Escape Magic (2 page)

Before he could get out the door, however,
Stacey caught Lydia’s hand. “I do hope you can make it
tonight.”

“I’ll, um, do my best.” Lydia let herself be
pulled away by Tony’s iron grip, but she glanced back one last time
to satisfy herself that Stacey had turned back to Andre.

****

Tony kept his grip tight on Lydia’s arm
until he’d walked her all the way back to the resort lobby. Only
then did he loosen his hold on her, swinging her around to face him
as he did so. “What the hell are you playing at?”

“I’m not playing at anything, and that
hurt
!” She rubbed her arm and frowned at him.

He dismissed her theatrics with a roll of
his eyes. “Give me a break.”

“Fine.” She dropped her arms to her sides
and glared at him. “But it really was an accident. I thought you
believed me.”

“I did until I saw your face in there.
You’re jealous as hell. Did you come back here to break up Andre’s
wedding?”

“I’m not jealous!” She folded her arms over
her chest in a defensive posture. “There’s nothing to be jealous
of! And it
was
an accident.”

She’s hiding something.
“A fortunate
accident, I guess.”

“Yeah.” Her eyes skittered to the side. “And
I’m glad he’s happy. Really. I just…guess I never figured that ever
happened outside of fairytales.” She gave him an almost shy glance.
“It was kind of sweet. And I don’t say that lightly.”

“I know.” He regarded her for several
seconds. He couldn’t deny she sounded sincere. Could the whole
thing have been what his mother would have called a “calamitous
concatenation of events”? He sighed. “I still don’t trust you.”

She shrugged, giving him a flirtatious look
from under her thick eyelashes. Those gray-green eyes peering at
him from under her strawberry blonde fringe did things to his body
that he didn’t want to admit. Breathlessness, heart palpitations,
the whole bit. Tony didn’t get that way about women. When he wanted
a woman, he found one, but one would do as well as another, and
they were almost always willing. He’d held himself aloof from the
kind of mind-bending, heart-breaking, soul-searing love he’d seen
between Andre and Stacey. That way lay addiction, and no way was he
going down that route again.

Although it might be difficult to resist
Lydia. Damn it. Things were going so well, and she marched back
into his life. The one woman who could mess it all up for him.

He stepped away from her. “Seven o’clock,
then?”

“Sure. Where?” She straightened her
shoulders and looked more like herself. Brash, sexy, confident. He
could handle this Lydia.

“I’ll pick you up about six-thirty.” He
turned to leave.

“You don’t know my room number.” She raised
an eyebrow.

“I’ll find you.” He waved as he turned away.
He didn’t dare stay longer because if he did, he might realize how
much he was looking forward to seeing her later on. He might even
talk her into showing him where her room was, and if he did, would
he want to leave?

Of course, she might throw him out.
Literally. Lydia had a fiery temper. The memory of it made him
smile, but the smile faded. Memories of Lydia were always tainted
by what she’d done to Andre. She’d betrayed him.

So did you
. He silenced the qualms of
conscience sternly. It was weakness and he knew he couldn’t afford
it. He could never afford to be weak again.

The blackness covered her, smothered her,
she couldn’t breathe and as consciousness receded, she knew she
never would again…

Her cell phone jerked her out of the
restless sleep she’d fallen into and she rolled over, punching the
button to answer it. “Yeah?”

“I saw you on the news!” Her manager Bess’s
voice sounded thrilled and entirely too chipper for Lydia’s frayed
senses. “That was
so
cool. But why didn’t you tell me you
were going to do it? I could’ve made sure there was a camera
pointed the right way. As it is, they barely caught the last half,
and that was because somebody turned their iPhone your way at the
right moment.”

Lydia sat up and rubbed her eyes with the
back of her hand. “I didn’t plan it.”

“You didn’t?” Bess sounded surprised, but
then she seemed to recover. “Oh, so you were just there and saw the
cameras? Well, good thinking—”

“Jeez, how come nobody believes it was an
accident
?” Lydia frowned at the phone in her hand. “Really,
those
do
happen, you know. Lucky it was me, that’s all.”

