The relief in Mark’s eyes touched her.
“Where’s Beth?” she asked.
“You didn’t hear? Hamilton pulled the funding for the grants, and a foundation stepped in, but they required an audit to verify the grants had been properly assigned. When they discovered Beth had received a slot when she was not the next most qualified musician, she had to leave. We’re expecting her replacement tomorrow.”
“I’m happy for you,” Amanda said.
Pain flickered across his face, then he glanced at Luke. “I need to tell you some things, but this isn’t the place or time.”
Bresnan approached, beaming with pride. “Not bad, Hammer—we made the old man cry.”
“You made him very proud.” Amanda kissed Bresnan on the cheek.
“Don’t encourage Bresnan—he fancies himself a lady’s man,” Mark warned her.
“And you don’t?” Bresnan challenged. “And while I think you’re a complete moron for dropping Amanda, I give you points for telling Bavard to fuck off. If he drops you, I’ll talk to Chevaux. He hates Americans, but he’ll love your talent.”
“I appreciate that, but I think I’ve got my future squared away. I just need to focus on making my violin sound as perfect as Amanda’s voice.”
“What about you, Amanda? I’d make a call for you as well,” Bresnan offered.
“To be honest, I’m thinking about switching to composing.”
“Well, Chevaux handles some of the best composers in the world. However, you’ll need more training before he’ll take you on.”
Amanda laughed. “I should hope so. And when I acquire significantly more experience, I’ll call you up and remind you of your promise to introduce me.”
Bresnan glanced at Luke standing politely at her side, then leaned in so he could whisper in her ear. “Feel free to call me as soon as your friend goes home.”
She kissed him on the cheek and promised she would.
***
It was nearly four a.m. when the last students left. Her professors had stayed to the very end to ensure the house survived. Bastion asked if she wanted help returning the antiques to the first floor, but she assured him she would take care of it tomorrow.
“Do not be late for class,” Pinchot warned her.
“Class? Isn’t today Friday?”
“No,” he replied. “You were quite thoughtless and had this on a school night.”
“I thought it was Friday. What day is it?”
“It is Wednesday morning now, and it was Tuesday when the party began.”
“My God, I got into all that trouble in two days? That doesn’t seem possible!”
Pinchot leaned in and kissed her. “Well, you are a remarkable young lady.” He then openly admired Luke. “And you are most imposing. Take good care of our angel.”
Luke’s hand touched the small of her back. “I’ll do my best.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Jules didn’t speak to Amanda for the remainder of the week. She couldn’t help but feel there was a giant boom hanging over her head, which he would eventually drop. He seemed all too complacent about her rebellion.
On Friday, Sean called her while she had lunch with her ‘family’.
“Do you still wish to take me hiking in the Alps?”
She laughed. “I would love to take you hiking.”
However, Luke, who was clearly eavesdropping on her call, interrupted her and told her to make sure Sean knew he’d be coming as well.
When she relayed the message to Sean, he paused. “Any way around that?”
“Sorry, no. Where I go, my security goes.”
After a heavy sigh, Sean asked her to put Luke on the phone.
Luke took the phone, listened, and assured him that wasn’t a problem as long as Miss Carrington was a willing participant and he didn’t mind a third party watching.
If the volume of his answer was any indication, Sean clearly did mind having a third party watch. She took the phone back and calmed Sean down. “I’ll talk to him,” she promised.
Once she ended the call, she studied Luke. “Are you all right with this?”
“I’m fine,” he assured her.
After spending three days in his company, she wasn’t so certain that was true. It was as if some monster had taken a large chunk of Luke’s soul and devoured it. While he was always gentle and caring toward her, he seemed almost as soulless as Sean’s garden.
He never spoke about what had happened to him, but she was afraid Julia and Chad had permanently scarred him. Determined to bring him back to life, she had asked Adam for advice on the matter. He cautioned her to go slowly and just be Luke’s friend.
Still, she was concerned her dating Sean would send him into a relapse.
“If you don’t want me to go, I won’t,” she assured him.
He smiled and stroked her hair. “To be honest, I’m looking forward to some exercise and fresh air.”
She laughed and playfully punched him in his stone-hard abs, then complained her hand hurt.
“You have become very childish.”
“It comes from hanging around with kids.”
“I like it,” he said. “You’re kind of cute.”
She laughed. “Don’t encourage me. Absolutely no one else thinks my behavior is cute.”
***
When Amanda opened the front door and saw Sean, her heart lifted. He entered, closed the door and gave her a kiss that set her whole body tingling. He then glared at Luke. “You got a problem with that?”
“Not as long as you don’t kiss her like that on a ledge, because she looks a bit unbalanced now,” Luke replied.
Sean pulled her tight against his chest and studied her. “So he’s really just a security guard?”
“He’s also a very good friend of mine.”
“But he’s not sleeping with you?” Sean challenged.
“We aren’t lovers, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“That was what I was asking,” he admitted, anger etched on his face.
“Did Jules tell you we were lovers?”
