Simon had somehow gotten through dinner, and then drinks and chatting afterwards without being noticed too much. He'd forced himself to respond when needed, and otherwise acted as normal as he could get himself to do. He hoped if anyone thought him distracted they'd put it down to the fact that Jonah still frowned at him whenever he'd touched Bobbie. Not that he blamed Jonah one bit. He had every right to be suspicious and wonder.
Most of his brain power, such as it was, had been devoted to pondering what he'd seen of the Book. What he'd learned of the Book from Dia. And considering the fact that he was absolutely certain he'd seen that symbol before and knew where he'd seen it and now was trying to figure out what he should do about that.
He finished up in the bathroom and walked out into the bedroom to find Bobbie sitting up in bed patiently waiting for him. The bedroom was gorgeous and Bobbie looked like a fairy princess sitting there as if she was entirely in her element. Ian's entire manor house just reeked of great taste and money. And Bobbie fit such surroundings, even if her own apartment was more modern. He'd watched her carefully and seen how comfortable she was here. It wasn't just being with her family. There was more to it than that. She needed someone rich and legal, not some two-penny thief who lived on the edge and worse, liked it.
He forced a smile and walked over to crawl into bed with her. "Hi, beautiful woman. No, don't even tell me you aren't because of your lip. Actually it gives you a kind of Angelica Jolie look, all sexy pouty."
"Sexy pouty? she said. "Is that like sultry and seductive?"
"Oh yeah," he said wrapping an arm around her. "I can't believe my good luck to be with someone so maddeningly sexy."
She dimpled. "It's just one more service of the house, honey. All aimed at making sure you keep doing what you been doing."
"Hmmm," he replied snuggling down to get his nose in her hair. "You smell good too."
"So do you, love." She deepened her dimples and shifted closer. "So what's on your mind?"
"You, of course."
She shook her head. "Alright. We can make love first and talk after, or talk first and make love after. In either case, you might notice a sort of repetitiveness to the planned activities."
"Oh. Well, I was just thinking about what Dia said. It's pretty awesome not to mention weird to think she's been tasked with protecting that Book. And a Quest? Seriously?"
"Isn't it. I'm thinking though that at the moment she doesn't actually know what she's going to do. Keep it, sell it, or rent out as it were." She looked up at him, her hand stroking his chest. "Would you go on a quest if you could?"
"I might. You've got to admit it's an intriguing thought."
"It is. The sort of adventure you dream of as a kid. But this isn't what had you distracted all evening. Or at least I don't think it is," she amended, kissing his neck and nuzzling his shoulder.
"Well, it kind of is."
"How so?"
"Remember how Leroy said he thought he'd seen that weird symbol before? Well, I think I have too."
She lifted her head from his shoulder. "Wow. Where?"
"In Smitty's notebook."
She cocked her head at him, reaching for his hand. "The one from the vault?"
"Yeah. And maybe in others he has too. Smitty researches odd stuff, you know? He collects bits, tries to connect dots, suss out meanings, pays attention to the data that most scientists throw out because it doesn't fit. So it isn't all that odd that if there was a weird symbol somewhere he'd have taken a serious look at it and researched it as far as he could."
"I'll have to tell Dia, set it up for her to take a look at the notebook," Bobbie said. "I'm sure Rimes will let her."
"Uhm..."
"It'll be fine, sweetie, no one will know what happened. I promise," she said, kissing him. "Maybe you can work it so she can talk to Smitty."
"Yeah, that'd be better really. Although he's kind of, you know, leery of strangers. But I think I can get him to talk to her."
She smiled. "That's really sweet of you to offer. Only I didn't mean instead of, I meant as well as, so she could do both. She's going to want to see it, the notebook I mean."
"Ah, well, I doubt it would tell her much. The notebook I mean. He'll have a lot more on his computer."
"Well, you work on Smitty and I'll talk to Rimes. She'll really appreciate this, honey."
"Let's leave Rimes out of this, okay? Seriously. Not a good idea."
She drew her brows together, puzzled. "Why not?"
He groaned and looked away.
