Strictly Taboo, page 13
Her eyes widened and her mouth worked up and down, but nothing came out. Unable to effectively respond, Diane watched the security agent leave the room and shut the door behind him.
Her pulse picked up, adrenaline racing through her system. Heinzman had fired her? Oh, no! She had to talk to him. She couldn’t afford to pay him back the ten thousand dollars!
A part of Diane was relieved, but the realistic part was concerned. Ten thousand dollars was a lot of money to owe someone, especially so for a single mom. It would take her half of forever to come up with that kind of money without starving herself in the process.
“I’ll just have to raise the cash,” Diane told herself as she threw on a bra and panties. She nodded definitively, telling herself she could do it. “At least I don’t have to endure another moment of this awful ship.”
The plane ticket was in her name. She wouldn’t have to figure out an alternate way to get home. She would, however, have to pay the airline a penalty for changing her ticket and leaving the Netherlands early. She didn’t have much cash left on her debit card, but she had enough to pay the fine and return to Ohio.
That knowledge having firmly taken root, relief at leaving three days early washed through Diane. A big weight lifted off her shoulders as she slid into one of her many cotton sundresses, this one a pale blue to match her eyes. Slipping into her sandals, she picked up her valise and all but threw open the door.
“I’m ready,” Diane announced, smiling like a simpleton. The security agent raised an eyebrow at her obvious joy, but said nothing. “You will escort me off the boat now?”
“Yes.” He cleared his throat, then motioned for her to follow him. “You have my apologies, Ms. Sullivan. I do not enjoy this task.”
It was more than fine by her. “Everything’s okay. I understand.”
“Mr. Ennis was very specific, you see. You are to be removed from The Carnal Voyage immediately.”
Diane’s smile faded. Her heart dropped into her stomach. “I’m sorry?”
The security agent ignored her, as if he realized that he’d said too much. Diane followed him in silence, the skip no longer a part of her walk. Garek didn’t have to go to such great lengths to avoid her. If he didn’t want her around all he had to do was say so.
Relief at leaving early was displaced by anger and hurt. How could he do this to her knowing that she needed that ten thousand dollars? Had she misjudged him that badly?
When at last they were on land, Diane turned to the security agent with a sigh. “Tell Heinzman I’ll pay him back as soon as I possibly can. It might take a few years, but I’ll do it.”
The agent’s forehead wrinkled. “Pay him back?”
“The ten thousand dollars.”
He waved that away. “You owe him nothing. Have a safe journey home, Ms. Sullivan.”
Another bout of relief, this one all but knocking her to her knees. Heinzman didn’t expect her to pay him back? She considered that for a moment, then realized she shouldn’t have to anyway. She hadn’t been fired for dereliction of duty, but because Garek Ennis wanted her gone.
“Thank you,” Diane said quietly. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. It was time to put the past behind her and start anew. “Goodbye.”
“You what?”
Garek’s face mottled red with fury as he stared down Heinzman from the other side of his desk. He had decided to go find the little sewer rat when Diane failed to meet him in his stateroom per his instructions to Heinzman.
They were supposed to leave the boat together. Diane was not supposed to be “escorted” off it. If she knew Garek had something to do with it, she’d never forgive him. At least if they left together he could explain his intentions.
“I had her removed from the boat,” Heinzman mumbled, his normally pompous expression taking on an alarmed note. “Perhaps I should have consulted you—”
It was the last thing Heinzman said before Garek punched him square in the jaw. Enraged, and more than a little worried about Diane, Garek stopped himself from injuring the asshole further and prowled from the office.
Chapter 10
The longer Diane walked the streets of Delft, the better she felt. Her deflated spirits slowly lifted, replacing the earlier turmoil with calm acceptance. Like a slave released from bondage, Diane felt the chains of sexual oppression lifted from her shoulders.
The only thing that still saddened her was the meanness with which Garek had forced her from his life. He could have simply told her he didn’t want to see her, but instead he chose the coward’s way out.
