Dark Perception: The Corde Noire Series Read online

  Melinda tried not to laugh. Me? Refined? “My grandmother is the reason I speak the way I do. Grandma Teresa was from England and raised me never to sound like a poor girl from rural Mississippi. She taught me a great deal about manners, social graces, and how to act like a lady. Growing up with four brothers may not have always allowed me to put her guidance into practice, but I’ve never stopped hearing her voice in my head.”

  “How did she get from England to Mississippi?”

  “Her father was a cattle rancher and did business with my family’s cattle farm in Mississippi. When she was twenty, she came to the U.S. and married my grandfather. The marriage was arranged, but my grandmother said it eventually turned into love.”

  A spindly waiter with a bald head approached their table. He quickly began replacing china, crystal, and silver utensils.

  “Mel, why don’t you bring us a bottle of La Grande Dame Brut, and an order of Chef Kristin’s Gulf Coast Shrimp to start for the lady,” Nathan said.

  The waiter replaced the last crystal water goblet on the table and dipped his head. “Right away, Mr. Cole.”

  Melinda watched as the waiter’s black slacks and black shirt darted into a recessed door several feet away.

  “What’s the champagne for?”

  Nathan’s eyes danced with interest. “How did you know I ordered champagne?”

  “Grandma Teresa taught me about all things French, including champagne. She adored the country and the culture.”

  Nathan’s alluring eyes seemed to become two small points of dark fire as he studied her. “What about your mother? What did she teach you?”

  Melinda stroked the stem of her crystal water goblet. “She taught me never to settle.”

  Nathan furrowed his brow. “I don’t understand. How did she teach you that?”

  “My mother was the kind of woman my grandmother loathed … a naive farmer’s daughter from rural Mississippi who sounded as ignorant as she acted. Momma got pregnant at sixteen, and spent the next fifteen years of her life regretting her children and her marriage. After she died, my grandmother came to live with us. I guess that’s why my grandmother fought so hard to make me different from all the other girls in our town. She wanted to make sure I didn’t end up like my mother.”

  Nathan’s eyes took a turn of the dining room. “Then I’m sure she would be very proud of you.”

  “She wouldn’t be that proud. There’s a lot I’ve done to disappoint her.”

  Intrigued, Nathan leaned into the table. “I don’t see it that way. You got out of Mississippi, went to college, and are living in New Orleans and making your way.”

  “I’m not making my way anywhere, Nathan. Playing piano in hotel lobbies and reading people on the Square wouldn’t be her idea of success.”

  “Things could be different for you, Melinda.”

  Melinda sensed his intentions creeping into her head. “Working for you wouldn’t be my idea of success.”

  He rocked back in his seat, surprised by her response. “Tell me, do you read all my thoughts, or only the ones pertaining to you?”

  Melinda carefully took a moment to compose her words, trying to find just the right way to explain how she interpreted her gift.

  “I’m not reading your thoughts. I’m mostly clairvoyant, which means I see things in my head. Sometimes I just know what you’re thinking … that’s called claircognizance. But with you, I think it’s a little of both. I see what you want for me. I see me working for you, wearing fine clothes and living in some Warehouse District apartment filled with furniture I didn’t pick out.”

  Nathan clapped his hands together and gave a rumbling chuckle. “God, you don’t know how refreshing you are. For years, I’ve had people who are always claiming they know how I think, or that they can predict my moods … at least as far as my business acumen goes. But you, the one person who can truly see what I’m thinking or feeling, have no interest to use it against me or to further your desires.”

  “People who can see know not to use it for personal gain.”

  “Who told you that?” he demanded.

  “My grandmother. She called what I have the dark perception. She taught me never to use it for bad, and never to use it for personal gain. It’s a gift, and all gifts must be shared.”

  “But you have people pay you to read for them. How is that any different?”

