Glass Houses (41 page)

Without a word, he got out of the car, threw his seat forward, and climbed into the back, slamming the door shut as he did so. “You
…
This is natural for you, isn’t it? You doing what you’re meant to do. I want you, Olivia.”

“It was never natural before you.”

He reached for her, but she pulled her sw
eatshirt down and said, “You’
re the one who asked to
be touched first.” He didn’
t resist when she leaned over him, held his shoulder with one hand and undid his belt with the other.

“Oh, sweet lady,” he muttered. “I don’t think you should do
that.
”

“Not even to help us think more clearly?”

“Well.” His eyes closed and he gritted his teeth. “Since you put it that way.”

Olivia managed to get his trousers unzipped and to reach inside. “There isn’t enough room for you in here,” she told him and felt wanton but wonderful. “I think I need to let this poor thing out to play. I’ll just give it some room and fresh air. It needs tiring out.”

“Baby.” Aiden let his head settle against the seat back. “Oh, baby, it does need tiring out. I do hope you can figure out a way to get that done here.”

The rain beat on the windows all around them. On the inside, steam clouded glass.

Aiden looked down at himself. Olivia had pulled him out from his shorts, and the sight of his straining erection did nothing to calm him.

He rolled his head toward Olivia, placed a hand over her ribs, just beneath the sweatshirt, and felt her grow rigid. She crossed her hands on the back of the seat and rested her forehead on top.

With the very tips of his fingers, he stroked the undersides of her full breasts, and she shuddered uncontrollably. Before he guessed what she intended to do, she crossed her arms and pulled off the shirt. She brought her breasts to his face. When her soft skin met his lips, she moaned and skimmed a nipple back and forth until he opened his mouth and drew it in. She jerked and pressed closer, alternating breasts as if she couldn’t bear not to get as much sensation as possible. She mounted his lap and pulled his penis to rest between her legs and against her stomach.

Olivia stroked him, cradled him, managed to slide far enough down to take him into her mouth.

Aiden gripped the edge of the seat.

Her teeth and tongue drove him toward madness.

She didn’t release him from her mouth, and he reached down to fill his hands with her breasts. Sensation overtook him, almost overtook reason.

“My God,” he said. Cold sweat broke on his brow. He curled over her, caught her beneath the anus and forced her back onto his lap. Then he turned her sideways and held her tightly. She pushed her face under his chin and he heard her crying softly. Women. He would never understand them.

“Did I upset you?” he asked.

“You wouldn’t let me finish.” She sounded small and brokenhearted.

“Oh, but I wanted to. I still want to. Superhuman willpower isn’t one of my goals. I just didn’t know how we'd manage afterward. This would have been a one-thing-leading-to-another episode, and we're in the wrong place at the wrong time. Do I get a rain check?”

Olivia looked into his face and said, “As long as you redeem it quickly.”

“You’ve got it.”

“Will you stop worrying about how your folks will react to me?”

“I’ll try.”

“You’re all grown up now. You can make your own decisions.”

She offered a wan smile. “I’ve decided I want to make love to you.”

“Ditto,” he said, but he eased her away. “I say we work as hard and fast as we can to get finished with the enemy, then see what we want when we aren’t looking over our shoulders for killers. What do you say?”

“I say move this car. We’re wasting time.”

A
iden couldn’t sit still in his overstuffed, chintz-covered armchair. He nodded at Conrad FitzDurham and popped up to go to leaded, diamond-paned bay windows. “Really something,” he murmured. “Really something. You can see the castle from here. Amazing.”

“We like it,” the man said. “It’ll do.”

Olivia was in the kitchen with her fluttery mother, making tea, although Aiden could have taken something stronger.

“Lot of chimneys on whatever’s on the other side of all the trees,” Aiden said. He couldn’t see a house but it had to be huge given the number of fireplaces it must have. “Big place, huh?”