“Don’t get all in a snit.” Bess laughed out
loud. “Fine, it was an accident. But listen, we’re back in Vegas,
Baby! We need to do something to celebrate your new gig. What are
you doing tonight?”

I’ll pick you up about six-thirty.
“Oh shit. What time is it?” She looked around for a clock.

“Five-thirty. Why, what’s up? Got a hot
date?”

“Damn. I barely have time to get ready.”
Lydia jumped up and began rummaging her suitcase.

“Ready for what? You
do
have a hot
date. God, you work fast. I want to hear all about it tomorrow.
Let’s meet for coffee. Before rehearsal. Don’t be late!”

“Sure. Whatever.” Lydia found the little
black cocktail dress she’d been searching for and headed for the
bathroom even as she hung up the phone. A quick shower, some makeup
and she’d be ready to face Tony again.

Except that forty-five minutes later she was
still dissatisfied with her appearance. She’d changed dresses twice
and finally ended up back in her original choice. But then she’d
had to select accessories and she’d changed from large silver hoops
to long dangly openwork gold before deciding on her favorite
earrings with open lotus flowers at the bottom of a string of
multicolored, semi-precious stone beads. Swarovski crystals hanging
from the open lotus blossoms gave the earrings a little extra
sparkle.

Just as she located the last earring, the
phone rang. She picked it up. “Yes?” As if she weren’t expecting
anyone special. She smiled at the thought.

“I’m here.” Tony wasn’t buying it,
obviously. His tone was casual, almost bored.

“Be down in a few. Make yourself
comfortable.” She hung up, and only after surveying herself from
all angles in the mirror did she finally locate her bag and trot
downstairs.

He was seated casually on a couch, his arms
spread over the back, looking unhurried and amazingly good in his
all-black tuxedo. He stood at her approach, his gaze sweeping over
her. She thought she caught a glimmer of approval in his eyes. “You
look…respectable.”

“What did you expect? Leather mini?” She
spread her arms and twirled. “I save those for anniversary parties.
Preferably fiftieth.”

He didn’t bother trying to hide his
amusement. “Remind me to call you up in fifty years.”

“Ha. In your dreams.” She tossed her fiery
head. “So where is this reception, anyway?”

“Top secret location.” He grinned and took
her hand. “Limo’s waiting.”

“Oh, I
am
impressed.” She followed
him out into the arid but still warm desert evening.

She actually was a little impressed, in
spite of herself. It was an actual limousine, not the Town Car
she’d half been expecting. The interior was clean and smelled of
leather instead of cigarette smoke and spilled liquor. She let
herself relax as Tony took the seat across from her instead of next
to her as she’d half expected, half dreaded. She felt a little wary
being this close to him. He’d made no secret that as far as he was
concerned, their past wasn’t buried. Added to her completely
understandable attraction to him, it made for a sense of
nervousness she was not used to feeling around any man.

They rode in silence for several minutes
before he broke the silence. “Your show starts in a couple of
weeks?”

“Yeah.” She shot him a cautious look. “If
you’re going to be in town, email me. I’ll be happy to get you some
tickets.”

He looked thoughtful. “I haven’t actually
made up my mind what I’m doing next.”

“You’re not going to stay with Andre? He’s
still touring, isn’t he?”

“I’d be a fool to think that’s going to
last.” He shrugged. “He’s marrying Stacy, getting more involved in
television, settling down a little. He’s become sort of a machine,
in a way. Not in a bad way, just…I doubt he’d miss me much.”

“I don’t think that’s true.” She searched
his face, hoping not to find any signs of weakness there. But the
strength and determination she’d sensed earlier was still obvious.
She took a deep breath. “Any magician would be lucky to have you.”
Heat rose unbidden in her face at the way her words sounded.

He laughed. “I never thought I’d see you
blush, Lady Lydia.”

Her heart skipped a beat at the slightly
husky sound of his voice speaking her stage name. “Don’t call me
that.”

“Why not?” He leaned forward, closing the
distance between them a little but not touching her. Just hinting
that he might.

God, he’d gotten good at this. She gathered
her scattered senses and folded her arms over her chest as if to
keep something close to her heart. “Because you don’t mean it.
You’re practically insulting me when you say it.”

