Mortal Desire (19 page)

When she stood, I raised her hand to my lips and kissed it. ‘Grazie per la cena Sarah, che è magnifica,’ I said into her ear so that only she could hear.

She looked deeply into my eyes, placed her hand onto my shoulder and whispered my name.

Her closeness was driving me insane. I wanted to kiss her passionately and hold her in my arms and never let her go. But instead, I closed my eyes for a moment, and stepped back from her. I took her hand in mine, and walked her out of the restaurant.

She was very quiet as we walked.

‘Are you okay?’ I asked her after a while.

She kept her head down. ‘Yes,’ she answered in a quiet voice. ‘You just ... you … take my breath away sometimes,’ she added.

I smiled to myself. ‘Shall I give you the kiss of life to return your breath to you? It would be my pleasure after all,’ I whispered into her ear as we walked.

She lowered her head and smiled, then grabbed the ends of my scarf and led me to a sidewalk tree and faced me.

I looked into her eyes and placed my fingers under her chin. I lifted her lips to mine, lingering there as I felt the euphoria of love engulf me.

She placed her fingers into my hair behind my head and pressed her lips more firmly to mine, deepening the kiss. I became lost. Lost in sensation and emotion as my head began to spin. I couldn’t get enough of her.

I pulled away from her and ran my hand through my hair. I closed my eyes and tried to gain control of my body again. ‘So ... what movie are we seeing Miss Flynn?’ I asked, trying to take my mind off her.

She ran her finger along my bottom lip.

‘It is classified information. If I tell you, I will have to kill you,’ she said, and then smiled at me.

Oh, playful Sarah….

‘What? Kill me with passion? Because then I will just surrender myself to you now,’ I said, and took her hand in mine again.

‘Liam …’ she whispered and looked into my eyes with a sadness that almost broke my heart.

I hesitated and placed my head against the door of my apartment before I went in. Spending time with Sarah tonight had been a gift. But it was time to face the emptiness of the apartment I had shared with Albert.

In the pit of my stomach I felt the absence of Albert with great intensity. But he was happy. He had completed his mission. And he had been rewarded with the greatest gift of eternal life.

I took a deep breath and entered the quietness of my once warm and welcoming home.

Before I had even stepped fully into the room, Matisse was there to greet me. I picked her up. She purred and butted her forehead against mine.

‘Good evening Matisse,’ I said, and watched her gaze move around the room. I turned to see what she was looking at, and realized it was the spirit of Albert. He was letting me know that he was good.

‘Hi Albert,’ I said, ‘Matisse said that you are still ugly!’ I chuckled to myself and placed Matisse onto the floor, knowing that he would visit me in a dream tonight as he had told me he would.

The shower was a welcome relaxant while I stood under the soft stream of hot water. But I went to bed feeling every bit the mortal human that I now was, including the hunger for passion with Sarah.

Hmmm ... desires of the flesh, of the heart, of our need to love and to be loved. It was very powerful, intense and addictive.

I drifted off into sleep with my arms crossed over my chest.

In the depths of nothingness in my unconsciousness in sleep, I saw a blue energy enter my mind. A vision of Albert stood before me. I shielded my eyes. He was almost too beautiful to look at. He laid a hand on my shoulder and thanked me, and showed me a box to look in after I had married sometime in the future. Then he smiled at me, and faded from view, taking the spiritual rapturous sensation with him.

The heavy nothingness of sleep blanketed me then, and time passed by unnoticed.

*~*~*~*~*

When the first rays of the new day speckled in through the blinds, I caught sight of a knitting needle placed on the bedside table.

I had had an unwelcome intruder during the night.

CHAPTER FOUR

Dark clouds gathered overhead when I stood at the 3pm graveside ceremony for Albert. The burial service was to start in five minutes, and I was the sole attendant as was expected. It was how it was meant to be. We had arrived together four hundred years ago, and now, here I was with him as his borrowed body was committed to return to the Earth.

Everything was in shades of grey while I stood and waited, except for the priest’s vestment of purple.

When he started the commendation and farewell, I felt a warm hand slide into mine.

It was Sarah’s.

I had memorized every facet of it since we first touched. I brought her hand up to my lips and kissed it.

From then on I closed my eyes and listened to the priest in his prayers of commending and entrusting. I opened them again when the coffin was lowered into the grave.

‘Earth to Earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life …’

‘He’s not there anymore you know Sarah. His spirit is free. The physical body is the only thing that chains us to the Earth,’ I said, watching until the casket was resting on the Earth beneath. I stepped forward and picked up a handful of soil and dropped it on top of the casket. ‘Fino a quando ci incontriamo di nuovo Albert,’ I said before I returned to Sarah’s side.

‘I know … I wonder what the spirit or soul looks like?’ she asked.

‘Beautiful, spectacular I would imagine. With an endless energy and strong life force that reflects the love of our Creator,’ I suggested.

‘Did I paint your soul, your spirit Liam? Is that what kept me awake that night?’

