Passing through the doorway to her kitchen, Capri stepped close to her fridge and rested her forehead on it. A tear trickled down her cheek. She wiped it away and sniffed. "Yes, I miss you, Thall. Way more than I'm willing to admit."
She banged her forehead on the fridge door. "This is the second time I forced you away. Why? Why do I keep doing that?"
Squeezing her eyes shut, Capri tried to stem the torrent of tears. "I need you. I miss you so much. Why won't I let myself have you?" Her soul writhed as the agony of her loss flowed through her.
"Capri?" Kat's voice floated into the kitchen.
She sighed. "What?"
"You should come here."
Capri turned, leaned against the fridge and looked at the ceiling. "Now what?"
She grabbed a tissue from the box on the counter, wiped her eyes and blew her nose. After tossing it into the garbage can, she walked into the living room.
Kat stood near the door. "I heard a knock. I checked the peephole. Look." She pointed to the door.
Capri crossed the room, glanced at Kat then peered through the security hole. A single red rose floated in the air.
A rustle at her feet made her glance down. A small, folded piece of paper slid under the door. She picked it up and unfolded it.
"What's it say?" Kat leaned forward trying to read it.
"It says, 'Give me a chance'."
Chapter Eighteen
Thall stared at the light brown, metal barrier that stood between him and Capri. Would she open the door and let him in? Give him a chance to explain? Eternity would be a very long time, if he had to spend it without the one he loved.
He raised his fist to the door, but didn't knock. Knock again? Wait patiently? He chuckled. Ah, now I understand why humans say, "Let the Fates decide." Some decisions are just too—
The door swung open. Thall's heart jumped as his gaze met Capri's. "Hi. I wasn't sure you'd open the door. Xyno, my sister, said human women like flowers." He held out the rose. "So I brought you some."
Capri glanced at the single rose then lifted her gaze back up his and opened her mouth to speak. Thall held up his hand to stop her, placed the rose stem between his lips and turned to his right. He bent down and picked up two large bouquets. One vase was filled with tulips in a spectrum of pinks and red. The other was a dazzling display of lemon yellow and flaming orange chrysanthemums. He gripped the rose with his teeth. "Can I put these inside?"
She stepped back and allowed Thall to enter. He placed the vases on the floor just inside the condo, turned and stopped Capri from closing the door. Stepping outside he turned with another two equally spectacular flower arrangements, but this time the flowers ranged from peacock blue to deep purple. By the sixth, and final time, he delivered bouquets, Capri's apartment had the aroma of a spring meadow and was an enticing explosion of color.
He stood before Capri, placed his hand behind her head and as he gazed into her eyes, he pressed her face closer to his. The tension made his gut clench. She wasn't going to concede and let him have his way. But there was also willingness, masked with hesitancy. Relief calmed Thall's nerves, now that he was reassured there was no anger or hatred.
He tilted his head. As his lips met hers, he used the tip of his tongue to push the rose stem between her lips. He lingered a moment, reveling in the sensations and urges swirling through him. She stepped back and took the rose in her hand.
"I'll just get my…" Kat scurried around the coffee table, grabbed her purse, smiled at Capri and exited the apartment.
"I don't know what to say." Capri stared at the rose as she twirled it in her hand.
"That makes two of us. I don't have any snappy comeback or a preplanned speech. I just have a huge hole right here." He thumped his hand on his chest. "And somehow it causes me a lot of pain. And the cure is you."
Capri pointed to the couch. "Why don't you sit, and I'll get a vase for this." She turned and scurried into her kitchen.
Thall settled himself on the sofa and released a pent up sigh. Okay, so far so good. She didn't tell me to drop dead. And she didn't start throwing knives at me. There is hope.
As he waited, he glanced around her condo. The colors were a mix of ivory, cream and chocolate brown. They had a calming effect on his nerves. The wall to his left was cut stone with a large flat screen TV mounted on it. She'd placed two of his vases near the TV, the soft yellow lilies and luminous white orchids.
