"You make it sound as if she's western Europe." Rachel leaned against the counter. "Do you think the university demanded that he break things off with you?"

"Yes, but how is something like that enforceable? Can they make him leave the city? Can they tell him what to do in his personal life, when he's on a leave of absence? If Gabriel wanted to talk to me, he could have called. He didn't. The university handed him a convenient way to break up with me. He was probably planning it for a while." Julia crossed her arms around her chest. It was easier to give voice to her deepest fears with Rachel than to dwell on them when she was alone.

"What a mess," Rachel repeated, turning to wash her hands.

Chapter 34.

In the wee hours of the morning, Rachel and Julia were sprawled across the sofa in their bathrobes, drinking wine and giggling. Scott, Tammy, and Quinn had long since left, and Aaron had been asleep for hours. They could hear reverberations of his snoring echo down the hall.

Bolstered by a very good Pinot noir, Julia described what had happened at the hearing, and Rachel, to her credit, resisted interrupting her.

"I don't think Gabriel would give you up just to keep his job. He doesn't need the money, and he can always work somewhere else. What I don't understand is why he wasn't more explicit about what he was doing. Why didn't he grab you afterward and say I love you but we need to wait." Rachel giggled drunkenly. "Knowing Gabriel, he would have recited something in iambic pentameter just because he could."

"He mentioned something about Peter Abelard, but it wasn't comforting. Abelard kept his relationship with Heloise secret so he wouldn't lose his teaching position. Then he sent her to a convent."

Rachel reached over to pick up a pillow and threw it at her friend's head. "He isn't going to send you to a convent. He loves you. And I refuse to believe otherwise."

Julia clutched the pillow to her chest as she reclined on her side. "If he loved me, he wouldn't leave me. He wouldn't have broken up with me via email."

"Do you really think that Gabriel was stringing you along for fun?"

"No. But that doesn't matter now."

Rachel yawned loudly. "Whatever he did, he screwed up. I'm wondering if he isn't trying to protect you in some way."

"He could have texted me and said just that."

Rachel threw an arm over her eyes. "That's the part I don't understand. He could have asked us to give you a message. He could have written you a letter. Why didn't Gabriel tell the university to shove it?"

Julia rolled onto her back, asking herself a similar question.

Rachel retrieved her cell phone from the coffee table. "Do you want to call him?"

"No."

"Why not? Maybe he'll answer, thinking it's me."

"It's the middle of the night and I'm drunk. It's not exactly the best time to have a conversation. Plus, he told me not to contact him."

Rachel shook the phone in front of her. "If you're hurting, so is he."

"I left him a message saying that if he ever wants to talk to me, he needs to do it face to face. I'm not calling him again." Julia downed the last of her wine in one swallow.

"Maybe he'll be at graduation." Julia sighed, a wistful look on her face. All her anger and frustration hadn't eliminated her longing for him. At least, not all of it.

"When's graduation?"

"June eleventh."

Rachel swore obliquely at the lateness of the date.

After a few minutes of shared silence, Julia decided to voice one of her other, greater fears.

"Rachel?"

"Uh huh?"

"What if he sleeps with her?"

Rachel was quiet for a moment. So quiet, Julia began to repeat the question, but her friend interrupted. "If Gabriel were cruel, then maybe he'd screw someone else. But I can't imagine him doing that and thinking that you'd forgive him."

"If he's with someone else and you find out about it, tell me." Julia gave her friend a pleading look. "It would be better to hear it from you."

"Darling, open your eyes."

His voice was warm and thick as he moved inside her, distributing his weight to his forearms. He leaned down to draw the delicate skin from the inside of her bicep into his mouth, kissing and sucking on it. It was just enough to tease her and perhaps to leave a gentle mark. He knew this drove her mad.

"I can't," she gasped, in between moans. Every time he moved it sent the most wonderful sensations coursing through her body.

Until he stopped.

Suddenly, her eyelids fluttered open.

