“You’re a fool to give anything to a monster,” I said tightly.
“You are not a monster,” she retorted. “You choose your torments from your own experience, but the way you grant them reveals your true nature. You beat me, but you don’t injure me. You burn me, but with candle wax that cools quickly. You use a knife to shave me, not cut me, and you do so with great care. You teach me of pleasure. You’re the only one of royal blood who thinks of anyone beyond himself! How does that make you a monster?”
I was shocked, thrilled and determined to put an end to any romantic notions she might hold. She was my Mark. She was mine to take and mine to abandon at Beltane. I would be compelled to choose a husband for her from the village, and already guessed it would be her rustic companion. I would be obliged to watch her in my kingdom, wed to him, bearing his children, unavailable to me after she was dispatched from the palace.
Already, I disliked this and dreaded the spring day when she would leave.
It would be better if she had no tender feelings for me. There was an irony in the fact that she of all people should have any affection for me, but it must be destroyed. She must be happy with her peasant husband, not yearning for what neither of us could have.
My yearning would suffice for both of us.
“You think better of me than I deserve.” I spoke with an indifference that cost me dearly.
She caught her breath and glared at me. “You think worse of yourself than you deserve,” she snapped, her eyes afire and her chin high. I couldn’t turn away from the sight of her.
We stared at each other for a long moment, one that made my heart sing.
* * *
Amy spent Memorial Day writing.
She tried to call Matteo repeatedly, but there was no answer and no voice mail available. She paced, reading through her story, knowing she needed a climactic scene, one that proved Argenta’s trust of Lothair.
Matteo said he had been betrayed by a man he trusted, and that he had trusted because they’d shared a woman. A ménage scene could be hot. Amy heated up some leftover lasagna as she planned the scene. But who would Lothair trust in the first place? He was bitter and scarred.
It would have to be someone he knew from before he’d been wounded.
His brother!
Amy fell upon the pad of paper just as her phone rang. She snatched up the phone, scribbling madly, and didn’t check the number.
“Amy!” Brittany whined. “You have to fix it!”
“Fix what?” Amy assumed her cousin meant the menu, but they hadn’t talked in two days and it was always possible that her cousin had created more work for her.
“The menu for the wedding. You can’t just let someone die.”
“I wasn’t letting anyone die. You messed it up. You fix it.”
Brittany began to cry. “I trusted you! I wanted to have the most beautiful wedding and now it’s all ruined and you won’t fix it and someone’s going to die…”
This could go on all night, and Amy was losing the thread of her story. “Fine,” she said curtly. “I’ll go tomorrow night, on the condition that you don’t talk to anyone involved in hosting the wedding before the end of the reception.”
“That’s harsh, Amy.”
Amy straightened. “That’s the only deal I’m offering.”
Brittany sniffled a little. “Okaaaaaaaay,” she began, but Amy refused to listen to any more.
“Great. I’ll let you know when the damage is repaired. Warn your mom that there might be some extra charges, and please point out to her that they’re because of you.”
“What?” Brittany began to protest, but Amy ended the call.
She called Matteo, partly because she wanted to talk to him and partly because she wanted her phone to be busy.
He still didn’t answer.
Where was he and what was he doing?
* * *
It was bleak to have lunch alone again. Even the first day, Amy missed Ty’s company with a vengeance. She found herself looking for him even though she knew he wasn’t going to appear.
And calling Matteo.
Fruitlessly.
She even called F5 about him, but the person who answered the phone had no idea who he was.
That didn’t bode well.
The only bonus on Tuesday was that Amy finished the book on her lunch. At least, she finished the first draft. She couldn’t think of another thing to add, though she thought that might change, so she copied it after work and dropped the copy into Jade’s outstretched hands.
After work, she decided to go to F5 and ferret out the truth.
To her relief, the main instructor from the class she’d taken was chatting to a woman with a blond ponytail at the front desk. He’d introduced himself as Kyle. Was this the same Kyle who’d suggested to Ty that he keep Giselle and get rid of his chest hair? Amy wondered but knew she couldn’t ask.
She marched right to Kyle, and he spared her a glance. “Can I help you?”
“I took a class that you taught,” Amy said and his eyes lit in recollection. “And there was another guy helping you.”
“Ivan?”
“No, Matteo.”
Kyle’s expression immediately became guarded. The woman stepped away.
“I just need to see him.”
“That’s not going to be possible,” Kyle said.
“I know it’s against the agreement to meet socially between paid sessions, but I’ll pay for a session. I really need to see him.”
Kyle’s eyes narrowed. “But he doesn’t work here anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean he quit.” Kyle shrugged. “Actually, he quit because we were going to fire him.”
“Can you give me his address or phone number?”
Kyle folded his arms across his chest. “You know that’s a breach of confidentiality. I can’t release any private information.”
“But how will I find him?”
“Maybe you don’t want to find him,” Kyle said gently. “Maybe he’s not who you think he is.”
“I know he’s been to prison.”