  “I’m not cashing in on what I have. I’m using it to help people, but not fleecing them in the process. I think what I charge is fair. If I were driving a Mercedes and living in a big house, then I might feel I was capitalizing on what I do.” Melinda shrugged. “I guess I would rather have that Mercedes and expensive house because of my music, not my gift.”

  Mel appeared with a bottle of La Grande Dame Champagne and a silver ice bucket. He respectfully showed Nathan the bottle label, and after a loud pop, he filled two crystal flutes with the golden liquid.

  “Your shrimp is coming right out, miss.” Mel set the bottle in the ice bucket. “Do you know what you would like for your main course?”

  Melinda turned to Nathan. “What would you suggest?”

  “I had the Gulf Coast Snapper, and it was wonderful.”

  Melinda kept her eyes on Nathan as she spoke. “Then I’ll have the snapper, too.”

  Just as Mel was about to go, Nathan stopped him. “Please bring two orders of the dark chocolate crémeux tart after the snapper, Mel. I’ll join the lady for dessert.”

  “Certainly, Mr. Cole.” Mel backed away from the table.

  Melinda picked up her glass of champagne and closed her eyes as the cool liquid touched her lips.

  “If you came to work for me,” Nathan’s voice intruded. “I could offer you many evenings like this: drinking champagne and dining on overpriced food.”

  Melinda opened her eyes and set her glass on the smooth white linen tablecloth. “But then I might get as bored as you’ve obviously become with places such as this. I’m surprised you come here at all to eat.”

  Nathan caressed his glass of champagne. “My clients want to go to expensive restaurants. Makes them feel important. I prefer a plain old steak and a good bottle of red wine to snapper and champagne.”

  “I guess I’ve always been more of a beer girl.” Melinda tried to hide her giggling by covering her mouth with her napkin.

  “That’s the Melinda I like seeing. The bubbly woman with the contagious laugh and bright smile.” He took a sip of his champagne. “You were getting way too serious there for a moment.”

  Melinda noted the change between them. It was as if the formality had lifted and a flirtier mood had replaced it.

  “Do you mind if I make a request?” Melinda whispered across the table to him.

  Nathan arched closer to her and grinned. “Go right ahead.”

  “Can we skip the snapper and go straight to that dark chocolate tart? It sounded awfully good.”

  It was Nathan’s turn to laugh. Still chuckling, he raised his hand and waved Mel down from across the room.

  Melinda noticed the difference in his laughter. It was no longer dark and bereft of emotion. Instead, the sound that echoed inside her was warm, heartfelt, and almost musical.

  While Nathan informed Mel of the change in menu, Melinda took another gulp of champagne. Perhaps Mike showing up at her door was meant to be, after all. Her grandmother had always told her that fate speaks to you through the actions of others. You have to pay attention to the signs; otherwise, you might never learn your destiny. Melinda began to wonder if the attractive Nathan Cole was meant to be part of her destiny. Perhaps this evening was to mark a turning point in their relationship. As Melinda considered the possibilities, the slight tickle she always attributed to Nathan began to grow, and soon it was no longer a tickle, but a smoldering flame.

  Chapter 4

  The sidewalks of St. Ann Street were empty when a black Jaguar XK parked in front of the townhouse where Melinda lived. She kept her eyes on the bright red door, afraid to fac
e Nathan, unsure of how she would respond as the warmth of all the champagne she had consumed flowed through her.

  “You’re very quiet, Melinda.”

  His voice rippled along the hollows of her spine. Melinda tried to clear the fuzziness from her head, but when she spotted his disturbing eyes taking in her every move, her heart quivered.

  “I was just thinking about what a nice time I had this evening,” she lied as she mustered a casual look of indifference.

  Nathan winced as he turned off the engine. “Nice? I was hoping it was much more than that.”

  Melinda quickly scrambled to find a better choice of words. “I meant to say that I—”

  Nathan held up his hand, stopping her. “You don’t have to look so terrified.”

  She straightened up in her car seat. “I’m not terrified.”

  “Then what is it? You’ve been uncomfortable since we left the restaurant.”

