“Can you pick any other instrument other than a sax? Please? What about a piano?” Despite Suzane’s pacing and glowers, Galen could tell she was enjoying herself by the way her mouth twitched to hide a smile. It was good to see her like this, and Galen couldn’t help adding more fuel to her fire.
“I think it would make the room seem crowded.” Galen’s thoughts went right back to the drums; as soon as Suzane said it, he knew it was just the right thing, but he wasn’t sure how to set it up. “You know, I like your drum idea.”
“Be serious.” Suzane grabbed a chair and pulled it up to his desk. “We cannot have drums and cymbals crashing. It would be too much. Steel drums would be even worse in the room. No one would be able to talk.”
“I am being serious,” Galen said as he considered it further. “Drums are more versatile than you think. I’m thinking a single person and hand drums, very organic, wood and hide. Drums are old and primal. I think it would go over very well.”
Suzane’s expression turned thoughtful. “You might be right. I’ll look into it tomorrow.” She stuffed her notebook into her oversized purse. “On that note, I’m calling it an early day. Thank you for not hovering over me too zealously. I appreciate it.”
“After two weeks of not having you here, I’m surprised this place is still standing. And boy, did I miss arguing with you.” Galen grinned at her and waved his hand toward the door. “Go, relax, I won’t be too far behind you.”
“I’m glad to see you getting out more. I’ll fuss at you later. Too tired tonight.” Suzane patted her bun, blew him a kiss, then left.
As soon as his office door shut, Galen sagged back in his chair, exhausted by his efforts to keep Lykon from ripping control away. Sweat popped out on his brow, and he fumbled for his cell to send a text to Nick before he remembered that he’d broken his phone. He’d ended up having to send the picture of the second statue through Knox’s phone earlier.
He started to reach for the desk phone when Lykon tugged again, and Galen slumped with a wave of dizziness. “Please don’t, just stop.” The last thing this place needed was for Galen to pass out and scare the hell out of poor Heather. She didn’t need to walk in and see Galen like Suzane.
Lykon answered with another sharp tug that made Galen groan as his control slipped even more. He gripped the edge of the desk as his vision blurred, and when he could see again, Lykon stood by the desk watching him with exasperated concern. “Why do you do that? Hold on so hard? It’s why you get so dizzy.”
“I didn’t realize it was me.” Galen let go of his death grip on the desk and straightened. “What, no attempts to possess me this time?”
“Nick has convinced me that it would not be wise to try.” Lykon studied him, his eyebrows drawn together in puzzlement. “I apologize if I offended you.”
“I wasn’t offended. I was pissed off. I don’t know you well enough to trust what you’re doing with my body.” Galen gestured to the door and tried to quell the trembling. He felt as though he’d had too much sugar and caffeine mixed together. “Dexios is in the exhibit room. Did you want me to take you there?”
“No, I wouldn’t be allowed to see him except for a too-brief encounter. That’s all the goddess allows us. Little moments. It was you who I wanted to meet, the other half of me.”
“Goddess? You’re kidding me, right?” The seriousness on Lykon’s face stopped Galen’s skeptical laughter before it could form. Nick had mentioned a goddess once, and Galen had shrugged it off as another little piece of mythology. Though at this point, he supposed he shouldn’t be surprised by anything when it came to the statues.
“Cythera, or Aphrodite, or Eve. She has many names, many aspects, but they all are the same being. Whatever name you choose to call her.” Lykon leaned closer with a frown. “You appear ill. Are you sickly?”
Galen laughed shortly and scraped a hand through his hair. “No, I’m fine. I’ve been fighting with you all afternoon. It’s very tiring.” He wanted to lay his head down on the desk and sleep for a bit, but the thought of Lykon wandering through his museum kept him awake. He needed to get up anyway and lock the place down.
“You have a very strong will. The others let me take control gladly.” Lykon watched him as Galen rose to his feet. “You do not need to escort me to Dexios. As I said, I wanted to meet you without the distraction of the curse and the statues. I think you are strong enough to handle what is to come.”
