Before he could respond, she continued. “Maybe I’m not supposed to say that, or what I’m going to say next might put you in an awkward position, but I confess ... I like you.”
She held her breath.
16
And I like you too. He couldn’t have been more relieved when the waitress suddenly appeared to take their plates and ask if they wanted dessert. Or more relieved they had somewhere to be immediately after dinner. Dessert would have to wait.
A text dinged, and he would normally have ignored it, but he glanced at his smartwatch.
Octavia.
He was thankful his sleeve covered it from Cressida’s view. He’d gotten himself into this.
He wanted to respond to Cressida’s statement. Say the words out loud. But he would just dig a deeper hole, and the fall into that hole was already going to be painful. He might have secrets that he couldn’t share, but he couldn’t speak bold lies to her face. Some believed an omission counted as a lie. But a life depended on those secrets, a life was on the line.
Cressida waited for his reaction to her statement.
“I like you.”
This one was strong and determined. She might be a forceto be reckoned with. With those striking light-green eyes alone, she held power over him that he couldn’t understand. Her crazy red curls and all those freckles. Appearance and allure aside, she was a fighter on the inside. A survivor. And that stirred him all the more. He wished he could tell her that he had liked her the first time he’d seen her in a photograph.
“I think you know the feeling is mutual,” he finally said, “but you don’t know me. Not really.” He didn’t back off when her expression shifted, her chin lifted. “And by the time you get to know me, you won’t like me anymore.”
There. He’d told the truth.
Now was the moment to steer this back to where it belonged. Octavia’s text had been perfect timing, as if she had been reading his mind. The woman reminded him of his digital life—Alexa and Siri and social media. He could have a thought, and the next thing he knew, an advertisement appeared like someone had read his mind. Though it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that Octavia could be—somehow—watching him, he didn’t think that likely.
“You sound sure about that.”
What? That she didn’t know him? Or that she wouldn’t like him when she got to know him? “Oh, I’m pretty sure.” He grinned. “And you’re leaving Hidden Bay when you’re done.”
His statement could have been taken in a couple of ways. He demanded it of her. Or he was simply making an observation and offering his strong assumption of her plans.
“I don’t know how long the research is going to take. This is the first vessel for which I’ve had to do all the research. If my father knew anything, he left nothing for me. All the others, Dad had stayed the course and recorded the details.”
She crunched on the ice left in her glass. Dinner was over. They’d declined dessert. And yet they were still here.
“Let’s make a deal,” she said, “you and I.”
Those words hit him wrong. They were the exact words her mother spoke to him. He tried to hide how much he disliked them, and yet coming from Cressida, the words were much more palatable.
“You’re some kind of negotiator.” He hadn’t even heard her terms.
“It comes naturally.”
“Let’s hear it.” He leaned back in his seat.
“You do your job as a detective and focus on finding the guy who attacked me. I’llcontinueto research, interview people about theSpecter’s Bounty, do what I do, and you can accompany me if you believe it’s relevant to your investigation.”
She’d turned things away from their “liking” each other.
He opened his mouth to speak.
“I’m not done.” She cut him off. “And we’ll just be natural with each other. I don’t want things to be awkward between us.”
“That’s why it surprises me you even broughtitup.” The liking each other part.
“Well, no point in dancing around what’s obviously between us.” Her grin was a spin on incredulity and flirting.
