Bianca had the distinct impression she was being dared not to have it.
“Certainly.” She seated the customer in the viewing room, offered tea and was refused. As she turned to bring the requested piece, the woman raised a finger and cleared her throat. Feeling summoned, Bianca turned back to find the woman looking at her with appraising eyes.
“I’m not really here for the jade.” The tip of the woman’s tongue traced her carefully lined lips and her eyes chilled significantly. “My name isn’t ‘Ella Gray’. It’s Karen Dodge.”
The name meant nothing to her, but curious, Bianca faced the woman and took a step closer. “What are you here for?”
“You.”
“Me?” Bianca took a step backward.
“Yes.” Karen crossed her legs and looked at Bianca with rare patience. “I wanted to see for myself what you were. And truthfully, anybody who looks like you is only meant for sin and trouble.”
Bianca’s mouth dropped, the impossibilities nearly gagging her. If anybody looked like Satan in a Sunday hat and ready for sin, it was this woman who had walked in with a fake name and ulterior motives. “Who sent you here? Was it Kelvin?”
“What’s a Kelvin, and what would it have to do with me?”
“Not Kelvin?” Bianca heard herself stutter and was mortified when she realized the woman had also heard. She felt the wide eyes on her when the woman tagged her as prey. “Who are you?”
Karen’s smile was nasty, ready for the kill. She pushed the catalogue into the center of the display table with her fingertips and sighed softly. “I’m the woman you’ve been keeping that spot warm for…you know, the one in Harry Jordan’s bed.”
Bianca froze and found she couldn’t close her mouth. “This is about Harry?” An ex?
“Do I really have to explain it to you?”
Oh, Lord, Bianca thought, payback really is a bitch, and she showed up today wearing Dolce and Gabbana. Staring at the woman, the pieces began to fall into place. So this is what Harry’s past looks like. Creeping in here like an alley cat—high maintenance, low morals.
Karen summoned an almost preternatural grace and rose from her seat. She smiled like a porn star as she walked closer, gauging Bianca’s every breath. “You know what a zero is? It’s a place holder.”
Bianca’s mouth closed and tightened.
In front of her prey, Karen shrugged blissfully. “That would be you, a zero.”
“That’s not true.” Bianca couldn’t stop herself. She’d had this conversation before, been on the other side of it with other women, and she knew how this ugly little game played out. She also knew Harry Jordan. “That’s not true. If you were with Harry, there would be no room for me. You may have had him once, but no more, and that’s why you’re here, isn’t it? You think Harry and I have a future.”
A bit of fear crossed Karen’s face when she saw wild darkness come over Bianca. Karen tried to summon her own dark spirit, and when it failed to rise to the occasion, she tried to fake it. “You should just walk away. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even give him back to you when I’m through.”
Bianca took a step closer, her face inches away from Karen’s. “You are obviously used to people doing what you tell them to do, but you’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy. I don’t like you.”
A trace of fear slithered through Karen and her resolve wavered. Knowing she was in deeper than she’d ever gone for anything she wanted, including a man, she faked another attack. “For some reason, you don’t think that I will take what belongs to me.”
“You’re still standing here talking.” Using her finger like a sword, Bianca feinted and jabbed it at the other woman. “Do not, for even a second, think that I care what you want. You’re used to polite people, but I’m not one of them. Do not, for a second, think that I am too polite to call you what you are and mean it.”
She stepped forward and only stopped because one more step would have had her standing behind Karen. Close enough to smell fear on the other woman’s skin, her forefinger tapped Karen’s chest. “You may have money, but you have no class. You’re a nasty little sniping harpy trying to hang on to a man who doesn’t want you, but that’s your problem, not mine. I know what Harry is, too, and he deserves better than you.”
“Of all the nerve…”
“Oh, no, my sister. You have not yet seen how much nerve I have.”
