asked, noticing his cheeks were rosy from the hot shower.

“Much.”

“The car?
” she queried.

“
I parked it in Sierra Madre, behind an apartment building. I chose the spot because I’d noticed a bus stop only a few blocks away and thought it would prove convenient. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate and I was soaked by the time I made it to the bus stop. I stood there for at least fifteen minutes waiting for the pokey bus. Then, it dropped me two full blocks from here and I had to run in the pouring rain. I was never so happy to see the flashing lights of this motel in my whole life!”

Julia laughed.
“Well, you’re safe and warm now. “Why don’t you come over here and I’ll warm you up a bit more?”

Simon gulped, his eyes flitting to the burning l
amps. Julia stretched out her arms to him and he melted into her embrace, kissing her long and hard.

“I want to see you,” she whispered, her eager hands playing with the buttons of Simon’s blue jeans.
His hands stilled hers. “The accident...,” he stammered. “It... it disfigured me horribly Julia. Not only was my leg mangled, but I suffered a severe injury to my back. You may have felt the scar?”

Julia had indeed sensed
the raised scar tissue, but the glimpse of it held no fears for her. “I don’t care what it looks like,” she said truthfully. “I only care about you. Scars fade with time, but not how I feel about you.”

“Or Seth?”

“Or your brother Seth.” Her heart flared and burned as her brown-flecked eyes studied him, acknowledging his uncertainly. “I will love him always Simon, but there is room in my heart for another. Seth has allowed there to be room. His love burns through me as I touch you and I know I have his blessing. I will always love and miss him, but he will never supercede you.”

The words were so sincere that Simon wanted to weep, but he had to stay focused in order to deny her what she requested.

“Please, at least for a while, let us love in the darkness. I need the darkness Julia, to hide my scars and my pain; pain I have not completely shared with you and am unready to do so as of yet. Please indulge me, love.”

Julia hesitated and gazed up into his dark eyes for a long moment until finally reaching up to str
oke the strange white streak dividing the crown of his head and moving to the scar near his mouth. “Alright, but only if you call me by that name again.”

“My love?”

“That’s it. Say it again Simon,” and she kissed him full on the mouth.

“My sweet, sweet love,” he repeated obediently
, and pulled away from her for only an instant to switch off the table lamps, plunging the room into blessed darkness as the heavy lining of the curtains turned the room into night as the storm raged outside.

His hands sought her silky hair in the darkness as his nostrils inhaled her sweet clean scent.
Her own hands played with the dampness of his hair and he lowered her upon the made-up bed, no longer able to hear the drone of thunder or pounding of the rain. Simon could only feel and hear Julia. He kissed her deeply, allowing her to remove his shirt and explore the warmth of his chest. Her hands stilled at the scar on his back, but he urged her on.

“It’s an old wound my love.
Never mind it.” His lips lowered to her breast and he savored the feel and taste of her.

The thunder drown
ed out her cries as he loved her first with his mouth, kissing her so passionately and desperately that she thought her heart would burst from the very sweetness of it. Then his lips trailed downward, finding the sweet joining of her legs and teasing her with his tongue, causing her to cry out once, then twice as he brought her to fulfillment. Julia’s hands desperately removed his restraining trousers and pulled him atop her and Simon moved slowly, almost languidly inside of her, enjoying the feel of her damp body and wanting to prolong the joy of the moment. Finally, he could hold back no longer and with a cry, collapsed above her, convinced she would forgive him for everything.



They slept long and deep into the afternoon, Simon eventually pulling the sheet and blan
kets over them to ward off the creeping chill. He nearly roused once to pull on his briefs and jeans, but sank back further into sleep before that important task was accomplished. And so the afternoon approached, as the rain slackened and the titter of the common sparrow could be heard outside their door followed by the barking of an impatient dog. Julia stretched and snuggled against Simon, the memory of his passion and fulfilling love causing her to lift her head and kiss the hard point where his shoulder jutted toward her. He slept deeply, his breathing even and relaxed, and Julia allowed him to continue his peaceful slumber, rising ever so quietly to retrieve her discarded clothes.

Julia
headed into the bathroom, enjoying a long wash before returning to the dimly lit room to find the gym bag she’d hurriedly thrust clean clothes in the evening before. Simon shifted and pushed the restraining sheet away, sleeping half on his side to leave his bare chest completely exposed. The imp in her reared its mischievous head and stealthily she slowly slid the sheet away, wanting to revel in his beautiful male nakedness. He twitched, turning upon his back as the sheet lowered. Julia couldn’t believe her eyes as the light from the open bathroom door poured into the room and over his still figure. She moved closer and actually reached out a finger toward the betraying mark, a cry involuntarily rising from her overwrought throat.