“I should say so. Riverside Place. Been in the same family for generations. Etranger’s the name. Strangers to me, I can tell you.” FitzDurham’s laugh at his own small joke was a mirthless
ha-ha-ha.
“
Never seen ’em. Like a splash of something, would you?”

Aiden considered asking exactly what FitzDurham meant, but said, “Great,” instead.

“You do the honors, then, there’s a good chap.”

He should have asked. The room was large and comfortably cluttered with antiques. Aiden ran his gaze over chairs and sofas and tables.

“
On the trolley behind the door,” his host told him.
“
Whiskey for me.”

Aiden smiled and headed for a glittering silver tray on a
mahogany cart. Crystal decanters and glasses sparkled. “Ice?” he asked.

FitzDurham chuckled. “Not unless you want to go and see if there’s some in the fridge. Can’t abide the stuff myself.”

The whiskey delivered, Aiden patted the golden retriever who snored on an obviously very old and expensive carpet and returned to his chair. He took a swallow from his own glass and closed his eyes. “Great,” he said.

“Mmm. So, what’s all this about?”

Aiden and Olivia had been in the house for half an hour. Aiden guessed he ought to give FitzDurham points for holding back the interrogation that long. “We’re in a bind, sir,” he said, and swallowed more whiskey.

FitzDurham set his glass aside. “You don’t say,” he said, but smiled broadly enough to puzzle Aiden. “You and my daughter, I suppose you mean. How long have you known each other?”

“Not long.” What seemed a lifetime to Aiden.

“But long enough, what?” A wink from one of FitzDurham’s dark eyes seemed more lik
e a tick given his long, spoon-
bowl-shaped face. “What did you say you do, my boy?”

“I’m a New York detective,” Aiden blurted out. Olivia would just have to make the best of any parental displeasure. She was a big girl, quite a big girl.

FitzDurham frowned and picked up his glass again. “Look more like a successful businessman. I suppose she saw you in your uniform. Women always fall for men in uniforms.”

“I don’t wear a uniform, sir. And I am successful—just not a businessman.”

“Quite. And your people?”

“My people?” He wished he could claim impressive roots, like the Sioux, and say he was actually a chief.

“What does your father do?”

Aiden looked down. “My parents are dead. My dad was a dentist who preferred to
…
”
He barely stopped himself from saying
hunt.
“He liked the outdoors.”

“Dentist, hm? Successful dentist?”

“Very.”

“Right.”

“Cooee,” Millicent FitzDurham caroled, pushing her way backward through the door. “You’re lucky I’d already put a bit in, with you arriving on such short notice. W
e’ve got a lovely little bakery
in Eton. Bath buns, eccles cakes, a nice piece of Madeira, and a Dundee. Olivia made the tea. At least she hasn’t forgotten how to do that properly.”

“Don’t twitter, Millicent,” FitzDurham said. “The young people have something to tell us.”

“You’re not to get worried,” Olivia said, walking past her mother to set down a large teapot shrouded with a woolen cover of some kind. “What Aiden and I really need is a safe place to do some planning. You’re giving us that, and we’re so grateful. Right, Aiden?”

“Right.”

Millicent slid her loaded tray onto a round gateleg table and barely stopped a vase filled with red silk peonies from falling off. Her plump, pretty face was very pink, and she repeatedly smoothed down the folds of a brown tweed skirt.

“We’d be more than happy to help with the plans, wouldn’t we, Millicent?”

Husband’s and wife’s gazes locked, and Millicent said, “Oh. Oh, I
see.
Of course we would.” She threw her arms around Olivia. “You’ve always been such a wonderful daughter, so reliable and kind. And you’re respectful. You deserve the best at a time like this, and you shall have it. We’ll make sure of that.”

“Aiden’s an American, Millicent. From New York. His father was a very successful dentist.”

“New York,” Millicent said. “I say.
And you’re here on business?”

“I guess you could say that.” Aiden didn’t dare look at Olivia. He wanted to laugh but knew better.

