Mystique (7 page)

"Hi. Are you a friend of Uncle
Lucas? He said he called a friend today and found out she'd gone skating. Was
it you?"

"No," Misty denied. "Ah,
what I mean is, I hardly know your uncle. It was very nice meeting you, Janie,
but if Mary and Mark want to go to—"

"Rumpelmayer's!" Mary
interrupted gleefully. "I want a hot chocolate and a milk shake. Nice
meeting you, Janie. Maybe we'll see you again when Misty brings us."

"Yeah," Mark put in, a trace of
reserve in his voice as he turned from the girl, and followed Misty and Mary
off the ice.

"Mark likes Janie. Mark likes
Janie," Mary chanted as they removed their skates.

Misty glimpsed a sheen of angry tears in
Mark's eyes. She moved between the twins as she returned her rented skates.
"All right, that's enough, Mary," Misty admonished. "If you want
to go to Rumpelmayer's, don't say another word."

Mary made a face but fell silent.

Not wanting to catch sight of Luc, Misty
kept her eyes on the two youngsters until they were out on the street. She
hailed a cab to take them to the ice cream parlor. The sun was shining, but the
wind had a cold bite to it. Had Luc called her? Misty wondered. If Aileen had
heard the phone and answered it, would she have told Luc that she had gone
skating? Misty struggled to keep from thinking of him.

As usual, Rumpelmayer's was a great
success with the twins, but somehow the luster of the afternoon was gone for
Misty. She had to fight to concentrate on the children who were chattering
about their new friend Janie.

That night she shared a supper with David
and Aileen after the twins were in bed. "Mary said you know Janie
Patterson's uncle," Aileen said, sipping her coffee and watching Misty
over the rim of her cup.

"Yes. The girl's uncle is Luc
Harrison."

David whistled, then coughed when Aileen
glared at him. "He called asking for you," Aileen told Misty.

She shrugged. "The twins loved
Rumpelmayer's."

"They always do," Aileen
agreed, not protesting Misty's abrupt change of subject. But several times that
evening Misty felt her friend's anxious gaze fixed on her, and soon afterward
she rose to say good night.

"Just be careful, Misty. Don't get
hurt again," Aileen said at the door, hugging her.

"I have no intention of getting
hurt," Misty assured her. But her smile wavered.

She smiled. "All right, I'll come.
But remember, I have to be home early so I can take a nap before I go to
work." The two girls broke into loud whoops and raced down the stairs.

Misty hurried through the rest of her
chores, took a shower, and put on thermal underwear, cord jeans, a blue wool
sweater, and a down vest.

When she arrived downstairs, the door to
the Collinses' apartment stood open, and she walked in. "All right, slowpokes,
let's move it—" She stopped short, her mouth falling open at the sight of
Luc Harrison sitting at Aileen's kitchen table drinking coffee. The three
children were already tugging on their coats and boots.

"Isn't this great?" Aileen
exclaimed, rushing into nervous speech. "Janie wants to go for a bus ride,
and Luc says he'll go, too." She laughed gaily, watching Misty the way a
bird watches a snake.

"I see," Misty said calmly,
though she wanted to shake her friend. She glared at Luc, who saluted her with
his coffee cup, his eyes steady on her, his mouth lifting in a polite smile.

He rose from the table and drained the
last of his coffee before putting the cup in the sink. "Very good coffee,
Aileen. Thank you. Well, shall we go?" he asked the three youngsters,
ignoring Misty's mutinous expression.

The children swept out the door,
chattering nonstop. Luc and Misty followed side by side in silence.

Half a block from the bus stop, Misty
said, "You had no right to come to the house."

"Janie wanted to skate with Mark and
Mary again."

"Then you should have sent her
alone. I would have been glad to take her with the twins."

"Thank you so much, but / can take
care of my niece." Luc's voice was frigid.

"Then do so. But don't include
me."

"I won't ever again."

"Good." Misty ran to catch the
bus and stepped inside with change in her hand. But another hand pushed past
hers and dropped money for all of them into the box. Ignoring that, she made
her way to the middle of the bus where Mark, Mary, and Janie were crowded into
two seats. Misty tried to sit down next to a plump woman with a big shopping
bag on the seat, but the woman glared at her.

"There's an empty seat farther
back," the woman muttered, making no effort to move her shopping bag.

"Come along, darling. We'll sit
behind the children,' Luc said smoothly.

"Yeah, sit behind your kids.
Disgusting the way these modern mothers ignore your brats. I never done
that," the woman observed to an old man in another seat.

"You're just trying to make
trouble," Misty accused Luc.

"I'm not the one ignoring our
children," he teased mildly.

"They are not our children!"

"Mystique, that woman is looking
back here again," he whispered. "She probably heard you say that and
plans on turning us over to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Children."

"Oh, you... you..." Misty
sputtered.

"What's the matter, Misty?"
Mark turned awkwardly around in his seat.

"Nothing, Mark," she said.

"Temper, temper," Luc
whispered, a thread of laughter in his voice.

Misty shot a glance at him, surprised by
his amusement. Earlier, he had been so furious with her.

Janie turned around, too, and smiled at
her. "I like to skate. Do you, Mystique?"

"Her name's Misty," Mary
informed her friend. "And she teaches us piano, too."

"Oh? Uncle Luc calls you Mystique,
doesn't he?" Janie asked.

"That's the name I use
professionally," Misty explained, acutely aware that Luc had draped an arm
along the back of the seat.

"I think it's pretty," Janie
assured her.

"So do I," Luc murmured.

"We call her Misty," Mark
insisted, shooting a suspicious glance at Luc.

