In my desperation I think I would’ve made a bargain with the devil himself if I could just find my girl safe and sound. I headed back to the wing where Lady Percival was on display, hoping she might offer me a clue. I remembered Brynne saying something about access to the back room where she’d helped out when Lady Percival had been moved from the Rothvale over here for this show tonight. I looked for a door and there it was not ten feet down, blending into the wall—the outline of the seal, and then a small sign marked private affixed to it.
Jackpot!
I turned the handle and pushed into a large work storage room with more doors—one of which was marked toilet.
“Brynne?!” I yelled her name and slammed my hand hard. I tried the knob but it was locked.
“I’m here,” came a weak reply, but praise the angels, it was her!
“Baby! Thank Christ...” I tried the knob again. “Let me in. We have to go!”
The door latch clicked and I wasted no time wrenching open the final barrier between me and my girl. I would have torn it off and thrown it if I’d had the ability.
She stood there looking pale with her hand over her mouth, sweat dotting her forehead, in her beautiful periwinkle dress. The most gorgeous color in the whole bloody world right now! Maybe forever. I didn’t think I would ever forget how I felt in this moment. The stark relief at finding her, just about took me to my knees in thankfulness.
“What’s going on with the fire alarm?” she asked.
“Are you okay?” I wrapped my arms around her but she pressed a hand to my chest to keep a distance.
“I just threw up, Ethan. Don’t get too close.” She kept one hand over her mouth. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Thank the gods I remembered about this bathroom being so close by. I was in here bent over the toilet and then the alarms went off—”
“Oh, baby.” I kissed her forehead. “We gotta go now! Not a fire but a bomb threat called in!” I grabbed her other hand and started pulling. “Can you walk?”
Her face paled even further but she revived somewhat. “Yes!”
I fired off a call to Neil as I got us the hell out of that building.
Adrenaline has amazing powers on the human body. There are many small things to be thankful for, but the greatest thing of all was safe in my arms.
♥
What a cluster fuck the last hours had been. I ruminated over what’d gone down as I drove into the night. Change of plans, I’d decided as soon as we got home. I called Hannah and let her know we were driving up to Somerset tonight. She seemed surprised but said she was glad to have us early and that the house would be open so we could get in whenever we arrived.
Brynne was a bit harder nut to crack. She didn’t feel well for one thing and then was worried about the bomb threat and all the paintings. So far, there hadn’t been an explosion but the whole mess was on every news station and being categorized as a terrorist risk. I would have my people investigating the bomb threat as a compulsory measure, but what concerned me far more were the messages on her mobile tonight. Whoever sent it was close by. Close enough to see me having a smoke behind the National Gallery. And if he was close enough for that, then he was too fucking close to my girl. I could hardly make sense of the text message either—just lyrics from the song typed out with Brynne’s name attached to them. Gave me chills, and made my decision to get her out of the city a very easy one.
I looked over at her sleeping in the front seat, her head tilted against the pillow she’d brought along. I’d rushed her out of the city, and knew I’d have some explaining to do later but thankfully she hadn’t been in a mood to challenge me and went along with everything. We’d changed out of our formal clothes, grabbed the bags, and hit the M-4 for our three hour drive to the coast.
She stirred about two hours into the drive and then woke up with a direct question. “So are you going to tell me why you dragged me away tonight when the plan had been to go in the morning for weeks?”
“I don’t want to tell you because it won’t be nice for you to know and you’re already feeling bad.” I reached for her hand. “Can we wait till tomorrow to talk about it?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Baby…please, you’re exhausted and—”
“Remember our deal, Ethan,” she cut me off, “I have to know everything or I can’t trust you.”
The tone of her voice was very hard and scared the shit out of me. Oh, I remembered our deal very well and I hated what I knew. But I also knew what I’d agreed to with Brynne. And if keeping the information from her broke us apart, then it wasn’t worth the cost to me.
“Yeah, I remember our deal.” I reached into my pocket for her mobile. “A message came through on your mobile while I was out the back having a smoke. That’s why I didn’t know where you were. I’d left to go outside and the bomb threat happened about simultaneous with that text message on your phone.”
She reached a shaky hand and took it from me. “Ethan? What’s on it?”
“A music video first and then a text message from someone calling themselves ArmyOps.” I put my hand on her arm. “You don’t have to listen. You really don’t—”
Her face looked absolutely stricken with fear but she asked the question anyway. “Is it—is it the video of…me?”
“No! It’s just the music video of the song by Nine Inch Nails—look, you don’t have to do this, Brynne!”
“Yes I do! It’s to me, this message! Isn’t it?”
I nodded.
“And if we weren’t together it would have still been sent to me, right?”
“I suppose. But we are together and I want to keep you from having to worry about shit like that. It kills me, Brynne. It fucking kills me to see you like this!”
She started to cry. It was the silent kind of crying. The way she usually did it and somehow the silence of her tears seemed to be screaming loud in the car between us.
“That’s one of the reasons why I love you, Ethan,” she sniffed. “You want to protect me because you really care.”
“I do, baby. I love you so much. I don’t want you to have to see that piece of sh—”
She pressed start and the song rang out as she played the video. I watched her and held my breath.
