Three Rings (The Fairytail Saga) (12 page)

‘Because I was the
least horrid
option available then! Face it Ivyanne, if Ardhi had turned Lincoln that morning-you probably would have forgotten my name by now!’

Ivyanne opened her mouth, then shut it. Her face was still wet with tears, and she swiped them away, even as fresh ones began to pool in her eyes.

The angst in her expression did it for Tristan. Feeling like everything inside him died from that one look, he got to his feet, as words he loathed to say spilled from his lips.

‘Fine,’ he nodded, backing away from her. ‘
That’s
the answer I needed, I guess. The final one.’

‘
What
?’ Ivyanne got to her feet. ‘Wait Tristan I didn’t say
anything
!’

‘You didn’t have to-I know you well now Ivyanne-words
always
come to you when they’re from your heart,’ the fact stung him with its accuracy. ‘It’s when you have to make something up to please someone else, that you get tongue-tied. Well, I won’t be the guy who renders you speechless anymore.’

‘Tristan don’t
say
that!’ She flung herself at him, pressing her face into his chest, trying to slip her arms under his, but he was immovable. He stood there, turning to stone to ward off the ecstasy her touch promised yet never seemed to deliver. ‘I’m just having a rough day is all!’

‘Maybe. But if you loved me, I’d be the one to make it
better
for you, not worse,’ he held out his hands helplessly. ‘I offered you an escape but you don’t want it. Not with me.’ His vision began to blur. ‘Forget your promise, okay? I’m releasing you from it. And the damn IOU.’

‘No!’ Ivyanne dug her fingers into his flesh.‘I just need time. I don’t
want
to be released!’

‘Yes you do,’ Tristan said quietly, keeping his eyes on the stars above her head so he didn’t have to look into her pleading face. ‘You just don’t want me to feel bad that I’m making your life that much easier by walking out of it. I’m sorry that you feel so
responsible
for me.’

Ivyanne began to rain little punches on his chest. ‘Don’t apologize for this!’ She cried. ‘I won’t! And what if I have your child, huh? What
then
?’

‘We won’t have been the first mer parents to create life and live separately from one another, would we? Breeding is our objective,
not
love, I know you’ve told yourself that a million times lately. So you’ll be fine.’ He couldn’t look at her in case he actually fooled himself into thinking that her shock was actual heartbreak instead of lack of control. ‘What
won’t
be fine, is me robbing you of your right to do what you want. Or you settling for me out of duty, or because the sex was good. The truth is in your dreams-and in them, you kiss
him
. In reality, you use my body to soothe the need you have for
his
mouth, because I happen to make quick work of it.’ He shook his head again. ‘I deserve better than that. I deserve to be kissed by a woman who never wants to stop-I think I deserve better than
you
.’

‘You probably do!’ Ivyanne wept, clinging to him. ‘I’m sorry I’m so confused but Tristan I
need
you! You can’t give up on me-you know that I love you!’

Tristan took her by the arms, forcing her to look into his eyes. ‘Well your love hurts me,’ he said honestly, tears running down his own face. ‘I won’t spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder for him-and you can’t promise me that won’t happen even if you marry me.’ Feeling physical pain in doing so, Tristan took her tiny hands and forcibly removed them. ‘Tell your mother I sent my regards, but I have to leave. I’ll come back for the boat in a few weeks when I get a chance to.’

The color drained from Ivyanne’s face. ‘Please, please Tristan don’t do this....’ her wet eyes were so round he could have fallen into them. ‘If you love me, you
can’t
do this!’

Tristan’s heart broke for her. Ivyanne was definitely a mess now, and it tore him apart to see that he really was causing her anguish. But she didn’t have the faintest idea of the agony
he
was in. And if she did, she’d never be able to heal it without making sure she soothed Lincoln for her attentions to his rival afterwards. It was a vicious cycle, and one he had to end.

