“The professor draws moody super-heroes, too?” His clear blue eyes, bulls-eyed by the dark frames, peered over his cup of tea.
“No,” she said, with a smile. “He’s a colorist. Absolute genius. Amazing eye. I had no idea he was also a brilliant artist until I saw his work.” She munched on her bagel, scooping up crumbs on the tip of her finger. “Okay, now it’s your turn.” Her eyes narrowed and her voice hardened. “As I recall, my exact words were: Where are the curls?”
After a moment’s confused hesitation, Marc smiled. The same gleaming white flash, if not set off quite so dramatically by his now only lightly-tanned skin.
“A wig.”
“Obviously. And the eyes?”
He spread his hands and shrugged.
“Contacts.” They answered in unison, both nodding.
“Well,” Amanda shook off her incredulity at their similar reactions. “At least I know the rest of you is real. Or is it… foam rubber? Or surgery?”
Marc laughed, his powerful body shifting into a more comfortable position in the booth.
“I wish to God it were. If you knew the hours I spend in the gym… the months… and the sun tanning. Only my dermatologist knows what I’m doing to my skin. There wasn’t time to get it dark enough, so I’m using some body stuff. I even wear mascara.” His handsome face soured. “Do you know what it’s like for a guy to figure out how to use mascara just because David said Italians all have thick black lashes? Jeez.” He chuckled and took a healthy swallow of his tea. “What an asshole I must seem.”
Well, Amanda thought, whoever he is-did he say his name was Marc? -he does have a sense of the absurdity of it all.He doesn’t seem all that bad. In fact, she could almost begin to see her beloved, dramatic Antonio lurking inside the neatly trimmed, dark-blonde, well-turned-out business man seated across from her.
Oh, yeah, right, Ace. Ten minutes ago you were dumping your ‘beloved’ Antonio. Remember?
“This disguise…” His strong hands curled around the mug of tea. “It seemed to make sense under the circumstances. I just didn’t think the caper would get so complicated. I didn’t expect to…” His eyes locked on hers. “Meet you.”
Amanda felt light-headed. The gods of Olympus, casually watching, instructed her to pay attention; this could be important.
“Ace- Amanda- I know this whole business seems strange, but believe me there’s a good reason. I don’t run around trying to be somebody else. I don’t want anything to come between our getting to know each other… better. Bear with me. It’ll just be a few more weeks and then everything should be settled.”
She thought for a minute. “Is this going to hurt anybody?”
“Not if I can help it.”
“Is it legal? Whatever it is you’re…”
He laughed. “We’re the good guys, Ace!”
“We? How much does Mr. Parkerson have to do with this? Are you in… whatever this thing is… in this together?”
“Oh, yeah! This is pretty much his operation. He’s the one that figured it out. I’m just,” he grinned, “the muscle.”
She pronounced the name slowly. “Marc Parkerson.”
He nodded sheepish. “Marc Richard Parkerson. I’m sorry, Marc isn’t even ‘multi-syllabled.’” He remembered her romantic comment regarding Antonio. “Marcus Antonius? Antonio- get it?” He was gratified to see her wrinkle her nose at the pun.
“And David?”
“Yeah. David’s my older brother. Means well, but he’s a little over-anxious. He’s already pretty upset with how I’m handling this case.” He held her hands lightly, but firmly.
“You’re a private investigator?” She had wished Antonio might be someone to whom she could turn for help.Be careful what you wish for, girl. “What’s wrong at the League? What does it have to the with the class?”
“It’s no big deal. It’ll be cleared up in a few weeks. Earlier, if we’re lucky. Just don’t say anything, okay? To anybody. It’ll be safer.”
“What do you mean… safer?”
“There’s no danger involved. I mean this whole thing is pretty important to David.” One side of his broad, sculpted lips twisted up. “And we already know he’s not too keen on…us.”
Us.
The other side of his handsome mouth rose to join the first. “I think in the long run, David could care less about us. Just, not now.” He leaned toward her. “You’ll play along for now?”
Well, he’s got nice eyes and the hair’s not too bad. And the body’s for real.
The gods of Olympus smiled.
She’d play along… for now.
Chapter 6
AMANDA tried hard to concentrate on what the handsome man across the table was saying. He seemed earnest. He certainly wanted to keep the relationship going.
But this was shaky ground. He had pretended to be someone he wasn’t and allowed her to become attracted to that fabrication. Why should she trust him now? He could have let her in on his little secret last night or at least prepared her for the eventual discovery that he wasn’t exactly what he seemed.
She had felt an excitement and rush of energy from “Antonio” that she had never felt before. He had swept her imagination up to almost transportable heights with his amazing portrayals of powerful masculine works of art and then had swaddled her in personal charm, sensitivity, attentiveness and humor. She had liked that…a lot. What more could a woman ask of a man?
Trust.
If he and the art class instructor were involved in some sort of undercover investigation, that could explain his odd shifts of mood last night and she could understand why he might have hesitated in exposing his true identity.
“Exposing” his true identity.Amanda forced the upward-tugging smirk on her lips into a downward-turned scowl of concentration as the earnest blue eyes behind the Clark Kent horn rims continued to plead their handsome owner’s case.
It was, after all, a great body.As Cissy had so vividly pointed out, Amanda would be foolish not to give it a chance.
Cissy had dragged her to deafening and blinding rock clubs and all Amanda had to show for it was several nights of energetic dancing with good-looking guys. But it didn’t take an MFA to figure out the guys were no more interested in long-term commitments than Cissy was and that Amanda was totally out of her element.
Long-term commitment. Boy, did that sound like Pittsburgh. And, what was wrong with a one- or two-night stand? Especially if the body you were going to take your stand with was built like a Cellini bronze? Christine would be proud.
Marc looked at her questioningly.
Amanda realized she hadn’t the remotest idea what he had been saying for the last few minutes.
“Does that sound all right?” he asked earnestly.
She waved his question aside. “If you promise me what you and David are doing is on the up and up and that nobody is going to get hurt, then I guess I’ll go along with your… operation. But if I find that whatever it is you’re doing is fishy, I’ll blow the whistle on you in an instant.”
He flashed an Antonio sigh-of-relief grin that she recognized in the “Marc” face. Amanda searched the blue eyes. She was beginning to connect the two personalities.
“Thanks, Ace,” he reached across to run his fingers down her jaw. “I promise when this is over, and it will be soon, you’ll be proud.”
Although, Marc thought to himself as his fingers touched her delicate skin, Ace might not be so happy to find that one of her friends is an international… miscreant. His fingertips reveled in the silken touch even as he allowed himself the possibility of a worst scenario.