“Yes, he did. Right after he apologized for ever introducing me to you and retracted his request that I record your song.”
“Jules retracted the offer?”
“Yes—he tried to palm off another blonde in your place.”
“Was her name Amy?”
“I don’t remember. He had her sing your aria and I was tempted to knock one of us unconscious so the horrid noise would stop.”
“Do we have leeway in our flight time?” she asked.
“A little, why?”
“Because I’d like to evict Jules and his lover from my house.” She noticed Sean’s frown and realized he might not wish to be part of this battle. “You’re a hard read, so I need you to tell me what you want to do. You can either wait here, wait in your car, or cancel the hike, but I’ve put up with that man taking over my house and my life because he was supposed to be helping me. However, he has clearly reneged on his contract, and I want him out of my house before we go hiking—that is if you still want to go.”
“I do, but allow me to accompany you during your eviction.”
Luke followed as well, so three people entered Jules’ locked bedroom and surprised him and Anon in bed.
“What the hell?” Jules exclaimed when he realized he had an audience.
“Sorry for the interruption, Jules, but I would like you and Anon to leave my house immediately,” Amanda said.
“And I would like to know why Amanda didn’t know you’ve canceled her contract,” Sean added.
“When did he cancel my contract?” she asked.
“Tuesday afternoon, soon after you left my house.”
“You canceled my contract because I hired Luke?” she asked in shock.
“Leaving me on that street was the last straw.” He then listed the multitude of crimes she had committed in her short time under his tyranny.
“Weren’t you legally requir
ed to notify me when you dumped me?”
“You were notified,” he assured her.
“Exactly how did you achieve this legal notification? Because you never mentioned you were no longer my agent when you ripped up my composition and tossed it into the fire.”
“I did no such thing,” he replied.
“Luke makes an excellent witness in a court of law,” she assured Jules. “He’s FBI, remember?”
Suddenly Jules didn’t look quite so arrogant and sure of himself. “The official notification was sent to your campus address. However, I did mention it to you in the car.”
“No you didn’t, and since you just admitted you canceled my contract after I left you on the street, that means Luke has been in my company ever since. You never told me you had ended my contract, and he can testify to that as well. And that was a very important composition you destroyed.”
“Hardly,” he replied.
“Well, twenty-four musicians heard it played, some well-acclaimed professors, so I remain confident that I can prove it was valuable to me and my career as a composer.”
Jules centered himself. “We are all out of sorts just now. If you will be so kind as to leave the room so I may dress, we can discuss this downstairs.”
“There is nothing more at this point I wish to discuss. I always knew you were unpleasant, but I had hoped you were sincere when you claimed you put my interests before your own. You have proven that is false.”
“I could do nothing for you! At every step, I was thwarted by Adam and your own erratic behavior!”
“I’m more inclined to think it was my dislike of your boyfriend that turned you, but whatever the reason, I am free of you, and that makes me happy. Now I’m going hiking to clear my head of all the misery you brought me. If you and your boyfriend aren’t gone within the hour, Andrew will call the police and have you arrested for trespassing.”
Luke looked up at the ceiling. “Impressive security system. Are the video cameras tape-driven or digital?”
“Digital,” she replied. “Adam only buys the best,” she bragged as they walked out of the room. Sean stopped as soon as the door was closed.
“I’ve a few words of my own to say to Jules. Wait downstairs and I’ll be down in a second.”
Amanda wasn’t certain why he bothered to send her downstairs. His bellowing voice was so loud it echoed through the timbers. Evidently Jules had said a bit more than what Sean had shared with her, and it had painted a pretty bleak picture.
Sondra decided Martin needed to practice his cello so he wouldn’t hear the discussion. Amanda let Andrew know he could call the police if Jules and Anon weren’t out of the house in an hour.
Andrew breathed in and puffed out his chest. “I will do so with pleasure.”
While Amanda had laid the foundation for a lawsuit, Sean was actually threatening Jules with one if he didn’t publicly retract the lies he’d spread. By the time they returned from the Alps, he wanted her reinstated in the opera for the opening night.
Jules reminded Sean he was no longer her agent. “You’ve never been her agent, at least not one worth shit. Just see it done or I’ll go after your reputation until you won’t be able to sign a chorus girl.”
“Well, as long as he never yells at you like that, he’s not a bad choice,” Luke said.
***
They arrived in the French Alps by helicopter. Sean had added a guide to their group, so there were four of them. The guide was female and tried her hardest to seduce Luke, but Luke was simply not seducible.
They stopped in a beautiful meadow for lunch. A sloping field of wildflowers surrounded by blue-tinged cedar trees tantalized her eyes. She looked up to see if Sean appreciated the perfection of nature.
He breathed in deeply, then breathed out. “My God, this is breathtaking.” He pulled her against him, her back pressed to his chest. “When we get home, I’m having my garden bulldozed. It’s not that my heart has hardened into a rock. It’s just I’m living in a soulless environment, dating soulless women.”
