Chapter Eleven
Erik awoke in the early morning
hours, approximately four or five o'clock to his immediate figuring; and was
mildly surprised at the warmth and protection that surrounded him. It was pitch black in the room, being too
early yet for the electric lights he'd installed to begin their daily mimic of
the sun. However, years spent in such
dismal conditions had given Erik the cat-like ability to see quite well in the
darkness. With no difficulty at all, he
identified his whereabouts.
Jenny's room? Why on earth was he in Jenny's room? The logical side of his mind tried to
remember how he'd ended up their, meanwhile, his illogical side was busy
enjoying the rare feeling of security that was all around him. Still a tad hazy with sleep and emotionally
exhausted, he took a full ten minutes to realize his exact position. Wonderful... when had he wound up in
Jenny's bed with the child?
Slowly the events of the past twenty-four hours caught up with his
strangely reluctant memory.
Christine had left him, had chosen
that infernal boy... and frankly, he couldn't blame her. He'd lost all reason when he'd comprehended
that she intended to sneak out of his life; had kidnapped her after her triumph
at the Opera and threatened to murder Raoul if she refused him. He remembered clearly now... he'd been in
deadly earnest, nothing short of God striking him dead could've driven him from
his chosen course. In a way, God had...
Jenny had followed him down to his lair, appealing to his often hidden
compassion to release the young vicomte and let Christine choose between
the two warring men fairly. From that
act, the creature known throughout Paris as the Opera Ghost had been destroyed,
leaving only a desperate, heart-broken man in his place.
Christine, the only woman he'd ever
loved before, had left, giving him only with the brief memory of a gentle kiss
on his cheek and leaving Jenny to deal with a distraught and suicidal
maniac. He recalled attacking poor
Jenny, screaming at her to let the mob finish him off. She'd refused to listen, putting on a
superior show of determination, tugging at him, and thereby earning the wrath
of his unreasonable temper. It was the
first time in Erik's life that anyone had not only survived his rage but turned
it against him as well. While trapped
in his own torture chamber, courtesy of Jenny's spectacular temper, he'd calmed
down considerably, regretting his hasty actions that had resulted in a nasty
wound to his little savior's arm. He
had never really expressed the true depth of his sorrow to her, but had sewed
up her injury once she'd released him.
Even more surprising, she'd actually forgiven him!
As if that weren't already more than
he deserved, she'd sensed his overwhelming feelings of futility and
hopelessness and had, of all impossible things, managed to comfort his
tormented soul. She'd held him,
caressed him, kissed him, and hadn't ridiculed his boyish tears. She'd allowed him to sleep in her arms in
her bed.
He remembered now! He must have spent the entire night in
bed with her, reveling in the much-needed affection and eventually crying
himself to sleep in her embrace. He
quickly became aware of two slim arms around him, one hand resting on the small
of his back and the other gently pressed against his neck, as if holding his
head against her neck. He could feel
her gently breathing body half under him, sleeping soundly. God alive!
She'd spent the entire night with him?
He was a freak! A monster! And yet... she slept trustingly, seemingly
indifferent to his base deformities.
These new feelings of security and comfort were all due to this amazing
young woman.
Erik lifted his head from her
shoulder in order to look at her face, taking great care not to accidentally
wake her. True to his imaginations, her
eyes were gently closed and her reddish-brown hair was spread across the
pillows. From the waist up, she still
wore her Siebel costume; a silky shirt with billowy sleeves and loose vest of
dark blue. She had discarded her short
wig and pillbox hat on her way down, trading them in for a traditional skirt
over her boy's tights. Until recently,
Erik had considered her plain, perhaps even homely by some standards... but
ever since the Masquerade, he kept finding little things about her that were
positively irresistible. The supreme
softness of her form against him, the pale blush painting her cheeks, the way
her feathery eyelashes rested against her cheeks, the enticing peach tint to
her slightly parted lips, the way her long hair curled over the pillows in
gentle waves... how could he have ever thought her unremarkable?
