Dark Perception: The Corde Noire Series (17 page)

“
I thought her name was
Melinda?” Carl questioned,

“
Get your hands off me,”
Melinda clamored as she pulled away from Jack.

Nathan stepped up to her and seized
her arm. “Don’t do this, not here. Go with him and let me talk to
Denise.”

A wave of realization hit her. They
still had a job to do, and despite the crushing blow of Jack’s
deception, Melinda needed to give Nathan the opportunity to win
Denise’s support. Concentrating on the dark brick below her feet,
she checked her anger and then nodded.

Nathan released her arm just as Denise
came alongside him.

“
Let’s you and me have a
chat about Market Street,” Denise insisted, urging Nathan away from
Melinda.

After they strolled away, Melinda spun
around on her high heels and started for the house.

“
Maddie, wait!” Jack held
her arm, stopping her.

“
You live in that dump on
Burgundy when you could have been living here?” She pointed to the
magnificent home. “Why, Jack?”

He let her go. “Because people have
expected me to act a certain way my entire life. All I’ve ever
heard was how I was going to grow up and take over my family’s
fortune. After I returned home from college, my mother pushed me to
take an active role in running the family’s assets, but I wanted to
live my own life. We had a falling out and I moved into her
building on Burgundy.”

“
Her building?” Melinda
took a moment, and after a few deep breaths, said, “Since I’ve
known you, you’ve been telling me to just be myself, when all the
while you were pretending to be someone else. Who in the hell are
you? Is your name even Jack Deron?”

“
Legally, it’s James
Richard Becnel. My father’s name was Deron, but my stepfather
adopted me when I was a kid and changed my name to Becnel. But I
prefer Jack Deron.”

Her eyebrows went up in astonishment.
“You prefer? You piece of shit!” She stormed away. “I can’t believe
this. You’re a total stranger to me, Jack, or James, or whatever in
the hell your name is,” she vented over her shoulder

He caught up to her and pulled her
into his arms. “I’m not a stranger, Maddie, I’m Jack. Your best
friend Jack. The man you’ve spent almost every day with for the
past three years.” His eyes pleaded with her to understand. “I
didn’t want to tell you the truth because I didn’t want you to
think I was some poor little rich kid, living off my mother’s
allowance and pretending to be someone I wasn’t.”

She wrenched herself free of his
embrace. “I’ve been pouring my heart out to you, telling you all of
my dreams, sharing every disappointment, and all the while you
weren’t even you. Do you know how that makes me feel?”

“
Yes, I know how it makes
you feel. The same way I felt when I saw you walk into this party
wearing that dress and staring into that conman’s eyes like he was
… everything to you.” He stopped and ran his hand through his hair
while smashing his lips together. “You know how I feel about you,
Maddie. You’ve always known. Who I am doesn’t change anything
between us.”

A sickening wave of revulsion coursed
through her. “It changes everything. You can’t live with a lie,
James Becnel. You are who you are. If you can’t believe in that,
then how in the hell am I supposed to?” She was about to turn away
when a thought occurred to her. “You may think Nathan is a conman,
but he has been more honest with me than you’ve ever
been.”

The cruelty of his laughter stunned
her. In all their years together, she had never heard such a
menacing sound escape Jack’s lips. “You really believe that,
Maddie?”

“
Nathan is at least a
grown-up. He doesn’t run away from his responsibilities. You need
to ask yourself why you’re so afraid of facing what you are,
because until you do, you will never be anything but a pathetic,
immature little boy, pretending to be a man. Good-bye, Jack.” She
headed for the darkness beneath the raised house.

As Melinda left the happy music and
bright lights of the party behind her, the pain in her chest became
an intolerable heaviness. Not since Josh had abandoned her had she
known such an unbearable heartache. All the comfort and
companionship she had treasured with Jack came crashing down around
her. Melinda held on to one of the thick piers beneath the mansion
as she shook with utter desolation. Losing her best friend had just
shattered her world into a million unsalvageable pieces.

* * *

“
What happened?” Nathan
approached her spot next to the bar, his stately features marred
with worry.

Melinda swallowed the lump in her
throat and stared into what was left of her double vodka on the
rocks. “Nothing happened. What happened with Denise?”

“
Perhaps you should tell
me? Tell me what she’s feeling, right now.”

Fed up with the constant mention of
her gift, Melinda smacked her glass on the bar. “I
can’t.”

He picked up her drink and sniffed the
contents. “That’s not soda water.”

“
Don’t worry, Nathan, I’m
not drunk. I won’t embarrass you in front of Denise.”

He set the glass on the bar. “I don’t
give a damn if you embarrass me, Melinda. Just tell me what I can
do to help you.”

Unsure of how to react, Melinda
observed the happy faces of the guests mingling on the patio. “Your
concern is your deal, Nathan, not me.”

He took her hand and pulled her to
him. “I’m not Jack, if that’s what you’re thinking. I’m not going
to shit all over you, Melinda, so don’t push me away because of
what he did. I care for you.”

Gazing into his eyes, she struggled to
keep every ounce of emotion hidden from him. “My being here tonight
was to help you get the Market Street deal, so don’t pretend to be
interested in my problems. I’ve had enough of people pretending
with me.”

He let her go and retrieved his cell
phone from his tuxedo jacket. After sending a quick text, he
slipped the phone back into his pocket and clasped her
hand.

“
Come on, Bob’s meeting us
out front.”

“
What about your deal with
Denise?”

He led her across the patio to the
back of the house. “Jack being Denise’s son pretty much threw a
big-ass monkey wrench into the deal. He’s probably bad-mouthed me
to his mother and blown any chance I had of winning her
over.”

“
He wouldn’t do that,”
Melinda argued.

