Love Through The Ages

Seven

"I don't know how it is you are so familiar to me—or why it feels less like I am getting to know you and more as though I am remembering who you are. How every smile, every whisper brings me closer to the impossible conclusion that I have known you before, I have loved you before—in another time, a different place—some other existence."

--Lang Leav

I smooth down my dress and turn to look in the full-length mirror at the deep V shaped cut out that reveals the skin of my back liking the simplicity of the black gown. I carefully adjust a piece of my hair to let it fall against my cheek happy with the up do I did with a handful of small bobby pins and one large one with a decorative jewel on it that reminds of the ones I wore on my wedding day. I smile at the memory and turn to the jewelry box on my vanity to look in the drawer I keep the pearls in only to see they are not there. I frown and quickly open up more of the compartments digging through each one in a panic letting out a groan when I don't see them anywhere. My heart races in terror at the thought of having lost one of my mother-in-law's most prized jewels that I have always treasured because of Lachlan choosing to give them to me as the Lady MacArtair.

I let out a small squeak as I hear someone at the door and gather my long dress in my hand to walk through my room to the living room quickly looking in the peephole to see my husband. I let out a long breath not exactly sure how I will tell him that I have misplaced his mother's pearls and open the door. Any excuses and words of regret leave my mind the instant my eyes take him in, dressed to the nines in a tuxedo underneath a dark grey long coat, his auburn hair combed back to have a few subtle curls at the back of his head that I immediately want to run my fingers through and I have brief flashes of the way I used to play with his hair during the more intimate times of our relationship. I trail my eyes down his lean frame somehow looking even more incredible in the black tuxedo than I remember and my eyes go back up to his cleanshaven face, his slightly crooked smile making my body tingle pleasantly. I bite my lip shaking my head to clear it as I realize he's speaking to me and I tug him inside.

"Aquira, wow...I haven't seen you so dressed up in so long." He's saying and closes the door behind him before he turns to look at me again. "I thought I loved you in the full skirts and corsets but this..."

"Shut up." I say as his eyes trail down my body and quickly step closer to him standing up on my toes to kiss him deeply. My heart races as his arms wrap around me to draw me closer against him and a shiver runs down my spine feeling his fingers brush my bare back. I gasp softly when he backs me toward the couch and slide my arms around his neck to keep him close as he lowers us to the couch. I let my fingers run though his curls and suddenly stop when I feel one of his hands brush over my hip.

"What?" He asks huskily and pulls back to look at me his emerald eyes dark with the passion I know all too well.

"N-Nothing...I want this terribly, mon amour." I whisper stroking his jaw and slowly lower my hands to his chest with a sigh. "It's just we don't have the time to do what we want—no, what we need to do to rekindle everything."

"You're saying we need more than a stolen moment before going to a gala?" He asks and sits up with me gently stroking my cheek.

"Exactly." I say and close my eyes as his lips touch my forehead knowing that in the past two weeks he has been nothing but patient and understanding in waiting until I am ready. "We haven't been together in that way in a century and I want us to take the time to relearn each other."

"I don't think it's about learning each other again, mo goal." He says running his hand down my arm my skin erupting in gooseflesh and I look at him with a brow raised. "Even though we've spent a century apart, you're still the only woman I've been with and I'll tell you now I have treasured every memory I have of being with you...I still know you, Aquira. I know you have scars, I know you have a freckle right on the inside of your thigh and I know you love when I find that certain spot on your neck."