Chapter Twenty-one #2
When he turned around, her breath caught at the sight of him.
Black tendrils caressed his broad shoulders.
Ebon curls dusted his skin, tanned from years in the sun.
His narrow hips would fit her perfectly and framed his impressive erection.
Strong muscular thighs guaranteed pleasure would last well into the night.
Grace licked her lips. She’d thought and done the same when she’d dreamed of being Grainne on the Only Love, before he was cursed.
After that lonely time in Grainne’s life when she married another man, she’d envied every woman who captured Luc’s attention since.
That envy still echoed in Grace’s mind. “Who did you make love with last night?” she demanded.
Luc tilted his head, as if he might not have heard her correctly. Then he straightened and smiled, kneeling before her on the bed. “The woman I love.”
Hmm.” Grace held out her hands to him. “And with whom will you make love tonight?”
He studied her, stroking his gaze over her body. Her nipples tightened. Her thighs dampened. Her heart raced.
“Do you worry that I only see Grainne when I am loving you?” Luc asked after the long looks that left her panting.
Grace nodded slowly. “I feel silly admitting it.”
“Can I reassure you that I don’t see Grainne when I’m loving you?” He took Grace in his arms.
They shared a long, luxurious kiss.
When they broke for air, she sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. “I am very reassured.”
“Good. The love of my youth died long ago. I’ve had decades to come to terms with that.
For most of those years, I believed I would never love again.
So my answer is the same as before. I made, am making, love to the woman I love more than life itself.
” As he spoke, he covered her face and neck with kisses.
“So, you love me as I love you?” She put a hand on his cheek and found his lips with hers.
Together they fell to the mattress. “Yes Grace, no matter what name you have. I know you, recognize you in my soul, and you are the woman I love.”
The evening passed in an exchange of kisses and caresses.
Grace basked in his touch. Each pluck of a nipple, each love bite, each stroke of his tongue over her most sensitive flesh brought a more intense wave of heat and longing.
She reached to share in giving pleasure, but Luc held her back.
“Later, my love. For now, allow me to worship you as you deserve.
The words melted her heart, and she opened to him body and soul.
He stroked, stirring every nerve and sinew to fever pitch.
“Please, now, please,” she begged fixing her gaze on his.
“As my love commands,”
He filled her body. His passion filled her heart, beyond her ability to hold, and she soared to the heavens.
She dozed content and secure in Luc’s arms and finally slept.
***
A long while later, Luc woke. His beloved still slumbered at his side. He’d slept for the second time. Wonderful as it was to wake next to Grace, he worried at the changes in his cursed state. His life had been constant for nine decades, what caused the changes now?
Would they last?
Would he become completely human?
That would mean Grace—or perhaps Grainne—had broken his curse, but neither woman was heartless. He left his love to sleep, dressed, and went to the desk.
If anything, Grace had too much heart. Luc had seen her kindness to her workers, to a strange old lady—Mambo Ayezan—to his disloyal cat who would not become her friend and a pair of dogs she’d never asked for.
He’d watched her labor to make Sweet Dreams a home. Watched her fight for it, for what she wanted, even when she was most afraid—first with him, then Guidry. Yes, she’d run from Boston and those troubles, but she was a long way from there and then.
So much had changed, for both of them.
In the past few months, she’d fought for what she wanted, in the face of all the odd fear-prompting events that had gone on at Sweet Dreams. Some of those events he had caused.
Luc had no regrets. What he’d done, he’d done for so many reasons, none of them malicious.
The upshot of it all was that Grace Thibodaux was no heartless woman.
Neither had Grainne lacked heart. She’d loved him, despite her refusal to marry.
Hadn’t she come to find him when her marriage ended and her family no longer needed her to sacrifice herself for them?
What had happened to Grainne?
He’d not find the answer to that question in his log book.
Nonetheless, the book contained information that might offer clues.
Luc opened the book to his earlier spot and continued reading.
He was looking for dates, yes, and other answers.
Answers to the questions he had about his curse and the changes he could not explain.
