I Gotta Feeling

by Kress, Alyssa

  "It's funny, I was thinking of majoring in art history when I was in college." She smiled toward the Italian waterfall as she remembered. "Thought I would become a curator, travel the world. Have adventures." She laughed softly now to think of it, and how different everything had turned out for her.

  Felix smiled faintly. "Life has a way of getting in the way, doesn't it?"

  Not daring to look at him, Aletheia stared at the droplets of water misting off the distant waterfall. "You mean becoming a crack security consultant wasn't your childhood dream?"

  She could hear a wry smile in his voice. "I thought I was going to become the wealthy ruler of a real estate empire."

  "But you didn't?"

  "I did," Felix claimed, with a mocking nod. "Or I was on the way to one, until it all went to hell."

  This was news. Aletheia turned to stare at him. "What happened?"

  Felix shrugged and moved toward the next painting. Once again, like dance partners, he and Aletheia swung their glances across the room. "My business partner got cancer," he told her. "A winter storm took out half the building we had under construction. Insurance denied all claims on a technicality."

  He stopped before a painting of a choppy sea. Dutch villagers struggled to bring their craft in to shore. "Our company went belly-up. Corporate and personal bankruptcy." Felix lifted a shoulder, as if the whole thing hadn't fazed him.

  Aletheia knew better. Letting down creditors, documentation of failure to honor his promises—it must have nearly killed him. No wonder he was so concerned now with the reputation of his security consulting business.

  "What happened to your partner?" she asked.

  Gazing at the angry clouds over a choppy sea, Felix's face darkened. "It only took him four months to die. Can you tell me why it's always the truly decent people who contract the most incurable diseases?"

  Aletheia shook her head. "I don't have the answer to that one." Judging by the restrained pain in Felix's voice, his partner had also been his friend, and a good one. Together, she and Felix stared at the gray and stormy painting.

  Dimly, Aletheia remembered she was trying to find a key, a way to convince Felix of Benjamin's basic nature. Far more than that, however, she was soaking in everything she was discovering about this usually private man. "So how'd you get into the security business?"

  "A tenant in the first building we did, the one that made money, heard about the disaster." With a quick glance around the room, Felix led the way to the next painting. "Feeling sorry for me, he offered me a job."

  Biting the inside of her cheek, Aletheia threw her own glance around the room as she followed Felix. This tenant must have seen a rare opportunity to snatch up a hungry, intelligent, go-getter. "That was the Morrison of Morrison World Security Consultants?"

  "Mm hm." Felix's lips curved into a small smile. "We rubbed along okay together. So when nobody in his own family wanted to take over the business, I bought him out five years ago. Only fly in the ointment..." Felix turned to give Aletheia a sardonic look. "I made the mistake of marrying his granddaughter."

  Jealousy curled into a sudden, unexpected knot. He was married? Aletheia attempted to clear the knot out of her throat. "A mistake, you say?"

  Felix's nod made her relax a little, as did his next words. "The marriage didn't even last a year. Elsa's a hotshot lawyer, a super-achiever. I thought with both of us focused on our careers, it would make us compatible, but it didn't. She wanted my attention." He frowned. "Or maybe what she really wanted was my— Anyway, whatever she wanted, I couldn't give it to her."

  Felix's faint smile faded. Aletheia could practically feel him pulling away from her even as they stood right next to each other. He clearly blamed himself for the failure of his marriage. What kind of attention had his wife wanted that Felix had been unable to provide? And why couldn't he? She remembered the half-conversation she'd overheard between Felix and his mother, something with all the warmth of Arctic ice. Did he have issues with women? Intimacy? Old wounds that had never healed?

  It was a terrible time for the rescued damsel in her to leap to the fore again. He'd just warned her he had baggage and problems. Yet her hands itched to touch him, somehow to heal whatever ailed him.

  Thankfully for her self-possession, Felix stepped away from her. He shook his head and smiled, as if it were all water under the bridge, nothing to worry about.

  With cheerful, if deliberate, purpose, he turned the tables. "So what about you? What happened to get in the way of becoming a globe-trotting art curator?"

