Shadows of Forgiveness

Olivia's nerves grew as the limousine approached the charity gala. Smoothing the folds of her emerald gown, she gazed at familiar Manhattan landmarks fading in the tinted windows. Would he be here tonight, after five years?

The gala welcomed Olivia with a glimmering foyer dotted with laughter and chandeliers. Her designer accessories hinted at wealth, though her smile didn't reach her eyes which scanned anxiously. Socialites waved - all but one face she hoped not to find.

Slipping inside, music and champagne bubbled off marble. Floral displays breathed life between pillars and paintings. Olivia sighed. Perhaps the past could fade into this gathering, and she may relish her work without turmoil. But as guests milled between dining and dancing, 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 the ballroom slowly, hoping its elaborate touches might distract from her nerves. Floral displays breathed perfume between marble pillars and paintings, losing herself briefly in their beauty. But by the opulent bar where colleagues laughed, a face stole her respiration.

It was him, Xavier, chatting with an elegant smile. His suit hugged lean strength as ever, dark hair falling with careless charm over eyes that, even at this distance, seemed to see right through her. A familiar rhythm stirred in her blood at the sight of him, commanding as in memories she'd fight to forget. His laugh drifted to her ears, tingling her skin.

Her breath left her. Five years, but he remained untouched by time. Each line and plane of his form surfaced from some hidden depth of her being, dragging feelings raw as open 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. Her limbs tensed to flee, but too late - across marble stretched his awareness, unerring as the tide. His eyes caught and held hers, recognition sparking within their depths.

A flicker passed over his features: astonishment, or longing rediscovered? Both, perhaps, as five years condensed within that suspended glance. Memories flooded between them vivid as scents - warm skin in tangled sheets; his smile lingering after passion's ebb; murmured secrets and promises graven deeper than bone.

Time collapsed. She was again that girl overflowing with hope, drowning in his ardent gaze. He the man whose heartbeat had drummed her world, who even now set her spirit and flesh aquiver as no other ever could.

Through twisted years and errors regretted, across the distance of their separate paths, the charge between them endured - that reckless, addictive pull that from their 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 through deep waters their eyes met and held, purpose shifted his features. Pleasant yet intent, he parted the crowd towards her, slick as a shark cutting silent swells.

Panic grasped her chest. Not ready - perhaps never, to stand within his presence and that awareness stripping her bare. Memories clawed her nerves to tender ribbons; feelings welled she dared not name.

She fled. Crimson silk swirling, Olivia turned from the magnetism in his approach. Past marble pillars and dignitaries' stares she fled, away from the man resurrecting a girl buried so deep. Through glittering 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 begun. , Silk like arterial blood had flashed through marble veins, and his hunter's eyes had given chase. Bursting through gardens perfumed with night, Xavier spotted her figure fleeing swift as desperation.

"Olivia, wait!" Breath heaving from lungs and heart, he caught her arm. She turned, lips parted to refuse whatever plea he made - and found him struck speechless.

Even wan in the moon's grace, panic lending wildness to her eyes, still she breathed taking his breath away. Time had only refined the lines of chin and cheeks, the swell of breasts straining for breath; still darker did lashes frame eyes haunting his days, his nights, his every dream.

How long he stared, drinking the beauty that had only ripened, he knew not. All around dissolution whispered soft on curtains of fog. But before him, vivid and alive, stood the one his soul had never relinquished - as breathtaking now in flight, as then in surrender., , Silence gripped the veranda but for their quick breaths releasing fog. Between them the past stood vast as oceans, heavy as all things unsaid.

At last Xavier managed, "I never thought...to see you here." His eyes roved her as though relearning by heart. "It's...really good to see you."

Beneath that simple phrase stirred depths she dare not name, lest old tenderness weaken resolve. A feeling swelled his stare, aged yet ageless as their history - that selfsame yearning tempest born when first they met, and knew each face, each gesture as belonging more truly than any other's could.

Words hid behind lips, for none sufficed. Her knees threatened to buckle under the weight of memory, and that naked hope lighting his eyes. Around them night shielded gardens where past pleasures lingered as ghosts, and phantoms of what might have been but never came to pass. Between them silence spoke all that need be said, for now.,