Gift of Gold (Gift #1)

Verity wondered what the view was like from Jonas's window and smiled to herself as she recalled the annoyance in his eyes when he discovered he'd been given a separate bedroom.

Moving into Verity's Sequence Springs cottage had wrought an interesting change in the man. Jonas had become fiercely territorial in the past few days.

Verity was still trying to decide how to adjust to this new, possessive side of her dishwasher-waitperson-handyman. She was also trying to decide how to deal with her reaction to having a lover under her roof. Her emotions were still jumbled in some ways, but diamond bright in others. She spent a lot of time warning herself that the situation was temporary at best and that she shouldn't allow herself to invest too much emotion in the man or the situation.

Jonas had a talent for reading the past but he obviously preferred to ignore his own future.

But Jonas showed no signs of wanting to leave Sequence Springs yet, and the more settled in he got, the more Verity began to think in terms of permanence. She was wondering what would happen if Jonas ever found another woman with whom he could "anchor" himself, when the door opened almost silently behind her. Verity spun around at the faint creak and saw who stood there.

"Oh, hello, Tavi. You took me by surprise." Verity summoned up a bright smile. She got no response.

"I was just admiring the view."

Tavi looked at her with unhappy, anxious eyes. "I want to talk to you."

"Of course. Have a seat." Verity indicated a black leather chair.

Tavi ignored it. Her hands twisted together as she spoke. "What's going to happen here is wrong, but I don't know how to stop it. I have done a great deal of thinking about it and I have come to the conclusion that only you can do something about it. You're the key, just as Caitlin says. That's why I want to talk to you."

Verity stared at her. "I don't understand what you're talking about, Tavi. Does this have something to do with Caitlin's decision to sell Bloodlust?"

"It has everything to do with it," Tavi whispered fiercely. "She must not sell it. It will be the end of everything. I think it will kill her."

"Oh, Tavi, no." Verity sighed and sank down onto the chair Tavi had ignored. "I was afraid of something like this. The morning she told me of her plans, I wondered why she was so obsessed with selling this one last painting and then not painting again. Do you think she means to kill herself?"

"I don't think she has thought about anything, including life or death, after the sale of the damned painting." Tavi looked at her pleadingly. "You could stop this whole thing."

Verity jerked her eyes up in astonishment. "I could stop it? What on earth are you talking about? What could I possibly do to stop her from selling Bloodlust?"

"You could take your lover and leave and never come back," Tavi whispered.

Verity recoiled from the plea in the other woman's eyes. "What good would that do?" she managed to ask in a reasonably steady voice.

"If you leave she will be forced to cancel all her wild plans."

"Tavi, be reasonable. There's nothing to stop her from carrying out the auction without me. At least if I'm here, I'll be able to talk to her afterward. We'll know then just how much the sale is going to affect her.

You must see there's no point in forcing me to leave. I can't do anything for her if I'm not around."

"It all hinges on you," Tavi rasped. "Can't you see? Why do you think she invited you here? You and that man who watches you as if you were gold he must protect at all costs. You don't really think that under normal circumstances Caitlin would have made friends with someone like yourself? She has no friends except me. She has seduced you in ways you don't even comprehend. But your lover knows. I can tell by the way he acts around her. He knows she's dangerous to you but he doesn't know what to do about it. Only you can do something about it. Take him and leave. Now."

"Tavi, I don't understand any of this. You're not talking rationally. What is it you think Caitlin wants to do to me?"

The door opened again before Tavi could respond. Jonas stood on the threshold scowling at both women. Tavi glanced at him, turned, and walked swiftly out of the room. Jonas watched her go and then shut the door behind her.

"What was that all about?" he asked, raising dark eyebrows as he scanned the bedroom.

"I don't know," Verity admitted. "I think Tavi might be slightly unbalanced, Jonas. She was acting very strange. The one thing that was clear is that she's concerned for Caitlin. She worries about what Caitlin's going to do after she sells the painting."

"So what?" Jonas began to prowl the room. "You're worried about Caitlin, too. Hell, everyone seems to be worried sick about the poor, eccentric artist who's obsessed with selling one last painting. Let me tell you something, honey. Evanger is no fool and she's no innocent eccentric. She's got something up her sleeve. I can feel it. If you had any sense you'd see it."

"Is that right? What do you think she's up to?" Verity snapped, irritated.

He shrugged his graceful, courtier's shrug. "Who knows? It's probably got something to do with jacking up the price of Bloodlust until it's high enough to keep her in cocaine for the rest of her life."

"Jonas! That's enough. I don't want to hear you say anything like that again. Caitlin is no druggie and you know it."

"How do I know it?" He stopped by the bed and stood staring at it with great intensity. "I'll tell you something else I don't like. I don't like the way she's split us up tonight."

"We're guests in her home and we're not married," Verity said stonily. "It's only natural she'd give us separate rooms. We had separate rooms last time."

"This time it's different between us. You should have told her to put us together," he insisted, his attention still on the bed. "Hell, we're lovers now. It's official. We're even living together."

"We've been living together for all of a few days. That hardly constitutes a long-term relationship,"

Verity pointed out dryly. "Be reasonable, Jonas. It would have been embarrassing for me to ask to have you moved into my room, especially when all the arrangements have been made for us to have separate rooms."

"You're embarrassed about having me for a lover?"

Verity pleaded silently with the heavens for forbearance. "That's not what I meant and you know it.

It's one of those social situations, Jonas. One does the polite thing. There are still certain proprieties, even in this day and age. One doesn't contradict the sleeping arrangements provided by one's hostess.