unreliable lungs as I nodded. The soft collision of his lips on mine shocked me with a jolt of pure electricity. My thought of a moment before had been correct. There would be no more war permitted in my mind’s battlefield, for I had surrendered to being made his immortal captive.
Our lips parted and I lifted my hand to graze my fingers across the scar on his forehead. Looking into his eyes, my fresh existence inhaled, desperate for its first breath of air.
“Camille? You all right?” He sounded winded. No words yet.
“Camille. Talk to me. Are you all right love?” He looked concerned now.
Still nothing.
“Camille?” He grasped the sides of my face.
Finally, an alien on a new planet, I made my attempt at communication with the beautiful creature in front of me. “What are you?” I gasped, my eyes locked on his.
“Uh ... excuse me? What?” His look of concern turned to confusion.
“No human being can possibly have this effect on someone,” I repeated, still fascinated with my new discovery. “What are you?”
He backed away slowly, leaned back in the driver’s seat. “Camille, I didn’t know kissing you would ...” He hesitated at my smile, took a deep breath. “I mean, I didn’t know a human being could have that effect either.” He leaned back toward me, relaxed again. “You have no idea how good this feels.”
I laughed, more comfortable now with my foreign acquaintance. “Believe me, you couldn’t possibly be more surprised than me right now.”
CHAPTER 7
Tis Always Morning Somewhere in the World
“Don’t you dare make me pump you for details, Camille Hart.”
Laughing, I put Audrey on speakerphone so I could rummage through my closet for something to wear. Over the past few days, she’d left massive numbers of frantic phone messages, checking up on me as promised. I finally called her back, and now she was doing what she did best, talking my ear off.
“It’s about time he kissed you,” she said. “I was beginning to wonder if the guy was a monk or something. Come on, how was it? What did he say? What did he do? Give me something.”
My bruises had faded at last. I pulled my spaghetti-strapped burgundy red dress that came to my knees off the hanger, pleased I could wear it again. I wedged my feet into some black heels and held the dress up in the mirror, making sure they complemented the dress. “I can’t really explain it.... It was like ...”
“Amazing? Earth shattering? Intoxicating?”
“All of the above, but ... more like an out-of-body experience. If that’s what one feels like, anyway. More than the average rush you get when you have your first kiss with someone you’re attracted to, ya know?”
“No, but continue.”
The dress went onto the bed and I swept my hair into a messy up-do, sticking bobby pins randomly as I spoke. “Sobering. Sort of metaphysical. It was so different. And my feelings for him are different. How was it kissing Gabe?”
“Well ... nothing to that extent, I guess. But powerful. I’ve never felt about anyone else the way I do about him.”
“That’s what I mean about Gavin. Incomparable. And he has this strange pull on me, like I naturally gravitate toward him.” I shoved the last bobby pin into the pile of hair and started slipping into the dress. “So the minute he kissed me, I just felt completely centered.”
“Give me a visual,” she said.
I dropped the hanger onto the bed and followed it. “I need to go finish getting ready, we’re going out to some kind of dinner theatre.”
“Oh, fine,” she whined. “Call me later tonight. Full report, I mean it!”
I pushed myself up off the bed, headed to the vanity to do my makeup. “I’ll try, but don’t wait up. I might be tired and crash the minute I walk in the door. Gavin’s always insisting I need to get more sleep.”
“Before midnight isn’t that late for you.”
“What makes you think I’ll be home before midnight?”
“Because. Gavin and Gabe never keep us out past midnight.”
I blinked, hesitating with my lipstick in hand “Huh. Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“Whatever. Just call me when you can, then. Everything else is okay though, right? No word from the monster?”
I sighed loudly, picked up my mascara. “Yes, I am fine. I swear. Nothing from him at all, he’s history. Promise.”
“Okay, good. Now go have a blast with that gorgeous, brooding musician of yours.”
I picked up the phone again, grinned as I turned off the speaker. “I’m hanging up now.”
I was