Chapter 15
Simon had never thought about weddings much. Certainly never about his own. A Vegas wedding wouldn’t have been on the list, and the view afterward—of the long, dimly lit, bare hallway, as he and Shanna sat on the stairs of the chapel—was nothing to write home about, either.
Shanna, however, was something else. His head was a bit too fuzzy from alcohol to think clearly, but he couldn’t shake off the feeling that this, as ridiculous as it looked, had been something significant. That his life would never be the same again.
She leaned her head on his shoulder, the silvery stream of her hair spilling down his chest. Simon sighed; a bit unfocused, sleepy, and slightly disoriented … but above all, content.
***
Simon stood by the window, watching the early morning mist coalesce around the dark green mountains in the distance. The perfect quiet and calm of the post-dawn had left him ample opportunity to be alone with his thoughts, and he was surprised to where they’d wandered off.
Shanna, and this place.
It was easy to get lost here—in a good sense.
So easy to forget the rush and pressure of the outside world, forget how many days had passed since the start of their journey, or even forget what day it was.
It might be Wednesday, or Sunday—Simon actually had no idea, and he didn’t care.
As long as he could stay in this little pocket of their adventure, it didn’t matter.
It was easy to get lost in Shanna, too. The memory of her silky-smooth skin against his fingertips still lingered, strong enough to awaken the desire again.
He turned, tucking his hands into the front pockets of his pants, and watched her in peaceful sleep.
The symbols he’d drawn on her back last night were barely recognizable—but the traces leading from them were more than clear.
The traces of his fingers, each of them a mark, a caress.
His chest was no better off, smudged all across with that brown concoction that smelled of cinnamon and roses.
They’d shared their love spell. Traces of her were on him now, and his were on her, and even though they probably made him look horrendous, Simon didn’t want to wash them off. He didn’t want to let her go yet.
Shanna stirred, yawned, and stretched her arms. She turned onto her back, blushing and pulling up her sheet when she met his eyes. “Hi.”
“Good morning.” He came to sit beside her on the edge of the bed. He wet his lips, but words suddenly failed him. Should he ask her how she was or had their play ended? Were the Simon and Shanna of last night gone, and they were to pretend it never happened?
Shanna lowered her gaze to his chest and burst into laughter. “Oh, no.”
“You should see your back.”
She tried twisting her neck to catch a glimpse. “Oh, no.”
His thoughts were more of an oh, yes, but he did have to admit it looked funny. And the room service was about to have a lot of fun cleaning the paint off those sheets, too.
“Just to be clear, this wasn’t a complete spell,” she said. “You’re not in any way, cursed, hexed, or enchanted.”
Wasn’t he enchanted, though?
“It was all in good fun—”
“Oh, it was good fun,” he intervened.
“And I don’t put love spells on …” She stammered and blushed at his words. “Yeah. It was fun, wasn’t it?”
Simon scooted closer. It wasn’t the agreement, but if they both liked it, what was there to stop them?
He didn’t want just one night. He liked this, liked being him.
The Simon who only wanted to tinker with nuts and bolts and wires and make fun stuff out of it, not the Simon who accidentally went on stage that one time and became the face of his company—a name before the man.
And he liked last night’s Shanna, too. The same her as always, but with a touch more magic and that seductively joyous spark in her eyes.
Couldn’t that Simon and that Shanna exist for a bit longer?
“Shanna,” he whispered, pushing a lock of her hair back over her shoulder.
Her lashes fluttered as she lowered her eyelids. Her chest rose and fell rapidly. She wanted him, too. It was still early; they had time. They could fall into each other again, forget—
His phone rang with the persistent beep-beep-beep of an alarm. Thrown completely off balance, Simon glanced around in confusion, almost panic, as if the alarm announced the end of the world. The beeping came from the console table. He didn’t even remember when he had put the phone there last night.
“Reminder: Aries press conference,” his digital assistant announced. “Reminder: Aries press conference. To turn off—”
Simon crossed over and shut down the reminder. “Sorry,” he said to Shanna. “They’re making some announcement today.”
“You should probably watch it,” she said.
Yes. He should. Even if he couldn’t quite focus on work-related stuff at the moment. “It’s in half an hour. I still have time.”
“Well, I’d better go wash.” Shanna smiled, pointing at her back.
“Right.” He continued to stand there like an idiot as she walked past him, the pearl-white sheet wrapped around her like a goddess’s robe, and disappeared into the bathroom.
“Leona,” he managed after a minute, bringing his assistant to attention.
“Find a video feed of the conference and queue it up for me, please.”
“Yes, Simon.”
A yelp, a short scream, and then a giggle came from the bathroom. Without hesitation, Simon burst through the door. “What is it?”
Shanna, now wrapped in a towel, turned to him wide-eyed. She covered her mouth with her hand and laughed.
“Are you okay? You scared me. Has a shelf fallen down again?”
She shook her head, continuing to laugh until she finally wiped her eyes. “It’s Nelly.”
“What?”
“The ghost, remember? She’s here. She said …” Shanna wheezed. “She said you have a nice butt.”
