Mistaken 5

Gerard would be leaving to take his post in Rome. The Overwatch Headquarters main event room was bedecked in celebratory splendor. Amelie was similarly bedecked in an eye catching dress of shimmering amethyst, with ebony lace trim. She should have been as jubilant as her husband. He practically glowed as he accepted his accolades and congratulations from his peers. At the moment he was burning up the dance floor with Strike Commander Amari. They looked good together. Each of them vibrantly alive, confident in their every small movement. Amelie smiled without it showing in her eyes.

She ached. Amelie was certain she was coming down with some illness. For days she'd felt off balance, nauseous and slightly sore. The dress had felt like a silken breeze on her skin only months ago when her seamstress had finished the last few adjustments and she'd twirled in it for Gerard's assessment. Now even the light friction of the material made her breasts feel chaffed. She was somehow gaining weight as well, even though she stretched and exercised as strictly as ever. Her diet was also much the same as in her professional dance days. It had still been something she'd kept up, as the thought of returning to the world of ballet had hovered in the back of her mind.

She and Gerard had grown apart. The thing she grieved most is that he still had not noticed, caught in his fever of establishing the anti-Talon task force and his own personal center of operations in Rome. She was… happy for him, and desperately sad at the same time. Amelie Guillard Lacroix, married for almost 6 years now, and she could see the end as clearly as cut glass. She'd gone quietly to her family lawyer and set up the beginning of the end. Gerard would not understand. To her, they were no longer husband and wife in spirit. It was only a matter of time before it was true in the legal real world.

There was no going back. Each night she dreamt of being in the arms of man who had invaded her life and given her the most intense and passionate encounter she could ever hope to experience. Dark eyes in a dark latin brown face haunted her thoughts. She would look for him as soon as her ties to Gerard were cut. She hoped she could find him again. That he would want to see her again. Her great fear was that she would find him, and he would dismiss her as merely a prostitute that he'd paid for, and finished with. She shuddered. It was a strong possibility.

It was to her great sorrow that what she felt for others was not always returned in kind. It was something she had learned long ago, yet it still gutted her each and every time. At least she would not meet Gabriel Reyes tonight. Gerard had taken pains to tell her how tonight's guest list was almost exclusively High Command. Overwatch founders, Officers, Commanders, Department Heads, with nary a foot soldier or rank and file in their midst. She had already met the fabled Jack Morrison and the legendary Ana Amari. The last had looked her over with the piercing gaze of a desert raptor. Seeking and undoubtedly finding fault with Gerard's choice in wife. Amelie knew that look of displeasure. Strike Leader Amari did not care for Gerard's spouse, though she was perfectly polite in her choice of words. Gerard had confessed that he and the world famous Ana Amari had once had a passionate affair when they were both fighting in the Omnic War.

He'd been embarrassed, yet his chest had puffed out with pride, to tell her of his many pre-marital conquests. He'd wanted to impress her with how other women desired him, and how lucky she was to have gotten him as her husband. At the time, she'd laughed. She didn't hold his past relationships against him. She herself had far fewer romantic or physical experiences. Her life had mostly been devoured by her passion for dance and the ballet. Once she was a professional and performing with a renowned Parisian company, she was overwhelmed by the overtures from men and women who'd fallen for her stage personas and her talent.

She'd retreated from that attention, painfully shy socially even if she was fearless before a theatre audience. Gerard had been the first to truly pierce that shield of reserve and aloofness that Amelie had created as protection. She had always preferred older men. They were far less gauche and much more respectful. And as lovers, much more satisfying than the more selfish, self involved younger men she'd experienced. Gerard had swept into her life like a blaze of autumn colors, a mature, handsome, experienced man who had truly lived an exciting and dangerous life. Of course she'd been completely enchanted. This hero of the Omnic Wars, Gerard Lacroix, had focused his attention on her like a laser. He wanted an exquisite wife, and she wanted to be loved, cherished, and protected. It seemed like love. She had only been 19.

Six wedded years that seemed to be an eternity later, and now she felt a pained fondness for the celebrated man of the hour. No more. She wondered what Gabriel Reyes was doing while she was waiting for the end of her marriage. Far away on some dark and mysterious mission, completely untroubled by the ferocious passion that had consumed and devastated her? Did he even remember? Perhaps he had a harem of women that he satisfied with that relentless, raw sexuality that had burned into her very soul. Perhaps she was just one drop in a raging sea, no more distinguished as the next in an endless multitude.

She put the glass of wine a server had given her down, untouched. Her stomach still was not settled. Amelie knew that if she drank any alcohol tonight, she would disgrace herself by tossing it back up. Such a shame, as the bottles being poured tonight were a decent vintage. Though it was generations since her family owned and pressed some of the finest wine in France, she would not be a daughter of the house Guillard if she didn't have a Master Sommeliers ranking. It was a family motto. A Guillard knows wine, or they know nothing.

