The Silver Thread (34 page)

Annika felt her back arch against the wall in response as he rhythmically prodded the front and back of her hips, all the while murmuring facts about the physiological benefits of her waist-to-hip ratio in his hypnotic, deep voice. She shut her eyes, trying to shut his analytical words out of her head, trying to ignore how clean and masculine he smelled, trying to overlook the fact that his tender, warm hands were making her even consider the unthinkable. It did seem like that was all her body wanted, was to listen to Mother Nature and surrender herself to motherhood. All she needed was an appropriate mate. Someone strong, someone protective, someone intelligent, patient, and kind. Someone who actually wanted to have children, and please, oh please, let him be good looking. She opened her eyes and saw all those things staring right back at her. To hell with her untrustworthy husband. To hell with her music career. To hell with everything.

She felt a warm, fuzzy sensation in her womb, and could only imagine how fertile it must be at that very moment. It was probably soft and cushy, waiting desperately for just one single seed to be sown. Her right hand moved to Finn’s bracelet-free wrist and clutched on tight while her left hand hooked onto his belt, bringing him closer. She looked into Finn’s hungry eyes, and wondered if he ached for her as much as she did for him.

Give me what I want
, she thought. A flush erupted over her face and chest, but then the ring on her left hand began to burn.

“We both know that’s not what you really desire,” he said in his rich, deep voice. He stopped massaging her hips but left his hands planted firmly on her. “It’s just chemicals toying with our minds.”

“How can this only be in our minds?” she blurted out, blinking her eyes, trying to snap herself out of the fog. She felt drunk and hypnotized by his lustful expression. “I feel it all over my body. I can see it plain as day in yours. Are you sure it’s just chemicals?”

“What do you think is making our hearts beat faster? What do you think is making our breath come harder? Certainly not conscious, rational thought. This isn’t rational at all. It’s just instinct, it’s just brain chemistry. Isn’t it remarkable how something that you can’t even see can bring you to your knees?”

A perfectly timed wave of heat flooded through Annika, causing her knees to buckle underneath her. She began to slide down the wall, but Finn caught her under her arms, holding her steady as he propped her against the wall.

“I’m not sure I like our options,” she shuddered.

“I don’t have any others to offer you. From everything I know, this only ends one way if we stay together. I’ll be like a moth to a flame trying to get to you, whatever the cost of being burned by the fire. I apologize for being so uncouth, but I’m about at my wit’s end with you…” he paused as his eyes dropped to Annika’s chest, “and it’s going to get worse before it gets better. You haven’t even peaked yet.”

“But you’re so smart…you’ve read so many books…there’s got to be
something
we can do,” Annika insisted. The amount of tension building up inside her was beginning to make her nauseous. She felt terrible for wanting him, but she wanted him terribly.

“I’m telling you, I’ve thought about it all night and all morning, and I’ve come up with nothing,” he said, still staring at her chest. His hands had remained under her arms, and he slowly gathered the sides of the bodice tighter and tighter, forcing her breasts to swell. Another happy hum escaped him, though his eyebrows furrowed in anguish.

“What about cold showers?”

“That won’t stop me from joining you.”

“We could get another room.”

“I’ll just break down your door.”

“Maybe we could have the people at the spa bury us with ice cubes in separate tubs in separate rooms?” she suggested. She was desperate.

“I might be able to last five minutes if we did that,” Finn said, locking his eyes back onto hers, “but you’ll only last five and a half.”

A silent scream filled her head, and her blood began to course through her veins, pumping harder and faster. Why was this happening now? Was this some kind of test? Was this some form of punishment? Had she married the wrong brother? She looked at her still burning ring, feeling the pain creep up past her elbow. There was only one other way she could think of to find out if all these feelings could be blamed on a simple biochemical reaction, or not.

“If you’re right, and this is all being caused by chemicals,” she said, letting go of his belt, “then maybe that’s how it needs to be dealt with. We could at least try fighting fire with fire, instead of just letting it burn out of control.” She flexed her left hand and reached into her purse, withdrawing the black business card.

“Why are you doing this to me?” he snapped, and took the card from her, tearing it to bits and tossing it on the ground. He sunk his long fingers into his curls, grasping them out of frustration. “That’s the
last
place we should go!”