Karen looked into the swirl of emotion coloring the darkened eyes and felt her blood run cold. This woman is serious. She might really hurt me…She shifted her purse from hand to hand. Not even Harry is worth this.
“Okay,” Karen said, shuffling backward. “Maybe I made a mistake…”
“You think?” Bianca deliberately pushed her shoulder into the other woman.
“I should apologize…”
“You should go.”
Karen’s pursed lips and wide eyes were a prelude to her back-stepping flight from the showroom. Standing with her hands clenched into fists, Bianca watched her go. Chasing her wasn’t worth the effort.
Joi crossed the showroom, watching the doors close behind Karen. She looked at Bianca and then let her hands fall on Bianca’s arms and rubbed. “What just happened here? You’re ice cold and shaking like a leaf, and whatever you said or did to that woman had her moonwalking out of here. Bianca?”
“Nothing.” If she’d had the strength, Bianca would have shaken off Joi’s conciliatory hands. If she’d had the strength, she would have walked away from Joi and carried on as though nothing had happened, but she was on ‘E’.
“I don’t know what just happened here, but I know shock when I see it,” Joi murmured, sliding her arm around Bianca. Still murmuring, she led her across the floor and into Akemi’s office. Pushing the door closed behind them, she watched Bianca drop into a chair.
Being a long-time Kin Kura employee had its perks, and one of them was knowing where Akemi kept the alcohol. She moved to the wall and opened the panel secreting his private bar and poured a tumbler of dark liquid. Returning to Bianca’s side, she offered it and was relieved when Bianca took it from her hand and sipped.
When Bianca swallowed and nearly choked, she grabbed the handful of tissues Joi offered and frowned up at Joi. “Are you trying to kill me? What the heck is this stuff?”
“Sherry.” Joi offered another handful of tissue.
“Sherry? You know you don’t give black women sherry!”
“Why not? I thought you were in shock and that it might help.”
“I was pissed, not having a case of the vapors.” Bianca dabbed at her lips with the tissue.
“See if I try to help you next time.”
“Water. Next time, just water.” Bianca pressed the tissue to her lips again.
Joi sat on the edge of Akemi’s desk and crossed her arms. “What happened out there?”
Twisting the tissue in her fingers didn’t help, and no matter how much Bianca wished Joi would go away, it wasn’t going to happen. Taking a deep breath, Bianca set the glass on the desk and gave her the only explanation she could. “I just met my evil twin from another life.”
“Your evil…What?”
“Just…Never mind.” The vibration of the phone in her pocket was a welcome interruption. She looked at the caller’s name and under Joi’s curious gaze, didn’t know whether to laugh or stomp the phone into dust. “Hi, Julia.”
“Call me if you need me,” Joi whispered, drifting from the office.
Bianca waited for the door to close behind her. “Julia?”
“I met a man,” Julia blurted. “Actually, I didn’t just meet him. I sold him a house four years ago. He was married then, but now he’s divorced and on his own. He wants something smaller, so he came back to me.”
“How long ago did this start, and why are you just now telling me?” Bianca closed her eyes and held the phone in both hands, glad that they were no longer trembling. Her sister was calming her. I tell her that and she’ll never let me forget it.
“Six
weeks ago, and I am telling you now. It’s not like we’re planning a wedding or eloping or anything.”
“But if you were, you would tell me, right?”
“I would tell you,” Julia sighed. “How are things with you and Harry?”
“Harry.” And the crazy woman. “I need to talk to him.”
“Is that a good thing?
“I’ll let you know when I find out.”
Disconnecting the call, Bianca pressed in Harry’s number. He answered, his voice warm and intimate, and knowing that if they’d been in the same room, she would have crawled all over him didn’t make what she had to say any easier.
“I just met an acquaintance of yours.”
“Mine? At Kin Kura?” He waited a beat, waking from the twilight of near sleep. “Who?”
“Karen Dodge.”
Suddenly fully awake, his voice hardened. “She was there? At Kin Kura? Today?”
