by Tiana Cole
“You see, doctor, my sister brought me a handsome young man to look at. Is that a real kindness or what?”
“Unfortunately, I’m afraid we need to kick you all out,” the doctor said. “I need to do a couple of final checks on the test results we got the other day. It’s just follow up work, but I want to be complete and it will take an hour.”
“Of course,” Deja said. “I’ll be back tomorrow, sis.”
“Bring good-looking with you,” Barbara said. “You come back when we can talk, you hear?”
James waved. “I look forward to it.”
As they left, Deja was close by him, wrapped in her thoughts. Without thinking, James put an arm around her. “What tests?”
“I told you that Alan left a thousand dollars for me at the desk for the first payment. I used it to pay for the tests they needed to run to see if she could benefit from that new procedure I told you about.”
“And they came out good?”
“Well, the initial results were promising. The doctor is finishing them up, but she was optimistic. Not that it matters now.”
“I can’t imagine you are giving up.”
She grinned. “No, of course not. I’m just faking a bit of pessimism to balance out my sister’s infernal and eternal optimism. The doctor tells me she has a few more long-shot ideas, some possible grants and experimental programs for me to apply to. And I’ll look into other possibilities, although at the moment I have no idea what that means or where to start looking.”
“You are resourceful. You’ll find something.”
“I am?” she wondered, but it was nice to know he thought so. That James thought she was resourceful was a compliment, and she needed all of those she could get.
CHAPTER EIGHT
After a lovely dinner in the hotel restaurant, a meal that seemed pastoral compared to their first evening together, they went back to the suite. Suddenly, Deja felt awkward being alone with James.
The entire time with him, she felt drawn to him by some ethereal magnetism. Letting herself get too close frightened her. She had seduced him once, and tricked him. If she were to sleep with him now, she worried that it would destroy the fragile truce they seemed to be operating under.
She was a long way from having his trust. Or from deserving it.
“I’m wiped out,” she said. “I think I’ll go to my room and go to sleep early.”
She caught a flicker of something in his intense eyes, but it vanished. “Of course. Feel free to call room service if you need anything. You are my wife for the moment, after all.”
For the moment.
Being his wife seemed unreal, ephemeral. Being reminded that it was also transitory hurt.
In her room she undressed and showered, and then slipped naked into her bed. When she moved between the silk sheets she remembered a night, not that long ago, when he’d been naked with her.
The memory grew more vivid, until she thought she could feel his presence, and a shiver of desire for him coursed through her. That it was a desire of the heart as well of the body made her feel vulnerable. No matter what happened, her chance for future happiness seemed to be entangled with James Andrews and what he thought of her. She cared for him, and she cared what he thought of her.
* * * *
Deja sat bolt upright in bed. Something had wakened her abruptly from a deep and troubled sleep. It was something terrible that left her trembling, feeling weak and helpless.
There had been a scream. But whose? She wiped her face of the sweat that had beaded up on it and blinked her eyes. Sitting there, stunned, she tried to focus. She couldn’t remember this room. Where was she?
The door came open, and light flooded in from the adjoining room. James burst through wearing boxer shorts. As he came to the bed, he grabbed her arms. She saw concern on his face, worry in his eyes. Something had him more upset than she’d seen him, and when he spoke, she heard a tremble in his voice. “Are you all right?”
She shook her head to clear it. “I heard something. It woke me up. Someone screamed. It was horrible.”
He came over and sat on the bed, took her shoulders in his hands, and looked into her eyes. “It was you, Deja. You were screaming.”
She tried to make sense of it. Why would she have screamed? “No, it wasn’t me. I heard the screaming.” She looked around the room, trying to piece things together. “I wasn’t here, though. I was at the hospital.”
“That was this morning.”
“No, just now.”
“You went to bed an hour ago.”
“The corridors of the hospital were empty. I was walking through them, barefoot, trying to find Barbara. All the rooms and the beds were empty, except for one room that was filled with doctors, or at least men and women in white coats. They were all talking together, and when I came in they looked up at me and asked me if I was ready.”
“Ready for what?”
“I don’t know. It didn’t make sense, so I asked them where Barbara was and they said she was waiting for me, but none of them seemed to know where. I was starting to leave, to find her. I knew she needed me. Then several of them grabbed me, and tried to keep me from leaving that room. As I broke away they told me I’d never find her in time.”
James wrapped his arms around her and held her. She sank against his chest gratefully. “I kept looking and a man who was painting a wall told me that if I didn’t get to Barbara soon, they’d have to disassemble her. Then he laughed and showed me a chest filled with saws and drills. He said that he wanted to operate on her and make her better, but if he couldn’t do that, he’d sell her for parts. Then he picked up a knife and waved it at me. That’s when I heard the scream.”
“Your scream,” he said softly. “I heard it too.”
“She’s going to die, James.”
“It was a dream.”
“I owe her so much and I failed her.”
“You have done a lot for her.”
“Not enough. And now I can’t do any more. I don’t know what to do.”
