I Married a Master(17)
Author: Melanie Marchande

And no. No, I couldn’t.

"What could possibly be so important up in this lowly end of town, Mr. Chase?" I asked the back of his head.

He whirled around, his face twitching almost imperceptibly. "Well, well. What an unexpected pleasure." Folding his arms across his chest, he stepped closer to me, his quest to get past the barrier forgotten. "Once again, you’ve got that talent for running into me when I’m at my absolute worst."

"Well, you are in my neighborhood." I made a vague gesture. "More or less. Except I can’t go home."

"Shit." He glanced at the barriers, then back at me, with a ghost of a smile. "Well, that’s pretty terrible. Worse than my day."

"You have no idea. Trust me." I sighed. "I don’t even have the energy to hassle you. I just want to go home and collapse, and that’s the one thing I can’t do."

"Did you call the Thornes? I’m sure they’d be happy to have you."

I shook my head. "They’re fighting. Besides, I’d rather not, you know? They’ve done enough for me already."

Ben cocked his head to the side, slightly, and I tried not to stare. The ever-shifting color of his eyes was stormy blue today, like a choppy, unpredictable ocean. "Would you accept a favor from someone that you don’t owe anything to? Except maybe an apology for implying that he has an average-sized penis?"

In the background, the cop coughed audibly and shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"Depends," I said. "What is it?"

I should have been running for the hills, but I was just exhausted and off-balance enough to hear him out. Whatever it was, this was a bad idea. We didn’t mix. We were like oil and water, and I wasn’t even sure whose fault it was anymore. I just knew that my feelings for him were in stark opposition to the way we actually interacted, and the more time I spent with him, the more I wanted…

I didn’t even know what I wanted. And that was part of the problem. As much as I hated his attitude, I loved the give-no-fucks attitude that lurked behind it.

"Crash at my place," he said. "It’s not far. At least you can have a drink, and make fun of all my rich-person furniture." He winked. "If you play your cards right, I’ll let you swim around in my Scrooge McDuck pool."

"Oh, man." I let out a long sigh, looking him up and down. He was still dressed from the office, with a deep purple tie that was probably bringing out that stormy blue in his eyes. I wondered if his suit was custom made, or just bespoke. I wondered if he had his coffee beans shipped in overnight from Colombia on a special plane. He was joking about the money pool, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around this guy’s day-to-day life.

And in spite of everything, he was still trying to work…some kind of angle with me. I couldn’t quite figure out what. He seemed just as frustrated by me as I was by him. Maybe he liked that sort of thing. Maybe he was a masochist.

No, that didn’t seem right.

"Is that a yes?" He tilted his elbow towards me, like we were in a Victorian love story. "Come on, Ms. Hadley. Admit it, you’re curious if I have a robot butler."

"I am," I admitted, giving up the fight and following him. But I wasn’t going to take his elbow. "I’m also curious why you’re being nice to me."

He shrugged, giving up on the overly-chivalrous gesture and shoving his hands in his pockets, with all the laissez-faire of a man who doesn’t care about ruining the lines of a five thousand dollar suit. "Why the hell not?"

"You gave up awfully easy on whatever your errand was in my neighborhood," I said, thoughtfully. "Right after I showed up. It kinda makes me wonder."

Ben grinned at me. He was squinting a little in the sunlight, and my eyes wouldn’t stop drifting to his mouth. "You got me," he said. "I was feeling a little bit conceited, so I decided, hey – what the hell, I’ll stop by and see Jenna. She’ll knock me down a few pegs."

"I’ll be more than happy to provide that service for you, any time you need," I told him. "But I don’t really believe you."

"That’s very wise, Ms. Hadley," he said, pausing for just a moment before he darted into an intersection against the light. Cursing under my breath, I followed him, even as an approaching cabbie leaned on his horn. Ben flipped him off casually, and grabbed my wrist to pull me onto the sidewalk, and to safety. "A very wise decision, indeed."

Chapter Eight

Ben

Things weren’t going quite how I planned, and for once, that was a good thing.

The thing about Jenna was that she was unpredictable. She’d show up out of the blue, her hazel eyes assessing, penetrating, wanting, and hating – not necessarily in that order. If I had a talent for photography, I’d want to capture a close-up of those eyes. They looked like a NASA picture of a nebula that exploded many millions of years ago, the sight of it only reaching us just now. Something ancient and terrible and breathtakingly beautiful.

I had been going to see her, although I wasn’t about to reveal that now. After the way our last conversation ended, it would seem weird. It was much better that we’d meet by chance like this, and I could play the role of the rescuer after her terrible, horrible no good, very bad day.

I’d much rather have the conversation about my little marriage problem on my own turf. Yeah, this was going to be much better.

It had to go well, otherwise, I was completely fucked.

"We’re here," I announced, taking the stairs two at a time up to the front door of my brownstone. Jenna lifted her eyebrows a little.

"What?" I asked, pressing my thumb to the pad and punching in the code to unlock the door. "Not what you expected?"

She shrugged a little. "Where I come from, the idle rich have much bigger houses than this. But I guess that’s one of the hazards of living in the city."

I just laughed. She hadn’t seen the inside yet.

Stepping inside, she caught her breath. I’d hired only the best to deck this place out, and I was very happy with the results. Even in the middle of New York, it still had the feel of an elegant mansion isolated on a hill.

It was always fun to watch the realization dawn on someone’s face – I didn’t just have a place in this building, this building was my place.

"You own this?" she asked, her hand resting on the glossy banister at the foot of the spiral staircase.

I nodded. "The whole block. But this is the only place I live in."

With a bewildered little laugh, she walked past the staircase and around the corner to poke her head into the library. "This is huge."

It was the smallest room I had, but I didn’t bother mentioning that.