Page 112 of Reckless
His gaze met mine.
Every conversation at the table kept moving.My friends kept talking.Charlie was already halfway through a story no one had asked for.Roxanne was rearranging plates with the force of a queen moving armies.The room was alive and noisy and bright.
And somehow his stares found me like the rest of it was background.
I felt the cove all over again.
I had made a decision somewhere between the shower and the stairs.
I was not going to let the cave turn me into someone shy.He could know there was a truth I hadn’t told him yet.Fine.
So I crossed the room, sat down beside him because that was where the room expected me and I was too far in now to start acting skittish, and accepted the glass of tea he pushed toward me without asking if I wanted it.
“Thank you,” I said.
His voice came low enough for only me to hear.“You’re welcome.”
Nothing more.Not Are you okay.Not We need to talk.
Dinner moved.
I have no idea what half of it consisted of.
But under all of it, there was Xerses, beside me.
He moved around me like he could feel the shape of what I needed and was disciplined enough not to demand more before I offered it.
He gave me quiet attention.He passed me bread when I reached for it.Refilled my tea glass once and then left the carafe where I could reach it myself.Shifted his chair back half an inch when Charlie leaned too far across the table so I had more space without making the movement obvious.
By dessert I was in more danger than I had been in the sea cave.
After dinner, the family scattered in the usual loose directions.Charlie and Hope toward music.Avril and Kir into one of the side lounges.Miley and Jeff into some intensely mutual legal bickering that would probably end in sex.Roxanne and Parvis into a conversation with Isabel that looked both glamorous and exhausting.
I made it to the front hall before I heard him behind me.
“Kelly.”I turned.
“Hi.”I hated that my voice sounded softer tonight.
“Come upstairs,” he said.That hit hot so fast I nearly resented the speed of my own body.
I stared.“You can’t say things like that to me.”
One corner of his mouth moved.“It’s not what you think.”
“Bedrooms are upstairs.”
He looked very calm for someone who had any business remembering that with as much accuracy as I knew he did.
“So is the library,” he said.“Unless you’d prefer your room.”
That he gave me the choice made me want to scream.
No one should be that good at being considerate when they look like that.
“Library,” I said.
He nodded once and then let me go first.
