Arielle Immortal Awakening (17 page)

“Yes, Mother, I’m out here reading.”

“Monica called from St. Jean to let you know that a young man is looking for you.”

Arielle’s breath stopped in her throat, and her lungs locked. Monica was the housekeeper that took care of their holiday home. She felt numb, unable to move until she heard her mother’s voice again.

“Arielle, did you hear me?”

“Yes, Mother, I did. Did she say what he wanted?”

“She said that he lost the number for your mobile. He wanted her to call you to get the number.”

“Thank you, Mummy, I’ll call her back shortly,” she said. She took a deep breath, another deep breath, and picked up the phone, her hand trembling.

Monica picked up on the second ring.

“Hello, Monica, it’s Arielle. Is he still there?”

“No, he left, but he said he would be back tomorrow to see if I had been in touch with you.”

“Did he tell you his name?”

She wasn’t sure why she even asked that. She just wanted to act as if Sebastian was of no importance to her.

“Yes, he said his name was Sebastian Gaulle.”

Instantly her heart began beating at a very fast rate, her face flushed, and that same breathless excitement took over her whole body.

She gave Monica her phone number and thanked her for calling. Then she hung up the phone and sank back on the bench, staring at the trees.

A million questions filled her mind. What would she say if she had the chance to talk with him again? How could she address the Annabel issue without letting him know that she had been intruding in his family affairs? Why would he even want to talk to her? She was sure Annabel had told him that she had been at the house. How would he ever be able to explain Annabel to her? And what about all the things he’d told her in the magical days they had shared at the beach?

Once again she felt like she was going out of her mind. One thing she knew for sure, the next day she would be waiting all day for his call.

That night she laid awake in her bed, rehearsing the way she would handle the call. She was desperately in love with him and she couldn’t do anything about that. At five o’clock in the morning her eyes were still open, but her body was tired and she felt exhausted.

Suddenly her phone rang and the sound made her jump. She had fallen asleep and she was completely disoriented. In trying to get to the phone, she fell out of bed. She finally picked up on the fifth ring, totally out of breath and whimpering a bit from the pain of her fall. “Hello,” she said sleepily into the phone.

“Arielle?” It was that musical, beautiful, velvety voice on the other end.

Her body went into panic mode, her face felt like it was burning, and her heart was pounding so hard, she thought it might burst.

“Yes?” was all she could manage to say.

“It’s Sebastian. You do remember me, right?” he asked, chuckling softly. That he could laugh after all he had put her through made her mad. She decided to play it cool.

“Yes, I remember you. What can I do for you?” Her voice, though, didn’t actually sound very cool; it sounded pretty upset.

“You sound angry. Are you?”

“Should I be?” She was still trying to achieve that cool, jaded tone, but was failing miserably.

“Yes, I think you should. I’m sorry about missing your party,” he said. “I’ll have to make up for that.”

“Is that all you think I’m upset about?”

“Well, I can’t think of anything else I have done that would upset you,” he said. He sounded truly puzzled, but she was convinced it was just more phoniness from a heartless imposter.

Now she was really angry. She couldn’t keep her voice down and she couldn’t stay calm. She swallowed hard before she went on.

“Sebastian!” she exclaimed.

“Yes?” His voice was maddeningly unruffled.

“Maybe you can tell me if your wife is okay with you calling me.”

There was silence on the other end for such a long time that she was about to hang up. She thought he was already gone.

Then she heard his voice again, hard and steady. “What did you say?” he finally asked. There seemed to be space between each of the words he spoke, as if what she had said was somehow incomprehensible.

“I was just wondering,” she repeated. “I was wondering if your wife, Annabel, is okay with your calling me this morning.”

A quiet oath escaped Sebastian’s lips. Then she heard him mumble something under his breath in an angry voice. She could hear his voice clearly enough, but she couldn’t make out exactly what he was saying. It sounded like cursing, but she wasn’t sure. He started rambling and then stopped mid-sentence. “I’m going to have to call you back,” he muttered, and then he was gone before she could say another thing.

