by Nora Roberts
got to tell you, I wouldn’t mind finding him in my dressing room.”
“I don’t think I can arrange that for you, Miss Fisher,” Ryan returned primly.
“Oh, honey, I could arrange it for myself if it weren’t for the way he looks at you.” She sent Ryan a friendly wink. “Of course, if you’re not interested, I could try to console him.”
The actress’s charm wasn’t easy to resist. “That won’t be necessary,” Ryan told her with a smile. “It’s a producer’s job to keep the talent happy, you know.”
“Why don’t you see if you could come up with a clone for me?” Leaving Ryan, she walked to Pierce. “Ready for me?”
Watching them work together, Ryan saw that her instincts had been on the mark. They were perfectly suited. Elaine’s frothy blond beauty and ingenue charm masked a sharp talent and flair for comedy. It was the exact balance Ryan had hoped for.
Ryan waited, holding her breath as the torches were lit. It was the first time she had seen the illusion all the way through. The flames burned high for a moment, sending out an almost blinding light before Pierce spread his hands and calmed them. Then he turned to Elaine.
“Don’t burn the dress,” she cracked. “It’s rented.”
Ryan scribbled down a note to keep in the ad lib even as he began to levitate Elaine. In moments she was floating just above the flames.
“It’s going well.”
Glancing up, Ryan smiled at Bess. “Yes, for all the problems he causes, Pierce makes it impossible for it to go otherwise. He’s relentless.”
“Tell me about it.” They watched him in silence a moment, then Bess squeezed Ryan’s arm. “I can’t stand it,” she said in undertones to keep from disturbing the rehearsal. “I have to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“I wanted to tell Pierce first, but . . .” She grinned from ear to ear. “Link and I—”
“Oh, congratulations!” Ryan interrupted and hugged her. Bess laughed. “You didn’t let me finish.”
“You were going to tell me you’re getting married.”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“Congratulations,” Ryan said again. “When did it happen?”
“Just now, practically.” Looking a little dazed, Bess scratched her head. “I was in my dressing room getting ready when he knocked on the door. He wouldn’t come in, he just stood there in the doorway sort of shuffling his feet, you know? Then all of a sudden he asked me if I wanted to get married.” Bess shook her head and laughed again. “I was so surprised, I asked him to whom.”
“Oh, Bess, you didn’t!”
“Yeah, I did. Well, you just don’t expect that sort of question after twenty years.”
“Poor Link,” Ryan murmured with a smile. “What did he say?”
“He just stood there for a minute, staring at me and turning colors, then he said, ‘Well, to me, I guess.’” She gave a low chuckle. “It was real romantic.”
“I think it was lovely,” Ryan told her. “I’m so happy for you.”
“Thanks.” After a breathy sigh, she looked over at Pierce again. “Don’t say anything to Pierce, okay? I think I’ll let Link tell him.”
“I won’t say anything,” she promised. “Will you be married soon?”
Bess sent her a lopsided grin. “Sweetie, you better believe it. As far as I can see, we’ve already been engaged for twenty years, and that’s long enough.” She pleated the hem of her sweatshirt between her fingers. “I guess we’ll just wait until after the special airs, then make the jump.”
“Will you stay with Pierce?”
“Sure.” She looked at Ryan quizzically. “We’re a team. ‘Course, Link and I will live at my place, but we wouldn’t break up the act.”
“Bess,” Ryan began slowly. “There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you. It’s about the final illusion.” She sent Pierce a worried frown as he continued to work with Elaine. “He’s so secretive about it. All he’ll say so far is that it’s an escape and he’ll need four minutes and ten seconds from intro to finish. What do you know about it?”
Bess shrugged restlessly. “He’s keeping that one close because he hasn’t worked out all the bugs.”
“What sort of bugs?” Ryan persisted.
“I don’t know, really, except . . .” She hesitated, torn between her own doubts and her loyalty. “Except Link doesn’t like it.”
“Why?” Ryan put a hand on Bess’s arm. “Is it dangerous? Really dangerous?”
“Look, Ryan, all the escapes can be dangerous, unless you’re talking a straightjacket and handcuffs. But he’s the best.” She watched Pierce lower Elaine to the floor. “He’s going to need me in a minute.”
“Bess.” She kept her hand firm on the redhead’s arm. “Tell me what you know.”
“Ryan.” Bess sighed as she looked down at her. “I know how you feel about him, but I can’t. Pierce’s work is Pierce’s work.”
“I’m not asking you to break the magician’s code of ethics,” Ryan said impatiently. “He’ll have to tell me what the illusion is, anyway.”
