Rites & Desires

by Amanda Cherry

  "I think it’s cute," Jaccob said, holding up the Stardust figure, but looking through it to where Ruby was trying not to erupt in nervous laughter.

  "I am not cute!" Ruby countered, spitting out the word "cute" as though he’d called her something far more dastardly, like "communist" or "cheap."

  "I think you’re cute," Jaccob told her plainly, reaching around her again and replacing the little LEGO Stardust where he’d found him.

  "Well, I think you’re cute," Ruby said back, still framing the words as though they were an accusation.

  "Actually," Jaccob began again, grinning at her as she maintained her playful scowl at having been called "cute," "that’s kind of what I came to talk to you about." He gestured to the figurine he’d just set back on the desk behind her.

  "Merchandising?" Ruby asked, now wearing a genuine frown. "That’s not a department I would have guessed you had problems with."

  Jaccob practically threw his head back with laughter. "No, no. Not about merchandising, no," he clarified. "About pictures in offices, that sort of thing."

  "I’m listening," Ruby said, crossing her arms over her chest as she raised her eyebrows in anticipation of whatever he was about to say next.

  "Look," Jaccob began with a slow shake of his head. He took a deep breath and seemed in that moment to have found something very interesting in pattern of the carpet. "We’ve been at this for a few weeks now, and I know it’s not easy. And you’ve been really patient in putting up with me. But I think it’s time--" He paused and looked up at Ruby for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. "We’ve got to stop this sneaking around," he finally declared.

  Ruby’s breath caught in her chest. She had not seen this coming. She was sure she’d been doing everything right. Jaccob’s deciding to call it off had not been at all on her radar. She tried to remain calm, tried to remind herself that she was getting close to unlocking the secrets of the Eye. She’d have all the power she wanted very soon, including power over Jaccob Stevens. It took every ounce of self-discipline she had not to reach deep in to her being and pull out what magical leavings were there to try and derail his train of thought. She could do it. She was almost sure of it. But in doing so, she would risk using up the last tendrils of magic that kept her connected to the power of the Eye, and possibly sever her ties to it permanently. She was playing a long game, she firmly reminded herself. She would make it through this setback and go at this whole thing anew once she had the magic she sought.

  "If that’s what you want," she managed to say in a tone so calm she surprised herself.

  Jaccob stood up straighter and frowned for a moment. A stunned expression jumped to his face then, and he took Ruby by her shoulders, shaking his head rapidly. "No, no, no," he insisted. "Not--" His tongue seemed tied and Ruby had no idea what was going on. "I didn’t mean--" He let go of her shoulders and put his head in his hands for a moment before meeting her eyes again. "That came out wrong. What I meant was that I want to take you out."

  "Out?" Ruby asked. Well, wasn’t this a delightful development? Her whole body began to relax as she uncrossed her arms. A smile once again tugged at the corners of her mouth. So he wasn’t calling things off, he was stepping things up. Ruby tried not to let it show on her face just how thrilled she was at this.

  "Yeah," Jaccob affirmed. "Out. In public. Out somewhere people will see us. I think it’s time to stop hiding--to stop sneaking. I want you to let me take you out."

  "All right," Ruby agreed easily. "What’d you have in mind?"

  "Dinner," he answered plainly. "Tonight. We’ll go to Tessien’s. We’ll sit at the Chef’s table, and we won’t care who sees us coming or going. Oh!" He changed gears suddenly. "Or if you’d prefer a real coming out, you could let me take you to Icons."

  Ruby laughed out loud at the thought of that. Just the idea of showing up at the superhero-themed restaurant on the arm of the city’s best-known superhero was overwhelming. "That sounds lovely. Tessien’s sounds lovely," she amended, wanting to make sure he’d been joking about going to Icons. Although this was Jaccob--it was entirely possible he could have meant it. He had walked through the front door of the building, talked his way past two separate receptionists, and come into her office in full view of anyone who might have been around. If this had been a signal he was ready to go public with their relationship, Ruby couldn’t imagine any place more public than Icons.

