Page 46 of Sinful Crimes for the Artistically Inclined
That was when he heard the steady, measured step on the stone behind him. His heart thumped, in part with trepidation, but mostly with excitement, because he felt the presence of Percy well before he saw him. The entire atmosphere seemed to shift and Joe’s heart and mind were drawn inexorably to the man who, to his credit, walked straight past Joe as though he didn’t exist at all. He rounded a bend, then stood at the entrance of a little golden side-chapel, staring up at whatever painting may have been there, silently waiting for the others to leave.
A voice sang out loud and clear across the cathedral. “Doctor Ashdown?”
Percy turned slowly, almost as if he were expecting it, then a handsome smile spread across his beautiful face. A handsomesmile, full of flirtatious mischief. He stood still, and he waited for her to come to him, which, naturally, she did.
“I knew it was you!” yelled the woman with the sunglasses, leopard skin heels clicking swiftly across the floor. She threw her arms around him, and Joe watched as Percy lifted her right off her feet and planted a kiss on her cheek. She held on entirely too long and too tight for any sort of decency after he put her back down.
“Hello, Princess,” he said smoothly. Joe thought he might vomit, but he forced a tight smile across his face as the teenage girl slid into the pew next to him with a sigh.
The sunglasses woman whacked Percy’s arm playfully. “You were supposed to call me.”
“You were supposed to call me,” he threw back. She laughed like an idiot, an effect Percy had on a lot of people.
The teenager next to Joe let out another sigh, more pointedly, and he looked over at her. She took that as her cue to say, “This might take a while.”
Joe glanced over at Percy’s situation, then back to the girl. “You’re with her?”
She held up what looked to be an expensive handbag. “Royal purse carrier.”
Joe laughed lightly, then stopped immediately when he heard the woman insist, “You must come and see me tonight!”
To which Percy replied archly, “You got the penthouse, didn’t you?”
Outrageous laughter. Joe and the girl on the seat rolled their eyes and groaned, then she said, “Do you know that guy?”
Joe shook his head firmly. “I’ve never seen him before.”
The girl leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, “She saw him in the hotel lobby, and she’s been waiting for him ever since. I had to wait there for six hours today, with directions tocall as soon as he came down. Then she took the car over and beat him here.”
Paling, Joe asked, “How did she know he’d come here?”
The girl only raised her chin as a sign for him to tune back into the conversation.
“Doctor Ashdown?—”
“Call me Percy.”
“I will not!” How hilarious she evidently thought it all was. Joe’s toes curled as she dropped her sunglasses onto a pew in order to wrap both hands firmly around Percy’s biceps, squeezing tight, and turning him back around. “You know I love art, Doctor Ashdown, and when I heard about the grand restoration, well, I just had to come and see it. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”
Percy, as usual, didn’t miss a beat. “That’s exactly right. I made the trip especially. You know I’d hate to miss a restoration.”
“Oh, Doctor Ashdown! You are so funny!” He laughed along with her and Joe began to long for the days of murdering people in churches.
“And so we wait,” the girl on the seat narrated, “while she seduces him.”
“—three bottles of champagne in my suite,” sunglasses woman said.
“She sent out for them especially as soon as she saw him,” the girl whispered.
“Where did she get them?” Joe asked, pink with jealousy and irritation.
“—and you know, what’s mine is yours, Doctor Ashdown,” the sunglasses woman purred.
Joe and the girl both visibly flinched at her words, then she said, “She gets what she wants, no matter what.”
Percy sidestepped the invitation, redirecting his conversation to the restoration, and he sounded quite convincing toJoe’s ears. Joe watched on, quietly fuming, as the woman pressed her hip into Percy, pulling his arm against the side of her breast, laughing inappropriately throughout his explanations. So intent was Joe on hating the interloper, he was a little surprised when the girl next to him spoke again, just as quietly, but somehow more tentative now. “Are you always here on Tuesdays?”
He turned his head to assess her. He suddenly clocked that she looked a little scared, and she turned her eyes away as soon as she became aware of Joe’s frank appraisal. Joe also turned his eyes away. “I’m just visiting.”
