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PRETEND YOU MINE Made him feel everything
ETHAN'S POVMy hand throbbed along with my heartbeat. All I could do was breathe at the now sealed doors of the lift that was taking her away from me.Think for one moment!Chasing after her was not an option, so I left the lobby and went into the break room. Elaina was in getting coffee. She kept her head down and pretended I wasn't there. Smart woman. I hope those idiots on the floor do the same or they just might need to find new jobs.I threw some ice into a plastic bag and shoved my hand inside. Fuck. it stung! There was blood on my knuckles and I'm certain on the wall next to the lift. I walked back out to my office with my hand in the ice where I told Frances to call maintenance to come and fix the bloody ding in the wall.Frances nodded without missing a beat and looked at the bag of ice at the end of my arm. "Do you need an X-ray for that?" she asked, her expression like that of a mum. What I envisioned a mother would look like at least. I barely remember mine, so I'm probabl
PRETEND YOU MINE The message
"I've been working on the section with the book in particular," Brynne said. "She suffered some heat damage in a fire decades ago, and it's been a struggle getting the cooked-on lacquer off that book. It's special, I just know it."I looked again and made out the word Chrétien. "It's in French. That is the name Christian right there." I pointed. Her eyes got big and her voice excited. "It is?""Yes. And I'm sure this says, Le Conte du Graal. The Story of the Grail?" I looked at Brynne and shrugged. "The woman in the painting is called Lady Percival, right? Isn't Percival the knight who found the Holy Grail in the King Arthur legend?""Good God, Ethan!" She grabbed my arm in excitement. "Of course! Percival ...it's her story. You figured it out! Lady Percival is holding a very rare book in- deed. I knew it was something special! One of the first King Arthur stories ever written down; all the way back in the twelfth century. That book is Chrétien de Troyes's The Story of Perceval and th
PRETEND YOU MINE Fallen in love
Day two of my exile from Brynne and it sucked. I was moving around and doing things, but nothing felt right. How long would I be like this? Should I call her? If I thought about my situation too much, dread started to creep in, so I left it alone. I left her alone. The empty space inside me pushed for action, but I knew it was too soon to try to go to her. She needed some time and I'd made this mistake before. Pressing too fast and too hard with her. And being an utter selfish prick.I parked on the street next to the house where I'd grown up. The lawn very tidy, the gate straight and the shrubbery clipped as it had always been. Dad would never leave here. Not the home where he'd been with my mother. My dad gave the term stubborn old man new meaning, and this was where he would die someday.I picked the cold beer off the seat and went in through the gate. A black cat dashed ahead of me and waited. It was not quite a kitten and not fully grown either. A teenage cat I suppose. It sat do
PRETEND YOU MINE Memories of her
."So I arrive at the gallery show and buy the damn portrait within a few moments of seeing it, like a sodding poet or something! As soon as I met her I was ready to send in the guard to keep her safe if need be." I shook my head. "What the hell happened to me, Dad?""Your mother loved to read all the poets, Keats, Shelley, Byron." He smiled just slightly. "It happens that way sometimes. You find the one for you and that's all there is to it. Men have been falling in love with women since time began, son. You just finally made it to the head of the queue." Dad took another drink of his beer. "Why does... Brynne need protection?""That US congressman who died in the plane crash has got a replacement. Name is Senator Oakley from California. Well, the senator has a son, one Lance Oakley, who used to date Brynne. There was some trouble . . . and a sex tape- I paused and realized how horrible it must sound to my dad. "But she was a very young girl only seventeen-and terribly hurt by the be
PRETEND YOU MINE Without her
. Her naked... This was something that did me absolutely no good to think about, yet I'd spent many hours doing it. And, if I reasoned why, was the basis for everything that'd happened with us. Her naked... That photograph Tom Bennett sent to me was the same one I bought at the show. From a pragmatic view it was just a picture of a beautiful naked body anyone would appreciate, male or female. But even with the little he told me in the beginning, paired with that picture of her in all its vulnerability, allure and stark beauty, the thought she could be in danger or that someone would purposefully hurt her galvanized me to go out to the street and get her safely into my car. I just couldn't walk away from her and keep my conscience intact. And once we'd met my mind went mad with fantasies. All I could see in my head while we talked was... her naked,My bath started losing its heat after an hour and, understandably, its appeal. So I got out, and dressed and went in search of the book. L
PRETEND YOU MINE Not with him anymore
ETHAN'S POVThey make you believe things that are not true. They tell you so many times, you accept what they are telling you is the truth rather than lies. You suffer for it like it's the truth. The most effective torture is not physical it is mental of course. The mind can imagine terrors far more horrific than you could ever physically bear, just like the mind will tune out those physical hurts when the pain surpasses what your body can endure.The nerves in my back screamed like acid had been poured onto the destroyed flesh. The pain took my breath away it was so acute. I wondered how long till I passed out, and if I did, would I wake again in this life. I doubted I could walk more than a few yards. I could barely see from the blood in my eyes and blows to the head. I would die here in this hellhole and probably soon. I hoped it was soon. My dad and Hannah couldn't see me like this, though. I hoped they never found out how I met my end. I prayed there wouldn't be a video of my exe
PRETEND YOU MINE Starving for her
"Ethan, I-I got your letter." Her voice sounded thready and the urge to go to her was so great I didn't know how I would manage to keep away. "Thanks for sending it. The flowers are beautiful too. I-I just wanted you to know that I talked to my dad and he told me some stuff.....She lost her composure then. I could hear the sounds of muffled crying. I knew she was, and it broke my heart wide open. "I have to go...maybe later we could talk." She whispered the last. "Bye, Ethan." And then she hung up.I thought I would crack the glass in my mobile punching buttons to redial praying she picked up and would speak to me. Time slowed down interminably while the call connected. Once, twice, three rings. My heart pounded and the need for air increased- "Hi." Just one little word. But it was her voice and she was directing it to me.I could hear noises in the background. Like traffic. ... how are you? You sounded upset on your message. "Brynne.....I was in a meeting..." I trailed off realizi
PRETEND YOU MINE Need the truth
I needed my hands on her. They itched to hold her close and touch. But she looked different slimmer. The nearer I got, the more visible it became. Christ, had she stopped eating in the past week? She must have dropped nearly half a stone. I stopped and stared, anger mixing with concern, but more so understanding that this shit with her past was way bigger than I'd realized up to this point. Lucky us, we can be fucked up together.She turned around and found me. Our eyes connected and some powerful communication flowed through the breeze between us. Brynne knew how I felt. She should know. I'd told her plenty of times. She had never told me what I'd said to her, though. I was still waiting to hear those three words come from her. I love you,She said my name. I read her lips. I couldn't hear the sound through the wind, but I saw that she did indeed speak my name. She looked about as relieved as I felt seeing her in one piece and just a few steps away. And utterly beautiful to me, as sh
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