by Trudi Jaye
“It’s nothing much. Just something I threw together,” he said quickly, not wanting to let her know that it had been a major project for him to put something like that together. She must think he was such an idiot.
“Nothing much?” she repeated.
“Oh, I disagree, Henry,” said Nolan. “That little creature there is rather amazing. You’re just what our team needs to get this project moving. One of Violet’s problems is her inability to learn. This little fella here is learning all the time, if what Grimshaw is saying is true.”
Henry glanced back at Nolan with a frown. “But Fee—”
Fee cleared her throat and jumped in. “I don’t usually make creatures like that. Not that good anyway. The AI side of things is more complicated. I’m a more basic robotics person,” she said quickly.
“But—” Henry started to interrupt, but saw the look in her eyes. Ah. She was hiding her critters from the others. Of course. “Sure. Okay. Let’s get onto the real problem here, Grimshaw. I’m sure it’s nothing to do with Betsy down there.”
“Betsy?” Fee blurted.
Henry felt himself going red, but tried to ignore it. “Come on, let’s go. I think these guys are ready for the real problem.”
Grimshaw sighed and led them deeper into the bowels of The Twister’s machinery.
“We noticed the issue yesterday. We took the ride offline straight away.” Grimshaw gestured with his arm toward the huge machine. “Most of our rides are computerized, and they have a much smaller command central. But this baby is old. She’s also one of our favorites, which is why we keep her running. Not to mention she’s popular with the park guests.”
Henry stood back as the others crowded around the large command central of The Twister. Buttons were everywhere; and the wires, pipes, pistons, and stampers were all standing still. It was the quietest he’d ever seen the big machine. There was an old computer screen at one end. The Twister was actually run by an operating system. But it was so old they had to make special parts when she broke down.
Eugene had gone straight to the crux of the problem. He was standing beside a cracked valve, and put one hand out to touch it softly.
Grimshaw nodded. “That’s right, buddy, it’s cracked. So we have to replace it today. But that’s not the main problem. What I want you fellas to determine today is what caused the crack. We only replaced that a couple months ago. It shouldn’t have cracked so fast.”
David moved forward to stare at the problem next to Eugene. “Usually it’s caused by stress,” he said.
Grimshaw nodded. “That’s right. But we’ve checked every section of the machinery behind and forward of that valve, and we can’t see anything causing the kind of stress it would take to cause a crack like that. It makes no sense.”
As a group, they focused their attention on the valve, and Grimshaw winked at Henry. He knew Grimshaw would know exactly what the problem was. He was practically a magician when it came to mechanical objects. But when he’d phoned him the day before to ask about heading over, Grimshaw had promised to provide something entertaining for his group.
Henry stood back and tried to watch them all, but his eyes kept being drawn to Fee. She stood back, letting the others charge in and try to solve the problem. Her expression was focused, and she was clearly taking the task very seriously.
Something moved under her hair at the nape of her neck, and he watched as a tiny metal arm poked out and waved at him. He grinned, and waved back at the tiny robot. He’d never met anyone who had strange metal creatures running about her person before. It was a rather attractive quality.
She was like no one else he’d ever met. He wanted to know more about her. Standing here soaking up her features, memorizing the exact shade of blonde of her hair, it wasn’t enough. He was drawn to her in a way he’d never experienced before in his life and he didn’t understand it. She was gorgeous, sure. But he knew lots of beautiful women, and they’d never bothered him like this. Was it because she was better at making robots than he was? Or the aloof way she carried herself, like she didn’t give a hoot what people thought of her, or how the rest of the world acted? Maybe he just hated that she was hiding something and he didn’t know what it was, He’d always liked a challenge, a mystery to solve. That’s why he invented things.
He felt like he understood the other researchers. He could see what drove each of them, and he knew how he was going to make this project work for them. At the end of a month, they were going to have made huge strides on Violet’s problems, and he would have left them with the skills to keep going. It wasn’t arrogance; it was just that his skill, his ability had always been to solve problems, and this was just another problem for him to solve. It was a more subtle part of what he did, he knew. When Jack had sent him here, it wasn’t because the new Ringmaster had thought he’d solve the interpersonal problems of the researchers involved. He’d expected Henry to use his powerful inventing skill to tip them over the edge into the next level.
But doing this, making them work better together, setting them on the road to success in the future well past the time when he would have left, it was part of what he did.
Only he couldn’t figure out how Fee fit in. She seemed to be living in a place outside the reality that the rest of them were living in. She was as big a mystery to him now as she had been yesterday when he’d met her.
There was also the strange electricity that flared between them whenever they touched. It was confusing, and he didn’t like it. It put him on edge, made him forget what he was doing and planning. He didn’t need the distraction.
***
Fee kept her eyes firmly attached to the machine part Eugene was handling. She tried to concentrate on what they were doing, to understand the intricacies of what went where. But all she could think about was the fact that Henry was staring at her, as he had been for almost the whole time they’d been working on the problem. She glanced at her watch. It was almost an hour now.