"What's wrong, honey? What is it you don't want to tell me?"
"I switched notebooks. There isn't anything in the notebook I gave you for the Zoo that will be helpful."
She sat up. "I see."
The area between his brows furrowed in concentration as he looked at her. "It's Smitty's notebook. I promised to get it back for him."
"You know what? I get all that. But you lied to me by letting me believe a lie."
"That's not fair. I just... Who'd know?"
"What's not fair? Calling a lie a lie?" she said. "The fact that no one knows doesn't matter, it isn't cogent."
"The fact that the bloody CIA had stolen goods, what, that isn't cogent?"
"Not in terms of this conversation it isn't. What's cogent is I trusted you. That I keep trusting you and it keeps turning out I shouldn't have."
"Of course you should trust me. I promised to do this before I ever met you. A promise is a promise. Especially one to my friend. I didn't take the tapestry. That was because I didn't want to do anything to get you into trouble. The notebook wasn't. It's back there, sitting moldering away, and no one knows it isn't the same one."
"Damn it, you don't get it, do you?" she said. "I'm not talking about any of that. I don't care about any of that. I'm talking about what's between you and me. I'm talking about how you conned me and you think the circumstances make it acceptable to have done so. I'm talking about how you," she ended, yelling now, " LIED. TO. ME."
Simon got out of bed, stark naked and stared at her, hands on hips. Then he leaned down toward her and glared. "See! This is EXACTLY why I didn't tell you. I knew you'd go all moralist on me, and talk about stuff that doesn't matter! Not to mention, it was stuff that was BEFORE you and I.. we.. Before I even knew who or what you were!"
"Oh, I must be confused," she said sarcastically. "I was under the impression that when we were at Kinko's and you were copying what you deliberately led me to believe was the notebook you'd taken, that you KNEW who and what I was. And how the hell is it moralistic to be upset that you tell me you love me, you sleep in my bed, and the whole time you know there are lies between us?"
"Yes, I didn't tell you. It was stupid to tell you at that point, because we'd have been shouting at each other in Kinko's rather than in a bedroom! Argh!" he added, unhelpfully.
She got out of bed, as naked as he, her eyes narrowed to slits flashing blue fire and stalked up to him, stopping when her nose was an inch from his, hands on her hips. "And you don't see anything wrong with that? Or with the fact that afterwards you didn't tell me either," she ground out.
"No! If it meant we could avoid this! No, dammit, I didn't!" He was meeting her nose too, hands on hips, staring her in the eyes.
"You dolt! This we can survive, lies we can't!" she said, jabbing her finger in his chest, punctuating each syllable.
He grabbed her hand in his. "Don't do that!"
"Do what? Tell you the truth?" she spat, wrenching her hand away.
"Bobbie! This is nuts. Stop it!"
"Bobbie," a voice roared from the doorway. "What the hell is going on?"
Bobbie jumped and grabbed for the comforter. "Nothing I can't handle, Daddy," she said furious at the interruption. "It's none of your concern!"
Jonah took a step into the room, his face dark with anger. "Don't get smart with me, Roberta Josephine. You show up here with a busted lip and a bruised neck and god knows what else because of a man your sisters didn't even know you were dating, much less sleeping with and now you're having a shouting match in the middle of the night. I demand to know what's going on?" he asked again, yelling as loudly as they'd been.
"It's private!" Bobbie said, uncowed.
Simon belatedly grabbed a pillow to hold in front of himself. "Don't you yell at her like that! She's a grown woman. And this is none of your business!"
Jonah blinked, flabbergasted surprise on his face and deflected his fire at Simon. "She's MY DAUGHTER. You're just the jackanapes she's screwing whose business gets her beat up."
Bobbie swore under her breath and advanced on her father like she'd advanced on Simon, backing him towards the door. "He is NOT just some jackanapes I'm screwing. I LOVE HIM! He doesn't deserve it but I'm STUCK with it. Now get out. Go back to bed. This is none of your business any more than your fights with Mama are mine." She reached behind him, and grabbed the door handle. "GO!" She yelled, starting to wave with her other hand and then clutching at the comforter again in haste.
