Immortally Yours (7 page)

It would be wonderful to give him a photograph in return for
all he had given her. But it had to be a surprise. His birthday was coming up
and if she knew what to do, she could give him a framed picture as a gift.

Common sense isn’t so common anymore.

Dawn Montgomery

Lizette had buzzed in her visitor and opened the door to her
apartment. Hank Peterson from the pawnshop stood there holding a gigantic
light, a large tripod and something else under his arm.

“Come in. What’s all this stuff?”

“I come bearing gifts,” he said and grinned. A couple of
teeth were missing. She couldn’t help wondering what happened. He had a rough,
ruddy face that made it look like he either neglected or abused his body.

“I see. What sort of gifts? They look expensive.”

“Not really. Remember, I get the best deals.” He set down
the lamp and tripod on the couch, then set the bag on the table. It looked like
a black canvas briefcase. “I found a laptop you might like if you’re away from
home taking pictures and want to download them right away.”

“Oh, that sounds wonderful. Only I have no idea how to do
that.”

“I’ll show you. But you won’t be able to use the internet
unless there’s a place that has Wi-Fi, like a hotel.” He waggled his eyebrows.

She knew he was he coming on to her but pretended not to
notice. “Why Fie?”

“That’s tech talk for a wireless connection.”

“And I thought English was a hard language to learn.”

Hank cocked his head. “How much do you know about
computers?”

“Nothing.” She laughed. “Absolutely nothing. Colin set up
all the equipment in my bedroom, but he didn’t have time to show me how to use
it.”

Hank shot her another wolfish grin. “Well, then. It’s a good
thing I’m here.” He opened the laptop and took a cord out of the bag. After
plugging it in, he clicked some keys and asked her, “What do you want your
log-in name to be?”

She shrugged. “Lizette, I guess.”

“Lizette?”

“Well, that’s my name.”

“You might want to use something harder to guess in case
someone gets a hold of it. You don’t want them having access to all your
private stuff.”

“Oh, well then put in Lourdes.”

“Hmm, okay…” Hank began typing in the word lords.

“No. L-o-u-r-d-e-s.”

“Oh, that’s a place in France, right? Some kind of holy
shrine or something?”

“It’s where I’m from.”

“Ah, I thought you were speaking with a French accent.” A
sly look appeared in his eyes. “How long have you lived in Seattle?”

“About twenty years.”

“Really? You must have been a baby, yet you still have the
accent.”

Damn, I slipped.
“Oh, well, you know. French parents
and trips back to my mother’s family every summer…”

“Yeah, I guess I can see how you’d pick up an accent.
Anyway, I need you to pick a password.”

“That should be hard to guess too,
non
?”

“Yes… I mean, right. If you use a word or something, it’s a good
idea to stick a number in there somewhere.”

“Okay, make it Paris-X-2.”

“Why the X? Did something naughty happen in Paris?” His grin
looked smarmy.

Lizette couldn’t help becoming annoyed by this guy’s
ulterior motives. He had been leering at her since he arrived.

“How much is all this stuff going to cost me?”

“How about having dinner with me? Just don’t tell your
boyfriend. It seems as if he thinks he owns you.”

Lizette jammed her hands on her hips. “No man owns me. But I
won’t be taking all this stuff from you for nothing, either, so…how much?”

He shrugged. “We can talk about that later. Now I’m going to
get you hooked up to the internet. I’ll just use your telephone for now. Later,
if you want broadband, they’ll need to come set up the connection for you.”

“Network? Like TV?”

He laughed. “Yeah. Kind of. You really don’t know a thing
about this, do you?”

“I told you…”

He nodded. “Yes, you did. It’s hard to believe you didn’t
learn this in school, though. Where did you go? Some Catholic school from the
middle ages or something?”

Again she had slipped up. “I went to Catholic school, yes.”

“Do you still have your uniform?” He waggled his eyebrows.

Now he was really getting on her nerves. “Look, why don’t I
figure out how that light works while you do your thing.”

He shook his head, smiling. “Whatever.”

