Oh. Right. “Actually, I had something else in mind.”
He leaned back just enough to raise a brow. “Oh?”
“Your waist chains, for one.”
He threw me a bewildered look. “You actually bought them? I didn’t think... Silas, you didn’t need to do that. I would’ve gotten a new pair, eventually.”
I cupped his face, pulling him back in to press my lips to each corner of his mouth. “I wanted to.”
His expression softened. “Oh.”
“Besides,” I continued. “You’d never be able to afford the pair I picked out. No offense,” I added quickly.
His eyes narrowed slowly. “How much did you spend?”
I shrugged. Not that it mattered. Maybe as an anniversary gift, I’d get him a collar. The thin chain type, wrapped indiamonds with a soldered clasp in the back he could hide under the collar of his uniform.
Or maybe one to match his waist chains. He did look fantastic in green.
Actually, why not two?
“Silas.” He nudged me. “How much did you spend?”
“Does it matter?”
His eyes widened, horrified. “Don’t tell me it’s worth more than my car.”
“Everythingis worth more than that car, Terran. That’s not a large threshold to surpass. Speaking of which, we need to get you a new one.”
“We?” His voice cracked.
“Yes. Your sister, too, I suppose. Before winter actually hits. Neither of you should be driving in that death trap.” Picturing it in my mind, clear as day, the rust marks and crooked license plate, no doubt a forewarning to what was hiding on the under carriage. Bringing it to Brandon’s auto body shop would be our best bet; better than bringing it directly to a salvage yard, at least. “You probably also have bald tires.”
Brandon could keep whatever cash he’d offer for it. Use it for parts and scrap the rest so long as he didn’t give the keys back to Terran, no matter how many times a badge was flashed in his face. Maybe it was better if I kept him distracted. Most people around here tended to get intimidated by the boys in blue.
He shoved at my chest, the gesture more playful than forceful. “It just passed inspection, thank you very much. And my tires were fine.”
“Passable fine,” I asked, raising a brow. “Or actually-had-some-tread-left?”
“Ha, ha. Funny.”
Not answering my question was enough of an answer for me. “New car. Non-negotiable. Then I’m taking you to Palmerston so you can test drive it when it finally snows.”
His jaw dropped, a soft, “Palmerston?” muttered under his breath.
“Yes. I went to school there. It has a big parking lot that gets abandoned once the sun goes down.”
“Surprised you didn’t go to a fancy boarding school.” He waved his hand in the air. “What, with the trust fund.”
Instead of answering him, I simply let a slow smirk rise on my face. There was no point in saying anything when he was a smart and clever man, easily able to read between the very obvious lines and figure it out for himself. If I gave him enough time, I had no doubt he’d be quite good at guessing the rest of my school history.
“No.” He replied, eyes widened.
My smirk remained plastered to my face. “I’ll give you time to guess what country it was in.”
“I can’t even believe you. My public school had a metal detector. I hope that makes your privileged ass feel an ounce of sympathy for us poors.”
Easy. Far, far too easy to rile him up. And with something so simple, too. I’d have fun figuring out which pieces of my class status dug at him the most over the next few months. It’d be a fun little bingo game to play by myself while we tussled around in the sheets.
