Sorry about the shortness of this chapter, I had a good stopping point...so I took it.
Thank you for all the wonderful words of encouragement...even though some of the things that I write are predictable, you stick by me anyway...I love you guys!!
This will undoubtedly be the longest story I have written to date - for I don't see finishing it in two chapters - most likely it was surpass the 50 chapters mark...that is yet to be seen.
Enjoy!
DARK SIDE OF THE GLASS
CHAPTER 46
Mr. Tibbs opened the door to them, giving Erik a stern once over with his alert brown eyes. Erik rolled his eyes and sighed as he slowly walked into the hall.
"Do not concern yourself, Norman…my wife has already thoroughly scolded me and I am going to drag myself up the stairs and into bed."
Erik brushed past the smirking older man who found it hard to ignore the inner light that had come on in his young master...just since that morning; it was something that had been missing for far too long.
Lavanya covered her mouth with her gloved hand - stifling the giggle that threatened to erupt - and gave Mr. Tibbs a victorious smile.
"Please allow no visitors this evening and tell Blanche that there is no need to bring anything to our room…whatever Erik needs…" she emphasized as Mr. Tibbs smirked slightly, "…I will get." She started to turn and then remembered, "…where is Tarrah?"
"In her room, my lady." Mr. Tibbs answered.
Lavanya nodded and started up the stairs, following Erik's slow moving form.
"By the way…." she turned back around to say, "…please inform our Russian friends that the trip to Spain has been postponed for a few days…I want Erik to be fully recovered before he attempts such a harrowing trip."
Mr. Tibbs nodded and then offered her a heart-warming smile of approval.
She smiled back and then sped up the stairs past Erik. He looked up and sketched her a perfectly arched brow.
"I do believe that I shall beat you to the room, my love…you seem to be quite slow."
His green eyes sparkled with mischievous humor, "Whatever you do, my darling…do not start without me."
Anya giggled and batted her eyelashes in a ploy of innocence.
"I would not dream of it." She gasped, "What possible purpose would that serve?"
Erik grinned and continued inching his way up the stairs.
"I am unsure…but the thought is most intriguing."
The hall had gone completely empty, and Lavanya ran her hands up her body in a seductive show of self-pleasuring.
"Intriguing?" She whispered. "The thought of me pleasuring myself intrigues you?"
He nodded, but it was barely noticeable, as his attentions were elsewhere – namely on her hands, as she worked her own body into a heated arousal…and it was as though those same hands were wrapped around his own arousal, for he was fully erect with the thought of watching her pleasure herself.
"You have no idea…" he murmured in a tone as smooth, hot, and molten as the finest bottle of cognac that money could buy.
His voice caressed her with the same sensual, intoxicating finesse with which his hands did; his brow was cocked above his eyes in such a way that Lavanya's knees grew week and her womb fluttered anxiously within her.
Erik forgot about the dull, throbbing pain in his side as he drew closer to Anya; her eyes pinned his in a feral, she-cat gaze that had him hard as rock.
He finally reached her, his breathing deep and raspy – although he was certain it was more from his desire to make love to her and less from the strain it was to climb the stairs with less than his usual good health.
"You are teasing me, my wife…teasing me beyond the point of decency."
His roguish smirk danced over the sensitive skin of her breasts, hardening her nipples to an aching point; and the low rumbling chuckle in his chest skated down her spine and heated her core to a raging boil.
"Teasing you…I am simply standing here…smoothing the wrinkles in my clothing."
The only reaction he showed to her words was the elegant lift of his sable brow and a cock-eyed smirk.
"Please, my seducing vixen…there is nothing simple about you."
She completely molded her soft, pliable body against his hard, chiseled one and lifted her eyes to his full, luscious lips.
"I never tease…"
Their lips did not touch, but Anya felt the bolt of energy that hit her senses just as strongly as if Erik had kissed her savagely. His long, talented fingers fanned through her hair; his thumb gently traced the hollow of her neck, the soft curve of her jaw, and then stroked her bottom lip…bringing a soft, begging whimper to her lips.