Brynne held it together for the whole thing, watching it through to the bitter end, in all its mad-scientist themed fetish crap. I had no indication from her as to how she felt from seeing it though. At least not outwardly. I couldn’t possibly know.
I knew how I felt from watching her though. Utterly helpless.
Then she got to the text message part.
“He was there? Watching you smoke?! Oh shit!” She clamped her hand over her mouth again and gagged. “Pull over!”
Fuck! I defied the laws of physics and the road and somehow got us off to the side. She was out and heaving in the bushes the instant the tires stopped. I held her hair away and rubbed her back. Could this night get any worse?
“What the hell is wrong with me?” she gasped. “Can you get me a napkin or something?”
I pulled some towels from the glove box and got a bottle of water so she could rinse her mouth. And kept my trap shut, positively sure I was having an out-of-body experience. This just couldn’t be happening right now.
“I feel better,” she panted. “Whatever that was tonight seems to have passed.” She slowly straightened up and lifted her head up to the night sky. “Gawd!”
“I’m so sorry, baby. You’re ill and I’m dragging you on a road trip and everything’s so royally fucked up—”
“But you’re here with me,” she blurted, “and you’re going to help me through whatever that shit was on my phone, aren’t you?” She stared at me, her eyes still wet, her chest still heaving from being sick in the bushes, and utterly amazing to me because of her bravery.
“I will, Brynne.” I took the couple steps that separated us and drew her close. She folded into my arms and rested her cheek on my chest. “I’m going to
be here every step of the way to keep you safe. I’m all in, remember?”
She nodded. “I’m all in too, Ethan.”
“Good. It’s gonna be okay, baby.” I rubbed up and down her back and felt her relax a little.
“I do feel better…even if I smell like puke,” she said. “Sorry about that.”
“That’s good you feel better. And you only smell slightly of puke.” I kissed the top of her head and she squeezed me in the ribs. “But we need to get off the side of the road. It’s not much further and I want to put you into a bed so you can get some rest. Freddy’s a doctor. He can check you out tomorrow after you’ve had sleep.”
“All right. One hell of a night, huh?”
“You’re a fun date, Miss Bennett.” I put her into her seat. “But I think I prefer staying in to going out with you.” I kissed her on the forehead before I shut the door.
She laughed at that and I was glad I could still get her to smile after the cock-up of an evening we’d just endured.
“Can you smell the ocean?” I asked after we got a bit further inland.
“Yes. It reminds me of home. I grew up with the smell of the sea.” She looked out the window. “Tell me about Hannah and her family.”
I wondered if reminding her of home was a sad memory I’d just brought up, but decided not to pry. It was something maybe for another time.
“Well, Hannah is five years older than me and bossy as hell, but she loves her little brother. We’re very close…probably because of losing our mum at such an early age. We all just hung together very tight once she was gone. Our dad, Hannah and me.”
“Sounds so nice, Ethan—how much you all care about each other.”
“I can’t wait for them to meet you. Freddy’s a good bloke. He’s a doctor, like I said before and runs a practice in the village at Kilve. Their home is called Halborough, an old estate out of Freddy’s family—the Greymonts. These big houses on the historic registry are difficult to keep up so they do a high-end bed-and-breakfast that Hannah runs, along with raising three fabulous kids.”
“What are their names and ages?”
“Colin will be thirteen in November. Jordan just turned eleven, and my fairy princess of a niece, little Zara, was quite the surprise for everyone when she arrived just five years ago this month.” I couldn’t help the grin at thinking about Zara. I had a soft spot for little girls. “She is something else I’m telling you. That little miss runs circles around her brothers.”
“I can’t wait to meet Zara then. It’s good to see a woman who can control all the men in her life, and at such a young age too.”
“Well, you’ll get your chance in the morning, because we’re here.”
I pulled into the gravel driveway that ran in a half-circle up to the Georgian house of pale stone. There had been some mixing of architectural influences over the centuries during various remodels. The Gothic windows and points were a nice touch if you wanted historic. It was still a fine looking house perched as it was above the coast; not bad for a sea-side cottage. That always cracked me up. According to Freddy, Halborough had been the summer cottage retreat for his family two hundred years ago when they needed to get away from Town. If this was a cottage, then what did those people back then consider a house?
“God, Ethan, this is amazing.” She looked up at the façade and seemed suitably impressed. It’s gorgeous and I can’t wait for a tour.”
“Tomorrow.” I gathered up our bags from the back and locked the car. “Time to get you into a bed. You need sleep.”
She followed me up to the side door entrance which was unlocked just like Hannah promised.
“What I need is a shower,” she murmured behind me.
“You can do a bath if you want. The rooms are kitted out superb,” I whispered as I led her up the main staircase. I knew which suite I wanted for us when I called Hannah and asked. The blue one at the corner of the west wing with the full ocean view all the way to the Welsh coast across the bay.
Brynne was impressed when I opened the door and led her in. I could tell by her expression. I think she was struck speechless as her eyes went around the room.
