Notorious in Nice

by Jianne Carlo

  “What about the money from the sale of the house?”

  “Uncle James put it into a CD.” She loped along, doing an extra step to every one of his. “The CD’s in both our names.” A sudden suspicion niggled at the corners of her mind. “He couldn’t prevent me from transferring the money here, could he?”

  “When we get back to the Glory, give me all of your banking information. Financial law is Thom’s specialty. I’ll get him to call your US bank, and we’ll transfer the funds to Nice, to a bank account in your name only.” He halted abruptly and cradled her jaw with one cupped palm. “But don’t breathe a word to your relatives. Let’s assess the situation first. Agreed?”

  She nodded. “I have my own money for this trip. And I have a couple of credit cards.”

  “Darlin’, I’m a wealthy man. Money is not going to be an issue for you, no matter what happens.”

  “I don’t want your money, Terrence. I want to earn my own, be in charge of my destiny.”

  “I hear you. We’ll work things out. We have all the time in the world.”

  Do we?

  She searched his features, hoping for a hint of permanence, a hint of love. A ship’s horn blasted the air, and Su-Lin jumped, both feet leaving the ground at once.

  “You’re on edge.”

  “I haven’t done my routine in days. It calms my mind.” Only as she uttered the words did Su-Lin realize how much she missed the physical activity.

  “Yo, Terry.”

  The shout came from Harrison, who stood behind the helm of the Boston Whaler. A flame-haired woman who reached his chin and infringed on his personal space seemed to be rubbing against him.

  “Frick,” Terry growled. “You are about to meet my stepmother.”

  A sudden unease bunched her shoulder blades. She craned her neck and twisted to get a better view of the woman.

  Terry pulled her around to face him, but she persisted in glancing over her shoulder.

  “Su-Lin,” he said, his voice sharp, and cupped her chin so she had to meet his gaze. “Listen to me. Carol-Ann is a vicious bitch. She and I have no love for each other. You need to know what she accused me of.” Su-Lin noticed the slight hesitation in his voice, the way he averted his eyes, before he continued. “Theft, before I left home at sixteen.”

  “That’s horrible,” Su-Lin blurted, and rage made her scowl. “You were just a boy.”

  “You also need to know, she’s been having an affair with Harrison, and that’s why she’s sued my father for divorce.” He blinked, and his eyes left hers.

  Her mouth dropped open, and she searched for words, any words. Crossing her fingers and praying she’d heard wrong, she asked, “Harrison slept with your stepmother?”

  Without lowering his gaze, he replied, “Yes.”

  She clutched his forearm, apprehensive because he wouldn’t meet her eyes head-on. “That’s even worse than what your stepmother accused you of. How could Harrison do that to you?”

  “He didn’t know, darlin’. And he’s fricking pissed, and so am I.” Their glances locked, his jaw worked, cheeks hollowing out. “She’s going to try and break us apart. Just hang strong. Avoid being alone with her. And don’t believe a word from her mouth.”

  Loosening his tight grip on her shoulders, he dragged both hands through his hair and added, “Can you do that for me?”

  She loathed Carol-Ann on the spot and spun around to get a better view of her new enemy. Terry stalked forward, his stride lengthening, and Su-Lin skipped to reach his side. A quick look upward showed his unblinking focus, Harrison, and the evil stepmother.

  As they neared the boat, she sucked in her stomach and straightened her spine. The woman proved the epitome of every Dallas Cowboys cheerleader she’d ever loved to hate. Legs to the neck, Playboy centerfold figure, green eyes, and wavy auburn hair. Su-Lin’s fingernails bit into her palms.

  When they stood inches away from the rolling vessel, Harrison scooted away from Carol-Ann and held out a hand to help Su-Lin onto the boat.

  “Sugar, you’re looking fine.”

  His natural, slow twang had sped up, and she wanted to scratch the bitch’s eyes out. One hand curled into a tight fist, she clutched Harrison’s hand with the other and stepped onto the boat.

  Harrison didn’t let go of her hand once she stood safely on board; instead, he intertwined their fingers. She craned her neck to look at him. He cupped one shoulder.

