by Radclyffe
“I’m glad you like them.” Rooke clasped Adrian’s hand. “That’s enough for me.”
“Okay,” Adrian said a little shakily as Rooke’s touch sent spirals of electricity shooting up her arm and into her chest, “I accept the compliment. Thank you. That means a great deal to me.”
Still holding Rooke’s hand, Adrian turned partially away so she wouldn’t throw her arms around Rooke. If she did, she wasn’t sure she would stop until she touched her, everywhere. The combination of being alone with Rooke here, in this place, surrounded by such incredible beauty and passion, made her desperate to be close to her. No, more than close to her. She wanted to drown in her. “What about this big one, covered up in the middle of the room? What’s under the tarp?”
“Ah, she’s not done yet.”
“She? Always she?”
“Always.”
Adrian dragged Rooke a little closer to the hidden piece and rested her hand carefully on the tarp. Rooke watched her with such intensity she lost her grip and tumbled into those shimmering dark irises, slipping into the shifting landscape of black and gold and shades of brown. When they’d made love, she hadn’t felt the earth move because her body and mind had already taken flight, but she saw it move now in Rooke’s eyes. Her blood quickened and her heart stirred and she knew. “You’re waiting for her, aren’t you?”
Rooke nodded.
“How long?” Adrian whispered.
“Since always. Until forever.”
“Rooke…I…” Adrian swallowed hard, overwhelmed by such powerful, fragile passion. So much had happened recently she didn’t understand, so many frightening, unsettling dreams and desires, but of one thing she was certain. She would never do anything to hurt Rooke, including making promises she might not be able to keep.
“There’s a long time in between always and forever.” Rooke smiled gently, no trace of disappointment in her face. “Plenty of time.”
“Thank you.” Adrian brushed away the tear that had somehow found its way to freedom and gestured to the sculptures surrounding them. “For all of this.”
Rooke pulled her into her arms, and Adrian went willingly. She needed Rooke’s touch. Rooke’s breath was warm as her mouth brushed over Adrian’s ear. “Don’t thank me. You make me happy.”
Adrian trembled in her embrace, determined not to think of cold, barren hearths and crumbling stone ruins, of great warriors broken by betrayal and infidelity. “I’m glad. You make me happy too.”
“Then let’s go to New York.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Rooke dropped her duffel bag in the kitchen and held the back door open for Pops. “I could have driven to pick Adrian up.”
“You could have,” Pops said as he walked with her to the truck. “But you’ve been doing enough driving lately. No use pushing your luck.”
“Probably,” Rooke agreed, climbing in the passenger side.
Pops pulled out onto the road to Adrian’s. “I’ve got suitcases you could have used.”
“The duffel is fine.”
“You have enough money?”
“Plenty.”
“You have that ATM card I gave you?”
“Yes, and I remember the PIN. If I need extra money, which I won’t, I’ll ask Adrian to get some out for me.” Rooke grimaced, feeling a little bit like a twelve-year-old going away to camp for the first time. She wasn’t worried, but she owed it to Pops to make sure he wasn’t either. “I’ve also got the medical and emergency contact cards in my wallet. Nothing is going to happen to me.”
“I know that.” Pops pulled the visor down against the slanting afternoon sun. “Ask Adrian to take some pictures at the gallery. I don’t imagine you’ll remember.”
“The show isn’t for another few weeks,” Rooke said. “Maybe you could come down with me then. It’s not that far and—”
Pops put his hand on her knee and squeezed gently, then returned it to the wheel. “I guess I’ll have to buy a new suit.”
Rooke laughed. “Why? I’m not going to.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if one of those ladies doesn’t convince you otherwise.”
“One of those…oh, Melinda and Adrian.” Rooke sighed. “Yeah, Melinda will probably have something to say about that.”
Pops shot her a quick look. “She looks like a woman who gets what she wants.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You two, ah—”
“No,” Rooke said as Pops turned into Adrian’s driveway.
“Not that my opinion matters, and whatever you decide is fine with me,” Pops shut off the engine and sat with his hands on the wheel at ten and two, “but I noticed Adrian has a way of looking at you like she sees you, all the way through.”
