Ineffable (25 page)

“Why don’t you forget the whiskey and make love to me instead?” He rolled her beneath him, nuzzling her like his old self, not a man who’d been drugged and tied to a bed for nearly a week.

“Hold up, partner. I will not be responsible for you have some kind of setback. Get in bed right.”

He clucked irritably, but did as he was told. “This is unnecessary. I feel perfectly well.”

“Good. And you’ll feel even better tomorrow after another day’s rest.”

“It’s not even 2 o’clock, you expect me to stay in bed the entire day? I’ll go crazy!” he insisted, then spoiled his argument when he yawned prodigiously.

He laughed softly at the look on her face. “After a nap I insist on getting up for a shower and a walk.”

“Around the living room.”

He laughed and pulled her into his arms. “We’ll negotiate.”

She snapped her fingers. “You know what we didn’t think about? My contract with Ineffable.”

“It’s already been severed. The designs you were creating for them you will now create for the online marketplace I will build.”

“Stole my idea, huh?”

“Of course. It’s brilliant. You will be our co-founder and chief creative in charge of scouting the talent.”

“Is this a salaried position?”

“Of course.”

“So now I work for you, huh?”

He laughed softly. “No, my darling. I’m not that stupid. You work with me, never for me.”

“Good. Long as you know.”

“Is it true?” Tommy asked later. “Did Nori step down as head of Ineffable?”

“Not only did he resign as CEO, he already got the ball rolling on his own – excuse me, our own – company. I’m to be co-founder. How do you like that? I wouldn’t be surprised if that uber efficient EA of his didn’t already have templates for the stationery at the printer.”

“Shit. That must be what she wanted. She left a message for me to call her.”

“Nori wants you to decorate the new office when he finds it.”

“Nice! Between the two of you success is a lock. Did he say anything about his dad?”

“Nope. He was furious when he found out Aro called.”

“He did? What he say? He gotta lotta nerve callin’ there!”

“Okay? He got the nerve of a brass ass monkey, as my mama used to say. I told him Nori was sleeping, that he was fine, successfully shaking off the effects of the drugs he’d been force fed, and that I would tell him he called.”

Tommy laughed softly. “All said in that deep, quiet voice of yours. I bet that old bastard is frantic right about now. He knows he fucked up, huge.”

“Nori’s so angry, he refuses to even talk about his dad.”

“I can’t say I blame him, girl. That mother fucker crossed the line.”

Margot harrumphed. “Fuck that, he shit on the line.”

“He’s angry, and with good damn reason,” Tommy speculated. “Once he’s back on his feet and he’s calmed down a bit, he’ll reach out.”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen him this angry.”

Tommy scoffed. “Can you blame him?”

“Hell no! This shit’s crazy. If it hadn’t happened to me I’d swear it was some bullshit somebody made up.”

Tommy laughed again. “Some shit Lou’s ass wrote.”

Their friend Lou was an award-winning director turned novelist.

“Exactly,” Margot said, chuckling too. “A frickin’ movie plot or some shit. It’s nuts.”

“What about your contract with Ineffable?”

“Nori already broke it, he said. And my lawyer’s called and emailed me. I just haven’t felt like dealing with it yet.”

“Damn, he did a lot from your bed, didn’t he? Or did he get up?”

“Nope, I wouldn’t let him. He was taking meetings in my bedroom, signing papers on the back of my hardback books.”

“Gangster.”

“Okay? That fool got more done before lunch than most folks do all day.”

“That’s how the rich do.”

“You know we rich too, right?”

“Not that rich.”

Margot laughed softly. “True that.”

“Speaking of, lemme hit it. I got some paper of my own to make. That bitch Starla is driving me crazy. Between her and Fan and that bitch ass gallery, I don’t know whether I’m comin’ or goin’.”

Their friend Starla Ann Paper was a fabulous painter, a bit of a recluse and about to start planning her next show at their friend Fan’s downtown gallery.

“You work at all today?” Tommy asked.

“Some. Got another piece finished for the Heartbreak Collection, a choker.”

“Good! Well, try to get some rest. Nori ain’t the only one done had a few bad days.”

“Preach. Later.”

“Peace.”

Chapter seventeen

The next day the express train that was Nori continued to roll on. He refused to stay in bed, insisting on relocating to the living room couch. By the time lunch rolled around, three people had come by, including his EA, who took fast and furious notes and then went off to do his bidding, and Lado, not as friend but as attorney.

Margot made them a delicious English tea, worked on another piece for the Heartbreak Collection and listened, impressed as he did his thing. The EA appeared again a few hours later with large visual boards depicting the layout of three options for the new office. He looked at them, asked her opinion, chose the one she picked and moved on to the next task.

He approached two executives from Ineffable with job offers, including Candace, and didn’t seem at all surprised when they agreed to come aboard. Margot burst out laughing when the EA asked what name to put on the stationery she had to order.

“Well, my love?” he asked her. “What shall we call our global e-commerce empire?”

“Hmmm. Something about wearable or consumable art, maybe? I was thinking it would be a place where the products are so beautiful you want to eat and wear them.”