‘Perhaps—I don’t know…’ I replied. I could never speak of what I knew of the spiritual world to any mortal human.

I thanked the priest, and then we turned to walk away.

‘What did you say as you dropped the soil onto Albert’s coffin?’

‘I said, until we meet again Albert.’

She breathed out audibly. ‘It is not the “halo effect”,’ she stated again.

I smiled to myself as we got into the cab and headed to Café Ooh Laa Laaa!

‘Thank-you for coming to Albert’s funeral,’ I said to Sarah when we sat in the café with our cups of tea and tasty morsels.

‘I wanted to be there for you, and for Albert. I liked him from the moment that I met him you know, after I moved beyond his ugliness. Life must have been tough for him.’

I looked down and smiled. ‘How could I have been so lucky to have met you Sarah?’ I said with affection, shaking my head filled with awe for her.

‘I don’t believe luck had anything to do with it Liam. Is it meant to be,’ she said.

I reached over and grabbed her hand and kissed it.

‘Ti amo,’ I whispered to her.

‘Translation?’ she requested.

‘Je t’aime,’ I whispered and kissed her hand again.

She sat back in her chair and sighed with a dreamy look on her face. She had no idea that I had just told her that I loved her in Italian and French. And I liked it that way.

Darkness had grown when we walked out of the café. Sarah stepped ahead of me and started dragging me along like an anchor.

We crossed the road and into the park where I caught sight of what had attracted her. It was our oak tree, lit up with fairy lights.

I let go of her hand and started to run towards it. Sarah squealed in delight and chased me. She grabbed hold of my coat and tugged me back stalling my winning way.

She arrived at the trunk of the ancient tree before me, turned and leaned back on the rough bark, huffing and puffing. I pulled up in front of her and placed my hands on the tree trunk on either side of her.

‘I win,’ Sarah exclaimed with a smile that lit up her face.

‘But I get the prize,’ I said in a low voice as I moved my lips to hers, teasing her, brushing my lips across hers but not kissing her.

She moaned and put her hands on either side of my face and pulled me close and kissed me long and hard and deep. I moaned deep in my throat, and tightened my hands around her waist while waves of desire overcame me. I pulled away from her. ‘Ti amo,’ I whispered to her before I returned my lips to hers and hugged her closely to my body.

She pressed herself into me even more than I thought possible.

‘Je t’aime,’ I whispered breathlessly, and stepped away from her again, running my hands through my hair while walking a little distance away from her.

I wanted more of her than I could have.

I turned around and faced her. ‘I love you,’ I finally said.

She stood still, frozen like a statue, with her hand over her heart.

I started to panic. She did not respond to my declaration of love. I was scared that she did not feel the same way about me, and that I had made an utter fool of myself.

I blinked, inhaled deeply, lowered my head and turned away from her. I put my hands on top of my head, and lifted my chin as tears started to fill my eyes.

Then she was there, behind me, wrapping her arms around me.

‘I love you too,’ she whispered.

I lowered my head and let my tears fall at that moment.

I turned around and pulled her against me, picked her up off the ground and buried my face next to her neck. I carried her back under the ancient tree, and kissed her. I didn’t ravish; I didn’t take. I coaxed, soothed and enticed. When she sagged against me, I pulled back slightly, and dropped my forehead against hers.

Then I got down on one knee in front of her, and took her hand in mine.

‘Marry me Sarah. I know that we have only known each other for a blink in time, but I cannot be apart from you. I love you so deeply that it hurts when you are not near me. Will you marry me?’ I asked. My voice was husky, thick with emotion.

There was a deafening silence. I watched a single tear roll down her face in slow motion. She looked from my eyes to her hand captured in mine, and then back to my eyes. I tried to control the butterflies that were flying about hyper-actively in my stomach, and waited for her answer with patience.

She kneeled down in front of me and ran her finger along my jaw line to my lips.

‘Yes,’ she whispered, and moved her lips onto mine and kissed me with a tenderness that obliterated my butterflies.

I pulled away for a breath. ‘Sarah,’ I whispered, before I kissed her with a depth of being that I never knew.

She pulled away from me, and looked up into my eyes. ‘Make love to me Liam,’ she whispered against my lips.

I moaned and kissed her again and pulled away. ‘I can’t, you are not my wife—old fashioned remember,’ I said with a lopsided smile and an apologetic expression.

She kissed me hungrily. ‘Then let’s get married soon,’ she whispered, and moved her lips back to mine.

The heavens opened up then, showering us with cool heavy rain.

I picked Sarah up and put her over my shoulder and raced through the park to hail a cab. I was out of breath when we slid into the back seat together.

I held Sarah’s hand and looked into her eyes. She was deliriously happy, reflecting what I felt. The red thread was shorter.

We raced from the cab and into the foyer of Sarah’s apartment building. She pressed the button before I could and then stood back and smiled at me.

‘Something amusing Miss Flynn?’ I asked her.

‘Yes. But I can’t share it with you because we are not married,’ she said blushing.

