by Lynda Chance
She lifted it toward him. “Here,” she said, when he made no move to take it.
“Goddamnit, Natalie. I’m sick. Can you just act as if you give a shit for a minute?”
She rolled her eyes heavenward and carefully sat on the edge of his mattress, at an angle facing him, her feet dangling from the bed and only one foot finding purchase on the floor. She carefully folded the cloth into a rectangle and with a show of reluctance, put it to his brow.
He sighed in what sounded like ecstasy and his arm came around her legs to land on the side of her hip, holding her in place. A wave of reaction hit her, and she briefly considered what it would be like if he were hers, and hers alone. Would he lose the gruffness? Would he lose the attitude and the chip on his shoulder?
She watched his eyes slip closed on a sigh and eventually hers did the same, as she moved the cloth over his forehead in small gentle circles, trying to soothe not only him but herself as well.
They sat like that for several minutes, with him seemingly content against the pillows, obviously enjoying her ministrations.
The buzzer screamed loudly from the other room, interrupting the quiet moment. His eyes flew open and she jumped off the bed, taking the damp cloth with her, and went to the living room.
She pressed the button. “Yes?”
“Miss Wallace would like to come up, Miss. May I send her up?”
Natalie bit her lip in vexation. Dealing with Tanya right now wasn’t something she was eager to do. Did the other woman know Marco was home? “Yes, that’s fine.”
The elevators opened and Tanya walked into the penthouse with a flourish. “Where is my poor baby?”
Well, that answered Natalie’s question. “He’s in his bedroom.”
The other woman began walking down the hall that led to the bedrooms. “Which one?”
Didn’t she know? That came as a shock to Natalie. After all, she was here, all the time. “Second door on the left,” she answered.
Tanya pushed her way into Marco’s room and Natalie hung back at the bedroom door to see if she could make her escape. She didn’t really want to observe the other woman hovering over Marco.
When Marco opened his eyes, Natalie had a clear view of the emotion that glimmered from his eyes before he hooded them, shutting all expression out. His gaze landed on the other woman first, irritation, pure and simple glistening from his brown eyes before they skated past her and focused on Natalie.
Natalie lost her breath with a whoosh at what she saw there—only briefly, before he closed down his expression. With a feeling of dismay, she realized at once that he wasn’t happy to see Tanya.
He wanted her with him—Natalie, not Tanya. And the look he’d given Tanya almost made her feel sorry for the other woman; in fact, it did make her feel sorry for her.
“Marco, poor baby.”
Natalie put her back against the door and watched Tanya plop her ass on the mattress beside Marco. She hadn’t noticed the first time she’d met her that her ass was a tad big. It was big, wasn’t it?
“I’m here to take care of you now. It’s so lucky I tried you at your office! Joy told me you’re sick!”
Marco crossed his arms over his chest. “I need rest, Tanya, not company.”
“I’m not company, silly.” She ran her blood red nails through his hair and Natalie felt as if she were getting ill herself.
She held the oxygen in her lungs as she walked over to the bed on stiff legs and handed the cloth to Tanya. “He likes the cool compress on his forehead.” Was that evil of her, considering the look she’d spied on his face earlier?
Tanya took the cloth and laid it against Marco’s forehead. “Like this?”
“Yes,” Natalie whispered softly, a slightly ugly emotion clouding her throat as she watched Tanya touching Marco. Natalie looked from Marco’s hair, where Tanya’s fingers were running through it, and dropped to his eyes. The sudden, unexpected impact of seeing him watching her in return almost knocked the breath from her.
His eyes were focused on her exclusively, expressive and possessive, as if he were only biding him time, and her heart began beating wildly. She began turning away, but Marco’s hand reached out and wrapped around her wrist, detaining her. She stalled in her tracks and turned around to face him again, aware that Tanya watched with a dangerous glint in her eye.
“Bring me a glass of water and a—heating pad,” he ordered her quietly.
She jerked herself back to awareness and tried to concentrate on what he was asking of her. “A heating pad? With a fever?”
His eyes narrowed on her and he said slowly and firmly, “I want a heating pad.”
“All right. Where is it?”
“Try the hall closet, the one with the pillows. That’s where it will be if we have one.” Natalie stood in bemusement, hearing the word, ‘we,’ as if it were her home as well, and felt his thumb rubbing circles repeatedly on the inside of her wrist while he placed his request.
And all the while Tanya sat on the edge of his bed, looking between them as if she were about to scratch Natalie’s eyes out.
“Okay.” She pulled ever so slightly on her arm in an attempt to get him to release her, and after another long look, he dropped her wrist.
Natalie left the room and first went to get him a glass of water. She put it on his bedside table, not lingering to look between the couple or hear the low, heated exchange they were having.
After a thorough search of both closets, Natalie came up empty-handed.
She poked her head back in the room. “I can’t find a heating pad. Is another blanket okay?”
“No, I have to have a heating pad.” He looked at Tanya. “You don’t mind running to the pharmacy and getting one for me, do you?” As he spoke, he leaned over and picked up his wallet from the bedside table and pulled out a large denomination bill. He handed it to Tanya and used a word Natalie hadn’t known was in his vocabulary. “Please?”
