I’ll be honest.… I’m nervous. Take a look at these text messages and tell me if you wouldn’t feel the same.
Me: Hi, Julian! I was wondering if you would be available for a short chat?
Julian: Who is this?
Me: This is Elaine. Elaine Barris. You know…. Author of Master For Tonight?
Julian: Never heard of it. Do you know where Kate is?
Me: That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.
Julian: You know her.
Me: Yes.
Julian: She’s never mentioned you.
Me: No, she wouldn’t.
Julian: Enough of these vague messages! Do you have information for me or not?
Me: Ummmm… Not really, but I have an idea.
Julian: Ms. Barris, I neither know who you are, nor how you came about knowing my phone number. I suggest you get back to your authoring, and let me continue to search for my love.
Me: Yes, your love Kate!
Julian: If this phone chirps one more fucking time.
Me: You’ll take me over your knee and show me who’s in charge?
(No response)
I purse my lips and stare at the cellphone in my hand, knowing I’m only irritating him.
Me: Zap me with your eyes and make me forget everything?
(Still no reply)
I know him. Time to show him I do. In a surge of bravery, I decide why not go for it? I’m in this far with a pissed off vampire…. Time to go for the jugular.
Me: You’re tugging your necklace right now. Aren’t you?
(Seconds pass and my phone lights up)
Julian: Where and what time?
So, now here I sit with a glass of cabernet waiting for him to arrive. My thoughts are everywhere as I make my way through a second and then third glass trying to calm my nerves. I’m torn between being terrified and excited. The Julian Montfort. In my house. Tonight. It’s not lost on me how similar this is to how Julian met Kate.
Suddenly, realizing this, I’m very cognizant of the time. Hours. Minutes. Seconds. My eyes track the tiny hand on the wall clock across the room. It ticks and tocks to twelve, and my breathing stops.
Just then, the doorbell rings as if he were watching the same timepiece as me. Punctual, I note absently.
I stand and make my way to the front door. My eyes fall to my outstretched hand reaching for the knob, and pause. Turning and leaning back against the wood, I’m starting to wonder if this was such a good idea. He’s my dream. I made him, and he has no clue. He probably thinks I’m some crazy lady,
and is following up on any lead to get him to Kate. Sad, because I can’t help him. Knowing this only adds to my panic. How is he going to react?
“Ms. Barris, I can hear your breathing. Are you going to open the door, or are we going to talk through it?”
That voice! It’s guttural, and low… The rumbles roll out of his throat straight into me, and I catch myself when my knees buckle.
“Get it together! Get it together!” I shout in my head over and over as I hear the tap, tap, tap of his foot opposite of where I stand. At some point, the internal conversation becomes two-sided. “You created him! I know! Open the door! Okay! Now! Stop yelling at me! Do it! Leave me alone!”
“Ms. Barris.”
He draws out the “S” at the end of my name, and my brain starts going wonky. I know that isn’t a cool author descriptive, but I can’t think about that right now. This isn’t War and Peace. I’m just trying to form a thought. Hopefully, a coherent one. I need to say something to him. Quick!
My voice is a shaky mess when I find some way to respond to him, but I do speak. There is that. No clue what I said, but whatevs.
Giving myself a serious mental shake, and wishing I had finished the bottle, I open the door to the most beautiful man I have ever seen. He has to be around 6’2”, maybe taller. At least a full foot taller than me. Broad chest. I can see the outlines of the hard muscles underneath his tight shirt. My gaze
continues to travel up this man to his hands and fingers. His arms are braced against either side of the doorframe, but as the door opens all the way, he lowers them to his sides.
He has a wristwatch on. Wait. When did I give him a wristwatch? Did I give him a wristwatch? Who knows? Not me.
Pieces of his dark hair trails down his face, and he runs his hand through it, pulling it away. I see him fully now. There they are. Those blue eyes that turn to flames. Those lips a lover could sink into. The demon pendant glints against his skin.
He’s looking at me with that sexy smirk. Dipping his head and closing his eyes briefly, they flick open and he pins me with them.
