Radiant Desire (A Handmaids Seduction, #1)

by Inara Scott

  The older woman held a dark mahogany cane, and she rested both hands on the head of it as she surveyed Kaia. Her lips were pulled in a tight, disapproving scowl. She did not shake Kaia’s hand. “I wish I had known you were coming. I would have prepared the room for you.”

  Pulling the sheet tightly around her hips, Kaia dropped her hand and tried for a smile. She couldn’t imagine what preparation needed to be done to a spotlessly clean room with no decoration or art. Dust would not be so bold as to settle on anything in this woman’s house.

  “I really appreciate you letting me stay here,” Kaia said. “The room is lovely and so comfortable.”

  “Hmph. I don’t see that I had any choice in the matter. You showed up in the middle of the night and made yourself at home. I suppose that’s how young people act these days.”

  Kaia floundered, unsure exactly what she could say in her defense. Of course, she was only at the Manor because Garrett didn’t want her at Good Sam. But did she really want to tell this woman she’d been staying at a shelter? Kaia could imagine her reaction would be similar to the man at the Gas-n-Git. She tucked the sheet more snugly around her. “I’m sorry about that, but it was late and we didn’t want to wake anyone up. Garrett said he would talk to you about it in the morning.”

  “Well, Garrett’s gone to work and all he left me was a note saying you were in the guest room. So why don’t you tell me? Exactly what do you think you are doing here?”

  Kaia’s eyes widened. Whatever she’d been expecting, it wasn’t the direct attack. She straightened. In her book, direct attack required direct response.

  “Your grandson brought me here,” she said flatly, “because I was staying at the Good Samaritan Mission and he didn’t think it was safe. Which is actually ridiculous, because at least at Good Sam, I don’t get verbally assaulted first thing in the morning by someone who won’t even tell me her name.”

  The woman narrowed her eyes. “My name is Portia Jameson. I prefer to be called Mrs. Jameson. And I happen to be a major contributor to the Good Samaritan Mission. I don’t know what on earth my grandson is talking about. We take the safety of our clients extremely seriously, especially in our shelter for women and children. Is Alfred still working there?”

  Astonished, Kaia stared at her.

  “Well, don’t look at me like a fool. Alfred, the security guard. Is he still there?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I’m sure you were perfectly safe. However, I suppose now that you’re here we can find some way for you to earn your keep.”

  “Excuse me?” Kaia’s head was still spinning with the concept that Portia knew Alfred.

  “Earn your keep,” Portia barked, her bright blue eyes sparking fire. Kaia could see in the lines of her face the origin of Garrett’s strong jaw and high cheekbones. She must have been a gorgeous woman when she was young. Even now, she radiated a kind of stern, unforgiving beauty. “Do some work. If you’re staying, you can’t expect to lounge in bed all day.”

  “Oh, I see.” Nonplussed, Kaia leaned back on her heels. It would actually feel good to have something to do other than worry about whether Garrett was already checking on her nonexistent birth certificate. “Sure. I mean, I have to be back at my regular job on Tuesday, but I’d be happy to help out while I’m here. What needs to be done? I’m pretty good with a garden. Or animals. I like animals. I can clean, but it looks like you’ve got that covered.”

  This response seemed to mollify Portia somewhat, her tone changing from aggressive to mild disdain. “I have a gardener, plenty of stable hands, and more maids than I know what to do with. What I need is someone to entertain my granddaughter. She’s staying here while her father is traveling on business and her mother is gallivanting off at some spa. I have far too much to do and she needs someone to keep her out of trouble. You’ll need to get dressed and showered first.”

  She turned to leave, hesitated a moment, and spun back around. With a tap of her cane she said, “I will expect you in the breakfast room in twenty minutes.”

  Head raised high, she stamped down the hall, a long silk scarf swirling over one shoulder. Kaia watched her go, the sheet falling from her fingers until she stood, half-naked, in her bedroom.

  “Nice job,” the imp snickered.

  “I think she likes me,” Kaia said.

  “Do you know where the breakfast room is?”

  Kaia raised her hand to her mouth in horror. “No.”

