Hold Me (14 page)

“How are you, uh, doing?” he asked.

“Okay.” This scene was so awkward it was almost painful. She tried to relax, and looked around the room, at the chairs, the ceiling, the fireplace, anywhere but at him. “Where’s David?”

“He’s probably sleeping.” Luc took one step closer, then another. She held her ground, but it was hard. “You learn to sleep when you can.”

“Oh.”

They stood for a few more minutes in uncomfortable silence.

Why? The question caught her unaware, and so did the pain. She had to bite her lip and look away so she couldn’t ask him, shout it at him. Why hadn’t he wanted to meet her three years ago? Why hadn’t he gone to the party when he’d said he would? Why had he stood her up? Why hadn’t she been worth the effort and common courtesy of a phone call?

“So, uh, do you hear from Melanie often?” she asked, just to say something.

He sighed. Katie chanced another glance in his direction. He was running a hand through his hair. The action bunched his biceps, showing off the tattoo wrapped around his arm and pulling his shirt tight against the muscles of his upper body. She hastily turned to stare at a beautiful crimson glass bowl sitting on a nearby table.

“Pretty often,” Luc said finally. “She emails or calls me a couple of times a week when I’m not on an assignment.”

“She’d love this place.” Katie gestured vaguely around the room.

“Yeah, she does.”

“She does?” Katie forgot herself in her surprise and looked at him again. Melanie had never mentioned visiting her foster brother. “She’s seen it?”

“Well, sure.” He seemed confused. “Why wouldn’t she have?”

“She just never said anything, that’s all.”

Melanie had gone to see Luc and hadn’t told her. Not that she had to tell her everything, but Katie had thought they were confidants. Now she realized that Mel had kept an extremely important part of her life secret. What else was she hiding?

Luc took another step in her direction. She couldn’t seem to tear her gaze away from his eyes. “Mel never talked about me at all?”

“Well, uh, yes. She mentioned you. Of course she mentioned you.” Abandoning her post at the door, Katie started moving through the room with nervous energy, trailing her fingers over the furniture and the items arranged on them. She paused at the fireplace to admire a painting hanging over the mantle.

“Other than when she was trying to talk you into…that party?”

Katie glanced at him, then away. He was following her as she walked around the room. Subtly stalking her. Like a big cat with a limp.

“Every so often.” She touched the colorful tiles of the fireplace surround. They might have been Persian. “Um, what about me?” She shouldn’t ask, but she was dying to know. “Did she ever talk about me?”

“Sometimes.” His voice was soft. “Not enough.”

Her stomach jerked. She turned to face him. “Luc—”

“Katie, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

“I’m sorry I slapped you.”

“I deserved it.”

“No—”

“I wouldn’t have brought up the name of the damn car if I’d remembered that David knew about Melanie and the comics. Not because I was trying to hide something. I just would rather have told you in a different way.”

“How did he know about Melanie anyway?” Katie asked, curious.

“David’s always known her,” Luc said simply.

David knew about Melanie. Melanie knew about David. Katie guessed it made sense, but it left her a little disoriented. It seemed like Melanie had been living a second life. One she’d never talked about. Katie had thought she knew her foster sister. Now it seemed like she didn’t know her at all.

“Luc—”

“What’s going on?” David strolled into the room and interrupted them.

“I thought you were asleep,” Luc muttered.

“Always vigilante.” The other man grinned, quick, bright and full. Katie blinked, a little stunned by the impact. “Katie woke me up when she crept down the hall.”

“You were that close?” she asked.

“One of us should be on the same floor with you, don’t you think?”

“I guess.” Katie looked between the two men, aware of undercurrents she didn’t quite understand.

“David’s alertness knows no bounds,” Luc murmured.

“Uh-huh.” She really was too stressed out for this. “I’m going for a walk,” she declared.

“A walk, huh?” Luc studied her. “I’d rather that you didn’t go outside alone.”

Katie sobered, reality intruding once again. “I’ll stay in the house,” she promised. “I still haven’t seen all of it.”

Luc relaxed a little. “Okay, but take Spot with you. She’ll make sure you don’t get lost.”

“Right. Because she did such a good job the last time.”

“Ye of little faith. You can wander while dinner is cooking.”

Katie raised her eyebrows at him. “Cooking?”

Luc smiled and flicked her chin with his finger, the small contact sending a shock along her system. “Off with you, sprout. It’s my turn to slave in the kitchen.”

“About time.”

“Get out of here. I’ll come looking for you if you go missing.”

She threw Luc another smile and went with Spot.

“Sprout?” David murmured. Luc cursed inwardly. He was going to have to be more careful what he said when the other man was around.

“Screw you. What do you want for dinner?”

“Food.”

“Very helpful.”