“Hey…think about it,” she said, feeling the burning sensation in her forearm and the rest of her body retreat to a simmer. “You said this place offered more than just art lessons, right?”

He let go of his hair and folded his arms across his chest, leaning against the opposite wall from Annika. His eyes began to look less hungry, and more like an astoundingly intelligent elf sweating profusely as he faced the ultimate moral dilemma. He shook his head at her in stern disapproval.

“It would seem our backs are figuratively and literally against the wall,” he said through his teeth.

“Do you have anything better in mind?” she asked.

“Blast, you,” he sighed, grabbing her hand. “Let’s go.”

The hotel was on the way to the gallery, and the two of them stopped in to gather a few things. Finn was putting the cap on the toothpaste when the phone rang, and he dashed out of the bathroom to get it, but Annika had beaten him to it.

“Hello love,” she heard Talvi say in a low voice. “How are you doing? I hope you’ve forgiven me for switching gears on you last minute at the airport.”

“Yeah, it’s alright. I’m not mad at you,” she said, stepping away as Finn made another grab for the phone. She clung onto it tighter. “Hang on, I’m going to sneeze.”

She pressed the phone against her racing heart and turned to Finn, who was hovering over her anxiously.

“If he’s really a spy, do you think it’s going to help him to find out what’s going on here?” she hissed, then put the phone back to her ear, turning her back to him.

“What have you been up to for the past two weeks?” she asked, trying to sound cheerful.

“Paperwork. Lots of paperwork.”

Annika rolled her eyes.
Yeah right, pa
perwork
.

“Oh, is it for all those mergers and acquisitions you must be working on?”

“You hit the nail right on the head,” Talvi chuckled under his breath.

“Will you be able to join us soon? It would be really, really great if you could.”

“Unfortunately, there’s so much paperwork, this will take considerably longer than I had hoped. I’m afraid it could become a summer job, but I can’t get into that right now. Tell me, are you enjoying Paris? Is my brother treating you right?”

“Yep,” Annika said with a stiff upper lip, looking over her shoulder at Finn, who was still standing close by. “He’s doing everything he can to show me a good time. In fact, I’m pretty sure he has something
huge
planned for me tonight.” Finn’s jaw dropped in horror.

“That’s fantastic to hear. I told him to indulge your every desire. I’m glad he’s making good on that promise. Oh bollocks…” Talvi’s phone plunked down on a hard surface, and then Annika heard what sort of sounded like high heels coming closer, and then what definitely sounded like another woman scolding her husband, wailing just how badly she needed him.

“I have to go,” Talvi whispered into the phone, and then with a click, the line was disconnected.

“How many times do I have to tell you that you are not to make outside calls on that telephone line?” Merriweather hollered at Talvi, still holding the phone down on the receiver.

“I’m
inside
your office, so how could that have been an
outside
phone call?” Talvi argued in his defense. He swiveled in her chair and looked up into her beautiful, angry dark eyes. A mischievous smirk flashed across his face as he gazed at her. “This is why I should have my own office, with my own private telephone line. Not a sad little table butted up against your desk. You can’t even bother to suit me with a decent computer. Look how flimsy this little thing is that you’ve given me to use!” he picked up the thin laptop that was sitting on a stack of papers waved it around carelessly. She snatched it out of his hands, glaring at him in frustration.

“This flimsy little thing is worth twice as much as what I’m using, you stupid bastard, and even if we had free space available, why would I ever give you a private office? All you would do is lock the door and take a nap with a bottle. At least this way I can keep a close eye on you and try to teach you how to function better in a high-tech society.”

“I just think you could make an exception for me, Merri,” he pouted, batting his eyes at her as he leaned back in her chair. “Please?”

“That’s all I’ve ever done for you, is make exceptions, and look where it’s gotten us,” she said, frowning as she walked around her desk and set the laptop down on his table. “You can’t bloody type, you can’t bloody drive an automobile, and you barely know how to use the smartphone I gave you.”

“If it were truly smart, it wouldn’t need me to tell it what to do in the first place,” Talvi retorted. “And I know how to drive an automobile. Annika helped me get my license. I’m bonafide in America.”