  It was Aletheia's turn to lift a dismissive shoulder. "My mother died." The old grief managed to slide past all the years and her defenses. Fortunately, she'd gotten used to the uneasy mix of mourning her mother and also her dreams.

  Felix searched her face. "And you had to take over the family."

  "I didn't have to." With a sigh, Aletheia led the way toward the next work of art. "But no one else was about to."

  "No one else could." Felix pronounced this with authority as he strode beside Aletheia.

  She shot him a curious glance. "What makes you say that?"

  With a snort, Felix planted himself before a painting of halcyon pastures. "Only the obvious."

  "Which is?"

  He turned to give her an exaggeratedly patient look. "Don't tell me you don't know what you are."

  Aletheia met his gaze. A funny sensation swept over her. What did he think she was? And why was he looking at her with such heated intensity? Aletheia's heart beat hard and high in her chest.

  She thought maybe she did know what he was talking about, she just hadn't expected him to value it, the aspect of her character that kept her locked in Deer Creek because she was unable to imagine letting her family down. Did he think that was good? Did he think she hadn't been crazy to take on that role? Her skin felt like a summer breeze was caressing it.

  Nobody, ever, had told her she'd done the right thing.

  "Maybe," she told Felix, "you don't know what you are."

  Their gazes locked. The room seemed to hum around them. Aletheia felt acutely aware of Felix, cognizant of every cell and pore. She felt positive he had the same awareness of her. They were entwined, and yet not quite together. Perhaps it was that remaining gap that pulled Aletheia with near-magnetic attraction.

  She leaned toward him. He, toward her. Her head tipped upward as his lashes lowered. A delicious tension seized her.

  Suddenly, he stopped. "Aletheia?" he said, low.

  "Yes, Felix?"

  In the same low voice, he continued, "Behind you. There's a man. I hadn't been sure till now, but he's been following us since we came in."

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Aletheia's state of pleasurably tense anticipation snapped. In the echoing museum gallery, her eyes flew open. "What? Someone's following us? Are you sure?"

  "Not until five seconds ago. Now that he thinks we're preoccupied, he's downright staring. Do you know anybody who wears baggy white shirts with high, Mandarin-style collars?"

  "No." Aletheia swallowed. "Why would anyone be following us?"

  Felix's eyes glittered down at her. "You are Benjamin's sister. As you recently pointed out to me, I'm not the only one with the idea of using you to get to him."

  "Oh." Aletheia felt frightened, but not overwhelmingly so. This time she wasn't alone amidst some freeway landscaping. Felix was here. "What should we do?"

  He paused. "Follow me. Pretend to be interested in the artwork. We're going to take it slow at first, but I'll be leading him to a place I know." Felix's lips curved.

  "Um...and then what?" Aletheia thought Felix's smile looked awfully predatory.

  He raised an eyebrow. "Can you trust me?"

  Right now, his alert, intelligent features made her shudder with excitement. But could she trust him? She'd yet to convince him not to throw her brother in jail. On the other hand, she was certain of his rock-solid integrity. And then there was that powerful tow he had on all of her senses.

/>   Maybe the better question was if she could trust herself.

  "Aletheia?"

  She let out deep breath. "Lead the way."

  Felix made it look as if their rapid progress through the museum was natural. He opened the map guide they'd been given with their tickets, then led the way past entire rooms, making it appear as if they were looking for a particular object.

  Aletheia had no idea where he was headed, so she simply stuck close. She would have stuck close in any case. An exhilarating energy hovered around Felix. Beneath his outer nonchalance was an animal tension, a readiness. An answering chord of energy switched on inside herself, something that made her feel supremely alive.

  Felix headed down some stairs where a wide hall led to the museum cafeteria. A line was already forming. People apparently couldn't handle much art without nutritive sustenance. Felix pushed right past the people in line, provoking several annoyed looks. All the same, nobody dared get in his way. Who would interfere with a wolf on the hunt? Aletheia's apologies were hasty as she struggled to keep up.

