by Jayne Castle
"Oh, Lyra," Nancy groaned. "This is not good."
"Damn, arrogant Sweetwaters," Lyra said. She was on a roll now. Her aura was so hot she was amazed that she did not set herself on fire. "Who do you think you are?"
A shocked, fascinated silence gripped the terrace. Everyone was staring at her. Without warning, tears flooded her eyes. She went from rage to despair in an instant. She was suddenly sobbing as she had on only two other occasions in her life: the day her grandfather had died and on the night she had discovered that Cruz had deceived her.
She was crying a river in front of an audience of Sweetwaters and their guests. It was unbearable, intolerable. She whirled and ran down the terrace steps. When she reached the beach, her stiletto heels stabbed into the sand and stayed there. She floundered, tipped forward, lost her balance utterly, and toppled out of her shoes. In that terrible moment she knew she was going to fall flat on her face, humiliating herself even more than she already had in front of the entire Sweetwater family and their wealthy, powerful friends.
Damn Dore luck, she thought. You can always count on it to fail when you need it most.
But just before she flopped ignominiously into the sand, a strong arm caught her around her waist. She was suddenly standing upright and barefoot on the beach.
"Lord, I do love you so," Cruz said. "You're magnificent."
He swept her up in his arms and carried her across the beach toward the water's edge. She heard a cheer go up on the terrace. It was followed by a round of applause.
She clutched her evening bag with both hands. "This is so embarrassing."
"No, it's just a little over the top," Cruz said. "But that's okay. I've told you before, when it comes to love, we Sweetwaters do over the top."
"I don't know what to say. Something came over me. I just lost it back there on the terrace."
"You were wonderful."
When he reached the wet sand, he turned and carried her along the edge of the beach until they rounded the rocky outcropping. When they were out of sight of the terrace, he set her back on her feet and enfolded her in his arms.
"Did I really break your heart?" he asked gently.
She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Yes, you did."
"I'm sorry. I never meant to do that."
"Uh-huh."
"Broken hearts are serious business in my family."
"Got news for you, Sweetwater. Your family isn't the only one that takes that kind of stuff seriously. We Dores care about broken hearts, too."
He touched her damp cheek with his fingertip, swiping away a teardrop. "You really did fall in love with me three months ago?"
"Of course, I did. You think I would have wasted all that money trying to sue you and your company if you hadn't broken my heart?"
"I told myself it was a good sign," he admitted. "But it did complicate things."
"I had to do something. I couldn't just let it stand."
"I know. You needed some revenge."
"But I was moving on," she whispered. "I was putting my life back together. And then those orchids started arriving, and I told myself they were from you. The next thing I know, you're walking back into my life. Then you inform me that the only reason you're back is because you needed me to open that damned gate."
"I screwed things up. I realize that. But you've got to trust me when I tell you that I fell in love with you the first time I saw you, and I've never stopped loving you."
She managed a shaky smile. "I believe you."
"You do?"
"Yes. I loved you, too. But I'm a Dore and you're a Sweetwater, and you took my amber ruin, and then people were trying to kill you, and Quinn was stalking me, and. ."
"And things got complicated again," Cruz said. "But from now on we can handle any and all complications because we know we love each other."
She put her arms around his neck. "I do love you so, Cruz. I will always love you."
He kissed her there in the moonlight, and she felt the energy of the bond between them blaze in the night. When he finally lifted his head, she smiled.
"What?" he asked.
"I think my luck just changed."
"Well, sure. You're about to become a Sweetwater. What did you expect?"
She laughed, joy effervescing through her. And then he was kissing her again, and the night glowed invisibly around them with the power of their love. She knew that radiant energy would be with them all of their lives.
The charms on her bracelet clashed musically in the night. Green fire burned in the heart of obsidian amber.
ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF THE BIG HOUSE, VINCENT hopped down from the windowsill where he had been keeping watch. The energy of the night felt right now. Time to party.
He tumbled across the vast library to join the cluster of dust bunnies gathered there. The others had accompanied their persons to the island, just as he had. They all possessed human names—Fuzz, Rose, Max, Araminta, Elvis—but they knew and recognized each other in a different way.
He bounced up onto the big table at the end of the room where someone had very thoughtfully left a large box of rez-brush paints. There was an easel with a half-finished canvas next to the table, but he ignored both.
He used his two front paws to push the box of paint-brushes over the edge. It landed on the floor with a thud. The lid flew off, and the brushes, each with their tubes of paint neatly attached, scattered across the carpet.
He fluttered down to the floor, grabbed a psi green brush, and dashed out into the hall, chortling for the others to follow. Delighted with the prospect of a new game, each dust bunny selected a brush and scampered after him.
Out in the hall, Vincent pulled the cap off the green rez-brush paint tube. After watching him, it took the others only a moment to figure out how to remove the caps from their brushes.
Vincent surveyed the long, empty corridor. There was a vast expanse of white stone on the floors. The walls were covered with panels of pale, bleached wood.
The perfect canvas.
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