“You have to let me in.”
Did he just growl? My throat is so dry now. I’m standing here. He’s standing there, and what did he just say?
“Ms. Barris, shall I take my leave? I will not return.”
“No!” The thought rips through me and then I invite him in.
His footfalls are almost silent. The rise and fall of his chest are a façade. A relic of the past he doesn’t want to give up. He seats himself on my couch, long legs stretching out, pushing my white, IKEA coffee table away with the tips of his shoes.
A jolt at what I just invited into my home hits me like a hammer.
Vampire. Blood drinker. Beautiful death. Sex. He is all that and more.
“You said you had ideas about Kate.”
I cross to the side chair and take a seat still gathering myself together. Indeed, I do have ideas about Kate. Her whereabouts. Her captor. None of which I can reveal.
Thinking hard about my next words, and avoiding looking at him directly, I consider how to begin.
“If you could plan out a perfect date, where would it be?”
“What?” He’s as shocked as I am. I try to recover quickly as he is clearly agitated by the question.
“I think if you can think about Kate and how much you want to be with her, you know, maybe it would help?”
“Are you another doubter of my love for her?” His tone is dripping with contempt, and I shift in my seat. “Where does this end? Her friend, Mazzie, wants to take my balls. Do you as well?”
“No.” I force myself to look at him head on. “No, I do not doubt your love for her. There are many who wish for a love like the one you have with Kate. So, again, please…. If you could plan a perfect date, where would it be?”
He sighs, a great exaggeration of the chest, and says, “I’m not sure where you’re going, but I will entertain this question. Where would I have my perfect date? My perfect date is Kate. As far as where I would be…. I would be with her, wherever she wished to be.”
“In that first moment that you saw Kate, although there were so many things, what was the most singular attraction?”
He smiles looking down into his lap, and then back up.
“Her ass.” He barks out a laugh, and red begins to fill his eyes, “You know how I saw her? In the
alley?”
I nod and he continues.
“I fell for her in an instant. True, I wanted her body. Every single bit of her lusciousness.” He eyes me questioningly. “You know she is not what you term a ‘small girl’. She’s a woman with all the right
handles for me. She can take me. She does it well.” His eyes pin mine again. “Exceedingly well. But beyond that, I overheard her conversations. Her talks with Mazzie, and I fell in love with Kate as a person. Not just a body.”
Reaching for the tissue box, I pass it to him without saying a word. He takes it and tosses it onto the table without removing a sheet.
“Julian,” I whisper, leaning forward toward him. “Did you think she would let you in that night?”
“Why are you asking me these questions? How exactly do you know her? Tell me.”
I pour another glass, liquid courage starting to take effect now that the shock of him is wearing off.
“Let’s call the way we met unconventional.” I reply, and immediately stammer out a follow-up, praying this will cover up my blurting out such an obvious giveaway. “I mean, we met through books! That’s kinda unusual. Right?”
He eyes me, suspicion on his face. “I suppose. So, you are telling me you have no information about where she is?”
I can’t look at him and answer.
“What I know is that wherever Kate is, she would want you to be thinking of your times fondly. That’s why I asked you over. To remember the happiness for just one night.”
His fingers are at his throat again at the necklace. Left and right his hand goes pulling it. Suddenly, he turns to look at me. I have no idea what he’s going to do or say, and shrink back into the chair, taking my glass with me.
“Perhaps I do need a night to just remember.” He sighs and runs his fingers through his hair in agitation. “Nothing else is working right now. Please continue.”
“Oh!” I exclaim and nearly drop my wine into my lap. “Okay! I have a list of them!”
“A list?”
“Could you please answer the question I just asked? Did you think Kate would let you in?”
“Of course, I did.” He chuckles under his breath before his tone turns pensive. “Didn’t give her much of a choice. Did I?”
“It all worked out in the end that night though. Didn’t it?” His eyes snap to mine, and I can read the questions on his face. No time for that, so I continue on. “Have you ever loved anyone else like you do Kate?”
