Page 84 of Reckless
Instead of answering, he held out a small box.
Not flashy.Not wrapped in some absurd ribbon.Just a pale cream box no bigger than both of my hands together.
I looked from it to him and back.
“No.”
“No.”
“I bought it before we set the rules.”
That stopped me.
“When.”
“After I came to your house uninvited.It was supposed to be an apology.”
I narrowed my eyes.“Not last night then?”
He exhaled very slightly through his nose, the nearest thing to impatience I’d seen from him all day.“After I left your building.Before I went into the city to work, I passed a shop in town and saw something you would like.”
My stomach did one ugly little twist.That sounded like a man buying a woman a gift because he wanted to.I folded my arms tighter.“That doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
“This is not helping me.”
One side of his mouth almost moved.“It wasn’t expensive or luxurious.It made me think of you.”
I kept staring at the box.
I had a beautiful, impossible man standing in the gardens outside his family’s coastal palace holding out a medium size box and telling me he saw something that made him think of me.
“Why,” I asked as I refused to cry or show emotion in any way.“You never bought me anything before?”
“I know.I should have moved faster.”His gaze didn’t move from mine.“But I did this because I wanted to.”
Again.Simple and devastating.“You can’t say things like that and expect me to stop hearing alarms.”
“I’m not asking you to stop hearing them.”
“Then what are you asking.”
He looked down at the box once, then back up.
“I’m asking you to trust that not every gift is an act of control.”
That landed square in the middle of me.I took the box before I could think too hard about what that meant.
It was light.I opened the box and my heart stilled.There were two tea glasses.Glass, Persian style, delicate, non identical set of two with fine gold detail around the rim, and absolutely beautiful.
There was also a little packet of saffron sugar cubes tucked in beside them.I stared.
The whole garden seemed to blur for one stupid second.
I shut the box carefully and looked back up at him.
His expression had changed.Tears formed and I was not and never will be a cryer but I asked, “Why these.”
