Dance of the Crystal (22 page)

“I’ll pick you up at eight sharp. And Rowena? Don’t tell anyone. I don’t want the gossips to know about my soundproof dungeon and all the handcuffs and restraining devices.“

At that, she laughed. “Promises, promises.”

“I’m serious.”

“Okay, okay. Listen, Trey, another call’s coming in. I’ll be ready at eight tomorrow morning.”

“You better be. I want you up there if I have to drag you by the hair.”

Still smiling, Rowena punched buttons and answered the second call.

“Good evening, Rowena. I hope I’m not intruding by calling after nine.”

“Not at all, Jack. I don’t go to bed until midnight.”

“I’m glad to hear it. I’m calling to ask you for a very big favor.”

“What’s up?”

“You may recall that I never gave Crystal a gift at the birthday party you hosted for her. I ordered it a month ago, and it just came in. I’m unpacking it now. I wonder if you could stop by Time Treasures and give me your expert opinion as to whether she would like it.”

“I’d love to, Jack, but I’m leaving town tomorrow for a few days.”

“I’m still at the shop. You just said you don’t go to bed until midnight. Could you come by now? I’d really appreciate it. I don’t want to wait any longer than necessary to present it to her. You know she holds a special place in my heart and I don’t want her to think I ignored such a special occasion as her thirtieth birthday.”

Rowena’s mind raced. Surely she could spare an hour for her granddaughter. She’d pack when she returned. “Okay, I’ll be there in a half hour.”

“Thank you. I’ll be forever in your debt.”

* * * * *

God, she was beautiful—her wild, gypsy hair spread over the carpet, her brown eyes slumberous and sated. Her luscious breasts flattened a little, listing to the sides. Her pussy was swollen and red, her thighs shiny with her juices. The ever-present amulet sparkled at her throat.

He knelt at her side and gently stroked between her legs with the washcloth. She had not a bone of artifice in her, he thought. Every emotion she experienced showed on her face. Had anyone ever looked at him with such—

Love?

Had he been tarring every woman with the brush of his child’s memory of his mother’s betrayal? He’d always kept a tight rein on his emotions, and no other woman had come close to breaching his defenses.

But this one stormed right over them. She’d joked about a steamroller, but its license plate should have read C-R-Y-S-T-A-L.

He wasn’t ready to put a name to what he felt about her—tenderness, respect, awe. She made him happy to be with her, happy to be alive. All these years, he now realized, he’d been marking time, waiting—

For her.

Breathless, he sat back on his haunches. Good Christ, he’d need some time to assimilate this new insight. Did he want to open himself up to hurt again? His mother had taught him that he was unlovable.

How long would it be before Crystal hurt him?

But maybe, just maybe…

“Penny for your thoughts,” she murmured, her palm brushing up and down his thigh.

Uh-uh, he wasn’t ready to talk about it. Instead, he grabbed at the first subject he could think of. “Do you ever take off that crystal thing around your neck?”

She gave him an odd smile. “Grandma gave it to me for my thirteenth birthday. I’ve never taken it off.”

“You must think a great deal of her.”

Crystal pushed herself up to a seated position on the carpet. “I’d do anything for Rowena. After my parents died, I would have been lost without her. She welcomed me into her home, into her heart. She guided me during the most vulnerable part of my life.”

Taking the amulet between thumb and forefinger, Crystal stroked it absently. “She told me it was magic.

That it would keep me safe until I knew what I wanted in life.” Her lashes lifted until he could see deep into the soft brown depths of her eyes. “That I would know when I met the man I would give my virginity to.”

Soren sat hard on his heels, the now cool washcloth forgotten in his hand. He barely kept the skepticism from his voice. “Are you trying to tell me that you picked me because of some so-called magic charm?”

Her smile was tremulous. “As soon as I saw you up on that stage, the crystal glowed against my skin with a heat I never felt before, so I knew you were The One.”

He shot to his feet, towered over her seated form. “Whoa! Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. All this—” he flicked his hand back and forth between them, “you’re saying it was voodoo? That you put some kind of a spell on me?”

