Fire and Ash (Immortal Touch) (8 page)

There was a definite resemblance
, which explained why she looked so familiar. “Of course…yes, we ran into Aaron at the lodge a while back. It’s nice to finally meet you, Paula.”

“Dane tells me you’re getting married…is that right?”

“He speaks the truth.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful…congratulations…I wondered how long it would be before someone came along and landed this
bachelor.” She punched Julian’s arm playfully. “When’s the wedding?”

“May third,” Julian revealed. Things were moving along smoothly.
Eva and her mother had finally decided on Stonehedge Gardens as the perfect location, and the invitations would be sent out next week. She and Julian had already made a trip to Portland so she could select a dress and they could order their rings. They were going to be gorgeous…custom made platinum bands imbedded with rare red diamonds.

“Oh my goodness…that’s not far
off, is it? Where are you planning on going for your honeymoon?”

“I’m afraid that information’s confidential, Paula.” Julian winked. “I was hoping to surprise Eva.”

“Well now, isn’t that sweet. Why can’t Aaron ever do anything romantic like that? I’m gonna have to send him to you for lessons…do you know what I got for our last anniversary? A bathrobe…can you believe that…”

“Is Aaron here?” Eva looked around, but didn’t see him.

“No, I was just picking up some dinner to take home…didn’t feel like cooking tonight and Aaron’s working late at the lodge. And I need to get home so I can keep an eye on Dane.”

“Keep an eye on him?” Since when did a seventeen-year-old need a babysitter? “Is he sick?”

Paula rolled her eyes. “I wish it were that simple. I tell you, I don’t know what’s gotten into that boy lately. Well, yes I do, it’s that Imogen Collier…”

“Oh, he mentioned her to me last time I saw him.”

“Not surprising. She’s got him wrapped around her pinky finger. We caught him sneaking out at night to see her because we forbade him from dating that little juvenile delinquent.”

“
Juvenile delinquent?”

“Lord, yes…
fifteen years old and that girl’s already been on probation for drug possession, not to mention she was expelled from her last school for smashing the windshield out of one of her teacher’s cars. She’s nothing but bad news all the way around. I wish Dane could see that. I hope he’ll come to his senses and realize she’s manipulating him before she gets him into serious trouble.”

“Do you want me to talk to him?” Eva offered. She wasn’t sure what she could say that would make a difference, but she didn’t want to see Dane stray down the wrong path either. He had
too much going for him for that to happen.

Paula looked hopeful. “Would you? Maybe he’d listen to you, being closer to his own age and all. You know how it is with kids, they think their parents are the most
idiotic people ever put on God’s green earth.”

“I’d be happy to try next time I see him.
Just don’t expect miracles.”

“I’d sure appreciate that, honey. Well, I better be getting home…I’m so glad I had a chance to meet you, Eva. You take good care of her, Julian!”

“I will, Paula. Tell Aaron we said hello.” Julian’s eyes followed her until she was outside, then returned to Eva. “That woman barely slows down to take a breath, does she?”

“I thought she was nice.
So…we’re honeymooning
where?
”

“You’ll find out after saying
I do
. Not before then.” His indigo-tinted eyes sparkled. “I might have turned the wedding preparations over to you and your mother, but the honeymoon is all mine.”

“Just so long as you don’t forget to take me along!”

“I’ll try not to let that slip my mind.”

Laughing at his
teasing, her worries quickly vanished. When he looked at her that way, the way he was looking at her right now, nothing else seemed important. The rest of the world fell away into oblivion.

~*~*~*~

Not nearly enough SPF.

Sami cursed her own stupidity as she slathered lotion over her sunburned shoulders, wincing at the cold
feeling on her hypersensitive skin. Of all the careless things she could have done. Tanning oil was
not
the same thing as sunscreen, and instead of selecting what had the nicest smell she should have been checking the label instead. Now she was paying the price.

She might have been baked even worse had the sky not eventually traded its usual blue for a slate-colored gray. Thunderstorms were rolling in, according to the six o’clock news, and when she looked through the sliding glass door she could already see traces of lightning way off in the distance. It flickered faintly on and off like a light with faulty wiring.

That particular round of storms must have decided to skirt the area, because nothing ever transpired from it. Five hours later the stubborn rain still had yet to make an appearance, but the lightning had returned and brought with it an angry symphony of thunder. Huddled feverishly underneath a light throw on the sofa, Sami had just dozed off when her cell phone woke her.

Unknown caller.

“Hello, Sami speaking.” The thunder chose that exact moment to boom loudly, causing her to jump, and the rain suddenly arrived with a turbulent roar. She pressed the phone closer against her ear. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you. It’s raining hard outside. Who did you say this was again?”

The response was faint, so indistinct she could barely hear it at all. Moving away from the living room and into the
kitchen, she strained to listen. The voice was still droning on. She realized then that it wasn’t a person speaking, but muffled music. Some song playing reticently in the background.

“Hello?” she repeated, more softly this time.

Still there was no reply, no voice on the other end, but as she continued to listen the song became more familiar to her. She’d heard that haunting tune before.

Nights in White Satin.
Yes, that was it.

“Who is this?”

The caller hung up then, never speaking but still managing to leave behind an indelible print.

Sami returned to the sofa, clicking on the television so the cheerful sound would help dispel some of the
eeriness of the stormy night. She wasn’t the type to be easily spooked, but the weird phone call combined with her feverish chills and the bad weather gave her an uncharacteristically edgy feeling.

