Page 58 of Angel's Kiss
Erik leaned back against the wall, flummoxed. She had seemed tired this morning, distracted perhaps. He had no doubt exhausted her in the last few days, between caring for him and burdening her with the horrors of his youth. He listened as his brilliant student’s voice continued to rise and fall with inconsistent strength and intonation, occasionally empty and trepidatious like he had not heard from her in months. It was all the more shocking given how brilliantly she had sung yesterday. But that had been before he’d kissed her. Before he’d crossed the line he never should have dared go near. It was the most brazen thing he had ever done, but there had been such anticipation and want in her eyes. Had he misinterpreted again? Had he ruined everything?
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“You could try to smile. Someone will think you’re here against your will.” Raoul looked up at his brother and made a face. He didn’t care that they were in a fine café.
“Iamhere against my will,” Raoul replied. “You know I’d rather be anywhere than near that place.” He glared down the avenue at the hulking outline of the Palais Garnier. For a while he’d found it beautiful because it was the place where Christine was, but now he had decided to despise it. It was an ugly, gaudy building anyway.
“At least try the duck,” Antoine teased, kicking Raoul under their table. “Or would you like some pigeon? I know you have a preference for songbirds, little brother.”
“You are not my brother,” Raoul snapped. “Not yet.”
“He’s as good as,” Philippe scoffed. “Whether Sabine marries him or not, when two men die together, that makes their sons brothers.”
“Our fathers died in a fire, not a war,” Raoul snapped. He failed to see how Philippe saw their fathers’ fate as something to bind them to Antoine and not a reason to hate the man. Indeed it had been at the Martiniac estate where the disaster had occurred. If not for Alfred de Martiniac’s negligence, Georges de Chagny might still be alive. “And I’m not hungry.”
“Well, I want dessert. And here it is, right on time,” Antoine said with a wicked grin, nodding over Raoul’s shoulder. He turned and his heart jumped as he met the stunned eyes of Christine Daaé, entering their café on the arm of Adèle Valerius. Raoul turned to Antoine in confusion. “A peace offering.”
“Raoul, I’m sorry, I didn’t expect—” Christine stammered as Raoul stumbled past several tables to get to her.
“I did,” Adèle replied, pushing Christine towards Raoul. “Antoine let me know he’d be dining here with these handsome brothers, and I figured you might be interested.”
“Adèle, I...” Christine looked torn, even more so when Raoul took her hand.
“I am so glad to see you outside of that place,” Raoul said, overcome by Christine’s beauty and modest blush. He pressed a bold kiss to her hand as he bowed deep, all his confusion and resentment dissolving.
“I have to go,” Christine declared and fled from the café. Raoul did not think twice about following.
“Christine, wait!” Raoul called, chasing her into the busy street. He easily caught up to her, catching her by the shoulder, and forced her to turn to him. “Please stay! Have supper with me again! I shouldn’t have been such an ass the other night.”
Christine kept looking around as if she expected to be watched, but the street was empty. “No, Raoul, I should be the one to apologize. Robert and I—”
“Aren’t involved, I know,” Raoul finished for her with a grin. “It’s quite compassionate of you to lend cover to a man like that, though I don’t think you should spend too much time with him.”
“A man like that?”
“It is not worth discussing in polite company,” Raoul said with a smile and a sigh, noting Christine’s worried eyes. “It makes me worry for you all the more, that you are being forced into this deception by whoever else it is who pursues you.”
Christine bit her lip and looked away. “No one is making me do anything.”
“I will say it again, whoever it is who seeks to supplant me in your heart, I will face him and defeat him in any contest you put before us. Just let me know who my rival is.” Raoul took her hand in reassurance. “My darling, I want nothing more than to protect you. You called this man an angel, but no angel would make you engage in so many deceptions.”
“And you have only ever been honest with me,” Christine muttered with a sad smile. She looked so forlorn, all Raoul wanted to do was take her in his arms and comfort her. And so he did. Christine immediately returned the embrace, sighing as she rested her head on his shoulder.
“I hate him, you know,” Raoul confessed into her dark hair, breathing in her scent. “Not only for trying to take you from me, but for how he has hurt you and upset you. I would never do that.”
“I know you wouldn’t,” Christine replied and it sounded like she was close to tears.
“Christine.” Raoul caught her chin with his finger to make her look at him. “I don’t know what sort of spell this charlatan has you under, but I’m determined to break it.” Raoul’s heart began to race as he recalled the fairy stories he and his playmate had shared as children. “In fact, I know how to break it.”
“I’m not under a—” Christine protested before he kissed her. It was so different, to kiss her as a man who knew all his desires, compared to the foolish boy he had been when she had given him her lips before. It was familiar and thrilling, yet wonderful, the way she stiffened then relaxed in his arms. He should have done this ages ago.
With a gasp, Christine pulled back, batting Raoul’s arms away. “I can’t! I’m sorry!” Christine cried, sprinting away into the night.
“Christine—” He rushed after her, but she was too fast, disappearing into the dark, her black cloak like a shadow. Raoul wanted to throw himself into the Seine in shame and scream in confusion.
“I’m sorry, sweet boy,” Raoul turned to see Adèle Valerius looking after her friend with equal disappointment, standing in the café door. “We all tried. I do think you suit her better than whoever it is she’s gotten herself mixed up with.”
“Do you know who it is?” Raoul demanded desolately. He could still feel the echo of that stolen kiss, and it made his guts twist to think of any other man touching her in the same way. “Has she mentioned anything to you?”