  “You better make that a quick shower. This is a big house, and I have a feeling the dragon doesn’t like it when people are late.”

  §

  Kaia took a shower in the bathroom that adjoined her bedroom and dressed as carefully as she could, matching a pair of threadbare-but-clean khaki shorts with a pale pink linen camp shirt that had been ironed so many times it was shiny. The bathroom had an assortment of soaps and lotions, and for a moment she almost felt like the old Kaia, getting ready for a night out on the town as she rubbed scented lotion into her smooth, freshly shaved legs.

  Aware that she might have to spend some time searching for the breakfast room, Kaia set out into the hallway, where she wandered the cool, air-conditioned halls for at least ten minutes before she grew truly nervous. She went down two long hallways, through a formal sitting room with a grand piano and a set of brocade furniture, and past a library with walls of books and matching cherry wood desks on either end.

  Eventually, she found herself in a breezeway that connected the main house with some exterior building. Aware that she was now hopelessly, completely lost, Kaia’s curiosity nonetheless compelled her to keep exploring. Everything she had seen thus far mirrored her bedroom—it was dustless, sterile, and entirely lacking any sign of human habitation. She tried to imagine a young Garrett growing up there, or for that matter, Garrett’s niece, but could not.

  Did they put the child in the basement?

  She found a set of double doors that led out to a wide concrete veranda, encircled by a low balustrade. Beyond the patio was thick green grass surrounded by a variety of palms, cypress, and mature oak trees and, beyond that, fields crisscrossed with picket fences. She saw a pair of horses at the edge of one field, but the rest of the fields were empty. Pristine. Everything was carefully manicured, and she had the feeling that each plant had been specifically chosen to harmonize with the others. The landscaping was beautiful, but in an empty sort of way, as if all the living creatures were holding their breath, waiting to see what would happen next.

  Kaia sighed with relief at the relatively cool morning air. She had still not grown accustomed to the way her human body reacted to Miami’s heat and humidity. Though it was only May, stepping outside in the middle of the day left her eyes squinty and her blood rushing to her face. Even the buzz that signaled the arrival of the first mosquito of the day couldn’t convince her to rush inside, where the hum of air conditioning would quickly drown out the hum of dragonflies zipping past her head, apparently headed toward a pond she could see in the distance.

  She walked over to a bench positioned under an oak tree with wide, spreading branches. As she started to lower herself to sitting, a wad of moss fell on her head.

  She looked up and saw a scrap of beige fabric and heard the giggle of a child.

  “Excuse me, is there someone there?” Kaia called.

  The giggle came again, and then a voice from somewhere in the branches above. “Shhh. You mustn’t tell Aunt Portia I’m here,” the invisible child whispered.

  “Oh, don’t worry about that. I doubt I’d be able to find her again.” Kaia leaned closer to the tree and squinted up through the branches. “What are you doing up there? And did you want this back?”

  She held up the wad of grey-green moss.

  A child’s face emerged through the thick foliage. She must have been six or seven, and she had huge eyes that radiated the same intense blue as Garrett and his grandmother. “I’m making a house for a faerie,” she said. “And yes, thank you, I would like that back.
”

  As Kaia gaped at her, the child emerged from her hiding place just long enough to scamper down the trunk of the tree a few feet, lean out from a low-hanging branch, grab the moss, and disappear back into the leaves.

  “A house for a faerie?” Kaia repeated. She couldn’t tell if the child was serious or not, but in her experience, if anyone knew about the Fey, it was the younger humans. They weren’t as good as their adult counterparts at shutting out the things they didn’t want to see. “In a tree? Do faeries like to live in trees?”

  “I don’t really know,” the child admitted. “My friend Miranda got a book for her birthday with pictures of faeries hanging around flowers, so I think they like flowers better than trees. Aunt Portia wouldn’t let me make a house for faeries in her flower garden, so I thought I’d make one up here. My name’s Alexandra, but all my friends call me Lexi. What’s your name?”

  “Kaia.” She studied the trunk of the tree and the small, black-booted leg that was now visible, propped against it. She directed her voice toward where she supposed the child’s head would be. “What are you making the faerie house out of?”

