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Chapter 18

Two hours later Susanna was in the bathroom washing her face and brushing her teeth
after she changed into her pajamas.  Kane was in the bedroom when she came out looking into the closet at the clothes that Emma had saved for him.  He pulled out a pair of dark flannel pants and held them up for her, “These look familiar, similar to yours … acceptable as sleepwear?”

Susanna
approached him and reached for the pants. She glanced at the tag and saw they were mediums, “Emma did good, but these won’t work. You’re definitely not a medium.”  She sifted through the pile of clothes on the shelf until she found another pair of draw string pants in an extra large, “These should work a little better.  I’ll scoot out and let you change,” she winked at him as she shut the bedroom door behind her.

She was in the kitchen heating up some water for tea when she heard him shuffle in behind her
.  She turned just in time to see him lift his T-shirt to show her the waistline of the pants, “These are better?” he asked, pointing to the gathered waistline that hung loosely off his slim hips.  She opened her mouth to speak but found herself immobile as she looked at the way the pants dipped so that the carved lines in his perfectly flat stomach and sides were clearly visible.

Embarrassed, she fought to regain her footing,
“Well, you couldn’t wear the mediums for sure, you’re way too tall and.  These might be a tad big … but they still work,” she was unabashedly drinking in the sight of him, “But if you tie these, they’ll be more comfortable, perhaps.”  Susanna moved toward him and reached out to tie the drawstring of the pants, not so tight where they would be uncomfortable, but tight enough so they didn’t risk coming down.  Her fingers trembled nervously as she twisted the material into a bow.

“Do I look modern?” he asked,
offering her a grin that sent her pulse racing.

You
look delicious
, she thought but edited it before it left her mouth, “Very modern.”

They drank their tea in front of the fire and shared more stories from their childhood.  Kane wanted to know everything about Atlanta and the town she grew up in as well as her childhood friends.  There was nothing that he didn’t ask her and with all of her answers he
sat listening like it was the most interesting story he had ever heard.  The clock ticking in the corner chimed the hour drawing attention to the fact that it was two in the morning.  Susanna’s head was on a pillow that rested in Kane’s lap while he toyed with her hair, winding it around his fingers. 

“Why don’t you go to bed, it’s
past two,” he said softly.

“I’m scared of what will happen when the sun comes up,” she finally answered, “It’s been such a perfect day, I don’t want it to end.  I wish that it was night all the time.”

Kane was silent in response.  Susanna lifted her head to look at him, her green eyes heavy with exhaustion, “I’m afraid today was a fluke and you’ll be gone tomorrow.”

“It’s a possibility
,” he stroked her face lightly, “The only time I’ve ever been here for a full day was when you were here as a girl, and of course … today.”

“But that day when I was little, did you only stay just one day?” she hesitated to ask.

He nodded slowly in response, “Yes.”

Her face turned down in a frown, “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

“But you know I’ll return tomorrow night. I’ve never not appeared at night. Not in over one hundred years.”

“I know,” Susanna tried to hide her sadness.

“I don’t like to see you like this.”

“I’m trying to be thankful for the time you
’re here,” she laid her head back down in an effort to hide her moist eyes, “But I can’t help that I want more.”

Kane patted her on the back almost immediately and said, “Come
. To bed with you.”

Susanna shook her head, “I don’t want to go to sleep.”

Kane regarded her with amusement, “Yes, you do.  You can barely keep your eyes open!”

Susanna stood
and watched as Kane added more wood to the fire, “This should last for a while.”

“You
’re making me go to bed?” she asked like a sulking child.

He
smiled with beautiful candor, “Yes.”

“You will be there with me?”

“Yes. In the chair as I was last night.”

Susanna followed Kane to the bedroom where he pulled back the sheets and comforter and motioned for her to get in, “In with you.”

“It’s ridiculous for you to be in the chair,” she protested.

Kane shook his head, “No, it’s not.”

She crawled in and immediately scooted to the far end, “This bed is big enough for the two of us.  We’ve been together on the couch for hours, what the difference?” Susanna was propped on an elbow eyeing him as he reached for a blanket.

“It’s not a good idea,”
he answered, his back towards her.

“Kane.
  It’s not the 19
th
century anymore,” she patted the bed, “Are you scared of me?” her voice was playfully innocent.

Kane turned to face her,
the corners of his mouth fighting a smile, “Absolutely.”

Susanna couldn’
t contain her laughter, “You’re kidding!”

“Only partially,” he smirked.