‘Is that so?’ I questioned before we stepped into the elevator, accompanied by another couple.

As soon as they stepped out, and the elevator started ascending again, I turned to Sarah and pulled her towards me seeking her lips on mine.

She threaded her fingers through my hair as we kissed, and moved her hands to wander over my body. Desire flamed in my blood, hot and pure, driving me insane.

I stepped back from her, trying to control my urge to undress her, when the elevator stopped, and a man joined us.

I looked at Sarah, narrowed my eyes at her and shook my head before I looked to the floor of the elevator with a wry smile. At the ping of the opening elevator doors, I grabbed her hand and walked her to her apartment door, knocking on it before she had the chance to unravel me in the walkway.

Sarah lifted her fingers to trace along my lips as the door was opened by her mother.

‘Hello you two, come in!’ Sarah’s mother said in an elated voice. ‘Why didn’t you use your key Sarah?’

I looked at Sarah and smiled.

‘Liam is a knocker. He likes to knock—politely.
Apparently
he is old fashioned,’ Sarah said, tongue-in-cheek. She looked at me and raised her left eyebrow before she walked through the door.

I followed her to the living room and sat in the single sofa away from her. It was safer that way. Especially with the visions of us together that scrambled my brain.

‘Liam, why are you sitting over there?’ Sarah asked.

I placed my hand over my heart and then ran my fingers through my hair.

She came and sat on the floor in front of me, and put her hands on my knees. ‘I’m sorry. I will behave … for now,’ she whispered out of earshot from her mother.

‘Thank-you,’ I mouthed to her.

A pot of tea turned up with three tea cups then, and Mrs. Flynn sat down to join us.

‘Liam, I am sorry about the loss of your Uncle,’ she offered in a solemn voice.

‘Thank-you Mrs. Flynn. I will miss him dearly. I have found it very difficult the last few nights alone in our home. Tonight will be quite unbearable I think,’ I said, and looked into my cup of tea.

‘You are welcome to stay the night here with us if you think that it will ease your burden a little,’ she offered.

I looked at Sarah. Her eyes lit up like a Elliotttmas tree.

‘Thank-you for your kindness. I will consider your offer,’ I replied.

‘Liam, I must thank-you. My daughter has been so happy since she met you. It has been a very welcome and pleasant change,’ Mrs. Flynn commented.

I looked at Sarah and smiled at her with closed lips.

‘Momma, Liam asked me to marry him tonight … and I said yes,’ Sarah said with a soft voice.

Mrs. Flynn went silent. She stared at Sarah and her mouth gaped open.

My heart started to beat faster. I know that we had only known each other for about a week. But Sarah was the one for me. I had absolutely no doubt in my mind.

‘No. Just no. It is too soon!’ Mrs Flynn said. She looked from Sarah to me, frowned and shook her head.

‘I love him,’ Sarah said with pleading eyes as she looked at her mother.

Mrs Flynn stood then. She leaned forward and grabbed Sarah’s hand and dragged her away to the closest room and slammed the door shut.

I let out the breath that I had unknowingly held. I closed my eyes and placed my hand over my lips. How could I tell Mrs Flynn that I had waited for four hundred years for her. And this is why I had no doubt that Sarah was the one.

Muffled shouting came from behind the closed door.

Perhaps I should not stay here for the night?

But I had no choice. I was a marked man. I was safer here than in my own apartment.

I carried the tray with the tea pot, tea cups and saucers to the kitchen. I placed it on the kitchen top and leaned against the bench, pausing with my mind and body. I sensed Sarah behind me then, and closed my eyes. She brushed her fingers lightly over the back of my neck, sending tingles down my spine.

‘Nothing that my mother can say will change my mind. I want you ... with me ... beside me ... together ... soon.’

I opened my eyes, turned around and faced her. I looked into her eyes. Her pupils were large.

I closed my eyes then and swallowed. ‘I don’t want to cause a rift between you and your mother Sarah ... I have waited for you for such a long time. I love you deeply, but you have to be sure about the way you feel about me. You have to be sure about us. I will wait for you.’

She ran her finger along my bottom lip, and kissed me. ‘I am sure. I have never been so sure about anything in my entire life.’

There was something gentle in her voice, winding through me, making it easier to breath.

I placed my finger under her chin and lifted her lips back to mine. I deepened the kiss and our tongues tangled in frenzy. I pulled away breathless.

‘You can sleep in my bed,’ Sarah breathed with a soft and suggestive voice, her fingers now tracing the line of my jaw.

I lowered my head, breathed out through my lips and gave her a coy smile. ‘Old fashioned remember,’ I said in a quiet voice. ‘I will sleep on the sofa,’ I added.

‘Mmmmm, even more romantic, in front of the fire,’ she added, looking up at me through her long eyelashes.

‘You are incorrigible Miss Flynn!’ I said to her with my hands on either side of her face before I kissed forehead. ‘I thought that you said that you would behave?’

She made a sad face. ‘I did, didn’t I?’

I shook my head at her, smiling.