“Never. She’s the one. The only one.”
He takes time enunciating each word, and I wonder for whose benefit. Deciding to ignore it, I get up, run to the kitchen and back, bringing another bottle with me. I know drinking isn’t the best idea, but at least my nerves are calming down.
He reaches for the corkscrew and cabernet in my hand and opens it with a pop.
“I miss doing this for her.” He mumbles as he pours my glass.
“I’m sure everything will work out, Julian.” I whisper, still not looking at him. I’m such a jerk. He’s so miserable. It’s awful, and I did this. God, I’m a horrible person. Can’t I give him a tiny hint? No. I absolutely cannot do that. My mouth opens, and I cover it with my hand to stop any stray words from leaving.
He slowly places the bottle and corkscrew on the table, and sits back where he was on the couch. The only sound in the room is my breathing, and I think of how odd it is that I’m the only one taking in air.
Gesturing to the notebook on the side table, he picks it up as I try not to choke on the drink I just took.
“Julian!” I sputter, hoping I don’t spit cabernet out while I motion frantically for him to give it back to me as I watch his eyes track over my handwriting. “Please! No, don’t read that!”
“When you kiss Kate, are you constantly trying not to bite her?” He reads. “How quickly does it take you to get naked and hard?”
I cover my face with my hands, and try to shrink even further into my seat. Or maybe somehow disappear altogether. “Oh God….”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” He says holding the tablet out, pointing to the questions with black-penned smiley faces beside them. “Were you planning to ask these? If you were stuck on a deserted island which famous person would you like to be with? Do I seem the type of man concerned with celebrities?”
“It was just a joke, Julian.” I manage to squeak out as I remove my hands from covering my face, and put them in my lap. “There are more serious questions there.”
“Still, they are written.” He says with a deliciously wicked gleam in his eyes.
“Umm.”
Standing slowly, he walks to the front of the room to stand in front of the TV, making a show of turning in a leisurely circle around to face me.
“Watch, Ms. Barris. Time it.”
“What?”
Oh my God! He’s not going to really do it! Is he?
His eyebrow arches, “Don’t blink.”
And then, we’re staring at each other. I was never good at these things. I can’t help it.
I blink.
“And, you missed it.” He says with a laugh that doesn’t reach his eyes. “You really fell for that. Didn’t you? You should ask my friend, Reese, the celebrity question. He may have an answer for you. And, no, I don’t have any problems not biting Kate.”
He walks over to me, squats down and opens his mouth. “This time really watch. I’ll show you.”
There, in front of my widening eyes, his fangs elongate to the dangerous tips they are. He retracts them, and I’m mesmerized as they again look like normal human teeth.
“Wow.”
He stands back up and plops back down on the couch, taking the list up again.
“Of course, I love drinking her in, but it isn’t a constant battle like you might think. Ah, more serious questions.” He says tapping the pad. “Do you miss anything about being human?”
Tipping his head to the side, he thinks about it a moment.
“No. I can truthfully say no. Had I not been made vampire, I would not have met Kate.”
“How sweet!”
He glances down at the wristwatch I know I didn’t give him, and back up.
“I can’t stay much longer, but I will answer the rest of these inquiries. After which, you will answer mine.” He hands the list back to me. “Continue.”
“You’re not going to zap me. Are you?” I shriek.
“Ms. Barris, continue.”
The calm in his voice is as unsettling as his changing emotions. Even more troubling, I’m having a hard time reading him the longer he’s been here. I don’t know, can’t tell what he’s thinking.
He can’t zap me! If he does, he won’t exist anymore! I can’t let that happen!
“What are some things that you want to experience now that you have your freedom?” I ask as I try to think of how I can avoid being mind-melded.
He’s looking at me and sees I’m avoiding meeting his eyes. I can feel it. I must look guilty as hell. He makes a short, low grunt under his breath before speaking.
