Souls of Fire (13 page)

Now, the overwhelming physical attraction I felt was the least of my problems. I could have dealt with that kind of insanity. The complicated and confusing emotional state I found myself in now, however, had me reeling.

I was about to fall for a man who thought of me only as an unexciting, non-tempting, immature girl who rushed to dim-witted conclusions, was hysterical, stubborn and threw tantrums. A girl who had to resort to slapping him across the face instead of giving him a superior, contemptuous talking-to and walking unmoved and leisurely from the room, head held high!

Yep, that about sums it up,
I thought, my heart sinking again at the thought of not being his type at all, and having no chance in hell to make him feel for me.

Finally pulled out of my deep contemplation by the fact that my still partially naked body had started to shake from the cold, I hurriedly unwrapped the towel, hung it back on the hook next to the shower, and started to put on the clothing he had handed me.

Standing in front of the mirror twenty minutes later, my hair dry, and my body now concealed by a pair of men’s blue jeans and a white shirt, I considered my reflection.

The jeans fit pretty well considering they weren’t made for women, and I had tucked the shirt into the hem of the jeans, the topmost buttons left casually open so that I looked more feminine in the masculine shirt; all things considered, I looked tolerably pretty.

Even as the thought occurred, I recalled the sexy underwear and the women Aaron must be accustomed to seeing. Disgusted at myself for even entertaining the idea that he could think I looked pretty, I threw my reflection a hard look and whispered “Fool”, turning quickly away from the devastated expression on my mirror image’s face and heading for the door, a hard mask slamming down over my features to bury my emotions.

A
aron’s head shot up the moment the bathroom door opened. He had felt off-balance and on-edge for the last hour. It had been the most confusing hour he had spent in a very long time; starting with her accusation that he had intended to rape her!

Had anyone told him beforehand that such an accusation would accomplish more than make him burst out in laughter, its being so ludicrously unfeasible, he would have told them they were nuts.

Now, he could find nothing hilarious about the situation! With only a few words, she had managed to wound him.

He had been deeply hurt by her accusation, by what she thought of him, thought him capable of. Even worse, he thought it had shown. Though he had quickly turned his back on her, there was no denying that his stance must have given away his raw emotional state.

For years, he hadn’t let any woman catch even the tiniest glimpse of emotion. He had kept almost everybody carefully out, never opening up. There had never been a woman to open up to anyway!

From a very young age on ― in a very messed up way ― he had known the feeling of having one’s heart ripped out.

Today, he had not only let her see right through him, he had even opened up more than he ever had before, just mentioning his parents at all ― he never
ever
  mentioned his parents!

Something was definitely messed up about her. If he hadn’t already dismissed the idea of her being a ‘witch’ ― and if he could make himself believe in witchcraft or the like ― he would have believed her to be one after what had happened tonight, for she must have bewitched him!

Nobody had ever gotten him to open up and talk about anything that really mattered to him. Now, he had just grazed the issue he felt most strongly about with a stranger.

He felt as if he was caught in a trap she had laid out for him; and which he couldn’t escape if he tried.

As yet, he hadn’t attempted to make a run for it. There was something about her and the way she affected him that he needed to understand.

It started with the way she made him feel. That intense burning desire he felt for her just couldn’t be for real! And the bond he felt between them, the bond that had led him to her and had saved her life; it was something completely out of the ordinary, something that couldn’t be explained away by any sane line of reasoning.

And why, he wondered, should he feel hurt or betrayed by her because of what she thought about him! He couldn’t care less about what other people thought about him!

Then, of course, there was the matter of the strange dream.

Totally inexplicable!

Not only had he dreamt about her desperately needing his help, he had also seen the same tattoo on the left side of her chest that he had just seen a couple of minutes ago, when she had stood in the doorway half-naked. He hadn’t dreamt it up, it really existed. He had known it was there before he had actually seen it!

This time he had seen clearly that it was a rose. After all, he had stood there like an idiot, staring at it without realizing how rude he was being and what she must think he was staring at instead.

There had to be some kind of explanation to what was going on. Her behavior was another thing he couldn’t understand: what kind of girl starved herself nearly to death? She had looked as if she hadn’t eaten or taken fluids for days when he had found her. And it couldn’t have been normal for her to just faint like that when they had kissed under the oak the other day.

He couldn’t be sure if it had been real or if he had been imagining it at the time, but he thought he remembered that something had struck her and that her body had been kind of glowing afterward.

None of it made any sense! The only person who could possibly make sense of any of it was Adam Wright. If anyone could find out what was going on, it was him!

Looking at Persephone standing in the frame of the bathroom door, dressed in his jeans and shirt, Aaron felt a strange kind of pleasure in the fact that she was wearing his clothing. Another thing that was messed up, Aaron thought, sighing internally. Why he should feel any pleasure in it, was beyond him!

Even as he scrutinized her from head to foot, thinking she still managed to look beautiful in men’s clothing, he felt taken aback as his gaze finally reached her face.

In the short time since meeting her, her face had always been alive with emotions. Of course, he was certain she hadn’t let on to everything she had been feeling, but he had been able to tell at least her basic mood by looking at her facial expressions.

Now her usually animated features showed absolutely nothing! She was hiding behind a mask; hiding emotions she didn’t want him to see.

