Venus in Love (19 page)

Lee toweled off and got dressed. She came out to find Morgan already lying in bed. “Don’t go to sleep yet. We need to change that bandage.” Lee changed the bandage and cleaned around the stitches. Just looking at it made Lee’s own head ache. After she finished, she got up from the bed and crumpled the wrappings in her hands. “Okay. I’ll be on the couch if you need me.” Lee started out of the bedroom.

“Lee! No. I mean…will you lay with me?” Morgan asked.

Lee looked at Morgan to be sure of what she was asking. When Morgan smiled, Lee said, “Gladly.” Lee got in under the covers and Morgan moved closer. She curved her body into Lee’s side and laid her head on Lee’s shoulder. Lee hadn’t noticed how exhausted she was until she was lying down. She could only imagine how Morgan felt.

“I’m so tired.” Morgan yawned.

Lee pulled Morgan close and rubbed her arm slowly. “Go to sleep, sweetheart,” Lee whispered.

It took no less than three days for Morgan to finally get her head to stop pounding long enough to perform the most menial duties, like brushing her teeth. Her eye was finally open, but her face still looked like she’d been in a bar fight. Morgan contemplated using that as her more colorful and much less embarrassing story, but anybody who knew her would know better.

Lee stayed with her the first night, and though it pained her, she made Lee go home for the weekend. Having Lee next to her was both eternally comforting and painstakingly frustrating. Morgan wanted to touch her, taste her, and kiss her. But every time, her blood started pumping, her heart started racing, and her head began pounding. On more than one occasion, the pain that ripped through her skull nearly induced vomiting. Without Lee there, Morgan spent most of the days and nights in bed with painkillers and an ice pack. She looked forward to Monday for several reasons.

The first was getting out of the house and back to work. Secondly, of course, was to see Lee. Morgan spoke to her every day since she’d left, sometimes for hours on end. Lee even had food delivered so Morgan didn’t have to cook. Lee asked to come over and make homemade dinners, but Morgan told her why it was a bad idea. When Lee promised to behave, Morgan knew it wasn’t Lee’s strength she was uncertain of, it was her own. She just barely managed to convince her own brain that the price she would pay would be worth it. She still wasn’t sure on Monday morning as she got up for work.

By six thirty a.m., Morgan was awake, showered, dressed, and ready to leave, so she did. Even if Lee wasn’t in the office yet, she couldn’t stall herself any longer if she tried. She would go in and wait impatiently with the intention of working. A mission that she already anticipated would be futile.

*

Lee couldn’t remember a day when she was excited to go to work. Since the morning Morgan made her leave, Lee had done nothing but think of her every moment she wasn’t speaking to her. She didn’t like that Morgan refused to see her. Although she tried to understand the reasoning, Lee still felt like a part of her was missing. To her surprise, the thought of not being near her made her feel more anxiously adrift than ever. Now that she knew what it felt like to have Morgan in her arms, as well as her heart, Lee knew the worth and would pay any price.

When the elevator arrived at the third floor, she stepped out. Lee automatically glanced in the direction of Morgan’s office. She was overjoyed to see the light coming from Morgan’s open office door. She made her way quickly down the hall. She stopped only briefly in the doorway when she saw Morgan then practically leapt across the room toward her. Morgan was startled at first, but her shocked face changed into a glowing smile. Lee crossed the room swiftly and wrapped her arms around Morgan, nearly lifting her off the ground.

Lee looked at Morgan’s face. “How’s it feeling?”

“I completely forgot about it until just this moment,” Morgan said.

“Good!” Lee said and then kissed Morgan. “Mmm. I’ve been dying to do that for days now.”

“Had I known that—”

“What? You said that’s why you didn’t want to see me!”

Morgan laughed. “No, I said couldn’t see you, not that I didn’t want to see you. Plus, when I wasn’t talking to you, I was sleeping, and that most definitely would not have been the case with you there.”

“Oh yeah? Do you think I would take advantage of a beautiful woman in a weakened state?” Lee raised her eyebrow.

“You aren’t the one I was worried about misbehaving.” Morgan ran her hand down Lee’s chest purposely brushing her palms over Lee’s instantly hardened nipples.

“Oh. I see,” Lee murmured as she shivered, thinking about making love to Morgan. As she leaned in to kiss Morgan again, she heard the sound of someone clearing their throat and spun around toward the door with Morgan still in her arms.

