Heaven and Hell (17 page)

The wet spilled out of my eyes.

“You have,” I whispered brokenly because my
voice was clogged with tears.

“And when you needed me yesterday,
ma
chérie,
I must confess, not having my Clémence to share those
kinds of moments with, I was more pleased you turned to me than you
could ever be grateful I assisted you.”

Ohmigod! That was so nice, so beautiful and
so
freaking
sad.

And it was so all of that that I felt my
body jolt as my breath hitched with my sob and I also felt Luci’s
arm wrap around my shoulders and her cheek press into my hair.

“And lastly,” Celeste whispered, “I am not
disappointed in you. I know of this man,
ma chérie,
most
everyone does. Thomas admires him and, I must admit, I do
too
.
I suspected your secrets were dark, though I am sad to
know what they are. But I am not disappointed in the least you are
bright enough to see that all men are not like your husband and you
are strong enough to take a risk that must certainly frighten you
by trying again.”

My body jolted again as another sob tore up
my throat, Luci held on tighter and at that moment, I heard a
barked, angry, “What the fuck is goin’ on?”

I swallowed, Luci moved away and I twisted
in my chair to see Sam stalking my way.

Yes,
stalking.

Oh God.

Oh no.

Oh shit.

His eyes were on my wet face then they
sliced to Luci and he demanded to know, “Who’s Kia talkin’ to?”

“A woman named Celeste,” Luci whispered and
Sam’s eyes cut back to me.

“Is she upsetting you?”

“I –” I started.

He’d arrived and he bent, one hand to the
arm of my chair, one hand wrapped around the back of my neck and he
got in my face to ask, “Yes or no, baby, is she upsetting you?”

“Well, obviously, yes, Sam,” I answered, his
face got dark, he made a move that my guess (what I didn’t know was
accurate) was to pull my phone from my ear so I hurried on. “But
not how you’re thinking.” I dashed my hand over my cheeks and
finished, “We’re having a heart-to-heart a good one, I mean… uh, a
bad one but a good one.”

Sam’s brows were knitted and his eyes were
intense and he was clearly not liking me swiping at my wet cheeks
and I knew this because his gaze followed those movements and that
was when his brows shot together.

But now he was studying me.

I let him do it for a moment then whispered,
“Honey, she’s still on the line.”

He studied me again. Then his hand slid from
my neck to my cheek, taking my hair with it, his thumb extending to
glide through the wet still on my skin then the pads of his fingers
dug in briefly before he let me go and pushed away.

I let out my breath.

Sam said to Luci, “Girl, I need coffee.”

I said to Celeste, “I’m back and I’m really,
really sorry.”

And Celeste said to me on an excited cry
that was so far from her polished sophistication, my body jumped in
surprise, “I approve
ma chérie!
Oh,
I approve!
”

“Uh… sorry?” I asked.

“He has a lovely voice, like velvet,” she
observed.

I blinked again at my knees. Then I looked
at Sam who was now sitting, eyes on me.

Then I burst out laughing.

Then, still laughing, I agreed, “Yeah.
Totally.”

“He’s taking you out on the lake today?”

“Yes.”

“Lovely. The views from the lake are
spectacular. Now, I know you’re busy but perhaps, before you leave,
we can meet him, if only for a drink. Thomas would so enjoy that
and I would too.”

My eyes slid to the lake, “I’ll, uh, talk to
Sam and we’ll see.”

“
Bien
,” she whispered.

“But, regardless, before I go, we’ll see
each other again.”

“Oh yes,
ma chérie,
we will
definitely do that.”

“And I need to pay you back for
yesterday.”

I heard her cultured but still rich and
beautiful laughter then she said, “Oh no,
ma chérie,
you
must give me that.”

“But, uh, it was
you
giving to
me,
” I pointed out.

“Yes, and the result was I walked out of
your hotel room after seeing a vision of beauty. It was a gift to
have a hand in that, even if it was simply nail varnish and a sweep
of cosmetics. And you walked out of your hotel room to spend the
night with a gentleman who earned your secrets in ten minutes. And
it was a gift to have a hand in that too.”

Seriously, did I already say I loved
Celeste?

I
totally
did.

