Alaric looks at me andwinks, and his arm around me squeezes, and Patrick glares at him, and I think I mightdieof happiness.
“Oh, we’re not friends,” I say sweetly. “I used to be engaged to Patrick, but then he cheated on me with my best friend, Claire.”
“I see.” Alaric withdraws his hand. “In that case, I shall rescind the tea invitation.”
Alaric smiles at Patrick – a wide, toothy grin that’s unnatural on him and manages to look monstrous. His eyes flash with the raw possessiveness that he showed when he pretended to be my boyfriend to scare away Danny. At this angle, I can’t see Alaric straight on, only the curve of his full lips as he bares his teeth. Patrick stumbles back as if he’s been cursed. He looks terrified.
Oh, I love this evenmore.
“We didn’t mean to hurt you.” Claire’s face falls. “And look, you’re happily engaged too, so it all worked out okay in the end. Can’t we just?—”
“No, Claire, we can’t just. I trusted both of you and you betrayed me.”
She recoils as if I’ve slapped her across the face. A sensation like pride spreads across my shoulders, filling me with joyous warmth. Or maybe that’s from Alaric still holding me as if I’m his.
“I read in the history of Black Crag Castle that one of my ancestor’s men betrayed his betrothed. The lord hung him from the castle walls,” Alaric says conversationally. “By his testicles.”
Patrick’s face turns white. “Perhaps we should leave them to their dinner, Claire.”
“But—”
He shoves Claire inside the pub.
I smother my face with my sleeve so Patrick and Claire can’t hear my laughter. “I’m sorry, yourescind the tea invitation? That is the sickest burn I’ve heard from a member of the aristocracy.”
Alaric doesn’t share my mirth. He also doesn’t remove his arm from around mywaist. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know.” I grip the edge of the table. My hands are shaking. What’s wrong with me? I’d be able to think more clearly if he wasn’t glaring out at the world like he’d burn it all down for me. “I’ll feel better with another gin and tonic.”
Alaric disappears into the crowded pub, returning a few moments later with a pair of gin and tonics and a number on a stick. “I ordered you the pie. And a chocolate brownie,” he says stiffly.
“You’re my knight in shining armour.”
“I’m afraid my armour is rather dulled from lack of use, but if you ask it, I shall don my suit and duel that fiend Patrick. Luckily, we will not need such a large rope for his tiny testicles?—”
“The testicle-hanging isn’t necessary, but appreciated.” I glance in the window. Claire and Patrick have a booth along the far wall. Patrick has his head in his hands, his shoulders trembling. Claire glances up and sees me. Her face is red with misery.
Alaric wraps my fingers around the glass, and then pulls me back against him. “Then you must forget them.”
I swallow gulp after gulp of G&T, wishing it would hurry up and cure the lump in my throat or the warmth spreading through my body where Alaric touches me.
“Winifred, please talk to me. I do not like it when you are quiet.”
I shake my head.
“Talk, lest I find other ways to tempt open those lips.”
The air between us charges, and I find myself transfixed byhislips – the fullness of the upper versus the lower, the way they press tightly together, as though he’s holding something dangerous inside, and the little quirk in the corner when he catches me watching.
“Losing Patrick hurt like being stabbed repeatedly with a butter knife,” I sniff, cursing myself for rambling all this personal nonsense at my boss but unable to stop. “But if I’m being completely honest with myself, I don’t think I was happy with him. Not romance novel, swooning at the mere sight of him happy. He wassafe. Everything about Patrick was the complete opposite of my mother, and I clung to that even when things in our relationship weren’t perfect.I’m humiliated more than I miss him, which tells me everything I need to know. But Claire …”
Alaric presses my cheek against his chest. His lips move over my hair as he says, “You care for her.”
“Claire has been my friend for so long I don’t remember my life without her. We know each other’s darkest secrets. She’s the only one who …”
Alaric tilts his head to the side. I shake my head. I can’t give him that. He already knows more about my mother than I’ve told anyone else other than Claire. I’ve laid myself bare for him too many times already, only to have him reject me. He doesn’t get this, too.
“That’s what hurts so much.” I swallow. “Claire has been an amazing friend. She’s been there for me whenever I needed her. But this time, I can’t call her after this horrible thing happened because she’s partially responsible for the horrible thing. Losing Patrick I could deal with, but losing my best friend, too?”
