Cassandra looked at him surprised, like she thought he was going to yell at her some more, and Antoine felt guilty for that. He really needed to learn to temper his emotions and his tone of voice. Human women were so much more sensitive to that. He thought if she had been a shifter, Cassandra would have just yelled back at him and that would have been that. There wouldn't have been this fear present in her eyes, and she didn't even know who he really was. Antoine didn’t want to think about how she would look if she knew the truth.
That reminder, that she would turn away from him as soon as she realized what he really was, was enough to push him away. Whatever was going through his mind, possibilities and desires, didn't really matter. None of them would actually happen and the sooner he reminded himself of that, the better off it would be. Antoine knew that there was no future with the human. He had no future with any human, so getting mixed up with one was only going to complicate things further.
He walked to another hallway that she hadn't even noticed.
“I thought that this was the end of it.”
“It is a bit of an illusion. It makes it look a little less rolling. I wanted the room, but I don't always want to be reminded of it.”
“It is quite big here. It would be hard not to notice.”
She made a comment about how empty it all was, and he just shrugged. “I just don't see the point of decorating. I certainly don't see the point of decorating rooms that I’m barely ever in. My bedroom, that's where I sleep and that's probably where I spend most of the time when I’m here. Usually, I'm gone from sunup to sundown. I have what is necessary; there isn't a lot of excess that is needed.”
“You sound very different than pretty much everybody I've ever met before.”
“The culture of consumption is interesting. I just don't have time for it.”
“Well, you wouldn’t want to see my place. It is full of knickknacks. Every time I travel, I can’t help but pick something up to remind me of the trip.”
“I would like to see it sometime.”
Cassandra glanced up surprised, then she walked away quickly, passing him to get out of the room that she now appeared to feel claustrophobic in. Antoine couldn’t help but pick up on all of the unsaid cues that she was sending out. It wasn't just because he was a shifter, either. It had a lot to do with the fact that he was a man, and she was a beautiful woman that called to every fiber of his being.
Antoine didn't know if he was ever going to understand the woman in front of him. Nathan, for some reason, had dropped her off on his lap and he wasn't quite sure why. Maybe he did know. When he had seen the office burning and thought that she was in it, he had probably gotten more truth than he cared to admit. The truth was that Antoine did care about her. Cassandra had wormed her way into his heart in just a couple of weeks, a heart that had sworn he would never fall for any woman, let alone a human. It was so impossible, but it was the situation that Antoine was facing at the moment.
It couldn't be, though. He kept reminding himself of that, while he watched her hips sway from side to side. He had gotten in behind her and she poked her head into another room. It just had more storage, and she did not look impressed at all.
“It all looks pretty much the same.”
“Yeah, I like to keep things simple.”
“I'm starting to see that. I have a feeling that you're not a very simple guy, though.”
Antoine did ask what she meant by that. He was starting to question why he had given her a tour at all. What was he going to gain out of it, besides getting her mind off of the room full of pictures? Or the fact that he had been drawing her as well. She was admittedly always on his mind, so of course she was going to become part of his art. Drawing was how he relaxed, and though he would never sell one, sometimes it felt like it was what he was truly supposed to be doing.
They were walking back to the kitchen when she brought up the picture from the bedroom. It was not at all what Antoine wanted, and he wanted to steer the conversation back to something else, but instead he just nodded his head.
“You are quite good at it, you know. I never could draw much more than a stick figure. It kind of used to bug me because I had a friend that was really good at it. You are, too.”
He thanked her for it, but Antoine did not know why he said anything. It wasn't like he wanted other people to see it. Those were for him to enjoy, and for him to make and enjoy the making of it. That's why he did it, not for anyone else.
“I just do it all once in a while.”
“It seems like you do that more than just once in a while.”
“It keeps me busy at night. I don't have a TV here. I don't know if you noticed that.”
“No, but I guess it makes sense. You probably wouldn't get much reception out here anyway. I barely get any at my place, and you’re way further out than I am.”
“Well, I don't watch it, so I draw at night.”
It sounded pretty lame to Antoine and he wanted to add something to it, but that's all there was. It was just something he did to pass the time and to relax himself. There was really no hidden reason or anything else like that. He drew because something inside of him said that he needed to.
“I really liked the picture of me.”
Antoine was a bit embarrassed that she had seen it, but he was thankful that she had said picture instead of pictures, meaning she didn’t know it was plural. He had certainly drawn more than one picture of her. She had been on his mind for a couple of weeks now, ever since he crashed into her car. Of course, that was all he could draw. Cassandra was the only thing on his mind.
“You are just someone new to draw. I hope you don't mind. You should see it as a compliment.”