“Don’t say that,” Galen snapped, fear grabbing a hold of him with a sick little lurch. “I don’t want to be strong enough. I want to be left in peace. I want to be happy. Look, I’m sorry for what happened to you and your lover, but I don’t want it screwing with what I have with Nick. I want to be happy again. He makes me happy.”
“I do not want to interfere in your relationship. That is not what I meant. Some things should be left alone to work out on their own. We weren’t given the option.” Lykon followed Galen out of his office as he began to go through the museum checking on doors. “Life occurs whether we are braced for it or not. There are bad times as much as there are good ones. I think you know that already. What I meant is that you give me hope, for the first time in a long time, and that is painful.”
Painful and frightening. Galen could read it in his eyes. Maybe because he understood how hope could be both of those. That’s how he felt about Nick: hopeful, afraid, aching. All those emotions had welled up so hard and fast that he’d run. And by some miracle Nick had taken him back and was showing such patience too. Now that Galen knew he loved Nick, he wasn’t going to budge an inch away from him. If there ever was a time when he would’ve cut his losses and run, it was yesterday morning.
“I don’t know how I could give you hope,” Galen said as he turned on the alarm after the last door had been locked. “I have no idea what I’m doing with the statues or the curse, though I’m starting to think that there’s nothing really that we can do. The statues are reacting to the progress of our relationship. So, that’s what we really need to concentrate on and let it take its course.”
Galen glanced at Lykon to see his reaction regarding his theory, but the other man’s expression remained unchanged. “I’d like to see the curse broken and to know that you are reunited with Dexios. I don’t suppose you can let me know if I’m wildly off the mark.”
“Cythera would consider that cheating. The decisions you make have to be your own and for your own reasons.” Lykon hesitated and leaned closer. “There will be tests before she is satisfied.”
“What kind of tests?” Galen didn’t like the sound of that, but if his theory was right it made sense. All relationships had tests. It didn’t matter how long a couple was together; it was a constant growing and changing process.
Lykon shook his head and turned away. “I cannot say any more. I’ve spoken too much already. Just know that I regret taking you over without your permission.”
Galen shuddered as he remembered coming out of a half trance to find himself outside of Nick’s apartment. “So, no more trying to take me over?”
“After all these centuries, what is a little more waiting going to do to us?” Lykon said the words with a light tone, but his eyes were haunted. Galen suspected that though he was referring to the forced separation, that wasn’t the only bad memory he carried. He was also haunted by those other lives torn apart because the curse hadn’t been broken. But if Galen dwelled on that he’d make himself crazy.
How strange it must be to be split, to look at another person and know that you are a part of them, to watch generations of them, Galen thought. He couldn’t begin to imagine, and he had to take a mental step back from the realization. It was easier to concentrate on the fact that Lykon had been cursed and that somehow Galen had been picked to help. Trying to unravel the mysteries of reincarnation and looking any deeper into his connection to it was unsettling.
They both paused at the entrance to the exhibit room, their gazes going toward the statues, and Lykon sighed. “He will not app
ear tonight, I think. As I said, we only get moments.”
“There’s never enough time with the ones you love. You think you have forever, and then it’s snatched away,” Galen said. Lykon looked at him sharply and nodded. “So I’m going to hold onto the now. May I ask you a question?”
“If I can answer, I will.”
“After you were cursed, did you get to see Dexios at all? Were you granted any of those moments in your own lifetime?”
Lykon looked back toward Dexios, his eyes far away. “Just once, when I was a dying old man. The goddess relented, and he held me until the end.” He looked back at Galen, his eyes penetrating. “I wasn’t alone. Do you understand?”
Galen nodded. Oh yeah, that he understood.
NICK stood outside the museum side entrance, trying to decide whether to bang on the door or give up and go home. Since he’d driven all the way to this part of town, he thought he might as well at least try. Perhaps it would be better to go home until the simmering annoyance died away.
