Shadows of Forgiveness

ng the folds of her emerald gown, she gazed at familiar Manhattan landmark

s. Her designer accessories hinted at wealth, though her smile didn't reach her eyes

ing, by the opulent bar offering merriment, a figure made her breath catch across the room. It was unmistakably him, chatting with colleagues, commanding as she remembered. Her night, it seemed, was only beginning. Emeralds glinting under crystal light, Olivia scanned t

ss charm over eyes that, even at this distance, seemed to see right through her. A familiar rhythm stirred in her blood

wounds to her cheeks' surface. Her lungs burned for more air that refused to come. Across glittering years and regretted miles, his eyes found hers, and she knew he saw her too

ondensed within that suspended glance. Memories flooded between them vivid as scents - warm skin in tangl

g in his ardent gaze. He the man whose heartbeat had drummed her world

r first meeting drew two disparate lives into the orbit of one another. Two hearts now rejoined across the shimmering room, as if they had never parted at all. , As th

his presence and that awareness stripping her bare. Memories clawe

ng foyers and into the veranda's perfumed night she fled, still feeling his eyes dragging her back against her will, even as cool dark soothed her racing pulse. But she knew, somehow, her flight had only beg

e caught her arm. She turned, lips parted to refuse wh

breath away. Time had only refined the lines of chin and cheeks, the swell of breasts strainin

before him, vivid and alive, stood the one his soul had never relinquished - as breathtaking now in flight, as then in surrender., , Silen

ee you here." His eyes roved her as though rele

eeling swelled his stare, aged yet ageless as their history - that selfsame yearning tempest born wh

ked hope lighting his eyes. Around them night shielded gardens where past pleasures lingered as ghosts, and phan