A Light in the Dark_Survival of the Fittest Page 17

  “Coffee?” Lexie set a blue mug in front of him on the counter and leaned down onto her elbows.

  “Thanks.”

  Lexie squinted at him like his mother used to do when trying to gage what he wasn’t saying. “So, did you and Brie get whatever it was worked out?”

  “Oh, yeah.” Bailey couldn’t keep the smirk from his face as he thought about their makeup session on the side of the road. He’d never been more reckless or felt such uncontrollable desire. “It’s all good.”

  Brie sipped her coffee and turned her head in the direction of the living room where the others were watching a movie. “Good, because I really liked her.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah, she was smart and polite, gorgeous of course,” Lexie grinned, but then her smile fell away and her eyes turned serious. “More importantly though, you’ve never seemed happier than when you were looking at her.”

  Bailey sipped his coffee, unsure what to say to his sister-in-law. How was he supposed to explain that the felt alive again for the first time in years without sounding like a complete shmuck? “I don’t know what it is, but,” he shrugged, “It’s different with her, you know?”

  Lexie glanced toward the chair where Oliver was sitting. “I do know.”

  Bailey nodded. Of course, she knew. Lexie had changed his brother’s life and he hers in all the ways that mattered. He’d given her a family and she’d given him strength when he needed it the most.

  As the music started to play signaling the ending credits, Bailey yawned. Missing nothing, Lexie set her mug to the side and studied his face. “Are you feeling okay?”

  Bailey chuckled. “Yes, nurse. I’m just a little tired. I didn’t get much sleep last night.” Hell, if Brie was around, he doubted he’d ever sleep again, but it was a sacrifice he was willing to make.

  Lexie narrowed her eyes and then touched his wrist. For a second, it seemed like a caring gesture, but when she glanced at her watch, he tugged his arm away.

  “Are you seriously checking my pulse?”

  Her face reddened and then his brother was there swinging an arm over her shoulders. “What’s going on in here?” Oliver’s gaze swung between the two of them.

  “Your wife, here, is worried about me.”

  Oliver’s arm fell away from Lexie and a shadow of concern darkened his face.

  “It’s nothing.” Lexie forced a smile and patted Oliver’s shoulder. She knew his brother better than anyone and understood how quick he was to worry after the cancer. She snuggled up against his side. “You know I can’t help myself.”

  “This is true.” Oliver agreed, but it took a beat for his face to relax.

  “People get tired, Lexie. Between exams and a late night out last night, it was bound to happen.” Bailey stood and kissed her on the top of the head. “Trust me, you have nothing to worry about.”

  He appreciated that she cared, but he had no intention of being fussed over. His days of being the patient were over.

  Chapter 21

  Brie scrolled down as she read and then reread the same section of her notes. In a few short months she would have to stand up in front of her professors and the department head and defend her paper. Knots twisted in her stomach. Speaking in front of a room full of students was one thing, but in front of a group of professors who she respected was a different matter altogether.

  A knock sounded from the first floor and saved her from having to start over for the third time. She sighed and clicked save, before making her way to the door to find Bailey on the other side. Paper forgotten, and with a fresh wave of heat rushing to her cheeks, she stepped to the side and allowed him in. God, he was beautiful. No wonder she’d been so reckless. When it came to Bailey, she lost any iota of reason.

  “Hey there.” She rose onto her tiptoes and kissed him. His lips were cold under hers, so she wrapped her arms around his neck to lengthen the kiss. A week ago, she would’ve cringed at him seeing her in her yoga pants and thick Harrods sweatshirt, but not anymore. There was an easiness to their relationship, an openness.

  “Hello to you, too.” He wrapped his arms around her middle and gazed down at her. “I missed you last night.”

  “Me, too, but you have to sleep some time.” She giggled.

  “I guess, but I’m starting to think it’s overrated.” He released her and walked in a sort of half-circle around the small room. “Can I steal you away for a little while?”

  “What about the guys? Aren’t you hanging out with them today?”

  He grinned, “Nah, they’re out shopping for last minute stuff. At least that’s what Simone and Lexie are doing and it sounds like Oliver and Leo are getting dragged along.”

  She laughed. “I bet they love that.”

  “Oh, I’m sure.” He grinned. “So, what do you say, beautiful, come out with me for a couple hours?”

  “I think I can manage that.” She batted her eyelashes at him. “Or, we could stay here. Jessica’s still gone and we have this whole luxurious place to ourselves.” She pressed against him and planted a kiss on his neck.

  Bailey tilted his head to the side, “If you start that, we’ll never make it out of here and then you won’t get your Christmas present.”

  Her head jerked away from where she was sampling his collarbone, and she stepped back. “But, we agreed no gifts.” An agreement she’d been adamant about. She didn’t have the money to get him something extravagant and he’d already done so much for her. There was nothing else she needed or wanted other than to be with him. If he’d gone back on his word . . .

  He held his hands up in surrender. “It isn’t a gift exactly. It’s just a little something I’ve been working on.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him.

