Gabriel’s Inferno Trilogy by Sylvain Reynard Page 0,131

Armaron Amarone 2000.

“Is that who I think it is?” She extended a finger toward the bottle.

Gabriel took her hand and pressed his lips to her palm. “Yes. Dante’s son bought the vineyard in the fourteenth century, and the Masi family still produce wine from it.” He sat back in his folding chair and regarded her quietly. She seemed awestruck.

“I didn’t know his family had a vineyard.”

“It’s a very good wine. Although in light of our past, perhaps you find the choice overly sentimental?”

She shook her head. “No. No, I don’t.”

“I had to work late, but I wanted to have dinner with you, so I went to Pusateri’s and ordered take out. There’s manicotti, Caesar salad, and a loaf of bread. How’s that?”

Julia looked at the array of food set in front of her and immediately felt hungry. “What are these?” She pointed to a cellophane package of cookies that had a reindeer on the label.

Gabriel grinned. “Lime cookies from the Dancing Deer Baking Company. They’re my favorite. Why don’t you let me look after this while you dry your hair and drink your tea?”

He reached out his hand to run it through Julia’s long, wet curls.

“Why do you keep feeding me?”

His hand stilled. “I told you, I like giving you pleasure.” He withdrew his hand, his expression quizzical. “This is how a man acts when he is interested in a woman, Julianne. He’s attentive and anticipatory.” He flashed her a wicked grin. “Perhaps I’m trying to indicate that if I am this attentive with respect to sating your culinary longings, I’ll be even more attentive with respect to satisfying other—ah—appetites.”

Julia flushed immediately, and Gabriel touched her cheek with his hand. “Your skin is lovely,” he breathed. “Like a rose in first bloom.” He gazed at her admiringly. “Rachel stopped blushing when she started sleeping with Aaron.”

“How do you know?”

“As I recall, we all noticed it. One minute she was reading The Little Prince and the next she was buying lingerie.”

Julia chewed at her lip thoughtfully. “I loved that book.”

“We need to see with our hearts and not our eyes,” said Gabriel.

“Exactly,” she murmured. “I like the part when the fox talks to the prince about the process of taming. And the fox decides that he wants to be tamed, to be the prince’s fox, even though doing so will make him vulnerable.”

“Julianne, I think you should dry your hair now.”

He removed his hand from her face and stood up quickly, turning his back on her allegedly so that he could prepare dinner, leaving Julia to wonder what had so disquieted him.

***

After dinner, they found themselves sitting on her bed as if it were a sofa. Gabriel propped up some pillows against the wall and leaned back, putting his arm around her waist.

“I’m sorry it’s so uncomfortable,” she apologized meekly.

“It isn’t uncomfortable.”

“I know you hate this place. It’s small and cold and—” She gestured to the room with a wave of her hand.

“I will regret forever what I said to you when you were kind enough to invite me in. I don’t hate this place. How could I?” He interlaced his fingers with hers. “This is where you are.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you for making everything beautiful just by being.”

She smiled as he brought their hands up to his mouth and kissed each of her fingers tenderly, one by one.

“Now tell me about your meeting with Katherine.”

Julia had to wait a moment until her fingers stopped tingling before she began. “She was exactly as you described. But she was very happy I’d read Charles Williams. I think that warmed her up a little. She agreed to be my advisor.”

“And what did she think of your proposal?”

“Um, she thought it was derivative and so she suggested that rather than comparing courtly love and lust, I should compare aspects of the friendship between Virgil and Dante with the theme of courtly love. So rather than discussing lust and love, I’ll be discussing love and friendship.”

“Are you happy with that?”

“I think so. We decided that I should take Professor Leaming’s Aquinas seminar next semester because it’s going to be on love and friendship.”

Gabriel nodded. “I know Jennifer Leaming. She’s quite good.”

Julia fidgeted with the duvet.

He placed his hand over hers. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“No hiding, Julianne. What is it?”

“I e-mailed Professor Leaming a week ago to ask if she would be my director. That was before you and I had our, um, conversation.”

Gabriel’s eyes grew momentarily cold. “And what did she say?”

“She didn’t.”

“Jennifer is very busy. She’s untenured, and