  Past tureens of organic soup and piles of locally-grown salad, Felix led Aletheia into a dining area of flimsy wire-frame tables. He strode right through the room, exiting through a door in the far wall. Struggling to keep up, Aletheia figured Felix must have lost their tail, for sure.

  Feeling triumphant, she whipped through the exit door behind Felix, barely making it through before he closed it after her.

  In the small side garden into which they'd exited, a man with a high-collared, baggy white shirt stood waiting for them.

  Aletheia gasped and jumped back while Felix sprang forward. She caught the flash of Felix's teeth right before he grasped the other fellow by the arms, whirled him around, and shoved him against the wall.

  Felix's feral smile told Aletheia this was the result he'd been planning. Predator, not prey, he hadn't wanted to lose their tail at all.

  "Who are you?" Felix demanded of the man.

  With one cheek smashed against the wall and big, terrified eyes, the man spoke rapidly in a foreign language.

  Aletheia watched the proceedings avidly. Now that Felix was clearly in control, excitement shoved past any fear. Unabashedly conspiratorial, she edged past the hedge shielding them to make sure no one was coming who might interfere.

  "Don't toy with me," Felix warned the man. "Who sent you to watch us?"

  More foreign words spilled from the guy.

  "Speak English, you scum!"

  The man pinned against the wall spoke, volubly and persuasively, but none of the words were in English.

  "I think he's speaking in Urdu, Pakistani," Aletheia ventured to say as she returned from the corner of the hedge.

  Felix, still holding the guy against the wall, stilled. Had he forgotten Aletheia was there?

  "We have a family goes to Big Bear twice a year," Aletheia went on. "They stop at Aletheia's Asylum on the way up and down. Very nice people. This guy is speaking to you in Urdu, I'm almost positive."

  Felix frowned. Their follower looked terrified. If he could have communicated with Felix, Aletheia was sure he would have. Emanating waves of powerful energy, Felix looked capable of anything. He appeared particularly desirous of committing bodily harm to their follower.

  Desirous, but not about to do so. Whatever energy Felix was channelling, he was in complete control of it.

  "We're not going to learn anything from him, are we?" Felix said in a tight voice.

  "I don't see how we could." Aletheia took care to make her tone nonchalant. "We don't speak his language, and he hasn't done anything illegal we could call the cops about. If you're thinking we should hold onto him, wouldn't that make us some kind of criminal?"

  Felix paused a moment, as if processing her words, then with a snarled curse he stepped back and let the guy go.

  Scrambling like a scared cat, the man ran off, past the shrubbery and out of the small garden.

  Felix stayed where he was, fists clenched by his sides. His darkly passionate aura seemed to expand, enveloping Aletheia and including her in an electric, arousing excitement. She shivered, enjoying the sensation, wanting, in fact, to grab onto it.

  This felt like the adventure she'd been craving all her life. Not only the skullduggery, she realized, but also dealing with this complex, fascinating man. An inner instinct warned her, however, not to let him know he could affect her this way. She took a deep breath and once again made her tone light. "I don't think we're going to find Benjamin at the museum."

  Felix turned to look at her. His nostrils flared.

  Aletheia waved in the direction their follower had taken. "And, as we decided, there's nothing more to learn from him."

  Felix kept on looking at her. Intense, dark energy continued to move off him in waves. Unlike yesterday by the freeway, however, he didn't move toward her, didn't seem to want any interference. Perhaps he wanted to hold onto his black.

  Aletheia didn't mind if he did. The energy buzzing from him excited her. It made him wide open, the opposite of his usual, closed self. She felt she could see all the way down to his true emotions, even if those emotions now were merely frustration and disappointment.

  Or was that all she could see?

  Their eyes met. Whatever had riled him up had riled him in every way.

  Aletheia's lashes lowered as a delicious languor stole over her. In his eyes were all the raw desire and desperate yearning a woman could want to see coming in her direction.

  Oh, he would get control of himself soon enough. She'd seen him do it several times already. He'd wall himself off and play by his own rules in a few minutes.

  But for right now, she felt enormously powerful.