‘I get what Ardhi did now,’ Tristan said honestly. ‘And I know what must have been going through his mind when he did it. He loved you-neither of us doubt that-but his actions only made you more miserable and I don’t want to cause you misery. You’re sick of being torn in two? Well then-I’ll stop pulling.’ With that, Tristan turned and fled back up the dunes, retracing the steps that had led him there, the wind chilling the tears on his face until he was cold all over.

Never before in his life had he felt so hollow. He had to get the hell out of Seaview before anyone saw the way Ivyanne Court had broken him.

Tristan checked his iPhone for the seventh time as he waited at the boarding gate for his flight earlyFriday morning, shaking his head at himself in disgust. Ivyanne wasn’t going to call, and she certainly wasn’t going to surprise him by showing up-in fact, if she ever spoke to him
again,
he’d be surprised.

Tristan hefted his Louis Vuitton graphite Keep-all onto his shoulder, fanning himself with his ticket. He usually found himself inside an airport once a week, or once every two weeks, in the least, and he’d always taken it in his stride, despite his own natural dislike of airplanes.

But he’d established a routine
without
the crowds, and the phones and the artificial air in sleepy little Seaview, and for the first time in decades, being suddenly surrounded by society felt oppressive and unnatural. There were too many people in the room, and the air-conditioning system was so cold that even his thin leather jacket couldn’t ward the chill off his bones.

It didn’t help that his stomach was still in knots from the unexpected scene he’d caused the night before. He’d gone out there to beg her to accompany him on the basis that he wasn’t happy
without
her, and yet he had somehow ended up ordering her
away
from him, permanently. It hadn’t occurred to him for a second that he was too weak to go the distance. But her refusal to put his happiness above Link’s yet again had been the breaking point of his tolerance.

She’d begged, she’d pleaded, she’d cried....but she hadn’t swum after him, had she? Now he knew. Ivyanne hadn’t chased him because of her fear of planes-even
Lincoln
had gotten on a boat to save a girl he didn’t care for-overriding his fears. No, something had Ivyanne anchored to the Queensland coast, and despite all of Tristan’s strength, he couldn’t pull her free.

‘Flight 1326 to LA now boarding,’ a smooth voice called over the intercom. ‘Will all first class ticket holders please come to the front of the gate. I repeat...’

Tristan shifted his bag again, the one he saved for flight travel only, containing his forged passport, created from forged identification papers (the name was right-but the
year of birth was light years off) and stepped up to the gate, looking at his Australian phone one more time. Nothing.

Then it’s over,
he thought sadly. If she wasn’t pregnant, Ivyanne’s life was going to be smooth sailing from then on. And if she was....well, Tristan surmised that they’d cross that bridge when they came to it. It was enough to make him want to fall to his knees and weep right there in the airport.

The doors opened and Tristan opened his eyes. A flight had just come in and he absently watched the people filing out of the corridor, pulling out their mobile phones and switching them back on, some clearly relieved to have landed safely, some with eyes searching for the toilets, others stuck behind slow walkers, looking impatient and annoyed.

One gorgeous blonde caught his attention. She was tall, and dressed in sexy street clothes-low slung skinny jeans, a pink slouch top and an adorable pink beanie on her cap of hair. Men’s heads were turning in every direction as she stalked elegantly along, like a model on a runway, trailing a tiny carry-on on wheels behind her-Louis Vuitton, like his own. She already had her phone out, and was speaking into it, head bent down. It was impossible
not
to notice her.

‘Yes, I’m here, god it was nauseating.....No, it looks like it hasn’t left yet....I’m a little late but I know I’ll make the flight east in time-mine doesn’t have a layover like his does., remember?’ Her eyes flicked up, resting on Tristan, and the brilliant blue iris’s widened.

Tristan’s mouth fell open. ‘
Adele
?!’ he demanded.

She gaped at him for one moment, shock registering on her pretty face. Before Tristan could reach out and ask her how she was or where she had come from, she turned on her heel and stalked away, glancing back at him, like she was afraid he’d physically molest her.

