Wicked Game 02 - Something Wicked

by Olivia Fuller

  He was an answer she didn’t understand to a question she didn’t even know to ask. Neither of them knew the question or the answer, but they knew he was her answer and she was his. And they knew that was the way it always would be.

  But there was a paradox in this that she found almost amusing; for all of the seemingly intimate connections she’d made with others over time, it was with him that she felt most vulnerable, open, and comfortable. Greg was, and always had been, her most intimate partner.

  In every situation…

  She leaned back on her arms, closed her eyes, and just let herself bleed into her surroundings. She felt the world around her and the world felt her. She felt one with it.

  And then she felt something soft and sweet on her neck. An ever so gentle kiss that burst into flames.

  “This doesn’t look like the restaurant to me.” Greg’s voice fluttered hot against her ear.

  “How do you know? You’re not there….”

  Mary heard Greg chuckle as he circled around the bench and sat down next to her. He radiated through her more intensely than the heat of the bench. “I thought I’d find you here.”

  “Oh?” she questioned with a soft glance in his direction.

  “Of course. A garden, fresh air, the sun. It’s your idea of a dream.”

  “You know my dreams now?”

  Mary was too content by everything to be offended by his brazen claim to know her mind. Instead she was actually touched by it because he was right and it was nothing she’d ever actually told him. It was a conclusion he’d drawn all on his own and this astuteness warmed her heart.

  He covered her hand with his and then smiled. “Well, I know you, my girl.”

  “Yes. Yes, you do,” she said as she sat up and patted his hand. “Just like you knew how very much I needed this trip. How much I needed to see Angela. Greg, I—” She held her hands in front of her chest as she breathed in and searched for words. “I just—”

  “I know, Mary.”

  “Please.” She turned towards him and squeezed his forearm with both hands. “I must say this. I must just say, well, thank you, I suppose. Thank you. Thank you, Greg. Thank you.”

  She sighed with a slight laugh as she shook her head. “Who thought of this phrase? Two simple words to express upmost appreciation. It’s such a pittance of a phrase for the sheer and pure gratitude that I feel. But it’s all that I have. So I must say it again. Thank you, Greg. Now and always, thank you.”

  ***

  The sky opposite Mary was a brilliant wash of red and orange and yellow that cast a soft halo around her silhouette.

  She looked so peaceful in this light. So content with the world at this moment. And so beautiful. So much so that he almost didn’t want to disturb her.

  When he finally did approach her and whisper in her ear, she acted surprised to see him but her face gave way to the truth. She was glad he found her. She knew that he would find her here.

  Because Greg nearly always knew Mary’s thoughts.

  After he saw her to her room the night before—after she hugged him and held on just a moment longer than normal and then when she wiped her face after pulling away, turned quickly and entered her room to hide her tears—Greg knew that she was thinking of Angela and that she would not be up to any games anytime soon. He ached to hold her then, just wrap her up completely in his arms, but he thought that if he did he might never leave her room…

  As much as he wanted to think only of her and ease her pain, there was a part of him that was still fixated on the events from the carriage.

  He remembered falling asleep and dreaming.

  He remembered feeling something reach into that dream and take ahold of him, pulling him out and up and up. He felt gentle arms wrap around him and carry him—so soft and sweet and loving, full of energy and full of life. An electric shock awoke his sensations. He tingled and felt numb all at once. He welcomed every sensation and every feeling. He nestled into her neck and the sweetness of her skin and he kissed her.

  And still he continued to dream.

  Or at least at the time he thought he was dreaming—for Mary to do what she did, for him to do what he did, for him to feel what he felt—a dream was the only logical explanation.

  But this defied logic. And it was only later that day as they ate dinner and both felt such a real electric pulse again and again that he realized it was not a dream.

  He felt alive and aware and there was a part of him that liked the way it made him feel. There was a part of him that loved the way it made him feel… even though he did not understand it. Even though he was sure she did not understand it either.

  That much was clear as they sat together now.

  “You don’t have to thank me,” he said finally. “I didn’t do this because I desired praise. I did this because I desired you to be happy.”

  “Well, you have succeeded then. I am very happy.” She smiled at him, squeezed his arm again, and then tilted her head.

  “So I’m guessing by your presence here that you changed your mind about our little contest?”

  “Oh, very much so.” Mary’s voice sounded relieved.

  “It was your idea, yet you sound so relieved.”

  Mary sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder. “These past few days have been ever so trying on my mind and my soul. Seeing Angela lifted such a great burden off of me, but at the same time I don’t feel completely free of this weight.”

  “How so?”

  “I’ve once again been reminded that life isn’t static. It ebbs and flows and moves on, and once that’s happened there’s no going back. It’s like… It’s like trying to un-spill a glass of water. Once it’s done, it’s done.” She nestled into him. “So I still feel a weight. A weight that serves as a reminder to cherish every moment. It’s not a burden but it’s still a heavy load.”

  “I felt the same way after my father died.”