She frowned. That was too long. He shouldn’t be watching her with such studied attention. She turned, and looked at him, catching his eye. Walking over to him, she whispered, “We need to talk.” She wasn’t going to let him intimidate her like this. He needed to know that he couldn’t stare at her all day long. She wouldn’t have it.
Henry silently followed her into a room to one side that seemed to be an office. Grimshaw was long gone; he’d said he had other things to do and would be back to check on their progress later. It was a huge amount of trust on his part, and she didn’t know if he was relying on Henry to keep his machine safe, or if he just wasn’t bothered by what they might do to the Twister in his absence.
She shut the door, and turned. “Why are you staring at me?” she asked, coming right to the point.
Henry opened his mouth, and then closed it. He stared at her some more. “I...didn’t...” he said. It was the most uncomfortable she’d seen the golden god look.
“Seriously, you need to stop it. It’s not cool.” She put her hands on her hips, and glared at him.
Henry swallowed and seemed to pull himself together. “I’m sorry. I’m just trying to figure you out. The others, they’re easy. Not too complicated geniuses, who need a bit of recognition to help their confidence and spark their creativity.”
Fee nodded. She understood that.
“But I can’t make sense of you. You’re not shy. You don’t want recognition. You invent these amazing little creatures, and keep them like pets on your person. Why do you hide them? I don’t understand. And what are you doing in that lab? I’m not sure how invested you are in that project. You don’t seem to care about it one minute, and then you’re defending it passionately the next. It doesn’t make sense to me.”
Fee felt suddenly lightheaded. No one had ever questioned her motives, or what she was doing in her job. She’d thought he was being a bit creepy, watching her like that, but now she understood that he was trying to delve deeper into her head.
“You don’t need
to know any of that stuff. You’re a consultant. It shouldn’t matter to you what my motivations are. Stop it. That’s crossing a line I haven’t given you permission to cross.”
Henry continued as if he didn’t hear her. “And what about when we shook hands? What was that? You passed out, for crying out loud. And I felt like I’d been hit by a freight train. It’s like there’s an electric current running between our bodies every time we connect. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never experienced anything like it before.” He paused and then added softly, “Will it happen every time we touch?” His eyes seemed to bore into hers.
Fee imagined his hands touching her bare body and shivered. That wasn’t what he meant. Her over-active imagination had taken an innocent question and turned it sexual, just because she’d thought he was attractive from the first moment she saw him. She glanced up and locked eyes with him, and suddenly she was burning. The heat in his eyes shocked her, and she took a step back.
Henry took a step toward her, then another, destroying the gap between them. He put out one hand and touched her gently on the arm. A zing of electricity raced along her skin, and Fee shivered. He stepped closer again, put his other hand around her waist, and pulled her in closer, until their bodies touched.
It was as if a million sparks of electricity were pinging back and forth between their bodies. Every sense was ignited, and Fee didn’t know what to do with it all. It didn’t seem real, like it was a walking dream she’d stumbled into. She smelled his body, oil and sweat mixed with a sweet toffee scent, like candy apples. He seemed to glow, and when she lifted her hands to his shoulders, thinking to push him away, her hands were caught in the texture of his shirt, and the feel of hard muscles underneath. His neck was right in front of her, and without thinking, she leaned forward and placed a soft kiss right where the vein pulsed. He jerked as if she’d stung him. Given the zing of sexual energy she’d felt through her lips, perhaps she had.
One of his hands came up and grasped the side of her face, angling her toward him. He lowered his lips to hers, and they kissed, softly at first. The blue electricity raced across her lips then down through her body, making her moan against him. It felt better than anything she’d ever experienced before; her body was alive with pleasure. He tightened his arms, drew her closer, and the kiss deepened, became more urgent. His tongue found hers, and Fee wrapped her arms around his neck, pushing her fingers through his hair, and dragging him closer still. She couldn’t think about anything except wanting more of him along her body, and gathering more of the exhilarating energy they were creating.
“Henry? Fee? Are you two okay in there? We think we’ve found a solution!” Eugene’s excited voice penetrated the shell of sexual heat that had surrounded them. They both jumped back, gasping for breath. Henry shook his head and looked down at her with a dazed expression.
He cleared his throat. “We’ll...” He cleared his throat. “We’ll be out in a minute, Eugene. We’re just discussing...something.”
Fee raised her eyebrows at him and he smiled. A devastating smile hit Fee full force, like the sun being turned on and pointed directly at her. Fee took a step back. It was too much. He was too much. She felt like she had been short-circuited. She’d come in here to tell him off and had ended up trying to jump him.
She’d been right all along, he was a golden god, and she was a mere mortal. She couldn’t handle this much sensation; it wasn’t meant for her. She shook her head. “I can’t,” she said, and then opened the door and ran.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Henry watched her go with mixed emotions. He’d never experienced anything like that before in his life, and it scared the hell out of him. He felt completely out of control and confused, and that was not something he liked. Ever.