Tanya grabbed the hundred-dollar bill with unconcealed greed. “Of course, darling. I’ll be back in half an hour.” She leaned over and kissed him on the lips, her hands going to his shoulders. Bile rose in Natalie’s throat as she watched the exchange, but Marco didn’t return the embrace, and it was over almost as quickly as it had started.
Tanya breezed past her as if she didn’t exist. Natalie stood immobile in the doorway until the faint sound of the elevator doors closing compelled her to look over at Marco. He watched her carefully as he lifted his cell phone and pressed a digit and put the phone to his ear. “Miss Wallace is on her way out of the building. She’ll be back soon. Don’t let her come up. Take her purchases—but do not let her come back up here.” Natalie felt a quiver of awareness as Marco’s eyes issued the instructions and waited for affirmation, studying her the whole time. He ended the call and dropped the phone again.
“Where were we?”
Natalie cleared her throat softly. There wasn’t a chance in hell she was going back over there after that exchange. “You were going to get some sleep. And I’m going to give you some privacy. I’ll check on you later.”
She didn’t wait for his response as she turned and slipped away.
****
Later that night, Marco sat at his desk in his study with a glass of bourbon within easy reach. His headache was gone; he’d never really had a fever. Tanya’s box finally lay opened and discarded. Inside had been a stack of twenty glossy pictures of her, scantily dressed and posing for a lover’s enjoyment.
Had he cared about her at all, he might have found them alluring, and if not that, then at least amusing.
He found them neither alluring nor amusing.
He tossed them in the trashcan beside his desk.
It was time for him to get rid of her. She didn’t appeal to him anymore, he’d lost all interest in her body, and all that she was capable of anymore was annoying him.
She stood in the way of what he really wanted, and he couldn’t let the situation continue.
Yea
h, he needed to get rid of her and he needed to do it tomorrow. There was absolutely no sense putting it off any longer.
And suddenly, even tomorrow seemed too long to wait.
He’d do it tonight.
He’d been drinking, steadily making his way through the bottle of bourbon since his little housekeeper had fled from him as if the fires of hell were chasing her.
He shouldn’t drive. But he wanted to get the damn thing over with.
He picked up the phone and arranged for a car.
****
Natalie walked into living room the next morning and knew something wasn’t as it should be. The laptop Marco carried back and forth to work sat on the coffee table, and it was open. The screen was black. Was he really sick? Yesterday, she hadn’t fully believed it.
She heard a noise from the back of the penthouse, and slowly turned to investigate.
His bedroom door was shut, and she hadn’t noticed that earlier. She heard something drop and then a deep curse.
She should knock. She really should knock on his door and make sure he was okay.
There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell. She turned and fled to the safety of the kitchen.
****
Twenty minutes later, she was taking a stab at normality by sipping a cup of coffee and making a grocery list when Marco walked into the room. His eyes were bloodshot and there was the beginning of a bruise on his right cheekbone. Her eyes flared at the sight. She sat the pen down and swiveled the barstool away from the island where she sat and focused her attention on him.
“Coffee.” The one word demand was deep and rough and resonated with animalistic pain.
She stood up warily and poured him a cup of black coffee, the way she knew he wanted it. Moving back toward him, she set it on the island, within his reach.
She went back to her seat, and picked up her pen to camouflage the inappropriate emotions churning in her stomach. But she couldn’t focus on the grocery list, knew she wouldn’t be able to focus, and was sharply aware of him reaching for the barstool across from her and sitting down on it.
The room seemed to shrink in direct proportion to the nearness of his large body.
He picked up the cup and took several sips without looking anywhere but into his cup.
Finally, her curiosity got the better of her and she couldn’t stand it any longer. “What happened to you?” she questioned softly.
Flinching, he looked in her direction through eyes that were squinted. “You don’t need to worry about Tanya any more. She won’t be coming here again.”
Incredulity spread through Natalie. “I wasn’t—worried.” She licked her lips and butterflies went wild under her breastbone as she wondered, what exactly, this meant.
“It’s a moot point. She’s out of my life.”
“I’m sorry.” She felt completely helpless; she had no idea what to say to him. She was dimly aware she shouldn’t be feeling a bubble of euphoria bouncing around in her head. She swallowed and focused on the situation at hand. “What happened to your face?”
He reached up and felt the mark and grimaced in annoyance. “Tanya happened.”
Shock hit Natalie between the eyes. “She hit you?”
“Yeah.”
“Did—did—”
He narrowed his eyes on her and gave her a disparaging stare. “Did I hit her back? No.”
“I’m sorry—I didn’t mean—”
“No? Sounded like it.” The statement was filled with accusation.
“I’m sorry.” Natalie knew she must sound like a broken record, but nothing in her limited experience with him gave her a clue how to act.
“I need aspirin,” he groaned as his forehead fell into his hands.
“You need ibuprofen for the swelling,” she said softly, standing to get it.
“Aspirin.”
She went to the drawer where an assortment of over the counter medications were kept and threw over her shoulder, “Ibuprofen.”