“You had a nightmare.”
“It seemed so real.”
She let herself sink into the warmth of his embrace. He offered her his strength and she took it.
“I’ve put you through a nightmare too.”
He smiled down at her. “You made a difficult choice. I’m not sure what I would’ve done in your place. I’ve never had family that I felt so much love for. It’s making you hurt because you let her into your heart. Your sister means so much to you and you’re afraid of losing her.”
With her ear pressed to his chest, she listened to the pounding of his heart. The concern in his voice, the way he held her, made her love him. And that’s what it was that she felt for him. “I hurt you. I thought I felt guilty about it, James, but that wasn’t it at all. As stupid and impossible as it sounds, I’m in love with you. And what I thought was guilt was the pain from thinking that by doing what I did I lost the chance to win your love. I betrayed you and that is unforgivable.”
“A matter of character?”
“I suppose so. I showed you a side of me I didn’t know existed, and I wish it didn’t.”
“And you’ve shown me a side of you that is loving and passionate. Passion isn’t always the best guide for our actions, but there’s nothing dishonest about it.”
“Then you don’t hate me?”
He touched her cheek. “I probably do from time to time, but that is not a big hate and it’s all mixed up with a lot of other emotions.”
She felt a ray of hope. “Then you feel something for me?”
“I feel a great deal for you. I am drawn to you, and even when I get angry about what happened, I am still amazed that we found each other.”
She put her hand on his chest. “Then will you kiss me? I need something real to drive away the nightmare.”
He hesitated for a moment, then put a hand on the back of her head and brought his lips to hers. She felt the wet warmth of his mouth on hers, and
she knew that the one thing she wanted at that moment was for him to make love to her.
* * * *
His kiss lasted a wonderfully long time and she felt his hot passion wend its way through her, warming her, making her open up. Feelings of anger, concern, her worries, and even her sad feelings about Barbara were swept aside by the rising tide of emotion that welled up to meet that wandering passion.
His tongue filled her mouth and they melded together. He pushed her back onto the bed and when their lips finally parted he feverishly kissed her face, her neck, and then he pulled the covers from over her, baring her naked body to his touch, and his kisses moved down so he could taste each of her breasts, suck her stiffening nipples into his mouth.
The moan that escaped her lips urged him on, and his mouth made its hot and wet way down over her belly. His hands held her thighs, sending ripples of excitement through her as he spread her legs apart. She gasped as his face moved to her pussy and his tongue attacked her. When he ran his tongue through the tender pink flesh, she tangled her fingers in his hair and pulled his face tight against her.
Nothing had ever aroused her like this, and she pressed her thighs to his cheeks, feeling the scratching of his stubble as they wrestled in the dark. He devoured her, eagerly running that amazing tongue into every nook and cranny before uncovering her clitoris. She arched her back and let out an animal hiss as he ate her, as he worked fingers into her vagina and fucked her with them while his mouth consumed the hard nub of desire.
When the arousal grew too fevered, a cry, a different kind of scream than the one that had awakened them, filled the room. This time she knew it was her own scream, her pleasured cry as she rode the crest of an orgasm.
And when she sank down on the bed, he kissed his way back up her body until his face, wet with her juices hovered over her. She reached down to tug down his boxers, working them over his hips, and then he helped her. As he kicked them off it was her spreading her legs wide, inviting him to bring his hard cock into her wet and wanting pussy. As he moved close, she encircled his rigid shaft with her fingers, feeling its heat, its fleshy strength, and guiding it into her.
The burn of his entry into her was marvelous and she heard a sigh of pleasure from him. She hooked her legs around his and lifted her ass from the bed, taking more of him inside her. “Fuck me hard, James,” she said.
Whether or not he heard her, he began thrusting into her with his powerful body flexing. She felt the ripple of his muscles through her hands resting on his shoulders, and in her calves. Most of all, she felt the magnificent heat of his cock moving in and out of her, stretching her muscles. She flexed her muscles too, caressing that shaft with her cunt.
They bounced the bed and their breathing synchronized in a series of grunts that came with each thrust deep inside her. At the end of each one, she let out a little cry, and the cries were strung together in that room in some magical tune of lust.
And then he bit her earlobe. Her body exploded again, and she felt him stiffen, driving into her and holding himself inside her as his magnificent cock twitched. She felt his seed shooting up inside her, flooding her and mixing with her own juices.
And then he collapsed on her, and she held him, taking his weight, loving the feel of him lying on her.
This time he had made love to her knowing who she was. He’d wanted her. And she wanted him.
As she drifted into a new kind of sleep, one that was peaceful, calm, and resting, she wondered if there was any chance of this continuing. After all that had happened, did they stand a chance of finding anything real?
CHAPTER NINE
One of the things James normally admired most about Shen Liang’s ability as a negotiator was driving him nuts. He was almost totally unreadable. His face gave away nothing. Even his habit of smiling at odd moments, or letting his eyes flick around as if someone weren’t there, had to be either totally random or carefully practiced.