He rubbed his nose against hers and smiled. "I need to see you." His gaze was gentle but intense, as if he were holding back the flame of desire momentarily.

"It's hard for me to keep my eyes open." She groaned a little as he moved inside her once again.

"Try for me." He kissed her softly. "I love you so much."

"Then why did you leave me?"

Gabriel looked down on her with dismay, his blue eyes narrowing. "I didn't..."

That same evening Gabriel was lying in the center of the bed, eyes closed, while she trailed leisurely open-mouthed kisses across his pectorals, pausing reverently to kiss his tattoo, before extending her attentions to his abdominals. An oath left his mouth as she ran her fingers lightly up and down the well-defined muscles before swirling a tongue around his navel.

It has been so long...

That was the thought that came to mind as she gently traced the skin and strands of hair before reaching a hand down to grasp him firmly. He shifted his hips. She was stroking him now, and he was panting, begging. She teased him unhurriedly as her long, silky hair caressed the tops of his thighs, before taking him into the warm wetness of her mouth.

Gabriel muttered a surprised expletive as he gave himself over to the sensations, before weaving his fingers into her hair.

He froze.

A sick feeling bubbled up in his stomach as he remembered what happened the last time he'd done this. He withdrew his hand immediately, worried that he'd frightened her.

"I'm sorry." He extended a single finger to trace her cheek. "I forgot."

A cold hand caught him by the wrist before forcing him to grasp her head roughly.

"What did you forget?" she taunted. "How to enjoy a b.l.o.w. .j.o.b?"

Gabriel's eyes flew open. In absolute horror he looked down into a pair of laughing blue eyes.

Paulina was naked and crouched over him, smiling triumphantly as she held him close to her mouth. Gabriel recoiled, cursing and crowding backward against the headboard while she sat on her heels, watching him.

She laughed and pointed to his nose, indicating that he should wipe the traces of cocaine from his nostrils.

What have I done?

He scrubbed his face roughly with both hands. As the enormity of his depravity sunk in, he retched, dry heaving over the side of the bed. When he came to himself, he held out his left hand to show her his ring-but there was none.

The wedding ring was gone.

Paulina laughed again and began crawling toward him, eyes feral, her naked body brushing against his own.

Chapter 35.

Gabriel struggled and flailed before jolting awake. He tore at the bedclothes, earnestly looking for any sign of her. But there was none.

He was alone in a dark hotel room. He'd extinguished the lights before retiring, which was his first mistake. Neglecting to place the framed photograph on his nightstand was his second, for it served as a talisman against the darkness.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed and placed his face in his hands. Enduring rehab all those years ago had been excruciating but nothing compared with losing Julianne. He would have suffered the nightmares and haunting memories of old sins gladly if he could hold her in his arms every night.

As he gazed with contempt at the half-empty bottle of Scotch, he felt the darkness closing in. His desperate pursuit had placed a great deal of pressure on him. When that pressure was coupled with a striking sense of loss, it made it almost impossible for him to function at a high level without some kind of crutch.

Every day the drinks grew larger. Every day he realized that he needed to do something before he became trapped by his old coping mechanisms and ruined his future. He knew that if he didn't do something, quickly, he'd relapse.

Impulsively, he made two telephone calls before gathering his belongings and shoving them into his suitcase. Then he directed the concierge to secure him a cab that would take him to the airport. He didn't bother to ensure that his appearance was neat and professional. In fact, he didn't bother looking into the mirror at all, for he knew that what he saw would disgust him.

Many hours later, he arrived in Florence and checked into the Gallery Hotel Art. It had been short notice, but he'd persuaded the manager to give him the same suite in which he and Julia had consummated their relationship. It was either that or a rehabilitation program, and he was convinced his connection to her would prove far more redemptive.

As he walked into the room, he half-expected to see her, or at least, signs of her. A pair of tangerine stilettos carelessly kicked off under a coffee table. A taffeta dress pooled on the floor next to a blank wall. A pair of seamed black stockings strewn across an unmade bed.