The rain came down heavily for fifteen minutes or so. She tried to engross herself in a comedy, but for some reason her eyes kept straying to the sliding glass door. It was locked, of course, and the curtains pulled shut but there was a gap in the middle where they didn’t quite meet. A narrow gap, only about two inches, but that exposed strip of darkness seemed to be watching her. Stalking her.

I’m not getting up and going over there. This is idiotic. There’s nothing out there. Nobody in their right mind would be out in this weather. Not with all this lightning.

The rush of rain slowed to a gentle patter. The thunder seemed to be losing its steam as well, still making itself known but not quite as
insistently.

T
he thin strip of darkness continued to stare at her.

Cursing under her breath, she
stood shakily and tiptoed towards the glass. Why she felt so reluctant to interrupt the quiet night, she wasn’t sure. She flicked the patio light switch and nothing happened. Perfect…the light must be blown. Pushing one of the curtains aside, she gazed out into the night. For a while she stood there seeing only darkness, then a flash of lightning lit up the beach and in that split second she took in the sight of the patio furniture, the boardwalk, the sandy beach and the rolling waves farther out.

As she’d suspected, everything looked perfectly normal.

Another burst of lightning illuminated the sky again, and when a dark silhouette stepped into her line of vision not two feet away from her face, she jumped backward so quickly her feet tangled with one another and tripped her. The glass vibrated as the figure’s hands tried the door.

“
Shit!
” she cried out, leaping up and staring wildly around her, disoriented. Without thinking, she dashed out the door and down the hall, bumping into a quartet of college boys who were obviously just returning from a night of hard partying. The contact reminded her painfully of her sunburn.

“Excuse me,” she mumbled, pushing past them while they stopped to ogle her
lasciviously.

“What’s your hurry, cupcake?” one called to her.

Cupcake?
Really?

Pressing the elevator button, she drew in a deep cleansing breath, then released it slowly. She wasn’t alone. She was in a huge resort with
hundreds of people surrounding her. There was no need to be afraid.

With a quiet
ding
, the doors slid open to welcome her into an empty elevator. Stepping inside, she immediately pushed the button for the sixteenth floor. What was his room number again? Her unsettled brain couldn’t think straight. What was it, what was it, what was it…

Ding.
The doors slid efficiently open and she emerged into the quiet hallway. The suites on the sixteenth floor were reserved for wealthier guests, so there were no wild teenagers here. 1608. Yeah, that was it. Wasn’t it? It darn well better be. She’d feel ridiculous waking some random person in the middle of the night.

Even while she pounded on the door, Sami was gradually beginning to question whether
or not she was overreacting. Okay, so somebody was lurking about on her patio, and in the middle of a storm, no less. But couldn’t it have just been a drunk guest wandering around? It wasn’t the height of spring break yet, but there were quite a few groups of students staying here already.

The door to 1608 opened and Asher stood there rubbing his eyes, hair rumpled, dressed in sleep pants and a t-shirt. The minute he recognized her and that lazy grin spread over his face, she knew she’d made a mistake.

“Well, well…to what do I owe this pleasure?” His voice was husky from sleep.

“I’m sorry to wake you up like this, Mr. Reid.”

“Ash,” he corrected her smoothly, resting his cheek leisurely against the door. “You in need of some company, sweetheart?”

Oh,
so now it was
Ash
. Why had she come up here? In hindsight, it was the worst possible place she could have chosen. This macho pig of a man wasn’t going to sympathize with her. He’d probably laugh and call her a hysterical female.

Taking a deep breath
, she told him, “Somebody was just messing around on my patio. Trying to open the door.” In an attempt to prove that the situation really was threatening, she added, “And I’ve been getting weird phone calls. At all hours of the night.”

The
amorous look disappeared from his face and he frowned. “Did you call security?”

Security. God, she really
was
a nitwit. “No, I…didn’t think of it.”

“Come in.” He stood aside for her, and she reluctantly entered. The layout of his suite was similar to hers, if much larger than her modest one-bedroom unit. There was plush white carpet in the living area, and spotless white furniture. Apparently the guy
had a hard-on for white. Everything looked expensive, too. Well, of course it would. Mr. Moneybags was part owner of a freakin’ resort, wasn’t he?

Ash was already on the phone. “Yes, that’s right. Room one twenty-two. I’m not sure, hang on
one minute.” He looked at her. “Can you describe the person?”

“No, it was dark. All I could see was his outline.”

“No, it was too dark,” he told the person on the phone. “Okay. Okay, I appreciate it.” Hanging up the phone, he ordered her, “Wait right here. I’ll throw on some clothes and we’ll go have a look, all right?”

“All right.” She was surprised that he was taking her seriously, though perhaps she shouldn’t be. Underneath his conceited exterior there had to be an efficient, intelligent businessman. How else would he have climbed to where he was now?

When he returned, he was dressed in a pair of tan beachcomber pants and a loose white linen shirt. He didn’t bother with shoes. Jesus, even his
feet
were attractive. It wasn’t hard to imagine that he probably went for regular pedicures. “After you,” he said, holding the door open for her.

Once they were in the elevator, he asked, “What do you mean by ‘weird phone calls’? Who’s been calling you?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “They don’t say anything and the number doesn’t show up. The only person I can think of would be my ex. After our engagement was broken he was calling me a lot. He…um, sorta lost it towards the end. But I hadn’t heard from him since I left Alabama so I was hoping he’d given up.”

“Would he have any way of knowing where you are?”

“I don’t see how. Only my parents and best friend know, and they wouldn’t tell him. Not after…well. They wouldn’t tell him.” No, not after all that had happened. They didn’t trust him any more than she did - and they didn’t even know the whole story.