Captivation (6 page)

It took all of her strength to take hold of the extinguisher and pull it from the wall. She turned and stumbled back into her apartment, gripping the
doorframe on the way back in. Down the hall, entering the lounge room, she paused when she saw the flames again. They had grown, and a spike of adrenalin gave her fuel, switched her body into instinct mode. She moved in closer, her head temporarily clear as she held the extinguisher out in front and pressed down on the lever. The foamy liquid shot forwards, and she systematically moved it back and forth, dowsing the flames, covering the entire curtain in seconds.

It was over, the fire was out. But now the gravity of what had just passed, of what she had almost allowed to happen, started to bubble up inside of Juliette.

‘What did I do?’ she whispered. She dropped the red, metal can to the floor and then stumbled around the room, blowing out each and every candle that was still flickering. The music had been pounding throughout the entire ordeal, and now she jabbed at the stereo to turn it off. She snatched up the still smoking sticks of incense and tossed them all into the kitchen sink and turned on the tap, ensuring everything was sodden before she moved away. She stopped at the doorway to the lounge room, and looked in at the ragged curtain and the blackened patch of carpet beneath it. She ran from the room and just barely made it to the toilet before she started to throw up. Before she began to purge her body of its severe alcohol poisoning.

Afterwards, when the fire extinguisher had been returned to the hallway, her apartment door was closed and her windows were all open, allowing a southerly breeze to come through and cleanse the room of its heady, musky scents, she flung her exhausted body onto herbed.

‘Danny,’ she said, her voice hoarse with nerves, her body shaking. ‘Danny, are you still there? Please, come to me.’

Lights were beginning to dance across her vision and the world was starting to fade around her; she realised that she was going to pass out. But
just before she did, the following words came to her, as though they were being whispered in her ear. Or perhaps as though they were simply thoughts of her own.
I’m here Juliette, it’s okay, baby, I’m here
… and then the world blacked out. And Juliette slept.

Chapter Eight

When she woke it was early morning, the pale glow of dawn filtering in through her curtains. Juliette lay still at first, trying to remember what had happened, where she was, and why her head was pounding as though she was hung-over. It all came back to her in a rush.
The absinthe. The candles. The fire. Danny.
She sat up nervously and looked around the room. Had it really all happened? Had he really been there, speaking to her? Helping her? Saving her life?

A moment later, her questions were answered. She felt fingers tracing the length of her arm and then Danny’s voice entered her mind, as though he was able to seamlessly join in on her own thoughts.

It’s real Juliette
, he said,
I’m here with you. You brought me back.

‘Oh God,’ she said out loud. ‘Danny, I’ve been so lost, so confused. You don’t understand, I’ve missed you like crazy.

‘How?’ she asked, ‘How is this possible?’

I was stuck. Caught between worlds. Tied down by our love. It’s taken me all this time to be able to make contact with you. To learn how to do it. But you’ve made me stronger. You’ve saved me.

‘How? How did I do that?’

Your need for me last night was so great. It brought me to you, allowed me to communicate directly with you.

‘Can I … can I see you?’ Juliette whispered, her voice tentative but hopeful.

I’m not sure, baby, I don’t think so – I’m not sure that it’s possible. But that’s okay, I’m here, I can touch you, we can talk, we can be together. Always. I might still drift a bit, at times, but I’ll keep coming back now.

Juliette nodded, and then her head dropped and she began to cry.

Please don’t cry, honey. What is it? What’s wrong?

‘I’m sorry,’ she said through her tears. ‘I want to be able to truly bring you back. I want to touch you. I want to see you, hold you.’

Hey, don’t be sorry. You’ve done everything for me – I might have been stuck there forever. You’ve grounded me, tied me to you. Look,
I
can hold
you.

And Juliette felt his touch surrounding her, as though his entire body was there, pressed against hers, holding her tight, hugging her close. Gently, Juliette lay back down on the bed, allowing Danny’s form to curl around her. They lay together like that for hours, just savouring the fact that they were together again.

Eventually, when the room had brightened further with light from the day outside, Juliette sat up. She leaned forward and drew her knees up to her chest, hugging them tight.

‘Danny?’ she began.

I’m here.

‘What does this mean? As in – where do we go from here? How do we go on with our …’ she trailed off.

With our lives?

‘I’m sorry – I didn’t mean to say that. It’s just that this is all so strange.’

Let’s just take it one day at a time. You still have a life, you have to keep living it. But now I’ll always be here – a part of your life, with you, waiting for you.

‘Can you leave the apartment with me?’

No.

‘Oh.’

Don’t worry about that. Come on, don’t you have baking to do? I can come to the kitchen with you.

Juliette smiled. ‘You’ve been watching what I’ve been doing then? The deliveries?’

I love it. Such a beautiful concept. So very you.

‘Okay, let’s do that.’ Juliette showered first, turning just the cold tap on and allowing the freezing water to beat down on her head and alleviate some of the fog of her hangover. Once she was dressed, she took a moment to prepare herself, before walking out of her bedroom, knowing that the sight of the burnt curtains was going to be difficult to take in.

When she stepped through the doorway into the lounge room, the sight of that corner of the room was even more disturbing than she could have imagined. What if the entire building had caught on fire? Imagine if, because of her, other people had died.

‘I obviously need to check that smoke detector,’ she commented quietly, as she walked over to the burnt area and knelt down on the floor in front of it to survey the damage.

‘How am I going to get all this cleaned up?’ she asked.

