Ravensong (9 page)

CHAPTER 4

Elena tossed the salad, trying to keep
all the ingredients in the bowl rather than on the counter top.
Kate stood with her back to the sink, shaking the dressing and
staring at Elena with a smirk.

“
So the tabloids have it
that Joshua Ravensong is no longer with Megan Wheeler.”

Elena glanced at her from the corner
of her eyes, but said nothing. Lifting the bowl, she headed for the
kitchen table, pushing Savanna off onto the floor.

“
Well?”

She looked up at her friend
with raised eyebrows. “Well? Bring the dressing and let’s
eat.”

Kate shook her head in
annoyance, but moved toward the table, offering the bottle of
dressing. “What’s the inside scoop? Did he break it off with his
long-legged, well-endowed model?”

Elena reached for a salad bowl and
filled it. Some of the lettuce fell out onto the table and Kate
retrieved it, placing it in her mouth.

“
He mentioned something
about it.”

“
When?”

“
The other night,” said
Elena, handing Kate the bowl.

“
The other night? When we
developed the pictures?”

“
Yes,” said Elena with an
absent nod. She filled her own bowl and took a seat at the
table.

“
What happened that night?”
Kate leaned an elbow on the table, her eyes narrowing with
interest.

Elena reached for the salad
dressing, unscrewing the top. “Nothing.”

“
Nothing? Hell, this is
like pulling teeth. You didn’t have your car, Ellie. How did you
get to work the next day?”

Elena recapped the bottle,
licking a drop of dressing off her index finger. “Joshua drove
me.”

Kate pursed her lips. “He
came and picked you up the next morning?”

“
Not exactly,” said Elena,
plunging her fork into the salad.

Kate glared at her friend,
reaching out and stopping her hand from lifting the fork. “Spill
it.”

Elena drew a deep breath
and put her fork down, reaching for her glass of wine. She took a
sip, then replaced the glass. “It was very late, so Joshua spent
the night...”

Kate gasped.

“
On the couch,” Elena added
quickly.

Kate looked disappointed.
“Nothing happened then?”

“
No,” said Elena, picking
up her fork again. “Well…”

Immediately Kate moved
forward. “Well?”

“
He did kiss
me.”

Kate’s eyes widened. “He
kissed you and you weren’t going to tell me.”

“
No, I wasn’t. It was a
horrible mistake. I should never have let him do it. When I asked
him to stop...well, we said some very cruel things to each
other.”

Kate shook her head sadly.
“I told you he wanted you. Why’d you go and ruin it by fighting
with him?”

“
Because it was a mistake,
Katie. I’m engaged...”

“
To an old fart you don’t
love.”

Elena sighed. “That
is
a problem,” she
admitted. “I didn’t realize how little I felt for John until
Joshua...well, let’s say I almost didn’t stop him.”

“
Then you enjoyed
it?”

Elena looked down at the
table. “I guess I did.”

“
What was it like? I mean
you think these stars are really, you know, fantastic, but then you
meet them and they aren’t that great.”

“
He’s great. I’ve never
been kissed like that, Katie. For a minute I forgot everything. He
really knows what he’s doing...too well. Afterwards I realized he’s
had a lot of experience with women. I don’t think I want to get
tangled up with that, you know?”

“
Yeah,” said Kate,
surprising Elena.

“
You agree with
me?”

“
Hell, Ellie, I wasn’t
suggesting you marry the guy, I just suggested you have a fling.
Even more so I was hoping you’d forget about John. Look, Joshua
Ravensong isn’t the man for you. He’s got too many hang-ups. You
think I’d wish that on my best friend. But he’s so damn cute. A
little fling would be harmless fun, if you’re careful.”

Elena stuck her fork into
her salad again. “I don’t know. Anyway, what am I going to do about
John? How can I marry a man I don’t want to sleep with?”

Kate shook her head. “I
don’t know. A lifetime is awfully long and he really isn’t that
old. Just think about it, Ellie, he could live to be one
hundred.”

Elena laughed. “Yeah, but
I’ll be seventy-nine. I don’t think it’ll matter much
then.”

“
Then think about the fact
that his oldest daughter is four years younger than you are. He
isn’t going to want to have kids. Don’t you want a family
someday?”

Elena considered the
question a moment. She did want a family. “Yeah, I’ve always
thought I’d have kids someday, I just didn’t think they’d be old
enough to drink by the time I got them.”

They both laughed. Elena
returned to her salad, but she couldn’t stop thinking about her
future life with John. She’d never given it much thought until the
other morning with Joshua. And why did Joshua keep popping into her
mind? She’d told herself over and over that she didn’t want
anything to do with him. He was trouble, and yet, she kept reliving
their kiss.

* * *

Elena walked down the
hallway of
Avalanche
toward the elevators and home. It was late again, another
boring day spent purging files for Julian, and she wished she
didn’t have to cross the bridge. Even as late as it was, there
would still be traffic.

She punched the button on
the elevator and waited impatiently, rocking back and forth on her
heels. The tinkling of a piano in the distance distracted her from
her sore neck muscles. A few random notes, then silence, followed
by a few more. She didn’t think there was anyone left here this
late, except the janitors, and the only one she knew who played the
piano was Robert, the keyboardist.

Lord, the elevator was
taking a long time. Again the piano distracted her; however, this
time it wasn’t a few notes which reached her but a hauntingly
beautiful melody. She frowned in confusion. Who would still be
here? She’d seen Robert leave earlier, saying he was going home to
his model wife, but could he have come back again?