“Okay, then
my
gift is, whether it’s
with Sam or not, when I see you and Thomas again, I pay for
dinner.”

“Oh, my Kia, I don’t speak of such things.
You’ll need to discuss that with Thomas.”

Which meant I so totally was not buying
dinner.

Great.

Okay, well, whatever.

“I’ll call you tomorrow and we’ll set
something up.”

“
Très bien,
” she murmured.

“All right, honey, I have to go finish
getting ready.”

“Have a wonderful time, Kia.”

“I will, Celeste. We’ll speak soon.”

“Of course,
adieu, ma belle.
”

Adieu, ma belle.

Freaking cool.

“’Bye, Celeste.”

She rang off. I flipped the phone shut,
slipped it on the table and looked to Sam just as Luci walked out
with another pot of coffee.

“You okay?” Sam asked.

Luci poured.

I answered.

“That’s my Lake Como bud, Celeste. She just
told me she had a daughter with blonde hair and green eyes named
Clémence who died when she was twelve of leukemia. Since we met,
she’s been super awesome. This is because she’s super awesome but
also because, I just learned, I remind her of her daughter. I kind
of lost it when she told me that so, uh…” my eyes slid from a solid
and staring at me Sam to a frozen and staring at me Luci, “sorry
for the drama.”

“Jesus, baby,” Sam whispered.

I bit my lip.

“That’s very sad,” Luci whispered.

I nodded.

Sam kept staring at me.

“I’m okay now,” I assured him.

He kept staring at me.

“Sam, I’m okay,” I whispered.

His eyes moved from me to Luci then back to
me before they slid to the lake. He appeared to be thinking but he
also appeared not to wish to share what he was thinking and I knew
this not because I’d absorbed knowledge of all things Sam by
sleeping in his arms but because he didn’t share what he was
thinking.

I left it at that and took a sip of my
coffee in preparation for going back upstairs and finishing getting
ready.

I only got the sip in before Luci put Sam’s
coffee cup in front of him and announced, “I’ll go get my laptop so
you can check your e-mail.”

Then off she went, gliding gracefully
through the doors to the kitchen before I could make a peep.

When my eyes moved from where Luciana
disappeared, they went through Sam on the way back, a Sam who was
putting his coffee cup down and turning to me.

And when he did, he said quietly, “Celeste,
your Lake Como bud, can I take from that you met her here?”

I nodded.

“And she just shared about her kid?”

I nodded again.

“Just like that?”

I thought about it. Then I said, “Well, kind
of, I mean, we got close very quickly so it hasn’t been long but, I
don’t know, I feel a connection with her, a connection she’s now
explained so it isn’t weird. I mean, we’ve shared. Nothing that
personal but, my guess is, it would get that personal eventually.
It was just sooner rather than later.”

“Luci likes you,” he informed me and I
smiled.

“I can tell.”

“No, baby, Luci
likes you.
”

That was when I blinked because he was
telling me something, I just didn’t know what.

Sam carried on.

“I told you she was up in my business, what
I didn’t tell you was, not only is she all over my ass to hook up
and get down to the business of makin’ babies, she’s all over my
ass because she pretty much hates every woman I’ve been with that
she’s met. She isn’t here often. That party last night is something
she does when she comes home so she can see all her friends. She’s
still got the house she lived in with Gordo, a house that’s close
to mine and she spends most of her time there. So, when I say she’s
in my business, I might not have mentioned she’s got
opportunity.”

That didn’t sound good.

“Why didn’t she like your other, uh… women?”
I asked.

“I didn’t say she didn’t like them, honey, I
said she hated them, as in, hated their fuckin’ guts.”

“Okay,” I said slowly, drawing it out. “So,
why?”

“How would I know? Obviously, I liked
‘em.”

Well. Obviously.

“Until I stopped liking them,” he
finished.

Well, obviously about that too.

I made no reply.

“But, gotta admit,” he muttered
distractedly, his eyes sliding to the lake, his hand going to his
coffee cup, “none of them were like you.”

I was curious to know what that meant even
though I was kind of freaking out about this conversation but I
didn’t get the opportunity to figure out how to shape my question
so as not to sound overly nosy, fishing for compliments or
gossiping cattily because that was when Luci returned.