Fortunately for Bobbie, Libby now stood behind him, covered in a frilly wrapper, her hair tumbling around her face. "Jonah! What do you think you're doing. Come back to bed. You'd just reached the good part!"
Lev, standing a bit down the hall, snickered. Ian, also in the hall, took a firm step forward.
Simon breathing hard, said, through gritted teeth, "We'd like a little privacy here."
Bobbie glared her agreement as Libby grabbed Jonah's arm and towed him back to their room. Then she flung the door closed with a slam and turned to Simon. "You lied to me," she said, enunciating each syllable separately, stalking him towards the bed. "If you EVER, EVER lie to me again for ANY reason, ANY REASON AT ALL, you'll sing soprano the rest of you life. You got that?"
"I got that," he yelled back. "But it had better be a pact, because if you lie to me, I'll.. I'll leave."
"I've never lied to you!"
"You did too!"
"When did I lie to you?" she asked, stunned.
"When I came in and you were hurt. You tried to pretend you fell. You wanted me to believe it was nothing. You SAID it was nothing."
"I did fall, when he pushed me. And it was nothing. Just a cut and some bruises."
"See! There you go. Same as what I did. Trying to make me think something that wasn't true. Where's the difference Bobbie. Huh?"
"And if I say not much will you be happy you've won and figure it's okay to do it again?"
He straightened up and looked at her. "No. No, I won't. And I haven't won anything. It's just that we're both human and we both want to spare the other one, and it's natural to try to not hurt when we don't have to."
She took another step towards him, trapping him against the bed and let the comforter fall. "I can handle being hurt. I can't handle not knowing if I can believe you or not."
"I know. You're strong as well as beautiful. You're intelligent and I really don't deserve you, but we love one another, so I guess we'd best figure out how to make the best of the situation."
She nodded and shoved him back on the bed, then put a knee on either side of his hips. 'Is this where we kiss and make up?"
"God I hope so," he replied sincerely. His erection echoed that sentiment.
"All I can say is you've got a lot of kissing and making up to do," she said, bending towards him. "It's gonna be hard work."
"I'll give it my all," he said as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her down onto him. "But honey, please, no lusty screaming when you climax. Daddy's listening."
Most of his brain power, such as it was, had been devoted to pondering what he'd seen of the Book. What he'd learned of the Book from Dia. And considering the fact that he was absolutely certain he'd seen that symbol before and knew where he'd seen it and now was trying to figure out what he should do about that.
He finished up in the bathroom and walked out into the bedroom to find Bobbie sitting up in bed patiently waiting for him. The bedroom was gorgeous and Bobbie looked like a fairy princess sitting there as if she was entirely in her element. Ian's entire manor house just reeked of great taste and money. And Bobbie fit such surroundings, even if her own apartment was more modern. He'd watched her carefully and seen how comfortable she was here. It wasn't just being with her family. There was more to it than that. She needed someone rich and legal, not some two-penny thief who lived on the edge and worse, liked it.
He forced a smile and walked over to crawl into bed with her. "Hi, beautiful woman. No, don't even tell me you aren't because of your lip. Actually it gives you a kind of Angelica Jolie look, all sexy pouty."
"Sexy pouty? she said. "Is that like sultry and seductive?"
"Oh yeah," he said wrapping an arm around her. "I can't believe my good luck to be with someone so maddeningly sexy."
She dimpled. "It's just one more service of the house, honey. All aimed at making sure you keep doing what you been doing."
"Hmmm," he replied snuggling down to get his nose in her hair. "You smell good too."
"So do you, love." She deepened her dimples and shifted closer. "So what's on your mind?"
"You, of course."
She shook her head. "Alright. We can make love first and talk after, or talk first and make love after. In either case, you might notice a sort of repetitiveness to the planned activities."
"Oh. Well, I was just thinking about what Dia said. It's pretty awesome not to mention weird to think she's been tasked with protecting that Book. And a Quest? Seriously?"
"Isn't it. I'm thinking though that at the moment she doesn't actually know what she's going to do. Keep it, sell it, or rent out as it were." She looked up at him, her hand stroking his chest. "Would you go on a quest if you could?"