  "But can we do it tomorrow?" she asked, remembering that, no matter the plan, tonight was no good. Jaccob always seemed to want to see her on the nights she was already booked. "I have a box at the Pops. They’re playing tonight. It’s the Tribute to Stage and Screen concert, and we’re recording the whole thing for a live album. I have to be there. You could come with me, unless that’s more in public than you’re ready to for--it is going to be crowded."

  "No," Jaccob replied. "I think that could be fun."

  Ruby couldn’t help herself but to smile broadly.

  "What time is curtain?" he asked.

  "Seven."

  "I’ll pick you up at six."

  "Like a real date?"

  "Like a real date," Jaccob affirmed.

  "Black tie."

  He nodded. "I would have presumed as much," he answered.

  Ruby nodded. Of course he knew that. This man was a billionaire several times over. As much as he might bum around his condo in cargo shorts and faded comic book t-shirts, he knew what to wear to Symphony Hall.

  "And maybe we’ll get some dinner afterwards," Ruby suggested. "Someplace that’s not Icons."

  Jaccob laughed at that as he reached for her hand. He brought her fingers to his lips for a feather-light kiss before letting go. "That will be great," he assured her. "I’ll see you tonight."

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Jaccob Stevens’ personal presentation might occasionally have reverted to his awkward and nerdy youth, but he knew how to court a lady in style. He’d had his car brought to Ruby’s private tower entrance promptly at six o’clock and had gotten out himself to ring the buzzer. When she’d invited him up, he’d declined, preferring to wait in the lobby with the doorman (who Ruby was sure was posting about it on social media in real time). The way he’d looked at her as she stepped from the elevator in her floor-length red silk gown made every moment she’d spent lacing herself into her corset more than worth it. She loved it when a man looked at her that way--it made her feel powerful like very little else could. And she especially loved it when a man she meant to conquer looked at her that way. All was going as well as she’d hoped it might.

  As they stepped through the heavy iron door and onto the sidewalk, Ruby couldn’t help but enjoy the attention of onlookers as they recognized the couple leaving the Ruby Tower. This was their first night out in public together, and she reveled in every bit of attention they were drawing. Jaccob held her hand on the short walk from the tower to the car and smiled to the few passers-by as he watched her get into the limo. He seemed to be just as pleased to be out with her as she was to be out with him. This was all very good.

  Jaccob got in behind her and settled into the seat across from hers. "You’ve mentioned you’re a fan of scotch," he said, gesturing to a decanter in a keeper beside him, "but I don’t know your feelings about champagne." It was then that Ruby noticed a bottle set to chill in a cooler built in to the seat beside Jaccob.

  "I am decidedly in favor," she answered.

  Jaccob smiled then. He carefully withdrew the already-uncorked bottle from its cooler, pouring two glasses full and handing one over to Ruby before he replaced it.

  "To new things," Jaccob toasted, leaning in to clink his glass against hers as the car began to move.

  "I’ll drink to that," Ruby responded, tipping her glass toward his before enjoying her first sips of the dry bubbly as she settled in for their ride to the concert hall.

  "And along those lines," Jaccob said then, setting his glass into a keeper to his left and reaching into his coat pocket, "I want you to have
this." He withdrew a hinged box from his pocket and presented it to her.

  Ruby didn’t bother trying to hide the delight in her expression as she reached out with her gloved hand to take the box from him. "Jaccob, you shouldn’t have," she said, turning to set her glass aside.

  Jaccob shook his head. "Actually, I should have gotten this to you a while ago," he replied. "But I had to be sure it was perfect before I gave it to you. I tinkered with it forever before I decided it was ready."

  "Are you telling me you made this?" she asked, prying open the box to reveal a delicate-looking silver bangle inset with diamonds.

  "I had a proper jeweler set the stones," he admitted, "but otherwise, yes. Getting the circuits all working properly at that size was a bigger challenge than I’d anticipated."