Something had happened to him...
something irreversible. Just when he
was bound and determined to end his wretched existence, this angelic creature
had plucked him from the depths of his despair and proved to him that all was
not lost. Perhaps gratitude was
clouding his reasoning, perhaps he was simply desperate for any woman, perhaps
he had finally sunk to an all-new low... whatever the reason, he leaned his
face closer to hers, praying fervently that she wouldn't wake up. With a gentle pressure, he pressed his lips
against hers, relishing the feel of her soft flesh surrendering to his. Apparently still half-asleep, Jenny's lips
yielded to his uncertain advances, parting a fraction of an inch more and
drawing a deep breath, as if drawing him in along with air. He was more than a little surprised that she
returned his kiss with one of her own, briefly pressing her lips tightly
against his, revealing only the very least of her true passion. Knowing that he had to be overstepping his
boundaries, but to tired of resisting to stop, Erik continued his gentle
assault, briefly dipping his tongue between her lips and sampling just a taste
of her sweetness. A soft moan escaped
her throat as Erik's hand slid up her body to cup her breast of its own
accord. At that small sound, Erik drew
away, unable to determine if it was pleasure or protest that prompted her. She had not yet awoke, not fully, but the
evidence of his impassioned actions were there; in the slight swelling and
darkening of her lips, the deepening of her blush, and the rhythm of her
breathing.
Hell and damnation... what
had possessed him? Had he lost all
honor along with Christine? This woman
had given him a supreme gift of affection, had taken care of him, comforted him
at time when he needed it most. How
dare he repay her with this sort of dishonor?
What sort of monstrous criminal was he?
She moaned again, more of a purr
than a moan really, and stretched her back by arching it off of the bed a
little. The movement caused her breasts
to gain status as Erik's focal point and he found himself staring at them in fascination. Her little nipples had hardened in response
to his advances and the peaks showed through her blouse easily. Erik felt the sudden impulse to take one of
the swelling buds into his mouth, but fought the urge down quickly. She was waking up, stirred by his kisses no
doubt, and he quickly looked away from her breasts, laying his head back on her
shoulder.
Her hands gently stroked his back
and neck and he closed his eyes, savoring the touch and feigning sleep in the
same moment. To his immense surprise,
she pressed a kiss to the top of his head, her one hand moving from his neck to
his shoulder in a tight embrace.
"I know you're awake, Erik...
how do you feel?" she said quietly, stroking his arm with a gentle hand.
He sighed. "Quite a bit better than I should, I think." he
answered after a brief silence of thought.
"I owe you a great debt of thanks, Jennifer... mon ange."
"For what?"
"Very few people would've
journeyed down here to save me from myself... even fewer would've stayed with
me through the night. After what I did
to you..." he whispered, gingerly running the callused pads of his fingers
over the bandaged portion of Jenny's arm.
He raised his head from her shoulder and looked at the covering,
frowning at the spot of red blood blemishing the white cloth and looking into
her eyes meaningfully. Odd, he'd never
noticed what lovely eyes she had before... a sort of shimmering green with
flecks of blue-gray in them... beautiful.
"That should be changed. Could use another cleaning too." he
heard himself say, his eyes wandering from her eyes to her lips, remembering
the kiss she'd given him unaware.
"Not right now, please,
Erik?" she asked, her embrace tightening ever so slightly. "I just want to stay here for a
little."
"You want to stay?"
Erik asked incredulously. "Why on
earth would you want to remain in the arms of a monster? Surely you're secretly wishing to rid
yourself of me..."
"No, Erik... you stop
that." she scolded him with a gentle slap on his masked cheek. "You are no monster, Erik... ugly,
perhaps; temperamental, certainly... but I will not have you calling yourself
these insults. Is that
understood?"
He looked at her, bewildered and
downright impressed by her audacity, but doubtful just the same. With a heavy sigh he drew her closer. "Jennifer... mon ange... it's
the truth."
"You are not a monster and
that's final." she shook her head.
"Anyone who helps and comforts another out of the goodness of their
heart cannot be called a monster by any means.
Don't you remember the night that I had that nightmare? You came to me and calmed me... you even
brought me down here so that I didn't have to sleep alone and afraid. And all you did for Christine; teaching her
to sing, taking care of her when she had no one else, loving her the way you
did... do."
"Perhaps my motives were not
all as noble as you assume, mon petite ange. I was obsessed with Christine from the moment I saw her. Maybe I only taught her so that I could gain
her confidence and eventually kidnap her at my leisure." he suggested with
very little conviction.
She smiled, cupping his chin with a
gentle hand. "What were your
motives, Erik?"
He looked up at her, surprise
evident in his blue eyes.
"Truthfully? I only had one
actual motive... love. I loved her from
the first, for all the good it did me."