Between his couch and the opposite matching one, rested a low off-white granite coffee table. On it sat one empty wine bottle and two glasses, a TV remote and a large book titled, European Castles, Palaces and Manor Homes. He leaned forward, flipped the cover open and thumbed through several pages. Stopping, he slid his hand over the photograph of a medieval Spanish castle. Charles the Noble's place. I remember that one. It's miracle it was ever built. His architect left every decision up to us.
Thall turned a few more pages and paused. Ah, Versailles. Great place until that mob turned ugly. He moved his hand toward the book, lifted his gaze and stared in the direction of Capri's kitchen. Curious as to how long it took to find a vase, fill it with water and place a single rose in it, he rose and strode across the room.
He stepped into the kitchen and gasped. In his brief glance, he saw Capri seated at her kitchen table, the rose resting in a vase near her hand. But it was the pink glimmer to the left of Capri that captured his attention. "Xyno? What are you doing here?"
Capri turned to face him. "I was sitting here trying to decide what to do, and I thought, I have to make the decision myself. I can't leave it to the Fates. Can I? And…it…she appeared."
He stood closer to Capri and addressed the glimmer. "I ask again, what are you doing here? If she invokes us, she is in my domain."
"But it is because of you she called."
"She didn't call. She thought about it."
"Hello." Capri waved her hand. "She has a name. And why am I talking about myself in the third person?" She rubbed her nose. "Too much wine. And jet lag."
"May I?" The glimmer shimmied and transformed into a young woman. Her floor-length pink hair floated about her as if caught in a summer breeze. A robe flowed about her body, sparkling with a blue-green effervescence. Her eyes glowed as the colors changed from red to blue to orange.
"Oh, now that's not supposed to happen." Capri put her left hand on her forehead and her right on the back of her neck and squeezed her eyelids tight. "People aren't supposed to just appear in my kitchen. I'm a highly-paid business executive and a Capricorn. Logic. Ambition. Determination. Those are my lifelines. Not…not people who poof in and out of places."
Xyno twittered. "You are right. She is stubborn."
Capri dropped her hands and opened her eyes. She snapped her gaze at Thall. "You called me stubborn?"
He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Stubborner than the stubbornest mule I have ever met. Capri, this is my sister, Xyno." He jerked his thumb toward his sibling.
"Older, wiser sister, Xyno, would be a more accurate introduction." She floated over to a chair and settled above it.
"Older?" Capri raised an eyebrow. "How much older?"
"Eighteen thousand of your human years."
Capri blinked. "You look to be about twenty-two. Can I ask what kind of a moisturizer you use?"
Xyno floated away from the chair and moved about the kitchen, examining things as she spoke. "The dew from the backs of baby Bharal grazing in the pastures of Nepal."
"Is that true?"
Thall dropped onto a chair. "No. She has no flesh. She isn't real. Corporeal to us is to take human form, but not be human. Look." He passed his hand through her arm as she floated past. "You condemn me for not being human, when I have flesh and bone, and yet, you're talking make-up tips with her?"
Xyno's laughter filled the room. "Little baby brother is jealous."
"And just how old are you?" Capri yawned, rubbed her face and rested her elbows on the table. "Oh, I remember. You're older than the fuc
king pyramids."
"But," Thall held up his hands. "In chronological terms, I'm thirty-four."
"Oh, that's okay then. I wouldn't want to sleep with someone five thousand and…something years older than me."
Xyno moved closer to the table. "I am called. I must go. Remember what mother said, Thall." She melted back to a glimmer and faded.
"What did your mother say?"
He pushed back his chair, stood and offered his hand to help Capri stand. "It's not important at the moment. Come, let's sit on your sofa."
Capri grasped his hand and followed him. Settling down near him, she tucked her feet up beside her. "Your mother is always mentioned, but never your father. Do you…did you have one?"
Thall chuckled. "Although our biology is different, two need to mate to create life. And no, I do not have a father. He is dead. He died six hundred of your years ago."
She patted his thigh. "I'm sorry. I didn't know Fates could die?"
"He was human. Which is why I can assume both forms. I believe I am the only Fate who can transform into a human."
