When it felt like the moment would crush me from its power, I separated my lips from his, although their removal did not extinguish the secondary responses. Our breaths raced in uneven beats, our hearts even faster. The urge to escape into his hold again became over-powering, so I took a couple steps back, not trusting my willpower. He mimicked my actions, taking two impressive steps back and grasping the metal railing behind him.
“I should still be begging your forgiveness. You made this far easier than I’d anticipated,” he said breathlessly. “I was prepared for merciless gravelling and relentless begging for at least a decade or two.” He smiled, sending my heart unto another fitful bout.
“So . . . were you serious about all that Immortal stuff? My afterlife theory is starting to sound more likely given that kiss.” I said, taking a few more steps back in response to the smile on his lips that was wreaking havoc on my resolution.
“I won’t argue that this feels like the best kind of afterlife, but I assure you”—he released his hold of the railing and crossed the space separating us. He reached for my face and his thumb traced my lower lip again—“that you are as Immortal as they come.”
He laughed after reviewing the speculation wrinkling my face. “Come on, I’ll give you a few things to consider.” He pulled me into the cabin. “Get changed, we’re going swimming,” he announced, flinging open a door at the end of a long hallway. “You should be able to find a swimsuit in the dresser over there. I’m going to get changed and I’ll meet you back on deck.” His voice was exuberant now, as if sorrow had never muddied it. He kissed me again, too quickly for my liking, and then shut the door behind him.
CHAPTER NINE
IMMORTAL WONDER
There hadn’t been a single towel, bathrobe, or cover-up to be found in that elaborately stocked room. I’d almost swiped the downy, white comforter off the bed, but didn’t want to look ridiculous. I felt nak*d walking through the cabin, probably due to the fact I nearly was. The black two-piece (more made of strings than actual material) had been the only option for our midnight swim. I’d considered swimming in the clothes I was wearing, except I had on a white linen top, and that wouldn’t have been any less revealing once it got wet.
I patted barefoot down the carpeted hall, praying he’d already be in the water (hopefully under the water) when I made my show on the deck before I launched into the black water.
Of course he wasn’t.
I saw him the moment I stepped through the cabin door, but my discomfort in the near nothingness I was constricted by, was forgotten as quickly as the breath was pulled from my lungs. True in holding to his godlike characteristics, William leaning against the railing, arms crossed, in nothing but his shorts, would have sent me into cardiac arrest had I still been . . . gulp . . . Mortal.
The moonlight playing over the lines and seams that cut deep canyons into every inch of his body made me woozy. I stopped in the doorway, grabbing the frame for support. I was amazingly stronger now, but I knew no matter how strong I ever became, there was nothing that could keep my knees from buckling beneath the glowing brilliance in front of me.
When his eyes moved from their star-ward gaze to me, his eyes widened, and his mouth fell open slightly. He threw his head to the side, as if trying to distract himself with something in the distance, but thinking better of it, his head and eyes turned back to me. “I can’t even pretend to not be distracted by the sight of you.” His eyes burned with the same awe written on his face. “I don’t want to either.”
I couldn’t imagine what he was talking about; there was nothing but lanky limbs and barely a hint of a tan gracing my skin after the long winter months, wrapped up in couple of garments that would have been rated R if the motion picture association rated swimsuits as well.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about . . . but I have you say you’re looking mighty impressive yourself.” I smiled, pleading with my eyes to keep them from roaming too long or far.
He looked at me as if I’d just said something ludicrous, before a smile spread over his mouth. “Am I going to have to hold you down until you’re convinced of how beautiful you are?” There was a lightness of teasing in his suggestion, but I wouldn’t have minded one bit if he was serious about this kind of coercion.
I felt the heat from the flush that covered my cheeks when I let my mind wander. Eager to keep him from noticing the scarlet in my face, I challenged, “You’d have to catch me first.” I threw my eyebrows a couple of times, before breaking into a run across the deck, ready to cannonball my way into the still water, taking care of two problems with the same action—camouflaging and cooling my overheated body.
The deck was no longer than a tennis court, but the speed I was able to attain in such a short expanse was unreal. I could feel the wind cutting across my face. I launched off the deck when it ran out, pulling my gangly arms around my even ganglier legs, and tucked into a ball. An instant before I crashed into the water, an electric current sparked through me with force, right before I felt his body wrap around mine mid-air.
We crashed into the sleeping lake, displacing more water than two people should. I opened my eyes once we submerged, and he disentangled his body from mine and swam into view. He grabbed my face and kissed me in a way that would have taken my breath away had I not been holding it, before grabbing my hand and pulling me to the surface. We broke through the surface at the same time, neither of us gasping for the air our lungs should have needed given the length of our submersion.