When they got off the bus, the three
children ran ahead, shouting over their shoulders that they would be careful.

"They have fun together," Luc
observed.

"Yes, they do," Misty said, not
looking at him.

"Will you have dinner with me this
evening?"

"No, thank you. I'm working."
Misty was relieved to have an excuse.

"Join me for a meal first," Luc
insisted, directing the children across the street.

"I generally don't eat before work.
I have a light lunch a few hours before I leave, and that's enough." She
clamped her mouth shut, annoyed with herself for having explained it to him.

"You're too thin," Luc
observed.

Stung, Misty pulled away from his hold
and hurried after the children.

"Stop being so defensive with
me," Luc called, catching up with her. "I just meant that I think you
should eat more nourishing meals."

"I thought we said everything there
was to say to each other yesterday," Misty snapped.

"Yes, we did say quite a bit. I've
been wanting to talk to you about that."

"Misty, hurry," Mary wailed.
"We want to skate."

"Coming." Misty trotted after
them, glad of the diversion as she ushered the children past the kiosk, not
bothering to try to pay for them when Luc's hard eyes glinted at her.

She rented a pair of skates and stood on
the sideline watching the children as they skated to an open area in the center
of the rink and began practicing turns and twists.

"Shall we skate?" Luc took her
arm in a firm grip and tugged her out onto the ice. "Don't worry, I have
no intention of racing. I just thought you might like to waltz to the Strauss
music." His brown eyes held a spark of recklessness that sent a frisson of
alarm down Misty's spine.

"I like Strauss's music," she
conceded grudgingly.

"Good." Luc spun her around the
ice in a gentle waltz. As always, she was caught up in the music. She felt her
body and spirit melt into the graceful rhythms of old Vienna.

"You're good," Luc whispered to
her, bringing her out of her reverie. "So very, very good. I love the way
you move."

"Oh!" Misty tried to look away
from his mesmerizing gaze, but she found it too difficult to do so.

They danced close together across the ice
for six waltzes.

When they finally slowed to a stop, Misty
felt out of breath, partly from the exercise, partly from Luc's lips hovering
so close to hers.

"The children," she gasped,
pushing away from him. The man was hypnotizing her!

"They're fine," he whispered in
her hair.

"See? There they are. Just about
where we left them."

"I have to watch them," Misty
said, breaking free of his hold and skating to the center of the rink. The
children looked up at her and smiled.

"Hi, Misty. Look what I can
do," Mary crowed, twirling around with her hands clasped over her head.

From then on, Misty stayed close to the
children. Sometimes she skated with one or the other. Once when Luc came
close, she Went off by herself. Wherever she was on the ice, she was constantly
aware of his piercing gaze.

When it was time to go, both Mark and
Mary held back. "Aw, Misty, just a little while longer," Mary begged.

"Come on, Misty," Mark
wheedled.

"It's nice today. Not as crowded as
other days," Janie offered.

Misty hesitated, wanting to please the
children but knowing that if she didn't leave now she wouldn't have time for a
nap before she had to go to work. Luc took the decision out of her hands.

"Everybody off with the
skates," he commanded, sending the twins and Janie scurrying to the
sidelines.

Misty stared after them, amazed to see
that they appeared neither angry nor sullen. She glanced up at Luc. "Thank
you. I should get home."

"But you would have given in to
them," Luc said softly, a flicker of warmth in his brown eyes.

Misty shrugged. "I suppose so."

"You need someone to take care of
you."

She stiffened; her temper flared.
"No, thank you," she said coolly. "I take care of myself."
She skated away, her back ramrod straight.

As they rode home on the bus, Luc and
Misty sat close together but didn't speak. Misty was content to listen to the
children's chatter. Gradually her ire settled into a renewed resolve not to get
caught in any man's trap ever again.

Luc walked with them to the house, saw
them inside, and left with his niece, his quiet nod toward Misty in marked
contrast to the children's noisy good-byes.

Misty didn't stay long either, although
she could tell Aileen was dying to ask her about the afternoon she had spent
with Luc Harrison. "I really do have to get some sleep, so I'll pass on
the offer of coffee," she told her disappointed friend.

Misty went up to her own apartment,
deliberately erasing Luc Harrison from her thoughts. After packing the carrier
with makeup and accessories, she climbed into the water bed, curled into a
ball, and willed herself to go to sleep.

In the end she overslept and had to race
through the apartment, making her bed, showering, and pulling on a pair of pale
green velvet jeans and a matching chamois vest. Her emerald green blouse was
almost the same color as her eyes. She wore tiny earrings that she would later
exchange for dangling gold ones to complement her persimmon-colored silk
dress.

She took the elevator downstairs, her
purse and carrier bumping against her legs.

"Good night, Misty. Take care,"
Dave called out from the doorway of his apartment. "Why don't you hail a
taxi instead of taking all that stuff on the bus?"

"I'm fine," she assured him,
closing the heavy oak door behind her and hurrying down the stoop. Since she
could afford a taxi only once a day, she saved it for coming home.

She had reached the sidewalk and was
hitching the carrier higher on her shoulder when a familiar voice said,
"I'll take that for you." She turned, aghast. Luc was standing beside
her, removing the carrier from her shoulder and stuffing it into the trunk of a
bronze-colored Ferrari parked at the curb.

Her mouth agape, Misty made no move to
protest when he opened the passenger door and ushered her inside. "Where
did you come from?" she demanded. "I didn't see you when I came out
the door." She sank back against the soft leather upholstery; she knew she
should get out of the car but for some reason she was unable to do so.

"You were too busy wrestling with
that carrier. Do you take the bus to work every night?"