“I want to experience the entire world with her. I want her to see where I grew up. Where my mother was raised in Italy.” I glance up and his eyes are pinned directly on me. His features are blank as he studies me and speaks. “I want to do whatever and go wherever she wants to.”
“That sounds nice.” I whisper.
“It will be. After I find her, and get her back with me where she belongs.”
His statement hangs in the air, and in horror, I notice a paperback copy of Master For Tonight on the bookshelf behind him. I thought I hid them all! Oh my God! There’s my manuscript of Master For Tonight II laying in there too! My eyes dart from him to the bookshelf, over and over, in a panic.
“Last question, Ms. Barris.” Again with the trailing “S”. “Something catch your eye?”
He starts to turn around, and I clear my throat as loud as possible and then start fake
coughing.
“Are you alright?”
Waving my hand at him, I nod, relieved I have his eyes on me again. He cannot turn around!
“Must have gone down the wrong way.” I cough and sputter a little more until I’m sure I have his full attention. “I’m okay now.”
“Perhaps, take a little more care with your drink.”
“Last question.” I gotta get him out of here. “Julian, deep down what are your dreams? That is, if you dream. How do you want your life to go? What kind of life do you want?”
“Kate and I together for the rest of our lives. I will have it no other way.”
The room goes silent once again, and I prepare myself for what I have to do. There’s no other way.
“Now, Ms. Barris - ”
“I’m sorry, but you have to leave. Now!” I shout, and he yells for me to take it back. To let him stay. I say not a word in reply.
The shock on his face is profound as he is forced through the room. I can see hand imprints on his shirt of something holding him at his waist as he’s pulled away from me toward the entry. A creak sounds
through the house, and the door slides open of its own accord. Then, he’s lifted up as if he’s levitating and glides outside.
I get up and approach the door on my tiptoes. He’s standing there on the other side of the doorway, and turns back around when I reach the opening.
“You know. Don’t you?” He seethes, and I know I deserve it. But, I can’t say anything no matter how much I wish I could.
“All I know is she loves you, and is thinking of you, Julian.” Tears prick the back of my eyes as I back away and shut the door.
Look for Master For Tonight II
September 4, 2014
Me: Hi, Julian! I was wondering if you would be available for a short chat?
Julian: Who is this?
Me: This is Elaine. Elaine Barris. You know…. Author of Master For Tonight?
Julian: Never heard of it. Do you know where Kate is?
Me: That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.
Julian: You know her.
Me: Yes.
Julian: She’s never mentioned you.
Me: No, she wouldn’t.
Julian: Enough of these vague messages! Do you have information for me or not?
Me: Ummmm… Not really, but I have an idea.
Julian: Ms. Barris, I neither know who you are, nor how you came about knowing my phone number. I suggest you get back to your authoring, and let me continue to search for my love.
Me: Yes, your love Kate!
Julian: If this phone chirps one more fucking time.
Me: You’ll take me over your knee and show me who’s in charge?
(No response)
I purse my lips and stare at the cellphone in my hand, knowing I’m only irritating him.
Me: Zap me with your eyes and make me forget everything?
(Still no reply)
I know him. Time to show him I do. In a surge of bravery, I decide why not go for it? I’m in this far with a pissed off vampire…. Time to go for the jugular.
Me: You’re tugging your necklace right now. Aren’t you?
(Seconds pass and my phone lights up)
Julian: Where and what time?
So, now here I sit with a glass of cabernet waiting for him to arrive. My thoughts are everywhere as I make my way through a second and then third glass trying to calm my nerves. I’m torn between being terrified and excited. The Julian Montfort. In my house. Tonight. It’s not lost on me how similar this is to how Julian met Kate.
Suddenly, realizing this, I’m very cognizant of the time. Hours. Minutes. Seconds. My eyes track the tiny hand on the wall clock across the room. It ticks and tocks to twelve, and my breathing stops.
Just then, the doorbell rings as if he were watching the same timepiece as me. Punctual, I note absently.
