The woman, who must be an intern or something since she looked so young, wasn’t too badly put together herself in a slim-fitting dress in some sort of west African print. The dress, bright and cheerful in the chill of the bank, and the younger woman’s unexpected compliment helped ease some of Izzy’s tension. But only some.
The bank was crowded, which was probably normal for an early Monday morning. In the waiting area, Izzy signed her name on the client clipboard and took a seat. Another attack of nerves had her wiping damp palms on the thighs of her capri slacks as she looked around. Five other people waited in the seating area, including a straight couple holding hands and glancing anxiously at each other.
They were adorable and young, still wearing that dreamy look of a couple in love. Matching wedding rings gleamed on their fingers.
Probably heading for divorce in a couple of years anyway, Izzy thought and then was instantly annoyed with herself.
Throwing shade because she’d lost her own wife was just shitty. Her teeth clamped down on the inside of her cheek and she fiddled with the straps of her “business bag,” a large leather purse that had all the papers she needed for this interview.
A loan.
Izzy never thought she’d see the day. She’d been literally born with a whole set of silver spoons at her disposal and had never worried about money a day in her life. Until things started to fall apart three years ago.
Now she was here at a bank, about to beg strangers for money.
You can always go home, a voice at the back of her head whispered. Mom and Dad will take care of everything and it could be like this whole thing never happened.
But the voice was easy to ignore. Her parents’ love and rescue came with conditions she could never fulfill. It wasn’t just about pride at this point, it was about survival of the person she’d become in the years she’d been away from California. She was an out, queer woman and though she wasn’t dating anyone, she wasn’t about to crawl back into the closet to make her mother feel comfortable.
The make-up of the waiting room shifted as people were called into one of the two offices nearby. Soon, Izzy was the only one sitting on the gray couch. Not for the first time, she smoothed a hand down the thigh of her black slacks. The matching jacket felt looser than she remembered around her shoulders, even though when she’d left the cottage earlier that morning, the mirror told her it still looked good.
She needed to impress these people.
After pulling a full shift at the restaurant and then rushing home to shower and change before heading back out again, she was beyond tired. Even with the home-made double espresso sitting in her belly. The leather strap of her purse slid against her sweaty palms as she gripped it, her hands spasming with nervousness.
Her gaze flicked to the loan officer’s door. It was still closed.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
Izzy almost jumped out of her skin. “Fuck!”
Wearing a pants suit nearly identical to hers except that it was a brilliant yellow, Marun sat beside her on the sofa. Her hair was an inky cloud around her face, the perfect frame for her piercing eyes frowning down at Izzy.
“I wish you’d stop doing that.” Izzy had only been a half a second from clutching at her chest in fright like somebody’s Southern grandma. Her agitated pulse started to settle back down.
“Doing what?” Marun asked, that frown still all over her face, as if she didn’t know exactly what Izzy was talking about.
Izzy flicked a gaze at the still-closed office doors and then over at the teller sitting placidly behind the bank’s counter. The security guard was still at his post by the door. “Never mind.”
That was one of the things she’d had to get used to in the first few months of their relationship. Marun would simply appear wherever she was, no call to find out her location, no agreement to meet. Izzy should’ve been thinking the woman had some sort of GPS or locator beacon installed on her phone or her body. But she’d always been too charmed, too excited to see her to complain.
She wasn’t charmed now though.
“I can go anywhere I want,” she said and tried to ignore that familiar scent of guava and lemons clinging to her ex-wife. “And I can do anything I want.”
“That’s true enough.” Marun swept the bank with her own comprehensive stare. “But you don’t have to be here doing what I think you’re about to do.”
Annoyance made Izzy bristle. “If you’re not going to sign the papers allowing me to sell the building, then I don’t have a choice.”
“There are always other choices,” Marun said. Her voice vibrated with an odd intensity. Or maybe the intensity wasn’t odd, because she’d always had that sense of restrained power and purpose about her.
Izzy had missed it. She’d missed h— No. She hadn’t missed anything to do with Marun.
One of the office doors opened.
“Isabella Ransom?”
She rushed to stand. “I’m here.”
Quick footsteps took her past a frowning Marun and toward the tall woman standing in the office doorway. She stepped aside, allowing Izzy to come in before closing the door behind them.
“Thanks for waiting.” Smiling pleasantly, the woman gestured for her to sit at the stiff-looking chair on the other side of her desk. “What can I do for you this morning?”
It turned out that she couldn’t do a damn thing for Izzy. After nearly a half an hour of downright groveling to try to get a loan, Izzy walked out of the office with yet another rejection. She owned nothing to offer as collateral, not even the building she co-owned with one Marun Zisanu.
What other choices did she have now?
When she walked out of the meeting with the loan officer, her head determinedly held high despite the sick feeling in her stomach, Izzy was almost surprised to see Marun waiting for her.
God, could this day get any worse?
Marun got to her feet, easily towering over Izzy in high heels she didn’t need to wear.
“Pardon me,” the loan officer said to Marun. “I didn’t see another name on my list for the morning. Can I help you?”