“Work with Shatzi and Candace to come up some options based on consumable art,” he told his EA. “We need a slogan and a logo.” He blew Margot a kiss and kept going.

At four she suggested he pack it in. He agreed and released his minions with thanks for their hard work that day.

“We’re off on a new adventure, my girls!” he said, kissing cheeks as he ushered them out.

“Hungry?” Margot asked.

“Starved. May I take you out to dinner, my love?” He pulled her into his arms for a deep hug and nuzzle.

“I cooked. Salmon croquettes and salad with a mini chocolate mousse cake.”

He rubbed his hands and rolled his eyes. “My God, you are a marvel. When will you marry me?”

She burst out laughing. “Whenever you like.”

“Tomorrow?”

“I didn’t think we can do it quite that soon.”

“As soon as it can be arranged, will you?”

“Of course. Though I think you should let Lado come and stand up with you. At least he can call for help if someone tries to kidnap you.”

“Bitch,” he said softly, shaking his head at her. “I think I will. He was disappointed he didn’t get to participate last time.”

He reached for her hand across the table, playing with her fingers instead of eating.

“Not hungry?”

He nodded, but continued rubbing where her engagement ring once again sat.

“I remember waking up after you came to get me. I didn’t know what the hell was going on. My mind felt like Swiss cheese, but I saw immediately that you weren’t wearing your ring, and it felt like someone had hit me. I remembered everything then, in this horrible rush that made me so sick I almost puked.”

“Are you sure that wasn’t a side effect of that shit he pumped you full of?” she teased, trying to lighten the mood.

He laughed softly. “I suppose it could have been. But I don’t think so.” He looked up then, and her smile faded when she saw the pain in his eyes. “I can’t imagine how horrible it must have been when you realized I wasn’t coming.”

She looked down, pulled her hand away and picked up her fork. She cut into a croquette and ate a bite before she answered. “It sucked.”

There was a pause, then he snickered. “Margot, I swear you give new meaning to the word understatement.”

She shook her head, not wanting to cry when they were trying to get back to normal, but truthfully, the shit still hurt. She’d had no warning her life was about to fall apart. She’d thought she was about to join herself to the man of her dreams. To think he hadn’t cared enough to call and say he’d changed his mind – she’d never been struck like that before. Not even George had hit her that hard, and he beat the shit out of her for days on end.

Sensing her disquiet, he kissed her cheek and stroked her hair. “I will make it up to you, my darling. I’ve sent Tommy an email to see when we can reschedule the reception.”

“Did you?”

He nodded, mmm-ing as he tasted the croquettes. “Of course. I should know tomorrow when we can get another appointment at city hall too.”

“You’re terribly efficient. Watching how hard you’ve been working makes me feel like a slug. The way you had your finance guy dancing this morning was downright inspiring.”

He laughed. “Honestly, I don’t usually move quite this fast. These were unusual circumstances. I had to do certain things as quickly as possible to untangle myself from,” he paused, obviously not wanting to mention his father. “An undesirable situation. That and being bed bound was making me a little manic. You know I’m used to being out and about. I’m going to the gym tomorrow.”

Margot set down her fork. “Nori –”

He held up a hand. “I’ll only stay for half an hour, darling. Just a little cardio to sweat out the toxins. It will make me feel better, not worse, I promise!”

“Well, I can’t stop you. But I do wish you’d take it easy.”

“After the gym I’m coming right back here to rest,” he assured her. “You don’t mind do you?”

Now it was her turn to laugh. “We’re getting married, goofball. I’m not your jailer.”

Still, she couldn’t quite bear to let him out of her sight. The fear that he’d vanish, snatched away by some invisible foe was irrational, but she couldn’t seem to shake it.

“Things will settle down,” she said, and resumed eating. “And then they’ll pick up again. Launching a new business is always exciting.”

This weird fog that hung over them would fade.

              “Say, can I go to the gym with you?”

“Don’t trust me?” He grinned.

“Of course I do; you’re not stupid. I haven’t been walking my usual few miles, and I’ve been drinking a lot the past few days.” She didn’t need to say why; his shamed face told her he understood perfectly. “A good sweat might do me some good too. They have classes, right?”

He nodded. “What time shall we go in the morning?”

That night he wanted to make love, and this time she didn’t say no. She needed it too, to feel that connection that only existed between them. Margot didn’t doubt that he loved her. None of what happened, however painful, had been his fault, but she needed to know they were still strong, a unit.

He understood. His touch was uncharacteristically gentle, at least at first. Quickly it became familiar, rougher, but reverent. He whispered to her constantly. How much he’d missed having her in his arms, how good it felt to hold her close again, to feel her warmth and softness and hear her heart beneath his ear.

When he finally made his way inside her he shuddered and groaned, stroking deep and hard, lifting one leg over his arm to get even deeper as she creamed eagerly around his cock. Eventually he began to woo her in French, perhaps needing the comfort of his own language to express his feelings as he finessed her restless body.