But he didn’t call back, and she was sure that was the last time she would ever hear from him. She felt completely at a loss. Why had she created a fight? Now he was
really
gone.

She hated herself. She burst into tears, sobbing all over again. She couldn’t even call him back - his number hadn’t registered on her phone - and so she had no way of ever getting in touch with him again.

“Oh my God, I will never get over this!”
she sobbed. “
I will be a lonely, unhappy soul that walks this earth with no purpose and no hope. I had my dream and I threw it away!”
she said, breaking into sobs all over again.

Somehow she made it through the rest of the day alone. She didn’t want to see anyone or be with anyone. She spent all day in her room, reading and listening to music. But nothing would make her feel better, nothing could distract from the greatest pain she had ever felt. Now she was crying not only about losing the man of her dreams, but about the fact that she herself had actually chased him away by not giving him a chance to explain. What might he have said if only she had listened to him instead of blurting out her hasty, angry words?

It is so strange to feel that you have the whole world in your hands, only to lose it again in four short days.

Chapter 14

I
t was Sunday morning and the girls were moving into their flat, trying to get settled. Classes would start the next day.

“Arielle, can we talk?” Eva said. She could see something in Arielle’s eyes that frightened her, and she was pressing her lips together in the way she did when she was nervous.

“Well? What is it?” Arielle asked again, impatiently.

Eva exhaled a couple of times and then gave Arielle such a piercing look that her heart beat ten times faster.

“Arielle, I don’t want to frighten you, but I’ve been seeing something quite unpleasant coming your way in the near future,” Eva said. “I can’t clearly project who this person is, but I see you, and your eyes are horrified at the sight. Please be careful.”

She flinched a bit as silence fell between them.

“What do you mean, Eva? You’re scaring me,” Arielle said.

“I see danger coming your way,” Eva repeated quietly.

Arielle’s body went numb and she felt a cold chill down her spine.

Now a stony silence fell in the room and they were both startled by Gabrielle’s cheerful voice asking for help. She looked at Eva with bewilderment and then shook her head, pretty upset.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have brought this up right now,” Eva murmured, looking first at Arielle, then at Gabby.

“No, I’m glad you did,” Arielle said. “Can you tell if it’s a man or a woman?”

“I have had the vision several times, and it’s a woman, but she has no face. It’s just a shadow.”

“Well at least I know what to look for,” Arielle said with a rueful laugh. “A shadowy woman…”

They both moved to help Gabrielle carry the telly into the flat. Arielle’s mind was unwilling to accept Eva’s dire prediction, but in her heart she felt pretty gloomy. What was Eva seeing? She was kind of scared, but how could she do anything about such a vague premonition?

She went to her room and started to put her clothes away. Eva walked into the room behind her and put her arms around her.

“Don’t worry, Arielle, I will be watching out for you. I have the power to do that. I know it sounds crazy, but please trust me.”

“I do trust you, Eva, but I don’t mind telling you that I’m scared to death.”

“Well, it’s just a vision. But I want to make sure that you guard yourself against any unexpected circumstances.”

“Thanks, and don’t worry, Eva, I’ll do that.”

As for Eva, her premonition was embedded in her head, but she had to let go of it in order to function in a normal way.

The week moved sluggishly along and everything seemed to be the same old thing. Nothing had changed except for Arielle. She felt like she wasn’t interested in anyone or anything, and she was slipping into deeper and deeper misery as the days went by.

On Friday morning Gabrielle asked her to ride with her to class. Arielle declined, knowing that she needed to take her own car. She had to run a few errands after class, and she had also promised her parents that she would have dinner with them that evening.

“See you at school,” Gabby said happily, and she went out the door. Eva met Gabby in the parking lot and they waited for Arielle to get there. They both wanted to know why Arielle had been so quiet lately. So she told them about the phone call from Sebastian. She also told them that she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. They understood, and nothing was brought up for the rest of the day. However, Arielle seemed to be in a fog that she couldn’t snap out of.