  “As did I. And while this situation isn’t as extreme as the deaths of our fathers—by any stretch—it’s still a great loss of a loved one for me. So when I thought about spending the evening alone, competing for the affections of strangers in a silly bet—”

  Mary sat up and placed one hand on each side of Greg’s face. Once they were connected, the energy began to immediately flow through them as she spoke: “There is no one I would rather spend this evening with than you.”

  “I feel the exact same way, my girl.”

  “Are you happy?” Mary suddenly asked. Her eyes contemplated him, her brow furrowing and creasing until at last and the line on her forehead softened. “You do look happy now for the first time since we set out on this journey. More relaxed. More content. Less… urgent? Does that make sense?”

  “Yes, very much so,” he said with a smile, hoping to leave it at that.

  But she quickly asked, “What changed?”

  “There’s nothing to rush back to now.” Before leaving on the trip, Greg had made the decision not to tell Mary. But it was too late. She had figured out something was on his mind and he could no longer hide it from her.

  “Rush home? To what?”

  “Not home.” Greg paused and leaned over to prop his elbows against his knees. “University.”

  “But why would you have to…” Mary’s voice trailed off as she put the pieces together. “Tell me you didn’t, Greg.”

  “I didn’t,” he said.

  “But that’s not true is it?” she asked quietly.

  “No.” He shook his head.

  She leaned forward now too and looked at him. “How far will this set you back?”

  “One term. It was only one examination.”

  “Oh, Greg.” She shook her head with a heavy sigh. “You shouldn’t have—if I had only known—”

  “No, my girl.” He silenced her with a strong embrace and a kiss on the top of the head. “This isn’t your fault. I knew the risk I was taking when I decided to take you to Angela… and we would have been back in time if it
wasn’t for that bloody wheel!”

  He laughed softly and continued: “The University will always be there. This opportunity, this chance to visit your cousin, was a fleeting opportunity. Like you just said, we must savor the important moments with important people whenever we have the opportunity.” He kissed the top of her head again. “And right now, there is no place else I would rather be and no one else I would rather be with.”

  She sighed and closed her eyes.

  He knew that someday she would make it up to him. It wasn’t that he expected it of her or even that he thought she must make it up to him. Or even that he thought there was really anything for her to make up to him.

  It was just how she was. It was just how he was.

  It was just how they were.

  “I’m sorry,” she murmured into his chest.

  “I’m not,” he said truthfully as he held her tight and looked off at the setting sun.

  The vivid colors of the sky were fading into night, but their feelings for each other would never fade.

  Their feelings for each other were like the sun: forever burning bright on the other side of the horizon, a brilliant source of energy that gave everything life.

  Chapter 10

  Summer 1817

  “What have you done?” Greg cornered Brad as he left his residence early the next morning.

  “What have I done?” Brad laughed as he tried to side step and pass Greg.

  Greg stepped in front of him and blocked his path. “Yes, Brad. What have you done?”

  Brad laughed again, and the shrillness of it made Greg’s ears hurt. “You know very well what I’ve done…”

  “So it was you then who told her step-father?”

  “Of course. I hope it didn’t take you too long to figure that out.”

  Brad tried to pass by again, but this time Greg put his palms on the wall, one on either side of Brad’s head, trapping him against the wall.

  “Fix it,” Greg spat.

  “Oh. But that’s the best part.” He smiled sardonically. “I already have.”

  “What do you mean?” Greg slapped his palm against the wall by Brad’s head.

  “I did fix it already. All of this. Telling her step-father is how I fixed it.”

  “Fixed what?” Greg punctuated each word with another slap against the wall.

  “Well, her life of course. You sure weren’t bloody man enough to do it—to save her from this path she was on and make her an honest woman, I mean. You say you care about her and yet, who is the one saving her?”

  “Mary doesn’t need saving!”

  “Well, you don’t get to make that call anymore.”

  “Tell her. Either you tell her what you’ve done or I will!”

  “Oh. Well that’s not going to happen,” Brad responded with another laugh.

  “And why not?”

  “Because you’re forgetting one very important detail…”

  “And what’s that?” Greg asked.

  Brad’s smile made him appear too pleased for his own good. “I may have told her step-father, but who told me?”

  Greg clenched his jaw. God damn it.

  For just a moment he’d forgotten how this all started… What had he done? And what could he do now to remedy it?

  “Oh, yes. I’ve also forgotten to tell you another important detail.” Brad crossed his arms and tilted up one corner of his mouth cheekily. “There’s a contract.”

  Greg shook his head in complete disbelief. “A contract? But Mary would never—”

  “So smug. Perhaps you don’t know her as well as you think, because she did.” Brad flashed another self-satisfied smile. “It’s too late to change anything now.”

  That’s what Mary had meant. It had been obvious to him that she was distraught with the whole situation, and yet she had not only agreed to marry Brad, she had apparently signed a contract…

  What was he missing? Greg clenched his fists.

  “So you see, even if you try to explain this all to her, and by some miracle of nature, she doesn’t despise you, it won’t make any difference. Because no matter what, she’s going to be my wife. Mine.”

  “Damn you, Bradley Barnes!” Greg yelled, finally releasing Brad.