“I’ll be good, I promise.  I won’t be able to sleep knowing that you’re over there in that chair.  There is plenty of room over here for us each to have our own space. Since you’re afraid of me.”

Kane stood with the blanket over his arm for a few seconds
visibly mulling over their situation, “You’re persistent, aren’t you?”

“Always,” she said, patting the bed beside her.

Kane tossed the blanket in the chair and walked over to the bed.  Hesitantly he crawled in beside her and pulled the covers over both of them.  Susanna reached over and turned off the light on the nightstand and then turned to face him in bed, “You
are
resistible, you know.”

“But you’re not.”

“Oh, is that what this is about?”

Kane didn’t reply and it annoyed Susanna that she couldn’t see his reaction in the dark.

“I’ve slept in the same bed with a few men in my life when I was in college.  They were friends and absolutely nothing happened.  It’s possible you know,” she said.

“
As a man, I would say that’s extraordinarily unbelievable,” was his casual response.

“
Why is that?”

“
All I can say is men have changed considerably since my day,”she detected the sarcasm in his voice.

“You’ve never slept in bed with a woman without …” she trailed off
, unable to fine the right phrase to ask her question.

“Never,”
his answer was firm and adamant and for some reason sent her pulse racing.

“Oh …”
she answered in a whisper. 

The silence of the dark room was intense and stifling.  She laid there, almost afraid to touch him.  After a few seconds she risked scooting a bit closer and rested head near his arm, “Thank you for indulging me,” she said. 

“You’re most welcome.”

“If I don’t see you tomorrow …”

Kane cut her off, “You
will
see me tomorrow. Even if I’m not here in the morning, you know I’ll return.”

“I know.” 

Kane moved forward and kissed her forehead, “Don’t think about it. It pains me that my situation makes you feel this way.”

Susanna reached out and curled her arm around his and rested her head in the crook of his shoulder, “I’ll be fine,” she was determined not to make him worry, “I’ll
plan a wonderful dinner for us while you’re away.”

It was a while before she finally drifted off to sleep but when she did she was still curled around Kane as tightly as possible. 
In her fatigue, her last thought was that if she held onto him, maybe he couldn’t go. Or maybe, just maybe, she would be taken back with him. 

Chapter 19

Susanna woke to the sound of seagulls and the distant muffled bell coming off the water.  She was still so very tired but instantly remembered the night before and opened her eyes to look
for him.  She stifled a gasp with her hand when she saw Kane sleeping peacefully beside her bathed in early rays of dawn that crept across the yellow room.  She was ecstatic that he was still there and her first instinct had been to wake him up and tell him.  But with all the effort she could muster she fought the urge and decided to lay there and just look at him.  At some point in the middle of the night he had removed his shirt and tossed it to the floor.  He looked so young and boyish as he slept with the heavy burden of his predicament erased from his brow.  The covers had fallen to his waist and he was on his side, facing her, his left arm under the pillow, his right arm casually resting on his hip.  His chest was bare and bronzed just as she had imagined but to her surprise he had a tattoo on the upper part of his chest.  She recognized it as something she had seen hundreds of times in movies and in print and instantly indentified it as Irish.  It was completely unexpected. She hadn’t really thought about a man from the early 1900’s having a tattoo.  Her eyes quickly darted back up to his face where she found his still closed in sleep. His thick black lashes resting on his chiseled cheeks.  His lean neck was bare to her gaze and stretched against the white pillow.  His breathing was slow and steady as she watched him, soaking in this effortlessly peaceful moment.  She was so overcome with emotion that he was still with her that she wondered now what her reaction would have been had she woken to find him gone.  She knew now that she wasn’t prepared for it and questioned how she would have made it through the day.  The lure of him was too strong and her will crumbled as she reached out to run a tentative finger over the tattoo on his chest.  Her touch was so soft she wondered if she touched him at all and yet she could feel the heat emanating off of him.  Her fingers brushed against the tattoo softly, tracing the design with her fingernail.  She made a circle, tracing the entire design and went to the beginning to start again when her eyes darted up to his and found them open wide staring at her.  They were dangerously dark and tense, so opposite from the light copper when he laughed. 

She swallowed hard, unable to speak and unwilling to tear her eyes from his. She tried to read what was there and she couldn’t.  Was it sadness, anger or something else?

Hesitantly she raised her hand from his chest and ran her fingers through his hair that fell across his now furrowed brow. 

“You’re still here,” she whispered.

He didn’t respond, nor did he blink.

She boldly leaned towards him, her hand resting on his shoulder, “Am I allowed to kiss you good morning or is that against the rules?”

