Dark Perception: The Corde Noire Series (6 page)

“
You’re very quiet,
Melinda.”

His voice rippled along the hollows of
her spine. Melinda tried to clear the fuzziness from her head, but
when she spotted his disturbing eyes taking in her every move, her
heart quivered.

“
I was just thinking about
what a nice time I had this evening,” she lied as she mustered a
casual look of indifference.

Nathan winced as he turned off the
engine. “Nice? I was hoping it was much more than that.”

Melinda quickly scrambled to find a
better choice of words. “I meant to say that I—”

Nathan held up his hand, stopping her.
“You don’t have to look so terrified.”

She straightened up in her car seat.
“I’m not terrified.”

“
Then what is it? You’ve
been uncomfortable since we left the restaurant.”

Melinda shifted in her leather seat.
“I’m not uncomfortable, just … you’re making me
nervous.”

He scratched the side of his head.
“Funny … I thought it was the other way around.”

“
Perhaps nervous is the
wrong word.” Melinda threw her hands up. “Gosh darn it, yes, you
make me nervous.”

Nathan gave a light, rolling laugh,
something Melinda had never heard from him before. It was sincere,
joyful, and very revealing.

“‘
Gosh darn it’?” He
snickered once more. “I haven’t heard another human being speak
like that since the fifth grade.”

“
Well, I can’t curse in
front of you. My grandmother always taught me to be a
lady.”

Nathan’s mesmerizing eyes curiously
analyzed her face. “What else did she teach you?”

Melinda’s fingers played with the
beaded hem of her dress. “To always speak when spoken to, not to
place my elbows on the dinner table, and to make sure I never
walked away from something I started. She was real adamant about
that one. Grandma Teresa believed those who saw things through to
the end could always be trusted to keep their word. Quitters were
liars and cheats, because if they couldn’t be honest with
themselves, how were they going to be honest with you?”

“
Your grandmother has a
very valid point. If you walk away in the middle of something, your
heart was never in it to begin with.”

Melinda looked him over with a
newfound interest. “That’s exactly what she used to
say.”

“
I think your grandmother
and I would have had a lot in common.”

Melinda reflected on his statement and
shrugged. “You might have. She was very practical like you,
down-to-earth, and a person always knew where they stood with her.
If Grandma Teresa didn’t like you, you knew it. If she was pleased,
you knew that, too.”

“
Did she make you
nervous?”

Melinda searched his eyes and then a
vision of him reaching for her naked body as darkness enveloped
them momentarily stunned her. Her heart was pounding as the image
ebbed from her mind, but the lust it had awakened only seemed to
intensify. She took a breath and tried to think of anything other
than sex.

“
If I come and work for
you, what exactly will you want me to do?” she finally questioned
in a wavering voice.

Nathan sat back in his car seat and
inspected his manicured hands. “I will want you to go to business
meetings with me in order to read the people in the room and tell
me if they can be trusted. The same at any luncheons or dinners I
may ask you to attend. When I check out a new property, you will
come with me. I would want to know everything you feel or envision
about a place. We can tell everyone you’re my assistant, perhaps
give you an iPad or something to make it look believable, but all I
want from you are your perceptions about my day-to-day
business.”

Melinda pictured herself sitting at
his side at meetings or at restaurants and doing searches on her
iPad. “You must have a lot of faith in me to want me so involved in
your affairs. You don’t trust many people … I’ve felt that. So why
trust me?”

He grasped the black leather steering
wheel. “I met an intriguing woman named Valerie Vincent about two
years ago at a party. She was a psychic who told me things about my
life and my business that came true. Valerie also told me I would
find a woman with fiery red hair who could not only see my future,
but also change it. I thought she was insane, because at the time I
didn’t believe in psychics. Then one day, walking through Jackson
Square after a rather disappointing business meeting, I saw you. I
remembered what she told me about the red hair and decided to sit
down at your table and have a reading.”

“
I told you that your
failed business meeting that day would turn into something
greater,” Melinda said as she recalled their first meeting. “An
opportunity to develop an apartment complex.”

“
It was a row of apartment
complexes, actually, and it has turned out to be my biggest deal in
the city to date. After that, I decided to keep an eye on you and
learn all I could about you.”

“
What have you
learned?”

He grinned. “That I can trust
you.”

Melinda frowned as she searched his
eyes. “Do you really think if I come and work for you that I can
help your business?”

“
Yes, I do.” He sighed
impatiently. “Look, Melinda, I promise if you’re not happy, you can
simply walk away.”

A nervous twitch grabbed hold of
Melinda’s stomach. There was something in the way he said those
words that put her on edge. “What if you don’t like what I tell
you, Nathan? Perhaps I will feel compelled to tell you only things
you want to hear.”

“
Please don’t.” He shook
his head. “I have enough people kissing my ass on a day-to-day
basis. I desperately don’t want you to become one of them. I like
your honesty and forthright manner. Don’t lose those qualities with
me just because I’m signing your paycheck. Tell me the truth,
always.”

“
No matter how angry it
might make you?”
He eased toward her and smiled. “I never get angry,
Melinda.”

The heat of his body being so close
unraveled Melinda’s already jittery nerves. Desperate to get away,
she reached for the door.

“
Will you take the job,
Melinda?”

When Melinda turned and saw his deep
brown eyes, she could not refuse him. At least that was what her
gut said; her mind was putting up a volley of protests. She
suddenly worried about losing touch with her friends on the Square,
taking time away from her music, and being on call day and night to
satisfy the insecurities of a rich man. That was what this really
was to her—a rich man’s folly. Or was there more to it?