Instinctively, Simon reached back to cover his pants-protected bottom. “She—”
“Saw us last night, yes.”
“You mean, watched us.”
“Cut the girl some slack,” Shanna said. “She’s been gone for over a century. And she says she doesn’t get much action around here.”
Simon pouted and spread out his arms. “Glad to provide, I guess,” he said sarcastically.
“So …” Shanna pointed to the shower. “I need to …”
“Right. Sorry.” With one last look around the bathroom—letting Nelly know just what he thought of voyeuristic ghosts—he closed the door.
With Shanna hopefully safe for the time being, Simon put on his crumpled shirt from yesterday and headed out. At least his room was next door, so nobody would see his walk of shame—except he got stopped right as he walked out of Shanna’s room.
His wrist yanked.
Simon frowned, then pulled gently. Shanna was still in the bathroom; he could even hear the shower going. And he was able to walk much further away last evening. What was going on?
He didn’t want to cause any accidents in the shower, so he walked back inside the room and waited by the table.
“Oh. You’re still here,” Shanna said as she came out, one towel wrapped around her middle section, another around her hair.
“Our bond has tightened.”
She blushed. “Well, I know last night was very nice—”
“This.” He lifted his hand. “It’s shorter now. I couldn’t even get out of the room.”
“Really?”
They tested it: she went to stand by the window, and he could barely reach the door before she got yanked.
“What’s that, ten feet? Fifteen?” she said.
“About fifteen, yes. What the hell is going on?”
“I don’t know!” She lifted her arms in a shrug. “I didn’t do anything!”
“Okay, well …” He turned to the door, then back to her. “I would like to go get changed.”
“Right. Let me throw something on, and I’ll go with you.”
They maneuvered through Shanna getting dressed, going over to his room, then Simon showering and dressing himself, like they were playing some kind of short-distance Twister.
Washed of witchcraft and freshly dressed, they finally made it down for breakfast, where Simon pulled out his phone to prepare for the press conference while Shanna called her grandma.
“So the bond has tightened,” Dolores said. “Curious. Most curious.” She didn’t sound too concerned.
“Once we break it, it’s not going to matter, right?” Shanna said. “It’ll just be more inconvenient until then.”
“I suppose. It might be a side effect of fulfilling the condition. Which you—”
“Yes, yes,” Shanna cut her off, her cheeks coloring as she glanced at Simon. “All conditions fulfilled. I’ll go now. Say hi to Jinx.” And she canceled the call.
“The conference is starting,” he said.
“I’ll go get some food.” Shanna stood but stopped as she perused their options—none within fifteen feet. “Never mind, we’ll eat after.” She sat back down.
Simon folded the phone so it stood on the table, and they could both watch. The conference started casually enough, with Everett taking the role of the spokesperson.
“You’ve known for a couple of weeks now that our beloved CEO, Simon Montague, has passed away,” he said. “I can officially confirm this was due to an ongoing injury from his accident several years ago.”
Simon looked at Shanna. “He can’t have a body, right? There isn’t a duplicate of me going about or, well, being dead?”
She shook her head. “Someone must be lying to him. Or maybe they got an unrecognizable body and they think it’s you. I don’t know what happened to the other guy—your impostor—once we separated him from your body. Maybe there was a mix-up?”
“However, I can assure you, Aries will go on with the same stability and quality of products you’ve been used to,” Everett continued. “Mr. Montague left us a great legacy, and I’m proud to continue it.”
Some reporters shouted questions—Simon couldn’t hear them well over the stream.
“Indeed,” Everett said. “I will take his place as the CEO of Aries tech—only for now,” he quickly added as more buzz from the reporters followed. “Until the board of directors finds a suitable replacement.”
Shanna looked at him, her eyes wide with fear.
“No, no, that’s good,” Simon said. “Well, as good as it can be in the situation. Everett knows the company best, after me. It’s safe in his hands until I return.
” Actually, that dissolved the ball of lead forming in his chest. If he couldn’t be there, Everett was the next best candidate, and once Simon returned, got the mess cleared up, and figured out who wanted him dead, he’d find it much easier to sort out things with his long-time friend and mentor, instead of some random person taking over the company.
A reporter shouted something about a scandal.
“That has also been resolved,” Everett said.
“A simple misunderstanding with one of our funding contracts. Dr. Guidry has received an updated contract, which you can ask her about yourself, and the person at fault for the mistake in the original contract has been reprimanded accordingly.” After another question from the reporter, he added, “All our designs are patented, and if so needed, we can provide proof that none of us ever stole anything. I will not allow such rumors, much less now, when they could ruin the good name of our deceased—”
“Morning.” Chris appeared behind them, munching on a scone. “What’s up?”
“We’re listening to a press conference Simon’s company is having.” Shanna pulled out a chair to let Chris sit and watch.
After a shot of the reporter, the camera panned back to Everett. “As for our future plans …”
“Oh hey, that’s him,” Chris said.
“My CFO, yes,” Simon said. “I mentioned him—”
“No, I recognize his voice.” Chris put down the scone and swallowed. “This is the man who hired me to kill you.”