  “Moss and sticks—you know, the usual sorts of things. I’ve got some flowers in it, too,” the child’s voice continued as she disappeared from view. “And I made a little bed out of leaves and grass. Do you think they’ll like that?”

  Kaia herself would never have lived in a spot frequented by humans, but she supposed some faeries would, or maybe a sprite or a pixie. Humans couldn’t tell the difference between the races. “I’m sure of it.”

  The leaves above her head rustled, and a small branch snapped. A moment later one leg, then two, emerged into the space next to Kaia. The child swung from a branch about five feet off the ground and dropped with a thud. She wore snug riding breeches, a black hat, and a white button-down, long-sleeved shirt. When she straightened, she studied Kaia with an intense gaze.

  “Do you think fairies get cold at night?” she asked. “Maybe I should make them a blanket.”

  “They probably aren’t like humans,” Kaia replied, looking up with a deliberately thoughtful air, as if considering the question. “They probably don’t get cold or hungry the way you or I do.”

  The child’s face fell. “I don’t think they’ll like my house at all,” she said sadly. “If they don’t get cold or feel things, why would they need a house?”

  “Just because faeries aren’t like people doesn’t mean they don’t like to have a place to live. I expect a faerie would love the house you built, especially because you made it of natural things. Faeries are from the earth, you know, so they like to be surrounded by living things.”

  “You know a lot about faeries,” the girl said, her voice filled with respect. “Most grown-ups don’t even believe in faeries.”

  “I used to live in a place where they still believed in faeries,” Kaia said. She wanted to keep her tone light, but an unexpected tug of emotion tightened her throat. She cleared it and forced a smile. “A long time ago.”

  §

  Kaia let Lexi direct her to the breakfast room. They spent the rest of the day together, visiting the stables, watching cartoons, playing with Lexi’s dolls, and reading hundreds of books. After a rest in the air-conditioned house, Lexi insisted they spend almost two hours in the swimming pool before Portia insisted Lexi got bathed and tidied in time for dinner.

  By that time, Kaia was exhausted. Sprites had nothing on six-year-old humans.

  Kaia and Lexi ate dinner together in the “family” dining room. Portia appeared to criticize Lexi on her table manners and to bark a series of questions to Kaia about what they had done all day. After that she disappeared, remarking that she wished she could spend all day playing with ponies and lounging beside a swimming pool. Kaia wanted to ask if she’d heard from Garrett but decided against it. No sense poking the beast.

  After dinner Lexi went off to bed, and there was still no sign of Garrett. Kaia rolled around on the bed in her room, looking at magazines and flipping through a book of poetry she found on an end table, until the sky began to darken and quiet settled over the house. That was when she realized with surprise that it was the first time she’d had a chance to be outside, by herself, in a garden since she’d come to Miami.

  Feeling just a little naughty, though she couldn’t say exactly why, Kaia dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and pants, covered any exposed skin with DEET—she’d learned something from her trip to the Everglades—and headed for the breezeway and the garden she’d found earlier that day.

  The air was warm, with an intoxicating fragrance of vanilla and almond that seemed to originate from a slightly gangly plant with dark green leaves and small white flowers. Kaia felt a sense of peace steal over her as she settled down amidst the plants. A flowering butterfly bush swayed gently in the breeze above her. Nestled alongside it stood a fire bush with dark red flowers.

  Kaia tucked herself into a ball and stared up at the sky, willing her human form to sink into the soil the way her faerie body used to. She breathed deeply, forgetting about Zafira, Garrett, and all the things she was terrified she’d never be able to accomplish, and focused instead on the fragrance, the feeling of the moist air on her skin, and the sounds of life all around her. The scent of sage and the sweet presence of petunias calmed her, and for a time, she slipped into a deep meditative state.

  She could have been there for hours, she really didn’t know, but her next conscious thought was that the sound of the saxophone made her feel like she was back in Faeria.

  The saxophone? She straightened and turned her head to locate the origin of the sound. Not more than twenty feet away, on a concrete bench, sat Garrett, playing softly on a brass instrument that glowed in the reflected light of the house. The sound was smooth and mournful, wrapping itself around Kaia like the air and the breeze and settling in her stomach like a glass of rich red wine.