Luc limped into the kitchen. He was actually moving pretty well without the crutches, all things considered, but his ankle still hurt like a son of a bitch.

David followed him and sat down at the table. Luc ignored him and peered into the refrigerator. He didn’t think he’d ever had this much food in the house all at one time. It was a little overwhelming. He wished he knew how to make something fancy. He’d read somewhere that women were impressed by men who could cook.

Not that he wanted to impress Katie. He was just trying to apologize. Maybe show her that he had some good qualities. Show her there were a couple of things he could do that didn’t involve violence.

Okay, he was trying to impress her.

He pulled out a head of lettuce. Salad. Women liked that rabbit food shit, and it would be easy. Maybe steak? He could do steak. Had they bought steak?

“She’s really not your usual type,” David said from behind him.

“None of your business.”

“Maybe.” David was quiet for a moment. “If you’re stupid enough to hurt this one, I think I’ll come and hunt you down myself.”

Still holding the head of lettuce, Luc turned, surprised by the intensity in his friend’s voice. David pushed back his chair and stood.

“Where are you going?” Luc demanded.

“Thought I’d take a walk.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah.” David looked a little defensive. “Any law against it?”

“No.” Luc was having some trouble dealing with the blow he seemed to have taken to his stomach. “Just pay attention to your own advice, David.”

“I want to make sure she doesn’t get lost.” David turned and walked out the door.

Luc stared after him for several seconds before he put the lettuce down very carefully on the counter.

“Damn,” he said. “Fucking damn.”

By the next afternoon, Katie was so annoyed with both David and Luc she was ready to spit.

She hadn’t been exactly thrilled when David had joined her and Spot on their tour of the Museum, but she’d tried to be friendly. Still, it was hard not to smack the man upside the head when he talked freely about inconsequential matters and skillfully avoided the questions she really cared about—such as her future. Then, when they’d gone back to the kitchen, Luc had been all broody and withdrawn, his eyes beautiful dark mirrors.

He hadn’t said two words to her the whole evening.

That morning things had gone even further downhill. Luc had remained silent. David had hung around until Katie wanted to scream. He seemed intent on putting himself between her and Luc at every possible opportunity, acting like he was her buffer, when all she wanted him to do was shut up and go away again. It had gotten so bad that she’d finally retreated to Luc’s bedroom to read for a while just so she could be alone. It wasn’t that she didn’t like David, because she did. It wasn’t that he wasn’t nice, he was.

It was just that, well, he was talking to her, and Luc wasn’t.

Now she sat curled in the bedroom’s big armchair, staring out the window, her book open and neglected on her lap. She’d lain awake for hours the night before, staring at the ceiling, thinking about Luc and Melanie. Bruce and Tom. Thinking about how life would have been different if only Luc had come to that stupid party three years ago. But maybe it was time to let go of the past. Forget all of the might-have-beens and get on with her life. Well, as soon as she could get on with it anyway. And at least now she didn’t have to wonder what Melanie’s brother was really like. At least now she’d met him.

She almost laughed at the irony of it all. Almost.

Her thoughts drifted along in that vein until she figured it was time to go downstairs and see what she could dig up for dinner. She couldn’t count on Luc cooking two nights in a row and, since her lunch had consisted of a bag of corn chips stolen from the kitchen, she was hungry.

Spot had kept her company for most of the afternoon, but about an hour ago she’d padded off to destinations unknown, leaving Katie alone to make her way to the first floor. Fortunately she actually knew where she was going now.

She’d just reached the foot of the main stairs, when a hand touched her shoulder from behind. She jumped about a foot and spun around.

“Katie,” David said. He had an overnight bag in his hand.

“Hi,” she said with a sigh. Where the hell was Luc?

“I have to go,” David said. “I have things I need to do in town. I can’t stay any longer.”

She almost answered with a resounding Hallelujah!

“Oh,” she said instead.

David looked around the empty hall and took her hand. She glanced down in surprise, saw his big brown hand engulfing her much smaller one, and let herself be led to the front door.

“Look, just watch yourself, okay?” he said. “I know this is a very stressful situation, but try to keep your perspective.”

“Um, okay,” she murmured and pulled her hand away, not really sure what was going on. “I’m not worried. Luc is here. And I know he can’t run well, but he and Spot are pretty formidable.”

“Yeah.” David scrubbed a hand over his close-cropped hair. “Listen, I’m not going to be able to come out here again for a couple of days. We certainly don’t want Frankie tracking you through me.”

“Right,” she agreed, unaccountably more cheerful.

“But I’ll be checking in regularly, so you let me know if anything happens that makes you…uncomfortable, okay?”

You mean other than this conversation? Katie thought, but just smiled. He was looking at her so earnestly, his somewhat craggy features drawn and tight. A very nice man. She wasn’t quite sure why she wanted to push him out the door.

