The Mating(94)
As the door swung open, she saw Kane standing by the dresser, a book clutched in his hand. Why would he be reading a book at a time like this? Confused, she squinted at the leather cover—it looked just like her diary! She hadn't seen it for a few days and had been wondering how she could have misplaced it. But how had it ended up on the dresser? Temporarily distracted from all the other issues, she stepped out of the bathroom. “Is that my diary?”
“Well, it certainly isn't mine.” Sarcasm dripped from his voice.
“That's personal! You shouldn't be reading it!” She walked towards him, intent on retrieving her book.
“Then don't leave it lying open on the dresser, especially not to the parts where you're swooning over that pup.” Kane fairly snarled at her, throwing the book down in obvious disgust.
“Don't call Bryan a pup! And I'm not swooning over him!”
“Oh no?” Kane snatched up the diary from the floor and read it in a mocking tone. “Bryan's so good looking. I love watching him move and seeing his muscles ripple. When he touches me, I can hardly think straight and his kisses drive me insane. ”
Shocked, Elise felt her mouth drop open. “I never wrote that!”
“Are you saying this isn't your writing?” Kane shoved the book at her and she took it, studying the entry. It looked like her handwriting, but she never would have written that. Flipping back a few pages, she discovered that someone had forged several entries after the last one in which she'd said she was meeting Bryan. Dismayed, Elise looked up at Kane, shaking her head in denial.
“Kane, I swear I didn't write that. I don't know who... ” Her mind racing, Elise recalled the day that she'd found Marla leaving their room, claiming to have been looking for a book to read. Well, obviously the she-wolf had certainly found something to read and it was her diary! Pursing her lips, she fumed about how nasty Marla's actions were. “Kane, I think Marla wrote that. My diary went missing the same day I found her in our room—”
“Oh come on, Elise. Quit blaming Marla for your own mistakes. You got careless and left this out.”
“No, it’s true! She’s jealous of our relationship and wants to break us up.”
“Then why has she been encouraging us to spend time together? Even staying back to do the dishes, so we could go running together. Explain that.”
“Well...I don’t know why.” Elise nervously dug her nails into the book’s cover, unsure of Marla’s motives at that time.
“Because there is no reason. Face it, Elise. I caught you red-handed. The messages, the diary, I even saw you with him.”
“But none of this is what it seems! Before today, we met once just to talk, and it was only because he happened to be in town.”
“Right, and I’m supposed to believe that?” His mouth twisted in a sneer.
“It’s the truth,” she insisted, feeling herself growing more frustrated by the mounting circumstantial evidence.
“Then why are there at least three messages from him on the answering machine?”
“We were out for a run. He must have called a few times in one night.” Light suddenly dawned. “That’s it! That’s the night Marla told us to go out. She’d heard me on the phone earlier talking to Sarah, and knew that Bryan would call to confirm a time. Then she made sure we were out and let the machine pick up his calls so there’d be a record of it. Marla was planning to use the tape all along!”
“That’s just wild supposition.” Kane turned away and stalked across the room, breathing heavily. He ran his hands through his hair, before turning to face her again. “You know what I can’t figure out, why didn’t I smell him on you?”
“Because of Marla and her stupid perfume.” Elise answered bitterly. “That’s what caused this mess to begin with. If I hadn’t let her—”
“How the hell does Marla’s perfume work into this?”
“When I met Bryan for the first time—for a platonic meeting, I might add—Marla scented him on me and said you’d be angry, just like you are right now. She put some perfume on me that masks scents.”
“Oh, so it’s all Marla’s fault that you decided to hide something from me?”
“Well, I never intended not to tell you. Things just kept getting in the way. But I planned on telling you. Really I did! That’s why I left you that note...” She gestured towards the mirror and then blinked in surprise. What? There was no note stuck to the glass! Rushing over, she checked the surface of the dresser and even peered onto the floor, but nothing was there. It only took her a moment to realize what had happened. Marla must have entered the bedroom, planning to leave the diary open on the dresser, and when she saw the note had taken it with her. Possibly she’d even rewound the answering machine tape to ensure that when Kane played his messages, Bryan’s would be the ones heard. Growling in frustration, Elise turned to look at Kane.