Generally, the only reason for not letting another person see one’s emotions, Aaron pondered, was that they referred to the person they were being kept from.

Trying hard to understand what he had done to upset her so much that she had shut down emotionally and hidden her true feelings behind a mask, Aaron slowly got up from the corner of the bed where he had been perched while waiting for her and approached her. When he reached her, he was about to ask her outright what he had done to upset her, when she held her right hand up and said,

“I don’t want to talk about it”, thus stopping him in his tracks.

“Okay,” she said, her tone matter-of-fact, “let’s get this over with. Let’s talk. Then, each of us can get on with our lives, after we go and see this professor, right?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Aaron said, staggered by her suddenly cold behavior.

Attempting to seem just as unemotional as she had, he turned around without another word and led the way into the small kitchen. It had just enough space for a small table with two chairs to sit opposite the kitchen block in the right back corner of the room.

Motioning for Persephone to take a seat, Aaron busied himself making coffee.

“Do you take milk or sugar?” he asked her in a polite but businesslike tone after five minutes of silence, both of them not having wanted to discuss a thing without the comfort of steaming hot coffee.

“I’d like my coffee with lots of milk, please. No sugar,” Persephone answered just as politely; too politely, in fact. It was starting to annoy him!

“Let’s cut the crap,” Aaron said, no longer able to take her pokerfaced, excessively polite manner.

“You don’t need to tell me squat!” he continued.  “Just quit being so damn polite, alright? Do you think you could manage that?”

“Fine,” Persephone snapped, seemingly overdoing it a bit in order to show him just how impolite she could be!

Aaron tried not to smile at this and at the way her brows drew together in irritation. He didn’t quite manage, though, and he couldn’t be sure, but he thought he saw her lips twitch faintly in response.

Handing her the cup of coffee he had poured for her, and pouring a cup of black coffee for himself, he sat down opposite her and thought about the best way to approach the insane subject they were going to discuss.

Clearing his throat, he said,

“You wanted to know why it’s so important to see Professor Wright. The first thing you need to know about him is that he’s the best at what he does; top of his field! Everything I know about the subject I teach, I know from him …

You’re probably wondering if my class is even legitimate. It’s not a very common area, and I doubt there are many colleges that have classes such as this, but everything I teach has basis in facts, at least. If there’s a credible explanation to … any of it … Adam will find it.”

Aaron paused for a moment, wondering how she would take his next statement. She might not believe a word he said. As far as he knew, she hadn’t felt a bond of any kind. Moreover, her mind may have repressed all the weird things that had happened between them, unable to cope with something it couldn’t understand.

“We need to see him because he’s the only one who can make sense of what’s happening between us,” Aaron said, waiting for a response, any response.

When Persephone didn’t say anything at all, but sat there looking confused about his meaning, Aaron continued with an audible sigh,

“There’s something wrong with us … I mean … something seems to be happening to us … or …” He paused again for a second.

“Listen, I don’t know what exactly is happening … or I wouldn’t feel the need to talk to Adam about this. All I know for sure is that I can feel something there … between us; a sort of connection, or … bond, if you want to call it that.”

At the mention of the word ‘bond’, Aaron could see Persephone’s posture visibly change. Her formerly relaxed position had abruptly turned tense. Her eyes, bewildered and frightened, darted upward to search his, and flew away again instantly, as if she had been caught.

Suddenly, Aaron understood: she knew! He couldn’t believe it!

Here he was frantically fishing around for the right words so that she wouldn’t think he was totally nuts, and she already knew all along because she had felt everything he had. He was sure she had felt the same things because he could see it mirrored in her eyes. All of a sudden he felt foolish and upset.

“You
know!
” he said in a deep voice, anger seeping into his tone.

“You’ve known all along,” he continued, his voice incredulous, “and it hasn’t occurred to you to bring it up, even though I told you you’d think I’m crazy and asked you not to have me committed after telling you what you wanted to know?”

“Just a minute, here,” Persephone huffed angrily. “How on earth should I have known that
this
,” her hand motioned back and forth between their bodies, “is what you were going to talk about? I thought you couldn’t feel it!”

“Oh, I can feel it alright! It’s the only reason you’re still alive,” Aaron countered, his voice low and dramatic, letting the following silence make the words sink in even more. When he wouldn’t explain further, Persephone spoke after a minute, her voice slightly shaky,

“What do you mean with ‘still alive’? Why on earth, wouldn’t I still be alive? You’re not making any sense!” Her voice sounded afraid, even though she clearly intended to act tough and untouched by what he had said.

Aaron hesitated. He hadn’t wanted to broach the subject like this, so bluntly. But the anger and foolishness he’d felt had made him lash out at her in a harsh way.

However, it seemed there was no way back now, after he had already made his dramatic opening.

Letting out a long sigh, Aaron said,

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you! I … was just angry because I felt … well … like you had pulled the wool over my eyes, knowing all this time, and letting me worry all the while how I was going to bring up such a crazy topic. I realize, however, that you didn’t purposely keep it from me; and you’re right: you couldn’t have known what I was referring to. And had things been reversed, I probably would have kept my mouth shut as well.”

Waiting for Persephone to give some indication that she understood and forgave him, Aaron only continued after a minute nodding of Persephone’s head in understanding.

“Okay,” Aaron said relieved, “Now, what’s the last thing you remember?”