  The sound was haunting, and if she closed her eyes, she could imagine she was surrounded by magic. The music touched her soul, fitting perfectly alongside the creak of the frogs and the hum of the dragonflies. Kaia was captivated. She sat and listened until he stopped and laid the instrument in his lap. Feeling like she had eavesdropped on a private conversation, Kaia cleared her throat.

  He leaned forward, clearly struggling to make out her face in the dim light. “Kaia? Is that you? What the hell are you doing down there?”

  She got to her feet reluctantly, dusting off her bottom and stretching up to the sky for a second before meeting his gaze. “I was just sitting.”

  “In the dirt?” he said incredulously. “For how long?”

  She shrugged. “A while. I don’t really know.”

  He shook his head. “Portia can drive people to all sorts of strange behaviors, but I haven’t seen this one before.”

  “It’s the garden,” she said. Kaia brushed her hand against the velvety petals of the flowering fire bush. “I wanted to be in the garden. It’s beautiful. I don’t get to spend much time outdoors anymore, especially not someplace like this.”

  He eyed her for a moment, and patted the seat beside him. His face revealed none of his emotions. “I talked to Rachel this afternoon.”

  Kaia gulped. “About what?”

  “You.” His eyes glittered. “I’m not sure what you’ve done to her, but she’s turned into quite a fan. She didn’t like the idea of me looking into your background.”

  Kaia closed her eyes and held her body rigid. “You talked to her about my… my background?”

  “You’re her employee. I figured she ought to be involved.”

  “What did you say, exactly?” Kaia could feel the iron grip of Zafira’s hand closing around her throat. If Garrett turned Rachel against her, she had no hope. None at all.

  “I told her that when I’d met you before, you seemed to be living a different sort of life. I told her if I were her, I’d be very careful to find out as much as I could about your past.”

  Kaia cringed at his open
mistrust of her. “And?”

  “She told me to butt out.”

  Kaia opened her eyes and was shocked to find that Garrett now had a smile lurking in the corner of his mouth. “That sounds like Rachel.”

  “She also told me that you had a perfectly good driver’s license, no criminal record, and were getting the rest of your documents for her but it could be some time before you had copies. All of which, she said, was none of my business.”

  “I see. And did you agree with her assessment?” Kaia asked carefully.

  “Not particularly,” Garrett said with a lazy shake of the head. “But Rachel can be very determined. I told her I’d back off on my investigation. For now.”

  “Of course. For now.” They sat in silence. Kaia’s head spun with relief, though she wondered how long she’d have before his patience ran out. She gestured toward his sax. “So you still play? I thought you gave it up when you were younger.”

  “I don’t really play,” he said. “Not for anyone to hear.”

  She wrinkled her forehead in confusion. “Why not? You’re incredible.”

  “Hardly. I’ve always had more style than technique. I stopped taking lessons in high school and it’s been downhill ever since. No reason to let anyone hear that. Besides, it drives Portia nuts.” He flashed a grin. “Although on second thought, that might be a darn good reason to do it more.”

  Kaia watched as he stared into the darkness, the grin slowly fading from his face, his long fingers still moving on the keys. She thought about how Rachel had said Portia forbade him from taking lessons, and wondered at the pain that must have caused.

  “Why do you work for Portia?” she asked. Any other time, she had the feeling he wouldn’t have answered her. Tonight, some of the restraint that normally characterized Garrett seemed to have loosened. Maybe it was the sax. Or the garden. Whatever it was, Kaia intended to exploit it. “I mean, if she drives you so crazy, why stay in Miami at all?”

  Garrett flexed his fingers, picked up the instrument, and played a few more notes before looking at Kaia again, a rueful twist to his brows. “I didn’t plan to. I thought I would leave right after college. But then Max got his wife pregnant, and Portia sucked him into the business as a vice president. Poor kid was in over his head from the start. I took a job in the commercial real estate department to keep an eye on him, but I swore I’d never take over.” He gave her a grim smile. “I’ll never give her the satisfaction.”