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He shook his head, that lazy smile of his totally demoralizing me. “We’re far from finished, Kitty. I don’t know if we ever will be.”
It had been so long since I’d heard that name in his rich, gorgeous voice. It wasn’t a declaration of love, but it was something, and he was tugging me back into his arms, and I was going, unable to resist him, and there were no more words.
When I awoke, I was alone, a small mercy. I felt...so many things. Exhausted, confused, angry. And though he hadn’t said the words, loved.
He had touched me in ways I’d never been touched, coaxed me into doing things I’d never considered, and every time I was ready for sleep, he would touch me and I roared to life again. The ugly truth was inescapable. My childhood passion for Marcus’s big muscles and dashing smile was exactly that, the passion of a child. Ian’s drugging, deeply erotic actions of the night before had stripped me down to nothingness, externally and internally, and all I could think of was him.
In the daylight, the other side of my bed was empty—and I realized with shock it was after eleven. I didn’t ask myself how I’d managed to sleep for so long. Given the things he had done to me, the things we had done together, it was amazing I was thinking clearly at all. I grabbed the sundress I’d left on the bathroom door and pulled it over my head, and despite the fact that we’d taken a long, depraved shower together, I still needed another one. But before I planned to do anything else, I had to find Ian. I intended to sneak down the back stairs and confront him. He’d never said a word to me last night, apart from slow coaxing, and I needed to know what he was going to do. Tell everyone? Profess his dying love, or hatred for that matter? No, he didn’t hate me. I would be an idiot to think so. I just needed him to set my mind at ease, and then I’d disappear back into my bedroom. Where I might just strip down and roll in my rumpled sheets, remembering.
I was practically tiptoeing down the massive stone staircase when I heard Marcus’s voice and swore beneath my breath,, whirling around to try to escape.
Too late. “Bella!” he called out, appearing in the doorway, his handsome face wreathed in smiles. “We’ve had the best surprise ever!”
I wasn’t keen on the idea of surprises, but I plastered an interested smile on my face. I swung around, hoping it looked as if I were just heading upstairs. “Oh, really? You can tell me about it when I come back down. I need a shower and...”
“Where have you been?” he demanded, his eyes narrowing, and I prayed to God I didn’t look guilty. Not that there was anything to feel guilty about.
“I got up early and went for a walk,” I lied.
“Next time, wear shoes,” he said, and came toward me. “Come and see her.”
“Her?” I echoed as he pulled me into the blue salon where the family was gathered. “Who...?”
“It’s Podge!” he announced cheerfully. “Just in time for Granda’s service.”
She was standing there, a sweet smile on her face, something very close to a smirk in her eyes. “Hi, Bella,” she drawled in my American accent. “It’s been too long.”
I didn’t move as she came forward and hugged me, her small hands hard and painful as she clutched me to her. “Get your shit together,” she hissed in my ear, and then took a step back, beaming at me. “You look wonderful, as always.”
It was more than I could say for her. She’d braided her long hair and tucked it into a bun, she wore no makeup, a pair of horn-rimmed glasses that I’d never wear, and she’d either been eating nonstop in the time we’d been apart or she was wearing padding around her middle. This was her vision of Podge: plump, plain, bespectacled.
I was too numb to do anything more but smile faintly. “It’s good to see you, Kitty,” I said. “When did you get here?”
“Oh, hours ago! I shocked the hell out of Ian, but he recovered quickly enough. You didn’t tell me how handsome he is, Bella.”
Ian was nowhere in the room—just Marcus and the cousins and Maldonado. “I suppose so,” I said carefully. “Where is he?”
“Oh, he had to go out to deal with some paperwork, he said,” Marcus volunteered. “Probably dealing with that fool Fergell.”
“Fergell? Oh, the lawyer,” I said.
“Keep up with things,” Mary Alice snapped from her position on the lounge. “We’ve got a will to fix.”
I cast an immediate look at Bella, but she was smiling happily, like a nitwit. “Don’t worry, Mary Alice,” she said sweetly, and I suddenly remembered her name for her. Ian was Ian the Wretch, I was Podge, and Mary Alice was Malice. Valerie wasn’t enough of an entity for her to bother with a nickname. “I’m sure we’ll be able to clear everything up once I get back to the States.”
“Why wait till then?” Mary Alice snapped.
Bella turned to her, all dewy innocence. “My lawyer is there. Surely you don’t think I should do this without my lawyer.”
“Do what?” I demanded.
Bella smiled sweetly at me. “Make Granda’s will right. I have no idea why he left it all to me, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”
The letter I gave her should have explained at least part of it, I thought, but she was still looking at everybody like a halfwit, eager to please. Was that really how she saw me?
“As long as it’s fair,” Mary Alice said, and Valerie made agreeable sounds.
“Of course,” Bella said, and maybe it was only me who noticed that she hadn’t said she was giving up the money.
