Mr. Tanaka's ancient heritage showed in the room's elegant yet simple lines: the woven tatami mats on the floor, the handsome shoji screen that served as a backdrop for a low, black-lacquered table and the plump, black-and-white silk cushions that were strewn on the floor before the fieldstone fireplace. Sliding glass doors, flanked by tall white vases filled with pussy willows, opened on to the deck.
But it was the bedroom that made Annie gasp, and mentally repeat Chase's muttered profanity. Their absent host's living room had been serenely Japanese-but Mr. Tanaka had very Western tastes when it came to his sleeping quarters.
The floor was covered with white carpet so deep and lush it made Annie's toes curl longingly inside her sneakers. One wall was mirrored; one was all glass and gave out onto the forest and the Sound. The furnishings themselves were spare and handsome. There was a teak dresser. A matching chest. A bentwood rocking chair.
And a bed.
One enormous, circular bed, elevated on a platform beneath a hexagonal skylight, and swathed in yards and yards of black-and-white silk.
CHAPTER SEVEN
ANNIE TOLD HERSELF to calm down.
Count to ten. To twenty. Concentrate on finding the peaceful center within herself. Wasn't that what she'd spent six weeks trying to learn when she'd taken that Zen philosophy course last winter?
Take a deep breath. Hold it. One. Two. Three. Four.
Annie let out her breath. It wasn't working. All she could see was the bed. All she could think about was Chase, standing next to her with a look of bland innocence on his face.
"Damn," she said, and when that clearly wasn't going to be anywhere near enough to relieve her anger, she gave up Zen for reality, swung around and punched her ex-husband in the belly. It was a hard belly-he'd always had a great body, and apparently that hadn't changed, which somehow only made her more furious-and she felt the jolt of the blow shoot straight up her arm and into her shoulder. But it was worth it to see the look of shock that spread across his face.
"Hey," he said, dancing back a step. Not that Annie's reaction entirely surprised him. She looked as if she could have happily murdered him. Well, hell, he understood that. He'd have happily murdered good old Kichiro Tanaka, given the opportunity. "Hey, take it easy, will you?"
"Take it easy?" Annie slapped her hands on her hips and glared at him, her chest rising and falling with each quick, huffy breath. "Take it easy?" she repeated, her voice shooting out of its normal range into a ragged soprano.
"Yeah." Chase rubbed his midsection. "There's no need to get violent over what's obviously a mistake."
"Oh, it's a mistake, all right." She blew a breath that lifted the curls dangling over her eyes. "A big mistake, Cooper, because if you think, even for one minute, that I-that you and I-that the two of us are going to share that-that bed, that we're going to relive old times-"
"Babe..."
"Don't 'babe' me!"
"Annie, you don't think..."
"But I do. I think. I always have, even though you never credited me for having a brain in my head when we were married."
Chase almost groaned. Here they went again, plunging right into deep water.
"Listen," he said carefully, "I know you're upset. But-"
"That's it. Tell me I'm upset. That way, I'll shut my mouth and you won't have to listen to the truth."
"Annie..."
"Let me tell you something, Chase Cooper. That might have worked years ago, but not now. I am not the dumb little thing you always thought I was."
"Annie, I never thought-"
"Yes, you did, but it doesn't matter a damn anymore."
"I swear, I didn't."
'"Oh, Ba-aabe,"' she said, cruelly mimicking his voice, "'I'm so sorry, but you don't mind if I go out, do you? I've got to attend a meeting of the-the Sacred Sons of the Saxophones tonight."'
Despite himself, Chase laughed. "The what?"
"Don't try and joke your way out of this, Cooper!" Annie took a step forward, her index finger uplifted and wagging an inch off his nose. "You can't change the facts."
"What facts?"
"I'm talking about our so-called marriage, that's what! And how you used to treat me as if I never had a thought in my head."
"I still don't know what the hell you're talking about!"
"Well, let me refresh your memory. Think back to the good old days, when you used to drag me to all those horrible dinners and charity things."
"Like the Sacred Sons of the Saxophones?"
"I just said, don't try and laugh your way out of this, Chase. I am dead serious."
"About what?"
She had to give him credit; he'd managed to put on an expression of total bewilderment. If she hadn't known better, she'd have thought he meant it.
"I know how you worried that your poor little wifey wouldn't be able to hold her own."
"What?"
"And then, when it turned out I could, you just-just left me, dumped me into a-a seaful of sharks and took off by yourself."
"Annie, you're crazy. I never-"
"Was that when you looked around and decided you could have lots more fun if you left me at home?"
Chase's expression went from bewilderment to confusion. "One of us is losing her mind," he said, very calmly. "And it sure as hell isn't me."
Annie's chin rose pugnaciously. "Hah," she said, and folded her arms.
"You think I was glad when you stopped going to those dinners and things with me, so I could go by myself and have a wild old time?"
"You said it, not me."
"Damn, but your spin on ancient history is truly amazing!"
"What's the matter, Chase? Can't you stand the truth?"
"Am I supposed to have forgotten that I stopped taking you with me because you made it clear how much you hated going?"
Annie flushed. "Don't try and twist things. Okay, maybe I didn't care for those stuffy evenings-"
"Finally, the woman speaks the truth!"
"Why would I have enjoyed them? We were only there so you could grab yourself another headline in the business section of the newspaper!"
Chase's eyes narrowed. "We were there so I could land myself jobs, Annie. Jobs, remember? The stuff that put bread on the table?"
"Give me a break, Chase! We had plenty of money by then. You were just-just getting your ego stroked."
A muscle knotted in his cheek.
"Go on," he said softly. "What else have you saved up, all these years?"
"Only that when I finally said I didn't want to go anymore, instead of trying to change my mind, which any intelligent man would have done, which you would have done, at one time-"
Chase gave a short, desperate laugh. "Are we both speaking the same language here, or what?"
"Instead of doing that," Annie said, ignoring the interruption, "you simply shrugged your shoulders and agreed. And that was that."
"You're telling me that I should have tried to talk you into doing something you obviously hated?"
"Don't make it sound as if you don't understand a word I'm saying, Chase. I won't buy it."
"And I won't buy you making me into some kind of Neanderthal who cheered when my wife signed off and let me go play with the rest of the boys," Chase said grimly. "No way, babe, because that's not how it was, no matter what you say!"
"Yeah, well, that's your story and you're stuck with it."
"No!" Chase grabbed her wrist as she started past him. "No, it damn well is not 'my story.' It's fact. Did you expect me to get down on my knees and beg you to spend your evenings with me, instead of with one dumb textbook after another?"
"Right. Lay everything off on me, even my wanting to better myself. That's typical. Everything was my fault, never yours."
"Better yourself? Better yourself?" he said, bending toward her, his eyes dark and dangerous. "So that you could do what, huh? Tell me that you knew more about haiku than I knew about building houses?"
"That's not the way it was and you know it," Annie said angrily, as she tried to pull her arm from his grasp. "You couldn't bear to see me turning into a whole person instead of just being Mrs. Chase Cooper."
"Wasn't being my wife enough to make you happy?"
"Being the woman who cooked your meals and cleaned your house and raised your child, you mean," Annie said, her voice trembling. "Who waited up nights while you built your empire. Who got told to buy fancy dresses and jewelry so she could be dragged to Chamber of Commerce meetings as a reflection of her husband's importance!"