Tied With a Bow

the second-floor balcony door opened. Merrick raised his binoculars and waited, his muscles tight with anticipation.
    In all the years that he’d been sending Alissa North gifts, he’d never seen her open one. Just as she’d never seen him open one of her letters. A law, a wall, and hundreds of security officers separated them and probably always would. And yet the exchange of letters and gifts didn’t stop.
    Alissa stepped out and stood just under the lamp.
    “Exactly there,” he murmured.
    She glanced around, but even if she looked up she wouldn’t see him. There were no lights on in the suite. He stood, as he lived, absorbed in darkness. The single spot of white light in his world wore a silvery blue dress and carefully removed the indigo tissue paper from her present.
    Alissa claimed that she couldn’t keep the gifts he sent, which goaded Merrick to find something she wouldn’t be able to part with. Alissa came from the line of muses who inspired authors, and he’d read that she collected rare books. In an interview, she’d once talked about how the world becomes what a person perceives it to be, quoting a line from John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost. “The mind in its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.”
    Merrick had liked the line, too, and so a search was begun that took two years.
    When Alissa finished unwrapping the 1669 edition of Paradise Lost , her hand fluttered to her mouth in surprise.
    Merrick grinned. “I defy you to give that away.”
    She stared at the book for several long moments and shook her head.
    “Yes, that was extremely hard to acquire,” he said, imagining what she was thinking. “And worth every penny to see your face when you opened it.”
    She glanced up, and it was as though she looked right at him. Those eyes, so pale and blue, trapped him in her gaze. A second later, she looked around again. Then she touched her lips and extended her fingers, blowing a kiss into the night.
    He didn’t move, didn’t breathe. She stood still as a statue, too. It was like being frozen in time together. Snow began to fall, casting her as an angel in a snow globe.
    Her lips moved silently. “Merry Christmas, Merrick.”
    He exhaled slowly, every inch of him alive for a girl he’d never even kissed. Whispering, he said, “Merry Christmas, Alissa.”
     
     
    “Hello, Kate.”
    She glanced over her shoulder and found Nathaniel, tuxedo clad and as beautifully bronze as ever. Her heart sped to a pounding rhythm on a rush of heady adrenaline. Normally, she would have hesitated, but nothing was normal anymore. She was elated to see him unhurt and looking for her. If she’d been through all he had, she would’ve gone into the revenge business, too, and never looked back, never noticed a girl. But here he was, and it felt like a missing part of her had been returned.
    Her heart thudded, her throat burned, and her eyes stung as she stepped forward. She slid her arms around his neck and hugged him, shocked by how amazing it felt to touch him.
    “Hi,” she whispered.
    His arms folded around her. “Kate, you’re trembling.”
    “Yeah, I’ve been through a lot today. So have you, of course.” She started to step back, but his grip tightened.
    “Don’t go yet. Doesn’t this feel right?” he asked, his voice deep and earnest. “When I was wounded, you were my comfort. Now you’re shaking; I’ll be your strength. I’d like to give you what you need. Or want. I won’t ask you what that is . . . though it could make things more—but perhaps not—” The corner of his mouth turned down, and he shook his head, then added something in a foreign language.
    She chuckled. “What was that last part?”
    “Etruscan. You don’t speak Etruscan, do you?”
    “No.”
    “Good,” he said.
    She tipped her head back, looking him in the eye. “And neither does anyone else, other than you.” She smiled at him. “You should let me go. People are starting to stare.”
    “If we danced, I wouldn’t have to let you go, right?”
    “I don’t really dance.”
    “Why not?” he asked, sounding as surprised as if she’d said “I don’t really eat.”
    “That’s not important right now, is it?” Her palms slid off his shoulders, and she drew her hands back, leaning away. “I still have your ring. Do you remember how you got it?”
    He shook his head.
    “Nathaniel, there are things we need to talk about.”
    “Of course, Kate. We can do whatever