A/N: Just a quick note. I am writing a story that I want to take place in Australia. Anyone with knowledge or access to interesting and pertinent information please feel free to send on anything of interest or if you wouldn't mind acting as my research consultant. Sounds high and mightly doesn't it? Really it's just research I could do but hoped to save time by having someone lend a hand. I'll even give you credit as a source of information. Hope to hear from someone. Thanks.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Phantom Bride?

When Erik had returned he had kept his promise to his faithful steed. The mare just a couple of stalls down would do nicely.

Having accomplished that task Erik had returned to Anna. Katie had informed Erik that Anna had been bathed and put to bed with a nice warm cup of tea. Upon seeing his crestfallen face she quickly told him that Anna wanted him to wake her as soon as he returned. The change that brought in the ghostly man amazed Katie.

Erik debated leaving Anna once more to return her two friends above. Judging them to be above average in intelligence Erik gave them specific directions back to the auditorium of the opera house. They were less likely to encounter anyone at this hour now that the performance would have been over long ago.

Ushering those two out with an unseemly haste Erik returned to Anna. Having knocked on her door lightly and receiving permission to enter, Erik opened the door sticking his head in the opening as if unsure he should enter or not.

Anna softly begging him to enter had his feet taking him to her bedside eagerly. Gingerly Erik sat down beside Anna. His hands burned with his need to touch her. He would not without an invitation to do so. As if reading his thoughts, Anna reached out and took Erik's hand in her own. She affectionately rubbed the back of his hand with the index finger of her other hand. Shivers of delight raced up and down Erik's spine. Other stirrings in his loins had him squirming to accommodate his growing desires.

Anna wanted to place her hand on the back of his head bringing him down to her for a kiss but thought that too bold, especially after tonight's events. She did not wish for Erik to think she had for one moment enjoyed Harry's touch. Oddly enough Erik had felt wonderful to her. Anna could not help but wonder what all those who spoke ill of Erik would say if they knew him as she did. Anna could only say she felt quite happy for all those other women to miss out while she had the good fortune to reap the benefits of knowing Erik.

"I want to thank you again Erik for coming for me. Harry…he would have…it is too awful to say out loud but thank you for what you did."

Erik swallowed with difficulty as he imagined what could have happened to Anna once more. He could not help but be amazed that after the first experience she had even allowed him near her let alone take those liberties he had with those few kisses they had shared. Shared? Yes damn it shared! Erik pushed out that voice that would have him second guessing himself and Anna's motives.

"I am glad I found you in time. If he had…if anything had happened…Anna I do not know if I could have agreed not to kill him if he had done anything worse to you. None of them would see another sunrise if I had not been there to stop…" Erik felt choked with emotions. Not the same self-pitying, self-debasing emotions he had always felt around Christine but strong tenderness mixed with protective urges. All that mixed with his desire for Anna as a man desires a woman churned inside Erik.

Reaching out, his hand hovered hesitantly over errant strands of hair nearly hanging in Anna's face. So slow his hand moved it seemed not to move at all, Erik gently pushed those silky strands behind Anna's ear. Anna bent her head so her cheek rubbed against Erik's hand. She closed her eyes with the pleasure just the touch of him against her cheek gave her.

"I should go. You need your rest. Tomorrow I will advice Madame Dubois that you have been taken ill and will need a few days recovery." When Anna would have spoken Erik placed his fingers over her lips.

"No arguments. You will stay in bed and rest."

Anna smiled wickedly at Erik as she said coyly, "I wasn't going to protest. I wanted to ask if you would stay the night with me." Upon seeing the shocked refusal forming on Erik's lips Anna quickly clarified, "Just to lie beside me so I won't have bad dreams."

Erik knew Anna did not know the danger she placed herself in by asking such a thing of him. Erik himself did not know if he had enough restraint to not do as his mind and body urged him to do.

Could he lie beside Anna and not take some liberties? He would try but he knew those beastly urges would be just boiling under the surface waiting for an opportunity to make themselves known.

Reluctantly and against his better judgment Erik acquiesced to Anna's request. That woman further endangered herself by having him remove his jacket when he would have lain down with it on. She even encouraged him to unbutton a few more of the buttons on his shirt. Lastly she had him remove his boots.

Erik felt sweat begin to coat his skin. He felt the trembling begin in his hands then spread as he lay down beside Anna after extinguishing the candles and beside lamp. Truthfully he thought it a dangerous proposition but one he would gladly snatch with both hands.

Erik lay beside Anna stiff as a poker. He feared to breath let alone move. If Erik touched her he knew he would be lost. All sane thought would leave him.