The melody was stirring, so
poignant she could hardly resist the pull of it. Whoever was
playing was damn good at the piano. She tried to place the melody,
but she’d never heard it before. Turning on her heel, she started
toward the sound, but the elevator bell rang and the doors opened.
She stopped and looked into the empty chamber,
undecided.

The piano fell silent.
Shrugging her shoulders, she turned to the elevator, but once again
the melody picked up, seemingly where it left off. Elena glanced
down the hall, then cursed as the elevator doors closed. Well, she
wasn’t going to wait for it to climb to the top floor and descend
again.

Moving down the hall on tired legs,
she halted before the auditorium, her hand on the handle. The piano
was still singing in beautiful rhythm to the fingers which played
it. Resolved, she gently pressed the handle down and inched the
door open, not wanting to distract the virtuoso.

She caught sight of
Joshua’s back and shoulders, his black mane of hair. He was sitting
at the piano, lost in the rhythm of the music, his fingers gliding
over the keys. Elena couldn’t help herself as she stepped through
the door, closing it carefully. The sound of the melody washed over
her, filling her with loneliness.

She couldn’t take her eyes
off his long-fingered hands, moving with such skill and accuracy
over the keys as if caressing them, and she remembered the touch of
those hands on her own body. It seemed as if he was touching the
keys with the same expertise.

Then suddenly he stopped
and picked up a pencil lying on top of the piano. Leaning forward
he wrote on the sheet music spread before him.

Feeling suddenly like an unwanted
intruder, she waited until he picked up the strain again and
turned, moving as silently as she could toward the door. The piano
fell silent and Elena halted, grimacing.

“
What do you think?” came
his deep, smooth voice.

She looked over her
shoulder and saw that he hadn’t turned. He couldn’t possibly know
who she was. Maybe if she just hurried, he would never know. For
some reason that seemed too sneaky even for her.

“
About what?” she
asked.

He turned on the bench in surprise and
eyed her. His gaze raked up and down her body and she shivered,
suppressing a desire to make sure she was properly
clothed.

“
I thought...” His brow
furrowed a moment, then he smiled. For a moment she almost believed
he was happy to see her, not angry for her invasion. “I thought you
were one of the janitors. They come in here when I’m working late
to hear me play.”

Elena turned around
completely now, feeling foolish still. “I didn’t mean to intrude,”
she said.

“
I don’t mind.” Then he
cocked his head, a mischievous light in his eyes. “But I always
make my audience give me a review.”

She moved toward the piano.
“I didn’t know you played,” she said, motioning at it.

“
Do you?” he asked, running
his fingers over the keys.

Elena shook her head. “I’m
very musically untalented,” she admitted and returned the smile he
flashed at her.

“
This was the first thing I
learned. My mother thought it so important that I take lessons. I
guess she figured it was a cultured thing to do.”

Elena leaned against the
piano and furrowed her brow at him. “Cultured? What did that
matter?”

“
I was raised on the
reservation until I was five.”

“
I didn’t know that,” she
said, intrigued.

He nodded and then laughed.
“That’s where my mother met Adam, my step father. He was...is a
doctor. Then he was young and idealistic, believing he could change
things on the rez if he gave us some health care, vaccinated the
children.”

“
Go on, this is
fascinating.”

He shrugged. “Didn’t seem
so at the time. Anyway, my mother took me to be vaccinated. I can
tell you he scared the hell out of me.”

She laughed at his pained
expression. “Why?”

“
He was huge, six foot
four, and I was small. Not to mention his blond hair and pale skin,
and when he opened his medical bag and removed the needle...”
Joshua shuddered in memory.

“
What did you do?” She
leaned her elbows on the piano, bracing her head with chin on
hand.

“
I ran like hell. He was
mortified and took after me with my mother on his heels.” Joshua
paused and laughed again. “I guess they fell in love trying to
track me down. It didn’t take long before he asked her to marry
him. He’d been married before, but the wife died. Left a small boy
and girl behind. Well, my mother had no objection to taking on
other kids, especially not to getting off the rez. So we
left.”

“
Do you like your step
father?”

Joshua considered her
question a moment in silence. “Truth?”

She nodded.

“
He’s the man I consider to
be my father. He was always good to me. Took in a half-wild kid and
tried to raise him the right way.” His eyes clouded over and he
lowered his head. “And when I disappointed him and nearly killed my
mother with worry, he never turned his back on me.”

She swallowed at the obvious pain in
his voice.

“
When I woke from a drug
induced coma at the hospital...” He stopped for a moment, shaking
his head. “Hell, I was so scared. They had me strapped to the bed
so I wouldn’t hurt myself or anyone else. Adam was there and I
remember him talking softly to me for hours. I’ll never be able to
repay him for that. It meant more to me than anything else, but I
just disappointed him again as repayment.”

When he shut his eyes,
Elena couldn’t help herself. She dropped on the bench beside
him.

“
He must think of you as
his son, Joshua, or else he wouldn’t have been there.”

Joshua nodded, but didn’t
say anything. After a long moment, he lifted his head and looked at
her.

“
I’m sorry, don’t know why
I spilled all of that.”

“
Maybe because you needed
to.”

He reached out and touched
her cheek with the back of his hand. “There’s something about you,
Elena Harris, that plays hell with the wall I’ve built around
myself.”

“
Seems like you’ve been
rearranging some things in my head I thought I had figured out
too.”

He slid his fingers down to
her chin and lifted her face. “Like what?”

She twirled her engagement
ring around her finger. “I’m wondering why I’m engaged to a man I
really don’t like very much.”

He sat back and stared at
her. “Truth?”