“Cole said he got it from the shops in the Ring, and isn’t the Market close to the Courts?”
Sera just wanted to be moving. She agreed to look for his hair product while she was out, as long as she was somewhere else she didn’t care. She stepped into the brisk, refreshing air of the hallway and sighed.
The play of cool air over her heated skin was invigorating. Every cell felt alive. Sera strolled down the hallway until it connected with the main hall and she sensed another person coming.
“Ah, good, you’re dressed. I was just coming to fetch you. Come along then.” North corrected from the path to her room to start for the stairs. Did he expect her to follow?
“Excuse me, what?”
North turned around at the top step, arms behind his back. “I believe the arrangement was: I don’t press charges and you work for me. I gave you time to settle in, do you require more?” He asked the last question with a slight uptick in tone that Sera did not appreciate one bit.
“I thought that was a ploy for my brother.”
“Ah. Well, it wasn’t.”
“I don’t know how to be a secretary.” She started twisting her fingers together. Twirling. Twirling. Twirling. Did secretaries have to read? Would he figure out that she was an idiot?
“Then, you’ll learn,” he said, as if this were an obvious solution.
Her cheeks heated. “You don’t have to be smug about it. When I tell you I don’t know what I’m doing, I mean it. I’ll just make a mess of it. And, honestly, no one really thought for a second you meant you wanted me to be youractualsecretary.”
He left the stairs, and her heart raced as he drew near with that unwavering stare directed unblinking on her.
“I know how this works,” she said as he drew close enough that she was overwhelmed by evergreen. She cleared her throat. “Services are paid in pleasure, right?”
His jaw dropped a fraction. Not even enough to see his teeth, but it had all the effect of his jaw hitting the floor, given the subtlety of his expressions. He was quiet for a long moment.
Sera expected… something. Fight? Affirmation? Denial? Maybe for him to throw her against a wall and start hiking up her dress?
Her eyes wandered over him, appreciating the fine tailored suit and all that it concealed. Perhaps, throwing her against the wall was moreherfantasy than anything. His lips were as rigid as his manners. The impulse to swipe her tongue along his mouth and draw out whatever secrets he kept locked away was powerful.
His shoulders sagged and he looked away.
“Are… you okay?” She asked, detecting a shift in the mood, but only instinctively. She could easily be misreading the signs. With North, she couldn’t be sure.
His eyes locked with hers, soft and sad. “Hardly ever.”
“Why can’t you just say what you mean? What am I supposed to do with that? ‘Hardly ever’? So you are literallyneverokay?”
He didn’t answer, just looked at her with the same maybe sad, maybe dead inside, maybeanythingexpression.
“You’re giving me nothing, here. But I know you can do it. I know there’s feelings in there somewhere.” She mimed looking at him from different angles, like she might find the buried emotion if she just had a better view. She held out a hand, paused to assess his reaction, and then set her fingertips against his cheek.
His skin was impossibly warm. How? How was he the right kind of everything? The right smell. The right feel. The right looks. Every single one of her senses was clawing to get more of him.
When he didn’t move, instead letting her hand rest feather light on his cheek, she continued. Biting her lip, Sera pressed herfingers into skin and forced his mouth into a half smile. “There we go. See? You didn’t combust on the spot.”
His eyes searched hers. To reach his face, her body leaned ever so slightly into him. Her breathing hitched. Her fingers slackened. Moving from his cheek, she let her touch waft across his lips. Her eyes followed the motion, and, in a normal situation, this would be the part where she took the kiss. She wasn’t from a world of asking and waiting. Of dancing around obvious attraction. Yet… it felt wrong to take from him. Not now. Not even a kiss.
His hand moved up and caught her wrist, the barest pressure and he guided her hand away.
“Ah. The Game. I forgot for a moment.”
Game?
Oh. Right. That Game.
“Right.” She laughed, the gesture hollow and placating. “The Game. Exactly.”