Okay, she did know. In spite of any residual embarrassment, she wanted to be alone with Luc again. She wanted to get to know him now that she’d found out who he was. She wanted to know the man she had called Bruce. She wanted him to talk to her again.

“Everything will be fine,” she said. “Don’t worry about me.”

He said nothing for a few moments. Katie was reminded of her first impression of him back at the police station. Sometimes David Allen saw far more than you wanted him to. She thought this was one of those times.

She looked away.

“Okay.” He sighed, straightened. “Okay.”

Katie forced herself to look back into his eyes. They were very pretty. His face was attractive and interesting and downright breathtaking when he smiled.

And she felt nothing for him but friendship. No tingle. No spark. Nothing.

Her tastes seemed to have gotten pretty specific over the last couple of days.

Great.

She made herself smile and nod. “Goodbye, David.”

“Goodbye, Katie.”

Then he was gone.

Katie waited until she heard David’s car ramble down the long driveway before she turned and headed to the kitchen. She half feared, half hoped that she’d run into Luc, but the family room was empty when she walked through, and the kitchen stood gleaming and vacant.

At the refrigerator she paused and realized that, probably for the first time in her life, she just didn’t want to prepare food. Instead she stepped out through the back door onto a small patio and let the warm summer breeze smack her in the face.

The humidity hung heavy in the air, and the afternoon sun glowed through a hazy sky. Cicadas and other bugs hummed in the somewhat weedy gardens. Birds sang as they hunted and gathered and tended their young. Out on the mown part of the lawn she saw Spot’s large black bulk. The dog rolled and barked with the sheer joy of living, then jumped to her feet and took off at a gallop.

“Hey, don’t run away!” she called, taking an anxious step forward.

“Don’t worry, she won’t go too far. She never leaves the property.”

Katie drew in a breath and turned to the sound of the deep, male voice. Luc was perched on a stone retaining wall near the house, holding a mug of coffee and watching her intently. He’d been so still she hadn’t noticed him until now. His dark hair, curling slightly around his ears, glistened when the sun caught it.

She swallowed. “There you are,” she said, just to be saying something.

“Yeah. Here I am.” His maroon shirt was faded, but it hugged his upper body in a most interesting fashion. Someday, Katie thought idly, she should probably tell him that most of his shirts seemed a little too small.

Then she bit the inside of her mouth to hide a grin. What was she? Crazy?

A vision of her own appearance popped in her head and, remembering what humidity tended to do to her hair, she tried to smooth it down a little self-consciously. When his dark eyes laughed at her, she figured it was hopeless, so she gave up.

“David just left,” she said.

He sobered abruptly. “I know. He told me he was taking off.”

“Oh.” She fidgeted a little bit. “Um, good.”

Luc put his mug down on the wall and patted a stone next to him. “Why don’t you come on and sit down here for a minute? Take a load off.”

Katie eyed him warily, not quite sure how to judge his mood. As she studied him, she thought she saw some tension in the set of his broad shoulders and in the firmness of his mouth. Maybe he was nervous too.

The admittedly unlikely idea gave her the courage to walk over and try to hoist herself up on the wall beside him. He watched her ungraceful attempts with some amusement, then finally took pity on her and hauled her up with one hand as if she weighed next to nothing. It was enough to give any red-blooded girl the vapors.

“Thanks,” she huffed, legs swinging. His feet almost touched the ground, but hers were well above it. “Haven’t done gymnastics in a while.”

“And you’re short.”

“Yeah, thanks for pointing it out.”

He laughed.

“So you’re speaking to me again?” she asked.

“What? I was always speaking to you.” He looked confused. Idiot.

“Oh, yeah. Right. That’s why you haven’t said anything to me since last night.”

“I had things on my mind,” Luc said, pulling back slightly.

“I noticed.”

Katie closed her eyes to block him out, but it only made her more aware of him, of the warmth of his body so close to hers, the clean scent of soap mixed with faint aftershave. She took a deep breath, drew him in, thought about the way his mouth had taken hers. About how much she wished he’d kiss her again. And about how unlikely it was he would.

“You seem tired,” he commented.

She jumped a little bit, startled out of her reverie. “That’s because I am tired.” She opened her eyes and looked out over the fields and woods surrounding the Museum, struck by how isolated they were. “How much land to you own, anyway?”

“I don’t own it, remember? There are about a hundred acres attached to the Museum. Why are you tired?”

“Amazing. I didn’t think there were a hundred acres of land in New Jersey without houses on them.”

“There are in this part. We’re pretty far away from the cities. Couldn’t you sleep?”

“I slept. Just not enough.” Because I was thinking about you, you jerk.