Nathan stopped and faced her. “Yes, he
would. He would do anything to get you back, including screwing me
over.”

She shirked off his hand. “Jack’s not
like that. He wouldn’t—”

“
Melinda, how can you
defend him after what he just did to you? Do you honestly believe
someone like that wouldn’t stab me in the back?”

His words stung her already shredded
heart. She knew Nathan was right; Jack was not worth defending.
Then why did she still feel compelled to stand by him? Perhaps
letting go of him meant letting go of the life she had left behind.
But what exactly had she left behind? Melinda had spent so much of
the past three years struggling that somewhere along the way she
had became a ghost, haunting her life and not living it. The
realization lifted that ever-present weight from her shoulders. It
was time to stop being the innocent girl and start acting like the
woman she yearned to be.

Nathan’s stern expression softened.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“
No, you’re right. For
years, I’ve been defending men who have done nothing but hurt me.
I’ve only dated men I knew I could never care for, thinking I would
be safe. Maybe if I’d gotten over Josh sooner, I would never have
ended up here with Jack.” She clenched her fists, her determination
flourishing. “I won’t make that same mistake again. I won’t hold on
to someone who hurt me when someone who cares for me is within
reach.”

Nathan smiled, appearing pleased with
her admission. “How does Chinese food sound? We’ll pick up some
take-out, head back to your place, and then you can give me that
private concert you promised.”

That familiar tingle returned to her
belly as his arm curled around her back. When they stepped beneath
the shadows of the raised house, Melinda’s unhappy memories faded
away as a barrage of new thoughts hit her. Visions of lying naked
in Nathan’s arms and giggling while the morning sunlight rose in
her bedroom windows danced in her mind. As the tingle in her belly
ignited into a burning flame, Melinda forgot about the bitterness
she had just experienced and concentrated on the road
ahead.

Chapter 12

White take-out cartons were scattered
on Melinda’s breakfast bar while the empty plates from their meal
still sat on her coffee table, along with a half-empty bottle of
Syrah wine. In jeans and a T-shirt, Melinda was nursing a glass of
wine with her feet curled up under her on the beige sofa. Having
shed his tuxedo jacket and rolled up his sleeves, Nathan sat next
to her, holding his wineglass.

“
Yvette wasn’t the easiest
person to love, but after we graduated college, I asked her to
marry me. I guess I went into the whole marriage thing thinking
once you make the commitment, everything works out.” He settled his
eyes on his wineglass. “But that wasn’t the case with us. After a
few years, Yvette came to me and wanted a divorce. There was
someone else.”

Melinda noticed the hint of sadness in
his expression. “I’m sorry, Nathan.”

“
Since the divorce, Yvette
has had a steady line of boyfriends who are very young and very
interested in finding a wealthy woman to take care of them. Every
time one of these guys skips out on her, I hear about it. In the
beginning I used to care, but not anymore.” He drained the last
dregs of red wine from his glass.

“
Seems we both have had a
pretty disappointing past where relationships are
concerned.”

He set his empty wineglass on the
coffee table and reached for the nearby bottle of Syrah. “What
about Jack?” Nathan added more wine to her glass. “I find it hard
to believe you two never got together.”

“
He always wanted to, but I
never did. I just couldn’t.”

Refilling her wineglass, he queried,
“Why do you think that is?” He put the bottle back down on the
coffee table.

“
I was looking for men who
wouldn’t break my heart like Josh did. Guys like Mike. I knew I
wouldn’t care one way or the other if they left me.”

Nathan lifted his wineglass from the
table. “So you think Jack might have become another
Josh.”

Melinda listened to how the inflection
in his voice changed when he spoke of Jack. There was an inkling of
fury emanating from the depths of his being, and the edges of his
mouth turned downward in a threatening scowl.

“
You never liked Jack, did
you?”

He tipped his head to the side in a
half-nod. “I never liked the way he was possessive of you. I also
think he’s a coward. If he wanted you, he should have done
everything in his power to make you his.”

“
But I didn’t want
him.”

“
If he wanted you, Melinda,
really wanted you, he would have made you want him.”

She was entranced with the way his
tapered fingers curled around the wineglass, how his muscular
forearms flexed beneath his rolled up shirt sleeves, and the hint
of his cologne lingering in the air. Intoxicated by him, she angled
closer.

“
How does a man make a
woman want him?”

Nathan put his wineglass down. “He
could buy her presents or ply her with expensive dinners, or jet
her away to some exotic island.” He traced the outline of her
delicately curved jaw with his hypnotic eyes. “Or he could use the
old tried and true method of being her knight in shining armor and
rescuing her from a terrible dragon.”

Melinda giggled, feeling the effects
of the wine. “With my luck, the dragon would win.”

For several seconds, they searched for
something to say. Melinda swore Nathan could hear her rapid
breathing and longing sighs. Then a fuzzy image of what she thought
was her naked body in the arms of a man drifted across her
mind.

“
Are you reading my
thoughts?” he demanded.

Melinda ran her hand along the side of
her head. “They’re fuzzy.” She held up her wineglass. “The alcohol
does that.”

Nathan took the wineglass from her
hand. “No more of this for you.” He put the glass out of reach on
the coffee table. “What about my concert?”

“
I haven’t forgotten.” She
stood from the sofa. “I keep the keyboard in the sitting room next
to my bedroom.”

Nathan rose from the sofa. “Lead
on.”

Once she flipped on the light in her
bedroom, Melinda became painfully aware of the iron canopy bed in
the center of the room. Suddenly, her planned seduction seemed like
a bad idea. Wracked with self-doubt, she trudged to her keyboard in
the sitting area next to the windows that looked down on the
bricked courtyard below.

“
When did you start playing
music?” Nathan took a seat in one of the wingback chairs across
from her keyboard.