After her last class of the day, she went outside and took a deep breath of fresh air. She climbed into her car and started to back up carefully out of her parking space.

A knock at the passenger window made her jump. She looked over and Paul was standing there, motioning for her to open her window. He leaned in.

“Hey, we are all going to the cinema tonight. Do you want to come?”

“Oh, hi Paul, no thanks, I promised my parents that I would stop by for dinner. Maybe another time. Thanks again!” She smiled at him and revved the engine to let him know she needed to go.

He waved goodbye with a disappointed look on his face. But she knew she didn’t want to be with anyone tonight. She pushed on the gas and went into town to do some shopping.

She drove home feeling pretty unhappy. Sebastian’s face was like a permanent feature in her mind. She knew that another night would be spent full of thoughts about him. He had hung up on her without saying anything.

But what was there to say, anyhow? Tears filled her eyes again and made it hard for her to see the road. It was a cool afternoon and the roads were not very busy. It was also cloudy and rainy, and that made her mood even worse.

As she turned into her parents’ street she noticed a beautiful blue Porsche parked across the street from their house. She didn’t think she had ever seen this car in their neighborhood before, but she wasn’t in a mood to care about anything except her own misery. She pulled into the garage and went into the house through the kitchen door. She grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and ran up the stairs toward her room. She was looking for a couple of CDs she wanted to take back to the flat with her.

“Arielle!” she heard her mother’s voice calling. She had come out of the living room and was standing at the bottom of the stairs. “There is a boy here to see you!”

“Me?”

“Yes, can you please come down?”

She threw her backpack on the top of the landing and walked slowly down the stairs.

“Who is it?” she asked.

“I don’t know. He says he is a friend of yours.”

“Okay, thanks, mum.”

As soon as she stepped into the living room she was jolted by an overwhelming shock. It was like electricity was infusing her skin and making her whole body tingle. She paused, struggling to gain control of herself. The fullness in her throat came back and she couldn’t breathe. Her face turned bright red as she stood there wide-eyed and stared at him.

Sebastian was sitting in a chair across the room. Once again he was undeniably the most beautiful person she had ever seen. He stood up and met her gaze. His gorgeous green eyes were just as she had remembered them, and his lips were ripe and inviting. He was dressed in tight black jeans and a beautiful black silk shirt that completed his perfection and had her completely transfixed.

“Hello, there,” he said, his voice soft and warm. His eyes were dazzling and he looked faintly amused. “Have you missed me?”

She pressed her lips together, trying to collect her thoughts, wondering how it was possible that he was standing there.

“Why have you come?” she murmured. She felt really uneasy. What was going on?

“Arielle, we need to talk,” he said. “I can’t explain over the phone all the things that I have to tell you.”

“There is nothing to talk about,” she said turning away from him. She knew that if she kept looking at him she would be lost.

“Please, let’s talk,” he said. “Can you please just trust me this one time and give me a chance to explain?”

She tried to avoid looking into his eyes, knowing the reaction she had every time she did that. So she stared at the floor, wanting to believe him, wishing that she could forget all that she knew already.

When she looked up he was standing right next to her. She never saw him move, but somehow he was right there. His lips were moist, inviting, and his eyes were startlingly beautiful. He touched her face and ran his thumb along her bottom lip. Heat cascaded across her muscles and she hauled in a deep breath.

“Please, let’s go somewhere and talk, Arielle,” he whispered pleadingly.

“Sebastian, how can I trust you, after all the things that I now know about you?” she said. Finally she had the courage to look him in the eyes, but she wasn’t dazzled. What she saw was deep hurt, and her determination to not be swayed by him began to falter.

“You… don’t… know… anything,” he said. His voice was almost sharp as he annunciated each word.