Either way, the result was the same—one quickly came to understand that his smiles had absolutely nothing to do with the subject at hand, and breaking contact certainly didn’t indicate that his attention had lagged. As you talked, he lulled you into thinking that something you’d said pleased him or upset him, when the truth was that you knew nothing of the kind.
His mastery of that technique was both effective and maddening. James enjoyed watching him work. Being the person across the table from him, the one he was dealing with, was a different kettle of fish.
“I don’t think there is much new to say,” James told him.
“So you’ve taken no action.”
“Not yet. I don’t want to do anything hasty.”
“What will you use as a basis for deciding?”
James spread his hands open. “Even that isn’t clear. The marriage is a fact and, as you’ve pointed out, its fate concerns us both. She’s spoken up on that point herself—and her needs have to be considered.”
“What is she asking for?”
“Nothing at all. Well, she’s asking to be treated decently.”
“She’s made no request for money?”
“No.”
“Do you care for her?”
“I’m not certain. I find her incredibly attractive. She’s complicated. So are my feelings.”
They sat in silence for a time. That was another technique of his, but it was more than that. James had learned that when Shen Liang received new information on something important, he had a habit of closing his eyes and going away, deep inside his head to analyze it. That someone was sitting still in front of him, waiting for him to respond while he turned it inside out and upside down, looking for any ways it fit into the puzzle he was trying to solve, didn’t matter.
“You are fitting the new pieces into the puzzle,” James said.
Shen Liang opened his eyes. “Yes. Success in life, or business, is a process of solving puzzles. We face a never ending supply of puzzles to solve, so a wise man learns how to select the puzzle he wishes to spend his valuable time on. Otherwise, when you pick up a new piece, you can spend far too much time trying to determine which puzzle it is part of, and not have enough time to decide where it fits.”
“Do these new pieces belong to the current puzzle?”
“Possibly. And, unfortunately, they might be pieces for two different puzzles that I need to solve at the same time. That makes it much more difficult.” Shen Liang stood. The meeting was over. “I think that’s all for now. I feel that I am still missing at least one piece.” He frowned. “I don’t care for missing pieces.”
“Can I help you find the piece?”
Shen Liang smiled. “You are welcome to try. It is a piece that fits at the bottom, and provides the foundation for the scene above. I don’t know if it is dark or light, if it is a rock or water. When I see it, I will know. If you see such a piece, kindly point it out.”
“Can you tell me what the scene is?”
“It’s a picture of character, James Andrews.”
Having no idea what that meant, James nodded and left the man to his puzzle. He hated meetings that proved inconclusive, but at least they were still talking. That had to be a good sign.
When he reached the lobby, James checked his watch. The meeting had been short. Well, there hadn’t been much to say.
As he rode the elevator down, he played with Shen Liang’s idea of a puzzle that represented a person’s character. It was an interesting concept, mapping their actions, their words into a picture, a visualization of who they were.
What would a painting of character look like? Putting himself in Shen Liang’s shoes, what would he want to picture? Each of the pieces would represent some aspect of character as he wanted to understand it—trust, loyalty, integrity, and even qualities like clear sightedness would have to be part of it.
If Shen Liang was hesitating in making his decision, he had questions about all of the people he was considering dealing with. James had no idea who, besides Alan, would be in the running, so he
couldn’t begin to find out anything about them, and that meant he had to imagine the picture the man was creating of him. He seemed to still be in contention.
He leaned back against the elevator wall and imagined a picture of himself. He had a good business track record. That would paint his abilities in bright, solid, bold colors. His bad judgment in getting drunk and acting foolishly…that would be watery, swampy even. Not good, but not a missing piece, either. Not exactly.
What else? Shen Liang valued actions over words. He seemed to think that how James treated his accidental bride, what he did in this situation, was worth noting. And that was a complex situation.
That meant that the piece Shen Liang was looking for wasn’t about the mistake. No, it was the piece that should how James dealt with his mistake. That was why he had questions about Deja. Shen Liang was actually looking for the same answers he was—how to deal with his marriage. His actions would show his character, his true nature. What if he decided to stay married and see how it went? He liked and lusted after her, so it wouldn’t be onerous, but would it mean that he was weak and unable to take a hard decision? Or would it mean he was honorable? Or would it be more honorable to admit the mistake?
Whatever he did would provide a puzzle piece that was at the bottom, underlining his character.
But character was reflected in much more than how one’s domestic and business lives were acted out. Other people came into the picture as well. Not trying to sabotage Alan, regardless of what he’d done, by blaming him for his own mistakes…that was painful but honorable. That piece, even if Liang saw it differently was already on the table. It wasn’t missing.
As he went through the ornate lobby, James realized he might actually know the nature of another missing piece—another piece that would be at the bottom, providing a baseline. And again, he and Liang might not read the piece the same way, but the reality was that Shen Liang wasn’t hesitating in making a decision. He was waiting for James to provide those two missing pieces. Once he had them, he could put them in place and see if he liked what he saw.