  “Wait, wait, wait.” Brad held up one hand to silence Greg. “I’m not completely heartless. I’ll give you a say in deciding how the rest of this plays out.”

  Greg tightened his jaw and crossed her arms in front of his chest. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “You keep your mouth shut and I won’t cut you out of her life forever once we’re married. You tell her,” Brad paused as a laugh escaped his lips, “and you will never see her again.”

  “You can’t—God damn it!” Greg punched the wall and then pointed his finger directly at Brad’s face. “You’re absolutely, bloody mad!”

  “Oh, and one more thing. If you take the first option, that does not give you license to do whatever you wish. You still have to follow my rules. Step out of line, say something wrong, even look at her in a way that I don’t like, and I will tell her myself. And then I will cut you out for good.” He grinned at Greg. “Your choice.”

  Things were much worse than Greg had imagined. He was at a complete loss.

  What had he done? What would he do now?

  Stupid, selfish, foolish man.

  “Why are you doing this?” Greg asked desperately.

  Brad ignored him, and straightened his collar and cravat as he pushed Greg out of the way.

  “Why?” Greg called again

  Brad just laughed and waved behind him as he walked away.

  ***

  The door to Greg’s study crashed open and hit the wall with a swift and forceful crack.

  “What the—” Greg shot up from his desk ready to take action against whatever unexpected foe might be here for whatever unexpected reason.

  As it turned out there was no unexpected foe. Instead it was only Mary who marched into the room. Though her appearance and mood were very unexpected indeed.

  “Mary, what’s wrong my girl?”

  “Don’t call me that! I already told you not to!”

  He raised a brow, thoroughly confused, as he crossed the room to lay a hand her arm. “What—”

  “Don’t touch me!” She pulled her arm away with the ferocity of someone who had just been jabbed with a hot poker.

  Greg backed away and held his hands up in front of him in submission. “Let’s just calm down. Take a deep breath and then you can tell me what’s causing you such troubles.”

  Yesterday she had been so sad and woeful and today she looked ready for war.

  “I’ve been thinking,” she said. “Thinking about everything that’s happened. I’ve been thinking a lot.”

  Greg felt his stomach drop to the floor and he stumbled backwards to the edge of his desk. The last time she’d had such a serious look on her face when she told him she’d been thinking was the day she’d made her decision. He sat down without any grace at all.

  “And?” he asked carefully.

  “And? What do you think? You tell me!” She was red faced and enraged. Strength of purpose and new knowledge shone in her eyes. There was no mistaking what was wrong.

  She knew. God damn it. She knew.

  He kept his back to her and his head down but he didn’t say a word. He was at a loss.

  “Answer me!”

  He kept silent.

  “Greg. Answer me!”

  “Answer what? You haven’t even asked me anything…” he mumbled through clenched teeth.

  “Do I have to ask? Don’t play the fool. I think it’s perfectly clear what I want to know. So, what do you have to say for yourself?”

  “Brad is a liar,” he finally croaked out, his head still held down to avoid her gaze. “I can assure you that whatever he has told you, he has not told you the entire—”

  “I don’t care anything about your opinion of Brad. And he hasn’t told me anything!”
>
  “What?” Greg reeled back. After his talk with Brad earlier, it was a relief to know that he hadn’t gone back on the proposed deal before Greg had even had a chance to decide what he was going to do about it.

  “Oh come now, Greg. Do you take me for a fool?” She laughed at herself then. “Well, I must be a fool, right? To have trusted you. I trusted you!”

  “Mary—”

  “No. You’re going to let me finish. I know that Brad knows and that he was probably the one who told my step-father. It was too much of a coincidence that he just happened to show up right after that note for my step-father…” She trailed off. “And I also know that it had to be you who told Brad. I knew yesterday when you came to me but I didn’t want to let myself believe it. I may be a fool to have trusted you, but I’m not so much of a fool that I couldn’t figure out you’re the only person who could have—”

  “He’s a mad man,” Greg said as he recalled his earlier conversation with Brad. “A mad man with some perverse infatuation with your indiscretions. He’s nothing but a sad, pathetic man with some twisted sense of duty to top it all off—He couldn’t just leave it alone… God, if I’d had even an inkling of the type of person he’d become since I last knew him, I never would have allowed you—”

  “Allowed me? Where do you get off, Greg. My decisions are my own. I’ll admit that at one time, I deferred my decisions to you—I respected you enough and cared about you enough to take your opinions and thoughts into consideration. But those days are long gone now. How can I possibly respect you after you—”

  “You speak to me of respect? Have you ever once—even just once in your life—considered how your actions—” He paused and pressed his lips together tightly. Emotions were running so high that now was not the time to explain what he’d done and why.

  “Brad is a devious and scheming man,” Greg said shifting the conversation back to Brad. “No, I cannot even call him a man. He does the word an injustice. He is a parasite. Less than that even. Manipulating me and you and your step-father… It’s despicable what he’s done and what he’s become…When I realized what he’d done, that he told your step-father, I tried to stop him… I tried to save you—”