Atlantis by Lisa Graves Page A

don’t remember anything?” Elliott asked me, one eyebrow raised.
    “ Sorry, but no.”
    “ Good thing I do then.” He flashed his brilliant smile at me. I wanted so much for that mouth to kiss me again. “Actually you are lucky I survived to tell the tale,” he added dramatically.
    “ Why?”
    “ Because you nearly gave me a heart attack!”
    “ You’re sure it was me huh? I still don’t recall being in Italy - ever in my life.”
    “ Correction. Ever in this life.”
    My eyes furrowed in confusion and I shrugged my shoulders. “Non so.”
    “ What did you just say?” Elliott’s eyes locked on mine with such an intensity that I forgot what I said.
    “ I don’t know.” What had I said? The words just came out. It was as though they were buried deep within me. A dormant memory.
    Elliott looked really flustered. He propped himself back up on his arm, leaning on his elbow, and starred deep into my eyes.
    I looked around, confused. “What? What did I do?”
    “ Sorry, Miele. I’m really confused.” Elliott’s fingers combed his hair.
    My heart started to race. Last time I freaked him out he vanished moments later. I didn’t want him going anywhere. I wanted him right here, in my meadow, with me in his arms. “What did I do?” I repeated.
    “ Please tell me something.”
    “ Sure.” Agh! I thought. Please don’t let me screw this up.
    “ Those words you just said.”
    “ Yeah.” Where was he going with this?
    “ Do you know what they mean?”
    I shrugged as best as one could lying down, shaking my head. “I don’t know.”
    “ Lilly. . .” Elliott’s honey voice, though strained and obviously frustrated, still called to my soul.
    “ Elliott, I’m really confused right now.”
    “ So am I.”
    “ Why?”
    “ Because I can’t figure out if you are saying you don’t know what you just said, or that you know what you just said means I don’t know.”
    “ Really?” What the . . .
    “ So you didn’t know what it means? Hmmm. Interessante.”
    “ Now I’m really really confused. I spoke another language?”
    “ Italian actually.”
    “ How?”
    He kissed me. “With your mouth, Miele.”
    “ You know what I mean.” I rolled my eyes while I mentally memorized the kiss, and tried to get a grip on what just happened.
    “ Non so.” He winked. “But my guess is you are starting to remember. Shall I continue? I was getting to the best part my love - you.”
    Elliott’s hand caressed my neck, and then he pulled me in and kissed me again. Although my head was swimming, as usual, with the overload of information, everything melted away when we kissed. His heart pulled on mine like a magnet. He pulled back and looked into my eyes again. I don’t know what he saw in mine, but I was personally swimming in his.
    “ Let me continue. I had just called your name into the darkness of the old abandoned home...”
    I snuggled in close. Letting his magnetic arms close around me and pulse electricity through my body. The floral scent of his skin only added to my happiness as I tried to pay attention to his voice. He stroked his fingers through my messy spikes, playing with it as he continued.
    “ The room was nearly pitch black. The only light was from a streetlamp outside that shone through a small dingy window. The floor creaked beneath my feet as I continued to inch further into the dark.
    “ Lillianna,” I called again, stopping in the darkness.
    “ That’s when I heard the floor creek. But I hadn’t moved. My heart started to beat rapidly.
    “‘ Who’s there?’”
    “‘ It’s me,’ you whispered back, ‘Lillianna’.”
    “ I can still feel the chills of happiness run down my spine when I remember that moment.” Elliott hugged me tighter, and sent chills down my spine.
    “ Where are you?” I said into the darkness.
    “ You answered by taking my hand in yours. ‘Here,’ you replied.
    “ You pulled me deeper into the darkness as you spoke in hushed whispers ‘We