  “I promise. It’s not a big deal and I didn’t spend any money.”

  She sighed. “Okay, then. Let me go change and you can show me what you’ve been up to, but I’m warning you, Bailey—”

  He cut her off with a kiss and then swatted her butt as she turned in the direction of the stairs. She threw him a saucy look over her shoulder, or at least the sauciest look she could muster in her over-sized shirt and glasses. What was he up to?

  Ten minutes later, they were in a cab headed toward campus. She tried to weasel a location out of Bailey using her wiles, but when that didn’t work, she tried a different approach.

  He leaned down near her ear. “If you keep touching my thigh like that, I’m not going to be able to get out of this car.”

  “You could always tell me what I want to know.”

  “Never,” he looped an arm over her shoulder and let his fingers graze over her nipple igniting a wave of pleasure inside her. “And remember, two can play at this little game of yours.”

  She met his eye, “Oh, I do hope so.” On the verge of sliding her hand up to the center of his lap, she paused when the cab came to an abrupt stop in front of the Ashmolean Museum. “What are you up to, Bailey Honeycutt?”

  “Come on.” He paid the driver and tugged her out of the vehicle and into the wind. “Let’s get inside.”

  She let him lead the way, their steps hurried, though she could’ve gotten pretty much anywhere inside blindfolded. He grinned at her as he led her through the front doors, his boyish charm contagious. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that there wasn’t a single exhibit she hadn’t visited or studied.

  As he tugged her along, their footsteps echoed around the large space. The museum was quiet and come to think of it, they hadn’t passed anyone on their way in. Not a security guard or single person standing around the gift shop.

  Brie turned this way and that in an attempt to spot a single person, but there was no one. “Bailey, where is everyone?”

  He shrugged and kept moving until they were in the far back corner o
f the building at the entrance to one of the collections.

  “I don’t get it.”

  He laughed and then pulled an iPod and headphones out of the pocket of his denim jacket. “Take this,” he placed it in her hand and waited for her to put the earbuds in, “and this.”

  It was a map of the museum, but it wasn’t blank. There were red arrows drawn all over it giving her direction as to which way to go.

  “Press play as you walk in here,” he gestured to their right and she noted it was marked on the map with a red star and the word Start, “and, I’ll see you at the end.”

  She glanced around the empty space again, took a few steps toward the first exhibit, and then turned to ask Bailey what she was supposed to be looking for, but he was gone. She sighed and closed her mouth, fearing she looked a bit like a fish stranded on a dock with her mouth hanging open.

  Willing to play along and being the type who loved a good mystery, she pressed play as she stepped inside the Music and Tapestry gallery. Bailey’s voice filled her ears.

  “Hello, Brie.” She grinned. “I hope you enjoy your self-guided tour of the Ashmolean and see it in a way you’ve never seen it before. Merry Christmas, or if you prefer it, Happy Christmas.”

  The soft strum of a guitar set the mood and the pace as she moved along the rows of instruments lining the room. Gorgeous violins stood on display for admiration, followed by a case on the wall showing the different processes and parts required in the creation of such delicate instruments. Guitars were next and though inexperienced, the fine craftsmanship wasn’t lost on her. Since getting to know Bailey and watching and listening to him play music, it was impossible not to appreciate his talent. Mother-of-pearl inlays and intricate designs decorated the fine pieces and as she admired what was before her eyes, a complicated guitar riff sounded in her ears.

  She laughed, the sound echoing around the space. As she moved from the music room into the Italian Renaissance gallery, the music changed, and this time a piano joined in. She didn’t recognize the tune, but didn’t miss the Italian influence. She passed paintings and artifacts she’d lectured about in class, favorites she admired, and about halfway through the tour came across the painting they’d sat in front of together discussing love.

  The painting was the same, the colors unchanged, but it seemed different now. The look on the lover’s faces, the softness of the strokes, the longing reflected in their gazes . . . it was as though the painter could see into their souls. She stepped closer and tilted her head to the side to study it more closely. What was different? What had she missed before in her trips to this room?

  The music soared in her ears, the piano melding with the guitar into a song she could swear was only meant for her. It was the same song she heard in her heart when Bailey was touching her or looking into her eyes. She took a step back from the painting and touched the smile on her lips with the tips of her fingers. Maybe she was the one who was different now.

  As she strode through the rest of the galleries marked on the map the music continued to flow, sometimes fast and reckless, sometimes soulful, and at times tortured. Astoundingly, Bailey had managed to match the mood of the art and amplify its meaning. The time he must’ve spent thinking about the pacing and planning. The creation of new music only she’d heard.

  She picked up the pace, ready to be with him again, this man who had entered her life and turned it upside down as much as he’d righted it. Frantic to touch him again, to show him how much she cared, she started to jog and didn’t stop until she saw him near the entrance a single rose in his hand.

  As she approached, he smiled, but she didn’t slow until she crashed into him and threw her arms around his neck, pressing her lips to his over and over again.