  “Shake hands with Carol-Ann Gore, sugar.” He flicked a wrist at the woman. “Carol-Ann, my fiancée, Su-Lin Taylor.” His arms encircled her waist, yanking their bodies together.

  The second Harrison uttered the word “fiancée,” Terrence jumped down beside them, and the boat rocked.

  Su-Lin’s jaw dropped.

  Terry moved between them and Carol-Ann, his fists clamped onto lean hips, and he stared Harrison down.

  She glanced from one to the other and couldn’t read who won what. Deciding to let Terry handle the situation, she pressed her lips together and waited.

  But Terrence moved aside, although from the tight set of his mouth and his slashed eyebrows, he didn’t like it one iota. His gaze swept to Carol-Ann.

  “Hi, son,” she drawled. “Long time no see.”

  And that Texan, down-home, aw-shucks, beauty-queen, throaty voice fired a temper Su-Lin didn’t know existed. Every muscle in her body contracted and twitched, and her spine morphed into a steel rod.

  “Not long enough for me,” Terry said.

  “Carol-Ann, it’s definitely not a pleasure to see you again.” Thomas hopped onto the boat, followed by Jean-Michel. Lips curling into a tight sneer, he launched an attack. “What in bleeding hell do you think to gain from torturing us with your presence? Not even Father wants you anymore. Take the hint and leave.”

  Jean-Michel sidled closer to Thomas, and he leaned on the ship’s steel railing, hips braced next to his lover.

  Carol-Ann surveyed both men. “The fruit’s out of the cake, I see. Nigel will disown you on the spot. Aren’t family reunions touching? Two ex-lovers, one homo stepson, his slutty queen, and a half-breed from the sticks. I can’t wait for dinner to be served.”

  “This is what no class looks like,” Thomas stated and flipped his hand up and down in Carol-Ann’s direction.

  “I’ll take us back. Harry, get the ropes.” Terrence thumbed the ignition switch, and the engines roared into life slicing away any chance of conversation.

  The perfect day took on a dual-universe sense of reality. Su-Lin concentrated on tensing and relaxing her neck muscles and breathing in and out to the count of four. Halfway there, the bristling wind whipped free her ponytailed hair, licking it onto her bare shoulders, and it stung her cheeks. She gathered the locks into one curled hand.

  Everyone faced straight ahead. Eyes crossed to the right, Su-Lin studied Carol-Ann Gore. Yin and yang, she thought, and knew in that instant this woman represented the opposite of joy and would be the source of disharmony in her corner of the universe.

  None too soon, the journey ended. They exited the Whaler in complete silence.

  “Harry, Thomas, Miche, the library, pronto,” Terry ordered the minute their feet hit the deck.

  He hooked a thumb over his shoulder and shot Su-Lin a stay-put look.

  “If you think you’re leaving me with her,” Su-Lin said, her voice low but clear, “you’d better think again.”

  “Let her come, Ter.” Thomas grasped his twin’s shoulder and shook it.

  Terry threw his hands up in the air. He gritted, “I don’t need another fricking fire to put out, boyo.”

  That did it. She pushed between the two men, tiptoed, and jabbed a finger into Terry’s chest. “Now I’m a fire to be put out? Is this what our future’s like? Me not being part of your life?”

  He grabbed her stabbing forefinger. “Fricking -- have it your way, darlin’.”

  After he dropped her hand, he spun around and stomped, literally stomped, away.

  “Give him a l
ittle slack, sugar,” Harrison said; he patted the small of her back. “It ain’t exactly a piece of cake having a stepmother who seduces her son’s best friend for roadkill spite.”

  A firm pressure on her back, he guided her forward.

  “You think she did it just for that?” Such malice boggled Su-Lin’s mind.

  “I know it. First thing the bitch boasted about once she set foot on the Glory.” Harrison shuddered. “I haven’t upchucked in decades, but I’ve lost my grub twice in one week.”

  An image of his green face at the bottle restaurant popped into her head. “You found out the night of the dinner with Suresh.”

  “Ping.” Harrison touched a finger to his head.