Simon bolted upright, one hand instinctively rea
ching for the covers, his other groping for the revolver he had laid upon the nightstand earlier. His eyes found her mortified face and started. She pointed shakily.

“Where did you get that... that tattoo?” her voice shrieked.

“Tattoo?” he repeated dumbly, following the accusatory path of her finger. There, nestled directly to the right of his left hipbone, and perfectly placed between it and his maleness were the delicate colors of a simple tattoo depicting two rose bushes, one pink, one crimson as they intertwined and trailed upward to become one. Upon the thorny base of the main stalk, the initials SMH rested above the letters JAM; the pair encased in the delicate outline of a heart. It was the same design found in the envelope behind Seth’s chest of drawers over ten months prior.

Simon gulped as all color drained from his beloved’s face.

“Seth drew that design,” Julia gasped, trying to comprehend the implications of that artistic impression on Simon’s abdomen, her chest burning painfully.

“I know,” he said simply, not seeking to deny it.

“What’s it doing there?”

“I had it done after... after I met you.”

“After you met me? Isn’t that taking your vow to protect Seth’s lover a bit too far?”

Simon didn’t reply, only pulling the sheet over his nakedness as he waited
among the tumbled covers for her next assault.

“Those are Seth’s initials.”

“And mine as well,” he said wearily.

“What?”

“His name was Seth Michael Hayes, mine is Simon Mitchell Hayes. We have the same initials.”

“How convenient!”

“Yes,” he said deliberately. “It was.”

“Who are you?” she whispered, her heart suddenly constricting as she struggled for breath and control.

“The man who loves you.”

“And which man is that?” she asked raggedly, the truth striking her like a bolt of lightning.
There had been no twin of Seth. Simon was Seth and his guilty eyes didn’t bother to deny it.

Julia scre
amed and tossed the nearest item she could find at his traitorous head, the remote hitting him squarely upon the nose, causing the blood to spurt into his suddenly attentive hand.

“Please Julia, calm down,” he begged
, trying to staunch the sudden flow of blood staining his fingers.

“Calm down?
Calm down Simon, or is it Seth, or who is it exactly? You played me for a fool!”

He moved then, shooting off the bed, totally heedless of his nakedness or the dreadful scar that disfigured his once smooth back.
Another thick cruel blemish ran the length of his thigh, showing the rough horizontal cross scars of desperate surgery. Simon hadn’t underestimated the extent of his injuries. He grabbed her shoulders roughly and willed her to meet his eyes. Julia’s head jerked in denial, her limbs frantically struggling like a trapped bird to escape his strong grasp as he clutched her shoulders and shook her fiercely, trying to make her understand and demanding she listen.

“It’s true Julia.
It’s Seth. Please, please listen to me!”

She flung herself away from him and crawled across the expanse of the floor, desperate to shut out the image of her once dead lover.
He let her escape to the corner, where Julia sat huddled, her knees clenched tightly in her arms as she cried tears of denial and agony. Simon methodically found his briefs and jeans, and once again decently clad, lowered himself by her trembling form. He reached out an arm and rested a hand upon her shaking shoulder, incapable of making her hysterical sobbing cease.

Julia never knew how much time elapsed before she was able to raise her blurry eyes to his adjacent form.
He sat perfectly still and uncomfortable upon the thinly carpeted floor, crying soundlessly, the tears spilling over his lean cheeks as he struggled to control his own sobs.

“Simon?” she
asked tentatively, her anger and grief suddenly dissipated. He was incapable of answering and she rounded her arms over his shaking torso and drew him to her. She sat that way for a long time, smoothing his hair and muttering incoherent endearments to her poor lost love. Her heart suddenly expanded, the burning soul swelling and bursting within, until the full force of his essence was once again inside of her. She gasped in amazement as Simon lifted his tear-stained face.

“Do you know me now love?” There was no question who now sat beside her.
Only Seth’s soul could burn and torture her heart as his did. Only Seth could fill her up, every fiber of her being resonating with his essence and love.

“Oh Seth!”
Suddenly she was weeping again, only this time in joy.

She was violently hauled back onto the tumbled covers of their temporary bed where Seth cradled her as he swore explicitly under his breath.
It was so very unlike him that she would have laughed if she could have possibly controlled her tears. She understood he was seeking to deny and retaliate against all the pain his passing had caused.

Finally, when they bec
ame calmer, he stroked her damp hair before sitting up and gazing down at her.

“It’s high time for the truth,” he announced, pulling her up beside him and propping some supportive pillows behind her weary back as she wilted against him.