I looked down into Alex’s eyes and revealed my heart’s desire. “I want to make love with you. I want that more than anything in the world right now. No holding back. No being careful. No fear of repercussion.”
“I wish—”
I placed my fingers over her lips to silence her.
“Let’s get through this, Alex. Let’s find Rita, verify her identify, download whatever we can get from the club’s database, then let’s get the hell out of here…you, me, and Rita. Let’s do it tonight.”
“Then what?” she asked.
“Then I start working on breaking the spell.”
Alex nodded.
“Are you sure you’re ready? Are you sure it’s what you want?” I asked her.
“Yes,” she said, her voice certain, her gaze steady.
“Good,” I sighed, leaning down and touching my forehead to hers.
“Dell?”
“Hmm?”
“The next time we have sex… It’s going to mean something,” she whispered.
And she was right. I told you this one was going to be trouble.
Chapter Twelve
If I’d been honest with myself I’d have admitted what was true. The sex between Alex and I had always meant something. Since the moment I’d laid eyes on her the attraction was there. I felt consumed by lust, the desire to touch her, stroke her, to feel her pressed against me. I wanted to hear her cry out my name in pleasure. I wanted to cover her in my scent. I wanted to mark her as mine. But mostly, right this very minute, I wanted Raif to stop staring at her tits.
It had taken Alex and I about an hour to devise a plan. The sheer simplicity of it was pure genius. Kidnapping and human trafficking were federal crimes. It didn’t matter to Alex that Rita wasn’t human. The way that Raif treated women bothered her before. But now? Miss By-the-Book was ready to nail Raif’s ass to the wall.
“You’re early,” said Raif.
Alex shrugged. “I was bored. So I thought I’d come down, rehearse, get a feel for the place. Do you mind?”
“Mind? Not at all. Can I offer you a drink?” asked Raif as he walked behind the bar.
Alex smiled. Then she did that thing where she bites the corner of her lower lip. Groaning would have given away my position, so I was careful not to. I’d used a cloaking spell and the last thing I wanted to do was ruin it by revealing myself too soon.
We were going to carry out the operation in two phases. Phase one was for Alex to distract Raif long enough for me to slip into his office, complete the data transfer, then infect the system with a nice little virus called Lestat that was guaranteed to suck the life out of Raif’s entire system the next time he logged on. The virus was Alex’s idea.
Phase two was to get Rita. That was going to be a little more risky. How easily we could pull off rescuing her was going to depend on how accurately we’d judged Raif.
Alex hopped up onto a stool and leaned onto the bar, her arms crossed in front of her in a way that made her tits practically spill out of her top.
“I’ll have whatever you’re having,” she said.
“Have you ever tried absinthe?” he murmured, leaning across the bar.
I had to go. I had to trust that Alex could handle herself. The logical, rational part of me knew that the protection spell would prevent her from physical harm. But sometimes it’s hard to remain logical and rational. It’s especially hard when things get personal and this was. What had started out as a simple, routine mission was turning out to be something altogether different.
I made my way down the hall. When I reached the door to Raif’s office I threw off enough magical energy to cause a few seconds of static in any video or audio equipment that might be monitoring the area, then I slipped inside.
Now I’m the first to admit that I’m not a computer expert. That’s really more Alex’s specialty. But between the two of us we thought she’d have the best chance of appearing non-threatening and charming with Raif for an hour. That’s how long we thought it might take to complete the entire data transfer. So here I was, inserting the boot CD and flash drive and beginning the command sequence, just like she told me. See? I can take direction when I need to.
I watched as the little blue bar popped up. Estimated time, forty-two minutes and seventeen seconds.
~
“Hi, honey!” chirped Alex.
It was a little after six. The club had opened and already there were a fair number of patrons milling about.
I slid onto the barstool next to Alex and glared at Raif.
“What?” he asked innocently.
“We need to have a chat,” I said.
“It’s only absinthe. We were just talking.”
Alex leaned towards me and loudly whispered. “My lips feel numb.”
Great. She was drunk.
“Is Malcolm here yet?” I asked Raif.
“She really is adorable,” he sighed, ignoring me and staring at Alex. “You sure you don’t want to reconsider? You, me, Alex, Rita…”
I looked down at the surface of the bar and pretended to think it over. Then I slowly raised my eyes to meet his. “Where is Rita?” I asked.
Raif leaned onto the bar, rested his chin in his hand and then fluttered his eyes provocatively at me. “Why, I do believe that perhaps I’ve finally gotten your attention. So, you’ve taken a liking to her have you?”
“I want her,” I told him.