He’d gotten the text with the picture of the statue from a phone number he didn’t recognize. He’d tried Galen’s cell all day only to have it go straight to voice mail. He’d even dug up Galen’s office phone and hadn’t gotten an answer there either. He wanted to know what was going on, and he wanted to know now.
Nick tested the door, found it locked, and banged on it hard enough for the sound to echo between the walls of the surrounding buildings. Minutes later, the door opened and Galen peered out. He looked wan, with dark circles under his eyes, though his face lit up when he saw Nick. “Oh good, you’re here. I was getting ready to call you.”
He grabbed Nick’s hand, linking their fingers together, and the little surge of warmth that the gesture brought spiked Nick’s annoyance even more. “Do you know that you’re a pain in the ass to get a hold of? And who the hell sent me that text?”
“I did, from Knox’s phone.” Nick frowned, but he couldn’t find fault with that answer. Knox was forever hanging around the museum, though that didn’t explain why Galen had been so inaccessible after sending him that text. “I meant to call to ask you to stop by, but I kept getting interrupted. I’m so glad you’re here.”
Nick stopped, forcing Galen to stop too, as irritation bubbled over and sparked his temper. “You mean the entire day you couldn’t take five damn minutes to give me a call? You knew how I’d react to a text like that. You knew I’d want to talk about it, ask questions. Five minutes, Galen. You couldn’t have spared that?”
“I’m sorry.” Galen touched his chest in that odd gesture he had whenever Lykon was being active. “It’s been a long day. I didn’t even get a chance to go get a new phone when I broke mine. I’ll explain it all later. Come on, don’t you want to see it?”
Nick let himself be pulled along again as he tried to fight the stirrings of jealousy and irrationality. Just because they were together now didn’t give him the right to demand to know every little thing about Galen’s day or who he was with and what he was doing. He’d end up shoving Galen away, and he’d have no one to blame it on but himself. Galen had a life outside of his relationship with Nick, and the museum was a big part of that life. Just because Galen was living his dream job and that it sometimes took his attention away from Nick didn’t give him the right to act like a butthead over it.
Dexios’s words also haunted him. Lykon hadn’t been the only one to break faith. He knew what that implied, that Dexios had been at fault too, which meant that Nick needed to watch himself. But dammit, Lykon wasn’t Galen. So shouldn’t that work the other way too? Nick wasn’t Dexios, so he didn’t have to repeat his mistakes. Who was he really irked with, Galen or himself? At times with the statues and the curse, it just all got to be very confusing.
Nick’s eyes lit on the second statue, and a surge of excitement leapt up. Galen released his hand as Nick walked toward it, as awed by the sight of them together in this statue as he had been by the first. This was worth it, worth all the worry and wondering, worth the broken heart that was coming if it would just see these two back together again permanently. How many men in his family going back how many generations had worked toward seeing this, and they were halfway there? Making this right was in his blood. It was his destiny, and that meant he had to face his fears about losing Galen.
He turned around to see Galen looking at him, his expression soft, his gaze caressing. Despite the tiredness on his face, he looked so happy, and Nick’s heart flipped to see it. He wanted to see more of Galen with that exact same expression.
“What?” Nick asked. “You’re looking at me like I did something.”
Galen shook his head with a half laugh. “I love you.” Nick froze, and then his heart began to thunder as Galen walked toward him. “I told myself I would give you time. I would wait until you were ready to hear it, but you disarm me. You did when we first met and you continued to do so every day since then.”
Nick’s hope rose up again, strong and brutal. “Don’t say it if you don’t mean it. Please don’t.”
“Hey.” Galen wrapped his hand around the nape of Nick’s neck and drew him close until they were eye to eye, their breath mingling as they looked at each other. “Have I ever lied to you about how I felt? I know me. I know my heart. I love you.”
Nick wanted to believe him. Out of the corner of his eye something shimmered in the air, and they both turned to look at the same time. Moonlight had gathered around the third statue, even though there wasn’t a moon to be seen through the skylights. Somehow though, it was there, gleaming pale and wavering, shining along limbs as Lykon slowly appeared underneath Dexios. The image wasn’t solid yet, but the potential was there.
