Scandal. Julie Kistler
sounded pornographic. Sixteen positions? He didn’t even know sixteen positions, and he was a man of the world! Nick’s hands clenched into fists. If Franco had been in front of him at that moment, he swore he would’ve knocked the count’s teeth in.
“Sixteen sexual positions, you see?” Isabella said helpfully, as if he hadn’t already figured that out on his own. “My inspiration was to combine those positions with characters from Greek mythology to say something about how earthly passion and supernatural power combine.”
As she gazed into space, enraptured by her idea, Nick didn’t know how to respond.
“It’s very strong, Nick,” she said dreamily. “Very beautiful. Simply bursting with lust and ecstasy and all of the things I wanted to—”
“Lust and ecstasy…You’ve gone too far this time,” he muttered. Clearly, they never should’ve let Isabella study in Italy. Or get anywhere near the depraved Franco Pirelli, Conte di Bassano. “Much too far.”
“But, Nick, you haven’t seen—”
“I will soon enough,” he growled. As he glanced around to find his jacket, he hastily redid his collar and began to tie his cravat. “Where is it? Where are you working these days?”
“It’s not at my studio.” She folded her arms, laying the immense puffs of her sleeves over the dainty bows on her bodice, looking defiant and stubborn, as well as about twelve years old. But twelve-year-olds didn’t create artwork bursting with lust and ecstasy and the lewd sexual encounters of Greek gods.
“Where then?”
Isabella lifted her pointy little chin, so much like their mother’s. “By now, it should already be in place at the Women’s Building. The delivery men had already arrived and carted it up before I left. So you see it’s too late for you to stop it.”
This time, he didn’t bother to keep his voice down. “How exactly do you think Bertha Palmer and the Lady Managers are going to respond to something like that? If your statue is one-tenth as lurid as I’m imagining it, there will be a scandal that even you can’t live down.”
“Nick, really,” she said indignantly. “There are nude statues all over the fair. Have you seen the naked mermaids frolicking in the fountain in the Grand Basin? Perhaps you noticed one or two of the gigantic, half-draped women called Lady Victory or Spirit of Discovery or Westward Ho or whatever it is they’ve named them. As long as they’re not real people, but some sort of symbol, nobody minds if their breasts are spilling out all over the Fine Arts Building.”
“It’s not the same, Bella,” he insisted. “And I don’t have time to discuss it with you. I have to find this monster you’ve created and get it out of there before anyone sees it. The Women’s Building, right?”
“The fair isn’t open yet,” she called after him as he dashed out the door. “Not for several hours. When you see how beautiful it is, you won’t be able to destroy it. It’s a fool’s errand, Nick!”
He ignored her. Bored no more, energized by his mission to find and do away with whatever it was his sister had created, Nick Tempest set off for the grounds of the world-famous Columbian Exposition.
3
How to Be a Scandalous Woman, Rule 3:
There are times you have to draw a line in the sand. Any crab that crosses? Dead.
“H I THERE ,” Jordan managed, doing her best not to sound flustered or guilty in front of Daniel. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d already left for San Francisco.”
“San Diego.”
“Right. San Diego. I meant San Diego.” How lame was it not to know where your boyfriend was taking off to for a week? Okay, so she was too busy cheating on him in her dreams to notice where he was going. Not exactly a good excuse. “Sorry. But I thought you’d already left.”
He stood there on the other side of her desk, holding a briefcase in one hand, shifting from one foot to the other. “I canceled my trip.”
“The whole thing?”
That was surprising. Daniel never canceled anything, especially not a trip like this, where he was combining a conference with a job interview. Unlike her, with her never-ending dissertation, Daniel had already finished up his PhD in economics, and now he was scoping out the best job prospects at the best universities in his usual precise and methodical way.
Looking him over, Jordan asked, “Are you okay? You’re not sick or anything, are you?”
“No, no. I’m fine. I just had a change of plans.”
“That’s…not like you.”
“I don’t need to go.” He gave her a small smile. “I just heard from Princeton. I’m in.”
“In? You mean they offered you a position? At Princeton?”
He nodded, his smile still firmly in place.
“Daniel, that’s amazing. Wow. When did this happen?”
“I got the call this morning.”
She blinked. “And this is the first you’re telling me?”
He lifted his narrow shoulders in a half-shrug. “I needed to get my thoughts in order, come up with a plan.” Propping the briefcase on the edge of her desk, he flipped it open and rustled around inside. “This will mean a lot of changes for both of us.”
“So…that means you said yes?” she asked slowly.
“Of course I said yes. They were my first choice.”
“Well, of course, but…” But it involved her, too. In ways she didn’t even want to think about. She put that aside for the time being. “Maybe we should, you know, celebrate.” She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do. Leap over her desk and hug him? Pick up the phone and get some champagne delivered? Daniel didn’t seem all that excited, though. More…determined. Which was odd.
“I’d rather get things squared away first.” He pulled a sheaf of papers out of his briefcase, reaching over the laptop to hand her the top sheet. “This is the schedule I came up with. I thought we could go over it together.”
Princeton, changes, schedules, all pondered, decided upon, and neatly typed up and printed out, without even consulting her. Jordan felt her hackles begin to rise as she glanced down at the paper.
“You’ll see,” he went on, “that item one is me moving out there, item two is finding a place for us to live, and item three is the wedding. Something small, just the two of us and maybe my parents, is probably best. We could do it after we get to New Jersey, since that’s so close to where my parents are. You wouldn’t need yours there, would you?”
She glanced up from his list. “What? I’m sorry. What are we talking about?”
“Your parents. Our wedding. I didn’t think you’d want them there. I mean, no offense, but they’re sort of problematic.” Daniel grimaced. “They haven’t laid eyes on each other in twenty years, have they? And your father’s new family with Stacey…What’s the total? Four kids under five?”
He was waiting for an answer, but she was still way behind in this conversation, back where he’d said, Item three is the wedding …. “I’m sorry, but I’m lost.”
“Your dad,” he prompted. “Stacey. Four kids under five.”
Jordan lifted a hand to her head, mumbling a response on automatic pilot. “Not Stacey. Michelle. Stacey was his second wife. Then Tracy. Michelle is the new one.”
“Right. The thing is, both your parents are, well, kind of nutty,” he told her. “Your mother would probably want to write us some erotic Ode to Fertility or something, and your dad would bring his new wife who’s