Three Fates

that didn’t mean she couldn’t hug the excitement of being there, of finally being somewhere, tight against her.
    It was everything she imagined. The sleek towers of buildings, the acres of shops, the fast and crowded streets. To see them for the first time while being whisked along in a limousine—a genuine limousine as big as a boat, with seats of buttery leather and a uniformed driver complete with cap—was the most delicious of adventures.
    She could barely wait to call her mother and tell her about it. And oh, how her fingers itched to flip and fiddle with all the little switches. She sent Jack a sidelong look. He was sitting, legs stretched out, dark glasses in place with his hands folded restfully over his stomach.
    She started to reach up to the panel, snatched her hand back. Perhaps he was sleeping and wouldn’t see, but the driver might.
    “Go ahead and play with them,” Jack murmured.
    She flushed, shrugged. “I was just wondering what everything did.” She reached up, idly she thought, and toyed with the various light schemes. Then the radio, the television, the sunroof. “It wouldn’t be so hard to put all this in an ordinary car,” she concluded. “Certainly you could have it in a caravan, and people would feel very plush while they traveled.”
    She eyed the phone, thought of her family again. “I need to get in touch with my brothers. I don’t like not being able to just ring them and tell them I’m here.”
    “We’ll go by and see them in person. Shortly.”
    The limo glided, quiet as a ghost, to the curb, and Rebecca had her first look at Jack’s building. It didn’t seem like much, she mused as she stepped onto the sidewalk. She’d expected a man with all his wherewithal to live in some glossy place with fancy touches and one of those soldierly doormen.
    Still it seemed a sturdy sort of place to her, and pitted with character. She was neither surprised nor disappointed when he used both keycard and code to gain entrance into the narrow lobby. And yet another card, another code to access the elevator.
    “I would have thought you lived alone,” she began as the elevator started up.
    “I do.”
    “No, I mean to say not in a flat with neighbors.”
    “I do,” he said again. “I have the only apartment in the building.”
    “It seems awfully big not to make use of the other space.”
    “I make use of it.”
    The elevator stopped. He disengaged locks and alarms, then opened the door into his living space.
    “Well.” She stepped inside, onto a floor with wide, dark planks, scanned the biscuit-colored walls, the bold art, the wide windows. “You’ve made use of this space right enough.”
    There were gorgeous old rugs. She didn’t know enough about such things to recognize Chinese Deco, but she liked the blend of colors and the way they accented the deep hues and deep cushions of the sofas, the chairs, even the heavy polished wood.
    She wandered through, noting first it was tidy, then that it was tasteful. And last that it was stylish. She liked the wavy glass blocks that separated the kitchen from the living space, and the framed arches that led to what she supposed were hallways and bedrooms.
    “It seems a lot of room for a single man.”
    “I don’t like to be crowded.”
    She nodded, turned back. Yes, she thought, it suited him. A clever and unusual space for a clever and unusual man. “You can be sure I won’t crowd you, Jack. Is there a place I can put my things, maybe have a wash and change before we go see my brothers?”
    “Two bedrooms down the hall. Mine’s on the right, spare’s on the left.” He waited a beat, watching her. “Take your pick.”
    “My choice, is it?” She let out a careful breath as she lifted her duffel. “I’ll take the spare for the moment. And I have something to say to you.”
    “Go ahead.”
    “I want to sleep with you, and I don’t generally have that kind of want for a man on such short acquaintance. But I’m thinking it might be better if we’re a bit careful with each other for a while yet. Until we’re both perfectly sure that the sex isn’t some sort of payment, on either side.”
    “I don’t take sex as payment.”
    “That’s good, and you’ll be sure if it’s offered it isn’t meant as such. I won’t be long.” She carried her bag through the arch and took the room on the left.
    He jammed his hands in his pockets, paced to the window. Then turned and had taken two strides after her when his office