“No, Soren, of course not! I’m just saying—”

“Yeah, right, ‘the crystal made me do it’. It had nothing to do with who
I
am. You would have fucked anyone the crystal told you to.”

Anger slowly seeped into every pore. She was no different from any other woman, scheming, grasping, inveigling him into intimacy and then dropping a bomb of one sort or another. He looked around for his jeans, grabbed them and stuffed his legs into them while hopping on one foot at a time. “Well, you just tell your precious grandma that her magic doesn’t work on Soren Thorvald. I’m not a stupid dog you can lead along by a leash, whether it’s made of leather or crystal.”

She had stood up while he was dressing. Good thing, or he’d have ripped the shirt she was sitting on right out from under her treacherous ass. He snatched up the juice-stained shirt and shoved his arms into the sleeves, not bothering with whatever buttons he hadn’t popped in his adolescent eagerness to get his cock into her.

More fool he.

He found his boots lying under the card table and yanked them onto his feet without even thinking about socks. Patting his jeans pockets to be sure he still had his wallet and truck keys, he stalked down the hall then spun around when she shouted his name. He felt like his eyes could zap the rug and start a fire as she ran, naked, toward him.

He wrenched open the front door, the sight of her jiggling breasts for once not affecting him.

“Soren, wait!”

Wait? Not on your life, he thought, wondering if smoke was coming out of his ears. He slammed the front door shut behind him and took the three porch steps in one long stride.

He’d never heard such a ridiculous excuse for a come-on in his life. She’d played him for a fool. His fault. He’d let down his guard and allowed her to creep into the cold cavity that passed for his heart. But an inert piece of rock telling her she’d found the right stud to do the deed? What a pile of horseshit.

A fleeting image of his brother sitting at his bar getting slowly wasted on a bottle of good whiskey flashed in Soren’s mind. A woman had driven Magnus to his knees. He understood a little better now. But unlike Magnus, he wouldn’t need to drink himself to oblivion. He’d just immerse himself in his work.

And woe to any employee who dared comment on his state of mind.

Crystal collapsed onto the bottom step of the staircase as she listened to Soren’s tires squeal away from her. How could she have done anything but answer truthfully when he asked her? He was her heart and soul. She would have told him anything and everything.

Elbows on her knees, she lowered her head into her palms and fought tears. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so naïve as to think he’d simply accept what she’d long ago taken for granted. Darn it, the crystal
had
told her. She rubbed her fingers over the spot of skin under the amulet that had actually had a red mark the morning after the Bachelor Auction. It couldn’t be wrong. The magic they shared when they made love hadn’t come from the crystal. It had come from the chemistry between two people who were meant to be together.

Sure, she’d necked and petted and even had a few tepid orgasms from her own efforts, but never once had she been tempted to go all the way with any of the men who had wanted to take her to bed. But when she’d seen Soren, the attraction was immediate. Hadn’t he felt the same attraction? Hadn’t he made love with her like they were meant to be together? Hadn’t the earth moved?

A shudder overtook her, like the feeling one got walking through a cemetery on a dark night. No wonder, she chided herself. She was still naked, and emotionally upset to boot. With a deep sigh, she forced herself to her feet and dragged herself back to the dining room table where the cards lay scattered and her ratty blue tights hung by one leg off the back of a chair.

She had pulled on her clothes and had just started straightening up the kitchen from the lasagna dinner when the phone rang. “Soren,” she blurted out, her spirits shooting to the skies. Grabbing the phone, she said a breathless hello.

“It’s Jack. I’m afraid I have some bad news.”

Not Soren. Crystal’s shoulders slumped. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s Rowena. She came to Time Treasures just before closing and wanted to see something I had stored in the back. She…well, she fell and twisted her ankle, I think.”

“Oh, no, is she in pain?”

“You know your grandmother. She treats everything like a joke. She doesn’t want me to call an ambulance.”

“Put her on the phone,” Crystal demanded.

“I’m afraid I can’t, my dear. My cell phone isn’t charged, so I’m calling from the landline in my office.

She’s in the storage room and the cord won’t reach that far. Can you come down and knock some sense into that thick head of hers?”

“Couldn’t you drive her to the emergency room?”