Kyle’s eyes widened. “Well, that was a surprise to us. He lied on his application, and we can’t have that here at F5.”
“I found the meaning of his tattoos on Wikipedia,” Amy said. “Don’t you check these things out?”
Kyle looked a little uneasy. “In this case, it slipped through the cracks.”
“So you offered him the choice of being fired or of quitting?”
“We’re not completely heartless.” Kyle considered her. “Are you sure that no one else here can help you out?”
Amy thought for a minute about Ty being a silent partner. He could probably find out more about Matteo, but she wasn’t going to ask him that. “No, thanks. I’ll find him somehow.”
“Good luck,” Kyle said, as if she didn’t have a chance.
Then she went to New Jersey, trying not to guess Jade’s reaction or think too much about Matteo.
Amy had phoned first thing to make an appointment and the catering manager practically fell upon her in relief. She’d tried to undo Brittany’s changes after talking to Amy in the morning, but they’d missed ordering deadlines for several food items. They made a few substitutions and reviewed the arrangements for the room and the schedule, and Amy knew she wasn’t the only one who was reassured by the time she left.
She was riding the train home alone at nine, thinking that Ty wouldn’t approve, when her phone rang.
It was Ty.
As if he could read her thoughts.
Amy’s heart did that little skip and she smiled as she answered the phone. “How’s Japan?”
“Crowded,” he said and she closed her eyes, savoring the sound of his voice. “Fascinating. How’s your week?”
“Busy. No rest for the wicked and all that.”
He chuckled and that made her feel warm all over.
“We’re going to lose the connection in a minut
e,” she warned him. “The train’s going into the tunnel.”
“Train?” Ty echoed, his outrage clear. “Tunnel? Are you in New Jersey?”
“Not for much longer,” Amy had time to say before the train went into the tunnel and Ty was gone.
She stared at the phone, pretty sure he’d call back. He was probably calculating her route and the time it would take her to change from the train to the subway at Penn Station. If he didn’t have the schedule memorized, he’d look it up. And while she did find his indignation unnecessary, it was also kind of nice to have someone concerned about her.
Her phone rang again when she was fifty feet from her front door.
“Not dead yet,” Amy said when she answered and heard him exhale. The connection was better than before, with no satellite delay and she wondered whether Ty had used the time to find a land line. “What took you so long?” she teased and smiled when he growled a little.
“Never mind that. Why were you in New Jersey?” he demanded.
“Because my cousin saw fit to change all the arrangements on Saturday and told me that night when everyone at the facility who could have fixed it was gone for the weekend.”
“You could have left it alone,” Ty said grimly.
Amy had anticipated that argument. “I could have, but I like to finish what I start. She messed up the menus, Ty, and there are a lot of guests with allergies and dietary restrictions. It would have been unpleasant.”
“I thought I was the one who was nice.”
Amy laughed. “Maybe it’s a bigger club than you realized.”
He made a disapproving sound, but she guessed that he was in a better mood. “You’re home now?”
“Door locked behind me, no stalkers hiding in the closet, and Fitzwilliam complaining that dinner is late. Listen.” The cat yowled right on cue. “See?” Amy chucked her coat and shoes without moving the phone from her ear.
“They’re taking advantage of you.”
“Of course, they are. I knew that from the start. I expected it.”
“You did?”
“Nice doesn’t necessarily equal dumb, Ty,” Amy said as she opened the fridge. Leftover lasagna it would be.
“Not necessarily,” he echoed, then laughed a little. “That’s good to know.”
“I knew when Aunt Natalie called that first time,” Amy admitted. “It was like an undeclared price of admission. I was lonely enough to take the deal, just to have some family again.”
“And if you’d known then what you know now…”
“I probably would have negotiated harder.”
“Good,” he said and the single word filled her with a warm glow. “How’s the book?”
“I gave it to Jade tonight.”
“Are you happy with it?”
“It probably needs some changes. Of course, now I’ve thought of a hundred things to tweak.”
“She’ll love it. I’m sure you did a great job.”
“You have no idea whether I can write or not!”
“Doesn’t matter. I believe in you, and that means I think you can do anything.”
Amy didn’t know what to say to that. She felt shy and tongue-tied once again, uncertain how to go forward. If this had morphed into more, how did her phone calls with Matteo fit into it all?
“Don’t tell me that you’re eating some of that fabulous pasta for dinner.”
“Why not?”
“I’ll curl up and die of envy.”
Amy laughed. “Guilty as charged. You?”
“Fish,” Ty replied and she guessed his opinion of that. “Noodles and rice.”
Amy smiled. “I’ll save you some lasagna. I’ll put it in the freezer tonight.”
“Temptress.”
“Hardly.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Amy,” Ty purred and Amy’s mouth went dry.
She sat down at the table and decided to be direct. “Are we still having a fake date? Or one with benefits?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” he said smoothly, as if he had been waiting for the question. “How about we talk about it in person, this weekend?”
“Sounds good,” Amy said, trying to keep her tone light. If Ty wanted to be intimate again, she knew what she’d say. She had a feeling, though, that Ty had more in mind than that.