Lizette crossed to the couch and began inspecting the other
equipment he had brought. She was afraid he wouldn’t take any money for that,
either. Well, she probably had enough to get him out of her hair once he was
finished showing her how to use things, but she wanted him out!

Weird noises came from the laptop as Lizette put together
the tripod and set up the lighting.
See, I’m not so helpless.
She shone
the light on the blank wall and noticed how it dramatically changed the shade
of the wall. What had appeared gray suddenly became bright white.

“Hey, I see you got the light to work.”

“Of course,” she said, tipping her chin up. “I’m quite good
with mechanical devices. It’s the electronics that I still need to learn and
I’m sure I will in time.”

“There’s nothing to it. With my help you could—”

“Oh, I don’t think I’ll require your help much longer. My
boyfriend will want to show me what I need to know.”

Hank knitted his brows. “Well, I can show you how to
download your pictures and you can get started putting them in your files right
away. I thought that’s what you wanted to do.”

She shrugged. “Well, of course. But I only have a few that
I’ve taken so far.”

“Well, I’ve got you onto the internet and I’m setting up an
email account for you. You’ll be able to find them easily because I created a
shortcut on your desktop.”

Lizette rushed over. “You did what to my desktop?” She ran
her fingers over the smooth surface of her wooden dinette table.

He laughed and tapped the screen. “No, this is called your
desktop.” Whatever was on the screen disappeared and a nearly blank screen came
up. He pointed to one of the small boxes in the upper left-hand corner. “And
this is the shortcut. All you have to do is double click on the left-hand side
of the mouse.” He pointed to the item below the keyboard, then tapped the
button on the left twice. Up came the screen he had been looking at before.

“Oh, I see. That seems easy. Now is this where I can put my
pictures?”

“Almost. I was about to create an account with one of the
online photo galleries so you can share pictures or send them by email if you
want to.”

“Oh, but who would I send them to and why?”

Hank shrugged. “Anybody who has a computer. And why? Well,
that’s up to you. Maybe you’ll want to have a way to display your work for
family and friends. Or maybe you’ll want larger prints made of your photos—so
large they could hang on a wall. The printer I sold you can’t handle anything
that big. You can send it to a custom printer without leaving the house.”

Those were exactly the things she needed to be able to do.
“How much does that cost?”

“Nothing for the photo site. If you want a website,
that
will cost you something, but you can wait on that. Today, I can get you signed
up for the free stuff.”

“Really?” Lizette could hardly believe what she was hearing.
Free stuff? How perfect!

She dragged a chair over and said, excitedly, “Okay, set up
one of those accounts and show me how to use it.” She hoped he would take her
money and a “no, thanks” to his come-on. He might be tough to discourage, but
she knew how to handle herself.

* * * * *

Colin glanced at his watch. He hadn’t been able to see
Lizette for a couple of days and he missed her. Now he couldn’t wait to hear
her knock on his apartment door. At first, it had surprised him that she had
gotten under his skin so quickly, but everything about her surprised him.

He had called her each night before going to bed and they’d
had nice, long conversations each time. Being more of a listener, Colin wasn’t
usually much for long talks on the telephone but he had found himself divulging
more and more of his life story to her. He even told her about his older
brother who had committed suicide and how hard it had been for his family. He
told her he had to have counseling at that point and that was part of what had
influenced him to go into the field of psychiatry. Lizette turned out to be a
sympathetic listener too. After holding in so many secrets without divulging
any of his own, relief flooded him.

However, Colin’s nerves spiked when he reflected on how he
had fallen for her, hard and fast. Part of him wanted to slow it down—the
scared part. But the part of him that felt fortunate for having found someone
so special held a solid lead. He wanted to see her again as soon as possible.
He had been giving some time to a researcher friend, but he found the
opportunity by inviting her to his apartment and asking her to come prepared to
spend the night.

Glancing around his apartment, part of a tall, glassy high-rise,
he hoped everything was ready to impress her. The dining table had been set and
tapered candles flickered. All the rooms were neat and clean. A vase of
long-stemmed red roses sat atop his entry table. Reflected in the mirror, one
dozen became two.