“Oh.” He shifted. “That reminds me. I wanted to tell you, now that David’s gone and my ankle’s on the mend, I’m going to move upstairs to one of the spare bedrooms. It will be easier to guard you if we’re both on the same floor.”

“Oh. Okay. Makes sense,” she said, not quite sure what she thought about the fact that he’d only be a few rooms away. “Don’t you want your own bedroom back?”

“Nah, you keep it.”

“Thanks.”

The silence stretched out between them.

“David’s a good man,” Luc said finally.

“Yes, he is.” Katie agreed, wary again. “So?”

“We’ve known each other a long time.”

“I kind of gathered that.”

“He, um, picked me up off the streets after that house with Melanie. After the Winstons. I was alone and heading down a bad path, but he found me. Brought me into his family. He made something out of me.”

Katie pondered that and studied his profile. It was a good profile.
He
was a good man. “I kind of think you made something out of yourself,” she said at last.

“Maybe.” Luc shifted, obviously embarrassed, then turned to her so unexpectedly that he caught her looking at him.

She blinked when she found herself trapped by his dark, dark eyes. God, they were beautiful. Brown and deep. She fell into them, drowned in them.

“I’m not surprised that you’re, uh, attracted to him.”

Katie blinked. She felt as if someone had just slapped her very hard. Her mouth opened, closed, opened again. “Huh?”

Luc shrugged. “You and David, you know? I saw how you were talking.”

Katie scrambled to pull her thoughts together.

“He was talking to me, so I talked back. What was I supposed to do, mime? I would have talked to you, too, but you weren’t interested.”

“No, no. I mean you were talking. You know, talking. About all kinds of things.”

Katie ran her mind back over the past twenty-four hours. What in the world was the man blathering on about?

“It’s called small talk. You should try it sometime.”

Luc pulled a hand through his hair until it stood up in spikes. “Damn it Katie, I’m trying to say that I understand. I imagine David would attract any, um, number of women. Like I said, he’s a great guy. One in a million.”

She would have laughed if she hadn’t been so annoyed. “You understand.”

“Yeah. Who can blame you?” He looked away from her.

“You can’t blame me. You understand.” She wondered if she had fallen down a rabbit hole when she hadn’t been looking. “Luc, I hate to break this to you, but I’m not attracted to David. I mean, I am, because I’d have to be dead not to be, but not in the way you mean.”

“What?”

“I’m trying to say that I don’t, uh, want him.”

“You don’t want David?”

“Yes! I don’t want him!”

“Really?” Luc seemed genuinely shocked. “Well why not?”

“Because I don’t, okay?” Could this be any more embarrassing? “Trust me for once.”

Silence.

“Is it because he’s black?” Luc asked.

“No! No, it’s not because he’s black! God.”

“Well why not then?”

“What are you, David’s pimp? You trying to get him hooked up, Luc?”

“Katie—”

“I’m sorry I said anything. You’re right, he’s great. He’s wonderful. He’s God’s gift to women. I prostrate myself before him. You know, I found a bottle of whiskey the other day and it is so calling my name right now. Excuse me.”

Before he could stop her, she jumped off the wall and marched inside the house. By the time he’d followed her, she was already headfirst in the kitchen cabinets digging desperately for the whiskey. She really didn’t drink very much, but man, did she need it now.

“So, you’re not attracted to David,” Luc said from behind her. He still sounded surprised. The ass. “Wow.”

She backed out of the cabinet clutching the bottle. Thank God. “What the hell is your problem?”

“Nothing.”

“Jesus Christ.” Katie found a glass, opened the bottle and poured herself a generous two fingers of the whiskey. She tossed back a healthy swallow of the stuff, then gasped and wheezed when it hit her stomach. Her insides were exploding.

“You okay?” Luc asked. He was closer now. Stalking her. Moving silently, his eyes intent on her face.

“Fine,” she gasped out.

“Usually I add water or soda to that stuff.”

“Thanks for the tip.” Clutching the bottle and the glass, Katie pushed past him and strode into the family room. Without thought, she dropped onto the carpet in front of the sofa. If she’d had any sense, she’d have taken the bottle straight to the bedroom and locked the door, but now it was too much trouble to get up.

Luc came in a few minutes later and stiffly lowered himself onto the floor next to her. He had gotten his own glass and pulled the bottle away from her, pouring himself a large shot of the whiskey.

“Don’t you ever sit in a chair?” He sounded both annoyed and amused.

“Sometimes.” Katie took another sip of her drink and wrinkled her nose. “In my family, you just drop wherever there’s room. There are usually too many people around to be picky.” She drank again, really more like a gulp. Her insides weren’t exploding anymore, they were getting warmer and fuzzier. It was nice. Her brothers would be laughing their asses off right about now if they could see her.