Running From Fate (33 page)

When she came down the stairs 15 minutes later
, dressed i
n her favorite exercise outfit—
a pair of skimpy, black running shorts with a deep purple line down the side and a matching, fitted
tank top—
she was feeling almost human again.
A couple of aspirin and a big cup of coffee were just what she needed now.

James
glanced
up when he heard Mira clattering down the stairs.
She looked much be
tter than she had earlier.
In
fact she looked way to
o
good for this early in the morning
despite the fact that
her eyes were still bloodshot and she seemed slightly unsteady
on her feet
.
Without a word, he got up and poured her a cup of coffee.
With a flourish, he sat the cup and two pills on the breakfast bar before resuming his seat.

Mira reluctantly slid onto the stool next to James and downed the pills and half a cup of coffee in one swallow.
The steaming brew
felt like ambrosia going down, but it
singed her tongue
so
she carefully sipped the rest of it.
When the cup
was empty and she felt a little steadier
she got up silently and poured herself another one.
With her back resting ag
ainst the counter she looked pointedly at
James and waited for him to speak.
He seemed perfectly content to sit there and stare at her exposed legs.
With an impatient movement, she put down her cup and stomped over to the door.
“Are you coming?”
s
he demanded.

Tearing his eyes from her legs, James quickly got up and followed her out the door.

By the time they had run a mile, Mira was starting to feel better.
Her muscles were loose and limber and the blood was pumping hotly through her veins.
In another few minutes, she figured, they would reach the paved trail in the nearby park and she could really stretch out.
Strangely enough, she was no longer angry at James.
He was making a much better running partner than she had thought
he would be
,
easily keeping up with her stride without feeling a need to outdistance her.

For almost an hour, the
y
ran silently, w
inding their way around the man
made lake.
James
settled into an easy pace and
listened to the wind whistling through the trees and the sounds of small animals waking for the day
.  He
felt great.
With a deep breath, he
inhaled the fresh air
and wondered why he
didn’t run more often
.

By the time they got back to Mira’s house the sun was already a large yellow ball in the sky and both of them were
dripping sweat
.
The easy companionship of the morning had been unexpected, but very welcome and Mira was starting to feel like she had the old James back.
She felt comfortable enough to invite him inside and offer him breakfast.
First, though, she
got him a towel and showed him to the downstairs bathroom
.  She quickly cleaned up, slipped
into a flowing forest green skirt and a loose brown shirt that she pulled in around her waist with a wide black belt
, and headed to the kitchen
.

While
she
was
busy
preparing breakfast, James took himself on a tour
of the townhouse.  Upstairs, he
found one room that was empty except for a can of paint.  He wandered down the hall and peeked into the next room.  The large bed in the middle
proclaimed
this to be Mira’s bedroom, but it was com
pletely lacking in personality.  Apparently, she hadn’t gotten around to decorating yet.  The smell of bacon frying lured him downstairs, but when Mira shooed him away he shrugged and decided to explore the rest of the house.

He had already seen the kitchen and living room so he
headed
down the small
hallway
to the right of the door.
He passed by the bathroom and opened the door at the end of the hallway.
This
,
he realized
,
was the heart of the house.

A large drafting table sat against the inter
ior wall, tilted to catch the best light from the windows. 
Just in case sunlight wasn’t available the room
was also equipped with state-of-the-art lighting
that looked to be controlled by a panel of switches on the wall.  A
large
, utilitarian
storage cabinet with dozens of individual drawers
was pushed into a corner
.  What really caught his
attention
though, were the drawings
that
hung on every wall.  Some were
surrounded by polished wooden frames, others hung unadorned.  T
hey came in different
shapes and
sizes, but they all dealt with the same thing
—
enchantment, something outside of cold reality
.
There was
a knight
sitting in a shady grove
playing a lute for his
lady
, colorful
fairies peering from tree branches
at a group of children playing below
, and even a ferocious green-
eyed dragon with wings spread an
d
muscles bunched ready to spring
into the sky.  Something about the dragon seemed to pull at him and he slowly walked forward.

Mira stood in the hallway watching James examine her
work
.
She
had piddled around with sketches when she was younger, but
had
really
started drawing after her parents died.  The fantastical scenes had been a place that she could escape to when she felt scared or lonely.
Pragmatism and a need to eat
had eventually turned her talents to architecture, but she hadn’t
been able to give up her
art
.
Lily and Sarah were the only people who had ever
seen
her pictures
.  She found herself anxious to hear James’ reaction.

“These are beautiful,” James
said
when
he felt Mira come up behind him.
“If you have talent like this, why aren’t you using it?”

“I am,”
she
replied, still flushing slightly from his praise.
“What do you call the work I do
for your company?
Besides,
you could say
that a love of architecture is in my blood.”

He made a noncommittal remark and kept his attention on the dragon.
  It would give him a
great
deal of pleasure to see it hanging in his study.
“I’d like to buy this one form you.”
He reached for his wallet before realizing that he was still wearing running shorts.
Oh well, he could pay her later.
“How much do you want for it?”

“I’m sorry, but they’re
not for sale.”
The thought of selling something that was so much a part of her made Mira cringe.

“Pity.
”
He
wasn’t willing to give up, but for now retreat seemed the best option.  He
brushed past Mira and headed towards the kitchen
. 
“Did you say something about breakfast?”

Mira absently picked up the envelope that had been slipped under her door and tossed it on one of her new end tables before throwing herself down on the sofa.  Her purse
tangled itself arou
nd her neck
,
almost choking her.
With a frustrated sound
she pulled the strap of
f
her head and dropped the bag on the floor.

The last
four
weeks
with James
had been wonderful, but they had also been
one of
the most frustrating
time
that she could ever remember.
There were many times that she
had
felt he saw her as no more than a potential conquest, but sometimes
she saw a hint of
the young man that she had fallen in love with so long ago.
Since that first dinner,
there had barely been a day that they hadn’t seen each other.

They had gone to see a
purportedly
scary movie that had made them both lau
gh so hard that they had nearly been
chased from the theater
by angry moviegoers
.  He
also
had gone running with her almost every morning although, to her disappointment, he had never again worn those tiny shorts.  She
had
convinced him to go with her to a special late night Picasso exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of
Art and t
hey had wandered around the museum for hours with no light
but the spotlight on the paintings.

Last Sunday, he had convinced her
go
to a baseball game in Atlanta.
She had never
been a fan of baseball, but in spite of herself she couldn’t help being
thrilled when
she had caught a home-run ball.
She had executed
a little dance that had made James laugh and give her a spontaneous hug.
It was the first time that he had seemed to touch her without a calculated seduction in mind. 
She had treasured that moment and the few others like it
,
but it was the seduction that was causing her so much frustration.

She wasn’t really upset about
the calculation because he
did
seemed
to be just as drawn to her as she was to him.
He may
initiate
most of
the kissing, but he
quickly
lost control and be
came just as caught up in it as
she was.
They ended most dates on the sofa in her living room or in the front seat of his car making out like teenagers.
Despite the temptation, though, she always managed to
bring
things to a halt
.  It
was driving both of them crazy, but she wasn’t sure what to do.
There was no way she could le
t it go any further without telling James
who she was, but the thought of doing so terrified
her
.  She
didn’t want to
risk
los
ing
him again.