She sighed regretfully. Perhaps that was true of her whole situation. She knew nothing. But even so, she had to move on. To stay still was death. Only in motion was there salvation. That had been her own personal motto since her earliest days. Press forward or perish. With that in mind she stepped blindly away from the refreshment table and her abandoned glass, bumping into someone's hard chest, and stumbling. Only a pair of steele strong arms that wrapped around her, kept her from a graceless fall.

It was her! Gabriel Reyes was sure his eyes were not deceiving him as he stared at the dark hair that shone like black silk under the scatter of light of the overhead chandelier. The face that haunted his thoughts, eyes like whiskey held to the light, skin a flawless pale that was nearly unreal, lips soft rose that begged for hard, demanding kisses. His beautiful, sexy mystery woman.

Jack had flat out denied having any woman, much less a whore, sent to the Blackwatch area. Yes, he had fully planned to help Gabriel get his ashes hauled, but he hadn't even reached out to the local legal prostitutes yet. His friend had been totally thunderstruck when Gabriel had told his story of the mysterious beauty who had come to him. Laughing uneasily, they both wondered if maybe Gabriel had dreamt the whole encounter. Surely he had not assaulted an innocent woman, and ravished her like a demon.

Would she not have alerted the authorities by now if this were true? Gabriel was both wracked with deep feelings of guilt, and desire for his beautiful conquest. She had been willing . Hadn't she? She'd resisted so powerfully in the beginning, but before she disappeared she was responding with such pure, carnal passion. He had never experienced her like before, and had chalked it down as the difference between an amatuer and a five star professional. He'd woken to his empty bed, and the ache of loss had been almost physical pain. If only she had stayed… He had been prepared to empty his bank account to keep her for just a while longer. She had been a prostitute, willingly playing his sexual fantasies out with him… right?

Jack had made quiet inquiries, but there was nothing, no reports of sexual assault, no filed complaints, no proof that the mystery woman even existed. Gabriel would fear he was going mad, except he had felt so good, so completely and utterly satisfied and happy afterwards. He hadn't felt so content in what seemed like years. His only regret was she had disappeared before he could spend another hour, another day… or two… or… more with her.

And there she was, placing her full wine glass down on the refreshment table, looking lovely yet somehow sad. She was just as he remembered. Better. Her breasts seemed to push her beautiful dress to the point of overflowing. He wanted to help free them, feast on them. Feast on her. He wouldn't lose this opportunity. He had to know. Before the thought was completed he had already acted, and was standing next to her as if he had teleported to her side. She crashed into him an instant later, and was falling! Though he'd planned to not touch her again unless she unmistakably asked him to, his arms were around her, crushing her to his chest, his heart thudding so strongly he felt it might crash right through his chest. Her whiskey eyes were wide and staring up into his dark, almost burning gaze.

He released her slowly, making sure she was steady on her legs. Stepping back, even though everything in his body wanted to move forward and take her in his arms again. She belonged in his arms. In his bed. On his…

"Commander Reyes! I see you have met my wife!"

Gerard Lacroix and Ana were coming from the dance floor to where Gabriel was frozen like a statue.

"Amelie, this is the Blackwatch Commander I told you about. We had some very exciting adventures not long ago!" Gerard laughed and came closer to the man who was still unmoving and speechless, clasping an affectionate arm around the broad shoulders and squeezing.

"I cannot tell you how happy I am that I can finally show off my beautiful wife to you my friend."

Gerard's beaming pride radiated from him like a small sun. Amelie had a stricken look in her eyes as her hand went to her lips and a strangled whisper escaped her.

"Apologies!" and she was running to where the restrooms were located.

Ana quirked an eyebrow, even as she took up the glass of wine that Amelie had abandoned. She recognised the look and sound of a woman in Gerard's wife's condition.

"Gerard! You sly fox. Why didn't you tell us you and your wife were expecting?" She chastised her long time friend. "I know you have always wanted children. Congratulations seem to be in order."

Raising the glass as if in a toast, Ana drained it in a single long draught. She looked at her two companions, and frowned. Both men looked as though they had been struck by the same lightning bolt. Bah, men were so delicate. Stronger sex her eye. Babies were the most natural thing in the world. She'd had one, and she remembered how Sam had practically fainted when she announced the glad news. Good grief… Had Gerard not known?! It would explain why he now looked like a goldfish, eyes blown wide and mouth in a helpless O of surprise. But why was Gabriel also looking like a brick smacked in between the eyes? Men… Ana was sure she would never understand them sometimes.

To be continued