“Whoa!” Morgan gasped when she saw Alex in the doorway.

Caught again like teenagers, Lee and Morgan jumped away from each other. “Hey, Alex…Good morning. Morgan was just…we were…” Lee struggled for a believable explanation for embracing Morgan so intimately. She failed. “You wouldn’t believe that I was performing the Heimlich, would you?” Lee raised her eyebrows and grinned.

“Seriously? But Morgan, you said…” Alex screeched.

“What? It’s nothing. It’s…we…Heimlich!” Lee had nothing.

Morgan crossed her arms and stepped back toward her desk. “It’s nothing. I mean, it was nothing. Well, it still is…nothing.”

Alex smiled. “Well, now it’s not a rumor.”

“A rumor? What are you talking about?” Lee looked at Morgan.

“Apparently, there was a rumor last week about…well, about this actually. You and I, together.”

Lee glanced between Morgan and Alex and smiled. “Since when? How did I not hear about it?”

“I heard it the morning after you fired Ms. Kent. I overheard some of the staff discussing it on the way in. I told Morgan that night. She…” Alex looked over to Morgan.

Morgan interjected. “I’m going to take care of it. I planned on doing it last week, but then I…this.” Morgan gestured to her bruised forehead. “And then us. But regardless of whether it’s true, now it’s still gossip, and it needs to stop. All of it.” Morgan was growing less comfortable with the truth the more they discussed it. She should have let the rumor remain just that instead of what it was becoming—a huge mistake.

Alex’s and Lee’s expressions turned quickly from delight to discomfort. “You’re right,” Lee said.

Alex agreed. “Yes, ma’am.” Alex turned to leave the room, but Morgan stopped her.

“Alex. This doesn’t leave this room. Do you understand?”

“Of course.” Alex nodded and quickly disappeared from the room.

“Fuck! That’s exactly what I didn’t want to happen.” Morgan retreated behind her desk away from Lee.

“It’s okay.” Lee stepped up to Morgan’s desk. “It’s not a big deal.”

“To you, maybe. You don’t have to earn your place here.”

“Are you serious? I have to prove myself every single day that I come into this office.” Lee pulled a chair around to Morgan side and sat down.

“Yes, I’m serious, and give me a break. What do you possibly have to prove to anyone? This damn place is named after you!” Morgan was irritated that Lee would even compare her privileged upbringing with Morgan’s. Morgan stood and looked out the window.

“That may be so, but my name doesn’t keep this place running. And it’s certainly not going to be enough to save it if I make a mistake.”

Like hiring an inexperienced curator, trusting her with the future of your gallery, and then sleeping with her?
“Well, we all make them.” Morgan thought about how at that very moment, employees downstairs huddled and whispered about her. The consequences of that night and the feelings she allowed to develop since then had caught up to her. “We should probably nip this whole thing now before it gets out of hand.”

Lee stood. “The
whole
thing?”

“Yes. Everything. The gossip, the tension, and the…us.” The words caught in her throat, but she said it. Morgan didn’t want to stop, but she also didn’t want to be whatever they were calling her behind her back. She had made too much progress to lose it all now.

“I see.” Morgan could see the hurt on Lee’s face. Lee made her way to the door.

“Lee. I’m sorry. It’s for…” Morgan tried to say that it was the best for the both of them, but Lee walked away before she could finish her sentence.

*

Morgan shut herself in her office all morning after Lee had left, and she hadn’t answered any calls. She felt like she was busy at work, yet she couldn’t recall a single thing that she’d done that whole time. A knock on the door brought her out of her haze. Part of her simultaneously hoped and feared that it was Lee. “Come in.” It was Alex who peeked into her office.

“Hey, Alex. What’s going on?”

“Um. I have a message from Madam Dautry from the Louvre. She said she’s been trying to reach you all morning.”

“Yeah. I was working on a few things, and I didn’t want to be bothered. Did she leave a message?”

“She…did.” Alex hesitated.

“Okay. What was it, Alex? I don’t really feel like playing—”

“She says that we aren’t on the schedule for the Veronese auction on Wednesday.” Alex stepped back as she relayed the message.

Morgan’s heart stopped and she jumped out of her chair. “What? How? What the hell do you mean? Wednesday?” The auction couldn’t be scheduled for Wednesday. She hadn’t even been to inspect the piece, and she certainly hadn’t approved any travel for her staff. “Does Rita know this? How could she not?” Morgan was doing nothing to control her volume. She didn’t actually expect Alex to answer the rhetorical questions.

