Chapter Eleven

Rhianna moaned and rolled over in her bed, her red hair spilling over her pillow. She was trapped in a dream that had no end, and strangely enough, she didn't seem to mind.

"Soul?" She questioned, feeling her temper rise due to the mocking man before her.

"Yes. Soul. Emotion, heart, life. Passion." The tall muscular man explained, that infuriating smirk of his plastered on his tan face.

"And what do ye know about passion?" she asked breathlessly, her heart beginning to race. She felt so hot, and a thin film of sweat glistened on her neck and chest.

"I know it when I see it. And when I don't." He replied, his eyes flickering slowly over her figure. "But don't ask me about passion. I'm sure your fiancé will teach ye all ye need to know about that." His eyes smoldered as he gazed at her. Eternity in a second, and then he took a slow, deliberate step closer to her.

Her breath caught in her throat as she looked up at the man who seemed to tower over her. His suit jacket had disappeared and he wore only a thin dress shirt of cotton, only half buttoned. Her eyes traveled from his beautiful face, down his muscular neck, past his collarbone to the glimpse of sculpted chest barely visible through the gape in his shirt. She swallowed the lump in her throat and slowly reached out her long slender fingers toward the vision in front of her. She hesitated briefly before brushing her fingertips against his firm flesh. She smiled when his eyes darkened with desire. Her tongue darted out of her mouth and licked her dry lips.

"Why don't ye teach me?" she asked, her voice a husky whisper. No other words were spoken as Sheamus answered by gathering her in a crushing hug. He bent his head and captured her lips with his. His kiss was rough and demanding, but she wanted more. Her lips slipped open and his tongue darted through. A deep moan escaped her lips as a shudder of passion racked her body. He pressed her warm body against the piano and doubled his sweet onslaught. His lips trailed down her neck coming to rest in the curved crook. Rhianna shuddered again from sweet delight as his hands roamed over her soft curves and another sigh escaped her lips.

"What are ye dreaming about?" A loud voice interrupted her dream. Rhianna sleepily reached over and threw a pillow at the offending person.

"Nice aim." Her twin brother joked as the pillow missed him by a good foot. He annoyed her further by crawling into bed with her with more movement than necessary. "Come on, Ree, time t' get up. Time t' get ready for church!" he called cheerfully as he jostled the bed.

She slowly opened her eyes and stared at her brother in disbelief. "How can we be related, let alone twins? Alright, I'm up, now let me get dressed." She told him as she stretched sleepily.

"Okay, I'm leaving, but ye didn't answer my question. What were ye dreamin about? Could it be a Mr. Sheamus Brady?"

Her dream flashed brightly in her vision and she blushed crimson from the memory. What was wrong with her? She'd never even thought such things before, and now she's dreaming about them, about Sheamus of all people?

Sean smiled widely at his sister's blush. "That's what I thought. I hope Father Thomas has time this morning. I think ye need to go to confession." He teased and laughed when Rhianna stuck her tongue out at him.

"Oh, like ye aren't thinking the same things about Elizabeth!"

His smile was replaced by a scowl. "Times like this I wish we weren't twins."

"Well we are, and even though we USUALLY know each other's feelings, ye are waaaay off if ye think that I like Sheamus. 'Cause I don't. In fact I can't stand the man." She insisted hotly.

"The two needn't be mutually exclusive." Sean replied with a smile.

Elizabeth Brady stepped out of her house and onto the busy village street. Crowds of people milled around dressed in their Sunday finery talking to friends and neighbors. She called out to many as she walked on by on her way to the church. She suddenly though had the feeling that someone was following her. She finally stopped and turned around. She paused and blinked, not believing her eyes.

"What are ye doing?" she asked.

"I'm going to church." Sheamus replied.

She reached up to feel his forehead. "Are ye feeling okay? Ye haven't caught Mum's cold have ye?"

"Ha. Ha." He replied drolly. "I just felt like going, okay?"

"This wouldn't be because of Rhianna, would it?" she asked innocently as she batted her wide blue eyes. "What? No! I'm simply doing it to make Mum happy."