“I know,” Rooke said. “Feels that way too.”
Pops nodded. “That’s good, then.”
“Yeah, it is. I better see if she needs a hand with her luggage.” Rooke opened the door and jumped out, then leaned on the open door until her grandfather turned to look at her. “Thanks, Pops. I couldn’t ask for a better family.”
“Same here,” Pops said gruffly. “Now go help the lady.”
*
“Really, Grandmother, there’s no need for you to call out the cavalry,” Adrian said, trying valiantly to harness her irritation. With the phone tucked between her ear and shoulder, she crossed off items on her list as she took one more walk around the house. “Everything here is under control, and I’m sure both my father and my brother have better things to do than drive up here to check on the things I’ve already taken care of. Besides, I probably won’t even be gone a week.”
“I don’t understand why you have to go back to the city so soon. What can be so important, it can’t wait?”
“I told you a few minutes ago. Rooke Tyler is going to be staying with me for a few days while she prepares for an upcoming show.” Adrian sat down on the bottom step of the wide, curving staircase that led to the second floor and closed her eyes. Whenever she mentioned Rooke, her grandmother seemed to develop a case of selective deafness, and she was tired of it. “Rooke is very important to me. Why is that so difficult for you to accept?”
“Don’t you think you’ve asked your family to accept quite enough,” Elizabeth Winchester said, her tone rife with disapproval.
“Really? And what would those things be? My desire to choose my own career? My refusal to let the men in the family plan my life? Or maybe the fact that I’m a lesbian—”
“There’s no need to be disrespectful,” Elizabeth snapped.
Adrian sighed, still amazed that her family could press her buttons so easily. “How could you condone Ida Hancock disowning her own daughter and then refusing to acknowledge her granddaughter? She’s your best friend—why didn’t you try to change her mind?”
“She had good reasons for her decisions.”
“What reasons could there possibly be? You have no idea what an amazing woman Rooke—”
“Really, Adrian, you’re starting to sound quite taken with her. I realize that you’ve always wanted to be different, so of course you would be enamored of someone who’s different—”
“Different?” Adrian laughed harshly and dropped her head on her bent knees. “Oh, Rooke is different, all right. She has no agendas. She’s completely honest. She’s amazingly sensitive and more talented than anyone I’ve ever met. She’s…” Adrian stopped short of saying, she’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a woman. There were some things her grandmother would never understand and there was no reason to punish herself by trying to make her. “Let’s not argue.”
“We wouldn’t have to argue if you would simply stop your stubborn insistence on casting aside every standard your family values. You are well past the age for adolescent rebellion.”
Adrian shot to her feet. “I’m not rebelling, Grandmother. I’m choosing my own life.”
“And I suppose you would choose someone completely unsuitable for you in every way, just to make your point?”
“No,” Adrian said. “Not to make a point. To have an honest life.”
Elizabeth Winchester snorted. “Oh my dear, such idealism. No wonder your parents despair of you ever coming to your senses.”
“I have to go now, Grandmother. Rooke is here. I’ll speak to you later in the week.”
“Don’t make a decision you’ll regret,” Elizabeth said.
“Believe me,” Adrian said as she softly disconnected, “I’m trying hard not to.”
Adrian put the phone back in the kitchen and pulled on her field jacket just as a knock sounded at the front door. She grabbed her briefcase and hurried into the foyer. The anger and sadness her grandmother’s words had prompted melted away in anticipation of seeing Rooke. She pulled open the door and Rooke was there, her eyes alight with the same expectation that trembled in Adrian’s chest. Adrian dropped her bags and threw her arms around Rooke’s neck, kissing her with abandon. Sometime in the middle of the kiss, Rooke must have wrapped both arms around Adrian’s waist because when Adrian, breathless and exhilarated, tore her mouth away from Rooke’s, her feet were no longer touching the porch.
Laughing, Adrian said, “Put me down.”
In answer, Rooke kissed her and spun her in a circle, then gently released her. “Hi. I missed you.”
Adrian’s giddy excitement instantly coalesced into arousal. She gripped the front of Rooke’s leather jacket in her fists and tugged her toward the still-open front door. “You have no idea.”
