A small laugh escapes her. “I was going to say absurd.”
“That too.” I risk a glance at her. She’s still in that wedding dress, hair half-pinned, makeup smudged slightly from the exertion. She’s never looked more beautiful. “You’re a good actress.”
“Years of practice pretending everything’s fine.” The words come out more bitter than I think she intends.
The honesty surprises me. “Phoenix?—”
“We should probably stay in here for a while longer.” She sits up and starts pulling out the rest of her hair pins with methodical precision. “To make it believable.”
I sit up too, keeping a careful distance between us on the bed. “What do you want to do?”
She glances at me sideways. “What do people usually do after sex?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
That makes her pause. “Right. Sorry, I forgot that you—” She stops herself.
“That I’ve never done this before?” I finish for her. “It’s fine, Phoenix. You don’t have to walk on eggshells around me.”
“I don’t walk on eggshells around anyone.” But there’s less bite in her voice than usual.
“I know. It’s one of the things I like about you.”
She stares at me for a long moment. Then shakes her head, goes back to pulling out pins. “You’re strange, you know that?”
“Coming from you, I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Another small laugh. “Yeah, well. Don’t let it go to your head, angel boy.”
But when she says it this time, it almost sounds... affectionate.
I lean back against the headboard, watching her. “For what it’s worth, I think you were magnificent today.”
“Magnificent?” She snorts. “I barely made it through the ceremony without using compulsion on half the guests.”
“But you didn’t. You endured it. For your friend Sabra. You do whatever it takes to protect the people you care about.” I pause. “That takes strength.”
She’s quiet for a moment. When she speaks again, her voice is softer. “You weren’t so bad yourself. You managed not to accidentally curse anyone.”
“Sabra’s training has paid off.”
“Yeah.” She pulls out the last pin, and her dark hair tumbles down around her shoulders. “She’s good at what she does.”
I want to reach out and touch those dark waves. Are they as soft as they look? It takes all my self-discipline to keep my hands to myself.
“So,” Phoenix says eventually, still not looking at me. “This is our life now. Fake marriage. Fake... everything.”
“Maybe not everything,” I say quietly.
Her eyes snap to mine. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t make this more complicated than it has to be.” But her voice wavers slightly.
“Phoenix—”
“I mean it, Layden.” She stands up abruptly, putting distance between us. “This is a business arrangement. That’s all it can be.”