Raif smiled. “You can do Rita while I do you. How’s that?”
Huh, maybe I should have entertained Raif while Alex retrieved the data after all. Nah, there’s no way I could have spoken to him for an hour without hitting him.
I let my power leak out so that it crawled across his skin. “How about this?” I suggested. “You call Bruno and have him bring Rita to me now and I’ll return her to her rightful owner.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, breaking out into a sweat.
“Let me make this easy for you. I recognized her. I’ve been in touch with her owner. He’s offered me a handsome reward for her safe return. You cooperate and I’ll take her and leave you here. You don’t and I’m taking you in as well. BaMidbar is lovely this time of year,” I told him. “She’s the property of someone important, someone very important. But I’m guessing that she told you that.”
“Malcolm…” he began, a tremor in his voice.
“…has been a very naughty Dominie,” I finished.
Raif looked like he was going to be sick. “Shit, I’m screwed. Malcolm, he’ll…”
“Malcolm has bigger things to worry about.” I checked my watch. “In about five minutes all of his assets here in the U.S. are going to be frozen. The Treasurer has already gotten to his Swiss accounts. Malcolm’s a traitor. He’s broken the code. He’s been doing things his own way. And to top it all off, he’s been breaking human laws. You know we can’t afford that kind of scrutiny. Think of the damage it would do, someone of his stature… There’ll be a bounty and it’ll be big.”
“You’re a bounty hunter,” Raif groaned.
I stood up and looked Raif in the eye. “You’ve had a good thing going here. Call Bruno. Tell him to deliver Rita to the lobby in five minutes. Then start transferring your assets. A Swiss account’s been opened for you. There’s a quarter of a million in it. Let’s call it your cut for being cooperative.”
I handed him one of my father’s business cards with the number for the account and the location of the bank on the back. Raif’s hand was shaking as he accepted it. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
“Five minutes?” he asked.
“Five minutes,” I repeated.
Chapter Thirteen
“I can’t believe you’re drunk,” I growled. “Who gets drunk in an hour?”
Alex’s head was resting against the window of the airplane. Her eyes were closed.
“I’m not drunk,” she whispered. “I think I’m hung over. I have a headache and I swear to God, if you keep yelling
at me I’m going to throw up.”
“I’m not yelling at you,” I said, softening my voice.
“Your father used to be quite fond of absinthe. It’s not a drink everyone can tolerate well. It’s very strong you know. The wormwood packs quite a punch,” interjected Rita.
“Worms?” repeated Alex clenching her stomach. “Oh, God!”
She jumped up and ran down the aisle of the plane towards the bathroom.
“She’ll feel better in a minute or two,” said Rita, reaching over and giving me an affectionate pat on the knee. “Don’t worry.”
“Who’s worried?” I asked, doing my damnedest to ignore the sounds coming from the bathroom.
She didn’t answer. Instead she turned to gaze out the window. Her hand rose to her neck for what was probably the twentieth time in the past hour. It seemed to be a nervous gesture. I watched as she once again traced where the collar had been. When Bruno had brought her to the lobby she had been wearing a silk pajama shirt and nothing else. Now she was in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that belonged to Alex. She didn’t fill the clothes out like Alex did, she didn’t have the curves. Not anymore. Maybe never. She looked almost lost and childlike with her fresh-scrubbed face and the oversized clothes.
“You’re staring,” she said, still looking out the window.
“How long were you wearing the collar?” I asked her.
She looked at me, her eyes empty. “A long time,” she muttered. “Even when I was in the cage and not on the leash, I had the collar.”
“He kept you in a cage?” I asked. Why I was shocked, I don’t know. It shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did.
“It could have been worse. Malcolm could have kept me himself.” She clasped her hands together and placed them in her lap.
“Why didn’t he?”
“Because I made him feel weak and Malcolm doesn’t like feeling weak.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I belonged to him. Before I belonged to your father. I did my duty. I saw to his pleasure. I serviced him well. But that is all. For him it wasn’t enough,” she explained.
“He was in love with you?”
“Perhaps. Perhaps he was just in love with what he couldn’t have.”
“He lost you to my father?”
Rita nodded. “Malcolm hated your father. He thought him…undeserving. Byron was young and dedicated and naïve. Cain favored him, he believed in him. When your father was made Dominie there was a party. There’s always a party. Everyone is to bring a gift. I remember it as if it were yesterday.