Secretly, Melinda longed to spend time
with Nathan. To delve deeper into his world: dine at the
restaurants he frequented, go to museums and galleries he
supported, shop at stores he preferred, and meet others from his
select class. Her deepest desire to be more than a simple street
performer began to nudge her toward accepting his offer.

“
Is your long silence a yes
or a no?”

Melinda swept her apprehensions aside
with a resolute nod of her head. “Yes. My answer is yes,
Nathan.”

Looking satisfied, he sat back in his
seat. “Good. Then you’ll need to make some changes.” He eyed her
dress. “You’ll need business suits for lunches and meetings, formal
dresses for parties, banquets, and dinners. Do you have anything
like that?”

Melinda gazed down at her simple
dress. “This is my best dress.”

“
I can take care of that.
I’ll also want you living closer to me. It will be more
convenient.”

Melinda gaped at the Creole townhouse
she had called home since coming to New Orleans. “I can’t afford to
move, Nathan.”

“
Leave that to
me.”

Her heart heaved with the weight of
her decision. “I can’t let you pay for me to move.”

Nathan directed his eyes to the
colorful cottages across the darkened street. He perused the empty
sidewalks and dimly lit doorway to her building. “I insist you get
out of here. It’s not safe. I want to make sure you’re protected. I
would prefer you live somewhere there’s security to see to your
safety.”

“
Security? Do you know how
much a building with security features will cost me?”

Nathan rested his hand over her
forearm. “Don’t worry about any of that. I’ll take care of finding
you a new place. Allow me to help you for a change.”

“
I guess that would be
okay,” she said with a hint of trepidation in her voice. “Just
don’t stick me in some prison with iron bars on the windows and no
gardens.”

“
I promise.” Nathan climbed
out of the driver’s side door and walked around the front of the
car.

As Melinda followed him with her eyes,
she noticed the confident clip in his step and the smug grin on his
face. When he opened her car door, he reached for her hand. She
hesitated taking it, feeling as if this was her point of no return.
If she was going to dance with the devil, this was her last
possible chance to walk away. But instead of refusing him, Melinda
eagerly grasped his hand, silencing her doubts.

“
I’ll make some phone calls
in the morning and get the ball rolling,” Nathan declared as he
escorted her to the door.

In that split second, Melinda saw his
thoughts. His arms eagerly embraced her and his lips tasted the
tender skin along the nape of her neck. She froze before her door,
uncertain of how to respond to her visions. Quickly, she turned her
attention to her purse and tried to locate her keys.

“
Keep your cell phone with
you tomorrow. I’ll call you with the details about your move and to
get some particulars from you.” Nathan nodded casually. “I’ll start
you on the payroll Monday.”

Melinda clutched her keys and glanced
up from her purse. “But today’s Saturday. That’s rather fast, don’t
you think?”

Nathan took the keys from her hand. “I
don’t like waiting for something I want.” He swiftly opened her
front door. “The sooner we get you started, the sooner you can
begin helping me with my business.” He handed her the
keys.

“
Are you sure you want me,
Nathan?”

He angled forward and gently grazed
his lips against her cheek. Melinda became slightly dizzy as the
sensation sent a lightning bolt of electricity from her cheek down
to her toes.

“
Go to sleep, Melinda.
Tomorrow you’ll need to start packing and making arrangements. A
whole new world is about to open up for you.” He turned away and
headed to his car.

Melinda stepped inside the darkened
doorway of her building, praying Nathan was right. She had been
waiting her entire life to discover that new world, and like
Christopher Columbus setting out across an unknown ocean, she knew
she had gone too far to turn back now.

* * *

“
You’re moving?” Jack
bellowed as he stood inside Melinda’s front door. He stared,
dumbfounded, at the pile of boxes stacked against her living room
wall.

Melinda’s eyes explored his rumpled
T-shirt and faded blue jeans, and for a second she wondered what he
would look like in a suit.

“
Yes, I’m moving,” she
answered, turning from the door.

“
When were you going to
tell me?” Jack slammed her front door behind him.

“
It just came up,” she
curtly replied, and walked to her kitchen pantry.

He hurried to her side. “You couldn’t
come down to the Square and tell me before you began packing?” He
waved his hand at the assortment of boxes on the kitchen
counter.

She picked up two cans from her
pantry. “I didn’t have time. I need to hurry up and move before I
start my new job next week.”

Jack wrenched the cans from her and
banged them down on the counter. “What job?”

The tension in the air made Melinda
shiver with unease. “I’m going to be Nathan Cole’s private psychic.
He says we can tell everyone I’m an assistant for the
time—”

“
When did you agree to
this?” Jack roared.

Melinda picked up the cans he had
thumped down on the counter and put them in one of the boxes next
to her. “Just recently.”

“
You should have told me
you were considering taking that job.”

“
It doesn’t matter. I’ve
made my decision.”

As Melinda listened to Jack’s heavy
breathing, she finished packing the cans from her pantry
shelf.

“
Are you moving in with
him?”

Melinda fought back her instinct to
scream at him. Instead, she closed the box and then slowly turned
to him. “Nathan has an apartment for me in his building in the
Warehouse District. It will be more convenient for me
to—”

“
I can’t believe that snake
finally reeled you in,” Jack growled. “You can’t put yourself at
his mercy. He only wants to use you, in more ways than
one.”

“
What’s that supposed to
mean?”

“
I don’t need to spell it
out for you, do I? The guy has wanted you since that first day he
showed up at Jackson Square. You can’t trust him. He’ll use you
like all the rest.”