Unblinking, Kane lowered his liquid brown eyes to focus on her mouth.  Susanna took this as an invitation and moved closer to brush her lips softly against his, “See,” she whispered against his open lips, “I can follow the rules,” she pulled away from him and lowered her lips to his neck that had been so inviting a few minutes earlier, “even though you’ve made that endeavor extremely difficult this morning.”

“How so?”
his voice was deceptively calm.

“You test my limits when I wake up to you like this,” she said, running
her hand across his bare chest, her lips at his ear.

Kane’s hand buried in her hair, holding her there, “You speak of
your limits as if the boundaries of mine are endless.”  With lightning speed Kane rolled Susanna to her back and pressed his unyielding body into hers, “Yours is the first flesh I’ve felt in a century and you speak of rules,” his mouth lowered to her neck, just below her ear, “Every time you’ve touched me these last few days I’ve nearly caught fire.”

Susanna’s head was swimming with
pure hunger for him.  Her hands buried in his hair as his open mouth trailed across her neck.  She slowly and instinctively raised her knees and Kane responded to her by pressing himself fully against her. The thin fabric of their clothes was practically nonexistent allowing her to feel every delicious inch of him. She groaned aloud in pleasure.

As Kane slipped a hand under her waist he raised her up and pressed into her again.  As he did, his mou
th trailed upward and once his lips found hers he kissed her with such force she fought to draw a breath.  He was like a starved man, his desire for her immeasurable.

Susanna, unable to withstand the torture anymore, slipped her hands under the sheets, her fingers immediately
seeking to slide beneath the elastic band of his pants.  Hindered by the tie that she herself put in place the night before, she quickly pulled it loose, her fingers once again creeping beneath his waistband.

Kane groaned and immediately grabbed both
of her hands and held them above her head, “Susanna,” his voice was stern, something she was not used to from him, “I’ve not been restraining myself from this moment for nothing.”

Susanna was breathless and irritated that he was forcefully
hindering her from touching him.

“I haven’t allowed
this because it can’t be maintained forever and I fear I won’t be able to cope with the loss of you once you leave,” his voice was anguished as he hovered over her, his lips barely brushing hers as he spoke.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said breathlessly, fighting to raise her head towards him, “I’ll stay until we figure this out
. We can find a way to break this stupid curse.”

Kane shook his head, “I’ll not have you locked into this madness with me.”

“There has to be a way,” she said as she fought against his hold.

“My love for you already consumes me
. This act will surely drive me to madness every second I’m torn away from you which I know will happen again.  I’m thankful for the days I’ve been given, but I know they won’t last … nothing does.”

“I will,” she pleaded with him, “I will last.  I
’ll stay here with you and wait for you every night of my life if I have to.”

“Susanna!  Listen to what you
’re saying,” he demanded, “You can’t want this.”

“I want you,” she
answered with desperation, “I love you and if this is the life we have then that is what I will take.”

“Susanna, we must be rational.  If I let you go, promise me you’ll be sensible.”

Susanna took a few deep breaths and mustered the strength he asked of her. She managed a small nod of assurance.

Slowly Kane released her hands and
allowed his body to rest fully on hers.  His lips brushed hers softly and Susanna reveled in the sweetness of his kiss.  “You will never know the loneliness I suffered before you came.  Every day I went back I prayed to God I would die for good and not be forced to endure the suffering of returning day after day, night after night.  And then you came and my life seems whole again.  Somehow I’ve been granted the gift of being able to see what my life could be and yet at the same time I know it won’t last.”

“How do you know?  What if the spell is broken?” she pleaded with him, “We should go to the dock today and see what happens if you try to leave this place.  It could be over,” she
offered him a hopeful smile and put both hands on his face, “If it is then we can be together, all the time.”

Kane smiled
warmly down at her but the trepidation in his eyes betrayed his doubt.

“
I still want you,” she whispered against his lips.

Kane pressed
against her once again, “You doubt my desire for you?”

Susanna’s eyes closed
languidly as she arched against his body, “No,” she whispered, “You’ve got to stop doing that.”

“As pained as you are, my love, I
’m that multiplied by a thousand,” he whispered, “But I have to be able to live the rest of my life without you if the circumstances warrant it and I’m already doubtful I can manage it.”

Susanna wrapped her arms around him as tears sprung to her eyes, “Let’s go down to the dock and see
. What do we have to lose?”

Kane pulled away from her
and looked down at her tear stained face, “Everything.”