Capri yawned, blinked, shifted closer and rested her head on his shoulder. Thall wrapped his arm around her. She sighed. "Can I be nosy and ask how a Fate mates? I mean your parts are…they aren't solid like ours."
Thall tossed back his head and roared with laughter. "Fates don't have sexual desires. When it is desired to bring forth a new Fate, two will mate and create a new existence."
Capri nodded. "I get it. Like Vulcans."
"I think I'm afraid to ask."
"You know." Capri lifted her head and faced him. "Spock." She raised her right hand and spread her middle and ring fingers apart."
Thall pursed his lips and shook his head.
"But you told me your birthdate in star date numbers?"
"Thought that was Star Wars. Although I've never seen a star fight." He rubbed his forehead. "And I find this human culture stuff very confusing."
"Well, if you’re going to exist with me, you so have to get caught up on your Star Trek. Now." She wiggled down the couch and placed her head on his chest. "You never actually told me how Fates mate. I just like saying that, Fates mate." She giggled. "All the juicy little details. How tab A goes into part B?"
He snorted. "No tabs and parts. We mate with our minds."
"Oh, my God!" Capri sat up. "You're kidding. The perfection definition of a mindfuck."
"A what?"
Capri rolled her eyes. "When someone screws with you, they fuck with your mind."
Thall's gaze started on her bright smile and lowered to her tantalizing crotch. He licked his lips. "Your mind wasn't the part of you I wanted to fuck."
"Oh, you silly boy." She snuggled further down the couch and lay her head on his thigh. "You so have to learn to speak English."
Thall frowned. Thought I was? He rubbed his hand in small circles down her back. With each caress, he felt her back muscle relax a bit more. Contentment filled him with such joy, he wanted to shout it from the top of the world. He leaned his head back on the couch and closed his eyes.
"Thall?" Her voice was sleepy. "What's a Bharal?"
"It's a type of blue sheep that lives in the Himalayas."
"How do you now that?"
"Fates know everything. Ssh. Sleep." He continued the slow, steady massage.
"Except the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars."
Calmness filled him as he watched Capri snuggle against him, the anger and confusion gone.
"Thall?"
He bent closer to hear her. "Yes, Capri."
"Is it true what Xyno said?
"Well that would depend on what you’re talking about."
Capri rubbed her cheek on his thigh as she snuggled closer. "She said you asked your mother if you could be released from your immortality."
Tension flooded Thall. Realizing he'd increased the pressure on her back, he inhaled a deep breath and slowly released it. "Yes, I asked her."
"Oh." Capri yawned.
In a moment, the slow rhythmic pattern of her breathing told him she was asleep. He ran the back of his hand along her cheek. "I asked and she said no."
Damn.
Chapter Nineteen
Capri opened her eyes and moaned. She pushed herself up off the couch and tilted her head left then right, trying to relieve the kink in her neck. It might have been romantic to fall asleep on Thall's lap, but the stabbing pain whenever she moved her head suggested it wasn't a great idea.
She shifted and glanced at Thall. He was still asleep, his head at an odd angle against the back of the couch, Capri cringed at the crick he must have in his neck. She rubbed his leg. "Thall. Wake up."
"Hmm?"
She stood, yawned and twisted her body trying to relieve some of the aches. "I'm going to take a shower. Stretch out."
"Uh hmm." He sniffed and shifted, but didn't stretch out on the couch.
"It's your neck." She padded off to the bathroom.
As the steamy water sprayed down over Capri's body, she closed her eyes and let the heat relax the aching muscles in her neck. She remembered yesterday evening and sighed. What was she going to do about Thall? She was angry and ecstatic at his return. Part of her wanted to throw him out of the apartment, preferably off her thirty-eighth level balcony. The other side suggested she rip his clothes off and make wild jungle love to him. Obviously, neither side had won, forcing her to have to make a calm, rational, mature decision.
"And I suck at making decisions like that." She opened the bottle of shampoo, poured some into her hand and heaved another big sigh. "Shower. Dress. Go to work. You think better at work."