“Here we are!” she called, gliding forward
carrying an open laptop which she rounded Sam with, then shoved my
dirty dishes aside with one hand and plonked it on the table in
front of me. “All ready. I have wi-fi or whatever; Sam set it up
for me the other day so you’re good out here.”

Sam could set up wi-fi. This meant he was
trained to kill, trained to read people and was good with
computers.

Interesting, useful (ish) and scary.

I leaned forward but didn’t take my heels
from my seat as I slid my finger on the mousepad, clicked and
plucked out the web address one-handed and called up my webmail
then Paula’s e-mail which had the subject line
Woot! Woot!
Perfect!

I clicked the link and stopped
breathing.

It was.

Perfect.

It was one of The Dorchester’s three-story,
two bedroom units. This meant it had a dining room rather than
dining area. This also meant that it had a study or family room
area that was kind of a balcony that opened up over the first
floor. This meant it wasn’t awesome, it was
awesome.

Therefore, looking at it, I whispered,
“
Awesome.
”

“Let’s see!” Luci cried then suddenly the
laptop was twisted away from me and toward her and Sam and,
instantly, I felt panic.

This was because The Dorchester was cool and
that particular unit was
awesome
.

What it was not was a swanky, exclusive
hotel. It was also not what an ex-pro-football player who had
numerous endorsement contracts could afford. Nor was it an Italian
villa which had an extended garage that housed five trashy but
mind-bogglingly expensive automobiles.

Shit.

“Uh… I, uh…” I stammered then blurted, “It’s
in Indiana.”

Sam’s eyes went from the laptop to me and
Luci, who was standing beside him and bent to look, twisted to
me.

Neither of them spoke.

They thought it was rinky-dink.

I looked to Luci.

“Uh, we don’t have villas in Indiana, er, I
don’t think or, at least, I’ve never seen one.”

Luci’s face softened and her lips smiled
before she said quietly, “It’s lovely,
cara.
”

“Uh… thanks,” I muttered then slid my heels
off the chair and stood, saying quickly, “I’ll e-mail Paula after I
get ready.” My eyes moved to Sam. “Is my stuff upstairs?”

He shook his head, put his coffee cup down
and then his hands to the arms of his chair as he muttered, “I’ll
get it.”

He didn’t push up.

This was because Luci announced, “Kia thinks
she’s normal.”

My breath clogged and I was pretty sure my
eyes bugged out.

Sam’s gaze cut to her.

“Come again?”

“She told her French friend she was normal,”
Luci explained. “Not like us.”

Sam’s gaze cut back to me.

I wondered if there was additional
sentencing if you were tried and convicted for clobbering
ex-supermodels.

“Kia,
cara mia,
” Luci said to me and
I tore my eyes from a perplexed Sam to her, “the pictures of your
future home are lovely. It’s much like Travis and my home in North
Carolina.”

Oh yeah. I forgot Sam lived in North
Carolina; he’d stayed where he’d last been stationed.

Wow. That was a long way away from me.

“Except smaller,” Luci finished.

“Uh…” I mumbled.

“Girl, give us a minute,” Sam said to Luci
and Luci turned to him.

“How many minutes with Kia are you going to
need, Sam?” she asked tartly, clearly wishing to be in on finishing
the intervention she’d instigated after outing further pieces of my
dramatic conversation with Celeste she’d eavesdropped on.

His eyes cut to her and they stayed locked
on her as he stood, his head tipping down to hold her gaze as he
straightened and hers tipping back to hold his.

Then he rumbled, “A lot.”

“Right,” she whispered, turned to me, bugged
out her eyes then she glided away.

I watched her go then looked to Sam.

“You’re not like us?” he asked.

“That was taken out of context,” I
explained. “Luci only heard my side of the conversation.”

“So, baby, tell me, how did she take it out
of context?”

“Well –” I started but didn’t finish.

This was because Sam cut me off to ask, “I
thought we got past this last night.”

“Actually, I was telling Celeste about last
night. That was how it was out of context.”

“Okay, then, why did you look like you were
holding back the urge to grab Luci’s laptop and throw it over the
balcony when she turned it so we could see pictures of the place
you’re thinkin’ of buying?”