“And how or what is that?” I asked, hoping he’d suggest something that would permanently halt the blitz he was talking about.
“Marry me.”
“Do you ever stop?” I whirled about and rushed over to the window, half-expecting to see newsmen in the yard, but there was no one there. In fact there was nobody on the velvet green of the golf course. My room might not have the sliding glass door vista with a balcony that Timothy’s room had, but I still had a nice view. I was looking at more green than I’d seen since my friends and I picnicked at the Japanese Friendship Garden.
“I usually get what I want in the end. And what I want is you at my side. Willingly, of course.”
I turned to look at Timothy. His words were frightening, but he was grinning ear to ear, which told me that he was mostly joking, I think.
“Thank you for adding the willingly bit. It still feels a little like a kidnapping, bringing me here, flooding me with new clothes and fancy shampoos that you’d prearranged to fulfill my every desire.” I might have been laying it on a little thick, but this whole thing was a bit spooky. When had Simone done all this?
“No pressure. If I’d been wanting to bully you, I’d have insisted you join me in my room.”
That was the first time Timothy had ever made a sexual reference to the future of our relationship. With a bed in the room, and the way I was stranded in this rich person’s world without a single soul who knew me, the goosebumps ran up and down my spine with a little Twilight Zone music playing quietly in my ear.
“Come here,” Timothy ordered, spreading out his arms so I could walk into them if I felt like doing so. “Please.”
I didn’t want to. I stood there staring at him, reassessing, I suppose. I think I wanted to march into his embrace, but my feet were frozen. My body said wait.
“I will never hurt you, Penelope. Not physically or emotionally. I am prepared to wait until you are ready. I suppose I shouldn’t have said what I did. I see that it frightened you. I didn’t mean it that way. I was trying to show you that I wasn’t pressuring you. I guess I failed at the subtleties. Andrew will take you back to your apartment anytime you ask.”
That was the key to unlocking my feet. They moved me forward. I buried myself in Timothy’s hold, but he kept his arms loose. No firmness in his grip. It was if he sensed I was only one step from running away, screaming as I bolted down that gorgeous staircase, out into the green of golf country.
“You are not a prisoner. I offer you a relaxing stay with me, and I will not again suggest anything else.”
I sighed. “It’s just that everything has happened too quickly. I trust you . . .”
“But you don’t know me, right?”