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Chaos erupted in my head, thoughts and images flashing and disappearing too quickly to process before another took its place. But when the flash of that naked woman and her partner lingered a moment only to be replaced by the sound of my own voice describing the man—the stranger–I’d been ready to let have his way with me, I could no longer contain the rush of absolute humiliation that flooded through me.
“Oh god, I… you… we… I have to go!” I attempted to yank my hand free only to find his tightening like a vise around it. “Let go of me!” I snarled.
“Calm down?—”
“Calm down? How in god’s name am I supposed to calm down? I don’t know how you recognized me, but let me tell you something?—”
“Not before you let me speak. I promise, Freddie, I never meant to hurt you. If you’ll only let me explain?—”
“Explain? That’s almost as ludicrous as…” Suddenly the fact that he addressed me as Freddie, a name I hadn’t heard since childhood, hit me harder than if he’d raised his huge hand and slapped me. Only one person had ever dared to call me that after my eldest sister disclosed the fact that one of my names was Winnifred. That person was the one I declared I hated only an hour or so ago.
I pulled as far away from him as his hold allowed, my eyes raking over the man across the table. Channeling lessons learned from my art tutor, I used my mind’s eye to shave the beard and took scissors to his hair. I erased a few laugh lines around his eyes and used the pad of my thumb to remove that worry line creasing his forehead. With every change, the picture became clearer and clearer. My heart began to slam against my ribs as I took away a few pounds of muscle and dropped several inches from his height. And when Max leaned forward and I saw the thin cobalt-blue rings around irises turning a dark gray, his lips trying, but not succeeding at forming a smile, the same exact way Donny had looked at me when he’d promised he’d be back before I had time to miss him, I learned how being gobsmacked felt.
Spots appeared where his visage had been, my body feeling as if I had immersed it completely in the ice-filled waters of the bay. I couldn’t breathe and I felt as if I were struggling to swim to the surface but was far too weak to fight against the current pulling me into the abyss below.
“Marcie! Breathe, baby, just breathe! Goddammit, don’t you dare! If you think I won’t turn you over and spank the life back into you, you’ve got another think coming. Please, baby, just breathe with me.”
My whole body hurt, my chest felt as if every citizen of Emberly Iles was standing on it. A cacophony of demands, threats, and pleas bombarded my ears as my limbs were heavy, refusing to do anything but tremble. It wasn’t until my primoradial survival instinct took over and forced my back to arch as my mouth opened in a huge, painful gasp, that I began to come back from the brink.
“Good girl. Again. Take another big breath. That’s right, slower now, just feel my chest and breathe with me.”
The instructions were given in a less frantic tone as my hand was pressed against his chest. When it rose, I tried to draw in more air, only letting it out when his chest fell. As the cycle repeated over and over, warmth came back and my vision started to clear. Of course it was then that I realized the warmth came from his body against mine, the abyss receding as I sat on his lap, his arms tightening around me until it was a miracle I actually could take a breath, no matter how shallow. My face heated as I saw Miss Susie waving a dish towel over me as if to encourage more oxygen molecules to enter my lungs. Others stood around the older woman, every face wearing an expression of concern.
“I-I’m okay,” I managed, though my attempt to push away from Max’s hold was futile.
“Child, I thought for sure I was on the way to meet my maker when I saw you start slipping out of your chair. You came within an inch of hitting the floor before Max here scooped you up like an eagle grabbing a trout out of Lady Bird Lake.” Tucking the towel in the waistband of her apron, she reached down and pulled at my hair. Before I could even react, she held up a peanut shell. “That’s why you’ve got shells in your hair, but don’t fret. All that pink and purple help hide the dust,” Miss Susie gushed, placing a hand on her chest. “Are you certain you’re okay, honey? You went as pale as that albino gator Smokey took me to see over at the Houston zoo. Maybe we should call a doctor?—”
I might not be able to process all of what Miss Susie was saying, but I had no trouble imagining the headlines about an ambulance arriving with sirens blaring, its medical personnel jumping out to attend a peanut-covered, rainbow-headed, half-naked princess in the arms of a sex-club owner. “No, please. I’m fine, Miss Susie. Just a little, um shaky there for a moment. I’m so sorry.” Sorry about scaring her and even sorrier I’d ever left the suite at the hotel.
“No need to be sorry, darlin’, as long as you’re all right. I’m just going to bring you another glass of sweet tea. That should put some more pink in your cheeks. You just stay right where you are. My Max will keep you safe and sound until I get back.”
While Miss Susie shooed everyone back and went to get my tea, I finally forced myself to look up at Max, aka Donny. Well, to be perfectly clear, Prince Donovan Oliver Maximillian Picard. My fiancé.
“You’ve got a hell of a lot to explain, Jean-Luc.” It was the name I’d given him when we’d first watched the Star Trek series and discovered that the starship’s captain shared the same last name as Prince Donovan. We’d played out their adventures, roaming all over the Isles in search of strange new things. He’d even managed not to laugh the day I excitedly told him I’d seen an alien crawling out of the sea. Instead, he’d played along, and we’d searched the beach. When the sun began to lower toward the horizon, warning that I had little time to make the trek back to the castle, he’d poked through a clump of slimy algae and then knelt down to pick up a white conch shell. It was in the shape of a perfect heart, which he said had belonged to the alien who discovered he couldn’t subsist in Earth’s atmosphere. That shell still held a place of honor on a bookshelf in my bedroom on Emberly.
Donovan had the grace to look at least a tad bit ashamed, but that didn’t stamp his bill paid. He’d abandoned me years ago and once fates reunited us, he’d allowed me to make a fool of myself for hours.
And you’re totally blameless?
“Shut up.”
He chuckled. “And she’s back. How exactly am I going to explain when you then tell me to shut up?”
Shaking my head, I pushed up and again attempted to climb off his lap. When he didn’t release me, I gave him my best glare. “Let. Me. Go.”
“Are you going to run?”
The thought had occurred to me, but I’d probably break my ankle in these stupid shoes and had no doubt he’d be able to catch me before I reached the door. “No, but I’m not about to sit on your lap either. Dammit, just let me go… please.”
His expression said he’d rather not, and I couldn’t really blame him for questioning my promise not to run. I hadn’t been exactly honest myself, but then, neither had he. When he stood instead of releasing me, I was about to pound my fists against his chest, but realized he was only moving to my side of the table to lower me into my chair. When my butt was securely planted, he dropped his arms and tucked me, chair and all, right up to the edge of the table. I waited until he’d returned to his seat before scooching back. When he began to rise, I shook my head.
“Relax. I agreed to sit at the table, not become one with it.” I demonstrated by attempting to slide my hand between the edge of the table and my body and failing.
“Sorry,” he said as he lowered himself into his chair but he didn’t sit back. Instead, he leaned forward and reached across the table, opening his palm and wagging his fingers as if he expected me to place my hand in his.
“Seriously?” I asked, arching my brows.
“As the heart attack you almost gave everyone in the joint,” he said without a note of humor in his voice. “Not that I don’t trust you, Marcie or Mia or whatever, but?—”
