by Raye Morgan
He cleared his throat, wishing he understood women. She appeared unhappy and he didn’t know if it was because of the bed situation or if something else was bothering her. “So let’s just play this by ear, okay?” he tried hopefully.
“Okay,” she said softly.
“You sleep on your side, I’ll sleep on mine. If it would make you feel better, we can make a barrier down the middle with pillows.”
Her smile was bright but wavering. “Like an old Puritan bundling board?” she said.
“If you want.”
She seemed to be somewhat reassured, but he wasn’t. He could still feel the softness of her face against his hands. He shouldn’t have touched her.
“Where’s the bathroom?” she asked, looking about the room.
“Down the hall,” he said. “You can’t miss it.”
“What?” Ayme shuddered. This on top of everything. “Down the hall?”
“That’s right.”
“Oh, no, I can’t share a public bathroom.” She was shaking her head as though this were the last straw. “Are you crazy?”
“This is the way old hotels are set up,” he told her. “You’ll have to get used to it. You’ll be okay.”
“I won’t,” she cried dramatically, flopping down to sit on the edge of the bed. “Bring me a chamber pot. I’m not leaving the room.”
She bit her lip. Deep inside, she was cringing. That hadn’t really been her, had it? Couldn’t be. She didn’t play the drama queen, didn’t believe in it. But it seemed a combination of circumstances had come against her all at once and for just a moment, she’d cracked.
She was tired, she was scared, she was exhausted, and she didn’t know where she was going or what was going to happen once she got there. It was no wonder she was on edge.
But she didn’t have to take it out on David. When you came right down to it, he was being very patient. In fact, he was a super guy. Which made it that much worse that she was having a silly tantrum. She could feel her cheeks redden.
Slowly she raised her gaze to his.
“Okay,” she said. “I’m done.”
“You sure?”
She nodded.
“I’m sorry,” she said, trying not to cry. “I’ll go check out that powder room now. I’m sure it will be lovely.”
It took all his strength to keep from laughing at her sweet, funny face. He pulled her to her feet by taking both hands in his.
“Come on. You can do it. Others have and lived to tell the tale.”
He smiled down at her as she looked up. He was so close. For a fleeting second or two, she had a fantasy, just the flash of an image, of what it might be like if he would kiss her.
But that was ridiculous. There was no reason for him to kiss her. This was not a kissing situation, and anyway, they weren’t in a kissing relationship. And never would be. Besides, any feeling between them didn’t mean a thing. Hadn’t he said so?
Get it out of your head, she scolded herself silently.
Sure, there had been a couple of hot looks between them when they had struggled over the body search incident. And certainly, his hands on her skin had sent her into some sort of sensual orbit for a moment or two. But that was just natural sexual attraction stuff. It might have happened with anyone.
Maybe.
She had to face facts here. She knew her own nature and was inclined to try to find a little romance in almost anything that happened. When she saw a film or a TV show and there was no love interest, her attention would wander. She wasn’t a deep thinker. Speculative theories could hold her interest for just so long and no longer. What she wanted to see and to think about was people loving each other.
Maybe it was because she’d never had a real romance of her own. She kept hoping, but no one really wonderful had ever come her way.
Until David, a little voice inside was saying.
Well, she couldn’t deny he was pretty darn good. Still, he could never be for her and she knew it. Right now they were thrown together. They were hiding. They were running from someone. They were both taking care of a baby. There wasn’t much romantic in all that, but it did keep them involved. She was just going to have to learn to keep his theory in mind at all times.
No matter what happened, it didn’t mean a thing.
And then, gritting her teeth, she made her way down the hall and found that the bathroom wasn’t nearly as bad as she’d expected. In fact, it was rather cozy, with newer decorations and more accessories than the hotel room itself.
The worst thing was the huge mirror set over a vanity area with a chair and small table. There she was in living color, looking even more horrible and haggard than she’d thought. She was a mess. Her hair resembled a bird’s nest. Her eyes were tired and the dark circles beneath them were epic. She groaned and immediately went to work, splashing water on her face and pinching her cheeks to get some color in them. As she tried to comb her hair into a more pleasing tangle, she realized what she was doing and why she was working so frantically to make herself look a bit better. She cared what David thought of her.
“Doggone-it,” she whispered, staring into her own eyes in the mirror. There was no hope. He’d already seen the worst of her.
She made her way to the corner market and found a brand of formula that looked like it would do. She was standing in line at the cashier when it occurred to her that she didn’t have the right money.
“Uh-oh.” She made a pathetic face to the bored-looking young woman behind the counter. “All I have are American dollars. I don’t suppose…”
The cashier shook her head, making all her many piercings jangle at the same time. “Nah. We’ve had some bad experiences. We don’t accept American money after six.”
Ayme stared at her wondering what difference the time made. “Uh…what if I…?”
“Sorry,” the girl said dismissively, pursing her brightly painted lips and looking toward the customer behind her.
