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Authors: Robin Owens

Heart Journey (30 page)

BOOK: Heart Journey
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Aren’t you going to answer?
Shunuk asked.
“Vixens or men, city folk are city folk,” Del grumbled.
I
am city folk,
the kitten said. She peered at the perscry in Del’s hand, nosed it, then batted it.
I am here!
Del snatched the glass stone as it went tumbling. She grimaced when Raz appeared in holo, standing in the glider, at least most of him: she couldn’t see his feet.
Did she catch an expression of relief on his face before he offered one of his charming smiles? Maybe so.
He lifted and dropped a shoulder. “Looks like I’ll be going to Gael City after all.”
There was a hint of trouble in his eyes, but Del didn’t ask. Not her place to ask about his private business, if she wanted to be stubborn about her moods, and she did. Now he wanted her company. Huh. “Have a good trip.”
He grimaced, then offered an appealing face. “Del, wouldn’t you come with me? Reconsider?”
“I’ve planned a different outing,” she said.
He huffed a breath. “I’m sorry. I apologize for this morning.”
Del blinked. She’d heard a man apologize. But Raz was an actor and flexible enough to do something he didn’t like to get what he wanted. Not flexible in his honor—his father had raised him strictly enough about that, she figured. But she couldn’t see T’Cherry apologizing much.
Raz’s smile turned rueful, an expression she particularly liked. He’d know that. “I said something I regret this morning.”
She wondered how long it had taken for him to regret that he’d rejected her invitation, growing closer to her. She had no illusions. He might have regretted his action and tried later to smooth it over, but some new circumstance had him going to Gael City instead of taking time off from work to be with her. Earlier he’d chosen his career instead of their relationship. The safe and known passion.
“Haven’t you said or done something you regretted, Del?”
There would be few things more important to him than his career. “What happened?”
He frowned and she groped for words. “Trouble shows in your eyes . . . and anger.” She wouldn’t mention that she was aware of it in their bond now she was thinking again instead of concentrating on her own emotions. “Another break-in? Does your Family have an estate near Gael City?”
“You’re very quick.” His smile faded as his gaze pierced her.
She hunched a shoulder. “Just logic.” Now she was faced with a choice. She wanted to soothe him, but her pride got in the way. Fear, too. She loved the man and he didn’t love her.
Yet.
But he wouldn’t be learning to love her if she didn’t spend time with him. “You hurt my feelings when you refused my invitation.”
Wincing, he said, “That wasn’t well done of me.”
Meaning that he would have tried to have been more suave about turning her down.
“Del, come with me,” he said softly and it seemed to echo words he’d said in bed and her insides melted.
She frowned. “Your third present was delivered early. I suppose I should give it to you. Might have kept it for myself.”
Curiosity lit his eyes.
Shunuk turned to the kitten.
Del speaks an untruth. Humans do that. We would not have kept you. I am her Fam.
The kitten snapped out and bit Shunuk’s leg. He howled.
The driver flinched. “D’Elecampane?”
Del grabbed the kitten around her plump middle and put her on the other side of herself, glared at Shunuk.
“What was that?” Raz asked. His gaze had been flatteringly on her face.
Del gave up—yielded to her own yearning to be with him, to the prospect of wondrous loving, to giving the new little troublemaker away. Though if she had her choice, they’d all be part of a Family.
A new Family. It was coalescing around her without her realizing until this minute. Her smile at Raz was shaken when she answered him. “Yes, I’ll go with you to Gael City.”
I will go with him to Gael City, too,
Shunuk said.
An adventure to a new place, FUN!
said the kitten.
“We leave in a septhour and a quarter. I’ll pick you up there after I pack. Shortly.” His eyes turned tender. “Thank you, Del.”
Del’s face froze. “No. I can’t.”
Anger flashed across his face. “Are you playing games with me, Del? Getting your own back?”
“Stup,” she said. “I don’t play games, city bo—man. I have another appointment I must keep this evening.” She made a face. “Straif is coming over with Doolee and T’Apple for our first holo sitting.”
Raz huffed a breath. “I keep underestimating your honesty.”
“Yeah, and that’s not a compliment from a lover.”
Now his expression was a mixture of sincere emotions, heat at the “lover” as if he’d recalled times in bed, annoyance at her irritation. He inclined his head. “I apologize again. My father made the arrangements, let me contact him and see what else Cherry Transport has on its schedule for Gael City.” Brief surprise showed in Raz’s eyes. “I don’t know the schedule by heart anymore,” he murmured, then said louder and with a little bow, “I’ll make arrangements for the trip, and we will be staying at Cherry House in Gael City.”
Shunuk stuck his head in the viewing area.
“He’s going, too,” Del said.
“Thank you, Shunuk,” Raz said. “I’ll get back to you. May I come over as soon as I’ve packed?”
Del hesitated. Straif, a FirstFamily lord who knew Raz was her HeartMate, would study him. Doolee, the child she wanted to spend more time with—both the little girl and Raz would distract Del from interacting well with each of them. All under the very observant eyes of an older, master artist who was also a FirstFamily lord. This was getting far too messy for her.
So don’t consider every angle, go with the simple, what her gut wanted. “Yes, you can come on over.”
“I’ll see you soon,” Raz said.
Twenty-four
R
az spoke with his father and got seats on a commoner-class airship
flight to Gael City that would take seven and a half septhours. He was disappointed; he’d wanted to give Del the best. He’d make sure the glider drive back would be special.
He’d had to work harder than he’d anticipated to get Del to accompany him to Gael City. He supposed that was good for him—women had always tended to fall into his bed—but it ruffled his pride. But Del wasn’t a city woman, a sophisticated woman who prized the arts and preferred to take lovers from that milieu.