“Good thing we aren’t dating, or I’d be so insulted,” she teased.
“We had better be starting something, because I’ve fallen completely in love with you.”
She turned and faced him. “And today, when you came to my defense despite all the things you’d been told, I realized I was in love with you as well. Even Luke thinks you’ll be good for me as long as you never raise your voice to me like you did with Jules.”
“I’m sorry you heard all that.”
“I’m not, because now I realize how amazing it was that you called me for our hike.”
“I expected to hear from you on Wednesday asking me for favors. I intended to give you an angry dismissal, but you never called. Then on Friday morning I received more details about your friend Adam, and isolated which Luke in the FBI was coming to be your bodyguard. I recalled Jules making me think the Rolls was his when you’d said it was Adam’s.”
“It is Adam’s,” she assured him.
“I verified that. What I discovered during my investigation was that you don’t lie, while Jules will lie about little, meaningless matters. So I decided to test the waters and see if you still wanted to know me now your recording deal was dead. And you were so happy to hear from me.”
“I was, although I didn’t know the record deal was dead,” she warned him.
“But you do now, and you’re still here.”
“I am still here.” Her hands curled into his.
“So, is the new future that Adam mentioned the possibility of you becoming a composer?”
“Monsieur Bastion believes I have great potential, but I’ll require years of schooling before we know for certain.”
“So I’m no use to you at all?”
“Well, not in my career, but I’m looking for someone to make my toes tingle, and I think you’re highly qualified for the position.”
He laughed. “Is that so?” He kissed her with tender passion. When he broke the kiss, she reminded him of Luke’s warning not to kiss her on the sides of cliffs.
“I’ll take care of you,” he promised. “I’ll find you a nice house.”
She stared at him in confusion. “Sean, I don’t expect you to either take care of me or move my career forward. I just want you to be my friend and lover.”
“I don’t mind taking care of you,” he assured her.
“But I mind. I don’t want you ever to doubt my feelings for you.”
“I admire your independence, but you cannot continue living off Adam.”
“But Adam doesn’t mind. In fact, he would be broken-hearted if I didn’t let him meddle in my life. It’s his favorite occupation.”
“Well, you need to tell him to go meddle somewhere else.”
“I can’t. It really would break his heart.”
“What about my heart?”
She caressed his face and studied his fierce expression, wondering how she was going to get them beyond this impasse. “This isn’t the first time I’ve fallen in love. I’ve discovered that love mixed with passion can create intense feelings, but the feelings often don’t last. There was a time when I thought Jules might even be in love with me, but whatever I do to create such adoration is short-lived. The only friends who remain true are those who remain friends and nothing more. All my passionate loves burn out.”
“So you expect me to burn out?”
“Yes, possibly even today, but hopefully not. I’m hoping you’ll realize I’m exactly what you need to regain faith in love.”
“And what is that?”
“A woman who wants to love you and asks nothing in return. I don’t want money, my career advanced, or my bills paid. I don’t even want a commitment. I just want to love you.”
“You’re driving me crazy!”
She could see she was, but had no idea why. She met his eyes and grimaced. “I seem to have that effect on people.”
Chapter Thirty
Sean proved to be a d
ifficult and jealous lover. He resented her time at school, her security guard, and most of all, Adam.
“Why bother with school if you are quitting the industry?” he demanded a week into their relationship.
“I’m not quitting the industry, I’m going to become a composer,” she reminded him. “And that means I need more, not less training.”
He also hated driving to “Adam’s house” to see her.
“I’m a busy man, you know! I have responsibilities.”
“I understand entirely. I find myself a bit overwhelmed with the additional assignments Pinchot and Simon are piling on me. So if you only want to see me on the weekends, I won’t blame you.”
“Damn it! That’s not what I want at all. I want you always beside me.” He covered her face with kisses. “I want to make love to you.”
“Well, I’ve no complaints there.”
“But not in your former boyfriend’s house,” he added. “I want you in a house closer to me.”
“I like living where I am, and Adam is not a former boyfriend. He was my friend, he is my friend, and he will always be my friend.”
That comment had earned her curses as Sean dressed and stormed from the house. He didn’t call or stop by until the weekend, when he arrived with roses and apologized most adeptly in her bed.
The next week he had to share her evenings with Bastion, Simon and Richart as they listened to her sing the aria each night. She feared he must be bored silly, but he assured her that was far from the case.
“Your voice is extraordinary,” he declared after they made love. “I could listen to it forever. In fact, I am thinking perhaps I should record you.”
“Aren’t I blacklisted?”
“No. I convinced Jules he didn’t want to do that.”
“Then why did you no longer want to record me?”
“Hey! You’re the one who said you didn’t want a recording, remember?” he chided her.
“I do,” she assured him. “I was just curious why you want to record me now, when you were fine with our current situation yesterday.”
“Well, for the record, I am not fine with our current situation. I want you closer to me!”
“I meant about recording.”
Birth of Adam (Artificial Intelligence Book 2) Page 22