“Natalie!” he shouted, his voice filled with retribution.
She spun around to face him, her hand landing on her throat.
“Don’t argue with me. I’ve got a goddamn hangover and I want aspirin, now!” His voice was a thundering snarl, filled with menacing threat.
She stood in shock at his tone, and felt her face drain of all color. Her eyes filled with tears of hurt and repressed anger and she turned back to the drawer to get him what he demanded. She found a bottle of aspirin and popped the lid open with mounting rage.
She stood three feet away from him, and turned back to face him, uncontrollable tears that managed to piss her off even more, making wet paths down her cheeks. She watched him as he looked at her over his coffee cup, no doubt taking in the tears. A black frown came down heavily over his features, as if everything were her fault.
It was too much for her to take.
She threw the open bottle at him with a sweep of her hand and white pills spilled all over the island and all over him. “There’s your aspirin, asshole.”
Turning away from him and the mess she’d just made, she exited the room without delay, not nearly brave enough to hang around and see how he reacted.
His answering snarl of fury as his chair grated across the floor followed her from the room. Cold, dark panic slammed through her and she knew he was about to chase her across the penthouse.
She didn’t stop to think. She just ran. She ran down the hall toward her bedroom, ran inside and slammed the door and locked it as quickly as she could.
He began banging on her door immediately. The vibration of what sounded like his fist hitting the wood above her head where she leaned sent her skittering back and away from the door in silent disbelief. Her heart raced and she froze, staring at the door, rooted to the spot.
“Open the door!” he yelled.
She remained mute and her feet stayed in place while with one hand, she reached out to the poster of the bed to steady herself.
“Open the goddamn door, Natalie.”
She licked her lips and took a deep breath, preparing her voice to be strong. “No way.”
“You’ve got thirty seconds to think about it. I’m going to go take the fucking aspirin and come back with the key to this door. Trust me when I tell you things will be better for you if you unlock it yourself.”
Natalie heard him move away from the door and her mind raced while very real horror began to set in. What the hell had she done? What the hell should she do now?
She wasn’t unlocking the door, she knew that much. But whatever she did, she needed to decide in the next few seconds.
She needed to be calm. She needed to be in control and unafraid, or at least appear to be. After all—a wild animal was more prone to attack if it scented fear. She moved to sit in the middle of the bed and picked up the magazine she’d been planning to read later, as if she didn’t have a care in the world. And suddenly it hit her that the last place she wanted to be cornered was on the bed. Or even in a bedroom.
She flew to the door and unlocked it, preparing to leave the room for the relative safety of the living room.
Marco stood in the entrance of her bedroom, and the forward motion of her body propelled her torso within inches of clashing with his. She came to a skidding halt. Had he been standing there the whole time? Both fear and anger dominated her emotions. “You tricked me. You don’t have a key.” She began to push past him.
“Asshole? You called me asshole?” he hissed, as a vein on the side of his neck twitched, hostility seething from his body as he blocked her attempt to move past him.
Chapter Five
A chill hung in the air at his words and Natalie’s features hardened in response, both from his anger and from the fear trickling through her veins that she was determined to control. “You lied to me. There’s no key.”
She moved to brush past him again and he continued to block her retreat with his body. “I have a key.” His voice was dangerously contemptuous as he lifted the
key in front of her face and then quickly pocketed it before his hands fell to her shoulders, holding her firmly in place.
“It’s not really my room if you have a key to it,” she snapped, attempting to move back from his touch, but his fingers bit into her shoulders harder, holding her in place.
“It’s not your room. It’s where I allow you to sleep.” His voice was an angry sneer, the words gritted through bared teeth.
“Let me go,” she said shakily, attempting to move away from him.
“Be still,” he hissed. There was a threat in his voice and it effectively stilled her movements, but she glared at him before her eyes dropped away from his.
“Don’t threaten me,” she said in an angry whisper. “I swear—I’ll call 911.” She felt his touch stiffen on her shoulders and then he lifted one hand from her and slowly put it in his pocket.
“You’ll need your phone for that.” His words carried a hint of sarcasm as he pulled her phone from his pocket where he must have picked it up after she left it in the kitchen. He tossed it a few feet and it landed on her bed.
His hand moved back to her shoulder and Natalie went completely silent as she shut her eyes.
They stood like that for a few seconds, and she tried her best not to tremble, but it was impossible. He was too close, his skin was too warm, and she knew he could feel the shaky movements of her body.
He placed a single finger under her chin and lifted her face to his. Her eyes remained mutinously closed. “Open your eyes,” he demanded.
It was only a small measure of defiance, but Natalie waited a few seconds before she slowly lifted her lids and found him staring down at her, way too close for her comfort. His eyes, although bloodshot, were a deep, chocolate brown, and as they bore into hers, it was with an effort that Natalie kept her gaze on him.
“I don’t need the kind of shit you just pulled.” His finger and thumb bit into her chin. “There are a couple of things you need to learn about me, and quickly. I don’t respond well to threats or temper tantrums. Tears don’t affect me—ever.” His eyes searched hers and then he finished through gritted teeth, “I never apologize.”