I stand and make my way to the front door. My eyes fall to my outstretched hand reaching for the knob, and pause. Turning and leaning back against the wood, I’m starting to wonder if this was such a good idea. He’s my dream. I made him, and he has no clue. He probably thinks I’m some crazy lady,
and is following up on any lead to get him to Kate. Sad, because I can’t help him. Knowing this only adds to my panic. How is he going to react?
“Ms. Barris, I can hear your breathing. Are you going to open the door, or are we going to talk through it?”
That voice! It’s guttural, and low… The rumbles roll out of his throat straight into me, and I catch myself when my knees buckle.
“Get it together! Get it together!” I shout in my head over and over as I hear the tap, tap, tap of his foot opposite of where I stand. At some point, the internal conversation becomes two-sided. “You created him! I know! Open the door! Okay! Now! Stop yelling at me! Do it! Leave me alone!”
“Ms. Barris.”
He draws out the “S” at the end of my name, and my brain starts going wonky. I know that isn’t a cool author descriptive, but I can’t think about that right now. This isn’t War and Peace. I’m just trying to form a thought. Hopefully, a coherent one. I need to say something to him. Quick!
My voice is a shaky mess when I find some way to respond to him, but I do speak. There is that. No clue what I said, but whatevs.
Giving myself a serious mental shake, and wishing I had finished the bottle, I open the door to the most beautiful man I have ever seen. He has to be around 6’2”, maybe taller. At least a full foot taller than me. Broad chest. I can see the outlines of the hard muscles underneath his tight shirt. My gaze
continues to travel up this man to his hands and fingers. His arms are braced against either side of the doorframe, but as the door opens all the way, he lowers them to his sides.
He has a wristwatch on. Wait. When did I give him a wristwatch? Did I give him a wristwatch? Who knows? Not me.
Pieces of his dark hair trails down his face, and he runs his hand through it, pulling it away. I see him fully now. There they are. Those blue eyes that turn to flames. Those lips a lover could sink into. The demon pendant glints against his skin.
He’s looking at me with that sexy smirk. Dipping his head and closing his eyes briefly, they flick open and he pins me with them.
“You have to let me in.”
Did he just growl? My throat is so dry now. I’m standing here. He’s standing there, and what did he just say?
“Ms. Barris, shall I take my leave? I will not return.”
“No!” The thought rips through me and then I invite him in.
His footfalls are almost silent. The rise and fall of his chest are a façade. A relic of the past he doesn’t want to give up. He seats himself on my couch, long legs stretching out, pushing my white, IKEA coffee table away with the tips of his shoes.
A jolt at what I just invited into my home hits me like a hammer.
Vampire. Blood drinker. Beautiful death. Sex. He is all that and more.
“You said you had ideas about Kate.”
I cross to the side chair and take a seat still gathering myself together. Indeed, I do have ideas about Kate. Her whereabouts. Her captor. None of which I can reveal.
Thinking hard about my next words, and avoiding looking at him directly, I consider how to begin.
“If you could plan out a perfect date, where would it be?”
“What?” He’s as shocked as I am. I try to recover quickly as he is clearly agitated by the question.
“I think if you can think about Kate and how much you want to be with her, you know, maybe it would help?”
“Are you another doubter of my love for her?” His tone is dripping with contempt, and I shift in my seat. “Where does this end? Her friend, Mazzie, wants to take my balls. Do you as well?”
“No.” I force myself to look at him head on. “No, I do not doubt your love for her. There are many who wish for a love like the one you have with Kate. So, again, please…. If you could plan a perfect date, where would it be?”
He sighs, a great exaggeration of the chest, and says, “I’m not sure where you’re going, but I will entertain this question. Where would I have my perfect date? My perfect date is Kate. As far as where I would be…. I would be with her, wherever she wished to be.”
“In that first moment that you saw Kate, although there were so many things, what was the most singular attraction?”
He smiles looking down into his lap, and then back up.
“Her ass.” He barks out a laugh, and red begins to fill his eyes, “You know how I saw her? In the
alley?”
I nod and he continues.