"I might. You've got to admit it's an intriguing thought."
"It is. The sort of adventure you dream of as a kid. But this isn't what had you distracted all evening. Or at least I don't think it is," she amended, kissing his neck and nuzzling his shoulder.
"Well, it kind of is."
"How so?"
"Remember how Leroy said he thought he'd seen that weird symbol before? Well, I think I have too."
She lifted her head from his shoulder. "Wow. Where?"
"In Smitty's notebook."
She cocked her head at him, reaching for his hand. "The one from the vault?"
"Yeah. And maybe in others he has too. Smitty researches odd stuff, you know? He collects bits, tries to connect dots, suss out meanings, pays attention to the data that most scientists throw out because it doesn't fit. So it isn't all that odd that if there was a weird symbol somewhere he'd have taken a serious look at it and researched it as far as he could."
"I'll have to tell Dia, set it up for her to take a look at the notebook," Bobbie said. "I'm sure Rimes will let her."
"Uhm..."
"It'll be fine, sweetie, no one will know what happened. I promise," she said, kissing him. "Maybe you can work it so she can talk to Smitty."
"Yeah, that'd be better really. Although he's kind of, you know, leery of strangers. But I think I can get him to talk to her."
She smiled. "That's really sweet of you to offer. Only I didn't mean instead of, I meant as well as, so she could do both. She's going to want to see it, the notebook I mean."
"Ah, well, I doubt it would tell her much. The notebook I mean. He'll have a lot more on his computer."
"Well, you work on Smitty and I'll talk to Rimes. She'll really appreciate this, honey."
"Let's leave Rimes out of this, okay? Seriously. Not a good idea."
She drew her brows together, puzzled. "Why not?"
He groaned and looked away.
"What's wrong, honey? What is it you don't want to tell me?"
"I switched notebooks. There isn't anything in the notebook I gave you for the Zoo that will be helpful."
She sat up. "I see."
The area between his brows furrowed in concentration as he looked at her. "It's Smitty's notebook. I promised to get it back for him."
"You know what? I get all that. But you lied to me by letting me believe a lie."
"That's not fair. I just... Who'd know?"
"What's not fair? Calling a lie a lie?" she said. "The fact that no one knows doesn't matter, it isn't cogent."
"The fact that the bloody CIA had stolen goods, what, that isn't cogent?"
"Not in terms of this conversation it isn't. What's cogent is I trusted you. That I keep trusting you and it keeps turning out I shouldn't have."
"Of course you should trust me. I promised to do this before I ever met you. A promise is a promise. Especially one to my friend. I didn't take the tapestry. That was because I didn't want to do anything to get you into trouble. The notebook wasn't. It's back there, sitting moldering away, and no one knows it isn't the same one."
"Damn it, you don't get it, do you?" she said. "I'm not talking about any of that. I don't care about any of that. I'm talking about what's between you and me. I'm talking about how you conned me and you think the circumstances make it acceptable to have done so. I'm talking about how you," she ended, yelling now, " LIED. TO. ME."
Simon got out of bed, stark naked and stared at her, hands on hips. Then he leaned down toward her and glared. "See! This is EXACTLY why I didn't tell you. I knew you'd go all moralist on me, and talk about stuff that doesn't matter! Not to mention, it was stuff that was BEFORE you and I.. we.. Before I even knew who or what you were!"
"Oh, I must be confused," she said sarcastically. "I was under the impression that when we were at Kinko's and you were copying what you deliberately led me to believe was the notebook you'd taken, that you KNEW who and what I was. And how the hell is it moralistic to be upset that you tell me you love me, you sleep in my bed, and the whole time you know there are lies between us?"
"Yes, I didn't tell you. It was stupid to tell you at that point, because we'd have been shouting at each other in Kinko's rather than in a bedroom! Argh!" he added, unhelpfully.
She got out of bed, as naked as he, her eyes narrowed to slits flashing blue fire and stalked up to him, stopping when her nose was an inch from his, hands on her hips. "And you don't see anything wrong with that? Or with the fact that afterwards you didn't tell me either," she ground out.