He had hurt her, the very thing she’d feared would come to pass. Still, Diane would have been lying if she said she regretted making love to Garek, because she didn’t. In his mind, she was probably just another fuck, but in hers it had meant so much more than that.
Diane wound her way back to De Grutto Haus, a cute little alehouse where she’d found a cheap, clean room to sleep in until her plane left in three days. The owners—an older couple—had even offered to drive her to the airport. Luck had been smiling on Diane when she’d wandered into the pub, for the airline didn’t have any seats available on an earlier flight.
She was glad it worked out this way. They were charging her far less for the room than the change penalty for the airline ticket would have been. Plus, she had the added bonus of experiencing another foreign city.
The outside of the two-hundred-year-old structure had been freshly painted blue and yellow. The colors of the buildings were all so vivid and lively, but Diane had taken an instant liking to De Grutto Haus.
A frown marred Diane’s face as a far-off sound caught her ears. What was that noise? It almost sounded as though someone was calling her name.
Turning around in front of the alehouse, Diane’s blue eyes widened as she saw Garek waving at her from a distance, her name roaring from his lips. Heart thumping wildly, she whirled around, not bothering to look back.
He’d done enough. Apparently he didn’t know when to stop.
Diane’s first thought was to disappear into the pub and up to her room. If she did that, however, Garek would know where to find her. He might cause a scene and embarrass her in front of the people who had shown her such kindness.
Her pulse skyrocketing, Diane took off walking. She briskly made her way into a narrow alley beside the alehouse, uncertain of where she should go. The hurt returned and all she could think about was putting as much distance between them as possible.
“Diane!” Garek bellowed. She could hear him running to catch up with her. “Diane, please let me explain!”
She stopped in her tracks and spun around to face him. Nostrils flaring, she balled her fists at her sides. “Explain what?” Diane asked, angry and upset. “Explain that you didn’t possess the courage to tell me goodbye yourself so you had me thrown off the boat?”
“That’s not true,” Garek panted, nearing her. She could tell his knee was troubling him and struggled not to care. “It didn’t happen like that. I swear it. Please, baby,” he said. “Just let me explain.”
She wanted so badly to believe him. She just prayed whatever it was he had to say rang true. “You’ve got my attention,” she said, doing her best to sound cold, while feeling hopelessly hurt on the inside. “Say whatever it is you have to say.”
Garek wasted no time in telling her exactly what had happened. Diane’s shoulders slumped with relief, emotions—good ones this time—taking their toll on her.
“Are you mad, baby?” Garek softly asked. “Maybe you didn’t need rescuing. Hell, you’ve made it all these years just fine without me and—”
Diane threw her arms around him and kissed him with all the passion she harbored inside. He growled, then kissed her back, his strong arms protectively wrapped around her.
“Did you really punch him?” Diane asked, breaking the kiss.
“Damn straight.” Garek’s heart was in his eyes. “I don’t play when it comes to you. Never have, and never will.”
Diane smiled. Her gaze found his. “I love you, Garek. I’ve always loved you.”
He grunted, but held her close to him. “You’d better,” Garek teasingly threatened her, his chin resting on her head, “because I love you, too, and you’re stuck with me for life.”
No better promise had ever been made in the history of promises. She grinned, and hugged him back tightly.
Diane Sullivan had come to Europe to make some money so life could begin anew. Fate had led her back right where she’d started long before L.A. had come calling.
Fate was taking her home. To Ohio, to Jenna, and to Garek.
NAUGHTY NANCY
A Trek Mi Q’an Tale
Congrats on finding your happy ending, Nancy.
Prologue
Nancy Lombardo bit down on her bottom lip as her eyes warily shifted toward the old woman. The crone had to be a witch, she thought. In a town like Salem, Massachusetts—and on Halloween night no less—she couldn’t be anything but a witch.