Anna scooted closer to him to her peril Erik silently thought. When her arm draped across his stomach he held his breath until he felt faint.

Erik could not do this. He could not lie here with her touching him without doing something he would regret later. Or perhaps he would not regret it but Anna would. Even in her present state and knowing her not to be innocent in the accepted sense, for all intent and purposes Anna was innocent. If Erik allowed himself to take liberties without benefit of marriage he would be almost as guilty as those other two scoundrels.

Anna bit her lip trying to think of a way to convey she would rather have the memory of Erik's touch and kisses on her mind as she fell into sleep than those two reprobates who had done nothing but hurt her.

Snuggling against him had only succeeded in making him stiffen even more as he lay beside her. Anna moved her hand slowly across Erik's taught stomach. He had not an ounce of fat. Of course what self respecting ghost would have? Anna contained the giggle that wanted to pass her lips. That would not impress Erik at all, in fact he may take it as a slight against him. Knowing how self-debasing he could be at times Anna had to be careful what she said to Erik. For a man as prideful and commanding as he seemed at times he really was quite insecure underneath all that Opera Ghost and Phantom bluster she had heard about.

Anna took her courage in both hands as she began to unbutton his shirt. In Anna's head she heard her aunts condemning her to hell as a harlot. She ignored those irritating voices as this time if something happened it would be with her fully conscious and willing.

Erik's chest began to rise and fall in a much quicker rhythm. Anna heard him swallow once then swallow again. Perhaps he wasn't as immune to her as he seemed.

Pushing the two sides of his shirt aside Anna grazed her hand across his chest. He had sparse hair on his chest. Anna did not think she would like a man who looked like a wooly mammoth. A little hair on the chest could be alluring. Anna thought Erik's patch of hair that spread out over his chest down to the beginning of his trousers most intriguing, especially where it seemed to go on down into his trousers. Anna fingered his waistband distractedly as she wondered if that path of hair continued down and how far it did reach. She blushed at such thoughts but was not ashamed of them.

A groan from Erik had Anna's head whipping up off his chest. Had she hurt him in some way? Had she perhaps tugged on a hair a bit too hard?

Erik rolling over pinning her to the mattress startled her but it also answered her question of whether or not she had hurt him.

Erik muttered, "I am sorry Anna, so sorry. I can not help myself." Erik then lowered his head to take Anna's lips in a searing kiss that sent shockwaves from her lips all the way to her toes then back again. This kiss could in no way be compared to those pleasant, tentative kisses he had given her before. Anna felt as if she had caught fire. Every inch of her skin and insides seemed to burn.

Wrapping her arm around Erik she shoved her fingers into the long sparse strands of his hair pulling him into a tighter embrace. Nothing had ever felt as sensual to Anna as Erik's skin, hair and lips. Every part of him inflamed her.

Erik could only think the fires of hell had begun to burn inside him. He felt as if he might incinerate from the heat building throughout his body. His trousers had never seemed so tight. Erik carelessly pushed the covers aside.

Moving his body so he lay atop Anna Erik shamelessly thrust himself against her. Again he repeated the motion, this time Anna had been there to join his hips in thrusting toward some as yet unknown ecstasy. Her thin gown did nothing to save her from Erik seeking his pleasure. Erik felt as if he lay upon Anna's bare skin.

If this happened now, Erik could only surmise that the actual event would burn the whole opera house to the ground. Erik had just begun to raise Anna's hem when some inner moral code began to make itself known.

As his hand felt her bare thigh the voice shouting some sort of dire warning made itself heard. As hard as Erik tried to shove it out the voice persisted. Anna deserved more than this. Anna deserved it all.

Erik drew reluctantly away from Anna's tempting lips. He could be gratified that she had a dazed look on her face and when she opened her eyes the light of desire burned in them. Desire for him. Not his music, his voice or anything else just his miserable repulsive self had won her caresses.

"I cannot Anna. Not this way." He placed his fingers on her lips to silence her as he continued. "Not that I do not want to as God as my witness I desire nothing more than to learn of the pleasures of a man and a woman with you. I will not be like those others Anna. I want our first time to be under the blessing of God. Your God. If he is in his heaven as you believe then he will have to accept this devil's black angel into his fold. I will marry you, if you will have me and nothing will stop me."

"Oh Erik I would be proud to call you husband. You do not have to go that far as you well know I am not…not untouched. If any man is to have me I would rather it be you with or without benefit of marriage."