Ayme sighed, starting to turn away. She might as well go back, climb the two flights of stairs, get some proper money from David, and do this all over again. But before she could vacate the premises, someone else had intervened, stepping forward to stop the clerk from going on to the next customer.
“Allow me, madam,” he said with a gracious nod of his head. In his hand was exact change. He gave it to the clerk with a flourish.
Ayme gasped.
“Oh. Oh, thank you so much.” She smiled at him, thoroughly relieved. What a nice man. He looked like her idea of what a composer or conductor should look like—eyes brightly seeing something over the horizon, white hair flying about his head, seeming to explode out from under a smallish felt hat, a supernatural smile as though he could hear music from the heavens. All in all, she thought he looked delightful, and she was so grateful she was bubbling with it.
“You are so kind. This is incredible. I wouldn’t accept it but I’m just so tired tonight and the baby is out. But I do have the money. If you’d like to come with me to the hotel room where we’re staying…”
Even as she said the words she realized this wasn’t a good idea. They were supposed to be in hiding, not inviting in strangers. She made a quick amendment to her suggestion.
“Please, give me your name and address so I can make sure you get repaid.”
He waved all her protestations away. “Don’t think twice about it, my dear. It’s not a problem.” He tipped his hat to her and turned to go. “I hope you have a safe journey to the continent.”
“Thank you so much.”
She smiled, but as he disappeared into the crowd on the street, her smile faded. How did he know she was on her way to the continent? She barely knew that herself. But this seaside town was a bit of a launching location for trips across the channel. So maybe she was taking his words too seriously.
Still, it did give her pause.
“I assume we’re going to the continent?” she said as she returned to the room and began to unpack the little bottles of formula
. David already had Cici sound asleep in her new car seat, tilted back and rigged as a bed. “Is that our next move?”
“Yes. Tomorrow we’ll be crossing the channel,” he told her. He gave her a quick glance to make sure she was suffering no lasting damage from the earlier trip into a public facility, and the fact that she looked calm and pleasant seemed to confirm that all was okay.
“Heading for France?” she asked hopefully.
France! Paris! She would love to see it all.
But he gave her an enigmatic smile and avoided the issue.
“Possibly,” he said.
“Or possibly not,” she said mockingly, making a face.
He grinned.
“I almost didn’t get the formula,” she told him as she began to set up a feeding for Cici. She explained about the cashier and the white-haired man.
“It was so nice of him,” she said.
Alarms went off in David’s head but he quickly calmed himself. After all, she was a very attractive woman. Any man worth his salt would have stepped forward to help her in a moment of need. He would have done it himself. Hopefully that was all there was to it.
Still, he was wary.
“What did he say?” he quizzed her. “Tell me every detail.”
“Oh, he was just a nice old man,” she insisted, but she told him everything she could remember, and he couldn’t really find anything extraordinary in it.
“Let me know if you see him again,” he told her. He briefly considered changing hotels, but then he decided he was being a bit paranoid. There was really no reason to suspect the man of anything at all. “Right now I want you to lie down on that bed.”
“What?” she said, startled.
His mouth twisted. She was so predictable on certain subjects.
“I want you to get some sleep. I’m going out for a while, but when I get back, I’ll take care of Cici should she waken. We may have to take off at an odd hour. I want you to take this chance to get the rest you need.”
She turned to look at him. He was handsome as ever, but his eyes did look tired.
“But what about you? You’re the one who’s been driving and you need some sleep yourself.”
He gave her his long, slow smile that he only handed out on special occasions. “I never sleep.”
She laughed, charmed by that roguish smile. “Oh, please. What are you, a Superhero?”
“Not quite. But close.”
It occurred to her that she knew precisely what he was—wary and mistrustful of something. What exactly did he think was going to threaten them? What was it he was running from? He’d given her a brief sketch of his theories, but not many specifics. She wished he would tell her so she could worry, too.
“Ayme, do what I say,” he said firmly when she still hadn’t moved. “We don’t have time for long, drawn-out discussions.”
“Aye aye, sir,” she said, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“That’s the spirit,” he said approvingly. “Consider this a quasi-military operation. I’m the superior officer. You do what I say without questioning anything.”
She rolled her eyes dramatically. “Oh, that’ll be the day!”
“Indeed.” He shook his head and turned to go. “I have to go out to make a phone call.”
“Why can’t you do it from here? Don’t you have your cell phone?”
“I’ve got my mobile,” he responded. “But it’s not the phone I want to use for this call.”
“Oh.” More likely, she thought, it was a call he didn’t want her to overhear.
“I’ll be back.”
She didn’t bother to ask again. It was confusing at times. For whole moments he would seem to warm to her, and that special connection would spark between them. Then, in an instant, it was gone again. She wished she knew how to extend it.
But she had other things to think about. She got up off the bed and puttered for a bit, putting clothes away in the closet and cleaning off the dresser of things David had thrown there. Cici still slept. Maybe she would be able to get that nap in as David had suggested she do.