Tristan craned his neck to watch her go, tempted to run after her and make sure that she was all right. Everyone had been trying to find her for weeks-how strange was it, that he’d located her in an airport? And in international terminal, of all places!

‘He’s here!’ She hissed into the phone. ‘He’s boarding.....yes alone...’ the last few words were lost as the crowd swallowed her up.

Tristan frowned, confused at the way she’d said : ‘He’ like whoever she was talking to, knew him, or expected them to cross paths. Could she be speaking to Lincoln? Had they re-connected during Tristan’s one day out of the picture? No, that didn’t make sense.

Two air hostess’s were coming out of the corridor, bringing up the rear of the exiting passengers. Tristan stepped slightly out of line, flagging them down.

‘Excuse me, Miss?’

The first stewardess, with curly brown hair and a cream and coffee complexion, caught his eye and smiled at him, pausing, making no effort to conceal the fact that she was looking him up and down. ‘Yes sir?’

Tristan pasted on his most charming smile. ‘I was wondering if you could tell me where you’ve just come from?’ He winked at her. ‘Can’t imagine the view there was lovelier than the one on the plane.’

She smiled coyly, her friend also lingering to eye Tristan. ‘Norfolk Island, sir,’ she said breathily. ‘We’re always on that run, if you ever want to compare the view for yourself.’

Norfolk Island?
Tristan knew the area well, after all, it was one of the most pristine islands in the world, if not the most, and revered by their kind. In fact, Queen Ivy had settled there for hundreds of years before the English had come along and made it a penal colony. Tristan was certain that Vana still owned property there. But why would
Adele
go there? It didn’t make sense.

Tristan suddenly realized that not only were the two air hostesses still smiling at him, expectantly, but that the short line of first class passengers had passed him by. ‘Well, I’ll keep that in mind,’ Tristan finally said. ‘When I return from overseas of course. Have a good week, ladies.’

‘You too, sir,’ the dark-skinned girl replied.

‘We’ll be looking forward to your visit.’ The blonde added. ‘A lot.’.

Tristan smiled and waved, hurrying down the corridor after briefly flashing his ticket to the girl at the desk. He had anticipated boarding the plane like he was approaching his own funeral, but Adele’s sudden appearance had distracted him enough from the notion that he was leaving Ivyanne, possibly for good. He felt itchy and irritable. There was something wrong about Adele being there-but what precisely, was causing that sensation of dread in his stomach?

Tristan walked onto the plane, and another air-hostess directed him to his spacious window seat with a welcoming smile. Tristan put his keep-all on the seat beside him and pulled his phone out of his pocket, glancing at the screen, chewing on his lower lip thoughtfully. Should he text Ivyanne and tell her that Adele was fine?

‘Excuse me sir, I’m sorry, but you need to put your bag down at your feet and switch off your phone.’

‘Sure,’ Tristan obliged the polite woman automatically by shutting his phone down, and returning it to his pocket. Adele being on Norfolk fell under the category of bizarre and mysterious-but there was nothing ominous about it, nothing that couldn’t wait a few days for him to have a time-out from anything tied to his life down under.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Shortly we will be taking off, our first destination, being Fiji. For those of you making the connecting flight to L.A, you will have a two hour layover in the airport, with an ETA for LAX at twenty three hundred hours Eastern Standard time, which will put us at six am PDT on Friday. For the rest of you staying in Fiji, I hope you enjoy your short flight with us. Conditions are clear for the duration of the flight, and right across the Eastern sea board. Our attendants will be....’

Tristan tuned out the announcement, leaning back in his chair and fastening his seat belt, pleased to know that he was in for a smooth flight, and that he’d arrive with almost six hours to prepare for his meeting with Mark.

And he had to be prepared. He’d lost Ivyanne-he wouldn’t lose the contract now that it was within his grasp. His work was all he had left to fight for.