  Melinda shifted in her leather seat. “I’m not uncomfortable, just … you’re making me nervous.”

  He scratched the side of his head. “Funny … I thought it was the other way around.”

  “Perhaps nervous is the wrong word.” Melinda threw her hands up. “Gosh darn it, yes, you make me nervous.”

  Nathan gave a light, rolling laugh, something Melinda had never heard from him before. It was sincere, joyful, and very revealing.

  “‘Gosh darn it’?” He snickered once more. “I haven’t heard another human being speak like that since the fifth grade.”

  “Well, I can’t curse in front of you. My grandmother always taught me to be a lady.”

  Nathan’s mesmerizing eyes curiously analyzed her face. “What else did she teach you?”

  Melinda’s fingers played with the beaded hem of her dress. “To always speak when spoken to, not to place my elbows on the dinner table, and to make sure I never walked away from something I started. She was real adamant about that one. Grandma Teresa believed those who saw things through to the end could always be trusted to keep their word. Quitters were liars and cheats, because if they couldn’t be honest with themselves, how were they going to be honest with you?”

  “Your grandmother has a very valid point. If you walk away in the middle of something, your heart was never in it to begin with.”

  Melinda looked him over with a newfound interest. “That’s exactly what she used to say.”

  “I think your grandmother and I would have had a lot in common.”

  Melinda reflected on his statement and shrugged. “You might have. She was very practical like you, down-to-earth, and a person always knew where they stood with her. If Grandma Teresa didn’t like you, you knew it. If she was pleased, you knew that, too.”

  “Did she make you nervous?”

  Melinda searched his eyes and then a vision of him reaching for her naked body as darkness enveloped them momentarily stunned her. Her heart was pounding as the image ebbed from her mind, but the lust it had awakened only seemed to intensify. She took a breath and tried to think of anything other than sex.

  “If I come and work for you, what exactly will you want me to do?” she finally questioned in a wavering voice.

  Nathan sat back in his car seat and inspected his manicured hands. “I will want you to go to business meetings with me in order to read the people in the room and tell me if they can be trusted. The same at any luncheons or dinners I may ask you to attend. When I check out a new property, you will come with me. I would want to know everything you feel or envision about a place. We can tell everyone you’re my assistant, perhaps give you an iPad or something to make it look believable, but all I want from you are your perceptions about my day-to-day business.”

  Melinda pictured herself sitting at his side at meetings or at restaurants and doing searches on her iPad. “You must have a lot of faith in me to want me so involved in your affairs. You don’t trust many people … I’ve felt that. So why trust me?”

  He grasped the black leather steering wheel. “I met an intriguing woman named Valerie Vincent about two years ago at a party. She was a psychic who told me things about my life and my business that came true. Valerie also told me I would find a woman with fiery red hair who could not only see my future, but also change it. I thought she was insane, because at the time I didn’t believe in psychics. Then one day, walking through Jackson Square after a rather disappointing business meeting, I saw you. I remembered what she told me about the red hair and decided to sit down at your table and have a reading.”

  “I told you that your failed business meeting that day would turn into something greater,” Melinda said as she recalled their first meeting. “An opportunity to develop an apartment complex.”

  “It was a row of apartment complexes, actually, and it has turned out to be my biggest deal in the city to date. After that, I decided to keep an eye on you and learn all I could about you.”

  “What have you learned?”

  He grinned. “That I can trust you.”

  Melinda frowned as she searched his eyes. “Do you really think if I come and work for you that I can help your business?”

  “Yes, I do.” He sighed impatiently. “Look, Melinda, I promise if you’re not happy, you can simply walk away.”

  A nervous twitch grabbed hold of Melinda’s stomach. There was something in the way he said those words that put her on edge. “What if you don’t like what I tell you, Nathan? Perhaps I will feel compelled to tell you only things you want to hear.”

  “Please don’t.” He shook his head. “I have enough people kissing my ass on a day-to-day basis. I desperately don’t want you to become one of them. I like your honesty and forthright manner. Don’t lose those qualities with me just because I’m signing your paycheck. Tell me the truth, always.”

