Tarnished Gold (Landry 5)

weeks? Didn't you want me to return? Please, tell me

the truth. I need to hear it."

I hesitated.

In the back of my mind I heard Mama's voice, I

heard all the warnings. I saw myself heading toward a

precipice, in danger of a great fall. All that was

sensible and logical in me told me to leave, and as

quickly as possible; but my feet were nailed to the

floor by a love that rippled through my body as firmly

as he claimed his did.

"I thought of nothing else," I admitted. "I, too,

saw your face everywhere, heard your voice in every

sound. Every day you didn't return was an empty day,

no matter how much work I filled it with," I said. His

face brightened.

"Gabriel . . . I love you," he said, and took me

into his arms. Then he scooped me up and carried me

to the bedroom that would be our love nest.

After what Octavious Tate had done to me and

what Virgil Atkins had said to me, I thought I would

never taste love on my lips nor ever know what a soft,

gentle caress of affection was like. I thought I would

die resembling a wild rose, never seen, never smelled,

never touched, a flower that would be kissed by the

sun and the rain until it bloomed radiantly, but then

would eventually wither and decompose, its petals

floating sadly to the earth, its stem bending until the next rain pounded it into dust to be forgotten, to be

treated as if it had never existed.

But in Pierre's arms, I felt myself blossoming,

exploding with color and vibrancy. His kind and