Page 135 of Blood Stone
Kate smiled. “Good,” she said, with a sigh, moving closer. “‘coz you don’t get to marry me without asking me first.” She halted and her eyes widened as she looked at him.
Garrett let the moment go deliberately. He kissed her cheek. “I get the feeling that if you marry anyone at all, Kate, you’re the one that’s going to do the asking.” He tugged her gently into the armchair. “Sit and relax.”
“Is Roman coming back?” she asked.
“Yes,” Garrett told her, although that was something he was going to have to make sure of, later.
She sank down onto the edge of the cushions. “Shit. I need a vacation,” she said with a sigh. “I can’t cope with my personal life blowing up while I’m doing a movie, too.”
“Is that what this feels like? Your personal life exploding?”
She pushed a hand through her hair, lifting it back from her face with an impatient motion. “Honestly, Micheil? I thought Roman would be a nice distraction while I was filming. You, I didn’t count on at all. I just wanted to kill you and roast your balls after the contract signing. It’s all so fucking complicated now.”
“What’s complicated?” he asked. “You’ve lost sight of the main priority. If we’re tripping you up and affecting the picture, you cut the cord. You know how it goes. It’s business 101.”
Her blue eyes met his. “That’s if it was business. I can’t cut the cord, Micheil. It’s more than business, now. And you know it.”
Garrett could hear his own heartbeat, matching Kate’s. That made it very easy for him to fill the silence. “I’ve loved only one woman in my life, before and she was human. I made a pendant for her just like the one I made for you.”
“What happened to her pendant?” Kate asked, her voice almost a whisper. Her eyes were very large and her heartbeat had accelerated.
“It was destroyed in the same fire she died in. Mary was burned at the stake as a witch, in Bristol, May 1654, for daring to speak of the things she knew to be the truth.”
“Vampires,” Kate whispered, her face white.
Garrett nodded. “She was in love and she confided in her mother and sister. Her sister told their priest. Mary died before sunset on the second day after her arrest, after a short trial. Roman and I were in London. Neither of us could ride back fast enough, although we killed two horses under us and I took Roman’s mount for the last five miles. The smell…” He couldn’t go on.
Kate’s arms wrapped around him and held tight and it was then he realized that he had closed his eyes. He had been reliving the awful last mile into Bristol, when the tang of low tide salt had mixed with the gut churning smell of burnt human flesh in the evening air, telling him that he was too late to save Mary from one of the most horrendous deaths it was possible to put a human through. He had not been there for her. And it was his fault this had happened to her.
“Micheil, let it go,” Kate whispered.
He shuddered and clung to her.
“You’re not alone, anymore,” she added.
No, he wasn’t. In the last year he had stumbled into a circle of friends that had profoundly influenced his life, to the point where he now stood with his arms about a human woman and could speak aloud the terrible truth about that day in May.
Peace settled over him.
He loosened his arms enough to draw his head back to look at her. He touched his lips to hers. “I would give anything to be able to say the words that go with the pendant, Kate. But I can’t. It’s complicated, like you say. Roman—”
Her breath caught.
Garrett shook his head. “I honestly don’t know how to resolve this. But I know that hurting someone to get what I want isn’t a solution, either.”
The door to the trailer flung open, giving them no chance to separate. Winter leapt inside, skipping both steps. She saw Kate and merely looked relieved. “Good,” she said flatly. She grabbed Kate’s wrist and shoved her into the armchair and pushed her iPad into her hand and turned it on. She grabbed Garrett’s wrist and pulled him over to the desk and turned on the desktop CPU under the desk. “You’ll have to wait until I pull up the URL,” she said. “Or I can give you the highlights verbally.”
“Oh, fuck,” Kate sighed.
Garrett raised his brow. “Verbal headlines. I’ll scan the pad after Kate is done.”
“The paparazzi were outside Kate’s place last night. Long, long telephoto lens. They got all three of you in the shot. You’ve got no shirt, Kate is kissing you goodbye, and Roman is watching it all from the front door and it looks like he’s part of it. There are other photos, from the desert shoot. You and Roman talking together. Very intimate looking stuff. And Roman and Kate in Kate’s trailer. And Kate and you on the set. They’re the worst. They’re very definitely sexual.” Winter licked her lips. “You know what they’re saying?”
“Ménage,” Kate said, her voice stiff.
“Whoare saying?” Garrett demanded. “Can we buy them off?”
“Not every major outlet,” Kate replied. “And they’re all saying it.” She handed the pad to Garrett and got to her feet. “Time to talk to Mary-Ann’s people. See what can be done.” She sighed, digging her cellphone out of her pocket. “Another day of filming off to a late start.” She spun to face Garrett. “Roman could walk right into a wall of media out there if he arrives late.”
