“Christopher,” She eyed the hand around her arm. “What is really the matter here? Why are you angry with me?”
“I am not angry with you.”
“You are not happy.”
“I am,” He clicked his tongue. “I am upset. It is not the same as being angry.”
“Upset? Whatever for? Because I am late?”
“Because you did not tell me you would be.”
“No,” She made sure to meet his eye. “That is not the reason. Do not lie to me.”
“I am upset because,” He was shaking now; she could feel the vibrations through his hand and up his arm. “Not because you made me wait, Rose. But because you made me worry about you. For two hours, I waited, having no idea where you were,if something had happened. For two hours, I…” He sucked through his teeth. “I thought you had been hurt.”
“You did?” Rose blinked in surprise.
“Hurt, or something worse,” he admitted. “That this morning when you left, it would be the last time, and that I wasn’t there to protect you. I thought… I thought…”
He was not looking at her, as if to do so would see him break, but Rose saw his anger for what it truly was.
He was worried about me. He was terrified! For all his efforts to act as if he did not care, to pretend as if he thought so little of me, the moment he thought that I was in danger, the mask fell away.
“Christopher…” Her words were soft, as was the look she held him in. “I did not mean to worry you.”
“Well, you did.”
“I should have sent word ahead.” Slowly, she reached for him, her hand finding the side of his face. He flinched and then rested his hand on top, holding it to his skin.
“I wish you had.”
She smiled at him. “I had no idea you cared so much.”
Finally, he looked at her, and in his eyes she saw pain and suffering and sadness. “I know I am cold, sometimes. I know I can be distant. But Rose, you are my wife, and because you are…” He licked his lips as his eyes held her. “Of course I care about you.”
She could feel it happening. The way they looked at one another. How close they stood; her hand still on his cheek. He still held her arm, too; he still pulled her close, and their faces were mere inches apart, cutting off the world around them so that they were the only two who seemed to exist.
Her eyes flicked to his lips. He licked his lips as she did the same. Their breaths held. The anger faded. And before Rose knew what was happening, she was leaning up and puckering her lips as Christopher leaned forward.
Their lips met in a passionate clash. His hands went to her face, holding it there, not daring to let her move as he kissed her fully. Lips parted, tongues wrestled, and her heart exploded as two became one.
Rose had not expected to kiss her husband. She had not been sure that she even wanted to. But in that moment, feeling her body react, she could not believe that she had ever considered a world where this was not the natural conclusion of their relationship.
Despite herself, Rose was starting to fall for her husband, and from the way he kissed her, he was falling for her too.
He stopped kissing her and pulled away suddenly. She gasped and tried to follow him, but he took a step back.
His expression was typically cool again. His posture was removed. He looked down at her, no sense at all what he was thinking, and had she not been there to experience it, Rose might not have known that they had just kissed at all.
“Do not make me worry like that again,” he said.
“I… I won’t,” she said, allowing herself to smile. “I promise.”
“Good.” He looked her over a final time, her opened his mouth as if to speak, only to think better of it. A firm nod of confirmation, and he turned and stormed away.
Rose stayed where she was, still coming into the moment and what had just happened. She had kissed her husband, he had kissed her back, and everything that she thought she knew about this marriage had shattered into a million little pieces.
Her husband was an enigma. He was not one to let others know what he was thinking. But the mask he wore slipped for just a second, she finally caught a glimpse of the real him, and now that she had, Rose was determined to see it again.
