Page 46 of Mine before Dawn
She only bawled harder.
“Asha. People will think I am beating ya.” His forehead dropped briefly against hers. “Stop cryin’. Yer breakin’ my bloody heart.”
“You don’t have a heart,” she hiccupped miserably. “You idiot. You stupid stupid man. You only think with your manparts.”
He grinned despite himself.
“Asha.”
“No!”
“Asha, look at me.”
His eyes crinkled at the corners, the exhaustion etched deeply beneath them clear for all to see.
Grey. Like the wing of a dove. And unbearably gentle.
“She’s not marrying me.”
Asha blinked.
“What?”
“She’s marryin’ my brother.”
Silence.
“She what?”
“My brother,” he repeated patiently. “Who also lives in London.”
Asha stopped crying. All the fight drained out of her body so abruptly he almost stumbled adjusting his hold.
“You…” She stared at him blankly. “You are not getting married?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
He studied her cautiously.
“If I let go, are you gonna reach fer knives?”
She sniffed hard, then reluctantly nodded no. James loosened his hold by a few careful inches, testing her. Once he let go, his rough callused palms came up to cup her face.
He wiped away her tears gently with his thumbs.
“Asha,” he murmured quietly, studying the changes in her now. “Yer losin’ weight, girl.”
“So what? Who are you to tell me to eat or not to eat?”
“You not been eatin’?” he asked, ignoring her outburst.
She shrugged stubbornly. James exhaled heavily through his nose as if talking to a recalcitrant child.
Then he sat down heavily in the chair near the table and simply pulled her straight onto his lap. It was like coming home, though Asha would never admit it. She was too emotionally exhausted to fight anymore.
His arms wrapped around.