  "Come on, Felix," she said, with completely counterfeit calm. "Let's go home."

  ~~~

  "That was probably the most exciting afternoon I ever spent in a museum," Aletheia declared. Her voice was light and seemingly casual as Felix pushed open the door to his condo. But she marred the casual effect by laughing a strange, gurgly laugh, and adding, "Definitely the most exciting."

  As he watched Aletheia step into the slanting afternoon sunlight of his living room, Felix felt a wave of guilty concern. Was she traumatized?

  In dealing with their tail at the Legion of Honor, he'd once again exposed her to his dark side. In fact, he'd only barely wrestled that darkness under control during the drive back home. "I'm sorry about that," Felix mumbled.

  Turning to face him, Aletheia looked surprised. "What are you sorry about?"

  Surprised himself, Felix had no idea how to respond. Hadn't she noticed the darkness? Yet Aletheia appeared unfrightened, turning away again to drop her purse onto the calf-hide sofa.

  "You didn't set that tail on us," she pointed out, and frowned. "I wonder if that guy was after us, in fact, or if he got a tip to look for Benjamin at the Legion, too."

  Felix silently cracked his knuckles. "It's too bad he didn't speak English."

  "I have a feeling someone is trying to blow smoke into our eyes." Aletheia threw herself onto the sofa. "Looking for Benjamin in the Bay Area never felt right to me, and that museum, in particular, seemed a strange place to try and find him."

  As Felix followed Aletheia into the room, he felt the darkness rise up again, bulging against his restraints. "You think we were given a bum lead?"

  Aletheia lifted a shoulder. Her sleek dark hair brushed the strap of the silky shell she was wearing. "I think someone gave someone a bum lead, yes."

  "The Pakistani knew what he was doing, though." Felix felt sure of this. "He had us under surveillance the whole time we were in the museum."

  "Thinking we could lead him to Benjamin?" Aletheia looked up at Felix.

  He leaned against a built-in bookcase and crossed his ankles. No, he didn't think their follower had been looking for Benjamin. He'd been watching Felix and Aletheia, trying to keep track of their movements.

  Had Goddard sent the Pakistani follower, distrustful of Felix? The unfort
unate suspicion occurred to Felix that Goddard had deliberately sent Felix off the track, then set a spy on him to make sure he didn't interfere with Goddard's own purpose: to find Benjamin and keep him away from the police. Felix didn't like his sense of some larger conspiracy. Helplessness and frustration caused more darkness to gather behind his bulkhead.

  Though Felix kept his gaze on the fireplace, he could nevertheless feel Aletheia's eyes upon him, bright and much too curious. Could she see what was going on beneath his surface?

  If so, she covered it well. Her voice sounded calm, even assertive. "I guess there's nothing we can do about it now, except keep our eyes open. Forewarned is forearmed, and all that."

  Felix grunted an answer. He was positive he couldn't make his own voice calm. The fact they'd been followed, and possibly betrayed, roused his protective instincts. The fact Aletheia was inside his home, sitting on his couch, roused every possessive desire he owned. Together, the two impulses sent flames of want for her licking down his torso.

  Wanting her wasn't good. It wasn't right. From the corner of his eye, he could tell she was giving him a soft look. It didn't belong to him. She had no idea what he really was.

  "Felix?" Aletheia said.

  Maybe she did see—something. Felix strode past the sofa toward the floor-to-ceiling windows. He glared at the roofs of the city stepping down toward the bay. Helplessly, he felt the darkness seep around the doors he'd set against it. His desire for her was too great to cage.

  "Felix," Aletheia persisted, sounding closer. "Are you all right?"

  He reached out to grip the window frame. Would she forget about him? Go back to her bedroom and leave him alone? Then he could fight this down. He could stop himself from reaching out for something that could never belong to him. A woman? A giving, warm woman—for him?

  But she didn't leave. Her voice came even closer, sweetly concerned. "Felix."

  "Don't," he managed to choke out. His fingers bit into the wood of the window frame. "Don't come any closer."

  She halted. "Why not?"

  "Because." He swallowed. His conscience said he ought to tell her. He ought to explain about the darkness of his basic nature. To remain silent was to protect himself instead of her.