  Su-Lin remembered Terrence’s strange mood that night, and her hands flexed when she realized that even then he’d excluded her from his life. Would she have to battle for information every step of the way? Her temples throbbed, and she knuckled them, not even knowing when they entered the yacht’s library.

  As soon as the study door shut, Terry rounded on Harrison. “What in fricking hell are you pulling? Telling the bitch you’re marrying Su-Lin? Do you know what will happen when her fricking uncle finds out?”

  “That bitch almost raped me,” Harrison roared back. “She had her freaking hands down my pants, her mouth on my dick. What the hell else was I supposed to do?”

  “Shut up, both of you.” Thomas stepped between both shouting men and pushed them apart. “Sit. Now.”

  “Su-Lin, you sit too.” His tone gentled, and she knew right away something catastrophic loomed. “Ter, we have to speak with Papa. Then you can tell her all the details.”

  “Tell me what?” she asked and surveyed each man’s expression. Grim didn’t begin to describe their compressed lips, the way they avoided her gaze.

  The pressure in the small cabin could have popped stuffed eardrums.

  She waited, staring at Terry, her breath halting when he averted his head.

  His chest rose and fell. When he looked at her, the sadness in his eyes scared her so much she had to resist leaping off the sofa and fleeing the room.

  “Thomas is right. I have to speak with my father. Will you wait here for me?”

  What choice did she have?

  Chapter Fifteen

  Terry and Thomas found their father on the second deck sitting in an oversize wicker chair, an open hardcover book on his lap, and a small tumbler containing one ice cube and a neat shot of whiskey in one hand.

  Glancing up at his two sons, Nigel Gore’s chest rose and fell in an exaggerated inhale. He blew out an audible breath and waved a hand at two chairs opposite his. “I’ve been waiting for this.”

  The twins exchanged startled glances. Both men sat. Terry, legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles, thumbs twiddling on his thighs; Thomas, elbows leaning on his knees, a forefinger rubbing his chin.

  Without preamble, he announced, “Three weeks ago, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor.”

  Hearing his brother’s bald words made Terry’s stomach curdle; he straightened.

  “I know,” Nigel said.

  Thomas bounded to his feet. “How?”

  “Your physician’s father is my regular bridge partner. He thought I should know.” Nigel shrugged. “Old boy network and all that. Why did you wait so long to tell me?”

  Pacing a small circle, kneading the back of his neck, Thomas halted and replied, “I had some decisions to make. There’s no easy way of saying this, Papa, so here it is. I’m gay, I’m in love with Jean-Michel, and I want to marry him.”

  “I see,” Nigel said in an even voice. He steepled his fingers and rested his goateed chin on two forefingers. “Am I invited to the ceremony?”

  “What?” Terry shot out of the chair. “You…you’re accepting all this?”

  “Don’t you have something to tell me too, son?”

  “Yes, no,” Terry muttered. “You old sod, you know already, don’t you? How long have you known?”

  “Carol-Ann gave me one of your letters before she filed for divorce.”

  “Jaysus.” He slumped back into the chair.

  “How many did you write?”

  He swallowed a couple of times before replying, “Two.”

  “The one I read proclaimed your love. I’m presuming the other is more substantive?”

  Terry squeezed his eyes shut and tried to forget the words he’d written. “Yes.”

  “How long have you known about me?” Thomas’s eyebrows hadn’t climbed back down from his hairline.

  “I’ve been in denial for a very long time. I’m an old man facing my final years, and I’ve made a muck of things. Over the last six months, I’ve had to do a lot of what your generation calls soul searching. I find I much prefer to have a gay, healthy, happy son than a dead one.”

  “And me?”

  “What happened between you and Carol-Ann weighs heavily on my conscience, Terrence. I should never have married her, and I regretted it almost from the moment I brought her home.” Nigel took a sip of his drink. “I couldn’t face being on Arran, seeing her there in your mother’s place. I’ve abdicated my responsibility for too many years.”

  “I won’t be giving you an heir, Papa.”

  “I know, son. That’s why you wanted me to work with you on the inheritance amendment, isn’t it? So your brother can assume the title?”

  “You have to initiate the proceedings.”

