“Well…”
There was a sharp comment in the background and Tyler was put on hold.
Marguerite picked up in her office a moment later, and he heard the snick of the office door as she closed it.
“Good morning from New England,” he said. “Are you all right?”
“You know, babysitters get at least five dollars an hour now,” she said caustically.
“And Gen and Chloe are putting in overtime for you. ”
“I’m not…” He closed his eyes, massaged the bridge of his nose. “Yes, I check with them about you. I care about you. And I know you get down sometimes. I just want to make sure you’re all right. ”
“Why wouldn’t I be all right?” Marguerite stared down at her day calendar. At the date marked with a red X. Somehow the past few weeks had allowed her to push to the back of her mind the last thing that ever should have been relegated there.
Everything had been about Tyler lately. Each day since she’d seen him, without his touch or his smile, things inside her had gotten progressively darker. Knowing the danger of opening her heart, now she faced the reality of an addict deprived of her daily fix. Each day the doubts crowded in that much more. Such that when she woke this morning, the first thing she’d done was remember that date. And she’d moved the tea samples and stack of invoices off of the calendar with deliberate care, as if removing the casing of a bomb, and stared at it. A reminder that she shouldn’t be letting down her guard, shouldn’t be allowing herself to be swept away so incautiously on a wave of infatuation. She had to stay centered, focused. She could enjoy Tyler, but she couldn’t lose herself in him. She couldn’t depend on anyone but herself.
“I’m fine. ” She struggled for a lighter tone. “I hope you’re having a good trip. It’s just been a stressful day. You don’t need to call me every day, you know. ” Though I count the minutes between the times I hear your voice.
“You’re still coming this weekend. ”
“I said I was. But there are some things that have come in, a new tea shipment, and—”
“Marguerite, don’t make me have this conversation with you again. ”
“About dungeons and drawbridges, white knights who think they can make the world a better place?” Her attempt at control exploded. Goaded by his tone, the darkness surged up in her. “I’m not a damsel in distress and I don’t appreciate being treated like one. In case you, my staff and the whole fucking world hadn’t noticed—” As she raised her voice, Tyler could almost see Chloe and Gen shrinking into the recesses of the kitchen. “I don’t need to be babied. I’ve taken care of myself for a long time. ”
“You need all the babying you can get, angel. And something’s bothering you. Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
“Go to hell. ” She slammed down the phone.
He snapped his cell phone closed, held it in his hand for several moments, thinking.
He turned as Michael, carrying an open longneck, approached him on the outside balcony. “Megan’s completely sold on the project now. ” He grinned, tapping Tyler’s beer sitting on the railing. As he took a swig, he studied Tyler’s expression. “Okay, your reaction was supposed to be jubilation, not murderous fury. Have I missed something?”
“I go home tonight,” Tyler said grimly. “I’ve had something come up. ”
Nobody was going to run her life but her. It was that simple. If she lost the reins, she’d never get them back. The horses of Hades would simply break free and drag her over the edge of the chariot, scrape every protective layer off her until she was nothing but an incoherent chaos of vulnerable internal organs and exposed nerve endings. She’d even thought about going to The Zone last night, as she’d always done before when the fear and anxiety, the darkness swept in. Find someone to help her balance. Pick a submissive, as usual one that she’d never touched, that would never touch her, even as she found the secret to his soul and used it to retrieve her own from perilous waters.
But then she remembered the last two times she’d been there and didn’t know if she would be allowed. She couldn’t face the humiliation of being turned away at the door.
Not to mention, her traitorous body wanted Tyler. Not just her body, but her mind, her heart, her soul. She could only calm the scream of her body and even that was a temporary, empty fix that did not assuage the yearning within her.
Chloe and Gen kept a low profile, their tones quiet in the kitchen area as they performed the morning routine. She picked up the napkins and moved out to the main floor. She was going to shape them into lotus flowers today, practice some of the origami tricks she’d recently seen in her tea industry magazine, a nice touch her clients would appreciate.
The moment she stepped onto the floor, before she saw him, she knew he was there.
He sat at his preferred table, the one he’d chosen when he responded to her call for a meeting a handful of weeks ago. A meeting she never should have initiated.
But, oh, he looked so good sitting there. He was dressed more casually than she’d ever seen him in Tea Leaves. Well-fitted jeans, dark T-shirt, a day’s worth of stubble. In order to be in her tearoom when she’d talked to him on the phone less than ten hours before, he must have taken a red eye home. He looked dangerous, all the more because he didn’t move when he saw her, just pinned her with that tiger’s gaze.
She tightened her chin and her resolve. “I didn’t expect to see you so soon. ”
“I was told to go to hell. My connecting flight was delayed so I thought I’d drop in. ” She raised a brow. Stopping at station four, she laid out the stack of napkins. She took up one by the two corners and did the first fold, though it took all her concentration to keep her hands from shaking. He had to get out of here. Didn’t he know she couldn’t do this, couldn’t want anyone this much? She knew just how his hands would feel on her, his mouth.
“You’ve never paid any attention to anything I’ve told you to do before. Why would you start now?”
He stayed quiet. He was probably trying to figure out how to manipulate this situation, get her to be as absurd as he always seemed to make her. Insane was a better word than absurd. But not this time. This was her territory, her fortress, where she could best keep the nightmares at bay, and she was not leaving it again. Resentfully, she wished fairy tales were true, specifically the one about unwary knights being turned into toads when they ventured uninvited into a sorceress’s palace.