CHAPTER 5
Selena and Eric became lovers. Every day he’d come to her, they’d make love, watch movies, talk. Well, she’d talk and he’d listen. She told him about her family. She’d been raised by a single mother in North Carolina. Her father left when she was just a baby and she’d never heard from him. Selena decided at an early age that she wouldn’t seek him out.
Her mother worked her butt off to make sure Selena never needed for anything. When her mother was diagnosed with lung cancer five years earlier, Selena made sure she was taken care of. She took time off work as a real estate agent, and used up all her savings in the process. She hadn’t cared though. Her mother had been more important to her than money and she’d wanted to spend as much time with her as possible.
When she passed away she’d left Selena her home. That is when she met Jesse. He’d been there to comfort her and she thought she’d fallen in love with him. Little did she know that he just wanted her to sell the house and use the money to help him open up his own art studio where he could teach. Fortunately for her she’d found him in bed with one of his students before she’d given him any money.
Eric had been enraged by Jesse’s betrayal, but she had quickly doused that flame by reminding him that she would not have met him otherwise.
What Selena hated most though, was the fact that every time she asked about his family, Eric would clam up. He’d change the subject or make love to her. She didn’t want to pry, but she wanted him to trust her. To confide in her. She wanted to know everything about him. The good, the bad and the ugly. She’d considered doing research on her own, but thought it would be sneaky and wrong to snoop into something he was obviously uncomfortable sharing.
Eric had become her world. She’d fallen completely, devastatingly in love with him. She wondered if he felt the same about her. And if he did, could they have a life together? Was that even possible between a living person and a spirit? And if it was, would he be willing to try?
She didn’t want to ask and scare him away. Instead, she’d cherish every minute they had together and let time tell what was to be.
Selena was lying on Eric’s chest after a third round of lovemaking. She was sore but loved it. She was playing with the dark hair that dusted his broad chest when she remembered a question she’d had for a while. “Eric, how is it that you can, you know, orgasm?”
He chuckled at her question, and she loved the way his laughter rumbled through his chest, and through her.
He brought his hand up to the nape of her neck and began absentmindedly caressing the skin there. “It’s all in the mind I suppose. I don’t have a body that can create those sensations, so my mind does it for me.”
“Yeah, but you actually have, you know… fluids.”
“I don’t know how it works, other than somehow you and I are connected on a different level. I think our minds, our souls combined, create a vision that we can both share.”
“So you haven’t tried this with anyone else?” she asked and worried her lip trying to bite back the jealousy she felt at the mere thought.
“No, I haven’t desired anyone since I died. Even before, I’ve never wanted anyone as I do you, Selena.” Her heart fluttered at his words.
“Do you think you’ll stay here forever, Eric? Don’t you want to move on and see your family?”
“You are my family, Selena. I love you. And if you’ll have me, I will never leave you.”
Selena’s heart filled with joy. “I love you, too!” she pronounced and hugged him with all her might. He circled her body with his strong arms and kissed her lips, the warmth of his own spreading through her body. “Je t’aime. Je t’aime comme je n’ai jamais aimé personne.” He murmured into her ear. She didn’t know what that meant, but she knew that she felt the same way about him.
She had a frightening thought then that made her feel nauseous. She sat up and looked down at him. “I’m going to age and you’ll still look the same. You may no longer want me then. I’ll be old and wrinkly!”
“I can age with you. We can be old and wrinkly together, and even then I will want you. Always I will want you, Selena.” He kissed her then and made love to her once more.
Eric couldn’t believe his luck. He’d finally found the woman of his dreams and she loved him as much as he loved her! Even this dark abyss he was in now could not lessen his joy. Selena had once asked him where he went when he wasn’t with her. He’d told her only a partial truth, that he went where it was quiet and there was no one but him.
The whole truth was that it was a sort of limbo, where he was completely alone. He could still see the world around him, her apartment, the streets down below, but he couldn’t see anyone else. It was absolutely eerie and he hated being there. He only went into that phantom world when he was too drained to maintain his essence in the living world. Then, and only then would he allow this world to suck him in.
But now, with this new light in his life it didn’t matter. He sat in silence and recharged for his next bout of love making with his woman. He couldn’t see her now, but he could sense her. She was in the living room with him, perhaps watching television, or looking out the window at the pedestrians that filled the street below.
Guilt nagged at him constantly about that. Ever since he’d become a part of her life, she seemed to have completely forgotten the rest. Her upstairs neighbor, Lionel, had tried several times to get her to go out, but she had declined. Although at first Eric had been jealous of the man, going as far as locking her bedroom door to prevent him from seeing her boudoir, he’d encouraged her to go. Well, in truth it was only because Selena had explained that Lionel was no threat since he preferred the company of other men.
Her phone had also rung several times and she’d simply turned off the ringer. He was worried about her. Just because his life ended didn’t mean hers had to as well. Selena claimed that all she needed was him. He supposed it could be true, because she was all he needed as well. With that, he pushed the guilt aside.
The truth was he liked having her all to himself. He loved her with all of his being, his biggest fear to lose her. What if she found out the truth about him? Would she still see him in the same light? Would the love in her eyes disappear?
No! He could never tell her the truth about his past. The truth of how he died.
From the shadows an invisible force watched as Eric and Selena’s love grew, just as his own envy did the same. He wanted to take it away, to destroy that happiness that should have been his. He wanted to storm in and yank her away, but patience was a virtue.
If he stormed in now he would only help unify them more. No, he needed to wait for the right moment. He knew without a shadow of a doubt that one would present itself, and then he would take what was his, and leave Eric with nothing.
He smiled at the thought. Patience. With that in mind he allowed the ether to swallow him, but he would keep watching. And waiting.