“No, you can’t,” Marun said, regally dismissive. “But thank you.” Her hair swayed as she inclined her head to the loan officer, one in a long line of women trying to break Izzy’s spirit.
“Are you going to sign the papers?” Izzy forced the words past her teeth as she walked down the bank steps with Marun right at her side. She slung her purse over her shoulder.
“That’s not why I’m here.”
“Then you can’t help me. You’re not doing anything but getting on my nerves and reminding me why I should’ve never been involved with you in the first place.”
A rush of warmth, like the feel of sunlight abruptly released over her skin, came her way from Marun. “We weren’t involved, we were together. We are married.”
“We’re nothing, Marun.” Her ex’s name sizzled over her tongue in a way she’d missed as she realized this was the first time she’d said her name since she reappeared in Izzy’s life. God, was that only yesterday? “If you’re not going to help me, leave me alone.”
Desperate to leave Marun behind, along with all the unwanted feelings she brought back, Izzy rushed through the bank’s parking lot toward the bus stop.
“Izzy, stop.”
But she didn’t stop. She was done taking orders from her ex. When they’d been together, she’d let Marun take control of pretty much everything, including her. She wasn’t that naïve girl anymore though. For one thing, she was broke as hell and dealing with real world, adult problems.
If she couldn’t get this loan on her own, she’d get on her belly and crawl toward the one decision she swore she’d never make. The dread of it spun in her stomach, swirling with the morning’s coffee and the storm of emotions Marun stirred up.
Her high heels clicked furiously across the pavement.
The day was bright, unfairly golden given the ever-growing pile of shit her life was right now. Fucking sp
ring. An arc of sunlight flashed across her eyes as she got to the bus stop, hyper aware of the woman keeping pace with her, the woman who enveloped her senses in unwanted desire and the scent of a home she no longer had.
Going to the bank, Izzy had felt a touch of optimism. Her family name was a damn good one, even if she wasn’t going to throw it around to get what she needed. In theory, she was good for the amount of money she was asking for. She’d never failed to repay a debt in her whole life.
Okay, fine. So, she hadn’t had much occasion to borrow money from anybody. Even the expensive college tuition had been covered by her trust fund money. So had her half of the building she and Marun had bought together on some strange whim when they’d planned the romance of their lives together, living in an apartment above the bakery they owned. Making love to the smell of baking bread every day.
But now, she was light years away from the person she was back in college, and even later when she was with Marun.
The three years in limbo had aged her.
Abandoned by her wife. All her money gone. And now, she was pleading with a bank for money while the heat of embarrassment burned in her cheeks. When the woman had turned her away, Izzy had felt a kind of relief then. At least the torture of being a beggar was over.
She was thinking too hard about the deeper humiliation to come with what she had to do next. That must have been the reason she didn’t hear it at first. The screech of tires as a car jumped the curb and veered toward her.
“Oh my god!”
The scream tore her attention away from the posted bus schedule, a woman sitting inside the transparent bus stop watching with a hand slapped to her mouth, her eyes wide as dinner plates. The car, actually a huge SUV, barreled straight for Izzy. A flash of yellow appeared in front of her.
Marun.
“Don’t move!” Marun shouted.
Izzy remembered this minutes afterward. Marun’s hand reaching back to clamp Izzy around the waist and pull up against her while she faced the giant vehicle bearing down on them. Izzy might have screamed. She wasn’t sure. Heart tripping with fear, she slammed her eyes shut and held on tight to Marun, bracing herself for the crash, and the pain.
But only one of those things happened.
A boom of sound exploded around her, and her eyes flew open in time to see the black SUV slam into some kind of invisible barrier in front of Marun, the vehicle’s front end crumpling like an empty soda can in a fist. The smell of engine oil nearly overwhelmed her, a belch of heat from under the abruptly revealed hood. Then the SUV ricocheted back into the street like a giant bullet gone astray.
Clinging to Marun, Izzy could only stare in shock. The SUV flew backward, bumped up onto the grassy median on the other side of the street, and slammed into a street sign. The sign lurched and half collapsed. Metal screeched against metal as the SUV skidded against the street sign again and then, engine growling with effort, shot through the yellow traffic light and took off down the street.
Miraculously, through all this, the runaway SUV missed hitting any of the other cars in the post-rush hour morning.
Reacting to the chaos, other cars screeched to a stop as more people shouted and cell phone cameras came out.
Izzy’s lungs burned and spots danced in front of her eyes. She staggered. From a distance, she heard Marun. “Breathe, baby. Just breathe for me. It’s all over now.” The scent of a crisp, fertile garden pulled her back from the edge of panic.
A shivery breath escaped her open mouth and the spots before her eyes disappeared. “Oh my god!”
“Are you hurt?” Marun’s low voice brushed her ear.
The touch of Marun’s hands on her hips loosened a storm of reactions. The most dangerous of which was a kind of calm. Her breathing evened out and her heart slowed to something like normal.
“I should be the one asking you that.” Shaking, she gripped Marun’s hands and then released them to touch her woman’s chest, her belly, her strong arms around her. Just to confirm with her touch as well as sight that Marun was okay. That SUV could’ve flattened Marun. It could have crushed them both where they stood.
