Page 9 of Reckless
“Maman,” Britney warned.
“What?I’m being hospitable.”
“You’re being strategic.”
“In this family, those are the same thing,” Charlie said.
I heard everything in that exchange.
So did Britney, judging by the way she stopped beside Michael.
Hope looked at me over her wine with naked excitement.Miley looked wary.Isabel looked entertained.Charlie looked like he was trying not to laugh already.
Roman lowered his gaze to his glass like a man wise enough not to get involved in whatever his mother was setting up.
Kir watched.
Parvis definitely watched.
And Xerses?—
I looked at him because I couldn’t help it.
He was already looking at me.
The ocean waves splashed on the beach right beyond the windows.
Somewhere in the house, glass clinked, footsteps moved, life went on.
But the moment at the table tightened anyway, like the whole room had drawn one slightly deeper breath.
And then Roxanne looked from me to Xerses and back again with the unmistakable expression of a woman who had had an idea.
A terrible, beautiful, life-ruining idea.
I knew look.
Every woman at this table knew that look.
And for some insane reason, so did Xerses, because the smallest flicker of something crossed his face.Not fear.Not even annoyance exactly.
Recognition.Absolutely not.
I picked up my tea glass and took a long swallow I did not need.
Across from me, Xerses’s mouth twitched.
That was so much worse.
Because I had the horrible, electric sense that whatever Roxanne was thinking, whatever scheme was clicking into place behind those beautiful maternal eyes, he could feel it too.
And he didn’t look nearly alarmed enough about it.
He looked interested.
I set my glass down very carefully.
If anyone at this table thought I was about to become the next project in the Norouzi family’s deranged fake-dating success rate, they had another thing coming.