He looked at the shocked faces of Eugene, Nolan, and David, as they stood in the doorway and knew this whole thing could easily blow up in his face. It was a delicate process, and what was happening between him and Fee had the power to overturn all the good he was doing with these three.
He walked forward. “I have to chase after her, make sure she’s okay. But I’ll be back in a moment,” he said calmly. It didn’t match the turmoil he felt inside; the colors and light were making his insides dissolve into chaos.
“What happened? Is she okay?” said Eugene.
“I’ve never seen her upset like that,” said David. “Not even when Pelgrim was at his worst.”
Henry felt like he was being repeatedly punched in the chest with every passing moment. “It’ll be fine; don’t worry about it.”
He took off without checking to make sure they weren’t blaming him for the problem. It would cause problems if they did, but he couldn’t think about it right now. He had to find Fee.
He’d thought it was going to be difficult, but the energy they’d created between them still lingered in the air and he sensed her immediately. She was in line nearby to get a funnel cake, one of his favorite carnival foods. It struck another chord of fear inside him. What was happening? Why was it so fierce and uncontrollable? They needed to stop this right away.
He came up behind her and hovered for a moment, unsure what to say.
She beat him to it. “We can’t ever do that again,” she said without turning around. Around them, the fun and laughter of the theme park continued.
Henry, who’d just been thinking exactly the same thing, frowned. “Why not?” he said. His blood boiled at the thought of never kissing her again.
“Because we don’t work together,” she said.
“I think we just proved we work very well together,” said Henry. Had it been one-sided? Had the connection he’d felt, the electricity that had flowed between them been more powerful for him?
She shook her head and still avoided his eyes, looking straight ahead at the back of the person in front of her in line. “What just happened was a weird chemical reaction, something completely out of our control. It’s not normal to have electricity flowing between us like that; we’re being pulled together by compulsion rather than real desire. We don’t know each other. I’m not even sure I particularly like you. It makes no sense that we would have a reaction like that.” She turned to him fully. “In fact, I think you’re using your magic on me. You have it inside you. I can tell.” She turned away again.
Henry sucked in a breath. “I have never, and will never, use any kind of magic or trickery to get a woman to like me,” he said angrily. “I don’t know who you think I am, but that’s just plain insulting.”
“But that’s my point exactly. I don’t know you. And we won’t be doing that again.”
“Well, good. Because I don’t want to do it again either,” said Henry angrily. “I don’t like you particularly much either.” With that childish—and totally untrue—parting shot, he turned and stormed back to the shed where the others were working. He didn’t need her, and if she was going to go around accusing him of things like that, he wasn’t going to bother with her at all. He yanked open the door and discovered the other three standing looking at him, worried expressions on their faces.
“Is she okay?” asked Eugene.
Henry pulled up short, and blinked. He never acted like that. He was a calm, methodical guy. Laid back and easy going. That kind of over-the-top reaction was the kind of stupid emotional reaction that he avoided. He never let anyone get to him, and he certainly never lied to them about something like that. He nodded slowly. “She’s fine. Just getting a funnel cake, then she’ll be back.” He hoped. Maybe she was right. Maybe there was magic working over them, making them do things they wouldn’t normally do.
Henry took a breath. Then another. He needed to calm down, get a bit of space between himself and Fee. Then he would go out again and find her, apologize for his outburst, explain that they needed to keep things professional, and then leave it at that.
It was a good plan, and he felt calmer as soon as he came up with it.
“So how are you guys getting on? What have you figured
out?”
The three men leaped at the chance to explain what was happening, and soon he had the three of them crowded around him, talking over each other, and trying to get his attention. Even Nolan, who wasn’t an engineer, was into the project, and seemed to be adding the kind of information the other two had overlooked. They were a great team and they’d found the problem that Grimshaw had wanted them to. A broken connection earlier in the system was causing a buildup of pressure that had resulted in the cracked valve.
It was a pity Fee wasn’t here, because this was the perfect time for her to be bonding with the rest of them as well. Henry felt a pang of guilt. It was his fault she wasn’t here. If he’d managed to keep things professional, as he knew he should have, then it would be fine now. He glanced at his watch. She should have been back by now. He smiled and nodded at the others, but in his head he was wondering how long before he would be allowed to go back out again and look for Fee. What if she decided never to come back? What if she was even now taking a taxi home, all ready to quit her job?
What if he never saw her again?
Henry’s eyes flicked to the door. He would just go and make sure she was all right. Maybe she was being harassed by some theme park customer, and needed saving. “Guys, I’m going to check on Fee again; she should have been back by now,” he said.
They all nodded in agreement, and he breathed a sigh of relief. They seemed to be worried about her as well. “I’ll be back soon, and we can finish this off. But you’re doing great. Grimshaw will be pleased.”
Their grins lit up the room, and he smiled back, glad he’d bought them here today.
Mostly.
He blinked as he went from the darkened maintenance shed to the outside light. It was a bright and sunny day, and he should have felt happy. His project was going surprisingly well. They’d been working together for most of the morning, and had successfully found—and were discussing excellent solutions to—the problem on The Twister.