He took in the rest of the room. It was an interesting combination of softly romantic art, brightly colored and patterned textiles, a bold view of the world outside her castle and…animal paraphernalia. There was a row of portraits—cat and dog faces, all painted up to look like kings and queens and military generals of a sort.
What on earth…?
He recalled the little fluff of a cat that had been in her sitting room the other night as something streaked out from underneath the bed and took a swipe at his shoelaces, then disappeared again. For a moment, he could only stare at the space where a cat’s paw had just been. Before it crept out once more.
Luciano took a step away and then another. He could not quite get a read on Serena’s private, interior life. Cats. Books. A homey kind of…grandmotherliness when the woman wasn’t a day over twenty-eight, perhaps even younger, if he remembered correctly. A direct contrast to the sharp, modern businesswoman she presented herself as.
And he wondered what caused such a dichotomy. Perhaps he pretended to be less determined and hardheaded than he was, but he did not hide key elements of his personality away.
What would make a person do such a thing? What did it mean? Why did it all come together like a story he was desperate to know the ending to?
The door reopened and Serena stepped out. She was dressed casually now, but he didn’t think there was anything casual about the way she was covered from head to toe. A soft sweatshirt that had a mock turtleneck. Pants that were utterly shapeless and looked equally soft. And thick socks. The only skin he could see was her face and her hands.
“There is a cat under your bed,” he told her.
“There are likely two cats under my bed,” she replied. “It’s one of their favorite places.” She looked up at him then. “I don’t suppose you’re allergic?” she asked.
Hopefully.
“Not to my knowledge.”
For the first time since he’d stepped inside her house, she smiled at him. “You could rub your face in one and find out.”
“I shall abstain, I think.”
She shrugged, but the smile stayed in place. “Let me know if you change your mind.” She said nothing else and didn’t move from her spot all the way across the room from him. She just stood there, offering nothing into the silence.
Except what he could only define as a nervous energy. She held herself perfectly still, her expression placid. But there was a tensionwaftingoff of her, and Luciano could not lie. He enjoyed having that effect on her.
Any affect, really, that chipped through what he’d once thought was impenetrable ice.
So he took a few steps in her direction, grinning when she took the same amount of steps in the opposite one.
He stopped, regarded her across the room with a raised eyebrow. “What exactly are you afraid of, Serena?”
The look of outrage chased across her face. “I am notafraid.”
“You locked the bathroom door like I’m the big bad wolf. You stand across the room like I might bite.”
“I locked the bathroom door because that’s what you do when you go into a private area that you wish to remain private.”
“Do you think I’m going to burst in and pounce upon you?”
“Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.” But her face was getting redder and redder, like now that he’d introduced the wordsbiteandpounceshe could picture it all too well.
Which had him considering what that picture would look like. What it might be like to cross the room and—
Before he remembered himself. Who he was. Who she was. Whatthiswas. A farce.
But that did not mean he could not enjoy a farce. As long as he remembered himself. Which had never been a problem before.
Why should it be a problem now?
“This is a large bed. I suppose it shall do for our purposes.” He moved over to it now, eyed the bed skirt for any evidence of paws, then decided to leave his shoes on. He settled himself on the bed in a sitting position, crossing his ankles over a bright purple coverlet of some kind and lacing his fingers behind his head against the padded headboard decorated with images of tiny…pigs?
For a moment, he wondered if he’d given her a kind of stroke. She stood utterly still, her mouth hanging open ever so slightly, no noise coming from it.
Eventually, she blinked, as if coming back into herself. “I am hungry,” she declared, reaching for the door.
