When the Walls Fell (2 page)

An accident with his grandfather’s pocket watch had thrown them both back in time to Prohibition era New York. He’d fought his attraction to Elizabeth for as long as he could. But the arrival of a gangster, intent on having Elizabeth for his own, lit a fire under the coals that had been his heart. As a professor of the Occult, he’d found the proof he’d been searching for, and as a man he’d found the love the he’d been hiding from. He’d nearly lost her and vowed he’d do anything to keep that from happening again. The rest of the world be damned.

The first few days after their return were a blur of pain and the ecstasy of being alive, of being together. The physical wounds had healed in their course. Elizabeth still had the fading remnants of a scar on her forehead from the boat’s explosion. The soft pink crescent mark was the only visible sign of what they’d endured. There were scars that weren’t so easily healed or seen.

“Are you all right?” she asked, breaking him from his reverie.

With his thumb he brushed a wet strand of hair from her cheek and nodded.

She leaned into his touch. “I think about it too.”

He smiled wanly. Her memories, despite it all, were fond remembrances of how their life together had begun. His were painful recollections of how it had almost ended.

She tipped her head up and kissed the corner of his mouth, just as she had for their first kiss, months, decades ago. This time, he didn’t pull away, afraid to love her. This time, he held her tightly, afraid to let go.

***

Simon was already sitting at a table when Elizabeth arrived at the restaurant for lunch. “Sorry, I’m late. Meeting ran over.”

“Everything all right?” he asked as he rose and pulled out her chair.

His instinctive manners were one of the many things she loved about him. Sometimes he was too good to be true—green eyes the color of Absinthe, a long, lean body that moved with easy grace and a baritone voice with a cut glass British accent.

He took his seat again. “Your car didn’t break down again, did it?”

He was also a royal pain. She spread her napkin out across her lap. “My car is just fine. Thank you for asking.”

“I was only joking, Elizabeth,” he said and reached across the table to take her hand.

Just when she was all ready to get riled up, he had to go and be charming. Her buttons were far too easily pushed these days. One innocent question from him and she was ready to jump down his throat. Not that she didn’t adore him even when he was being a pill. He meant well, but ever since they’d come back he’d been her constant shadow. At first, she loved the feeling of absolute safety his omnipresence had provided. Who didn’t want to be loved to distraction? Until it became…distracting.

After the first few months what had been cocooning became smothering. She didn’t blame him. She could only imagine what it must have been like for him after she’d disappeared. Mostly because he hadn’t actually told her what he’d gone through.

“I wish they hadn’t let Louis go,” Simon said. “The menu has never been the same.”

“The Vichy just doesn’t soise like it used to.”

“Very droll.” Simon peered over the edge of his menu and narrowed his eyes. “Something is wrong.”

“No, nothing’s wrong,” she said and bit the inside of her cheek in penance for the lie. Not that anything was really wrong, though she doubted Simon would see it that way.

Simon wasn’t a big fan of change and while she was certain this one was for the best, she knew he was going to resist every step of the way. She also knew she had to spit out the truth sooner or later. Unfortunately, later was catching up with her, but she wasn’t finished stalling quite yet. “How was your morning? Any students dare to enter the inner sanctum?”

He closed his menu and set it aside. “As a matter of fact. I’m afraid you may have to have one of your talks with Mr. Goode.”

“I knew I should have glued that hourglass to your desk.”

Simon smirked in response and continued, “He had the ludicrous notion that I was in need of a new assistant.”

Elizabeth nearly choked. Damn the campus gossip grapevine. It was worse than a beauty parlor. “He did?”

“Someone’s idea of joke, I suppose.”

Later was now. “Or not,” she said softly.

“I’m sorry?”

She took a deep breath and plunged ahead. “Nothing’s official yet, but I have been thinking about talking to Professor Aumond about working as his assistant. Or maybe even looking for something outside of the university.”

Simon looked as if he’d been slapped. He jerked his head back and blinked several times before he muttered, “You what?”

The shock in his voice took her breath away for a moment. He wasn’t angry; he was hurt. “I know I should have said something sooner, but I wanted to think about it first. Nothing’s set. I’m…I’m just thinking about it.”

He leaned back in his chair dumbstruck. They sat in silence as a ten months pregnant elephantine pause stretched out between them. When he finally spoke, his voice was flat. “How long have you been planning on leaving me?”

The guilt that had taken up residence in her heart at the start of the conversation just sublet a room to shame. She wasn’t leaving. There was no planning. There was a definite lack of planning involved here. Maybe there should have been more planning. She fiddled with her napkin. This wasn’t going well at all.

“I’m not. I’m just thinking about the future.”

“I see.”

No, he didn’t see. Couldn’t see. She loved being his assistant, but she wanted more than that. She wanted to be his partner, but as long as he was signing her timecard that wasn’t going to happen. Not to mention that a few members of the university board had raised eyebrows and pursed lips at her and Simon’s work and home hybrid relationship.

She reminded herself that being in a relationship was new territory for Simon. He’d managed to live his life without getting close to anyone and now that he was, it made him feel raw and vulnerable. For a man used to very firm footing, this was like a tightrope act without a net.

