Page 68 of Angel's Kiss
“You know I love opera. Though it’s a travesty to have Verdi – properItalianopera, mind you – sung in French and filled with little dancers. But you Frenchmen insist on your ballets.”
“Don’t be a snob; you’re too poor to afford a ticket,” Raoul admonished and Vincenzo merely laughed again.
“So that’s a yes, you are going.” Raoul glared at the other man, which was hard to do when the object of his ire had not yet put his shirt back on. Neither had Raoul, but that wasn’t the point.
“I have to see her. I’m worried for her,” Raoul explained as he slumped onto the bed and snuffed out Vincenzo’s cigarette on the nightstand. “I know in my soul that she’s in some sort of danger. I can feel it.”
“Then go and come tell me of your grand success after. And if the tenor is any good. I do like that part.” Vincenzo smiled as he began to sing, and not badly at all. “La donna è mobile, qual piuma al vento.”
“What does that mean?”
“Women are as fickle as a feather on the wind,” Vincenzo answered with a wicked grin. “You’ll learn, my friend. You’ll learn.”
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Christine’s mind wasa fog as Erik held her close in the dark behind the mirror, pressed against the cold wall as he kissed her.
“Christine?” Both of them jumped at Julianne’s voice and accompanying knock from outside the dressing room. “Are you in there? I have to get you ready.”
“I don’t want to make you late,” Erik whispered, leaning in so close his mask touched Christine’s forehead. She hated that he had worn the thing, but he insisted on it since the premiere ofRigolettowas a ‘formal occasion.’”
“I don’t care,” Christine confessed. “I’d rather be here.”
“The managers would be quite disappointed not to have their newest star for their opening,” Erik replied. “As would be the audience.”
“I don’t belong to them,” she breathed back. His body was flush against hers, and yet not close enough, a devilish part of her said.
“You belong to no one.” He said it warmly and then kissed her as if to prove it was a lie. Christine’s mind returned to her supper with Robert and his reminders of all the things her strange love affair was lacking.
“Perhaps...tonight,” she found herself murmuring against Erik’s jaw, the mask cold against her flushed skin. “After the performance. I could be yours. Entirely. If you wish it.”
She was not prepared for Erik to draw away in what she could only guess was shock. It was almost impossible to see his expression in the darkened passage, but his glowing eyes were wary and nervous as he looked down at her.
“Do you not...wish for that?” Christine stammered, her cheeks heating for an entirely new reason now.
“I did not think you would want such a thing so – so soon,” Erik muttered back and she could tell he was evading. Perhaps if she could see his cheeks there would be a blush there too. “What we have done – or do – it’s just as pleasurable. Even more so, in my experience.”
It was Christine’s turn to look through the shadow in confusion and surprise. “In your experience? Whatexperienceis that?” Erik’s mouth hung open and Christine’s consternation rose with every second of silence. “Are you not a virgin as well?”
“I—” he began, then stepped away from her, hiding from Christine’s scowl. “I have lived a life.”
“Yes, a life you won’t tell me about past your youth,” she shot back. It was unfair and she knew it, for she had herself been too frightened to ask.
“Christine, I—”
“How many?” The words left her lips before she could stop herself. Erik only stared in reply. “How many women have you had?”
“People. I’ve been with three people like that,” Erik answered tersely.
“And?”
“Andwhat?”
“And what happened to them? How did it end?”
“Horribly,” Erik shot back with venom that set Christine back on her heels. “You need to get ready. I will find you later.” Erik turned without a word, not even bothering to take the lantern or trigger the mirror before he disappeared into the pitch dark of the secret corridor.
It was up to Christine to let herself into her dressing room, and though the room was warmer than the passage behind the mirror, Christine felt cold. For the first time in days in days she was truly and fully awake, conscious enough to see the mess her lust and need to believe in this man had put her in. She had kissed and touched Erik, thinking it was some holy gift she could give him, something to offset the horrors of his life and he had been with others before her! Was that the real reason he had been so slow to touch her?