Lover. She’d used the word, he liked the word, and it stirred him up to hear her say it. Despite their retreat today, they were still lovers. Intensely lovers.
He studied a jacket and put it aside, too trendy for the smaller burg. Packing was taking too long, he was too conscious of his clothes and the image he wanted to project to Del.
She probably threw in a few leather suits and a dress for the theater, gave nothing else any more thought.
But as honest as he wanted their relationship to be, he wanted to show himself in a good light, too. Clothes that fit, that were appropriate for Gael City and the theater . . . that was important. Trillia was excited he was coming. The other actors would be judging him, as would everyone connected with
Heart and Sword
—the producers, the manager. It never paid to be discourteous or sloppy in his business.
When he drove up the gliderway, Shunuk met him. An air of impatience surrounded the fox.
They are all in the playhouse.
“Playhouse,” Raz said, thinking of an amateur theater or an amphitheater.
Shunuk snorted, sent Raz a detailed mental image of a miniature pink house with fussy castle facade, and a little girl. Ah. Playhouse. His sister had had one.
He followed Shunuk down a neglected path. The playhouse was a small cottage and old enough to have seen many generations of young Elecampanes. “Is there a tree house?” Raz asked, thinking of his own past . . . and how his sister had preferred the tree house, too.
Shunuk gave him a disbelieving look.
I don’t know. Lots of people here. All watching each other. Boring.
“Ah, you’re ready to go on the trip.”
The fox glanced aside.
Get out of the city for a while
. He stopped a moment and groomed his whiskers with his paw.
Vixens will appreciate me more when I come back.
“Female problems,” Raz said sympathetically.
Shunuk slid him a sly look.
Mating is important.
Mating. That idea sent a jolt through Raz, but then a high, piercing shriek of glee hit his eardrums. He heard music and grinned as he walked to the open door of the playhouse.
Jazz beat at the walls, and Del and Doolee were dancing. Del was shuffling to the beat, Doolee was hopping up and down. Both laughed. The afternoon sun highlighted their golden curls, shadowed the dimples in their cheeks.
“It’s going to be one of those kinds of ‘sittings,’ ” murmured an older man as his hand moved rapidly over papyrus, sketching with a drawstick. With just a few strokes he captured the vitality of the two. The great T’Apple whose hololight paintings cost the same as an elegant mansion.
Raz swallowed; he’d met the man a couple of times, but not enough to claim an acquaintanceship. “What kind of sittings?”
T’Apple looked up at him with a quick and beautiful smile.“Exactly. I think they might sit still for maybe five minutes. If I’m lucky.”
Clearing his throat, Raz said, “That was my assessment.”
“Straif T’Blackthorn,” T’Apple muttered. “
He
didn’t tell me it would be this sort of commission. Drawing on the run, both them and me. I’m getting too old for this.”
He was Raz’s MotherSire’s age, tall and elegant, with a head of white hair and turquoise eyes. “I doubt it,” Raz said. He chuckled, said something he always hated hearing from others. “Think of it as a challenge.”
“Ha.”
The music ended and both females fell onto the thick and faded carpet the color of dirt. Del hooted with laughter, then her squeals matched the child’s as Doolee climbed over her.
A wide smile on his face, Straif T’Blackthorn drifted over, thumbs tucked into his belt. “Absolutely must have a holo painting of them.”
“Get a viz camera,” muttered T’Apple.
“Think of it as a challenge,” Straif T’Blackthorn said.
Raz and T’Apple shared a glance. Those who didn’t practice the arts didn’t understand the work that made something perfect look simple or effortless.
With an innocent expression, T’Apple answered, “Perhaps you should carve them—likenesses of all your children for your HeartMate.”
Raz’s brows rose. “You sculpt?” he asked Straif.
Straif frowned. “I whittle.”
T’Apple stuck the drawstick behind his ear, clapped Straif on the shoulder. “Your creative talent is strong.” He glanced at Raz. “And you are one of the best in your profession.”
“Thank you.”
The older man went on, “Yes, Straif, I should drop a word in Mitchella’s ear about your whittling miniatures of your child—”
Straif raised his hands. “No. Please.”
“Then you should have considered how easy these two would be to capture in a holo painting.”
Both Del and Doolee were up and consulting about the next music selection. Del was jiggling the little girl in her arms and Doolee was wiggling.
Raz’s throat tightened. The child looked enough like Del to be her own, and he’d never seen her face so soft with tenderness.
Still grumbling, T’Apple flipped pages on his pad, grabbed his drawstick, and began again. “How do you expect—”
“This is only a preliminary meeting,” Straif said. He winked at Raz. “You don’t need to work today, T’Apple.”
“Ha.” He continued making rapid sketches. Del’s face stared out at Raz from the sheet, then a rounded one beside hers, Doolee’s. For some reason he saw differences on the papyrus where he’d only noted likeness before.
Straif peered at the pad. “She’s going to be a beauty.”
“She already is,” Raz said.
Both men stared at him.
Raz met their gazes with an impassive one of his own.
“Da, da, da!” Doolee broke the moment by toddling over to Straif, who picked her up.
With a wicked smile, T’Apple sketched the two of them. Straif frowned. “I’m not paying you for one of me.”
“No, but your wife will. You should have a Family portrait.”
Raz became aware that the music was a low and throbbing ballad. Instinctively he crossed to Del, took her in his arms, led her into the slow dance.
She looked up at him and her eyes had deepened into a darker green and all that mattered was that they moved together.
They danced for a few minutes until Doolee yelled, “Del, Del. Me. Me!”
Raz realized Straif had been “dancing” with Doolee and she wanted to switch partners. Del’s laugh roared and she stepped away from Raz, turning to the little girl. Who held out her arms to Raz.
BOOK: Heart Journey
10.85Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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