  “I know, but before that, your brother needs to agree to everything.”

  “Jaysus,” Terry mumbled, cradling his face in his hands.

  “Ter, it’s up to you now.” Thomas cupped his shoulder. “Will you do it?”

  “What about Carol-Ann?”

  “Leave my wife to me, Terrence. I didn’t survive forty years in politics without learning a few tricks.”

  There spoke the earl he knew. The ruthless, determined man who backed down from no enemy. Terry couldn’t prevent a sudden surge of admiration tempered by a need to wound. Wound mortally.

  “So, we’re one happy family now?” He couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice. “More than a decade of hell and hatred, and now we embrace?”

  “You know better than that, Terrence. I don’t imagine it will be easy for any of us. Too many words that should never have been uttered lie between the three of us. I suggest we take life in small doses.” Nigel set down his drink and book. “It’s been a very long day. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll retire to my cabin now.”

  Both men watched him leave in silence.

  “What the fricking hell just happened?”

  Thomas shook his head. “Something’s not right. He wasn’t surprised by anything. Not even Jean-Michel. He couldn’t have known. Damn, I didn’t know until Miche forced the issue a few months ago.”

  “You two haven’t been a long-term thing?”

  “He’s almost eight years younger than I am, Ter. When he was seventeen, he told me he was in love with me. I ran for the hills. Spent a few years exploring the alternate side of this life, the baths, experimented with BDSM, and much more. I found out I’m not cut out for that kind of lifestyle. I want -- I need -- stability, commitment.” Twin circles stained his cheeks a ruddy color. “As of two days ago, only Miche’s family knew about us.”

  “They approve?”

  “As hard as this is to believe, yes. They want the best for him. Wait until you meet his mother and you’ll understand. She’s an amazing woman.”

  “We should head back,” Terry said, rising to his feet.

  “Right.”

  Strolling down the corridor, he asked, “When did you start calling him Papa again?”

  “I never stopped.” Thomas shot him a wry smile. “We didn’t have the contentious relationship you two had, always butting heads, too alike to live together under the same roof.”

  They reached the study door. “I’m not going to tell her about Carol-Ann yet. She’ll have enough to deal with when we tell her about the relatives.”
r />   “Your call, brother.”

  Taking a deep inhale, Terry twisted the brass knob and pushed the door open to find Harry and Su-Lin sitting in the half dark, each nursing a drink. Behind him, Thomas shut the door and dropped into the lone armchair in the room.

  “Where’s Miche?”

  “Ici, mon amour.” Jean’s fingers tapped over a keyboard and the sound of rhythmic clicks punctuated the silence. “Sending Maman an e-mail about the barn. Su-Lin and I used the time to cost out the repairs.”

  Terry sat on the love seat, dragged Su-Lin close, and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “Any calls?”

  “Geoff, nothing further,” Harrison replied.

  “What do you have to tell me?”

  Her features tight, mouth pinched together, her shoulders felt rigid under his touch. Absently, he kneaded the back of her neck. “It’s not good news. A few days ago, I asked Geoff to do a background check on your relatives.”

  Terry moved to kneel in front of her. He captured both her hands and fastened their gazes. “Your mother did not have a brother. There is a real James and Emma Lockheed living in Hong Kong, but their photographs don’t match the two people who are on the Glory.”

  For long seconds, she stared into his eyes. “I’m going to be sick to my stomach.” She jumped to her feet and her glance darted around the room.

  “Head’s through there, darlin’,” Terry said and waved a hand behind her.

  She whirled around and made it just in time. Through the open door, he watched her washing out her mouth. Su-Lin stumbled out of the bathroom.

  Terry scooped her up before she could take more than two steps.

  Eyes bolted to hers, he handed her a glass filled with amber liquid. “Drink all of it. You’re in shock.”

  She glugged every drop and then coughed until her eyes teared.

  “Breathe, Su-Lin, breathe. Nice, easy breaths,” Terry said and rubbed her back.

  “I don’t understand,” she whispered. “Why would they pretend to be my aunt and uncle?” She fanned her cheeks as the alcohol peppered beads of perspiration near her mouth.