Alayna lives as a recluse in the giant redwood forest far from
prying eyes. When intruders break into her home with the intention of robbing
and using her, a man with vivid green eyes becomes an unlikely saviour. The
instant they see each other their fates are sealed. Ben and Alayna have the
kind of attraction that reeks of a celestial mandate.
Alayna feels it too, because Ben possesses a kiss able to break worlds. His green eyes are an ethereal magnificence amid the redwoods, lighting the way for love, music, dreams and destiny to mark their paths, but such a connection has a price.
Ten
A VIOLIN RESTED in its case on her desk.
Ben stopped dead when he
saw it.
His heart had thundered
during the night and his blood had raced. Every emotion hidden and unknown had
surfaced until flesh was soul and time was as ancient and unknowable as the cosmos.
She emptied him from the inside out and then she remade him.
That quickening was now
as nothing as to what assaulted every sense he possessed.
A violin.
Music.
In the filtered light of
this new day, he approached it as if it was a viper. Already his hand reached
to take possession. The contradiction between thought and action created
theories of chaos in his mind.
The desired object was
in his hands.
This was a work of art,
an instrument lovingly crafted.
An ache grew in his gut.
Alayna paid a lot of money
for this. Why?
“To hear you play,” she
whispered behind him.
He did not move. He
simply stared at what he held in his hands. The ache sought release.
“You know yourself now
…”
“Do I?” he croaked.
“You have a fair idea
and it will become clearer as you move forward.”
He swallowed. “So?” But
those answers were of less importance to the growing pressure within him.
“Knowing means leaving,
Ben. You returned to understand that … and to accept it. You must go forward,
never back.”
Her hands were on his
shoulders, warm through the thin shirt he’s shrugged on to stave off some of
the chill. He took great comfort from her touch, now. Every word she spoke was
only truth. This was finally relief.
“We have an ages
difference that won’t hold up in this society,” she murmured.
He turned then. “Ages?” he said, his gaze intent.
She did not blink. “Yes.
Ages.”
“How old are you?” The
words tore from him. Suspicion could now become fact.
Even now she wouldn’t
give him that. No lies, but not straightforward fact either. “Too old. Very
old. We are old souls both.”
She intended to leave
him with only his suspicions. She intended to keep to the rumor of what souls
were capable of.
He dug deeper. “How old
am I? I do not mean my soul.”
Alayna blinked. “That
would be the real question, wouldn’t it?”
And that answered it for
him.
Smiling then, he lifted
the violin to his shoulder, tucked it under his chin, sensing the knots unraveling
inside. Already notes floated into his blood.
“And you want to hear me
play before I hit the long road.”
Her sigh settled over
him like a warm blanket. “It will be your final gift to me.”
He lifted the bow. It
settled whisper soft onto the strings. Fingers found the right chords
automatically. This he knew; this was
his true self.
The first angelic note
soared, and every bird in the forest fell silent to listen.
Tears coursed freely
over Alayna’s cheeks.
Worlds far, far, away
knitted back together as the flows of energy flew along the musical curves of
creation itself.
It was her final gift to
him as well.
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