01 Untouchable - Untouchable (26 page)

“
David said he was coming
out to see you sometime tomorrow anyway.”

“
No, Mom, I don’t want him
here. He won’t understand why I can’t finish this job until I do
what she’s paying me to do. If he gets in my way, I’ll kill him.”
There was no emptiness to the threat.

I was completely frozen in place. What
was going on and who was this David that Micah was threatening to
kill?

“
Don’t do anything foolish.
I’ll stay tomorrow and I’ll talk to him first. Micah, she’s
beautiful and I can see why this is so hard, but I’m afraid I’m
going to lose my son—I can’t lose you, Micah. Please,
son…”

He set down his glass and wrapped his
arms around her thin shoulders. I turned silently and returned to
my room.

I laid there the rest of the night
praying that God would show me the purpose of this test. I had
decided there was a solution that would save Evan anymore anguish,
but I knew it wasn’t God’s plan, it was my own and I knew it was
wrong.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

I dozed off about an hour before dawn,
but as soon as the sun began to color the eastern sky, I had to get
up. I brushed my hair and quickly made one braid down the back. I
slipped on my bathing suit and grabbed a robe from the bathroom. I
needed a swim to clear my head. Last night had been one of the
roughest yet, and I couldn’t shake my thoughts just before I had
fallen asleep.

The house was quiet and it appeared
that I had made it up before anyone else. I walked into the
kitchen, found a small glass, and poured myself some cranberry
juice, opened the package of croissants and removed one. I wouldn’t
take time to butter or warm it, I’d just slip out onto the back
porch and have a bite to eat, then jump into the pool. When I got
to the door, I realized there was a problem; I stared at the
blinking red light on the alarm panel. Before I could turn around
to step back into the kitchen, a muscled arm reached around me and
entered the code. I almost dropped my glass.

“
Shhh,” He whispered. “Let’s
not wake my mom.”

That was when I realized he wasn’t
dressed—well, let’s just say much less dressed than I’d ever seen
him. All he was wearing was a pair of board shorts.

“
How’s the—your side?” I was
trying desperately to come up with something.

He twisted slightly to look at the
angry red line. “Your glue work is still holding,” he said with a
smile tugging at his mouth.

I remembered the night I had sealed the
wound for him. The night I looked into the mirror and realized that
he was no boy. The heat began to pulse up my neck and onto my face.
I was like ice cream in July, melting rapidly. Suddenly my robe
felt as if I had just pulled it out of a dryer. He noticed my
momentary befuddlement.

“
You shouldn’t eat before
you swim,” he mused, pulling a piece off the croissant that I was
holding and putting it in his mouth.

“
Yeah, well you aren’t
supposed to scare the crap out of someone who’s getting ready to go
swimming either.”

“
Sorry. Come on. Let’s go
before we have company.” With that he pushed open the door and I
stepped outside.

We sat at the patio table sharing the
bread and cranberry, which wasn’t helping my problem with
temperature.

“
Time for a swim,” he
grinned, rising quickly and charging across the deck, diving in
like a knife. He had done it so well, he barely made a splash. He
motioned me to join him. I was about to remove the robe when I
realized he wasn’t swimming. He was at the edge of the pool
treading water and staring intently at me.

“
Look the other way,” I
finally hissed. “I can’t take off the robe if you’re
watching.”

“
What does it matter? You’re
going to have to take it off to get in. Leese, I’m going to see you
in your bathing suit eventually, take off the robe.”

I’d never been self-conscious about
wearing a bikini. I had never cared who was around when I had one
on, but why was this so different? Why was it so hard to disrobe in
front of him? I knew why and it went right back to the temperature
issue. I couldn’t stand there forever like an idiot, so I untied
the knot and slipped it off, placing it on the back of the
chair.

He was staring even harder, if that is
actually possible. I walked around the deck to enter at the
waterfall and he took off through the water trying to beat me
there. I was quicker on land. I reached out my hand to feel the
water. It was perfect; not too warm, but not freezing cold. I
stepped under the fall. By this time he was waiting at the base for
me to jump in. I went to the left of him and dove. He wasn’t the
only one who could execute a perfect dive. I came up on the other
end of the pool, pleased to notice that it was deep almost all the
way around. I turned to look for him and he came up right beside
me.

“
Good morning,” he said, but
his voice was thick and husky. His eyes were getting that wild look
in them that told me he was having just as much trouble with seeing
me in my suit as I had when I looked at him.

I could feel his hand coming to rest on
my bare waist, the fingers gripping me and getting ready to pull me
toward him.

“
You—you promised,” I
spluttered. “A perfect gentleman.”

The eyes never changed in intensity and
he was getting closer.

“
I’m getting out,” I swam
backward to get away from him, but he continued to
advance.

“
I know what I promised,” he
finally responded. “Just give me a minute to wish I hadn’t agreed.”
He was closing in and I was almost to the pool wall. The panic on
my face must have been apparent. “Don’t get out, Leese. I won’t
touch you. I’ll just watch you swim.” He drew his hands back and
held them both up to show his resolve, “But I want to tell you one
thing.” And then he drew very near, his cheek against my cheek as
he whispered, “Vous êtes au-delà de la beauté.”

I had never heard it spoken that way,
but I translated it roughly to the effect that he felt I was beyond
beautiful. Then I told him in French that he was a beautiful man
and I swam away from him. He didn’t bother me anymore. He did as he
promised and only watched as I made laps in the pool. Fifty laps
later, I was ready to get out and dry off. He was on a lounger by
this point. He had brought out a few more croissants, the butter
and fruit and had them on a table beside him. He was motioning me
to join him. I dried my face and hair, ready to grab the robe when
he asked me not to.