“I’m fine, love. You never have to worry about me,” Marun said. She didn’t seem afraid. Only earlier, when she’d asked Izzy if she was hurt, had there been any sort of tremor in her voice.
Now, she was like a rock.
Her steadiness was seductive. Izzy only just stopped herself from melting into Marun’s strength and loosening the cry that had been rising in her since the day she found out her woman had left her.
But she didn’t give in. It hurt, but she forced herself to pull away from Marun and her bright scent. She cleared her throat and wriggled from the grip that had never felt too tight.
“Thanks.” Izzy self-consciously wiped the tip of her nose even though she was pretty sure nothing was there. “I think I’m good now.”
Thank god the woman at the bus stop stopped screaming. She was on the phone now describing the incident to someone. The “Yes, girl, I can’t believe it” from her side of the call made clear it wasn’t the cops.
A teenage boy had his phone out, too, whirling around to film the mangled street sign, knots of frightened people, and the cars braked to a stop in the middle of the street.
“That guy must have been on drugs or something, he just jumped up on the curb out of nowhere,” a man nearby chimed in.
“Yeah, and they didn’t even stop when they almost killed that woman over there,” another voice said.
Izzy tucked her fear-cold fingers under her armpits and stared down the street in the direction of the long-gone SUV. She was “that woman.”
“You should come with me, love. You’re still shaking.” Marun made a soft, shushing noise, like she was comforting a baby or a frightened child.
Izzy bristled at the patronizing attitude. “I’m fine.”
Suddenly Izzy wanted nothing more than to be home in her cottage, in her bed, recovering from her all-night work, from the bank, from all this. Although she could barely spare the money, grabbing a Lyft was the only option. The thought of staying at the bus stop so close to the street after what just happened made her shiver.
Marun stepped closer and obliterated the space Izzy had put between them. Her eyes radiated a dark comfort. “Stop being stubborn. Let me drive you home.”
Izzy blamed her near-death by runaway SUV for what came out of her mouth next. “Okay, fine.”
Why did it suddenly feel like she’d agreed to much more than a car ride?
Chapter Five
Of course, Marun’s car was decadent and larger than life. Just like her. The cream-colored Bentley shut out the world with the firm closing of the driver side door. Inside, the car was an ocean of black and burgundy leather. It smelled new, and sweet like Marun’s perfume, blended with the crispness of air-conditioning. The two-toned steering wheel, also black and burgundy, was the perfect foil for Marun’s fine-boned hand. The engine started with a throaty purr and glided out of the bank’s parking lot.
“Should I bother telling you how to get to my house?”
Marun slid her a smile. “I already know the way.”
“Of course, you do.” The seat exhaled a scent of leather and luxe as Izzy settled back to enjoy the short ride that had taken her nearly an hour by bus.
“Even with what just happened, you look good, Isabella.”
She looked away from the slowly passing scenery only to be caught in Marun’s intense gaze.
“Shouldn’t you be keeping your eyes on the road?”
“My eyes are exactly where they need to be.” Marun flicked her gaze over Izzy, but then thankfully went back to the road ahead. “At any rate, I want to make sure you’re all right. Things were a bit intense back there. Dangerous.” Although her words were flip, a hard gold light, as bright as the sun, briefly flared through her eyes.
That gold was familiar, and a little scary. Marun had always been like that. Lightning flashing, bright and dangerous, in a bea
utiful vessel Izzy always felt honored to touch and to be touched by. Marun was more than she seemed. In their time together, she’d gotten used to that feeling. Had secretly loved it.
But three years had gone by.
She wasn’t a trusting and easily charmed child anymore.
She also was no longer a wife. Marun’s qualities were none of her business.
“That was just an accident,” she said, falling back into their conversation. “Things happen. The driver probably feels like shit about almost running us over. I’m just glad no one was hurt.”
“Not yet, anyway.” White teeth flashed but Marun didn’t look the least bit amused.
There was something else there. A secret hidden in the corners of Marun’s eyes. It had to do with the way she’d saved Izzy, somehow repelling the SUV before it crushed her. Resentment fizzled in her stomach, threatening an attack of the anxiety she normally only felt while at her parents’ house. Like she was exiled from something important. Something she needed. Izzy pushed it aside. Marun’s secrets weren’t her business, not anymore.
And her business certainly wasn’t any concern of her ex’s, especially if she had no intention of signing over the building.
Izzy turned to her in the luxurious confines of the car. “What were you doing at the bank this morning?”
“I came to see you, of course.” Marun rested her hand easily on the gearshift between them. “I didn’t like how we left things yesterday.”
Marun’s fingers moved restlessly under the sun and sent the diamonds in the narrow eternity band there on fire, dispersing a rainbow of light around them.
Izzy swallowed and forced herself to look away from the ring. “You mean how you broke into my house and disturbed my peace but still won’t sign the building over to me?”
“That’s not quite my interpretation of things,” Marun said softly. “But I am sorry I left you so hurt and upset. That wasn’t my intention.”
“You mean like the first time?”
Marun’s hand tightened on the steering wheel. “I didn’t want to leave you, Izzy.”
“Then why did you?”
Love, Blood, and Sanctuary Page 22