He smiled as he pulled me to him. “You were saying?”
“I don’t know why I continue to be surprised by you.” I said, shaking my head.
“So, now that I’ve caught you . . .”—he pulled me against him, causing my legs to encircle around him—“are you going to let me hold you down and convince you how lovely you truly are?”
My heart was obnoxiously loud, thumping like a set of drums, disrupting the quiet sanctuary we were in, but then I realized there was another beat matching mine.
He released me from the close hold I preferred, to one which was more conventional. “Are you ready to see a few freaky things you can do now that you’re an Immortal?”
“Why not?” I didn’t need any more proof than his word, but I was happy to be with him, doing whatever.
“How does the water feel?” he asked innocently.
“Great,” I answered, then paused, remembering what month it was and our northerly location from the equator . . . and the near nothingness I was wearing.
“To me as well, although the water is a frigid fifty-five degrees.” I looked at him with reasonable surprise; the water felt like bath water to me.
“As Immortals, we aren’t affected by temperature or environmental changes. That’s why you can be perfectly at ease swimming in freezing water in the middle of the night, adorned in a swimsuit only the most seasoned of temptresses would have selected.” He eyed me with amused accusation. I would have argued back that the selections were limited, but didn’t want to waste a second of time arguing with him.
“Another thing . . .” He winked, as if taunting me, before diving down into the water like a torpedo.
I waited, my concern growing with each breath I took that I knew he wasn’t, scanning the surface for his head breaking through. After a minute, I dove under, my nervousness cutting me through the water.
I wasn’t focused on the speed and grace my water tore through the water with though—I had a sole mission. I scanned for the body that would be impossible to miss, even in the darkness of the water.
I found him sitting cross legged at the bottom of the lake, my eyesight impossibly acute given the depth—another showing for the Immortal theory. He looked calm as I swam towards him, but I was desperate to get him to the surface; he’d been under too long.
When I approached, he put his arms around me and pulled me into his lap, wrapping his arms around me and resting his head on my shoulder. His eyes didn’t leave mine until the anxiety in mine melted.
It seemed impossible. It went against everything I’d ever known, but here we sat, at the bottom of a nearly freezing lake, not needing a single breath of air to recover ourselves. I got lost in the moment, the water holding us in its protective arms, while he held me tighter in his.
His grip tightened around my waist, I felt him push against the lake floor, and then we were rocketing through the water. We broke through the surface like a volcanic eruption, and crashed back into the water like a meteor breaking through it.
“That was amazing,” I said breathlessly, although for a reason other than being under water for longer than it takes me to run a mile. Well, at least to run a mile as a Mortal.
“Are you convinced?” he murmured from behind.
“I already was . . . but now I know all the cool things I can do.”
“Believe me,” he assured through his laughter. “There are many other cool things you can do, but we’ve got time.”
I smiled. “I like the sound of that.”
His smile outshone mine, in fact, it outshone the glowing full-moon hanging like a bright ball behind his head. “Me, too. You have no idea how long I’ve waited for you.”
His admission jogged the next question to mind. “How old are you . . . really?” I blurted out, treading the water with no sign of weakening. I felt like I could stay out here with him for the rest of our lives, although there was a new meaning to that now.
He chuckled nervously. “Well, Immortals don’t keep track of their age or birthdays like Mortals do. Kind of superfluous when you live forever . . .” His eyes squinted, as if unsure of what my reaction would be. I knew, however, there would be nothing he could reveal about himself that could ever diminish the way I worshipped him. “I was twenty-two when I was Immortalized, and the year was 1780.”
My eyes widened. “That makes you . . .” While mathematics had been a strong suit of mine, the subject at hand, and the perfect person the matter surrounded, had me struggling to count my fingers.
“Two hundred and sixty years old.” He half smiled. “If you were counting.”
“Wow,” I whispered again, for the hundredth time that night. It appeared my vocabulary was rendered useless around him as well.
“I know. By Mortal standards my bones should be dust, but here I am, forever stuck in the youth of a twenty-two year old body— with all the strength, power and knowledge of an Immortal.” He sighed, sounding his true age.
“What happened to you?” This was the wrong question for me to ask, and I regretted it when I witnessed the darkness that fell over his face.
“How about we save that for another time?” He asked, his eyes not quite meeting mine.
“Of course—I’m sorry.” I swam closer to him, desperate to pull the poison from his pain filled face.
“We’re an hour away from dawn,” he said, his voice recovered. “We should get back before anyone discovers we’re still gone.”