Sylvain Reynard - Gabriel's Rapture

together.”

“Oh, really?” His lips turned up into a half-smile. “And what

did you say?”

“I told the truth.”

He searched her eyes. “Anything else?”

“She said she hoped you were behaving yourself and that I was

happy. And I said yes — on both counts.” She waited for a moment,

thinking about whether or not she should mention the email from

a certain Vermont farm boy.

“But there’s something else. Go ahead.” He was still smiling

indulgently.

“Well, Paul emailed me.”

Gabriel scowled. “What? When?”

“The day of your lecture.”

“Why didn’t you mention this before?” he fumed.

“Because of this.” She gestured to the irritation visible on his face.

“I knew it would upset you, and I didn’t want to do that when you

had to speak in front of a room full of important people.”

“What did he say?”

“He said that you passed Christa’s dissertation proposal.”

“What else did he say?”

“He wished me a Merry Christmas and said that he was sending

something to me in Selinsgrove.”

Gabriel’s nostrils flared. “Why would he do that?”

“Because he’s my friend. It’s probably maple syrup, which I will

gladly give to my dad. Paul knows that I have a boyfriend and that I am very, very happy. I’ll forward the email to you, if you like.”

“That won’t be necessary.” Gabriel’s lips thinned visibly.

Julia crossed her arms in front of her chest. “You were eager to

have me spend time with Paul when Professor Pain was around.”

“That was different. And I don’t particularly wish to discuss her ever again.”

“Easy for you to say. You don’t keep running into people I’ve

slept with.”

50

Gabriel’s Rapture

Gabriel glared.

Julia clapped a hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry. That was a

terrible thing to say.”

“As you may recall, I have run into at least one person with whom

you’ve been sexually involved.”

He turned and walked away, approaching the edge of the lookout.

She gave him a moment or two to himself, then she stood beside

him and cautiously wrapped her little finger around his. “I’m sorry.”

He didn’t respond.

“Thank you for rescuing me from Simon.”

Gabriel scowled. “You know that I have a past. Do you intend

to keep bringing it up?”

She lowered her gaze to her shoes. “No.”

“That remark was beneath you.”

“I’m sorry.”

He kept his eyes trained on the city that was spread out before

them. Red tiled roofs shone in the sun, while Brunelleschi’s dome

dominated the view.

Julia decided to change the subject. “Christa was behaving

strangely at your last seminar. She seemed resentful. Do you think she knows about us?”

“She’s sour because I haven’t welcomed her outrageous advances.

But she met the deadline for her revised proposal and her work was acceptable.”

“So she wasn’t — blackmailing you?”

“Not every woman is your rival for me,” he snapped, pushing

away her hand.

Her eyes widened in surprise. “That remark was beneath you.”

After a moment, the anger seemed to seep out of him. His shoul-

ders slumped. “Forgive me.”

“Let’s not waste our time together arguing.”

“Agreed. But I don’t like the idea of Paul emailing you. Although

I suppose you could be friends with worse persons.” Gabriel sounded unusually prim.

She smiled and pressed her lips to his cheek. “There’s the Profes-

sor Emerson I know and love.”

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Sylvain Reynard

He pulled out his phone so he could take her picture against the

background of the beautiful view. Julia was laughing, and he was

taking picture after picture when his phone began to ring. The not so dulcet tones of London’s Big Ben sounded between them.

Julia gave him a challenging look.

He grimaced and pulled her into an intense kiss. He cupped her

face with his hand, determinedly parting her lips with his own and gently slipping his tongue inside.

She kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his waist to pull

him closer. And all the while, Big Ben chimed.

“You aren’t going to answer it?” she finally got a chance to ask.

“No. I told you earlier, I wasn’t going to speak to her.”

He pressed his lips to Julia’s once again, but only briefly.

“I feel sorry for her,” Julia said.

“Why?”

“Because she created a child with you. Because she still wants

you, but she’s lost you. If I were to lose you to someone else, I’d be devastated.”

Gabriel huffed impatiently. “You aren’t going to lose me. Stop

that.”

Julia smiled weakly. “Um, I need to say something.”

He moved back.

“This is coming from my concern for you. I want you to know

that.” She looked at him in earnest. “I feel sorry for Paulina, but it’s clear that she’s been holding what happened over your head in order to keep you in her life. I’m wondering if she gets into trouble just so you’ll rescue her. I think it’s time for her to develop an emotional attachment to someone else. Someone she can fall in love with.”

“I don’t disagree,” he said stiffly.

“What if she can’t be happy until she lets you go? You let her go

and you found me. It would be a mercy on your part for you to let

her go so she can find her own happiness.”

Gabriel nodded grimly and kissed her forehead but refused to

say anything more on the subject.

The rest of their stay in Florence was a happy one, a counterfeit

honeymoon of a sort. They frequented various churches and museums

52

Gabriel’s Rapture

during the day, in between returns to their hotel, where they would make love sometimes slowly and sometimes madly. Every evening

Gabriel would choose a different restaurant for dinner, and they

would walk home afterward, pausing on one of the bridges to make

out like teenagers in the cool evening air.

On their last evening in Florence, Gabriel took Julia to Caffé

Concerto, one of his favorite restaurants, which was positioned on the banks of the Arno. They spent several hours over a multi-course dinner, leisurely talking about their holiday and their burgeoning sexual relationship. They both confessed that the past week had been an awakening of sorts — for Julia, an awakening to the mysteries of eros; for Gabriel, an awakening to the mysteries of the four loves intertwined.

In conversation, he final y revealed his surprise. He’d rented a

villa in Umbria for their second week of holidays. He promised to

take her to Venice and Rome on their next vacation, possibly in the summer after they visited Oxford.

After dinner, Gabriel led her one last time to the Duomo. “I need

to kiss you,” he whispered, pulling her body close to his.

She was going to reply, she was going to tell him to take her to

the hotel and mark her body in a deeper way, but she was interrupted.

“Beautiful lady! Some money for an old man…” A voice called

to her in Italian from the front steps of the Duomo.

Unthinkingly, Julia leaned around Gabriel to discover who was

speaking. The man continued, begging for money so he could buy

something to eat.

Gabriel caught her arm before she could approach the steps.

“Come away, love.”

“But he’s hungry. And it’s so cold.”

“The police will come around and carry him off. They don’t like

panhandlers in the city center.”