Leave it ‘til later
, Danny suggested.
Maybe you can get someone in to take care of it for you, but not right now. Let’s not have someone else in here interfering with our connection unless we have to.

Despite the strangeness of their situation, Juliette was able to relax into her baking, enjoying the sensation that she wasn’t alone now, that she could chat as she mixed ingredients, that every now and then, she would feel Danny’s touch on her skin. She was mixing her last batch of dark chocolate brownies
when she finally worked up the nerve to ask the one question that had been on her mind for the past hour as she’d been cooking.

‘Danny, will we be able to … can we make love?’

There was silence for a moment while Juliette waited, her shoulders tense. And then she felt his arms around her.

I can hold you, kiss you, touch you … I don’t see why not.

Juliette felt a flutter deep within. All of a sudden, every movement she made felt loaded – her skin was tingling with anticipation. And when she felt Danny’s lips on her neck, his breath against her ear, she shuddered with desire.

‘Oh God, you don’t realise how much I want you right now,’ she whispered as she revelled in his touch.

I beg to differ.

‘Should we try it out … now?’ Juliette asked, her voice filled with longing.

No. Let’s wait until after you’ve finished baking and delivering your cakes. Once we get started …

‘Okay,’ said Juliette, trying hard to keep the disappointment out of her voice. ‘I guess I can wait until I get back. And that’s when we’ll make love, for the first time – this time.’

For the rest of the day, Juliette felt giddy with anticipation. She felt like a girl on her first date – all of that delicious build-up of flirting with the guy that you knew was the one. All that excitement because you knew what you would be doing together later, and you just knew that it was going to be spectacular. All of the sexual tension and chemistry that fizzed in each move you made and every word that you spoke. And, of course, Danny was no help, enhancing the tension by running his fingers down her spine or whispering in her ear, telling her exactly what he had planned for them later.

By the time Juliette had packed her basket and was at the front door, ready to make her delivery that night, she was practically weak at the knees thanks to all of the pent-up desire that was shooting through her body like fireworks, waiting for the opportunity to explode.

Come back soon.
And she felt Danny nuzzling her neck at the doorway.

‘Are you kidding me?’ she whispered, her voice giddy and giggly. ‘I’ll be back in record time.’

She started to lose her grip on the basket handle, ready to just give in right there and then, perfectly happy to drop the basket by her feet and allow the pull of the bedroom to win out. But she felt Danny’s touch on her hand, tightening her fingers around the basket handle.

No you don’t, you sexy little minx. Delivery first. Fuck later. You know it’s always better with a longer build-up.

‘How is six months not a long enough build-up?’

Danny’s touch gently pushed her out the door and when she closed it behind her, Juliette almost collapsed in the hallway. She bit down hard on her lip – trying to quell all of that aching desire.

Right,
she thought firmly,
delivery. Fast.

Chapter Nine

Juliette was practically skipping as she made her way back to the apartment. She had finished placing her treats haphazardly at the doorways of her neighbours. She had a close call when a couple arrived home, late and a little tipsy. She crept around the corner to wait while they let themselves into their apartment and heard them exclaim at the sight of her gift at their door. But then the door had slammed shut behind them, so she didn’t get to hear what they thought of her apricot and coconut slice.

She couldn’t believe she was about to have sex with her husband again – after all of this time, it was inconceivable that she had him back. And she wondered if tonight was going to be just like the first time again. After their first meeting on the beach, their relationship had very quickly become physical. That had been unusual for Juliette. In her past, she had always preferred to wait several weeks, sometimes months before she took things to the next level. In her entire life, she’d only slept with four different men – including her husband. But with Danny, she just couldn’t help herself. From the first time their fingers touched, when they both reached out for the wine bottle that had been placed on the table between them at dinner on their first date, she simply couldn’t wait to touch him again. It had been the most sexually charged date she had ever experienced. Looking back, she wasn’t even sure how they had made it all the way through dinner and back to Danny’s place before they started tearing off one another’s clothes.

Now, as Juliette approached her front door, she hesitated when she saw something small and dark dart past her down the corridor. Looking closely, she realised it was a cat – a sleek, black cat. Why was this reminding her of something? Then she remembered the woman who had knocked on her
door. Hadn’t she said her missing cat was black? Juliette stood still, conflicted. She desperately wanted to get back inside, to feel Danny’s touch on her skin once more. But then there was that woman, who had seemed so worried about her damned cat. Juliette was a kind person – she didn’t like the thought of not helping someone if she was in the position to.

With a groan of frustration, her need to do the right thing took over and she dropped the basket by her feet before darting after the cat. Unfortunately, though, the cat did not want to be caught. Every time she got close, it would streak away from her. As she chased it down the corridor, she racked her brain, trying to remember the apartment number of the woman who’d lost the cat. Finally, the cat stopped and sat itself down directly in front of an apartment door. Looking up at the number, she smiled with relief: twenty K – that was it. This was the right apartment, the bloody cat had found its way back there on its own.

Glaring at the cat, she stepped in close so she could knock on the door – hopefully she would be able to escape back down the hall and into her own apartment before the woman saw her. When she opened her door, all she’d see would be her cat, sitting there waiting for her – as though it had knocked all by itself. She suppressed a giggle at the mental image of a cat politely rapping on its own door to be let back in. Just after she knocked, however, before she was able to turn and race away out of sight, the cat suddenly let out a snarling hiss. She looked down just in time to see it swipe one paw at her ankle, scratching her so hard that it drew blood.