"You may have lost this time,
Erik... but you just proved that you are not a monster. Monsters can't love... they don't even know
what love is. You have a very clear definition
of love, I think... and you were able to apply it." Jenny held him tightly
for a second in a brief embrace.
"I didn't want to apply it...
it just happened." he mumbled with mild bitterness.
"I don't mean that you chose to
fall in love, no one has control over that.
But when it occurred, you were able to recognize it as love." she
explained, starting to rise from the bed.
Inexplicably, Erik felt cold and empty the instant that her warmth left
his skin. In order to rectify that
awful feeling, he rose as well, almost following her like a puppy to maintain
their closeness. Jenny took a quick
look at herself in the medium-sized mirror over the closest bureau and winced.
"I look absolutely awful... and
these clothes stink." she said more to herself than to Erik, practically
diving for the hairbrush.
While she busied herself with trying
to navigate the brush with her injured arm, Erik watched her closely. Her clothes were wrinkled a little, no more,
and her hair was merely tangled from last night's ordeal and subsequent
slumber. Truth be told, he found her
quite attractive even in that state of disarray. With a small growl of frustration, Jenny raised both hands above
her head in an attempt to put some semblance of order to her hair; the position
caused her heavy breasts to raise to a tempting angle under her blouse.
Erik took a deep breath, again
noticing that her nipples were stiff and showing through the cloth. Even worse, her situation in front of the
mirror showed him her reflection as well, adding to the sensory overload. In response to that stirring sight, his
manhood began to throb and harden, quickly making coherent thought more
difficult than normal. Jenny caught
sight of Erik's reflection in the mirror, and immediately followed his gaze to
her breasts.
She blushed with embarrassment and
immediately let her arms drop back down. He probably thought her a hussy for
displaying herself as such. But she
couldn't help it that her bosom was rather large! True, most men asserted that they wanted women with large
breasts... but apparently hers were too flabby for most tastes. As if their size weren't awkward enough, her
nipples were straining against the cloth of her blouse. That dream she'd had right before waking up
must have affected her more potently than she thought.
Losing all thoughts of her present
time and place, she drifted back into that dream, remembering how real it had
seemed. Like her other dreams about
Erik, this one involved many kisses and embraces, allowing her to revel in what
would never be hers. But this time,
Erik's kisses had felt so real, making her lips tingle for more and forcing her
to barely resist the undulations her hips had wanted to perform. She could still remember how it felt for her
breast to be gently caressed by his sensual hands, causing her to moan for more
like some prostitute in a dockside inn.
Her thoughts were far more stirring than she would have liked, for she
quickly found herself struggling to still the instinctive movements of her hips
and a pulsing sensation in her lower belly causing her to notice the sudden
moistness between her thighs.
Erik cleared his throat, trying
desperately to push his raging desire to the back of his mind, lest it overtake
him like his anger had last night.
Jenny jerked her eyes back to her reflection, startled by his cough,
much to Erik's relief. That sight had
been far too stirring for his peace of mind... or for his rapidly waning
self-control. This was absolutely
insane, even for him! Not twenty-four
hours ago, he would've passed this woman by without so much as a consideration
of desire... now all of the sudden, he was hard put to the test not to lay her
on the bed and beg her to lie with him.
No, he shook his head
imperceptibly. I'll never risk my
heart and soul like that again. He
knew not if he was truly falling for young Jenny, or if he was merely
transferring his lust for Christine to the closest woman available. Until he knew for sure, he would have to be
very careful to conceal these feelings from her; the last thing he wanted to do
was frighten the girl off with his dark desires.
"I really should look at your
wound, mon ange... infections fester extraordinarily quickly down here
and they can be very painful." he decided, sure that the activity would
help him sort out his tangled emotions.
"Very well." Jenny nodded,
sitting back on the bed next to Erik.
She had to gain some vestige of command over her stubborn body and
heart! This man wanted nothing to do
with her in that way, of this she was reasonably certain. He was preoccupied with mourning a very
tragic loss... and even if he weren't, he wouldn't want her! However, leaving him alone to spare her own
heart was not an option either.
The decision was an easy one to
make, if not the easiest to keep. She
would stay with Erik and care for him in any way he wanted, for as long as he
wanted. During that time she would keep
her feelings deep in check, hiding them from Erik, and hopefully from herself
as well. With any luck, she would
succeed... if not, she knew her heart would pay the forfeit dearly.