“I fell for her in an instant. True, I wanted her body. Every single bit of her lusciousness.” He eyes me questioningly. “You know she is not what you term a ‘small girl’. She’s a woman with all the right
handles for me. She can take me. She does it well.” His eyes pin mine again. “Exceedingly well. But beyond that, I overheard her conversations. Her talks with Mazzie, and I fell in love with Kate as a person. Not just a body.”
Reaching for the tissue box, I pass it to him without saying a word. He takes it and tosses it onto the table without removing a sheet.
“Julian,” I whisper, leaning forward toward him. “Did you think she would let you in that night?”
“Why are you asking me these questions? How exactly do you know her? Tell me.”
I pour another glass, liquid courage starting to take effect now that the shock of him is wearing off.
“Let’s call the way we met unconventional.” I reply, and immediately stammer out a follow-up, praying this will cover up my blurting out such an obvious giveaway. “I mean, we met through books! That’s kinda unusual. Right?”
He eyes me, suspicion on his face. “I suppose. So, you are telling me you have no information about where she is?”
I can’t look at him and answer.
“What I know is that wherever Kate is, she would want you to be thinking of your times fondly. That’s why I asked you over. To remember the happiness for just one night.”
His fingers are at his throat again at the necklace. Left and right his hand goes pulling it. Suddenly, he turns to look at me. I have no idea what he’s going to do or say, and shrink back into the chair, taking my glass with me.
“Perhaps I do need a night to just remember.” He sighs and runs his fingers through his hair in agitation. “Nothing else is working right now. Please continue.”
“Oh!” I exclaim and nearly drop my wine into my lap. “Okay! I have a list of them!”
“A list?”
“Could you please answer the question I just asked? Did you think Kate would let you in?”
“Of course, I did.” He chuckles under his breath before his tone turns pensive. “Didn’t give her much of a choice. Did I?”
“It all worked out in the end that night though. Didn’t it?” His eyes snap to mine, and I can read the questions on his face. No time for that, so I continue on. “Have you ever loved anyone else like you do Kate?”
“Never. She’s the one. The only one.”
He takes time enunciating each word, and I wonder for whose benefit. Deciding to ignore it, I get up, run to the kitchen and back, bringing another bottle with me. I know drinking isn’t the best idea, but at least my nerves are calming down.
He reaches for the corkscrew and cabernet in my hand and opens it with a pop.
“I miss doing this for her.” He mumbles as he pours my glass.
“I’m sure everything will work out, Julian.” I whisper, still not looking at him. I’m such a jerk. He’s so miserable. It’s awful, and I did this. God, I’m a horrible person. Can’t I give him a tiny hint? No. I absolutely cannot do that. My mouth opens, and I cover it with my hand to stop any stray words from leaving.
He slowly places the bottle and corkscrew on the table, and sits back where he was on the couch. The only sound in the room is my breathing, and I think of how odd it is that I’m the only one taking in air.
Gesturing to the notebook on the side table, he picks it up as I try not to choke on the drink I just took.
“Julian!” I sputter, hoping I don’t spit cabernet out while I motion frantically for him to give it back to me as I watch his eyes track over my handwriting. “Please! No, don’t read that!”
“When you kiss Kate, are you constantly trying not to bite her?” He reads. “How quickly does it take you to get naked and hard?”
I cover my face with my hands, and try to shrink even further into my seat. Or maybe somehow disappear altogether. “Oh God….”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” He says holding the tablet out, pointing to the questions with black-penned smiley faces beside them. “Were you planning to ask these? If you were stuck on a deserted island which famous person would you like to be with? Do I seem the type of man concerned with celebrities?”
“It was just a joke, Julian.” I manage to squeak out as I remove my hands from covering my face, and put them in my lap. “There are more serious questions there.”
“Still, they are written.” He says with a deliciously wicked gleam in his eyes.
“Umm.”
Standing slowly, he walks to the front of the room to stand in front of the TV, making a show of turning in a leisurely circle around to face me.
“Watch, Ms. Barris. Time it.”
“What?”
