Page 122 of Frankly, My Dear

Selene’s heart slammed against her ribcage, and her blood rushed joyously through her veins. Still, she hesitated. “I love you, James. Nothing would make me happier than to be your wife. Nothing. But do you really think it’s wise to rush into marriage? I mean…well, I know I said the choice is mine about staying here. But what if you should have second thoughts later?”

“I won’t.”

“And what if—”

“Selene, let’s take one day at a time. That’s all anyone can do. There are no guarantees in life. Love’s a gamble, don’t you think?”

“And you think the odds are in our favor?”

“Absolutely.”

They drifted off to sleep together.

Just before dawn he awakened her again. “Hurry, Selene, it’s almost light.”

“No more,” she groaned and rolled over onto her stomach, burying her head under a pillow.

He swatted her on a bare buttock. “Get up, Selene. You have to dress.”

She lifted one side of the pillow and peered up at him. “Dress? For what?” He had already pulled on a pair of black trousers and was tucking a white shirt, unbuttoned, into his waistband.

“I want to show you something.”

“Again? In the middle of the night?”

“Tsk-tsk, Selene. You have a dirty mind. Besides, it’s not the middle of the night. It’s four o’clock, and it will be dawn soon. Come on.”

He dragged her out of bed then and pulled her toward the armoire, where he grabbed a long skirt and shirtwaist blouse.

“Let me wash first.” She looked down with embarrassment at the slickness that covered her inner thighs.

“No.” His pale eyes gazed at the vee of her legs with carnal appreciation. “I like knowing…seeing…that some part of me is still in you…and on you.”

She started to balk, but he drew her over to the mirror and sat on a chair in front of it with her on his lap, facing forward. He spread his knees wide apart, taking hers with them. “Look, Selene. See what I see when I look at you. It’s beautiful. You’re beautiful.”

A blush crept up Selene’s neck to her face, but she looked. And through James’s eyes she saw her femininity exposed, like the petals of a dew-covered flower, not hidden away like some dirty, forbidden secret.

“Oh, James.” She felt a savage lurch of arousal unfurl between her legs.

He laughed softly and set her on her feet. “Not now, you greedy witch.” He gave her a light butterfly kiss on the lips, then stepped away. “Put this gown on before I forget where I wanted to take you.”

A short time later, sitting before James on his horse, she realized where they were headed. The special place at the curve of the bayou stream where the herons performed their mating ritual.

“I dreamed about making love to you here,” he whispered against her ear as he helped her alight, then staked the horse. He pulled a coarse blanket off the saddle and twined her hand with his, directing her toward the secluded spot. The same two herons sat patiently on the limb, as if awaiting their arrival.

“You’re right, James. This is the perfect place to seal our love.”

Surrounded by primitive nature and timeless creatures, James laid her on the blanket. And Selene soon came to believe that two lovers really could cross the thresholds of different worlds…worlds which were not so different after all.

“Your people and mine are not unlike, Selene. I see that now. Love is the common bond,” James murmured as he knelt and entered her body, reverently, as if he, too, sensed the symbolism of their act.

Selene rose upward in one fluid motion, following James’s receding stroke. Sitting back on his haunches, still embedded in her depths, James pulled her with him until she straddled his thighs. Sighing, she pressed her breasts against the wiry hairs of his chest. “Two heartbeats…I can actually feel our two heartbeats.” she cried out in awe.

“Oui, two heartbeats, but one rhythm.”

Her spirit soared and twined with James’s, like the necks of the two herons who sat before them. “You’re right, James. Love knows no boundaries. Neither time nor place.”

In that moment, when their cries of passion rose to the skies, mingling with the eternal forest sounds, Selene understood why she had been sent back in time.