“What?” I asked, feeling embarrassment flush my cheeks as my confession seemed to miss the mark.
“You just said every day.”
“What? No, I didn’t.” I swallowed involuntarily, realizing I in-fact had. I wished I could melt into the wall behind me, but there was nowhere to hide from my mistake.
He grinned, “Yes,you did.”
“Well, I just meant?—”
Carter leaned in even closer, his lips nearly grazing mine, breath dusting across my mouth as he uttered, “My, my, my, pretty girl, aren’t you just full of bright ide?—”
Suddenly, there was anexplosion—Carter’s eyes blew wide, and before I could even gasp, he grabbed me.
Screams erupted across the gallery as the strength of his arms wrapped around me so tightly, it knocked the breath from my lungs.
It was all happening in slow motion, as more strange and horrifying sounds rang out—I was falling, and he was with me, but my arms were pinned against his body as the room went sideways, and I braced as the ground closed in.
Carter’s arm shot out and took the brunt of the impact as we hit the floor, and the weight of his body over mine was unyielding as I disappeared beneath him, disoriented and panicked.
My scream was muffled against his chest as the floor vibrated with every continuing explosion.
“I’ve got you.” He frantically promised, wrapping himself even more tightly around me, cocooning me beneath his broad frame.
Panic and confusion slashed through me, but his body stayed against mine, solid, steady, and sure.
When the explosions finally stopped, I was shaking like a leaf, and my stomach churned at the eerie crackling and tinkling noise that now filled the air.
“Stay down.” Carter commanded, and I’d never heard him sound like that before as his wide hand tucked my head back down the second I’d lifted it.
People started quietly murmuring all around us, and trembling, I slowly came to the realization that we were okay.
I shakily peered around his arm, discovering there was colorful broken glasseverywhere—I covered my mouth in horror, suddenly realizing what had happened. One of the artists had an elaboratecollection of glass sculptures, and theentire thinghad fallen from the ceiling.
“No,” I breathed, nausea flooding me for an entirely new reason. I gaped at the mess, feelingdevastatedfor the artist. It had been amassive,incredibly intricate collection of pieces that they’d spent over a year on. The fact that it had fallen, that the display mount had failed—was utterly sickening.
I dizzily tried to sit up, but I was surprised when Carter’s weight stayed against me, feeling oddly firm, as he scanned the gallery a final time, and lying beneath him—my breath quickened for an entirely different reason.
“Carter?” I murmured, and his gaze finally dropped to mine, his face looming just above me, as my pulse spiked again.
“Are you okay?” he panted, eyes wild and worried as his chest pulsed against mine with every heavy breath.
“Yeah,” I murmured breathily. “You?”
“Yeah.” He nodded and slid his arm beneath me.
As he hauled us up in a quick motion, his fingers slid around my waist, and I swallowed hard as he scanned around us one last time. When he finally looked down at me, he had a strange look in his eyes that made my chest tighten.
His gaze suddenly softened, returning to that warm brown color, and healmost reverentlygrazed the backs of his knuckles down my cheek. My eyes might have shuttered as he followed the line of my throat,rather intimately, and then gently pushed my hair over my shoulder, before his hand slid all the way down to the small of my back, pulling me into an embrace.
My breath caught at that hug for some reason. “Are you okay?” I asked.
“How long do you want to stay?” he murmured, and I could feel him looking aroundagain.
“Why?” I whispered, wondering why he was so on edge. Why he’d dropped me to the ground like that, clearly expecting the worst—though I supposed in his line of work, those kinds ofsoundsweretypically life-threatening, and something about that made my heart ache for him.
“I made us dinner reservations.” He reminded me cooly, a little smirk finally tugging at his mouth as he finally gazed down at me again.
I nodded. “Let me talk to the gallery owner, and then I’m ready.” It was finally time to let the piece go. It had served its purpose.