Oh my God! He’s not going to really do it! Is he?
His eyebrow arches, “Don’t blink.”
And then, we’re staring at each other. I was never good at these things. I can’t help it.
I blink.
“And, you missed it.” He says with a laugh that doesn’t reach his eyes. “You really fell for that. Didn’t you? You should ask my friend, Reese, the celebrity question. He may have an answer for you. And, no, I don’t have any problems not biting Kate.”
He walks over to me, squats down and opens his mouth. “This time really watch. I’ll show you.”
There, in front of my widening eyes, his fangs elongate to the dangerous tips they are. He retracts them, and I’m mesmerized as they again look like normal human teeth.
“Wow.”
He stands back up and plops back down on the couch, taking the list up again.
“Of course, I love drinking her in, but it isn’t a constant battle like you might think. Ah, more serious questions.” He says tapping the pad. “Do you miss anything about being human?”
Tipping his head to the side, he thinks about it a moment.
“No. I can truthfully say no. Had I not been made vampire, I would not have met Kate.”
“How sweet!”
He glances down at the wristwatch I know I didn’t give him, and back up.
“I can’t stay much longer, but I will answer the rest of these inquiries. After which, you will answer mine.” He hands the list back to me. “Continue.”
“You’re not going to zap me. Are you?” I shriek.
“Ms. Barris, continue.”
The calm in his voice is as unsettling as his changing emotions. Even more troubling, I’m having a hard time reading him the longer he’s been here. I don’t know, can’t tell what he’s thinking.
He can’t zap me! If he does, he won’t exist anymore! I can’t let that happen!
“What are some things that you want to experience now that you have your freedom?” I ask as I try to think of how I can avoid being mind-melded.
He’s looking at me and sees I’m avoiding meeting his eyes. I can feel it. I must look guilty as hell. He makes a short, low grunt under his breath before speaking.
“I want to experience the entire world with her. I want her to see where I grew up. Where my mother was raised in Italy.” I glance up and his eyes are pinned directly on me. His features are blank as he studies me and speaks. “I want to do whatever and go wherever she wants to.”
“That sounds nice.” I whisper.
“It will be. After I find her, and get her back with me where she belongs.”
His statement hangs in the air, and in horror, I notice a paperback copy of Master For Tonight on the bookshelf behind him. I thought I hid them all! Oh my God! There’s my manuscript of Master For Tonight II laying in there too! My eyes dart from him to the bookshelf, over and over, in a panic.
“Last question, Ms. Barris.” Again with the trailing “S”. “Something catch your eye?”
He starts to turn around, and I clear my throat as loud as possible and then start fake
coughing.
“Are you alright?”
Waving my hand at him, I nod, relieved I have his eyes on me again. He cannot turn around!
“Must have gone down the wrong way.” I cough and sputter a little more until I’m sure I have his full attention. “I’m okay now.”
“Perhaps, take a little more care with your drink.”
“Last question.” I gotta get him out of here. “Julian, deep down what are your dreams? That is, if you dream. How do you want your life to go? What kind of life do you want?”
“Kate and I together for the rest of our lives. I will have it no other way.”
The room goes silent once again, and I prepare myself for what I have to do. There’s no other way.
“Now, Ms. Barris - ”
“I’m sorry, but you have to leave. Now!” I shout, and he yells for me to take it back. To let him stay. I say not a word in reply.
The shock on his face is profound as he is forced through the room. I can see hand imprints on his shirt of something holding him at his waist as he’s pulled away from me toward the entry. A creak sounds
through the house, and the door slides open of its own accord. Then, he’s lifted up as if he’s levitating and glides outside.
I get up and approach the door on my tiptoes. He’s standing there on the other side of the doorway, and turns back around when I reach the opening.
“You know. Don’t you?” He seethes, and I know I deserve it. But, I can’t say anything no matter how much I wish I could.
“All I know is she loves you, and is thinking of you, Julian.” Tears prick the back of my eyes as I back away and shut the door.
Look for Master For Tonight II
September 4, 2014