Nick’s breath caught, and he reached for Galen as Galen reached for him. For a moment, Nick thought he could hear the two men caught up in the moment, the groans and pants. He almost smelled sex and sweat, and it caught him in the gut with a visceral punch.
“Oh wow.” Galen went to kneel by them. Lykon’s head was thrown back, his lips parted as if in a groan, his expression taut with pleasure and momentary discomfort as Dexios penetrated him. His legs were wrapped around Dexios’s waist, and his hands dug into Dexios’s muscled shoulders. “They’re beautiful, even more so knowing them now, knowing what they meant to each other.”
“Yeah.” Nick tore his eyes away from Galen’s jubilant expression and stared again at the statue. One more step closer to them being fulfilled. One more step closer until Galen left him and he had his heart shattered. Somehow he’d have to find the strength to work through that, keep faith and win Galen back. He wished he didn’t know that everyone else who’d tried, failed. “We’re so close. We have to fix it. Marry me.”
Galen twisted around, his mouth falling open in shock. “What?”
Nick pulled him up, searching Galen’s face. “Marry me. I love you. You love me. Why wait?” He glanced toward the fourth statue, hoping for a shimmer, a sign, and nothing happened.
Galen tugged his arm free and stepped back, running it through his hair in agitation. “Dammit, don’t do this.”
“Don’t do what?” Nick snapped, feeling everything start to crumble, and what pissed him off was that he knew he was to blame and he didn’t know how to take it back. He could only force his way forward. “Are you ready to commit or not?” Nick bit back the rest of his angry words, knowing he was going too far, pushing at Galen and giving him reason to push back.
Galen’s expression went from shocked and bewildered to furious. “I’m saying no, not because I don’t want to be with you, but because you are asking for all the wrong reasons.”
“I—”
“Let me finish. I can’t marry someone who doesn’t trust me, who’s only asking me because he thinks it’ll give him another tie to me; make it harder for me to leave.” Galen flung his hand back toward the statues. “Who’s only asking because he wants to be the one to break the curse because he thinks it’ll bring back his family.”
Nick couldn’t loo
k at him anymore, look at those eyes so full of hurt beneath the anger. He glanced at the fourth statue, still incomplete, and felt it all falling away. How could Galen read him so well?
“No. Look at me, not the damn statues.” Nick’s gaze snapped back to Galen at the sound of those hard, furious words. “Which do you want, me or breaking the curse? Who are you really asking for? If you’re going to be with me you have to accept me with all my shortcomings, just as I’ll have to live with your insecurities until you get past them. This isn’t about the legend, it’s about us. And if your focus can’t be on us, I’m not going to be a part of this. Remember when you said you wouldn’t take anything less than me giving our relationship a real try, not a halfhearted one? Well, that’s where I am now. Don’t ask for a commitment that you aren’t willing to give in return.”
“No, don’t. I’m sorry. I fucked it up.” Nick turned his back on the Collection and reached to take Galen’s hand. Galen drew back, shoving his hands in his pockets, and the rejection cut deeper than Nick wanted to admit. He followed Galen into the hallway, trying to find the words that would keep Galen from leaving. The look on Galen’s face reminded him too much of the night that Galen had walked away. He couldn’t let that happen again.
Galen was right. Nick had let panic and anger get in the way. He’d blasted Galen for being afraid when he’d left him the first time, reacting out of fear, and now Nick wasn’t acting any different. He wanted Galen to have faith in him, but he wasn’t showing any of that faith in return.
“You loving me, I believe it. I believe you.”
Nick felt himself steady as soon as the words were out of his mouth. Galen wouldn’t lie about something so important, so it had to be true. Maybe the first step in getting his heart to have the same faith would be to acknowledge it. Galen stopped, turned around to search Nick’s face, and the smile that crossed Galen’s face made Nick’s heart skip a beat.
Make Me Whole Page 22