“Adrian,” Rooke said, her voice low and husky. “Melinda’s car will be at Stillwater in fifteen minutes.”
“They’ll wait.” Adrian unzipped Rooke’s jacket and curled her fingers inside the waistband of Rooke’s jeans. “I missed you too.”
“Pops is in the truck.”
Adrian went rigid. “Oh my God. Oh. My. God.”
Rooke laughed. “It’s okay. But we probably should get going.”
“Your grandfather just saw me attack you like some sex-crazed maniac.” Adrian’s voice was shrill. “I can’t get in the truck with him now.”
“He probably wasn’t watching.” Rooke grinned, grabbed Adrian’s briefcase, and pulled the front door closed. “And even if he was, he won’t care. He likes you.”
“He likes me,” Adrian repeated softly, and her throat closed. She hadn’t realized until just that moment how much she cared that Rooke’s grandfather like her. Because Rooke loved him, and he loved her.
“Who wouldn’t?” Rooke said with absolute sincerity.
“My family, for starters.” Adrian smiled sadly, feeling the old familiar ache that came from knowing she wasn’t the daughter or the granddaughter her family wanted.
Rooke frowned. “What happened?”
Adrian waved a hand as they made their way down the sloping curve of the drive toward the truck. “Nothing that hasn’t happened dozens of times before.”
“Are you all right?” Rooke paused before opening the door to the truck and cupped Adrian’s chin, searching her eyes. “Adrian?”
“I am now.” Adrian longed to throw herself into Rooke’s arms again, to feel herself soar in the incredible freedom and safety of her embrace. Instead, she pressed her palm to Rooke’s chest and found solace in her immutable strength. “Just stay close, okay?”
“Right here.” Rooke covered Adrian’s hand where it rested on her chest. “Right here.”
*
“Pretty fancy ride,” Rooke commented after she and Adrian settled into the rear of the Town Car Melinda had sent for them.
“Melinda knows how to treat her clients,” Adrian muttered. A smoked glass privacy window separated them from the female driver in front. The young redhead, dressed in the requisite dark suit, white shirt, and black tie, had greeted them with professional friendliness as she loaded their luggage into the trunk. When she’d held the door open for them, however, she’d surveyed Rooke with blatant interest. And when she’d noticed Adrian watching her cruise Rooke, she’d smiled with a hint of challenge. Adrian had managed to bite back a retort, but she was fuming. Was she just now noticing that every woman in the world had sex on the brain, or was it just that every woman who saw Rooke suddenly got hungry? Of course, she could completely understand it. Rooke wore a pale blue button-down-collar shirt and broken-in jeans that were faded in the knees and crotch. With her dark hair and eyes and her brown leather bomber jacket and scuffed brown boots, she was mouthwateringly sexy. Adrian could barely look at her without wanting Rooke all over her. She wondered what Melinda’s driver would report if Rooke fucked her blind right here on the plush leather seat. The image slammed home and Adrian gasped.
“Something wrong?” Rooke asked.
“No, nothing.”
Rooke didn’t look as if she believed her, but she didn’t push. Instead, she leaned back and stretched out her legs, her long lean thigh lightly brushing Adrian’s, making it even harder for Adrian not to straddle her lap and beg to be taken. Even Melinda’s simmering seductiveness hadn’t melted her mind like this. She had to find a distraction before she embarrassed herself, so she tried to put herself in Rooke’s position. What must she be feeling about the upcoming show? What must it be like for her, about to become immersed in a city of a million strangers?
“What about maps?” Adrian asked. “Are they of any use to you?”
“I’m good with spatial orientation,” Rooke said. “I never get lost when I’m driving, but I haven’t traveled very far. I can look at a map and remember general relationships between continents and things like that.”
“Wait a minute.” Adrian dug around in her briefcase and found a dog-eared map of Manhattan with the bus routes and subway system in one of the pockets. It’d probably been there for years. She unfolded it, shifted closer to Rooke, and balanced it on their laps. She traced the outline of Manhattan with her finger. “This is what the borough looks like.” She pointed to her neighborhood and then the location of Melinda’s gallery. “I live here…and Osare, Melinda’s gallery, is over here.”