“She absolutely refuses. Something about saving face.” Jack made what sounded like a strangled laugh into the phone. “If she was having an emergency appendectomy, she’d want to walk into the operating room on her own two feet.”

Crystal puffed out a harsh breath. Yes, that sounded like her grandmother. “Okay, tell her I’m on my way.”

“Pull into the alleyway,” Jack directed. “It’ll be closer to where she is.”

“Gotcha.” She disconnected and dashed upstairs for her sneakers. Grabbing her own cell phone, she checked the battery indicator. Fully charged. Good. She headed out to her car, thrusting her arms into a lightweight jacket, then speed-dialed number four, Rowena’s cell phone number, in case her grandmother had that phone in her handbag.

She got the “out of service” recording. With a muted oath, she stuffed the phone into her jacket pocket and got into her Beetle.

It took almost fifteen minutes, but at last she pulled up to Time Treasures’ back door, which was ajar.

She shut off the ignition, slid the key into her jeans pocket, and pushed open the heavy door.

“Jack? Grandma?” As she strode into the interior of the dimly lit storeroom, she heard the door slam shut behind her. Whirling around with her hand on her heart, she saw Jack Healy come up to her. “Oh.

You scared me. I thought you’d be with Grandma.”

“I heard your car.” He took her upper arm with a tight grip. “Come with me.”

Crystal’s mind registered the fact that he was agitated, his face grim. The sleeves of his white shirt were rolled to his elbows, his discreetly striped tie askew. Her heart slammed into her chest. “Is she worse?”

Jack said nothing, just relentlessly pulled her deeper into the shadows of the storeroom then pushed open a door and flicked a wall switch. “Down here.”

Peering down into the yawning cavern of a stairway to the basement, Crystal pulled up short. “Oh my God, did she fall down the
steps
?”

“I didn’t want to alarm you unduly,” he said, nudging her through the doorway. “You might have had an accident if you drove too fast coming here. But please don’t worry. She’s not hurt bad, I got her into a chair. Come. See if you can talk her into getting her ankle X-rayed.”

As she descended, Crystal’s wary gaze took in the thick foundation wall to her right, its bumpy stonelike surface covered with a plaster finish, whitewash flaking off in damp spots. She hadn’t known the property had a basement. She gripped the railing, placing her feet carefully on steep, worn stair treads that had no risers. Jack’s heavy footsteps followed her down.

On hearing a sound she couldn’t place, she turned to look over her shoulder and saw that the doorway behind him was dark. A niggling alarm bell began to ring in her head.
That
was what she’d heard—a lock snicking into place.

Stay calm, she ordered herself.
You’re just tense because of Soren and now Grandma. You’ve
known Jack Healy for years. Don’t jump to conclusions. The door probably just had an automatic
closing device and she’d merely heard the latch scraping against the faceplate.

Reaching the bottom, she saw in front of her that a wall of the same texture as the foundation she’d noted along the steps ran for only six or eight feet before the hallway angled to a paneled wall running parallel to the stairs. It looked like the building had only a partial basement. She turned instinctively to her left, where the welcome light from a naked overhead bulb shone weakly. A door stood ajar halfway down the wall and another, closed door marked the end of the hallway not far beyond.

“In there,” Jack said from behind her, nudging her toward the opening with a firm hand on her shoulder.

Then, raising his voice, said, “Help has arrived, Rowena.”

Only subconsciously aware of the heavy pressure of his hand, she stepped up to the doorway.

“Grandma? It’s Crystal. We’ll get you—”

She stopped, unable to absorb the sight in front of her. White. Totally, unrelievedly white. White walls, white ceiling, white-tiled floor. White leather sofa, white side chair. A small round table covered with a white tablecloth. White candles in clear glass candelabra standing on white counters, their flames flickering with the merest hint of yellow. “What on earth…?” Her voice had dropped to a raspy whisper.

The first skitterings of fear prickled her spine.

Half turning, she bumped into Jack, whose blocky frame stood between her and the doorway she’d just passed through—a door that was now closed. His eyes held an unholy glow as they caught then held her gaze as securely as his hand held her shoulder.

“Jack, this isn’t funny. Where is my grandmother?”