Seaspun Magic (22 page)

The magnitude of this discovery left her shaken. There was definitely a change in him, but which of the two vastly different reasons had prompted it? That was the question.

She eyed him consideringly. Only time would tell, and as for that file, Arianne supposed she would simply have to wait and see what he meant to do with it, since it seemed impossible to get him to spill anything inadvertently. But one thing was certain: he wasn't going to get one little kiss, let alone make love with her, until that little detail was happily resolved to her complete satisfaction. But that—at first glance, anyway—appeared impossible.

However, Arianne hadn't reckoned on the power of the physical pull between them. She hadn't reckoned on the memories of their one shared night eating away at her resolve. And she hadn't accounted for the hunger that he could elicit with but a glance.

When he came home that night she was immersed in a book. That was the worst time of all, for there was neither a baby nor a dinner to run interference. Arianne read avidly to keep her mind occupied with visions other than that of long legs, neat small hips and a sinewy torso widening into broad shoulders. The plain worn denims, plaid shirt and red suspenders he was wearing that day served to make him the most appealing lumberjack she'd ever seen.

He lay down full length on the couch and proceeded to read the newspaper. His head was toward her, and she was glad she wasn't in his line of sight. But even if all she did was glance his way out of the corner of her eye, she could see all of him, except his face, and it was surprising how he came between her and her book. She was entranced by the way his hair gleamed in the light of their shared lamp. All that lovely honey blonde, as fine as the finest silk; it was meant to be touched and it was certainly within touching distance, too close entirely. It was painful to deny herself the heavenly sensation she knew could be had merely by gliding her fingers through it. Arianne had never imagined it would be so hard to resist something so simple. She had loved Reggie, but she had to admit, never before had she felt so driven just to run her fingers through somebody else's hair! It was crazy; it was insane! She was suffering for want of him—

Sitting curled up in her chair, in this agony of mind and body, Arianne alternately tried to read and to convince herself she really hadn't fallen in love with Leo Donev. She diagnosed her problem as an insignificant case of being starved for affection. That sounded the most plausible.

Still, diagnosing the problem hadn't ended it. What was she going to do to forestall the inevitable? No matter how much she needed him, she refused to love a man who might be plotting her ruin.

"Arianne.. . why are you looking at me like that?" He turned his head to see her.

"Like what?" she said quaveringly. She cleared her throat and spoke a note lower in her normal tone. "Like what?"

He rose, his movements lithe and quick, to stand in front of her. By that time, Arianne had frozen in her chair, her hands clutching the arms of it. She was in a panic, and hoped he wouldn't kiss her; she would forget everything but immediate physical gratification. She could see that happening all too well. As he bent down, the book, untended, slid off her lap, causing a moment of distraction and allowing her her escape.

Arianne was up and out of her chair. She edged around him and expediently left the room. From half-way up the stairs she called good-night, and didn't even feel like a coward.

***

Tuesday, Arianne considered her problem in all its gravity. Something had to be done. The most logical and also the easiest thing to do, since she couldn't move out and since she couldn't kick him out, was to invite somebody else in to act as a sort of buffer between them, to force them to behave.

The problem was, who? With jobs and families, most of her friends couldn't just pop in for a lengthy visit. Then she hit on Dr. Mathias Dickenson. He just might want to visit her, and what was more, he would get two psychics for one now, counting Rae. Dr. Dickenson just might love to visit! If he couldn't arrange the time, perhaps her mother could be persuaded to stay for a week....

The more Arianne thought of Dr. Dickenson, the more that notion appealed. She'd only quit seeing him to make Reggie happy; actually, she had enjoyed the doctor's company and had also enjoyed being a test subject. It had been fun to experiment with her sight and see just what she could and couldn't do.

His studies might even benefit her; they might show her how to better understand and use her ability. And in participating, she would be aiding the discovery of knowledge in the psychic field. Heaven knows, that was needed. Not only that, but with Dr. Mathias Dickenson she could count herself in good hands. He was a forerunner in his field and totally dedicated to the advancement of knowledge. He was no fly-by-night kook.

