Page 46 of The Marriage Deal
"I know! Can you take me to a hotel? The landlord has agreed to foot the bill for my stay there while the place is under construction."
I was about to nod in agreement, and then it dawned on me. I made a silent prayer to God or the gods for this landlord and his shitty home.
"That won't be possible, I am afraid. Can you imagine what people would say if they found out that my wife is staying at some cheap hotel? They'll think our marriage is already on the rocks. That won't do for your reputation, I'm afraid, considering people already think you cheated on Wyatt."
She shrugged. "What am I supposed to do?"
"It was already weird that we weren't living together. Come stay with me."
20
Elvira
AS MUCH AS I hated to admit it, Levi's place was ten times better than any cheap motel Grant was going to throw me in while he fixed the plumbing issue. What's worse, it was looking more and more like it was going to be more like four weeks instead of two, so he had agreed that I would not pay this month's rent, which was fine by me.
I could not deny the luxury of Levi's soft pillows and the high thread count cotton sheets he had in his guest bedroom. It was better than staying at my place. Heck, it was better than staying at most luxury hotels. Levi had gone out of his way to make me feel welcome. He helped me get my things from my place and helped me put them into storage. Then he gave me a pleasant bedroom to sleep in. The same one I slept in when I came here last time, drunk as a skunk and heartbroken. Levi did not try to have sex with me again. After we returned from the retreat, he never attempted to make a move. Which was good, right? I didn't want to have sex with him, right?
My dreams, however, told a different story. Alone at night, I had dreams of wandering to his bedroom, opening the door and getting into his bed and sleeping with him. Those were the tame ones. I had other dreams where he would barge into my room and ravage me like I was a heroine in a bodice ripper novel.
And the longer he kept his distance, the more vivid the dreams became. He was driving me mad with desire, and yethe acted as though we were nothing but colleagues. We had gone back to being professional. At work, he even called me Miss Edwards, and when I asked him if he should call me Mrs. Hawthorne, he asked if that's what I wanted to be called. I had no response to that. Did I want to be called Mrs. Hawthorne? The reckless part of me screamed yes. The more rational part of me knew it was foolish.
I focused on work and helping Levi with the Johnson letters. I was obsessed with them now. More than I thought I would be. I had very little knowledge of cryptography but extensive knowledge of how most cryptographs of that time were done. And from what we knew about Johnson, he was hardly a high-IQ individual of his time. Everything about his life denoted a basic man who had some intellectual curiosity but not a lot.
And since I had shown promise in solving the code, Levi had given me access to his project, and we would work together late into the night trying to solve it. He had some cryptography skills himself, he told me. Once upon a time, he wanted to be a CIA agent and thought the entire job was just decoding puzzles. When he grew up though, he regained his passion for history, but he still had some decoding skills in his back pocket. Francis would also come and help, and Beth would assist us with whatever knowledge she had about Johnson.
William Johnson worked under Richard, and while he did not have a high-profile job, he was educated and worked closely with the king. Levi was right. Beth was a bit cuckoo about Johnson. She had a conspiracy theory about him being a bastard brother of Richard the Third that she refused to let go of despite evidence to the contrary, but she was nonetheless an invaluable researcher.
The work consumed us both. It was just as well since I was staying at Levi's because some nights we would stay up so late that we only had time to get into bed and fall flat. And that'swhen that need would come. That's when I would lie awake thinking of all the times my hand brushed his as I was reaching for a book. Or when his chest grazed my back as he leaned over behind me and reached for something on a shelf. That's when I would have dreams of getting on his desk and drawing him to me by the lapels of his jacket. Throwing everything away, lying flat on the oak and letting him have his way with me. Fuck. I should have said yes to his offer. Staying under the same roof as him was only making things difficult.
One Friday night we were working late again when he ordered food. He always ordered at the same restaurant. "Why?" I asked him after finishing placing his order, fanning myself. I was sitting on the floor of his office, papers strewn across me as I tried to work out a certain section of the code. It was easier this way. The office air conditioner wasn't working, and the floor felt cooler than a chair. While Levi opted to sit at his desk working it out on his laptop, he was just as hot as I was.
"That's the one place I know in this town that doesn't serve shellfish," he said when he glanced at me.
"Is your allergy that bad?"
Levi nodded. "When I was a kid, I got hospitalized for a week after eating shrimp cocktail. My mother was so distraught she stayed with me in hospital the entire time. It was the only time she's ever shown any kindness. I was in a coma for a day and spent the next six struggling to breathe. It was the best and worst week of my life." He sighed. A darkness spreading across his features. Then suddenly it was gone. "Anyway, ever since then, no more shellfish."
"A week? Your mother must have been scared."
He nodded. "My father wasn't so frightened, though. He thought allergies were a sign of weakness." His voice was filled with bitterness and derision. "After marrying an aristocrat, my mother, he thought that entitled him to blue-blooded sons whocould withstand anything nature threw at them. And when I got that allergy, he singled me out as a weakling. I was no longer a purebred Hawthorne in his eyes, but an anomaly."
My heart broke for him. It made me appreciate my own softball of a father. I could never imagine Dad thinking I was weak because I had an allergy. "I'm so sorry. It must have been hard for you."
"Yeah. Turns out rich people love scallops and lobster and all kinds of shellfish. One time my father tried to force me to eat it, and when I refused, he beat me. One day I was tired of the beatings and did what he wanted me to. I ate shrimp. I woke up alone in hospital. My mother had divorced my father by then, and she was god knows where. I panicked. I've never felt so scared and so alone. It was only when my eldest brothers, Nolan and Carey, came to visit me that I finally relaxed. Apparently, my father had told everyone not to see me in hospital. He had not told my mother what happened, and after learning where I was, my brothers came to see me against his orders."
My eyes widened. My vision turned red at the thought of anyone beating a young boy, especially someone like Levi. No wonder he was the way he was. Cold. Reserved. Aloof. He had learned to be stoic to deal with the pain his father inflicted.
"So you see. I have an irrational fear of shellfish."
I got up from where I was sitting and went to him, sat on his lap and enveloped him in a big hug. He did not reciprocate, but he did not push me away. When I withdrew from the embrace, I asked, "What about Gettysburg? You looked into that place we ate at before going there, didn't you?"
"I knew they didn't serve any, yes, but I wasn't sure if they were lying or not. I'm irrationally afraid of even ingesting trace amounts of the thing."
I had to stop my heart from swelling. He risked making himself sick so that he could give me a wonderful birthday.Try as I might, my heart swelled regardless. "Stop saying that. Irrational. It's not irrational. You almost died. And you were a kid!"
He leaned into my neck and inhaled my scent. "Thank you," he said. "I've never had anyone tell me that. Everyone thought I was crazy."
"You're not crazy. Just a little eccentric, that's all. And I like that about you."