“Then he’ll tell you.” Bess patted her hand but moved away.
The rehearsals ran over, as Pierce’s rehearsals had a habit of doing. After attending a late afternoon production meeting, Ryan decided to wait for him in his dressing room. The problem of the final illusion had nagged at her throughout the day. She hadn’t liked the worried look in Bess’s eyes.
Pierce’s dressing room was spacious and plush. The carpeting was thick, the sofa plump and wide enough to double as a bed. There was a large-screen television, a complex stereo system and a fully stocked bar that she knew Pierce never used. On the wall were a pair of very good lithographs. It was the sort of dressing room Swan reserved for their special performers. Ryan doubted that Pierce spent more than thirty minutes a day within its walls when he was in L.A.
Ryan poked in the refrigerator, found a quart of orange juice and fixed herself a cold drink before sinking down on the sofa. Idly, she picked up a book from the table. It was one of Pierce’s, she noted, another work on Houdini. With absent interest she thumbed through the pages.
When Pierce entered, he found her curled up on the sofa, halfway through the volume.
“Research?”
Ryan’s head shot up. “Could he really do all these things?” she demanded. “I mean this business about swallowing needles and a ball of thread, then pulling them out threaded. He didn’t really do that, did he?”
“Yes.” He stripped out of his shirt.
Ryan gave him a narrowed look. “Can you?”
He only smiled. “I don’t make a habit of copying illusions. How was your day?”
“Fine. It says in here that some people thought he had a pocket in his skin.”
This time he laughed. “Don’t you think you’d have found mine by now if I had one?”
Ryan set the book aside and rose. “I want to talk to you.”
“All right.” Pierce pulled her into his arms and began to roam her face with kisses. “In a few minutes. It’s been a long three days without you.”
“You were the one who went away,” she reminded him, then halted his wandering mouth with her own.
“I had a few details to smooth out. I can’t work seriously here.”
“That’s what your dungeon’s for,” she murmured and found his mouth again.
“Exactly. We’ll go to dinner tonight. Some place with candles and dark corners.”
“My apartment has candles and dark corners,” she said against his lips. “We can be alone there.”
“You’ll try to seduce me again.”
Ryan laughed and forgot what she had wanted to talk to him about. “I will seduce you again.”
“You’ve gotten cocky, Miss Swan.” He drew her away.
“I’m not always so easy.”
“I like challenges.”
He rubbed his nose against hers. “Did you like your flower?”
“Yes, than
k you.” She circled his neck with her arms. “It kept me from harassing you.”
“I know. You find me difficult to work with, don’t you?”
“Extremely. And if you let anyone else produce your next special, I’ll sabotage every one of your illusions.”
“Well, then, I’ll have to keep you and protect myself.”
He touched his lips to hers gently, and the wave of love hit her with such force, such suddenness, Ryan clutched at him.
“Pierce.” She wanted to speak quickly before the old fear prevented her. “Pierce, read my mind.” With her eyes tightly shut, she buried her face against his shoulder. “Can you read my mind?”
Puzzled by the urgency in her tone, he drew her away to study her. She opened her eyes wide, and in them he saw that she was a little frightened, a little dazed. And he saw something else that had his heart taking an erratic beat.
“Ryan?” Pierce lifted a hand to her cheek, afraid he was seeing something only he needed to see. Afraid, too, that it was real.
“I’m terrified,” she whispered. “The words won’t come. Can you see them?” Her voice was jerky. She bit her lip to steady it. “If you can’t, I’ll understand. It doesn’t have to change anything.”
Yes, he saw them, but she was wrong. Once they were said, they changed everything. He hadn’t wanted it to happen, yet he had known, somehow, they would come to this. He had known the moment he had seen her walk down the steps to his workroom. She was the woman who would change everything. Whatever power he had would become partially hers once he said three words. It was the only real incantation in a world of illusion.
“Ryan.” He hesitated a moment but knew there was no stopping what already was. “I love you.”
Her breath came out in a rush of relief. “Oh, Pierce, I was so afraid you wouldn’t want to see.” They drew together and clung. “I love you so much. So very much.” Her sigh was shaky. “It’s good, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” He felt her heartbeat match his own. “Yes, it’s good.”
“I didn’t know I could be so happy. I wanted to tell you before,” she murmured against his throat. “But I was so afraid. It seems silly now.”
“We were both afraid.” He drew her closer, but it still wasn’t enough. “We’ve wasted time.”
