“Then she doesn’t own a single reflective surface,” Drake said in a dour tone. “How could she not see how striking she is?”
Jane shook her head, her eyes still closed. “People see what they want to see. Or what someone else tells them to see.”
An ominous thought that lingered between them. Had someone told this woman she wasn’t attractive—and she’d believed them? The thought infuriated him, which, in turn, alarmed him even more. He couldn’t afford to take a personal interest in Shana White. Yet he was buying into everything Jane said about her and he found her revelations troubling and deeply disturbing. Fool that he was.
“Oh dear,” Jane mumbled, drawing his attention. Her brow furrowed in apparent consternation. “This truly is painful. She’s very, very alone, Drake. But how could that be? We’ve read her articles and we’ve listened to her music. She’s brilliant and thought-provoking. Emotionally stirring. And yet… She’s completely closed off.” Her eyelids fluttered open.
Drake studied her closely. He knew better than to fall down this rabbit hole, but couldn’t seem to stop himself. “Explain to me what you mean. How can she possibly doubt her self-worth and yet express herself so eloquently in both literary and musical forms?”
“I don’t know. Except to say that perhaps they’re channels for her emotions. Meaning she can pour herself into her music and her writing and pretend it’s not personal. She does it on a professional level and can therefore justify she’s simply giving the masses what they want, rather than admitting she’s revealing anything about herself.”
He thought of the iTunes tracks he’d purchased and downloaded when he’d discovered she’d been a musician in her younger years. “You’re saying she hid behind her violin when she was a child and a teenager and now she’s hiding behind her computer?”
“Tragic, isn’t it? For someone so beautiful—and not just physically—to be so distressed internally.”
Jane seemed entranced by her encounter with Shana’s soul. She reached a hand toward the screen and Drake was convinced she had no idea she’d made the gesture.
“What is it?” he asked in a low voice, so as to not break the trance.
Jane pulled her hand back and pressed two fingertips to her lips. She stared at the monitor until Shana was admitted into the club and disappeared from the camera’s view.
“Oh,” Jane whispered. “That was just…so very odd.”
“What?” he demanded, eager to hear what else Jane had discovered about Shana.
In a compelling tone, she said, “We have to help her.”
He cocked his head to the side. His gut clenched. There it was again—trouble looming on the horizon. It was so palpable, he could feel it. And inescapable, he knew it.
Still, he hedged. “We do?”
She nodded. “Yes, yes.” She turned to Drake and wrapped a slender hand partially around his upper arm. Her tone was back to the confident, lilting one she’d started with this evening as a smile touched her lips. “Drake, it’s not just Shana’s photo that caught your attention. It’s not just her face and her body you’re drawn to. I remember the day you downloaded several of the compositions from the orchestra she performed with. From the very first note of her very first solo, you were mesmerized. I don’t even think you realized how many times you played the haunting pieces, over and over. And then I found the articles she’d written that you’d printed out. They were scattered all over your desk. Dozens of them. You connected with her on more than just a physical level. There’s something about this woman, something inside her that sort of…calls to you. To me too.”
His brow jerked up. “She’s human, Jane. That means off-limits. To both of us.”
“You don’t understand. Reassurance is what Shana needs, yes. But not just assurance that she’s attractive—it goes far beyond that,” she said as she lifted her hand from his arm and waved it in a dismissive way. “She has no idea how captivating she is, true. Her passionate nature has been channeled into her career—which is what you respond to and find so stirring. But there’s so much more within her that needs to be unleashed.”
Unleashed.
Now that was a word worthy of raising more red flags than he could process all at once. Yet damn it all to hell, he was sucked in by how Jane’s eyes lit with determination and exhilaration. Her grin turned downright wicked as she stared up at him, coming to whatever conclusion she’d derived from her brief encounter with Shana’s soul.