Either that or an extremely-eccentric-looking-homeless-person-with-a-penchant-for-wearing-black-robes-and-loud-blue- eyeshadow-while-she-stood-there-stirring-only-God-knows-what-around-in-a-cauldron-as-she-chanted-in-what-sounded-to-be-Latin.
Nancy sighed. She really should have taken that job in Anchorage. The weirdest thing she would have had to worry about encountering in Alaska was getting kidnapped by a lonely mountain man who hadn’t laid eyes on a woman since his inbred wife had passed on to—well, wherever it was inbred wives passed on to.
Nancy’s back went ramrod straight as she continued walking down the dark alley. She refused to be afraid, she sniffed. This was her night, damn it. The night she was going to saunter into her friend Lori’s party and shine like the belle of the ball.
No more wallflower Nancy. No more fat girl out. No more watching through the spectacles perched on the end of her nose as men looked past her to the dimwitted idiots standing behind her with the buff bodies and unbuff brains. Tonight she was going to be one of those dimwitted idiots with the buff bodies and the unbuff brains!
Well okay, so she wasn’t exactly dim-witted. And her body wasn’t exactly buff. And, she grimly conceded, she had graduated at the top of her class in law school.
Damn it!
“’Tis naught tae worry aboot,” the old woman croaked, causing Nancy to lose her train of thought.
“Huh?”
Nancy’s gaze shot toward where the old woman had been stirring her cauldron—the very same black-clad figure who had been standing on the opposite side of the alley, but who had somehow managed to land directly in front of her.
“Goodness,” she breathed out as her hand instinctively flew up to shield her heart, “you scared me.”
The old woman’s weathered face crinkled into what on most people would be considered a smile. On her it looked more like a pasty slit in between a bunch of equally pasty, white wrinkles.
Nancy swallowed a bit nervously as she waited to see what the old woman wanted. She absently adjusted her Xena: Warrior Princess costume, shifting the sword belt to the side. She winced and moved it back. The tip of the sword kept poking through its scabbard and jabbing her in the thigh.
Damn it!
“Can I help you with something?” Nancy asked in clipped tones. Call her a tad on the defensive side, but it was Halloween night and the old woman gave her the creeps. She kept staring into her eyes as if searching for something, but otherwise the mysterious witch remained silent.
A suspended moment passed in eerie quiet as the two women locked eyes. It gave Nancy enough time to let the guilt settle in. She sighed.
“I didn’t mean to yell at you,” she said quietly, her expression apologetic. She smiled. “I guess we all get a little freaked out on a night like this.”
She decided to ignore the fact that the old woman was the reason she was freaked out to begin with.
“’Twill be a long journey,” the old witch murmured. Her palm came up and rested on Nancy’s forehead as she continued to study her face. “But ’twill be worth the sacrifices when all is said and done. And love shall be yers.”
Nancy’s eyes darted back and forth as the old woman began to chant. She prayed nobody walked by and saw this!
Back in law school Nancy had been taught how to effectively deal with many different types of bizarre situations, but this one had definitely not been covered in any of the college texts. When the old woman’s chanting picked up to a fevered squeal akin to the sound of a pig being slaughtered for Sunday dinner, she felt her cheeks redden.
Nope, definitely not covered in the law school texts.
Damn it!
“Are you okay?” Nancy bit out. She tried to politely remove the old crone’s palm from her forehead, but the wrinkled thing wouldn’t budge. She absently wondered if the old woman had been an arm wrestler in her heyday. “Do you need an aspirin or something?” Her tongue darted out to wet her lips as the squealing grew shriller. “I think I have a stick of gum tucked away in my scabbard if you—”
Nancy blinked. Her breath caught in the back of her throat.
The old woman was gone.
“Good grief,” she mumbled as her head darted back and forth. “Where did she go?”
After a suspended moment just standing there with her mouth agape—no doubt looking like the village idiot—she shook her head and sighed. She really should have taken that job in Anchorage.