“Yes, Harry. She was here, at Kin Kura, today.” Her hand crossed her lips almost as though it was holding back words she didn’t want to say and questions she was afraid to ask.
“Bianca, we need to talk.”
Wishing she was anywhere but here, doing anything but this, she nodded. “You’re right. I’ll be home in about twenty minutes.”
“I’ll leave the door open for you.”
“What? You don’t have a key to my…”
“You said home. The penthouse door will be open for you, and I’ll be waiting.”
CHAPTER 16
The breath-stealing quiver began in her belly and spread through her body as Bianca stepped off the elevator. Most Museum Tower residents were out of the building at this time of day, but she knew that the owner of the penthouse was waiting for her. When she reached his door, it was as he’d promised, open. Eerie quiet made her shiver. Whenever Harry was home, there was music, something deeply soulful. She raised her hand to knock before entering, then dropped it to her side, hesitating.
What am I supposed to say to him? What if he lies to me? Will I recognize it? What if my clothes just fall off?
She brought her fingers to the edge of the door and pressed it open. Stepping through, Bianca tried to ignore the anxious knot tightening in her stomach as she wandered deeper into Harry’s home. Passing the kitchen, it occurred to her that the penthouse reeked of money.
Considering Harry’s minimalist approach to décor, she could see the money he’d spent. Walls had been moved to extend and open rooms that didn’t exist on lower floors, and lighting had been moved to discreet wall and ceiling panels. The view, as she passed through his dining room and into his living room, nearly encompassed the entire city, and she was ashamed to find herself wondering how much money he really had.
I never would have thought that if I hadn’t met that woman.
For just a second, Bianca saw herself through the eyes of Karen Dodge. She said that anyone who looked like me was just made for sin. She saw me as a conniving gold-digger, out for whatever she could get. She saw the woman I used to be.
In the silence around her, she failed to hear Harry walk into the room, but she felt him. Turning abruptly, she saw him standing in the arch of the short hallway leading to his bedroom. Holding what looked like a T-shirt and wearing sweat pants, he stood watching her.
The shifting, unsubtle slanting afternoon light bounced from window to window, dancing over his face. His hair and eyes stood in dark contrast to his other features, but it was the sweet bow of his mouth that distracted her. She’d seen him half-dressed dozens of times, but this was the first time it felt like it could be the last time.
Strong and solid with a long, agile, dream-worthy body, he stood there looking at her. Unnerved, Bianca put out a hand to steady herself. If the chair hadn’t been there, she was fairly certain she would have fallen to her knees right there in front of him. If one of us doesn’t say something soon…
“Bianca…”
He made her name sound like music and his voice should have been a relief. She told herself that it was, that now they could talk and figure out where they were. But it didn’t work, not even when he pulled the T-shirt on and crossed the room to her. His hand on her wrist only made the unsaid words heavier between them. She followed him, let him guide her to one of the large couches fronting the wall of windows. When he released her wrist, she folded her hands into her lap and waited.
Dropping to the cushions at her side, he gathered her close. His fingers stroking her shoulder, Harry looked into her face and she came up blank. Being this close to him made it hard to get the words past the lump in her throat—as hard as every old heartbreak song said it would be. When he sighed, her heart slammed against her ribs and she felt tears well in her eyes, and swore she’d let them burn her eyes out before she let one fall.
“This isn’t going to work.” She pushed away from him. “I can’t think with you this close.”
He relaxed his arms and let her go. Dark eyes watching her, he stretched his arm across the back of the couch and drummed his fingers. Bianca felt her heart shiver and took a breath to steady it. The tear count was rising, threatening to burst the dam of her reserve, and she couldn’t think of a single thing to do about it.
“Bianca…”
Her neck hurt when she turned her face to him, but the tears didn’t fall.
“I knew Karen Dodge a long time ago.”
“That’s not what she said. She looked at me like I was a science experiment gone bad and made it sound much more recent.”
