Just before the last dance, Gabriel walked over to the DJ and

spoke to him in hushed tones. Then, with a wide smile, he returned to Julia and extended his hand.

They walked slowly onto the dance floor just as “Return to Me”

filled the air.

“I’m surprised you didn’t choose ‘Besame Mucho,’” she said.

Gabriel gazed into her eyes intensely. “I thought that we needed

a new song. A new song for a new chapter.”

“I liked the old one.”

“We don’t have to forget the past,” he whispered. “But we can

make the future better.”

She gave him a half-smile and changed the subject. “I remember

the first time we danced.”

“I was an ass that evening. When I think of how I behaved…”

His tone was remorseful. “I had a strong reaction to you but didn’t know how to act.”

“You know how to act around me now.” She touched his face

and pressed their lips together before tentatively fingering his black silk bow tie. “I remember admiring your ties when I was just your

student. You always dressed impeccably.”

Gabriel caught her hand in his and pressed his open mouth to

her palm. “Julianne, you were never just my student. You’re my soul mate. My bashert.”

He pulled her to his chest, and she hummed against his tuxedo.

And when Dean Martin switched to Italian, it was Gabriel’s voice

that sang in her ear.

P

372

Gabriel’s Rapture

As Gabriel stood outside of Julia’s hotel room in the wee hours of the morning, he looked at her appraisingly. Her long, curled hair, her beautiful skin and flushed cheeks, her eyes sparkling with champagne and happiness. The way her dark red strapless dress complemented

her figure. His brown-eyed angel still had the power to enchant him.

As he gently caressed her cheek, she gazed up into the hazy blue

eyes he was now hiding behind his glasses. He was so handsome in

his tuxedo. So very, very sexy.

Boldly, she reached out to pull the edge of his bow tie and felt

the silk come apart in her fingers. She wrapped the tie around her hand once to tug his lips to hers.

As they kissed, Julia suddenly realized how difficult it must have been at the beginning of their relationship for Gabriel to keep his hands off her. The boiling of blood and heating of flesh when one

knew what lay beyond kissing in the voluptuary dance that was

foreplay. She could barely contain her need for him.

“Please,” she whispered, straining on tiptoe to place tiny kisses

across his neck as she tugged on his tie once again.

He groaned. “Don’t tempt me.”

“I promise I’ll be gentle.”

Gabriel laughed gruffly. “This is a stunning reversal.”

“We’ve waited a respectable amount of time. I love you. And I

want you.”

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes,” she said breathlessly.

“Then marry me.”

“Gabriel, I — ”

He cut her off with his kiss, pulling her against his chest. Some-

how his hands were in her hair, clutching her tightly. And then as he gently slid his hands to caress her naked shoulders, he tentatively pressed into her mouth.

Julia released his bow tie to wrap her arms around his neck,

tugging him until their bodies were flush against one another. She nibbled his ful lower lip and moaned as his tongue slowly traced

the curve of her mouth.

Suddenly, his fingers were touching her collarbones and mov-

ing to her back, gliding across the surface of her skin as it began to flush and heat.

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Sylvain Reynard

“Let me do things the right way,” he pleaded, his hands cupping

her face.

“How could this be wrong?” she whispered back, eyes dark and

desperate.

He kissed her again, and this time she shamelessly wound her

right leg around his hip, trying to recreate their tango against a wall from the Royal Ontario Museum.

He pressed forward until her back was flush against the door to

her room, his hands roaming up and down her thighs, before pulling back suddenly. “I can’t.”

Julia removed his glasses in order to smooth the creases around

his eyes, and saw passion, conflict, and love staring back at her. She unwound her leg from his hip and pressed their lower bodies together.

“Gabriel.”

He blinked at the sound of her voice, as if she was awakening

him from a dream.

When he didn’t move, she placed a few inches between them

and handed him his glasses. “Goodnight, Gabriel.”

He looked stricken. “I don’t mean to hurt you.”

“I know.”

He remained perfectly still, staring down into eyes that were

filled with sadness and longing. “I’m trying to be strong for both of us,” he whispered. “But when you look at me like that…”

He kissed her lips softly and nodded his acquiescence as she

fumbled for her slide card, and the two of them disappeared behind her hotel room door.

P

Early the next morning, Julia left the comfort of Gabriel’s warm

embrace to tip toe to the washroom. When she returned, she found

him wide-awake and gazing at her with concern.

“Are you all right?”

Blushing, she smiled. “Yes.”

“Then come here.” He opened his arms, and she snuggled close,

placing a leg over both of his.

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Gabriel’s Rapture

“I’m sorry if I embarrassed you in the hallway.”

“You didn’t embarrass me.” The urgency of his tone took Julia

aback. “How could I be embarrassed by the woman I love showing

me that she wants me?”

“I think we gave some of the other guests a bit of a show.”

“And some inspiration,” he spoke against her lips, kissing her.

When they broke apart, she rested her head on his shoulder. “I

guess you’re serious about waiting until the wedding.”

“You weren’t complaining last night.”