In fact, if he was still interested in testing her ESP, it would solve another problem for her, the one she still hadn't come to grips with—what to do with herself. If she wanted to get on with her life instead of hibernating, she would have to make that decision. Go straight, and into business with Mikey; start a mail-order psychic business, though she didn't like the sound of that; or else open up shop as she had done before her marriage. But that brought with it the possibility of the same disaster happening again. She couldn't bear another kidnapping case, or something as bad.

Well, here was another option. Become Dr. Dickenson's test subject and advance the psychic sciences! That even sounded smashing. And she'd already had a glimpse of what it entailed, so she wasn't going into it blind. With that choice she could live either in the city or the country, wherever it pleased her, and although the pay for being a test subject wasn't exactly fat, still, she and Rae could manage comfortably. She could always make a little extra on the side telling a fortune here and there…

Arianne decided to sleep on the idea, and perhaps tomorrow, give the doctor a telephone call. This option very soon caught her fancy. All Tuesday she considered it from every angle she could think of.

She knew the testing wasn't steady work; it might run for two weeks solid, every day, and then maybe not at all for the next two weeks. She would keep her house in Port Townsend, therefore, as her main residence. She found herself reluctant to give it up, and she'd come to like the pretty little town that was almost surrounded by the sea. She would probably end up spending half her time in the country and half in the city. While in the city, she could stay with her mother. Her mom had plenty of room and would probably be overjoyed to have her and the baby around. That way her expenses wouldn't be much higher than they were now. And with some fortune-telling and working the odd day for Orly, she should be able to make ends meet.

Orly would be reluctant to let her go, she knew that much, but she could still count on him to stick behind her. And with more traveling back and forth, perhaps she could get him into town to meet her mom, or her mom out to the country to meet him.

With her thoughts occupied by the many facets of her possible life as a test subject, Arianne somehow managed to make it through the whole day without deciding to attack Leo Donev and demand a hundred thousand kisses quickly. However, that night she was a proper coward. She was up in her room with the door shut when he came home. She wasn't taking any chances, or at least no more than she could help.

***

She'd just arrived home from work on Wednesday, when Larry dropped in. Arianne stifled a sigh upon seeing him. She was getting thoroughly bored by the handsome lieutenant; he always wanted to talk about the same things, those blasted rings of his. Arianne almost felt like relenting and giving him the correct password to the second ring just to get him off her back, but she knew that in the long run it would merely adhere him to her even more, so she made up another wrong answer— saxophone.

Larry had more faith in "saxophone" than in "retarded." He was convinced this password would work like "open sesame"! Arianne couldn't help thinking he was acting rather peculiarly but, then, if he had a lot of money riding on this game, whatever it was, that would surely explain his chivying for answers.

What was more peculiar was Leo's unexpected arrival home two hours too early for his dinner—

Larry never harrassed her for answers when there was somebody else present and naturally he had to stop when Leo came sauntering into the kitchen just as if he had the run of the house, which basically he did. Arianne was glad to see him for more reasons than one.

She seated Larry at the kitchen table and began to make Leo's supper. The officer didn't seem to like the other man's presence in the house. His look was deadly.

Larry sat curiously tight-lipped, stared at some distant point in space and gave monosyllabic replies for the most part, registering supreme displeasure but no fighting spirit. He did not do himself proud.

Arianne subtly took Larry's side. She couldn't have irritated Leo more had she set out to do so, and after a while she wondered if that was what she had wanted all along: to get a little of her own back for that incriminating file upstairs... while there was a third party present to stem the carnage.

"As a lieutenant do you have to keep your behavior—what is that saying—above reproach?"

"Yep." tarry didn't enlarge.

"Be a good example to your men?" Leo added casually, as if he really weren't all that interested.

"Um-hm," Larry volunteered.

"I imagine you're watched closely to see that you conform to the accepted code of ethics."