“I don’t know.”

“I need to find Rita.” Morgan sped out and left Alex standing in her office.

Morgan was furious. Rita had told her the week before that everything was on schedule. She had asked her specifically about the auction preview and was told that she was only waiting for the confirmation. She had purposely tasked Rita with the project as a means to delegate responsibility and ensure trust in her assistant. How could she have let this slip through her hands?

When Morgan reached Rita’s office she heard several voices. She stopped just inside the doorway and heard someone say her name. Morgan cleared her throat, and three women, including Rita, spun around in surprise. “What did I miss?”

Rita answered for the three of them. “Nothing, really. We were just talking about the new Venus exhibit and what still needs to be done.”

“Right, and we are going to take care of that,” one of the other women said before they both scurried out of the room.

“That’s interesting, because it’s the very reason that I came down here.”

“Oh yeah? Why’s that?” Rita asked as she sat in the chair behind her desk.

“Well, Rita. It seems that you have been so busy with…whatever that was, that you failed to secure the preview inspection of the Veronese on Wednesday.” Morgan emphasized the last word. She could feel the heat rise in her neck and face.

“I did? Now that doesn’t seem like something I would do. Are you sure it’s not something that you forgot while you were…
busy
with the director?”

“Excuse me?” Morgan’s head nearly exploded. She could hear her heart pound in her ears. “You…that is inappropriate, Ms. Niccolo. Is that what you were discussing when I came in here? Because I can think of eleven million other reasons why your mind should be on the Christie’s auction and not on whom you think I am sleeping with.”

“I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about, Ms. Blake. I was simply saying that you have been very busy and it could have easily slipped your mind.”

“You know exactly what I am talking about, and you know damn well that it was your responsibility to manage the schedule for the Veronese.” Morgan had never wanted to go over a desk at someone more in her entire life.

“Well, I’m sure the exhibit will be fine without it. No worries. You can figure something out with all of your experience, I’m sure. Maybe Ms. Dencourt can call in a favor for you.” Rita smirked and Morgan’s blood boiled.

“This is insubordination, Rita. I want you to go home for the rest of the day. I will be discussing this with the director after I attempt to salvage this exhibit.” Morgan was enraged. She wanted to scream at Rita, but worse, she wanted to cry. She refused to allow Rita the satisfaction.

She turned to leave, and she heard the last words Rita mumbled, “Pillow talk, how sweet.”

*

Lee was standing at Alex’s desk when Morgan flew into the room from the stairwell. Her face was flushed red, and Lee thought she noticed the streaks of tears staining her cheeks. “Morgan?”

“Not now! Alex, get Madam Dautry on the phone, now,” she said as she bolted by them into her office.

Alex did as she was told as Lee stared down the hallway and watched Morgan slam her door. “What the hell is going on?” Lee turned to Alex as she transferred the call to Morgan.

“The Veronese. Apparently, Rita dropped the ball and never scheduled the Dencourt for the preview or auction. And it’s on Wednesday.”

“What? Wednesday? As in two days from now?” Lee could only imagine what was going through Morgan’s head at that moment. Morgan had locked herself in her office since she told Lee that what they had was a mistake. Lee hadn’t stopped thinking about it all morning, and wanted so many times to go to Morgan and discuss it. Now Morgan was in a real crisis and Lee didn’t know what she could do to help. But she had to do something so she headed to Morgan’s office.

She knocked but didn’t wait for Morgan to respond before she went in. Morgan spoke in a quick English and French hybrid as she begged Madam Dautry for a favor. She asked her to use her powers of influence to arrange a special last-minute preview of the piece the following morning. Lee spoke up, “I can try to—” But Morgan held up her hand.

“Thank you, Adele. I know, merci.” Morgan hung up and planted her face in her hands. Before Lee could speak, she pressed the intercom for Alex. “Alex, I need a ticket for Paris tonight.”

Alex acknowledged her and Lee asked, “Tonight?”

Morgan frantically threw folders and documents into her briefcase. “Yes, tonight. I don’t have a choice if I want to get this piece. Adele has already seen it and ensures that it is in pristine condition. But Dencourt policy requires that I inspect the piece myself for provenance and condition before purchase.”