Page 99 of Perfume Girl

Then reason and reality caught up with me, crushing my post adventure high as I remembered who she was. “Raquel,” I said, getting her attention.

“Hmm?” She looked windswept and as pretty as ever.

“I have a new formula that needs perfecting. It’s missing an ingredient. Is that a project you’d like to help me with? I think it could be a stellar creation.”

She turned her back on me and said softly, “Of course, Astor. I’d be happy to help you with that.”

ON THE WORKBENCH IN FRONTof me sat a marble bowl, ready for me to begin creating something new. Though after yesterday’s adventure on the high seas it was hard to concentrate—I couldn’t stop thinking of the young woman and the danger she’d been in.

Astor had risked his life for her and he’d not given it a second thought. He’d not even panicked when I’d warned him about the sharks. What kind of man did that?

A good man, surely. Certainly a man who was brave and decent. So far, everything I had seen about him highlighted his integrity.

Yet at the same time I sensed I was getting close to the razor’s edge of truth. Astor wanted me to help complete a formula…my formula.And if I did one second of work on Astor’s project all I’d risked would be lost to the House of Beauregard.

I had already implicated myself in some kind of corporate espionage, and what had started out as me searching for clues had turned all the more complicated because of our intimacy. The confusion I’d come here with was front and center in my every thought and emotion.

I had to act fast and think my way to a quick resolution. There could be no more intimacy. No more evenings cuddled up on the couch watching TV in his beachfront home as though we were a normal couple. Because if this hurt me any worse I’d be forced to walk away from everything.

I could do that, right?

Too restless to sit still, I slid off my barstool and reached for a couple of ingredients I had planned on playing with.

My phone lit up and I answered. “Hello?”

“Ms. Wren, you have a visitor.” It was Sarah, the receptionist.

“Who?” I asked.

“He didn’t give his name,” she said. “I have another call coming in. Can you come up to reception, please?”

She left me staring at my phone, wondering who it could be as I headed to the elevator and pushed the button.

I checked my watch. Astor wanted to meet just before noon and that time was looming closer.

When the elevator doors opened onto the foyer, I saw Damien sitting in the waiting room, leafing through a magazine.

When he saw me he shot to his feet. “How are you?”

“Fine.” I threw a reassuring glance at the receptionist. “What are you doing here?”

“I was in town and thought I’d swing by.”

“Is Embry with you?” I looked through the window toward the parking lot.

“No, she’s out in the field. There’s a hurricane in the Caribbean and it looks like it’s going to head toward Dunedin.”

I mused darkly that maybe the hurricane would suck her into the eye of its storm and do us all a favor. “So…why the visit?”

“I have something I need to talk with you about.” He gestured towards the door. “We can talk in the Beamer, if you like.”

“Here is fine.”

“Um…it’s best if we talk privately.”

“I don’t have long,” I said.

“Bit of a change from when you were your own boss.”