by S. J. West
Most people will give you some sign to acknowledge your presence when you catch them staring at you, but this man doesn’t even flinch or try to look away. He just continues to stare at me without any hint of apology or embarrassment. The longer we gaze at one another, the stronger his need to be closer to me becomes. His emotions are so raw and open they almost overwhelm me. There is something so familiar about him, yet strange and mysterious at the same time. The rapid beating of my heart causes a tightness to form inside my chest, making it difficult for me to take in a full breath. I’m the one who ends up looking away first, trembling slightly from the encounter.
Kaylee touches my arm, breaking the spell the stranger just cast by forcing me to look up at her.
“Are you ok?” she asks, obviously worried about my reaction to the man.
I nod my head and try to smile reassuringly. The doubt in her eyes tells me I’m not fooling her for one second.
“Well, try to pull yourself together because Mr. Gorgeous is heading this way.”
I didn’t think my heart could hammer against the wall of my chest any faster than it is, but somehow it finds a way to add an extra beat. I can physically feel him get closer to me. With every step he takes the connection between us becomes more solid, like there’s an invisible string tethering us together, growing more taut the closer we come to one another. Oddly enough, I feel myself begin to relax. The anxious feeling I’ve been living with for the past two weeks slowly begins to dissipate.
I know the exact second he’s standing behind me and can’t stop myself from automatically turning around to face him.
He leans forward and whispers into my ear, “Come.”
He holds out his hand to me, not worried in the least bit that I will refuse his order.
Normally, I would have just laughed in a guy’s face if he had said such a thing to me. But with him, it’s like I don’t have a will of my own. I find myself placing my hand into his, eager to follow him wherever he wants to go. I can only imagine this is what it must feel like when people are hypnotized.
His skin is cold to the touch, like he’s been standing inside a walk-in freezer for hours. Yet I don’t flinch away from his frigid caress. In fact, I feel myself wanting to melt into him, providing him all the warmth my body has to offer.
Without saying another word to me, but keeping his dark brown eyes fixed on mine, he leads me onto the dancefloor where the music suddenly changes to a slow song. He wraps his arms around my waist and I drape mine over his shoulders, clasping my hands loosely around his neck. We sway to the music for a while, just staring in each other’s eyes. There’s a soft protectiveness in his gaze that makes me feel inexplicably safe. For some reason I can’t fully understand, I know I can trust this man with my life.
He slowly pulls me in closer to him. His cold cheek brushes against mine as he whispers in my ear once again.
“You need me as much as I need you,” he says with a husky yearning, making my body shiver with anticipation of his next words. His voice sounds so familiar and yet completely foreign to me. He has a slight European accent I can’t quite place. It sounds like a mixture of various dialects. “I know you’ve been feeling like there’s something you need to find. As if a piece of you is missing. I am that piece. I’m what you’ve been searching for these past two weeks. Don’t try to fight it, Sarah,” he murmurs before kissing the tender flesh just below my ear. He proceeds to kiss his way down the side of my neck, resting his lips on the pulsating artery just below the thin layer of skin. His breathing becomes labored as he opens his mouth and tightens his lips around my throat. The sharp edges of his teeth gently graze my skin, as if he’s testing how tender the flesh is in that spot. I feel slightly drunk on the intoxicating aroma surrounding him, a mixture of chocolate and cinnamon. I want him to do something to me, but I’m not quite sure what that something is supposed to be.
Finally, he raises his head and looks in my eyes.
“Find me, Sarah…”
When he pulls away and leaves me standing on the dance floor, I feel completely bereft by the suddenness of his departure. I feel light-headed from the encounter, almost like his touch was a drug. I don’t want him to leave without me but am unable to make my feet move to follow him. Every cell in my body yearns to chase after him and demand to know who he is and why he means something to me. Maybe if I at least had his name I could find him again. What he said to me was the complete truth, not a boast.
I do need him.
I just don’t know why.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Once upon a time, a little girl was born on a cold winter morning in the heart of Seoul, Korea. She was brought to America by her parents and raised in the Deep South where the words ma'am and y'all became an integrated part of her lexicon. She wrote her first novel at the age of eight and continued writing on and off during her teenage years. In college she studied biology and chemistry and finally combined the two by earning a master's degree in biochemistry.
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After that she moved to Yankee land where she lived for four years working in a laboratory at Cornell University. Homesickness and snow aversion forced her back South where she lives in the land, which spawned Jim Henson, Elvis Presley, Oprah Winfrey, John Grisham and B.B. King.
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After finding her Prince Charming, she gave birth to a wondrous baby girl and they all lived happily ever after.
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