  “No matter how angry it might make you?”

  He eased toward her and smiled. “I never get angry, Melinda.”

  The heat of his body being so close unraveled Melinda’s already jittery nerves. Desperate to get away, she reached for the door.

  “Will you take the job, Melinda?”

  When Melinda turned and saw his deep brown eyes, she could not refuse him. At least that was what her gut said; her mind was putting up a volley of protests. She suddenly worried about losing touch with her friends on the Square, taking time away from her music, and being on call day and night to satisfy the insecurities of a rich man. That was what this really was to her—a rich man’s folly. Or was there more to it?

  Secretly, Melinda longed to spend time with Nathan. To delve deeper into his world: dine at the restaurants he frequented, go to museums and galleries he supported, shop at stores he preferred, and meet others from his select class. Her deepest desire to be more than a simple street performer began to nudge her toward accepting his offer.

  “Is your long silence a yes or a no?”

  Melinda swept her apprehensions aside with a resolute nod of her head. “Yes. My answer is yes, Nathan.”

  Looking satisfied, he sat back in his seat. “Good. Then you’ll need to make some changes.” He eyed her dress. “You’ll need business suits for lunches and meetings, formal dresses for parties, banquets, and dinners. Do you have anything like that?”

  Melinda gazed down at her simple dress. “This is my best dress.”

  “I can take care of that. I’ll also want you living closer to me. It will be more convenient.”

  Melinda gaped at the Creole townhouse she had called home since coming to New Orleans. “I can’t afford to move, Nathan.”

  “Leave that to me.”

  Her heart heaved with the weight of her decision. “I can’t let you pay for me to move.”

  Nathan directed his eyes to the colorful cottages across the darkened street. He perused the empty sidewalks and dimly lit doorway to her building. “I insist you get out of here. It’s not safe. I want to make sure you’re protected. I would prefer you live somewhere there’s security to see to your safety.”

  “Security?
Do you know how much a building with security features will cost me?”

  Nathan rested his hand over her forearm. “Don’t worry about any of that. I’ll take care of finding you a new place. Allow me to help you for a change.”

  “I guess that would be okay,” she said with a hint of trepidation in her voice. “Just don’t stick me in some prison with iron bars on the windows and no gardens.”

  “I promise.” Nathan climbed out of the driver’s side door and walked around the front of the car.

  As Melinda followed him with her eyes, she noticed the confident clip in his step and the smug grin on his face. When he opened her car door, he reached for her hand. She hesitated taking it, feeling as if this was her point of no return. If she was going to dance with the devil, this was her last possible chance to walk away. But instead of refusing him, Melinda eagerly grasped his hand, silencing her doubts.

  “I’ll make some phone calls in the morning and get the ball rolling,” Nathan declared as he escorted her to the door.

  In that split second, Melinda saw his thoughts. His arms eagerly embraced her and his lips tasted the tender skin along the nape of her neck. She froze before her door, uncertain of how to respond to her visions. Quickly, she turned her attention to her purse and tried to locate her keys.

  “Keep your cell phone with you tomorrow. I’ll call you with the details about your move and to get some particulars from you.” Nathan nodded casually. “I’ll start you on the payroll Monday.”

  Melinda clutched her keys and glanced up from her purse. “But today’s Saturday. That’s rather fast, don’t you think?”

  Nathan took the keys from her hand. “I don’t like waiting for something I want.” He swiftly opened her front door. “The sooner we get you started, the sooner you can begin helping me with my business.” He handed her the keys.

  “Are you sure you want me, Nathan?”

  He angled forward and gently grazed his lips against her cheek. Melinda became slightly dizzy as the sensation sent a lightning bolt of electricity from her cheek down to her toes.

  “Go to sleep, Melinda. Tomorrow you’ll need to start packing and making arrangements. A whole new world is about to open up for you.” He turned away and headed to his car.