  "So this is--?"

  "That panic button I told you I wanted you to carry."

  "I was expecting something--" Ruby paused as she withdrew the pretty bracelet from its box.

  "Something a little more functional-looking?" he asked, finishing her sentence for her.

  Ruby nodded.

  Jaccob smiled again, reaching out to take the bracelet from her. "I knew better than to think you’d keep something purely practical on you," he said. "And besides, diamonds go with everything."

  "That they do." Ruby held out her right hand, presenting her wrist as he carefully undid the delicate clasp and pulled open the hinge.

  Jaccob placed the bracelet on her wrist and clasped it shut. "Good," he said, admiring the bracelet on Ruby’s tiny wrist as she held it in front of her face. "I got the fit right."

  "It’s perfect."

  "The clasp there," he said, "is for any time you want to take it off. Like, for instance, if you want to wear it with gloves. And as much as I’d really prefer you not to keep it off for long, I acknowledge you might not be comfortable sleeping in it--and at the very least you’re going to want to change wrists every now and again. So use the clasp when you want to take it off for benign reasons. The circuit doesn’t connect there, so it doesn’t affect anything. But if you look on the other side, you’ll see the hinge is very delicate. You should be able to pull it open no problem. Should you break the hinge by pulling it open, or by yanking the bracelet off without opening the clasp--or should anyone handle you so roughly as to cause it to break--it stops transmitting. I have a receiver, here--" He showed her a pip on the side of his fancy Stardust wristwatch-looking-device. "All this does is monitor that your bracelet is intact. The moment it’s not getting the all-clear, I can switch on a tracker and find you."

  Ruby wasn’t sure how she felt about Jaccob’s being able to track and find her anytime, anywhere. But she did know that she was delighted that not only had he made the effort to create such an involved system for keeping her safe, but he’d even bothered to inlay the thing with diamonds. She’d likely quiz him as to the tracking technology later. For now, she thought better of any line of questioning that might make her sound ungrateful. She could feign renewed curiosity later. For now, she decided to be nothing short of demonstrably thrilled.

  "I love it," she said.

  "Good. I’m glad. I knew you wouldn’t wear it if you didn’t."

  Ruby picked up her glass again. "You’re very perceptive, and you have very good taste in jewelry. And also champagne," she added, raising her glass a bit before taking another sip.

  Jaccob shrugged as he lifted his glass as well. "I’m hoping I haven’t just shot myself in the foot," he joked. "I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to keep this up."

  "You don’t have to keep giving me diamonds, Jaccob," she said. "And maybe next time, I can be the one to spring for the champagne."

  "We’re not even at the concert yet, and you’re already talking about next time?"

  "Let’s just say I’m optimistic."

  "Then so am I," he said back. He offered his glass again, and she tipped hers to clink the rims again.

  They spent the rest of the ride chatting jovially and drinking champagne. Ruby was careful not to ask too many direct questions, but did her best to get what information she could out of Jaccob as to what was going on with the CCPD’s investigation into the break-in at the occult vault. He didn’t have a lot of information, but it sounded to Ruby that it was because the police didn’t either. This was all good news.

  She’d turned on the intercom to let the driver know how to get to the back door of the concert hall when Jaccob switched it off again. He’d said he would take her out in public, and he intended to do just that. He had the limo pull right up to the front of the building, beneath the marquee, and had the driver let them out on the red carpet that had been put down for the occasion.

  So this was what Jaccob meant when he’d said "out in public." He insisted on using the main entrance to the concert hall, even though they had every right to use the stage door. A crowd was bustling about on the sidewalk, dozens of people in their finery queueing at will-call and waiting for others in their party. Ruby could hear the mutters of her name and Jaccob’s as they moved through the crowd and into the building.