Anna sat up to take Erik in her arms kissing him all over his repulsive face. For once Erik could be glad he lacked the covering of his mask.

Before things could get too far out of hand once more Erik gently pushed Anna back then covered her with her blankets, tucking them around her tightly. He bent down then placed a kiss on her forehead. He stood up and turned to leave when he heard Anna call him back.

"Erik." When he turned he saw that Anna had worked one arm from underneath the covers. She crooked her finger at him. Erik felt as one of those snakes might who were lulled by the snake charmers. He had no will of his own.

Anna tapped her finger against her lips. Erik bent down as if pulled by an invisible string. He lightly kissed Anna on her lips. This time when he turned to leave he heard no siren call luring him back.

Erik's steps dragged to his room. Never had he dreaded going to his coffin as he did at this moment as his mind chided his stupidity. He could be lying nestled between warm womanly thighs at this very moment but his honor, or moral code, such as it was would not let him be with Anna until they had been blessed in some ceremony.

Erik didn't even bother with nightclothes as he stripped down to bare skin. What had Anna seen in him that no one else ever had? What about him found some connection with her? How on earth could she bear this ghostly, skeletal visage?

Erik hesitated then went to his mirror. His eyes he kept cast to the side as he always did. He knew exactly how to tilt the mirror so he could shave without having to see his whole face. Tilt it just a bit another way and he could see his torso from his chest down.

Slowly Erik's finger tilted the mirror so he could see the whole of his naked awfulness. Slowly Erik raised his head so he could look into the mirror.

Erik jolted with surprise to see that man in the mirror. Was that truly Erik? Erik looked behind him just to be sure. Where once his skin had been paper thin and yellow tinged it now looked…well it looked like everyone else's skin. The last time he had dared to look upon his own reflection he had seen not a man but a skeletal figure wearing men's clothing reflected back at him. Now he saw a man stark naked but nothing about him could be said to be skeletal.

In disbelief Erik ran his hands over his body. Yes, it was his own reflection staring back at him. While not looking overly defined his muscles were…well he did indeed have them where before he had been strong with no massive muscles to explain his power.

Erik wondered if he had looked as he did now if Christine might have…at this point Erik rebuked himself. How could he even entertain the thought of Christine when Anna lay in the next room willing, even eager to give him all he had ever wanted? Erik could only speculate it was some inner demon that needed to be laid to rest. One day he would have to make the effort to face Christine again. Their last encounters had left him feeling slightly less than a man.

Anna had never made him feel anything else but manly. Even when he had still been under the guise of the Opera Ghost Erik had felt more man than phantom or ghost when in Anna's presence.

Looking downward he saw the proof of his manhood waving about in a disgusting display of readiness to find its counterpart. Well Erik had to concede he did not feel all that disgusted really, and now that he thought about it he did not feel at all disgusted. He felt…what did he feel? Pride, yes he felt pride. Anna had wanted him no matter how he might try to argue the point. Erik had been the one to call a halt to their romantic interlude. If Erik recalled things correctly Anna had not let him go willingly.

Catching a glance of his face he nearly tilted the mirror back to its original position so he could not see his face. He drew his hand back. Anna did not think he looked so horrible. Well she did but it did not seem to deter her affections nor curb her wantonness where he was concerned. Erik liked that about Anna, the wanton who lured him to her like a moth to a flame. A siren, yes, that is what Anna was, a siren. She was a siren luring him to the rocky shores of…of love. There he had said it. Well, thought it. Had he said it to Anna? He did not think he had. If he had not he would rectify that state of affairs post haste in the morning. Anna would know he loved her beyond anyone or anything. What he had felt for Christine felt juvenile and willful in its need. What he felt for Anna had come from a man's needs and wants, not some errant emotions left over from his childhood demanding to be filled, needing to be filled. Anna filled all those childish longings as well as all of his very adult feelings and needs.

In that moment Erik felt as if some part of him long held frozen in time had been released. Some of the hurt remained but it did not feel as if it would overpower him anymore. Perhaps he could once and for all lay all his old ghosts to rest.

That realization reminded him of a promise he had made to the old battle…no, a promise he had made to his grandmother. He had much to discuss with Anna tomorrow and many plans to make. For now he would go once more to seek rest in his hated coffin.

Erik had hardly laid his head upon his pillow when sleep overtook him. Not the nightmarish sleep he usually had but dreams far different than he had ever had before. He had dreamed of Anna before but this time it exceeded anything his mind could hope to conjure. His dreams had never been quite so detailed before. For this night Erik slept peacefully with a smile of contentment upon his lips.