“You know me.” She winked at him. “I don’t like to complain.

“Thank you for compromising, Gabriel.” She tightened her arms

around his waist. “Last night was important for me.”

“For me too.” He smiled. “I could see that you trust me.”

“I’m glad, because I’ve never trusted you more.”

He kissed her again, before pushing a lock of hair away from

her face. “I have something to tell you,” he said, his fingers gently running up and down her neck. “Something strange.”

Her eyebrows knit together curiously.

“Go ahead.”

“When I was back in Selinsgrove, I saw something. Or rather,

something happened to me.”

Julia covered his hand with hers, stilling his fingers. “Were you

hurt?”

“No.” He paused uncomfortably. “Promise me you’ll keep an

open mind.”

“Of course.”

“I thought it was a dream. When I woke up, I wondered if it

was a vision.”

She blinked. “Like when you thought you saw me in Assisi?”

“No. Like what you said about the Gentileschi painting while

we were in Florence — about Maia and Grace.

“I saw her. Grace. We were in my old room at my parents’ house.

And Grace told me…” Gabriel’s voice broke. He struggled to compose himself. “She told me that she knew that I loved her.”

“Of course she did,” Julia murmured, hugging him more tightly.

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Sylvain Reynard

“There’s more. She had someone with her. A young woman.”

“Who was she?”

Gabriel swallowed roughly. “Maia.”

Julia gasped, her eyes wide.

“She told me she was happy.”

Julia wiped a stray tear from Gabriel’s face. “Was it a dream?”

“Perhaps. I don’t know.”

“Did you tell Richard? Or Paulina?”

“No. They’ve both made their peace.”

Julia placed her hand against his cheek.

“Maybe you needed this in order to forgive yourself — to see that

Grace and Maia forgave you and that they’re happy.”

He nodded wordlessly, burying his face in her hair.

376

Chapter 50

On their flight back to Boston, Julia surprised Gabriel by

telling him that she would welcome his proposal. His happi-

ness could barely be contained in the first class section of the airplane.

She expected that he would drop to one knee immediately.

He didn’t.

When they arrived in Boston, she expected him to take her shop-

ping for wedding rings.

He made no such plans.

In fact, as September flew by, she wondered if Gabriel was going

to propose to her at all. Perhaps it was the case that he merely assumed that they were engaged and planned to pick out wedding rings at

some later date.

Gabriel warned her that the doctoral program at Harvard was

challenging and that the professors were highly demanding. In fact, he remarked more than once that the average faculty member who

taught in her program was far more pretentious and ass-like than

he had ever been.

(Julia wondered if such astronomical ass-like levels were humanly

possible.)

Nevertheless, his warnings hadn’t quite prepared her for the

amount of work she was required to do on a daily basis. She spent

long hours in seminars and also in the library, keeping up with her homework and supplementing the reading from her classes. She met

with Professor Marinelli regularly and found that they enjoyed a professional but comfortable rapport. And she worked tirelessly on her Italian and other languages, in preparation for her competency exams.

Sylvain Reynard

Gabriel encouraged her, of course, and he did his very best not

to pressure her about spending time with him. He was busy with his new position and had immediately taken over the supervision of three doctoral students, having relinquished Paul to Katherine’s capable direction. But full professors have more leisure time than graduate students, and so Gabriel spent many an evening and weekend alone.

He began volunteering as a tutor at the Italian Home for Children

in Jamaica Plain. Despite his somewhat limited success, under his

supervision a small group of teenagers developed a lively interest in Italian art and culture. The Professor promised to send them to Italy if they graduated high school with a respectable grade point average.

Though he kept himself busy, each day ended as it began, with

him alone in his now renovated house, missing Julianne.

He seriously contemplated buying a dog. Or a ferret.

Despite her overall busyness with graduate school, which was a

welcome distraction, Julia continued to be frustrated. Their separation was unnatural, uncomfortable, cold, and she ached to breach that separation and be one with him again. The fact that she couldn’t made her terribly sad. All the romantic activities short of intercourse couldn’t erase that kind of loneliness. And there were only so many times she could listen to comforting music while lying alone in her single bed.

Sexual desires can be satisfied in many ways, but she longed for

the attention that he paid to her when they were making love, the

way he lavished single-minded devotion on her as if there were no

one and nothing else on earth. She coveted the way she felt when he touched her naked form. For in those moments, she felt beautiful

and desirable, despite her innate shyness and unease about her body.

She desired the moments after sex, when they were both relaxed and sated, and Gabriel would whisper beautiful words in her ear, and

they would simply be in one another’s arms.

As the days passed, Julia wasn’t sure how long she could tolerate

their disconnection without lapsing into a depression.

P

378

Gabriel’s Rapture

One day at the end of September, Julia opened the door of the

Range Rover and silently slid into the passenger seat. She buckled her seatbelt and gazed out the window.

“Sweetheart?” Gabriel reached his hand out to push her hair

away from her face.

She stiffened.

He withdrew his hand. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Sharon,” she mumbled.