"Oh, I hardly think he's watched!" Arianne protested, astounded by Leo's choice of topic for light conversation.

"I don't mean there's somebody following him around all day long. I just meant that if anything unusual surfaced—anything, no matter how small or insignificant—it would quickly come to his superior's attention."

"But, why?" Arianne charged. "What do they care as long as he does his j ob?''

Leo shook his head doubtfully. "As an officer in the navy he holds a position of trust. He has to be careful to keep his nose clean. Wouldn't want so much as a blemish on his record... would you, Larry?"

"Who would?" Larry muttered, and tapped the tabletop with his fingers as if he were bored silly.

But the rhythmic tapping in the quiet of the room began to resemble Napoleon's last desperate battle charge. Arianne's gaze was drawn to his drumming fingers, while Leo, she saw a second later, had begun to stare Larry down. And there was a glitter of cold victory in the pale-jade eyes.

Watching the unexpected and very odd confrontation while absentmindedly stirring onions sautéing in butter, Arianne was struck by the fact that maybe both Leo and Larry figured in the mystery she had on her hands. She hadn't connected the two of them before, but there was something going on here right before her eyes that she didn't understand. She understood jealousy, so it wasn't just that.

Hadn't they both turned up in her life at about the same time? And wasn't there something just a little off-beat about them both? Leo's business here in town, for one thing, and Larry's avowals of love, his "all show and no blow." He was the first date she had ever had who didn't care whether they made love or not.

Leo was on to a new subject. "The idea of the Achilles heel is an interesting premise, isn't it? The one fatal flaw that destroys an otherwise perfect effort."

"One fatal flaw per Achilles?" Arianne smiled. "You have more than your share, then, Leo."

As he looked back at her, a suggestion of a smile flickered over the sensuous male curve of his mouth, but he went on evenly, cool, speaking as before to the lieutenant. "It's amazing how often every mistake made can be traced back to that one fatal flaw." Leo's quiet voice tapered away dramatically, and Arianne could see that Larry, in spite of himself, was mesmerized. "That one flaw, innate and inescapable. And everybody knows about it except Achilles...."

Larry's fingers quit their drumming on the table; instead he began to rub his nape—rather nervously, it seemed to Arianne. After that, the officer announced he had to leave quickly on some urgent errand, and Arianne knew Leo had moved him on as surely as if he had picked him up by the scruff of the neck and tossed him out.

"Don't let Leo hurry you away, Larry," she said sweetly, sending Leo black daggers. "After all, he is only a paying guest in my house!"

Larry liked that. He cheered slightly on his way out the door. Leo certainly didn't like it. His calm quiet mood felt dangerous. Just then she wished there were someone else in the house, besides Rae, to act as a buffer. It was too bad she couldn't convince Larry to stay.

Luckily Rae came to her aid and distracted Leo, giving her time to make a phone call to Dr. Mathias Dickenson in Seattle. The doctor's housekeeper answered the call, and soon she was talking to the elderly professor.

He was delighted to hear from her, and when she told him her son was psychic, at least as far as she could determine, he was positively joyful. He would be only too happy to come and visit her to begin testing forthwith, however, with Christmas so close at hand, the timing was unfortunate. He wouldn't be able to make the trip until the new year. But could she come into town? Of course Arianne couldn't leave on the spur of the moment, and reluctantly she had to agree to wait for further arrangements until after Christmas. They set up a tentative date for him to visit her—the second week in January.

Her mother couldn't visit, either, for her sister, Mikey's mother, wasn't feeling very well and she was going to look after her in Palm Springs.

"You know it's all in her head!" Arianne pointed out. "Aunt May is the world's worst hypochondriac!"

"Of course, darling. It just means she needs someone to talk to. As a matter of fact, why don't you join us as soon as you're finished work? Wouldn't you like Christmas with sunshine and palm trees, rather than pouring rain and cedars?"

Arianne agreed it sounded very nice but didn't commit herself to Christmas in Palm Springs. She probably would go; after all, Mikey would be there, and Christmas was a time to be with family—