There was a fervency in the stroking of their bodies, a longing in the moans and breaths that escaped and settled into each patch of lovingly tended skin and muscle and bone. The passion that burned between them seemed new. Perhaps it was the trauma. Perhaps it was relief because they’d come out mostly whole on the other side. But that passion helped to burn away the residue Aro’s treachery had left behind.

Being so cruelly separated had been a wound, gaping and ugly, oozing blood and life away from their hearts, their love. Tears fell as Nori stroked her, and Margot held his fiercely thrusting body close with gasping sobs, her nails digging into his back, his ass, his hair. She couldn’t seem to get close enough, arching and twisting her hips to meet every hard driving move. She nipped with her teeth, sucked hard, rubbed her face against his until his beard began to hurt, and then she did it some more.

Her body seemed to have shrunk without periodic infusions of his, and he shuddered to feel her so tight and wet around him. They both knew they would feel this lovemaking tomorrow, and that was okay.

“How I’ve missed you,
mon coeur
,” he whispered.

He must have kissed her six dozen times when he felt the tears, murmuring apologies and promises. And she believed them all, that he loved her, that he’d never leave her, that she was his, that they belonged together. She believed because she had to, because she felt the same way, and not to meant a kind of death.

Despite the desperation, their ragged, mutual need, the comfort she might have once felt from this expression of his love for her was muted. She still came, the sensation strong enough to make the edges of her vision waver as her limbs stiffened and then went limp. But the pleasure was sharper, almost painful. Not because he was hurting her, but because now she knew that he could say and mean whatever he liked. He could love her, and hold her, and laugh and promise the moon. He might even deliver it, and then promise some more, but in the end it didn’t matter because life could, and often did, have different plans.

But she pushed any lingering disquiet aside. Nori’s happiness, his pleasure in her was almost tangible. It hung around him like a cloud of scent, lingering in the air. As day became night, she couldn’t stop smiling, had burst out laughing more than once for absolutely no reason.

“You saved me,
mon coeur
,” he said proudly, eyes gleaming in their moonlit room. “You knew I was in trouble and you came.”

“Yes.”

He squeezed her gently. “Thank you, my darling. Thank you for knowing that I would never mistreat you that way. Thank you for believing in me, in us.”

He wrapped her up then, arms like bands around her entire body. He was holding her too tight, and it felt marvelous.

“I love you.”

“Me too.”

He looked sad then. “You haven’t been able to say those words to me since I came home.”

Margot didn’t know what to say to that. She’d hoped he hadn’t noticed. Stupid really. Nori noticed everything.

“I’m fine.” She would have rolled from the bed, but he stopped her.

“It’s okay, Margot. I’m not angry. I know you will say it again one day. I even understand why you don’t, I think. But I miss it.” He nuzzled her ear and sighed sadly, then ruined the entire scheme peeking up at her beneath his lashes.

She burst out laughing. “Lemme give you a tip. No man as masculine as you with lashes as long as yours should ever try that peekaboo move you just pulled.”

He grinned and rolled her onto her back, pressing her into the bed to let her know who was boss. “Careful. I owe you a spanking.”

“For what?” she scoffed.

“For sassing me,” he shot back. “I have to tend that ass of yours periodically, lest your mouth get too big.”

“Well, la di da.”

“You’re pushing it.”

“No, you’re pushing it.”

“That’s it.”

She was laughing as he flipped her onto her belly and held her down with a big hand in the middle of her back. “No!”

“Shut it. You don’t tell me no.”

“No,” she shot back.

So he hit her.

“Ow!”

He hit her again, three times fast.

“Shit!”

He laughed softly and kissed where he’d hit. He kept kissing, down the backs of both thighs, investigating the soft skin behind her knees. Then he retraced his steps, nuzzling the small of her back, investigating her shoulder blades with questing fingers, pressing in deep to release the tension he found there.

She’d been squirming slightly, but she shuddered when he opened his mouth to suck the back of her neck. Her breath left her in a hiss when he sank his teeth into the spot where her neck joined her shoulder and lingered long enough to let her know he was the lion, and she was only running free because he chose to allow it.

When he finally covered her back, and slipped inside her hot, wet body, she felt tears fall and was grateful he couldn’t see. She didn’t want to explain how scared she was feeling, how desperate and needy she was for something he couldn’t offer, certainty.

She was sobbing when she came. When he tried to turn her in his arms to investigate, Margot slipped from the bed. When she came back out the lights were out, and she was grateful. She was even more grateful when he didn’t try to talk. He just whispered goodnight and spooned up behind her, held her tight, his hands firm as they filled with her breast and the hot slightly damp flesh between her legs.

Margot released a shaky, thankful sigh, and a few minutes later, they slept.

He looked vibrant when they woke, normal as he put away a good sized breakfast of eggs and toast and juice. She consented when he came looking for her at the gym, asking if he could have another 30 minutes.

“I feel wonderful, my love,” he said, grinning as he kissed her, his face glowing with happiness, sweat and obvious good health. “No class for you?”

“I just finished the express session.”

“What will you do?”

“I think I’ll take a walk on the treadmill while I wait for you, then stretch on the mats and shower.”