“
It’s a beautiful morning,
plenty of sunshine. Don’t put it on just yet.”

It was starting to bother me because I
knew what he was doing; he was purposely torturing himself. I
didn’t know if it was to see exactly how strong he was, or if it
was punishment he was storing up in memory for when I was
gone.

I sat down gingerly, picking up half a
croissant and spreading a little honey-butter on it. “So your
family must have several houses,” I began.

“
This is my house,” he
revealed. “Our family home is the one in the city. But they
maintain one in Vegas, Chicago, New York and San Francisco,
also.”

I smiled, “My mom doesn’t like that
level of commitment; she’s like the rental goddess.” I rolled my
eyes. “Except for our home in Palm Beach, we only have one other
and it’s on Maui.”

“
I like Hawaii, but we don’t
get too much business that takes us there.”

“
That doesn’t surprise me,”
I laughed. “Great aesthetics give a kind of endorphin rush. Who
wants to kill someone when their so happy?”

I watched a look of revelation cross
his face. “That’s what it is,” he stated as if he had discovered
the solution to a puzzle.

“
Well, it’s true. It has
waterfalls and…”

“
No, not the island,” he
stopped me. “That must be what I get when I’m close to you. I get
an endorphin rush and it makes me feel,” he paused, trying to find
the right word, “odd.”

I believed it was something much
different happening, but perhaps it would be better if I led him to
believe that was all it was. “Yeah and—and when I’m gone, you can
go back to feeling normal.”

A scowl crossed his face. “That’s the
problem. I didn’t feel things before you came along. It’s like you
said that day on the track about living life; it feels like I
haven’t been until now. You know that can’t be right,” he remarked,
his mind was back on the puzzle. “I’ve been around plenty of
beautiful women. It can’t be endorphins.”

I took a big bite of the bread hoping I
could come up with something profound before he figured out he
might actually be falling in love with me. Love, for him anyway,
would completely complicate his situation. As far as I was
concerned, it was only making things clearer.

“
If I wasn’t around you so
much, it would be easier for you—you know, when
that
time comes. Maybe I shouldn’t be
here. If you just rented me a place to stay for the next few weeks,
you could finish solving my problem and then—well, it just might be
easier, that’s all.”

He was still scowling and very much
deep in thought, “I think I know who the woman is.”

I swallowed and wondered if he’d come
to the same conclusion as I had. That was a relationship I wouldn’t
want to see damaged through all of this. If he suspected her, how
would that change the dynamics of his family? Dear God, I prayed,
don’t let him say her name.

“
Mom…” he began.

My heart went to hyper-drive and I was
opening my mouth to rebut, when he continued.

“…
told me last night that
she’s been tracking his credit cards. There are a lot of hotel
stays that…”

I shook my head immediately, “He
travels on business all the time so there would be a lot of hotel
entries.”

“
Leese, I know that, but I
also know men. If we have to spend the night, alone, we don’t rent
the suite, we just get a room. Many times in the last several
months his rentals have been suites. His dining is for
two…”

“
He has partners,” I
reminded him.

“
Once again, if you’d let me
finish, the quality of the restaurants has dramatically improved.
It all points to a mistress.”

“
I just can’t see it,” I
frowned. “I mean this whole business over the money is one thing,
but my mother is beautiful.” I watched the smile spread across his
face. “And, besides that, Robert is just—well, he’s
plain.”

“
First of all, you are
thinking about him in Dad mode again. You would have trouble
understanding the attraction part. And, even if he is plain, money
can make even the plainest of all look like prince
charming.”

“
Well then you must have a
double dose of prince charming,” I gave a little laugh. “You got
them both going on.”

He smiled again. “Mom is starting to
cross check the female partners. She’ll find out if someone has
charges that she can connect with his.”

The sound of the kitchen door opening
startled both of us from our conversation.

“
I guessed I’d find you two
out here. Discussing theories?” She glanced at me and I suddenly
felt the need to put on the robe.

“
Thank you for the
breakfast,” I said, rising and slipping the robe over my swimsuit.
“I’m going to go change,” I said turning to Evan.

“
You don’t have to leave on
my account, Leese,” his mother was starting to say when we all
heard the sound of a car door and a male voice calling out Micah’s
name.

“
Get in the house!” he
ordered me. “Go now, Leese.”

“
Son, it’s okay…”

“
I said now!” he snapped,
completely ignoring his mother.

Suddenly I had the feeling that I
needed to run. I turned and flew through the kitchen door heading
for the safety of my room. Yet, as I entered the protection of the
hallway, I turned and watched through the family room windows to
see who would appear by the pool. Within moments a man, fairly
young but older than Evan, appeared. He was slightly taller, but
had the same muscled build. His hair was lighter, but the face left
no doubt about his identity.

I heard the name David, and I realized
the person that he threatened to kill last night was his own
brother. David kept glancing toward the house, making me
uncomfortable as if he could see through walls. I decided to head
to my room and dress.

I put on a pair of jeans and a tank
top, brushed my damp hair and went ahead and put on my makeup. If I
had to meet his brother, I might as well, hopefully, make a good
impression. But I would wait in the bedroom until Evan came and
told me it was safe. I kept replaying the fear in his voice when he
told me to get in the house. It wasn’t fear for himself; it was all
for me.

I laid back on the bed, my hands folded
across my stomach and my ankles crossed. It was quiet enough that I
could almost doze, especially since I only got about an hour’s
worth of sleep before dawn. But then I heard the angry male voices
rising, and the sound of a door slamming. I sat bolt upright as the
argument became louder and the words became clearer. I could hear
their mother trying to calm what was escalating, but she didn’t
appear to be having any effect.