Embrace the Night

Page 204



But she didn't go into the nursery. She couldn't face that room, shied away from the knowledge that, sooner or later, she'd have to take down the crib, pack Natalie's clothes in boxes, and admit that she was never coming back.

It was near midnight when Sarah treated herself to a long hot bubble bath. She closed her eyes, and into her mind came the memory of a spacious bathroom and a pale pink tub.

She would not think of him, or the room he professed had been decorated solely for her.

Wrapped in a towel, she stared at the velvet dressing gown she had tossed over a chair, vacillating between folding it up and shoving it in a drawer, or putting it on. Finally, with a huff of disdain for her weakness, she slipped it on, her hands gliding over the rich fabric.

Swathed in luxurious velvet, she sat on the sofa and searched the channels until she found an old movie.
Moments later, she was asleep.

And sleeping, began to dream. Of being confined to a wheelchair.

Of dancing Swan Lakewith a handsome young man. Of flames licking at her skin.

Of a black-haired man kneeling at her feet, his head buried in her lap. She heard his words, bleak and edged with despair, as if all the sadness in the world was carried in his soul.

Can you hold me, and comfort me, just for tonight?

And a young woman's reply: I don't understand.

And then his voice again, filled with an aching loneliness that tore at her heart: Don't ask questions, cara. Please, just hold me.

She woke with the afternoon sun shining in her face, and tears in her eyes. And her first thought was for Gabriel.

She supposed she shouldn't be surprised to find that he had invaded her dreams again. He had, after all, been at the center of her thoughts ever since the first night she saw him in the park. But who was the girl in her dreams, the one in the wheelchair?

Her brow furrowed in a frown, she went into the kitchen and prepared breakfast, the first one she'd fixed since the accident.

Sitting down at the table, she ate the French toast, hardly tasting it. Who wasGabriel? It was obvious that he was rich. Filthy rich. He was also the most outrageously handsome man she had ever seen. And the most mysterious.

Last night, his words, the anger in his voice, had frightened her. Go home while you still can, he had said.