  Flashbulbs were clicking and Starphones emerging from evening bags left and right to capture images of the famous hero and the media mogul as they made their way through the atrium lobby of the Liberty concert hall. Jaccob didn’t seem to mind a bit. Either he was thoroughly accustomed to being surreptitiously photographed or he was all but completely oblivious. Ruby wouldn’t have put money on either one, and truly she didn’t care which was true. She was content to feign shyness at having her picture taken and to keep her eyes on Jaccob--pretending to be more hesitant than she was and seeming to defer to his attitude about things. He seemed content to keep his hand on the small of Ruby’s back as she led them through the series of lobbies toward the stairs to her box.

  Jaccob smiled politely at the crowds as they passed, and directed the occasional nod or wave to those who called out to him.

  "You’re popular," Ruby said softly as they started up the gold-carpeted stairs toward her box seats.

  "You scared yet?" he asked. He was smiling, but Ruby had a very strong impression he wasn’t entirely joking. She was sure he probably had a few real concerns that his life in the public eye would be a little much for her. That had likely been in part to blame for his surprise at her having treated a second night out as a given.

  But she’d been backstage with The Young Dudes, and had cut her teeth in the music business on a ghastly but profitable mall tour with Cassidy Sweet. The attention Stardust was getting was much less frenzied and much more respectable than that usually directed at teenage pop stars; this was nothing she couldn’t handle.

  She turned her head to wink at him from her place on the stair above him. "No," she answered plainly. Ruby reached behind her and took Jaccob’s hand for the rest of the trip up the stairs.

  A maître d’ was waiting for them at the top, a tray of champagne on a small table to his left, and the curtains to the box standing open to his right.

  "More champagne?" Jaccob asked, gesturing to the bubbling flutes on the table as Ruby passed through the curtain and into the box.

  "He’ll bring it to us," she answered, taking Jaccob’s arm and inclining her head toward the fellow holding open the tasseled curtain.

  Jaccob covered her hand with his own and followed her through the curtain and into the semi-circular box, pausing for a moment to take in the view of the stage and the theatre. The Liberty had been recently renovated, largely to undo some questionable "updates" from the 1970s, and had been styled with a manner of opulence that made it seem older than it actually was. To Jaccob’s left, an intricately carved proscenium cornice surrounded the magnificent gold velvet curtain that pooled heavily on the planks of the mammoth concert hall stage. Across and beneath him, the other box seats were filling with patrons sipping champagne in their finery and settling in for the performance. And to his right, the mezzanine of the main balcony lay just a few meters away, hanging in the sky just b
elow the top boxes. People were milling about, finding their seats and making idle conversation. Jaccob heard a stranger call his name, and as he had done in the lobby, he acknowledged her with a wave.

  All of a sudden, his hand went slack on hers, and in a moment, it fell away entirely. He took a step back, dislodging her hand from his arm as an almost stricken expression passed over his features. Startled by his sudden change in demeanor, she looked up at him, searching his expression for what had caused this upset. His mouth had fallen open and there was a panic in his eyes that Ruby wouldn’t have guessed the man behind the mask of Stardust was even capable of.

  "What is it?" she whispered, turning to look in the same direction as he was. But she realized even as she asked that she knew. She could see what he saw, and so she knew.

  There in the second row of the mezzanine, standing up to converse with a group of shabbily dressed women, stood a statuesque blond woman in a simple silk gown who Ruby would have recognized anywhere. Of all the things she’d guessed might happen tonight, running into Elizabeth Stevens hadn’t been one of them.

  Ruby reached out and squeezed Jaccob’s hand. "You can leave out the back," she told him, "the way I told you we could have come in. Just have your car pull into the alley. Your driver can pull right up to the stage door."

  Jaccob nodded, turning on his heel to head quickly back through the now-drawn curtain and out of view of the theatre. But he stopped short. His hand was still on the curtain when he turned around and looked back at Ruby.

  She was doing everything she could to keep the disappointment off her face--she didn’t want him to be completely soured on the idea of being out in public with her. If aiding his easy retreat from an unexpected sighting of his wife was the thing she needed to do to ensure that, then aid it she would.