"Okay." {If ye say so.} Elizabeth thought as she laughed silently at her big tough brother. They entered the ornate church and looked around the already packed sanctuary. Elizabeth's attention was drawn up and there she noticed Sean and Rhianna sitting in a separate boxed in pew. Sean immediately saw her and waved at her to join them.

"There are Sean and Rhianna!" she cried as she began to make her way towards them.

Sheamus struggled to catch up to his sister through the thick mingling crowd. "Come on, can't we go through one day without them?" he protested but she was already gone. He stood still for a moment and looked up at the Cassidy family pew where the twins were sitting. He took notice of Rhianna's lovely dress of dark blue and of course, her bright red hair. There was an empty seat to her right and Sean and Elizabeth were seated to her left. {Well, I may as well keep Elizabeth company} he decided with a shrug and moved to sit by Rhianna. He hadn't taken but a few steps though when he saw Mr. Dimera come up to Rhianna's side. They exchanged words that he couldn't hear and then to his horror, Mr. Dimera sat down by her side.

Sheamus stood for a moment watching the two as anger, jealousy and sadness battled for control. He finally chose a pew in the back of the church where he could sit and observe them.

"There's Elizabeth." Sean said to his sister as he motioned for the girl to join them.

Rhianna turned and also began searching the crowd. If she was here then maybe he was too. But a thorough search of the throng of people below them yielded nothing but frustrated disappointment. {That's right, he doesn't go to church.} She reminded herself. She felt a cold presence at her elbow and she looked up to see Mr. Dimera. She fought the urge to cringe and reminded herself that she was going to marry him soon. She might as well get to know him. She smiled at him as she greeted him.

"Good morning, Mr. Dime - Alexander." She corrected. "Would ye care to sit by me?" she asked, indicating the vacant seat beside her.

"Thank you Rhianna, and good morning to you also." He greeted her as he took his seat.

Rhianna nervously racked her brain for something to say. "I've never seen ye in church before, Alexander. Are ye a God fearing man?" she asked him directly; she hadn't missed how his glittering eyes had slowly traveled over her body. She was rewarded when he choked on her question.

He chuckled lightly. "I ah, haven't been to church since my youth. But I know how important it is to you, with good reason, and I decided that it was past time that I came back to the "fold" as it were. After all, we will be married here." He replied with a greedy smile. He was proud of his answer; he had managed to completely skirt the question of his faith, or lack thereof. His attending the church was simply a means to an end. He knew that Rhianna's faith was very important to her; she wouldn't do anything to jeopardize her standing in the church. If her priest told her to do something, she would do it. He smiled to himself. {It's time I made friends with the priest.} He turned his attention back to the lovely girl at his side.

"Speaking of marriage." he began his familiar refrain.

She bit her lip at the mention of the dreaded topic. "Ye're so kind, but I'm really not ready yet." She smiled hesitantly, hoping he would understand.

"Don't worry, dear child, when you're ready." He replied with a smile that didn't quite reach his cold black eyes. "So, how are things at the factory?" he questioned. He observed her closely, looking for some sign of the stress she must be feeling due to her failed shipment.

"It is very well, thank ye for asking." She replied simply.

He frowned slightly. "No.problems?" he asked directly.

"Well, we did have a near disaster this weekend, but we resolved it."

"Really? May I ask what happened?" he asked intently, his eyes boring into hers. {They made the shipment? How?}

"Now Alexander, need I remind you that we are competitors?"

He grasped her hands firmly in his. "I assure you my dear, that even though that may be the case, I am still here for you, for whatever you need. Our companies will be united as one, one day as we will be. What hurts you, hurts me."

She sighed and acquiesced to his wishes. He was right, after all. "Well, as I said, we resolved it. Basically as we were getting ready for our first shipment, we found that many of the pieces were defective and so we had to replace them. Nothing major, Alexander."

He gazed at her thoughtfully. "And who discovered the defective parts, your quality control inspectors?"

