“No.” Rowena nodded. “I understand you. Go on.” “When I was a kid, I would look up here and Id think: Thats my house. Its just waiting for me to grow up. I remember telling my mother that I was going to buy it for her one day, and shed be able to stand up here, on the top of the world.”
He shrugged. “When I was older, I would drive up here sometimes, look at the place and tell myself that one day Id drive through the gates and walk right in the front door. Its beautiful, and its strong, and it may be all the way up here, but its part of what makes the Valley what it is. I couldnt give it to my mother. I want to give it to Dana. I want to build a life with her here, raise children with her here. I want to be able to look down at the Valley and know were all a part of something solid and real and important.”
“You can have the house.”
The gleam inPittes eyes winked out. “Rowena!”
“For its appraised value,” she continued, wagging a finger at her lover. “And not a penny more.”
“You wound me, aghra ”
“You wont charge him for the legal business of it, the settlement, the transfer, whatever it is. You will pay the fees and the… what are they called?” she asked Brad.
“Points.” He had to swallow a laugh. “I think you mean points.”
“Yes, all of that sort of business.” She thought for a moment. “I think thats everything.”
Pittehissed out a breath. “Women are a trial to a man. Why dont I just wrap bows around the place and gift it to him?”
“Because he wouldnt accept.” She leaned over to kissPittes cheek while he scowled. “Its always been his,” she said
. “You know that as well as I.”
“Be that as it may.” He drummed his fingers on his knee. “You and I,” he said to Jordan, “will work out the details of the thing without the female buzzing about.”
“At your convenience.”
“Shake hands on it,Pitte .” Rowena gave him a nudge. “Shake hands on the terms just set.”
“Bloody hell.” He shoved himself to his feet, held out a hand. “Might as well do it, then, or shell nag me hairless.”
Jordan claspedPittes hand, felt a quick jolt. It might have been power, he mused, or simple frustration. It was hard to tell when you were closing a deal with a god. “Thank you.”
“So you should thank me. Your friend over there will know I could turn considerably more than the appraised value in this current market.”
“That handshake binding?” Brad wondered.
“It is.”
“Without a full inspection of the property, Id say youd have gotten ten percent over appraisal. Minimum.”
“More like fifteen.” Though hed been carefully silent during the transaction, Flynn spoke up now. “When you publish the local paper, you know these things. Theres a hotelier whos tried to buy it up, turn it into a resort. He got close a couple of times,” Flynn continued conversationally. “But something always screwed the deal. Bad luck for him.”
Rowena met his quiet look, and smiled. “Indeed. Would you care to go through some of the house now, Jordan?”
Before he could open his mouth, Flynn tapped his watch. “Were running a little short on time.”
“Ah, well. Soon, then.” She took Jordans hand as well, squeezed it once. “You must see more of it, and the views, of course, from the terraces and balcony and parapet.”
“Ill look forward to it. Ill bring Dana and well…”
He trailed off, staring at her, the way she stood. Slim and quiet and somehow apart from the rest of them.
And he saw the woman standing on the parapet under a gleaming moon with her dark cloak billowing in the wind.
“It was you. All those years ago, I saw you.”
“I saw you.” She touched a hand, very gently, to his cheek. “A young, handsome boy, so troubled, so full of thoughts. I wondered when youd remember me.”