“But you love me,” she whispered, only wanting to hear the words again.
“Yes, Ryan, I love you.”
“Let’s go home, Pierce.” She ran her lips along his jaw. “Let’s go home. I want you.”
“Uh-uh. Now.”
Ryan threw her head back and laughed. “Now? Here?”
“Here and now,” he agreed, enjoying the flash of devilment in her eyes.
“Somebody might come in,” she said and drew away from him.
Saying nothing, Pierce turned to the door and flicked the lock. “I don’t think so.”
“Oh.” Ryan bit her lip, trying not to smile. “It looks like I’m going to be ravished.”
“You could call for help,” he suggested as he pushed the jacket from her shoulders.
“Help,” she said quietly while he unbuttoned her blouse. “I don’t think anyone heard me.”
“Then it looks like you’re going to be ravished.”
“Oh, good,” Ryan whispered. Her blouse slid to the floor.
They touched each other and laughed with the sheer joy of being in love. They kissed and clung as though there were no tomorrow. They murmured soft words and sighed with pleasure. Even when the lovemaking intensified and passion began to rule, there was an underlying joy that remained innocent.
He loves me, Ryan thought and ran her hands up his strong back. He belongs to me. She answered his kiss with fervor.
She loves me, Pierce thought and felt her skin heat under his fingers. She belongs to me. He sought her mouth and savored it.
They gave to each other, took from each other until they were more one than two. There was rising passion, an infinite tenderness and a new freedom. When the loving was over, they could still laugh, dizzy with the knowledge that for them it was only the beginning.
“You know,” Ryan murmured, “I thought it was the producer who lured the talent to the couch.”
“Didn’t you?” Pierce let her hair run through his fingers.
With a chuckle Ryan kissed him between the eyes. “You were supposed to think it was all your idea.” Sitting up, she reached for her blouse.
Pierce sat up behind her and ran a fingertip up her spine. “Going somewhere?”
“Look, Atkins, you’ll get your screen test.” She squealed when he bit her shoulder. “Don’t try to change my mind,” she said before she slipped out of reach. “I’m finished with you.”
“Oh?” Pierce leaned back on his elbow to watch her dress.
“Until we get home.” Ryan wriggled into her teddy, then began to hook her stockings. She eyed his nakedness. “You’d better get dressed before I change my mind. We’ll end up locked in the building for the night.”
“I could get us out when we wanted to go.”
“There are alarms.”
He laughed. “Ryan, really.”
She shot him a look. “I suppose it is a good thing you decided not to be a criminal.”
“It’s simpler to charge for picking locks. People will always find a fascination in paying to see if it can be done.” He grinned as he sat up. “They don’t appreciate it if you do it for free.”
Curious, she tilted her head. “Have you ever come across a lock you can’t beat?”
“Given enough time,” Pierce said as he reached for his clothes, “any lock can be opened.”
“Without tools?”
He lifted a brow. “There are tools, and there are tools.”
Ryan frowned at him. “I’m going to have to check for that pocket in your skin again.”
“Anytime,” he agreed obligingly.
“You could be nice and teach me just one thing, like how to get out of those handcuffs.”
“Uh-uh.” He shook his head as he slipped into his jeans. “They might come in handy again.”
Ryan shrugged as if she didn’t care anyway and began to button her blouse. “Oh, I forgot. I wanted to talk to you about the finale.”
Pierce pulled a fresh shirt out of the closet. “What about it?”
“That’s precisely what I want to know,” Ryan told him. “What exactly do you have planned?”
“It’s an escape, I told you.” He drew on the shirt.
“I need more than that, Pierce. The show goes on in ten days.”
“I’m working it out.”
Recognizing the tone, Ryan stepped to him. “No, this isn’t a solo production. I’m the producer, Pierce; you wanted it that way. Now, I can go along with some of your oddities about the staff.” She ignored his indignant expression. “But I have to know exactly what’s going to be aired. You can’t keep me in the dark with less than two weeks to go until taping.”
“I’m going to break out of a safe,” he said simply and handed Ryan her shoe.
“Break out of a safe.” She took it, watching him. “There’s more to it than that, Pierce. I’m not a fool.”
“I’ll have my hands and feet manacled first.”
Ryan stooped to retrieve her other shoe. His continued reluctance to elaborate brought on a very real fear. Wanting her voice to be steady, she waited a moment. “What else, Pierce?”
He said nothing until he had buttoned his shirt. “It’s a play on a box within a box within a box. An old gimmick.”
The fear grew. “Three safes? One within the other?”