“Ethan! This is…simply stunning.” She smiled wide at me and looked happy. “Thank you for bringing me here.” But then she looked down and shook her head slightly. “I’m sorry tonight was such a mess.”
“Come here, baby.” I held my arms out and waited for her to move forward.
She practically leapt at me and I picked her up, letting her wrap her legs around me in the way I loved for her to do. I tried to kiss her on the lips but she turned away and gave me her neck instead.
“I need to get a shower and brush my teeth before we do anything,” she mumbled against my ear.
“We’re not doing anything. You’re going to sleep after you have your shower or your bath or whatever you’re having.”
“Hey.” She lifted her head and gave me a look. “Are you denying me your body, Mr. Blackstone?”
I am sure it was the very last thing I expected her to ask me. “Um…why…err…no, Miss Bennett. I would never do such a moronic thing as deny you my body when you are so obviously in need of it.”
“Good thing, because I am feeling much better now. Much better…” She held my face in her two hands and smiled a beautiful smile.
“Ahhh, I can see that you are.” She flexed against my cock and pulled us tighter together with her legs wrapped around me.
“And I can feel that you are completely on board with my plan, Mr. Blackstone.”
Well of course I am when I have your legs wrapped round my arse and my cock up against a very nice part of you.
I walked us into the bathroom carefully and set her down on her feet. I found the light switch and enjoyed the second gasp out of her when she got a good look at the bathtub and the view.
“Is that the ocean out that window? Good lord! It’s so beautiful in here I can hardly stand it.”
I laughed. “Now, I’m not so sure if you’re more interested in that bathtub or in ravishing me anymore.”
“But I can multi-task just as well as you can, baby,” she said, pulling her hoodie over her head and letting it drop.
“Did I ever tell you how much I love it when you call me baby?”
Her strip-show was going to be so damn good I could already feel my body starting to hum all over.
“Maybe a time or two you’ve said so.”
She pulled off her t-shirt and that’s when I saw it.
“You wore your necklace.”
She nodded at me, standing there in a lacy blue bra and the heart pendant I’d given her at the beginning of our hellish evening.
“When we changed clothes I didn’t want to take it off.” She flipped her eyes up to mine and fingered the heart.
“How come?” I asked.
“Because you gave it to me, and told me you loved me and—”
“I don’t want you to take it off,” I blurted out in the middle of her sentence.
“—because you said you were all in.”
“I am. With you, Brynne, I am, and I have been from the very start.”
And I meant every word. I knew what I wanted. I understood it crystal clear and there was no turning back with her now.
All in is forever, baby...
When I reached for my girl and showed her how much I did indeed need her, and told her with words too, I knew then that the best gamble of my life had not been the cards I’d played, but that one night on a London street, when a beautiful American girl tried to walk out in the dark, and I played the most important hand I’d ever been dealt, and went…all in.
The End
In the words of Simba…
By: Franziska Popp
Here we go again. The one who talks with fishes is finally home. I would cross my fins in front of my chest, but helloooooooo? I am a fish. Instead I am doing what I can do best; I am floating through the ocean. An ocean with walls I can see through. Better than the plastic bag
he used to get me into this flat with—a flat which couldn’t look any lonelier I might add. Even my fake ocean looks more comfy, and yes, he probably thinks I can’t tell the difference. Of course I can.
Swimming closer to the wall of glass as Ethan Blackstone, yes, Black-STONE, walks in, I wonder if he is related to my favorite stone in my fake ocean. There are many stones, but each fish in here needs a stone. Just like this human needs a cigarette right now.
My fins fluttering, I am wondering why he didn’t say anything to me. Normally I get at least a ‘Hello mate’ or a ‘How was your day, Simba?’
Wishing I could roll my eyes. I know—he really named me Simba from The Lion King. And he did not even give me a Nalla. Nope.
Where was I? Right, thank you. I was watching him, in his chair, at his enormous desk and then I hear him say, “I am so screwed, Simba. I met a girl, and trust me when I say that I am fucking screwed.”
Screwed? Him? Duh…who is living in an ocean with walls around him? Yup, the Lionfish. That would be me. I would point at myself but you all remember I am just a fish. Watching Ethan lean back against the chair, his eyes focused on the ceiling as he mumbles, over and over, that he is screwed. He places his feet on the desk. I so need a desk myself. Then I could actually use my time much better. I could make To-Do lists for all the other fishes in here. Especially this one over there. To the left…LEFT. You just looked to the right. What are you? A female?
So, apropos female… because a few days later a human female comes walking into the office. WHOA. That never happened before. HELP!!! HELP!!! She is going to eat me, I can feel it. She looks hungry, I swear. I can see it in her eyes. I’ve watched documentaries about sharks, so I would know, right?
Fluttering an array of multi-colored fins at her (my attempt of scaring her off) I’m still inwardly screaming my S.O.S. Yeah, I know, it sucks to be a fish. I can’t even use a phone and call Neil for help. Trying not to panic until—yes—until she calls me…handsome. HANDSOME. The stroke that almost took me over has suddenly been replaced by (I am sure she can see them) ♥ ♥ in my fishy eyes. Now fluttering my fins to draw her closer, I know I have found my NALLA.