บท 143: Chapter 143
Pearl was grateful to take her heels off. She walked over to Erik and asked him to help her unfasten the necklace she was wearing. "Pearl, we just walked in the door." He laughed.
"I promised your uptight stylist I would take this off as soon as we got home." She said.
"Well we better make sure we do what we are supposed to, then." He said. He ran his hand along her shoulder and Pearl felt chills run through her. He moved his other hand along the opposite shoulder and did the same. He loosened the clasp and lowered the necklace down her neck, running it onto her chest and then lifting it over her head. It was the most erotic way possible to remove a necklace.
"Thank you." Pearl said.
"You're welcome. I'll put it away properly. It was my great grandmother's necklace. The Queen Victoria." He said, looking at it.
"Oh my. I didn't know that. I can't believe I wore it all night." Pearl said, in utter disbelief.
"I didn't tell you because I figured the worry would take away your enjoyment of it." He said, opening a safe in the main closet. He put the necklace back into the box and closed the safe.
"Cocktail?" He asked.
"Yes please. I think, if it's ok, I'd like to take a bath." Pearl said.
"Of course. Make yourself at home." Erik said. She smiled and thanked him, taking the glass of wine from him and walking to the master bathroom. She used the bubble bath laid out and it made huge mounds of soft white billowing bubbles. It was a huge marble stand alone tub and the bubbles and soaps smelled wonderful. She lit candles and looked at the most relaxing looking bath she had ever seen. She had just settled and finished her glass of wine when Erik walked in.
"Erik? I'm umm, I'm a little naked in here." Pearl said, making sure the bubbles covered enough of her.
"Yes of course you are. One doesn't take a bath with their knickers on, do they?" He laughed. He still had his tux pants on and his tie was untied and hanging from his open collar. He looked like an Armani ad. He had with him a full bottle of wine and a glass for himself in one hand and a familiar looking book in the other. He poured her glass full again and then his glass. He sat on the floor beside the tub, sipping his wine.
"I hope you don't mind, but when I moved your bag earlier I saw this book hiding in there and I thought I might read it to you while you have a bath and relax." He said, opening the book.
"Sure. Feel free." Pearl said, adding more bubbles to the bath. He began,
"My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,—
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease."
It was Keats, Ode to a Nightingale. Hearing his vocal tone and accent reading that was truly depleting her willpower, whatever she had left of it anyway. Yet it was sweet and almost innocent in a sense. The man that professed he wasn't a romantic was currently doing the most romantic thing Pearl had ever heard of a man doing.
He continued,
"Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod."
And he continued reading like that until the poem ended. He stood up and looked at her, leaning forward and kissing her forehead, handing her a towel. She took it from him and thanked him as he took his leave to let her get out. Pearl closed her eyes and smiled. Prince Erik reading her Keats in the bath after attending a ball in a queens necklace. She reached down and pinched her leg. Hard. "Nope. Not dreaming." She said, getting out of the tub and drying herself off. She put on silk camisole with matching shirts and a robe and walked out into the living room. Erik was at the piano, playing something she recognized. "Lacrimosa, from the Requiem." Pearl said. Erik looked up and smiled, continuing to play. It was intoxicating. He was an accomplished player and she knew it in more ways than one. She stood beside him, watching him. A part of her wanted to be touched by the hands gliding so surely and knowingly across the keys. He stopped and turned to her, putting his hands on her waist and pulling her to him. He pressed his face to her stomach and inhaled. She knew it couldn't go much further or they would both be past the point of no return. She took a step back and he stood, pulling her to him again, moving her to the piano, dragging her bottom on some of the keys. He looked into her eyes and for a moment, the tension between them was so strong she could almost see it. He leaned in and kissed her, hard again, like at the Chateau, grabbing the back of her head and pushing her so strongly into his mouth that she couldn't breathe. She broke away and put her fingers to her swollen mouth.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to happen." She said. His eyes looked into hers with a desirous look like she had never seen before. He was not like the other men. There was a darkness there. A hunger she wasn't familiar with. She knew she was in trouble if she let this continue.
"I'm going to go to bed now. Thank you for today. Goodnight, Erik." She said, breathlessly. He broke his gaze and looked down. "You're quite welcome. Goodnight Pearl." He said, sitting back down on the piano bench.
She walked into the bedroom and laid down, closing her eyes and trying desperately to find sleep.
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