“Yes, I found your traffic record, and I have to say, I strongly disagree with that statement. You need to learn these things inside and out before you will ever work another job for me. Times are changing, Talvi. Every twelve-year old in London with a cell phone is better qualified to be on the embassy’s payroll than you at this point. Now get out of my chair and get back to work!” Merriweather snapped, giving him a warning look.

“Must I really fill in all these entries by computer?” he whined as he reluctantly crawled out of her chair. She pushed him aside and sat down while he leaned against her desk, hovering over her. “It would be so much faster for me to write them in by hand than to type them.”

“Spoken like a true ignoramus,” Merri muttered, trying to ignore him and focus on her computer screen.

“You really ought to have an assistant for this sort of thing. I think you and I both know that I’m immensely overqualified for data entry. Whatever happened to Brigitte?”

“Transferred.”

“Julie?”

“Transferred.”

“Marilyne?”

“She’s the one who left your cheeky lighter in her desk when she resigned.”

“Really? No more lovely Marilyne?” Talvi asked with great interest, leaning down close to her. “Whatever brought that on?”

“What do you
think
brought that on?” replied Merriweather, glaring at him again. “She found out about you and Julie!”

“Oh, don’t blame me. I’m not the one hiring all these chatty ladies to work in a department designated for clandestine operations,” he accused with a devilish grin. “You know about me and brown-eyed girls, and you certainly know what my specialties are. I was merely doing research. Such a pity…Julie was a very enjoyable assistant to experiment with. Too bad she couldn’t keep her mouth shut, but then, I suppose that’s why we got along as well as we did.”

Merriweather looked ready to slap the arrogant smile off of his face, but she resisted the temptation.

“Regardless of whoever’s fault it is, we currently have no assistant to help us,” she said, giving him a stern look. “I’ve put in multiple requests for extra help, but no one has even applied for the position. Nobody wants to work with either of us, not even the poor, naïve interns. It’s well-known around here that I’m a demanding bitch and that you’re a heartless womanizer.”

“What a load of rubbish,” Talvi scoffed, and walked over the bar. “I have a heart. Why, I have a
huge
heart.” Merri rolled her eyes at him.

“Do you know what others around here say about my office door? They say it ought to read:
Director of
International
Relations
, not
Director of Modern
Intelligence
, because of all the shenanigans that have gone on in here with you and your ‘huge heart’. If I don’t get you up to speed quickly and have something of value to show for it, we may both soon be out of work. So please be more grateful that you have any space to work in at all. Speaking of which, what are you bloody thinking? We have
work
to do and it’s not even time for lunch!”

“Yes, but it’s five o’clock somewhere,” he said, pouring two glasses of Scotch. “See, I’m learning more slang every day. I’ll be up to speed in no time. And now that I have my cheeky lighter back, your unlucky streak ought to lift any day now. Just you wait and see.”

Merriweather turned in her chair to face him as he handed her a glass and settled into his seat across from her.

“You know, Talvi, the longer you fight me tooth and nail on this mountain of work, the longer you’ll be here instead of Paris. What’s it going to take to motivate you?” she wondered aloud, looking the piles of folders on her desk. She took a sip of her drink and massaged her temple, closing her eyes. “I know you can learn this. You’re so good with your hands. I tell you what…if you finish that stack of folios by Friday evening, I’ll give you a reward for all your hard work.”

“And what might that be? Another stack of folios?”

“No.”

“Ooh, a more comfortable work station?”

“Of sorts. You’ll definitely be more comfortable this Friday evening than you are right now.”

“Well, might I have it early, so I could be more comfortable now?” he said, being snarky. “Or perhaps you enjoy watching me squirm?”

“I do enjoy watching you squirm. I enjoy it quite a lot, actually, but this reward for your hard work is not something I can give you in my office. We’ll have to go elsewhere,” she said, and took a key chain out of her purse. She sorted through the keys and singled one of them out, dangling it seductively in her fingers. Talvi’s eyes widened hungrily as he recognized where the key led to.

“Oh Merri…oh Merri,
really
? You’re going to let me inside there after all this time?”

She nodded her head, smiling so smug, and set the keys back in her purse.

“It’s good to know I can still get your attention. Now, get back to work!”