The desk manager had been alerted to her arrival time and
said he’d let her come right up. At last, a gentle rap on his door alerted him
that she had arrived. His pulse quickened as he strode down the hall to let her
in.

Upon opening the door, his breath caught in his throat.
Lizette wore a pretty pink sleeveless dress with a short hemline. The color
emphasized her rosy glow and set off her halo of blonde curls.

“Hello, beautiful.” He swooped down to kiss her and pulled
her petite form against his chest, holding her tighter than he had intended.
When he finally broke the kiss and stepped back, she grinned.

“I missed you too, handsome.”

Colin took Lizette’s overnight bag from her and led her to
the living and dining area. She glanced around the open floor plan and
exclaimed, “Your place is so big.” She strolled to the windows and sighed. “And
the view through your windows is beautiful.”

He hoped she’d like his place. He certainly did. The
twinkling lights of Seattle at night always welcomed him home in the nicest
way. He came up beside her and stroked her back. “I’ve always loved this view.
Seeing you in front of it makes it even better.”

She giggled. “You are so full of flattery tonight. What did
I do to deserve it?”

“You showed up.” He placed a finger under her chin and
tipped her head up for another long, searing kiss. A fire ignited between them.
Her passionate kisses always affected him deeply. It was as if nothing existed
but the two of them and he could barely control his raging desire. Before Colin
realized it, he was groping her in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Stepping away from her, abruptly, he said, “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Pawing you in public.”

“In public? Do you mean in front of the windows?”

“Yeah. Not very considerate of me, I’m afraid.”

She laughed. “Well, if it bothers you, you’d better not go
to Paris, or you’ll see all kinds of inconsiderate behavior through the windows
at night.”

He smiled, relieved that she wasn’t hung up on proprieties.
She had been in America a long time, but not long enough to carry the
Puritanical modesty of most women.

“Well, I’d better get dinner on the table before we skip it
and wind up in bed having dessert. I’m afraid it would burn to a crisp.”

“What are you making for dessert?”

“Apple crisp.”

“Well, then it’s supposed to be crispy, no?”

“Crispy, yes. Burned, no.” He kissed the top of her head and
jogged to the kitchen.

He pulled the scrumptious-smelling dessert from the oven and
set it on the stovetop to cool. When he reentered the living room, Lizette was gone.
That’s weird.

Colin thought that perhaps she had only visited the “powder
room” as she called it, but a quick glance showed the door still open and the
lights off.

“Where the hell could she be?” he muttered.

He hadn’t heard the front door close. Maybe she had decided
to give herself the full tour. She had to be in his bedroom. He strode to the
bedroom door and—

“Whoa!” A beautiful, fully nude Lizette lay on his bed.

She hadn’t planned to seduce him but couldn’t help herself.
It occurred to her spontaneously during their kiss, which sent her heart
pounding. Whenever he kissed her, all her troubles faded away. The only thing
that mattered was how she felt when she was with him…cherished and adored.

Colin made quick work of his clothing and dropped every
stitch onto the floor. She reached for him and he dove onto the bed next her,
scooping her into his arms and rolling with her until she was on top of him.
She couldn’t help giggling.

“I love you, Lizette. I know I’ve told you already, but I
feel like telling you again and again.”

She grinned. “I treasure your love. I treasure
you.
”
And she did. She hadn’t felt this way about any of her previous lovers. They
had been a means to an end. Colin was…well, the one who could make her stop
running. She caught her breath as the realization struck her.

She leaned over and glided her breasts against his bare
chest in a tortuously slow motion. Then she slid off to his side so she could
capture his hard cock in her hand. He groaned and became twice as rigid,
filling her hand with his heat. She pumped him a few times while she scooted
down so her mouth was level with her prize. When she looked up, he wore a
crooked smile and a wicked gleam in his eyes.

She gave a little laugh, then leaned forward to lick him and
blow a puff of warm air across the satiny surface. He trembled, thrilling her
with gratification. She wanted to drive him wild.

She encircled his cock with her tongue, then slipped her
mouth over it and sucked. He delved his hands into her hair and gasped softly.