With tears in her eyes and her voice quivering with emotion she attempted one more time to graciously decline his invitation, but he wouldn’t hear of it.

“Did your wife tell you that I visited your home in St. Jean de Luz?” she asked. She looked at him with defiance.

“Arielle, I’m not married. Annabel isn’t my wife. I don’t give a damn about her. She’s nothing but pure frustration for me, but it’s hard to make her go away. We must talk about many things before you can understand the situation I’m in and Annabel’s presence in my house. Please don’t come to any conclusions before you know the truth.” His jaw was tense and his voice was hard. “It’s a big mess, that’s for sure,” he continued. “But I don’t want you to think that she means anything to me. I want us to talk alone, I promise to explain everything. There is no one in my life but you. I’ve waited for you for so long, and I’m not ready to give you up. I’m in love with you.”

Arielle turned away, worried that she was just falling for another lie. But he was so hard to resist! “I’m not sure that I’m up for all this,” she said. “I’m not sure I can believe anything you have to say.” Her voice was trembling now and she started to sob. He reached over to comfort her, but she pulled away, trying to avoid his touch. Lifting her hand, she wiped away her tears. She didn’t want him to make her lose her train of thought again.

Then she pressed her lips together, holding back more tears and fighting to keep her voice calm. “It’s not only the fact that you didn’t show up at the party as you promised. But you didn’t even try to see me in the days following the party. Sebastian, you broke my heart,” she said despondently, and started sobbing again quietly.

His eyes were full of sadness, his voice low and upset.

“Do you hate me, Arielle?” he asked in a voice not much higher than a whisper.

“No, Sebastian, I don’t hate you. I’m just having a very hard time trusting you.”

“Do you love me, Arielle?”
Of course he could clearly see that she was totally in love with him, but he wanted to hear it from her lips.

She couldn’t answer, even though she knew that she loved him more than life itself. He was the man of her dreams, her own miracle. But she couldn’t trust him! He cupped her face with both hands and ran his thumbs softly on her cheeks, wiping the tears away as he whispered, “I love you, Arielle.”

She tried to pull away from him, but his eyes were piercing hers, releasing dazzling immortal power, making her feel totally incoherent. She tried to pull away again as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against him tightly. His lips brushed her ear gently. His whisper was overflowing with passion and desire that pulsed through his body and mind. “You have to stop being mad at me. Please give me a chance to explain. Will you do that for me?” He put his hand gently underneath her chin and lifted her face until their eyes locked. This time she allowed it.

“Okay,” she said, breaking away from him. “I’ll listen to what you have to say.” She sighed, wondering if she was making a big mistake, but it felt right. The tension lifted from his shoulders and, pressing his lips to her forehead, he walked out the door. “I’ll be back to pick you up around 7:30,” he said. His seductive smile succeeded in increasing her pulse, and sent a thrill through every nerve in her body. She blinked, and before her next thought he was gone.

She stood there, unable to move for a long time after the door closed behind him. She was not sure why she had agreed to go out with him. She knew that there was another woman in his life, in his home, claiming to be his wife. She didn’t feel very hopeful anymore, but she was curious about what he was going to say.

She turned, walked slowly up to her room, and shut the door. Her feelings were all mixed up again. She was happy to see his beautiful face because she was in love with him, but she was not yet ready to accept his story about Annabel. Looking at the clock she realized she had a couple of hours before he would be back. She got into the shower and then she heard a knock at the door.

“Can I come in?” her mother called out.

“Yes, Mother, I’m in the shower!”

“Who was that?” she asked.

“He’s a guy I met at the beach. He’s in London on business so he came to see me and take me out to dinner.”

“He is extremely handsome,” she said.

Mmm, yes I know he is,
she thought to herself. But to her mother she said, “I’m going out with him tonight. He’s picking me up at 7:30. I won’t be eating dinner at home as I had promised. I’m sorry, Mummy, but I’ll come another night and spend time just with you.”