If he wanted to get serious about their relationship, that would change everything. Amy knew what she should say, and she knew what she wanted to say, but those forbidden fantasies weren’t going to be so easily dismissed.
And she knew what Ty would say about them.
Complicated.
After he ended the call, she stared at the phone. Would she be happy with simple and vanilla for the duration? Amy wasn’t sure.
She called Matteo’s number again, with no more luck than the other times.
* * *
Amy’s phone rang Thursday evening, just as she was sitting down to write. She’d bought herself a new laptop on the line of credit because there was enough money left over after setting aside the money for the roof. She’d already typed in all of Lothair and Argenta’s story and was considering whether to start her revisions.
Or should she wait to talk to Jade the next day?
There had been a note slipped under her door from Lisa when Amy got home from work, telling her that she and Mrs. P. were moving out. Amy went upstairs and heard the news about Lisa’s brother and his wife in Orlando expecting a baby, and the plan to move closer. She was pleased for her tenants, but a little worried about finding another tenant. Red’s financing plan wouldn’t work out if she didn’t have that rent money coming in. Lisa thought a co-worker might be interested in the apartment, so Amy was hoping for the best.
She was trying to not worry about it.
The phone rang before she decided whether to revise or not, and she smiled to see that it was Ty.
“Hi,” she said, more than ready to hear his voice. “Aren’t you on the other side of the world?”
“And stuck here,” he admitted, sounding rueful. “Unless you’d care to use your super-powers for good.”
“What happened?”
“The airline has one flight a day from Tokyo to New York. Yesterday’s had a mechanical issue and is waiting for parts. So does the plane that just arrived. They don’t know when they’re going to get passengers on their way.” Ty’s tone revealed more than a twinge of irritation. “I’ve tried every counter and every phone number, but every seat is booked out until Sunday. You said you had super-powers when Mr. Forsythe had his flights canceled so I’m throwing myself at your mercy.”
“I like the sound of that,” Amy said before she thought about it.
There was a pause, during which she started to blush.
“Do you?” Ty murmured, his voice almost gravelly.
Amy caught her breath. “Don’t go away.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he replied, sounding tired and frustrated again. “Help me get home, Amy, please. I’ll make it worth your while.”
Amy smiled. “I’ll need your itinerary and your credit card number.
“Yours,” Ty said.
Amy took notes even as she called her friend Sandra on the land line. They’d gone to high school together and Sandra had trained to be a travel agent. She’d coordinated business trips for the executives at a Fortune 500 company, then built a travel agent business at home when she had her twin sons. Her specialty was getting business travelers where they needed to be, especially when things went wrong.
“Where is he?” Sandra asked immediately. Amy heard the chime of her laptop booting up.
Amy played intermediary, filling Sandra in on the details. She could hear the hum of the busy airport on Ty’s end of the line, and typing from Sandra.
“Oh yeah,” Sandra said. “That’s one ugly mess.”
Amy’s heart sank. “They told him Sunday.”
“Optimistically. There’s a storm forecast for tomorrow.” Sandra typed. “Everything is booked. It’
s crazy.”
“Sandra said there’s going to be a storm there,” Amy told Ty. “And that the flights are full.”
“The airport is full,” he agreed. “I’ve never seen so many people in my life. Tourists and luggage everywhere!”
Tourists. Amy opened her browser and began to search on tourism from Japan.
“Every US-destined flight is booked,” Sandra said. “The airline must have grabbed as many seats as they could from the other airlines to get as many their passengers on their way as possible.”
“That’s what they said,” Ty agreed when Amy shared that. “I just don’t have enough miles to have been one of the lucky ones.”
“You might have to get comfortable,” Sandra said and Ty groaned when he heard that bit of news.
“There has to be a way,” he said, just as the results of Amy’s search filled her screen.
“Tourists,” she said, scrolling then clicking on one. “Did you check charters, Sandra? Because I’m looking at a ton of last minute deals on charter flights from Tokyo to Honolulu. This one goes later today.”
There was a moment of silence on both phones.
“Brilliant,” Ty breathed.
“Honolulu,” Sandra said, even as she started to type at manic speed again. “Once there, it’s easy-peasy to Los Angeles, then on to Newark. Lots of choices, without even going to Las Vegas.”
“There is a god and she loves me,” Ty said.
“We can do this. It won’t be pretty, and it won’t be business class…”
“Just find me a seat,” Ty muttered. “I’ll sit in the john if I have to.”
“That’s against FDA regulations,” Sandra said when Amy repeated his comment. “But tell him to move it. He’s going to have to pay to check his bag on this one, and he needs to get to this counter in forty minutes. Give me his credit card number, but he’ll have to verify it at the counter with the actual card.”
“Forty minutes should be do-able,” Amy said and told Ty where he had to go.
“I’m on my way,” Ty said.
“Do you know how big that airport is?” Sandra said. “Tell him I’ve got an alternative routing departing two hours later if he misses this one.”
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