Page 22 of Expecting an Argument
He scoffed. “I’ll get you added to the system after you settle in, but don’t tempt me.”
I followed him inside, but my feet froze as I took in the interior.
The foyer was papered in veridian green and stretched two stories high, leading to a circular mural of Baroque-style dolphins on the ceiling. Hanging from the ceiling was a wrought-iron chandelier that was dripping with…strands of pearlescent beads from a craft store.
Black and white marble tile stretched all the way to the back doors of the manor. The curved stairs lead to the second story landing where…chartreuse suits of armor stood guard. My eyes darted around, finding a raspberry pink frame on the wall featuring a portrait of peacocks in top hats, a gilded mirror that flipped its reflection upside-down, and a standing iron candelabra fashioned with two of its arms on its “hips” to appear as if it had been impatiently waiting.
Beau stuffed his hands into his pockets and I followed him through the foyer, my head turning to examine the wall full of mounted heads of an antelope, a gazelle, and even a giraffe that stretched up to the dolphin mural.
“Dad likes to shoot things,” Beau casually explained.
I froze in front of a rhinoceros head that had been spray-painted gold and had hot pink eyelashes glued above its black glass eyes.
Beau followed my eyes and sucked in his lip. “And…Mom likes to get creative.”
I turned from the poor animals to face him. “Do your parents live here?”
He glanced away. “No, just me.” Soft clicking noises suddenly echoed through the foyer. “Oh, and my roommate.”
I clutched my purse closer to my body. I pictured sharing a living space with one of Beau’s rowdy friends from college, but then a big white dog appeared from behind a set of sponge-painted columns.
Beau held his palm out and the dog came right over.
“This is Titus.” He gave him a big scratch behind his floppy ear. “He’s absolutely useless.”
“Poor boy—Beau is so mean to you.” I gave Titus a gentle head-rub. “Next he’ll say you’re broke and have a shitty car.”
“Nonsense, Titus wouldn’t be caught dead in a Jaguar.” Beau turned toward a closet with a gilded cage door near the stairs. “Come on, I’ll show you to your cell,prisoner.”
I rolled my eyes and followed. On the wall next to the closet was an awkward rectangular gap between the decorations like a large frame had just been removed. I bet Beau commissioned an oil painting of himself and then threw it away in a tantrum because it didn’t flatter him enough.
He pressed a button near the closet door. “I normally take the stairs, but since you’re likely going to need this in the future…”
The gilded closet door split in half and opened. Only then did I realize it wasn’t a closet but anelevator.
Beau stepped inside the elevator and I carefully followed. The elevator was small and I was too damn close to him, but Beau was the least of my worries.
I turned my head to all my reflections on the mirrored walls, half-expecting to see the face of a family ghost in the glass. Both the birdcage style of the door and the filigreed frame around thecolumn of buttons suggested that the elevator wasveryold.
“Quit freaking out,” Beau said. “This elevator is ten times safer than that death trap you used to drive.”
He pressed the button labeled with a hand-painted “2” and his arm accidentally brushed against mine. I sucked in a breath at the sudden warmth of his touch.
Nope—that was how I got into this situation. I wasn’t going to entangle myself deeper with Beau Fontaine and his haunted house of oddities. I was his temporary roommate and nothing more.
Thankfully, Beau moved closer to the wall as the elevator ascended.
He cleared his throat. “The media room, kitchen, and gym are on the first floor. The study is in the east wing next to the library—if I’m at home working, that’s where you’ll find me.”
I ignored the third floor button and focused on the lowest button in the column. “What’s in the basement?”
“A dungeon for sexual torture.”
The elevator doors opened to the second floor and Beau casually stepped out, but I was stone still as heat pooled beneath my cheeks.
He turned to face me, hands in his pockets and that damnable smile on his face. “That was a joke, Adams. Never thought you would be so gullible.”
I gripped the strap of my purse and hurried out of the elevator. “You have half a safari on the wall downstairs, why wouldn’t I believe you?”