"Strangely enough, they missed it. No, the person who found it was someone else entirely. He's been helping me a great deal at the factory; he's even taken over sales. Anyway, he had just decided to check the parts one last time before shipment and that's how he found the errors. He really saved us." Rhianna murmured, her eyes losing focus as she thought of Sheamus. Her dream flashed briefly in her mind and a faint blush crawled up her face.

It didn't go unnoticed by Alexander. {She must be talking about Sheamus Brady. He is becoming a sizeable thorn in my side. He must be eliminated.}

Sean looked over at Elizabeth. "Ye look very lovely today." He smiled when she blushed becomingly.

"Thank ye. It's just a simple smock, something I made myself." She replied modestly, feeling a little ashamed of her simple attire. She looked at Rhianna's amazing dress and realized again how different their lives were.

"Well, it's lovely, and ye look lovely in it." Sean said sincerely. His warm brown eyes twinkled as he gazed at her lovely face.

Elizabeth blushed deeper, unsure of how to respond to the attention he gave her. She was still reeling from their wonderful conversation on the balcony last night. She found herself really beginning to care for Sean and this scared her. she knew it would never work between them. He was a nobleman and she just his maid. "I, I wanted to apologize for my brother's behavior last night. He's not usually like that."

But Sean shushed her explanation. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure he was just tired. Rhianna tells me that he puts in a lot of long hours at the factory."

"He does. I rarely see him anymore." She paused and a small smile flitted across her face. "I think he likes your sister." She commented with a wicked grin.

Sean absorbed the information thoughtfully. It certainly seemed to agree with his own observations of Sheamus's bizarre behavior last night. Then he too smiled, remembering Rhianna's embarrassment this morning after having been woken from an intense dream. "I think Rhianna feels the same way. I wonder if they'll ever figure it out."

Elizabeth laughed. "Before they kill each other?" Sean joined in, loving the sound of her laughter. There were many things he was starting to love about the girl, despite having only known her for a few days. Their personalities were just so well suited to each other, that it felt like they had always known each other.

As he was thinking this, he caught a glimpse of Alexander Dimera sitting next to Rhianna. His stomach twisted in a hard knot with the sudden reminder of Rhianna's impending marriage. He remembered his vow to prevent it, and also his plan to wed Miss Lockeheart. He looked back at lovely Elizabeth and his heart wrenched with sadness as he realized what he had to do.

Sheamus watched Rhianna and her fiancé as they shared a seemingly pleasant conversation. He closely observed Rhianna's behavior, looking for some sign of her feelings for Mr. Dimera. He was lost; overwhelmed by emotions he'd never felt before. Jealousy? That was new to him. Everything in his life that he had ever wanted, he went after it, overcoming any obstacle in his path until he had succeeded. {So what's different now?} he asked himself. {I don't care about the girl.} he reminded himself. {She's just a means to an end.}

He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he did not notice the beginning of the service. Nor did he notice Rhianna leave her seat to go to the front of the church. He was just suddenly aware of a beautiful, heavenly voice floating in the cathedral and he knew without looking that it belonged to her. He gazed at her with such primal, intense longing as she sang a song of death and rebirth; her voice seemed to move straight through him, straight to the heart.

But just as her song was beginning to speak to him, he shut down the connection and threw back up his defenses. He glanced back at the Cassidy pew where Mr. Dimera was sitting and observed his reaction to Rhianna's singing. Even from where he sat, Sheamus could see the vivid lust and desire in the older man's dark eyes, and he was filled with anger and an urgent desire to protect Rhianna from Alexander's dark intentions.

Mr. Dimera sensed his gaze and looked at him and for a moment their eyes locked as they dueled mentally. Sheamus stared into the coal black eyes and felt a cold chill run up his spine. He shuddered despite himself, feeling like he had just stared into the eyes of the devil.

Sheamus turned his attention back to where Rhianna was reaching the song's climax. Her voice rose and hovered in the air and he suddenly had a vision of her as a beautiful bird singing a passionate song while trapped inside a cage. He vowed to free her, to break her engagement. {Ye're not going to get her Dimera. I promise ye that.}