“Another Choice” by JunoMagic
Chapter 2
He put down the glass and leaned back. The expression in his eyes made her stomach clench and sent shivers down her spine: need, denial, pain. An abyss of pain. Grief. Loss.
She winced. Had she been hitting on someone who’d only recently lost a spouse or life partner? Picking up her cocktail again she glanced at him under the cover of the glass.
When she had first seen him in the museum, aloof, elegant, with that slightly sneering smile, she’d have put his age at around her own, or possibly even younger, at around thirty. The arrival in the bar had made her reconsider, and she’d mentally pushed his age back to around forty. Just a few years older than she was. Now she was wondering if he was a fit fifty-something. It was impossible to guess how old he was. There was a timeless look to his face. No wrinkles, save some barely visible lines around eyes, mouth and on his forehead, which were not signs of age, but suggestions of common moods, of habitual expressions.
He closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them again, his expression was unreadable again, but the lines of his face appeared a little harsher. As if he was willing himself not to think, not to remember, not to feel …
She felt like closing her eyes, too. Instead she sighed and put down her glass. This time she met his gaze without flinching. She knew about grief and pain.
“I am very sorry for your loss,” she said simply.
“Ahhh.” He released his breath in a deep, painful sigh. For a split second, the mask was stripped from his face once more. Corinne shuddered at the raw agony that lay beneath the smooth, aloof mask that this man kept so painstakingly in place. El seemed to freeze, as he tried to compose himself. His face, his whole body became completely still. Corinne couldn’t help staring, her heartbeat heavy. He barely looked human now, but like a statue. As if he were beyond time, beyond this world.
Yet another sigh. Careful. Slow. Corinne blinked. The mask was back in place, but as she studied his face, she thought there was a crack in his armour. Somehow, he looked more real now than he had before. But she still wasn’t able to guess his age.
“She has been dead for a long time,” he replied. His voice sounded like his sigh, soft, every word carefully enunciated.
“I’m really very sorry,” Corinne repeated. She searched for words. It was always awkward at moments like this to find words to express her sentiments. In the end she looked him straight in the eyes, those beautiful, silvery-grey eyes, now so carefully veiled. “Your — your wife was very lucky to be loved so much,” she added at last. A man who loved so deeply would have made the woman of his heart his wife.
A tender smile suddenly lit up his face. A swift memory of long-ago happiness drenched his eyes in liquid silver. “I was the lucky one.”
For a long while they gazed at one another in silence.
“Thank you, Corinne.” A pause. “About your question –“
Her heartbeat sped up. Somehow she’d assumed he would not answer it after admitting to his grief. Her throat constricted. Even if it was only … for … she forced herself to be honest to herself, at least within the confines of her own mind. Even if it was only for a night, would she be able — could she — would she — as she was not the one he really wanted —
“I don’t want to answer your question here and now,” El said. “But if you have time I would like to invite you to accompany me to the West Coast?”
“To California?” She stared at him, her mouth open.
He shook his head. “No — Oregon.”
Corinne blinked. On the one hand, that sounded like an offer straight from a movie like “Pretty Woman” or something like that. On the other hand … Oregon??
She swallowed, trying to come up with a sensible reply. “But — but you don’t know me at all,” she said finally.
He grinned at her and unexpected mischief flashed in his eyes. “And you don’t know me. No risk, no fun.”
“Right,” she said, her mouth suddenly dry. “I assume you will promise now that no harm will come to me.”
His face fell. But he did not look away. “I cannot promise that. I wish I could. But I can only promise that I will do my best to keep you from harm and not to cause you unnecessary pain.” His silver eyes seemed to bore into her. “I meant it when I said that I cannot give you what you are looking for. And I am aware even now that this will inevitably cause you pain if you pursue the course of action you suggest with your question. You have to believe me: I do not wish to hurt you.”
“But you will — if I come with you.”
“I am afraid so,” he agreed.
“But if I come with you, you will answer my question?” she asked. Her stomach fluttered, her heartbeat seemed to race in an excited, irregular rhythm. But she found she could not tear his eyes away from his. Desire flared through her body, and curiosity tickled her mind. Deep within her heart, she hoped that she knew how he would answer her. And at the moment, she did not care for whatever pain this answer might cause her in the future, she realized.
She smiled at him. “An adventure trip sounds wonderful.”
oooOooo
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Good Lords!
Oregon?
Wow, she is a brave one!