With a plan in mind, Capri finished showering, dressed, stuck a note for Thall on the refrigerator and left for the office.
She bolted out of her apartment entrance, whistled and waved. A taxi pulled alongside the curb. Capri entered, stated her destination and dug her chirping cell out of her purse. The message from Kat read, Am I disturbing anything?? Wink. Wink.
She keyed in her reply. Only my cab ride to work.
You didn't kick out that gorgeous hunk of maleness, did you?
No. Asleep on couch.
Couch?
While Capri pondered her answer to Kat's short, but pointed question, another message chimed. So what are you going to do? Did I mention he's hawt! OMG Hawt!
Capri chuckled. Going to work. Think better there. Will let you know as soon as I know anything.
She turned the volume to vibrate, stuffed her cell back into her purse, then stared out the window at the never-ending stream of traffic lights, people and office buildings. The cab slipped next to the curb in front of a very familiar business tower. Capri shook herself out of her reverie, paid the driver, scurried into the building and over to the executive elevators. While she waited for it to descend, she smiled at Gabino, the front lobby security officer.
"Looking fantastic today, Ms. Gray. I missed your morning smile while you were away."
"Such a sweet thing to say. How are your little ones?"
He shook his head. "The youngest is teething."
The elevator doors swooshed open. Capri stepped inside and pressed the button for the forty-eighth floor. "I so sorry to hear that. Have a great day."
"You, too, Ms. Gray."
The doors closed. Capri settled back against the back wall, listening to the music as the elevator ascended to her floor. A soft ding announced its arrival, and Capri stepped through the open doors, turned to the right and walked to her office.
Terrence, her assistant, greeted her with a smile. "Morning, Ms. Gray. Ooh, I love the way that skirt set works on you. Wait. What is this?" He waggled his finger at Capri. "Is that color on your cheeks? Did you get a tan?"
"I was on a business trip. Not a vacation. The tan is accidental."
Terrence grinned at Capri as she stepped into her inner office and closed the door. Settling into her chair, she clicked the power button and waited for her computer to boot.
Typing in her password, sexkitten2, Capri held her breath, waiting for her email to finish loading. The first email in the list was from Neil Felkins, president of the company and the subject line read URGENT.
Capri released her breath, blinked and clicked on the email. As she read it, she drew her eyebrows closer together. It was a corporate memo with the headline: Mineral rights contract secured with Indonesia Mining Corporation.
"But I never made it to the meeting?" Capri mumbled to herself. She pressed her left index finger on the wrinkles between her brows and eased them back to smooth. Pressing her call button, she waited for Terrence's reply.
"Yes, Ms. Gray?"
"Can you get me Mr. Felkins' assistant on the phone?"
"Certainly."
A moment later, a button lit on her phone. She clicked it. "Capricious Gray."
"Cynthia Hixson, Ms. Gray. How may I help you?"
"Can we talk?"
"He's on the golf course. Won't be back the rest of the day."
"So what's up with the mining contract?"
"All I know is, Adjie Massaid, the president of the company, arrived here yesterday to sign it. Felkins was so happy he gave me the afternoon off. "
Capri chuckled. "Yes, he is generous to a fault. Well, thanks for the info."
"Anytime."
I suspect the Fates are behind this, but I forgive them for interfering this time. With a lower blood pressure, Capri skimmed through her emails and stopped at the one marked, Massage 3 pm.
She raised her hand to buzz Terrence, when he knocked on the door and peeked around the corner. "Flower delivery." Pushing the door open, he led a massive vase of flowers into the room. The delivery person placed them on the corner of Capri's desk, nodded at her and exited.
Under stroking one of the white daisy blossoms, Capri muttered, "He's crazy."
Terrence popped his eyebrows up. "Who's crazy? There's a he? He who? Did you meet someone while you were accidently getting a tan?"
A tingle centered in her belly. "Possibly." She settled back into her chair. The message on her monitor caught her eye. "Terrence, I have a massage this afternoon?"
Capri's Fate Page 14