Regally straightening her back, Nancy dismissed the oddity of the situation from her mind and continued to walk down the dark alley. She could hear music and laughter floating out of a window a ways down, which could only mean she was almost at the old warehouse Lori had renovated for tonight’s Halloween party.
Nancy took a deep breath as she wondered for the fiftieth time since she’d left her apartment an hour ago what everyone would think of her new look. Not the Xena costume itself, but the bodily changes that had gone along with it. During her two-month leave of absence from the law firm, she had used the time to completely transform her image.
Gone was the schoolmarm bun she had always tightly wrapped her hair into and in its place was a sultry mane of light brown cascading hair, to which her stylist had thoughtfully added golden highlights. Gone was the spinsterish pair of oversized spectacles that had sat suspended on the tip of her nose, replaced by a pair of translucent contact lenses that showed off the rich chocolate brown of her eyes.
And, she thought with much relief, gone were those extra forty pounds of bulk. In their place was a voluptuous form that was beginning to show the first signs of muscle tone from daily exercise and sensible eating. She wasn’t skinny, and knew she never would be; in fact, she was still somewhat fleshy, but for the first time in years she looked and felt healthy.
The Xena outfit was more than a costume to her, she realized. It was the very symbol of the new Nancy Lombardo, a Nancy Lombardo who was no longer content to sit on the sidelines as a passive spectator while life passed her by. She was an alpha female now. A warrior woman.
A warrior woman who hadn’t had sex since three presidents ago.
Damn it!
But that pitiful circumstance would change tonight, she reassured herself as she straightened her shoulders and walked determinedly up the back steps that would take her to the renovated warehouse loft above. Times were changing. The wallflower had died. The warrior woman within had awoken. She was a phoenix rising up from the flames of abject grief and despair. She was—
Bah! Times were changing. Enough said.
Nancy took a calming breath as she pushed open the warehouse doors and strolled inside. She instantly forgot her nervousness as she glanced around, the smile on her face indicative of her festive mood. The old Stapleton warehouse looked great.
Lori had decorated the place perfectly, the dark atmosphere with the scattered lights of jack-o-lanterns setting just the right mood. Skeletons stood across the room at either side of the buffet table, ghoulishly guarding the different sweets and appetizers that had been set out for the hungry guests. The music playing in the background had a New Age, Gothic feel to it. She loved it. The old warehouse looked perfect.
“Nancy! Is that you? Wow!”
Nancy’s head snapped to attention as a beautiful, vivacious redhead strolled up to her side. She smiled. Lori looked great tonight dressed in a slinky little witch’s get-up that emphasized the curviness of her body. “Yep, it’s me,” she said on a grin. “How’s life in your dad’s manufacturing business treating you these days?”
Lori groaned as she rolled her eyes. “Busy. I even have to work later on tonight if you can believe it.”
“On Halloween? You’re kidding!”
“Afraid not.”
“You’re not staying at your own party then?”
Lori embraced her in a hug, her smile full of welcome and admiration. They hadn’t seen each other in two months and it did Nancy’s ego some good to realize her friend liked the changes she saw.
“I’ll be here for another hour or so, but I have to cut out early.” Lori sighed. “I’ve been looking forward to this party since last year’s, but I promised my father I’d take care of a few business matters for him.”
“How exciting,” Nancy said dryly.
“Exactly.” Lori grinned. “But enough of me—look at you! Nancy you look head-to-toe terrific.”
Unaccustomed to compliments of a physical nature, Nancy found herself blushing. “Thank you.”
Lori patted her on the shoulder. “Go mingle while I use the little witch’s room. I’ll be right back.”
“Will do.”
After Lori left her side, Nancy took her first thorough look around at the other invited guests. To her utter amazement and delight, she found more than one pair of male eyes flicking over her new form and checking her out. Flustered by the attention, and as unused to it as she was to verbal compliments, she nervously lifted her hand to push the spectacles up the bridge of her nose—only to realize halfway there that she wasn’t wearing any.