“Is that what you think?” He looked a little
surprised, although whether it was that she was right or that he
hadn’t expected her to mind, she couldn’t be sure.

“I don’t blame you.” The words came out a
little more apologetic than she’d intended. She cleared her throat.
“I mean, it wasn’t like I started out trying to betray anyone. And
I think you both overreacted.”

“Overreacted?” He snorted incredulously.

“It was a trick, Tony. Not the Hope diamond.
I figured out how it worked, that’s all. And I was young and didn’t
even realize what I was doing. I mean, I’d taught Andre a thing or
two about escapology. I just figured turnabout was fair, you
know?”

He frowned a little, looking away, then he
sat back in his seat, his face half-veiled in shadow. “You’re
right.”

“I am?”

His lips curved a little. “Yeah. You weren’t
right
then,
but you are now. I guess that’s what Andre
saw…why he forgave you.”

“You sure he’s not just feeling sentimental
on his wedding day?” She raised her eyebrows, wishing he would sit
forward again so she could see his eyes.

He didn’t oblige, however, and his chuckle
sounded almost eerie coming from the shadows. “You could be
right.”

She shivered a little. “Yeah. Maybe.”

“What’s the matter?” Abruptly, he switched
seats so he was next to her, too close. Close enough to touch.

“Nothing. A chill.” She wrapped her arms
around herself more firmly. “And I’m still a little
jet-lagged.”

“When did you get back in town?”

She hesitated, wondering if her answer would
make it look like she’d been stalking Andre. She wished she could
clear that up with Tony. It was important to her that he know.
Curiosity had led her to peek in on her old friend and the woman
rumored to be the love of his life. And then she’d been so startled
by the change in Tony she’d stayed…

The truth is, I wanted to say
good-bye.
The thought felt like truth, and she didn’t want to
lie anymore. It took too much energy. “This morning.”

He shifted a little in the seat next to
hers. “That makes sense.”

Before she could answer, he looked out the
window. “Looks like we’re almost here.”

“Should I be nervous?” She straightened her
dress, fussed with her hair, wished for more light to check her
reflection.

“Only if you’re still hung up on my
brother.”

The words startled her into looking at him.
He held a pack of cards in one hand. As if he wasn’t even thinking
about it, he began shuffling the cards, letting them spin
weightlessly through the air between his fingers. He’d always been
good at that, although he didn’t have the same showmanship his
brother did. Still, Tony must have picked up a few tricks through
the years. You couldn’t be that close to the world of magic for
that long without wanting to hold a little bit of it in your own
hands. Her eyes flickered up to Tony’s and she caught her breath.
“What makes you think I’m hung up on him?”

“Isn’t that why you came to the wedding
portrait session?” He raised his eyebrows, paying no attention
whatsoever to the cards floating between his hands.

“No.” She shook her head, hoping he couldn’t
see her breathlessness. “Andre and I were never more than friends.
Ever. I was just curious, is all. I wanted to see who’d finally
gotten Andre to commit himself to more than a show.”

“Were you satisfied?”

Damn him. Those words and the tiny smile
that accompanied them called to mind all the ways she
wanted
to be satisfied. But no
way
was she going to give Andre’s
little brother the satisfaction of knowing she was attracted to
him. Jeez, the last time she’d seen him, he’d been a skinny little
addict.

And now he’s an attractive, powerful man
with a darkness that’s got
me
buzzing for him.
She
brushed off the thought with a toss of her head. “Aren’t we
here?”

“We’re always
here
.” He accompanied
his cryptic reply with a snap of his wrist that brought all the
cards back into his left hand. “What’s your point?”

“I mean, aren’t we—” She realized she didn’t
know where the reception was and shook her head in irritation.
“—
here
. The reception? The limo stopped. Shouldn’t we get
out?”

He glanced at his watch. “I suppose. They’ll
be here soon. Or not. They are newlyweds.” He opened his door and
held out a hand to her.

She didn’t take his hand. “You know I
wouldn’t even be here if Andre’s wife hadn’t insisted.”

“Are you getting out?”