“They haven’t known each other long, but we know how it can be, don’t we, dear?” FitzDurham gave another of his unlikely winks, this one at his wife. “Sometimes things get
out of hand and before you know it, you’re in over your head. That can be difficult if the fella’s not to be trusted, but obviously Aiden here is going to make sure he does the right thing. Olivia will come out smelling like a rose. Plan away. We couldn’t be more happy. And there’s no need to feel you have to talk about being—well, you know—in a
bind,
as you said. We’re thrilled, aren’t we, Millicent?”

“Oh, yes. How many people from your side of the family, then, Aiden? I do think it might be wise to”—Millicent gestured expansively—“to get
on
with it.”

“Absolutely,” FitzDurham agreed. “Money’s no object. Within reason, of course.”

“
Oh, oh, oh.” Millicent opened her mouth wide and danced toward her husband on her toes. “Conrad, do you think—do you? How about Olivia’s grandmother’s ring? How
perfect
that would be.”

When they finally stopped talking and noticed that the objects of their joy weren’t saying a word, the FitzDurhams looked puzzled.

“I’m going to let you explain,” Olivia said to Aiden. “You’ll get through faster.”

O
livia knew Aiden hadn’t been pleased to be the appointed storyteller, but twenty minutes after he started, he closed with, “So you see how sensitive this is,” and she could see that he was satisfied with his efforts, and her parents were eating out of his hand.

“Very sensitive,” Daddy said. “But you made the right decision. Coming to me. I was in the Air Force in the War. Know how to think in tight spots, I can tell you.”

The phone rang in the hall. Daddy never answered it and didn’t like it in the room with him. Mummy trotted out and her raised “hello voice,” as Daddy called it, halted other conversation. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, a girl. I’ve got it. I’m very happy for you.”

Aiden leaped up.
“
It’s Chris,
”
he said.
“
He’s tracked down the number here instead of using the cell.”

Olivia followed him into the hall where Mummy gave him the phone.

“Yo, Chris,” he said. “Another girl? Great. How’s Sonnie? Great.” He said, “Sonnie and a new daughter are fine,” to Olivia, who clapped and felt like c
r
ying.

Mummy hovered while Aiden listened again.
“
How do you know?” he said. “Yeah. Next to you, Vanni’s the best partner I ever had. So Fish and Moody decided to go to New York instead of com
ing back to England, and they’
re holed up in Ryan Hill’s place. Wild. I’m glad Vanni had that little brainw
ave and checked the place out. I’
d have hated to walk into the building and see them if I wasn’t expecting to.”

Daddy joined Mummy.

“Yes, okay. What do
you
think?” Aiden asked Chris.

Olivia put out a hand and he held it, squeezed it.

“Okay, I get it. You and Vanni are both right. We’ll get out of here tomorrow. We’re both too wiped out to go to Heathrow now. Damn, I hope you
are
right. I do think they’re scared. Kitty’s probably made sure of that. But I’m not so certain they’ll take one look at us, assume we know the truth, and spill everything trying to defend themselves. Yeah. Yeah, okay, it’s the best shot we’ve got. You know I’m not about to keep on running, or have Olivia keep on running. Of course you’ve got to stay with Sonnie. We’ll get out there to visit your new girl as soon as we can.
If
we can.”

Olivia didn’t care about the caution Aiden issued; he was talking about the two of them as if they might have a future together.

“Tell Vanni I’ll call as soon as we get there.” Aiden hung up and pulled Olivia close. “Fish and Moody are staying in Ryan Hill’s apartment. Vanni remembered how they went directly there after they first got to New York. He figured Fats Lemon might have told them where Ryan’s place was—maybe even told them they should go there if they needed somewhere to hide. Vanni found out they’d gone from Chicago to New
York and there was no record of them leaving the country. He couldn’t find them registered anywhere, so he took a chance and went to Hell’s Kitchen. There they were. He told them he was an electrician or something. He thinks they’re close to cracking up. He wants us to confront them because he expects them to cave and admit the truth—whatever that turns out to be.”