The ability to sleep, and today being corporeal with neither the full moon nor the Only Love to ground him.
He found them, or rather hints of the causes in the entry dated, 25 January 1815, a month after his curse had begun.
Life, if I can call it that, has settled, he read.
Those early days after Mawu cursed me were a jumble of confusion and uncertainty.
In the first moments when the curse took effect, I was weak.
My body felt torn in two—I pity men who in the past were drawn and quartered, and wonder if my pain is half as terrible as theirs.
I hurt so badly I had to crawl back to my bed.
I could not even find the strength to search for Grainne.
She had vanished, leaving no trace. All night on 9 December, and much of the following day I lay in my bed.
Bound there by debilitating pain and weakness.
Caleb sat in the chair next to my bed tending me.
By afternoon, I had regained some strength. Cal helped me dress, then I went above to have a meal and speak with both my brother, and my first mate.
I ordered Alfeo to dismiss the men, give them any pay owed.
I gave him all the money and treasure I had.
I wasn’t going to need it. I knew that much.
Told him to buy his own ship. He tried to refuse, but he’d seen as many strange things as I had.
He knew how real a curse could be. I informed them both that I would vanish before the next morning.
Caleb believed I was joking.
Alfeo knew better and left. He said he did not want to watch me fade away into nothing.
Cal thought him silly and stayed. My brother and I remained on deck watching the night pass, drinking rum. Cal was nearly asleep when I spoke my last words to him that night.
“I love you very much, brother,” I said as the breeze rose.
I vanished as it blew. I could see Cal, this ship, the surrounding bayou.
I could hear water slap against the hull, birds, other creatures.
I could smell the scents of the day. I could even smell the rum on Caleb’s breath.
But I could see nothing of myself, and I could feel nothing of my surroundings.
Cal woke and searched for me. Still denying what I knew to be true, he left, angry with me for ‘playing jokes’ as he thought of it. I left the message for Alfeo to bring Cal back on the night of the full moon.
In the days before Caleb returned, I tested my abilities, the length, breadth and depth of what my cursed body could and could not do.
Every day was different in some way, and I did not understand until now.
Now I am certain that the differences are caused by the moon’s sway.
The first week or so of cursed life had been very mixed up with the ability to be corporeal or ephemeral, seemingly at random.
That was a time of adjustment, of my body learning how to exist in two worlds while ruled by an outside force, the moon… .
***
Grace stirred, reaching for Luc. She found only emptiness. She lurched to a sitting position and scanned her room, and found him at her desk with the open logbook.
“Trouble sleeping?” Grace tunneled fingers through her hair.
“No, I woke earlier with an urgent need to seek reasons for the variations in the effects of my curse.”
“Did you find them?”
“I think so.”
“And…?” She left the bed to find her robe, knowing he would enjoy watching her search.
Luc smiled, and his eyes did indeed track her. “I believe the curse itself is changing. The differences in my corporeal state, my ability to sleep, both can be explained by that.”
“You found this information in the logbook?”
“No. I found confirmation that the first days of my curse were highly unstable. I had to… acclimate, if you will, to existing in both physical and spiritual worlds. Once I grew accustomed to that existence, the effects settled into a specific pattern based on the phase of the moon.”
Pulling on her robe, Grace ambled across the room to him, peering over his shoulder at the open pages of the book.
“It seems logical—if a curse can operate logically—variations in the effects would result from actual changes in the curse. However, given how the curse is worded, only one thing could cause it to change.”
“Precisely. I must have encountered a heartless woman and earned her heart.”
She stroked his hair, smiling to herself. “You have certainly earned my heart. However, I never thought of myself as heartless.”
“You aren’t.” He flashed a smile up at her.
“Then you’ve met some other woman recently? Have you given her your heart?”
“Only Grainne, and I gave her my heart long ago. I told her I kept back the small piece needed to remain alive. I believe I’m very close to giving that piece to you.”
Grace smiled and backed away, slipping her robe off as she went. Laying the robe at the foot of the bed, she knelt on the mattress, facing him. “Come back to bed, my love, and show me how close you are.”