Something drew her to the side window, and peering down into the gathering gloom, she could see the walkway along the front of the hotel. Suddenly, she caught sight of David. He had a cell phone to his ear and seemed to be carrying on an energetic conversation with someone. She could see him gesticulating with his free hand. As she watched, he ducked into the side alleyway beside the hotel and she lost sight of him. She wondered who he was talking to. Hopefully it was someone who knew Cici’s father.
Funny how she always thought of him that way—Cici’s father—instead of Darius, the Ambrian Prince, or the lost royal. Was that because, deep down, she was pretty sure that either Sam had been fooling her or someone had fooled Sam. The story didn’t really seem to hold together. But maybe David would find out the truth.
It was interesting how she trusted him and she really didn’t want to analyze why that was. She had a feeling it had something to do with a deep need for a sense of stability in her life. She wanted him to be good. Therefore, he had to be good. Simple as that.
She looked at Cici. Babies were so adorable when they slept. She was starting to get a handle on how to care for a baby. At least, she thought she was. She was trying to copy everything that David did. It was obvious that a strong, steady hand, a soothing tone of voice and a sense of confidence made all the difference. Cici hadn’t been crying much at all and that was certainly a relief.
“I’m a fast learner,” she muttered to herself. “I will survive.”
Turning from the window, she lay down on the bed and fell instantly to sleep.
CHAPTER SEVEN
DAVID had made a couple of calls, but now he was talking to his brother again. Monte had some information on the requests he’d made earlier. Ayme’s background checked out perfectly. She did have an adoptive sister named Sam who had a few teenage arrests for petty crimes and who had died in a car accident just days ago. But that wasn’t all. The girls’ parents had died in the same accident.
“That’s odd,” David said almost to himself, reacting to the horror of what Ayme must have gone through. “I wonder why she would have held that back from me?”
“Never trust a woman, David. You aren’t falling for her, are you?”
“Hell, no. Give me some credit, okay?”
“Sure, I’m only kidding. I have no doubt about your ability to hang tough. But on to other matters, there is nothing new on the impostor pretending to spread your love about the land. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything.”
“Thanks.”
“In the meantime, there’s news. Our Uncle Thaddeus has died.”
“Oh, no.” David felt real remorse. He was the last of the old guard. “That’s a shame. I was looking forward to meeting him someday, and hopefully hearing stories about our parents and the old days.”
“Yes, so was I. It is not to be. But his funeral is another matter. We must go to it.”
David frowned “Are you serious?”
“Yes. As luck would have it, the ceremony will be held in Piasa during the clan reunion gathering. It will be a huge affair. He’s considered the patriarch of the Ambrian expat community. Everyone who means anything to Ambria will be there. It’s our chance to begin to step forward and take the reins of the restoration movement. Whoever takes charge at the right time is going to rule the future.” He paused, letting the importance sink in.
“Darius, you must come. I need you by my side.”
“Of course. If you need me, I’ll be there.”
Monte gave him the details. “The town will turn Ambrian for a few days, it seems.”
“Our covers will be blown.”
“Yes.”
David smiled. “Thank God.”
“Yes.”
They both laughed.
“Don’t forget. Italy. Be there or be square.”
“You got it.”
He rang off, bemused and filled with confl
icting emotions. He was looking forward to Italy. It was bound to be an exciting, important lesson about his own past, as well as a chance to lay the foundations for a new future. But as he turned back toward the hotel, it was Ayme and the information he’d heard about her parents that filled his thoughts.
He went back up to the room and opened the door quietly. Ayme and Cici were both sound asleep. There was only one light on in the room, in the far corner, and he left things that way, pulling off his sweater and unbuttoning his shirt but leaving it and his jeans on as he came to the bed he was going to share with Ayme.
Looking down, his gaze skimmed over her pretty face, her lovely bare shoulder, the outline of her leg beneath the sheet. She appealed to him, no doubt about it. He waited as the surge of desire swept through him. That he expected. But what surprised him was another feeling that came along with it, a tightening in his chest, a warmth, an unfamiliar urgency. It took a moment to understand what it was, and when it came to him, he closed his eyes and swore softly.
Everything in him wanted to protect her. Every instinct wanted to make sure no one could hurt her.
Where had that come from? He didn’t think he’d ever felt that before. He’d spent so much of his life protecting himself, he hadn’t had the capacity to worry about others. In other words, he was a selfish, self-centered jerk. And he could accept that. So where had this new soft-headed urge to nurture come from?
Maybe it was just because of the baby. Maybe he was blurring the lines between them in a visceral way he couldn’t control. He knew he needed to watch that. It could put him in unnecessary trouble. He didn’t want to go doing anything stupid.
More likely the facts that he’d just learned about Ayme’s parents’ fate had something to do with it. And maybe it was just that he was so damn tired. Could be. He knew he needed sleep. And there was a bed right in front of him. Too bad it was already occupied.
She’d been so shocked by the thought of them sleeping together this way, he sort of hated to spring it on her with no warning, no time for her to prepare. But he wasn’t a predator. He was just a sleepy guy right now. And the bed was just too tempting to pass up. With a sigh, he began to prepare for getting some sleep.
