"Thanks," Bryn murmured. Lee was rising to walk Mick out to the battered front door. Bryn followed Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
them both with her cup of coffee in hand. They were discussing the rehearsal, and Lee was advising Mick to get everyone working in costume. Mick said something about the door and offered to pick up a new one with a double dead-bolt.
"Great, that will save me a trip," Lee said; then his eyes fell on Bryn. "Run on up and get dressed," he told her. She had a feeling that he was going to say something to Mick that he didn't want her to hear, but she was too anxious to get back to her town house to disobey his soft command. She hurried back upstairs.
In the guest room she found her bra, jeans and shoes, and quickly donned them. A shower would have to wait, but she longed to wash up, so she walked into the room's ample bath, only to discover that there was no soap or towels.Or toothpaste. And if she couldn't brush her teeth, she could at least smother them with some toothpaste and feel a little better.
She walked back to Lee's room. His bathroom, as she had discovered late last night, was huge. The tiled tub was equipped with a Jacuzzi and was almost the size of her bedroom at the town house. There was a separate, glass-encased shower, double sinks, a linen closet and a wall of glass medicine chests.
She opened the linen closet and was thrilled to discover a stack of new toothbrushes, piles of soap and neat stacks of washcloths and towels.
She washed her face and scrubbed her teeth, then realized that she had left the linen closet open. She absently walked back over to close it,then paused.
Along with the customary items--the towels and soap and such--she was surprised to see a stack of music sheets. Curiously she picked one up. The ink that comprised the notes was slightly faded; the paper was faintly yellowed. The sheets were not brittle, not like old, old paper, but she was certain that the music had been written at least a year or two ago.
She couldn't read music, so her eyes automatically fell to the lyrics scripted below.
Time has drifted by, my love, Leaves have blown, and white flakes fall,Still I wonder why, my love, How love could cause it all. "Oh,Victoria... Death departs,The savage heart.
What did I see in violet eyes,That made me blind, immune to lies? Had I but seen, I might have been,The man to let you touch the skies; Oh,Victoria... Dust and ashes,Tattered heart.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Bryn started violently. She stared from the paper in her hand to the bathroom doorway to find Lee standing there, hands on his hips, bronzed features tense and dark and twisted into a menacing scowl. She was so stunned to see him there when she had become so engrossed in his lyrics that at first she didn't register the depth of his anger.
"Lee, I've never heard this song. It's so pretty, and sad--" She broke off with a startled gasp as he took a furious stride toward her and brutally wrenched the paper from her hand, crumpling it into his fist. "Stay the hell out of things that aren't yours and don't concern you!" he ground out, his jaw rigid and his eyes branding her with his wrath. He didn't give her a chance to reply; he spun around and left her. For once she heard his footsteps clearly. She heard the hard slap of his feet against the carpeted bedroom floor--and the sharp slam of the door.
Sudden tears stung her eyes; he had made her feel like a child, a thief and a nosy intruder all in one.
What had she done? Nothing butopen a closet door for a towel...
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The hurt brought anger, and humiliation. She had spent the night very intimately in bed with him, but let her take a glance at his life, and she might have been a total stranger, or any one of a number of women who had provided entertainment, but never entered into his soul....
"Bastard!" she hissed, clenching her fists and wishing fervently that she had obeyed her instincts for self-preservation and used him, instead of allowing him to use her.
She heard his shout from downstairs despite the fact that she was in the bathroom and he had slammed the bedroom door.
"Bryn!Let's get going!"
At that moment she would rather have jumped out the window than obey any of his commands. But thoughts of Adam rose within her mind and welled within her heart. She clenched her teeth, strode as furiously as he had across the bedroom, slammed the bedroom door in her wake,then managed to sprint down the stairs with a modicum of control.
She didn't look at him as she swept by him and out the front door he had opened for her. When he asked her for her van keys, she didn't argue with him, but dug into her front pocket and produced them.
Once inside the car, she stared out the window.
She felt his tension, and she knew that he glanced her way several times as he left his secluded road behind and entered the stream of traffic. She continued to stare at the distantSierra Nevada.
They were nearing her town house when at last he spoke. "I'm sorry, Bryn."