"No! If it meant we could avoid this! No, dammit, I didn't!" He was meeting her nose too, hands on hips, staring her in the eyes.
"You dolt! This we can survive, lies we can't!" she said, jabbing her finger in his chest, punctuating each syllable.
He grabbed her hand in his. "Don't do that!"
"Do what? Tell you the truth?" she spat, wrenching her hand away.
"Bobbie! This is nuts. Stop it!"
"Bobbie," a voice roared from the doorway. "What the hell is going on?"
Bobbie jumped and grabbed for the comforter. "Nothing I can't handle, Daddy," she said furious at the interruption. "It's none of your concern!"
Jonah took a step into the room, his face dark with anger. "Don't get smart with me, Roberta Josephine. You show up here with a busted lip and a bruised neck and god knows what else because of a man your sisters didn't even know you were dating, much less sleeping with and now you're having a shouting match in the middle of the night. I demand to know what's going on?" he asked again, yelling as loudly as they'd been.
"It's private!" Bobbie said, uncowed.
Simon belatedly grabbed a pillow to hold in front of himself. "Don't you yell at her like that! She's a grown woman. And this is none of your business!"
Jonah blinked, flabbergasted surprise on his face and deflected his fire at Simon. "She's MY DAUGHTER. You're just the jackanapes she's screwing whose business gets her beat up."
Bobbie swore under her breath and advanced on her father like she'd advanced on Simon, backing him towards the door. "He is NOT just some jackanapes I'm screwing. I LOVE HIM! He doesn't deserve it but I'm STUCK with it. Now get out. Go back to bed. This is none of your business any more than your fights with Mama are mine." She reached behind him, and grabbed the door handle. "GO!" She yelled, starting to wave with her other hand and then clutching at the comforter again in haste.
Fortunately for Bobbie, Libby now stood behind him, covered in a frilly wrapper, her hair tumbling around her face. "Jonah! What do you think you're doing. Come back to bed. You'd just reached the good part!"
Lev, standing a bit down the hall, snickered. Ian, also in the hall, took a firm step forward.
Simon breathing hard, said, through gritted teeth, "We'd like a little privacy here."
Bobbie glared her agreement as Libby grabbed Jonah's arm and towed him back to their room. Then she flung the door closed with a slam and turned to Simon. "You lied to me," she said, enunciating each syllable separately, stalking him towards the bed. "If you EVER, EVER lie to me again for ANY reason, ANY REASON AT ALL, you'll sing soprano the rest of you life. You got that?"
"I got that," he yelled back. "But it had better be a pact, because if you lie to me, I'll.. I'll leave."
"I've never lied to you!"
"You did too!"
"When did I lie to you?" she asked, stunned.
"When I came in and you were hurt. You tried to pretend you fell. You wanted me to believe it was nothing. You SAID it was nothing."
"I did fall, when he pushed me. And it was nothing. Just a cut and some bruises."
"See! There you go. Same as what I did. Trying to make me think something that wasn't true. Where's the difference Bobbie. Huh?"
"And if I say not much will you be happy you've won and figure it's okay to do it again?"
He straightened up and looked at her. "No. No, I won't. And I haven't won anything. It's just that we're both human and we both want to spare the other one, and it's natural to try to not hurt when we don't have to."
She took another step towards him, trapping him against the bed and let the comforter fall. "I can handle being hurt. I can't handle not knowing if I can believe you or not."
"I know. You're strong as well as beautiful. You're intelligent and I really don't deserve you, but we love one another, so I guess we'd best figure out how to make the best of the situation."
She nodded and shoved him back on the bed, then put a knee on either side of his hips. 'Is this where we kiss and make up?"
"God I hope so," he replied sincerely. His erection echoed that sentiment.
"All I can say is you've got a lot of kissing and making up to do," she said, bending towards him. "It's gonna be hard work."
"I'll give it my all," he said as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her down onto him. "But honey, please, no lusty screaming when you climax. Daddy's listening."
The Seal of Solomon
Chapter Fourteen