“We were in Paris. As I watched Malcolm get ready for the evening I noticed him sliding an envelop into his pocket. I never knew what it contained, the true gift I imagine. I suppose he brought me that night to show me off. I was seated next to your father. He was such the gentleman. Malcolm taunted him throughout the evening; it was a clever game of cat and mouse. Only Malcolm ended up being the mouse.
“Without warning your father suddenly stood up and raised his glass in a toast to Malcolm, thanking him for such a precious and extravagant gift. Then he reached his hand out to me. The applause was almost deafening, bouncing off the walls of the caverns. They were applauding Malcolm. Applauding him for his generosity. He smiled and nodded and said nothing…nothing. He just sat there and watched your father escort me from the room.
“He led me silently outside. It wasn’t until we were in the privacy of his waiting carriage that he spoke to me. Do you want to know what he asked?”
“Yes,” answered Alex as she placed her hand on my shoulder. I hadn’t even realized she’d returned, I’d been so lost in the story.
“Do you want to go back?” he asked as he stared out the window into the darkness.
“Back?”
“To Malcolm. Please accept my apology. I don’t usually act so impulsively,” he said.
“No.”
He turned to face me. “You don’t accept my apology?”
“I don’t wish to go back.”
“What would you like to do?” he asked me.
“I’d like to learn how to read.” I blurted it out, just like that.
“All right.”
“And speak Italian.”
He nodded.
“And be taken to the Opera. I’ve never been to the Opera.”
Your father held up his hand. “Perhaps it would be easier if tomorrow we started a list?”
“Tomorrow?”
“Right after I pay Malcolm a visit and obtain your papers. I think we should have sufficient time…before the Opera,” he said, then he reached out for my hand.
“I fell in love with your father that very instant and he’s had my heart ever since,” confessed Rita. “Malcolm lost me to him, truly lost me to him. Having me back was an unpleasant reminder of that. He thought that giving me to Raif would teach me a lesson in humility.”
“Did it?” I asked her.
She smiled. “No. Patience perhaps.”
I didn’t know about this part of my father’s life and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. How I felt about Rita. I wanted to dislike her, I thought that I should dislike her, but I didn’t. Did my father love her? He hadn’t used that word. He’d said she was his friend, but they had also been lovers. They’d been lovers for a very long time.
“You’re thinking awfully hard about something,” observed Alex as she traced an invisible line across my forehead.
I reached up for her hand, lacing my fingers between hers I lifted her hand to my mouth and kissed it. “Are you feeling better?”
“Yes,” she said, taking her seat once again. “But that doesn’t answer my question.”
I was still holding on to her hand, examining the inside of her palm, tracing her lifeline with my fingertip.
“Tell me your story,” Rita asked.
I looked over at her. “My story?”
“When did you fall in love with Alex?”
Before I could even begin to panic, Alex beat me to it.
“Dell’s not really in love with me,” she said as she slipped her hand from mind. “We’ve been posing as lovers, working under cover.”
“Merely posing?” asked Rita with a knowing smile. “And who are you posing for now?”
“No one,” muttered Alex, nervously wiping her hands on her legs.
I reached out and stilled them.
“It’s all right,” I told her. Then I looked back at Rita. “Back off, okay?”
Rita held her hands up in surrender. “I apologize, Randell. It didn’t occur to me that you’d be ashamed and want the affair kept secret. What, with your parents’ views…”
“I’m not ashamed,” I told her. “It’s complicated.”
“It always is, dear,” replied Rita.
“My father knows—”
“Your father knows?” asked Alex, panic clear in her voice. “Do you think he’ll tell my father?”
“God, I hope not,” I replied.
Alex gasped, “You are ashamed!”
“I’m not ashamed,” I began. Then I looked at Rita. “Would you mind giving us a couple minutes alone?”
“Are you kidding? We’re what, thirty thousand feet in the air? Where do you propose I go?” she asked.
“The bathroom?” I suggested.
She pointed to her ear. “Vampire. I’ll still be able to hear you.”
I gave her the look. The one that my father swears I inherited from my mother.
“Fine,” she sighed. “I guess I could freshen up, make myself more presentable.” Then she was off.
I waited a moment before saying anything. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t know what to say. It was that I wasn’t sure how to say it.
“We’ll be landing in about thirty minutes. An hour after that we’ll be at the house. It’s unlikely that your father will be there yet, but we probably won’t have a lot of time alone and we certainly won’t have enough time to strategize. How do you want to play this?” I asked her.
>
“Play this? Is that what we’re doing? Playing?” There was an emotional edge to her voice that made my stomach clench.
“No.”
“What are we talking about here?” she asked. “Formulating a cover to explain our relationship?”
Samantha Sommersby Page 10