“Uh-huh.” Rooke traced off the intersections. “Ten blocks east, four blocks south.”
“Exactly.” Adrian hugged Rooke’s arm. “Even if you’re off by a block or so, anyone would be able to tell you which way to go as long as you know my address.”
“Are you planning for me to get lost?”
“No,” Adrian said quickly, then realized from Rooke’s smile that she was being teased. “I just…I didn’t think you’d want to be dependent on me to get around. Not that I mind, because I’d love to sho—”
“Adrian.”
Rooke took Adrian’s hand and in a single beat of her heart, the car, the snowy fields flashing by outside the windows, the muted glow of the dying sun disappeared, and all Adrian could see were the flames of a thousand lifetimes burning in Rooke’s eyes.
“God, you’re beautiful,” Adrian murmured.
“I’m looking forward to being with you. It doesn’t bother me to need your help.” Rooke entwined her fingers with Adrian’s and rested their joined hands on her knee. “Show me the rest of the city on the map.”
“Okay,” Adrian said, keeping a tight hold on Rooke’s hand. She loved touching her, something else that was completely new for her. “Here…”
A faint crackle followed by the driver’s announcement that they had arrived startled Adrian back to awareness. She’d completely lost track of time as she’d answered Rooke’s questions and described the city. Sometime during the trip, night had fallen.
“It will make more sense to you during the day,” Adrian said as they waited inside the car for the driver to unload the luggage. “We’ll go for a walk tomorrow.”
“How about tonight? Too cold?”
Adrian squeezed Rooke’s hand. “I’d love to go for a walk.”
The redhead opened the door and Adrian and Rooke climbed out.
“Thanks,” Rooke said.
“My pleasure,” the redhead said, handing Rooke an embossed white business c
ard. “My name is Valencia. Feel free to call me if you need anything. Ms. Singer has instructed me to be at your disposal.” She paused. “Night or day. Call my cell.”
Rooke put the card in her jacket pocket without a glance. “Thank you. I’m sure Adrian will have everything I need.”
Valencia laughed softly. “You never know.” Then she gave a small salute, walked around to the driver’s side, and a few seconds later the car pulled away.
Rooke grabbed her duffel bag and Adrian’s briefcase. “Should we put these inside?”
“Come on,” Adrian said, unexpectedly excited to be having a houseguest. Not just any guest. Rooke. She was torn between wanting to show her some of the city sights at night, when everything looked cleaner and brighter, and staying inside with her, only the two of them, cocooned from the world. Selfish of her, probably. She’d grown up here. For Rooke it was a brand-new universe. She opened her apartment door and held it wide. “You can just dump the bags in the living room for now.”
When Adrian turned on the lamp, Rooke scanned the room. The not overly large room appeared at once lived-in and subtly luxurious—gleaming hardwood floors, a large oriental wool area rug, a sofa and matching chairs in a muted navy pattern, brass lamps with silk shades, and a huge oak table that Adrian used as a desk in front of three bay windows. Floor-to-ceiling built-in dark wood bookcases occupied one entire wall, and every shelf was full. Several piles of magazines sat on the coffee table and end tables.
“This is nice,” Rooke said, enjoying a glimpse of Adrian’s life even though she couldn’t help but notice how far apart their lives were.
“Thanks, you look good in it.” When Rooke laughed, Adrian slung her arm around Rooke’s waist and kissed her cheek. “Let’s take that walk.”
*
Rooke had a headache by the time they returned. She’d thought she’d known what to expect, but her preconceptions hadn’t been anywhere near the reality. They’d walked as far as Times Square because she’d wanted to see the place she’d heard about in so many of her audiobooks. The picture she’d had in her mind was somewhat accurate, only several orders of magnitude less chaotic. The sheer weight of humanity—the crush of pedestrians at an hour of the night when most people in Ford’s Crossing were in bed, the clamor of bumper-to-bumper traffic, the flashing marquee lights advertising the names of people and events she couldn’t read. Earlier when she’d looked at the map, she’d been confident she could site a few landmarks and be able to orient herself enough to get around, even alone. Now she wasn’t sure at all.