  “Whoa there.” He laughed. “We’re unaccompanied, but we aren’t alone.” He rolled his eyes toward the security camera located just over their heads.

  “Take me home.”

  ~ ~ ~

  With their skin still damp from making love, Bailey let his fingers stroke up and down the upper part of Brie’s arm. Her bed was soft and warm with her pressed up against him, and for once it was quiet save for the occasional car rolling by. Jessica wasn’t working on her sculpting in the next room while music blasted, Cohen wasn’t banging away on his keyboard through the wall—tonight, it was simply the two of them.

  “So, you liked your present then?” He kissed the top of her head, grinning into her hair.

  “It was brilliant. I still can’t get over how long it must’ve taken you and who was playing piano?”

  “Cohen. I roped him into helping me last month. Between his course work and composing, he’s a hard man to nail down.”

  “Last month, huh?” She tugged on the trail of hair under his navel. “It seems as though you were pretty confident you were going to need to get me a gift.”

  He shrugged against the sheet as his blood began to stir again. “I only hoped, but I would’ve given it to you even if we weren’t together. And, it wasn’t a gift, it was an experience.”

  “I was the best experience gift I’ve ever received.” She kissed his chest. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” He didn’t fight the surge of pride that shot through him. Instead, he basked in it, elated he’d been able to give her what no one else had or would. “You should let me take you out next week.”

  Brie tilted her chin up and offered him a sleepy grin which was ridiculously sexy. “Where’d you have in mind?”

  “Anywhere you want to go.” He let his gaze return to the ceiling when she snuggled back into his chest, a smile spreading across his face in the soft light. He’d take her anywhere she wanted to go whether it be down the street or to Tokyo for dinner. There was nothing he wouldn’t give her. “Part of me feels like we should go out simply because we can. We waited a long-ass time to get here.”

  She laughed, the sound muffled by his chest.

  “Maybe we should go back to where it all started.”

  Brie pushed up onto her elbow and eyed him, the curves of her breasts coming into view. “You want to have a date in the lecture hall?”

  Now, it was his turn to grin. “No, I was thinking more about a game of Pac-Man.”

  She traced her fingertip over his pec and bent to nip at his nipple. “You know what I wish?”

  “That we could stay in this bed forever?” He bent his head forward and kissed her mouth, gentle at first and then deeper, his tongue tracing her lower lip.

  “Mmm, as good as that sounds, that’s not what I was going to say.”

  “Then, what say you, madam? Tell me your wish and I will do my best to make it come true.” He overpowered her and rolled her until she was under him.

  She shook her head, but laughed. “What I was going to say was that I wish we were closer to your place so I could see it.”

  He touched the tip of her nose with his. “What are you talking about? You’ve been to my place dozens of times.”

  “No, not your place here. Your place in the States.”

  “It’s not so great.”

  She gave him a disbelieving look.

  “Okay, it’s pretty nice, but if you’re looking to stay somewhere other than our pitiful student digs, I could take you into London and we could check into a hotel for a couple of nights.”

  “No, that’s not what it is. I’m perfectly happy here with you, but sometimes I feel like I’m only seeing this one side of you. It’s like I only know this temporary version of Bailey Honeycutt that doesn’t exist outside of Oxford.” She sighed. “Forget it. I sound crazy.”

  He kissed her, but instead of distracting her with sex, fell back against the pillows. “I don’t know exactly how to fix this short of throwing you on a jet and taking you to L.A. Any suggestions?”

  “You could start by
telling me about your house.” Her face changed from soft to eager as her eyes lit up. “Oh, and another thing I’ve always wondered about is if you live like they do on Real Housewives of Orange County. Do you have a trainer, a cook, a house cleaner, a yoga instructor, and like a life coach?”

  He laughed, the sound echoing around the room. “How long have you been waiting to ask me all of that?”

  She scrunched up her nose, her expression guilty. “A while I guess.”

  “So it seems. Okay, where to start.” He closed his eyes and pictured his place in the hills. “The house sits up on a hill overlooking the ocean. It seems simple from the front other than the gate signaling something exciting might be on the other side, but the back view,” he whistled, “it’s a thing of beauty. I also have a couple of fruit trees and a pool. The house is far from new, but it’s been updated to look modern. Lots of black and white and clean lines—at least that’s how the realtor explained it to me—I just bought it for the view.”

  “It sounds amazing. How in the world did you leave it behind for student housing? These places are older than time itself.”

  “Well, you have to remember, I’m on the road when we’re touring for ten months at a time. I’ve stayed in some pretty gnarly digs.”

  “I don’t think I’d be able to leave. It sounds too beautiful.”

  “Maybe you’ll get to see it in person once you’re in the States.”

  A strange stillness settled over them and for an instant he feared he’d moved too fast, but a moment later, Brie rolled onto her side and met his eye. “I’d like that very much.”

  He let out a shaky breath, “And, for the record, I don’t have a life coach.”

  She giggled and then straightened up. “Wait, does that mean you have all those other people working for you? The cook and trainer and all that?”