Harry found a lock of Bianca’s hair and twirled it around his finger. It was only her pride that kept her still; the rest of her wanted to fall into his arms.
“It feels like a lifetime ago,” he said, letting the lock uncoil, then twirling it again. “I was on holiday in Portugal; met Karen in Lisbon. I thought it was love, she thought it was a game; sent me on a fool’s errand and was gone when I got back.” He blew out a tired breath.
“I spent more than a year trying to contact her and make what I thought we had into something. When she kept turning me away, I pretty much thought the games were over. She was out of my life. Then I got a postcard from her a couple of months ago, nothing big, and I tore it up, went on with life. I met you and forgot all about her.”
“Until she turned up here?” Looking into Harry’s eyes, seeing her reflection, she wanted to believe him. But it’s so easy to lie when you want what you want…Wanting to believe him, wanting him to tell her Karen Dodge meant less than nothing, Bianca felt need rise again. Please don’t lie to me, Harry.
“Karen and I will never have anything for each other. What we had, she threw away.” His hands were strong and firm when they found hers. “I’m not going to try to get you to believe in a fairy-tale, but I think you really are right for me in ways Karen can’t begin to imagine. I can see us together for a long time.”
Pulling her hands from his, Bianca shook her head. “That’s not good enough, Harry. Maybe if you’d said that before I met her…but you didn’t. See, you weren’t there when I came close to doing something we’d all regret. And now, you’re trying to explain it all away…Saying that you see us together for a long time. What does that mean, anyway?”
“What? You want a ring now?”
“I don’t know, Harry. Can I get one?”
“Will it make all of this go away?” His mouth threatened a smile, then sobered.
“See?” Bianca pointed the same finger she’d waved in Karen Dodge’s face into Harry’s. “That’s what I don’t trust, how easy it was for you to say that. Is it a man thing? ’Cause you’re just not getting it. I don’t trust how she just showed up, now she’s gone, and you want to make it into a joke.” Wrapping her arms around herself, she twisted away from him. “How long is she going to be gone this time, huh, Harry? Then on top of it, you throw out that line offering me a ring like it was bait or something, and I’m supposed to jump on the line to get it. I don’t do that anymore, Harry.”
“What are you tal
king about?”
All of the sudden heat went out of her. “I don’t know. It’s just the way I felt when she barged in, lying about her name, claiming you and trying to make me feel like some kind of a cheap interloper.” She slumped against the cushions.
“I don’t know what to say to that, but I know this,” Harry said, moving enough to let her slip back into his open arms. “I know that with me, you will always be home, you will always be safe, you will always be wanted.”
“But the past…”
“Let’s leave it in the past.”
Twining herself with him, she forced her breathing to slow until her heartbeat found his. His was strong, pounding like a bass drum, letting her softer beat play rhythmic accompaniment. “Are there anymore skeletons or former lovers that I ought to know about?”
The second the question was out, Bianca thought of her own skeletons and former lovers. But if he reciprocated, asked her the same question, she knew that she would answer truthfully, even if it cost her everything she wanted from him.
“Not a single one.”
Relief seeped into her heart when he asked no questions. “Harry, before we leave all of the junk in the past, I need to tell you about something. About me. About Kelvin.”
His arms tightened around her. “I already know.”
“What do you know?” Her arms fell away and her hands pressed against the hardness of his chest.
The look on her face almost made him groan. He saw panic and pain and didn’t like either of them. A wise man would never come so close to the bright flame of a woman like this, but Harry couldn’t resist. She touched a place he’d kept private, thinking no one would ever find it. In his arms, her body was warm and melting, soft and yielding, and so real that her presence was tattooed onto the cells of his body, making him think of all he wanted.
“Maybe I should show you.” Standing, he drew her from the couch and led her to his office. The computer setup came to life as they entered the room, and she stood openmouthed when she saw her face on his monitor.
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