But of course, he saw none of those things.

After a relatively restful sleep and a shower, Gabriel contacted his old friend Dottore Vitali at the Uffizi Gallery and met him for dinner. They spoke of Harvard's new chair of Dante Studies. They spoke of Giuseppe Pacciani and Gabriel was marginally gratified to learn that although Giuseppe had been offered a campus interview while Gabriel had not, Giuseppe's lecture had been regarded as poor by the Harvard faculty. It was cold comfort, but a comfort nonetheless.

The next day Gabriel sought to distract himself from his troubles by engaging in pleasurable activities-breakfast on a piazza, a walk along the Arno, a lengthy afternoon at his tailor's in which he ordered a hand-made black wool suit, and an hour or so spent looking for the perfect pair of shoes to match his finery. His tailor joked that the suit was so fine Gabriel could be married in it. The tailor had laughed, until Gabriel held up his left hand and showed him his ring.

"I'm newly married," he explained, much to the tailor's surprise.

No matter where Gabriel walked in the city of Florence, he was a.s.saulted with memories of her. He would stand on the Ponte Santa Trinita, hugging the sweet and sour feelings tightly to his chest, knowing that they were preferable to chemical alternatives.

Late one evening, slightly drunk, he wandered by the Duomo, retracing the path he'd taken with Julianne months earlier. Tortured by his memory of her face when she accused him of f.u.c.king her, he stumbled across a familiar looking beggar, who sat in the shade of Brunelleschi's dome.

Gabriel approached him.

"Just a few coins for an old man," the beggar cried in Italian.

Gabriel grew closer, eying the man suspiciously. The scent of unwashed flesh and alcohol a.s.sailed him, but he grew closer still. Recognizing the beggar as the same man who'd inspired Julia's charity back in December, Gabriel stopped, swaying on his feet.

He felt for his wallet. Without bothering to look at the denominations, he withdrew several bills and held them in front of the man.

"I saw you last December. Yet, you're still here." Gabriel's Italian was only slightly accusatory.

The man eyed the money hungrily. "I'm here every day. Even Christmas."

Gabriel dangled the Euros closer to the man. "My fidanzata gave you money. You called her an angel. Do you remember?"

The man smiled toothlessly and shook his head, never allowing his eyes to leave the cash.

"There are many angels in Firenze, but more in a.s.sisi. I think G.o.d favors the beggars there. But this is my home." The man hesitantly held out his hand, uncertain that Gabriel would actually give him the money.

In his imagination, Gabriel could see Julia's face as she compa.s.sionately argued the beggar's case. She wanted to give him money even if there was a strong possibility that he'd waste the money on drink.

As Gabriel regarded the beggar, no better off than he'd been before Julia's generosity, he was struck by the fact that she wouldn't have hesitated to donate again and again. She would have given the man coins every day, because she thought the act of charity was never wasted. She would have lived in hope that one day the man would realize that someone cares for him and try to get help. Julia knew her kindness made her vulnerable, but she was kind anyway.

Gabriel placed the bills in the man's hand and turned sharply on his heel, the echoes of the beggar's joy and blessings ringing in his ears.

He wasn't deserving of a blessing. He hadn't committed an act of charity the way Julianne would have done it, out of compa.s.sion and kindness. He was simply doing justice to her memory, or purchasing an indulgence.

As tripped over a cobblestone, he realized what he had to do.

The next day he tried to secure the house in Umbria that he'd shared with her, but it was already occupied. So he traveled to a.s.sisi where he checked into a small, private hotel that was simple in its furnishings and populated with pilgrims.

Gabriel had never styled himself as a pilgrim. He was far too proud for that. Nevertheless, there was something in the air in a.s.sisi that allowed him to sleep peacefully. In fact, it had been the best sleep he'd had since leaving Julia's arms.