Lavanya kissed the palm of his hand, laving her tongue across it briefly. Taking his hand in hers, she led him to their room and shut the door.
"I will meet you on the balcony, my love."
She released him and headed into the washroom. Erik stayed still until the door to the washroom shut, and then he headed for their balcony.
The night had just begun, but the stars sparkled in harmony – creating a celestial melody that he was certain the heavens could hear.
He closed his eyes and was almost overwhelmed by the swell of love he felt flood his heart. Every fear…every doubt he had ever had, had been exonerated by Anya's unyielding, altruistic love for him.
There was nothing between them now…nothing to prevent him from finally having the happiness and love he had so longed for….since the day a little, brown haired girl had sung her way into a heart he never knew he had.
"Erik…"
They were in the carriage on the way home from the birthing, when Lavanya had said his name so quietly that he had thought it was the wind outside the carriage window.
His eyes lifted to hers as soon as he realized she had spoken to him.
"I thought the poison that your father forced your mother to ingest was what caused your scarring…why do you feel as though it can be passed to our children?"
A stabbing pain had pierced his heart at her words. Could he believe what he had been told so long ago by his mother…could he trust that she had not said what she had said to protect him even further?
If he found out otherwise…would he hate her for lying to him?
"That is what I was told…" he could not meet her eyes, but kept them centered on the passing terrain. "…she made sure that I understood how I had come to be what I am."
Anya was at his side now, holding his clasped hands and resting her head upon his slumped shoulder.
"What if she just told me those things to keep the truth away from me?"
The swelling ache in his chest had been so binding that he had put his hand to it…trying to push it away.
"Maybe she did not want to cause me any more pain by telling me I had been cursed with this face…that it had not been caused by any act of my father…but by the very hand of God."
He could not keep the despondency out of his voice, and the incessant beating of his heart threatened to deafen him.
Would she leave him now? Would she cut her losses, pack his things, and send him to live with the animals where he belonged?
Everything he was; every dark inclination – every stroke of madness that had ever threatened to surface – every clandestine thought that had never quite manifested itself, would lurk inside any child who carried his blood. That thought terrified him beyond any other.
Perhaps she had finally come to her senses and would turn from him and never look back.
She did none of these things. She touched the softness of her palm to the tear-moistened surface of his cheek and turned his face to hers.
"This matters not, Erik…" she whispered with love, like none he had ever seen, glowing in her eyes. "…your mother loved you – enough to give her life protecting you…"
Her words had hit the spot deep inside of him that had been dead for so long. Her words finally drove away the demons that had been a part of him for thirty, dark, lonely years. His mother had done all she could do to protect him from the life she had never wanted him to be exposed to…and the evil that men do.
"…I love you, Erik – enough to give my life if it was asked of me…" she continued.
Every word she uttered liberated him from the hold the unknown had had over him.
"…but most of all…I love you so much that I do not care if your scars could pass to one or all of our children..." he had lifted his eyes to her at that moment…wanting to know what would cause her to say such a thing. "…if it would mean that they would be as strong of character, brilliant of mind, and beautiful of soul as you are."
He had wept in her arms…each of them holding on to the other with strength they did not know they possessed.
When the carriage had stopped at Lacroix Manor, Anya had been almost asleep in her husbands arms…but now, she knew he would bring her alive in his arms…and she longed for his touch like a deer longs for water.
Erik had descended the carriage first, and carefully eased her down – mindful of his injuries. Before pulling from him to head into the house, she had said one other thing.
"One more thing…my husband…" she had brushed her lips across his cheek, "…your scars are what led you to me…they are blessed in my opinion."
His lips had quirked at the corner – giving her a smirk worthy of a swoon.
She sighed loudly and smirked back.
"And you are too handsome for your own good."
"Handsome?" He had repeated. "You think me handsome?"
She undressed him with her eyes and then winked.
"Come in the house, get to the bedroom, and I will show you just how handsome I think you are."
It had been a gut-wrenching carriage ride, but one that Erik had needed. There was something inside of him that had been missing for so long…so long that he almost forgot what it was like to have it.
Hope.
TBC