“Simon, I love you. I’m just thinking about taking another job is all. And I’m just thinking about it. It might be best for both of us. But nothing’s changed yet.”

He ran his finger up and down the stem of his water glass. “Was there something about our…arrangement that bothered you?”

“Aside from you calling it an arrangement?” she said in an attempt to leaven the situation, but it fell matzo flat on the table between them. “I love being with you, working with you, but we can’t do both.”

“I don’t see why they’re mutually exclusive.”

“The Board does.”

“I don’t give a bloody good damn what the Board thinks,” Simon said loudly, causing people at nearby tables to turn and glare their disapproval.

“But I do,” she said quietly. “You deserve their respect and as long you’re sleeping with your assistant, an ex-student, you’ll never get it.”

“Then I’ll quit.”

“And give up teaching? You bark about it, but I know how much you love it. You don’t have to work, but you do. Nobody does that unless they love it.”

“You didn’t have to go behind my back.”

She huffed out a breath and tried to keep a cool head. Why did growing pains have to be so painful? “I didn’t go anywhere. And it’s not just the board, although that’s reason enough. I can’t stay your assistant forever. I just think it might be for the best.”

“For the best?”

“Why are you making this so hard?”

“I’m sorry, am I forgetting to play my part?”

Elizabeth gripped her napkin tightly in a fist. “That’s not fair.”

“I dare you to find anything about this situation that is.”

Elizabeth took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I know this is a shock.” Simon snorted, but she kept on. “I know I probably should have discussed this with you sooner.”

“Is that what we’re doing? Discussing it? If that’s the case then let me give you my opinion. You’d be a fool to work for Aumond.”

She counted to ten before she responded. “I understand that you have issues with him, but—”

Simon crossed his arms over his chest. “This has nothing to do with me.”

“Doesn’t it? You’re angry because I didn’t tell you what I was thinking and the reason I didn’t is because you’d be angry.”

He slammed his palms down on the table causing the water glass to nearly topple over. “And shouldn’t I be?”

“No. That’s just it, Simon. You might, oh I don’t know, consider what I want.”

“Don’t I always?”

“No,” she said with forced equanimity, the sort she knew got under his skin. “You consider what
you
want me to have.”

She could tell that had hit mark. His expression faltered before he got all British again. “Forgive me for looking out for your welfare.”

“I did manage to get up in the morning and make it through the day before I met you.”

As soon as she’d said it, she wished she could grab the words and cram them back down her throat. Simon’s mask of control dropped for the barest of seconds and she saw the vulnerability behind it. His jaw muscles flexed under the strain of keeping his composure.

“Simon—”

“You made yourself perfectly clear,” he said as he placed his napkin on the table.

“Simon—”

He shook his head and stood. Taking out his wallet, he pitched a few bills onto the table. “I’m sure you can manage perfectly well.”

Chapter Two

E
lizabeth squeezed her car into a tiny parking space under a leaky pipe and yanked up the emergency break. Her VW Beetle groaned and creaked in protest, but she didn’t care. God, she’d made a mess of things. She wanted to go to Simon’s, but had no idea what to say. She shouldn’t have waited so long to discuss it with him. She’d seriously taken the chicken exit on that one, but now it was done. There was nothing left to do but give him some time.

She rummaged in her purse and found her keys. She hadn’t been back to her apartment in weeks. The plants she hadn’t already managed to kill were probably dead by now. Three ferns and one relationship, not bad for a day’s work. The door to her apartment always stuck and so she pressed her shoulder against it and gave it a good shove. It flew open, and she stumbled unceremoniously into her pitiful, little bachelorette.

She closed the door, tossed her purse onto the Goodwill couch, and headed straight for the kitchenette. Everything in the apartment was an ette. The refrigerator was squat and older than she was, but blissfully still cold. She opened the door and pulled out an open bottle of chardonnay, yanked the cork and sniffed. Not too skunky considering it had been there for weeks. She poured herself a glass and took a deep swig.

Sour grapes. She swallowed the irony with the wine. Her little apartment had never seemed so little before. Damn Simon and his spacious living.

As she looked around, everything about her place spoke of someone living somewhere else. Clothes were strewn about in the haste of packing and not caring what she left behind. A washed bra, long forgotten, still hung on the partition she’d jury-rigged to create a bedroom space. It was her apartment and not even a crackerjack size, but it had never felt confining before. Until now.

She poured the rest of the wine down the water-stained sink and walked back into the living room area. Maybe Simon had called, but the ancient answering machine’s red light stared back dull and unblinking. Even her cell phone had nothing to say.

Maybe she deserved a little silent treatment. She’d really bungled this one. She’d wanted him to see her as a partner, so she’d gone behind his back. Smooth.

She could still see Simon’s face when she’d said she could manage without him. If there’d been a ref there, she definitely would have had a point deducted for a low blow.

Worst yet, she knew better. Not that she was any Dr. Phil, but she knew how hard this was for Simon. For him, being with someone was like being suddenly left-handed. It was awkward and sometimes you jabbed yourself in the nose when you brushed your teeth.