Free The Wizard of Seattle by Kay Hooper Page B

remembered. She had undone the lock easily and automatically, and there had been nothing else to keep her out of the room.
    She set her half-finished glass of tea beside her and hugged her upraised knees as she continued gazing at the forbidden door. Why? Why had he shut her out? Was this just another sign of his withdrawal from her, or was there something else going on, something he hadn’t told her about? Something he didn’t trust her to know?
    No matter what the answers were, the questions had sown even more seeds of anxiety and fear in Serena. Coupled with the pain and fury of what she had discovered in the night, this new sign of trouble between her and Merlin made her emotional state so turbulent, she couldn’t even think straight. She could only sit there on the stairs and wait, the confused emotions simmering, until he came home.
    When he finally opened the front door almost an hour later, she didn’t move or greet him. She just watched as he set an overnight bag on the floor, shrugged out of his raincoat, and hung it on the coat tree by the door.
    His lean face still, the handsome features composed, he turned and looked steadily at her. After a moment he said calmly, “You found the switch.”
    It didn’t surprise her that he knew. He had sensed her power from the first time he’d set eyes on her, so of course he could sense that she was now able to completely contain that power.
    Serena rose slowly and stepped down to the bottom of the stairs. “That’s not all I found,” she said, and she could hear the strained note in her own voice contrasting sharply with his utter self-possession.
    Rachel came into the foyer before he could respond. Whether she saw or sensed a problem, all she placidly said was, “You’re home. Dinner in half an hour.”
    “Thank you, Rachel,” Merlin said, still looking at Serena.
    As the housekeeper retreated to her domain, Serena felt a stab of real panic. It was now, she realized. Theconfrontation she had shied away from loomed between them. There was no way to stop it now, not for her or for him. And no matter how it ended, their relationship would never again be the same.
    “Richard—”
    “In the study. Not out here.” Leaving his bag there on the floor, Merlin crossed the space to his study door and opened it.
    “That’s a dandy lock you made,” she said as she followed him into the room and closed the door, leaning back against it. She didn’t look around at the book-lined walls, or at the very old scrolls placed on several shelves, and she didn’t notice that his big desk was unusually cluttered with several opened books and a number of scrolls.
    He didn’t reply or react to her faintly accusing statement, merely walking to the front of his desk and then turning to face her as he leaned against it and lightly gripped the edge on either side of his hips. Serena wondered vaguely if they both felt the need of support. No, not Merlin, she thought. Surely not Merlin.
    “Who is she, Richard?” The question was blurted without tact or grace.
    Very quietly, impassively, he replied, “Who she is doesn’t concern you, Serena.”
    Once Serena might have heeded the warning in his tone and backed away from what he clearly had no wish to discuss, but that time was past. Her stormy emotions were clawing at her, demanding an outlet, and she could no more stop her falsely bright, brittle words than she could stop breathing.
    “Well, I’m reasonably sure she isn’t a wife. A mistress then? She was surely no stranger, I know that.”
    “You know nothing about it.”
    “I know it wasn’t the first time you were with her. That was obvious. I know what she looks like. Boy, do I know what she looks like. Head to toe.”
    “You had no right to be there,” he said slowly, giving every word a terrible weight.
    Stung, she said, “I didn’t
try
to be there, dammit. I have no idea how I
got
there. I was asleep, Richard, andso far you haven’t taught me a thing about