I knew it was him, that the morphosis had slipped somehow. I reveled in the fact that he wanted me, Nick wanted me, and our lovemaking that followed had only solidified for me that it was Nick and Ellie in that bed. The hunger was different.
Yes, he fucked me just as hard; yes, he went just as deep, but there was a different kind of edge to it. I was still just as sore when I woke up this morning, still a little bit bruised from where he held me sometimes too tight until his grip left a bruise.
The one on my neck itched and burned, and I recalled how it got there. How he’d mounted me from behind and slammed his cock into me and how just at the time of climax, he’d sucked my flesh between his teeth and marked me. That mark of possessiveness and the way it was done told me more than anything that it was Nick who was in my bed last night.
ELLIE
I took my time with my evening bath before choosing something light and airy to wear to bed that night. My limbs felt heavy, and it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. All-day, I’d avoided Nick, not sure of his mercurial mood. As the time for revelation grew closer, my nerves became more on edge.
Part of me was sure that he’d not go for it, that once he learned the truth, he’d be even angrier at me, and I’d lose. But what am I losing anyway? It’s not like I’d ever really had him. These last few nights were more than I ever imagined sharing with him, even though he’d stolen my heart with his first look more than a year ago.
I’d seen pictures of him before we ever met. Now that I think of it, maybe that’s why things had turned out the way they had. I’d naively let my shallowness take over, falling in love with his appearance before I ever got a chance to know the real him. Maybe that’s why he’d crushed my heart so callously because of my superficiality.
I’ll never know, never get the chance to be anything more than a phantom lay unless I win him over. I was sure that last night had been the change I’d been hoping for, that he’d somehow broken through. She, the one who knew what was going on here, had claimed that with him, the only way to go forward was if he came to the realization himself without any prodding from her or me.
Apparently, the only other couple that this had worked with, this attachment business, had had just as hard a time of it, but with her help, things had come together in the end. But with Nick, whose personality was more intense, and because of what he’d seen a year ago, it was going to take a little more doing.
In other words, he needs to learn the truth on his own, with no help from me. But last night, I was sure that he’d broken through the dream haze and was there with me on that bed. So why had he been his usual distant self all day? After he’d come to stand over me in bed, I’d made myself get up to face the day.
I was so sure that he’d had a breakthrough, that he would say something, ask me something pertaining to the oddities, but instead, he’d avoided me. I left the house and went for a walk around the grounds in the afternoon, and when I came back, my desperation was such that I thought I smelt him in my room.
Now, as I stand before the mirror getting ready for bed, my every thought is still about him. My eyes glowed unnaturally as I gazed into the mirror, and it was then I realized that I’d picked up the tulip-shaped perfume bottle. The old-fashioned pink crystal felt warm in my hand as I slid it along my neck, as I pulled the tassel that would release the scent into the air.
I was aware of her presence as I spritzed myself, her shadow lingering in the background. The scent works like a conjurer, I guess, or a conduit between the present and the past. I know that wearing it would be a beckoning call to his senses, just as the cigars he smokes brings forth his grandfather’s essence.
I know that the scent is one of the reasons he becomes so inflamed with lust. That the scent of his cigar smoke wafting through the air could make me go into heat like a feline beast hungry for its mate. That’s them, Hal and Jan, the two lovers who were given a second chance through his grandson and her great-niece.
Somehow our essence is the same the four of us. And since they’d missed their chance at love, it was decided that Nick and I would fulfill that love now in part. It’s the reason Hal had moved back here, the reason my aunt had never left again after years of being gone. The story had been too unreal to be believed when I first heard it, how the town’s people had stumbled upon some old tome that spoke of a spell that’s been cast over the town of Whispering Hollow since its formation.