Her eyes found mine the way they always did in the bakery, like some quiet instinct that neither of us had ever acknowledged out loud. Only this time, they went wide.
She took in the tux, and the setting and then she took in the way every person in this room seemed to know exactly who I was and exactly where I belonged.
I watched the confusion move across her face.
Followed immediately by the beginning of understanding.
I closed the remaining distance between us and stopped just in front of her. Close enough that her scent wrapped around me completely. I was so close that I could see the rapid flutter of her pulse at her throat.
"Amara," I said.
Her voice came out barely above a whisper. "Kael. What..."
"I know," I said quietly. "I owe you an explanation. A real one." I held out my hand, steady, despite everything roaring inside me. "But first, will you dance with me?"
9
AMARA
The Solas Valentine Gala had me frozen in fear; it was quite literally my nightmare come to life. The ballroom ceiling soared above me, and I felt so insignificantly small while deep red roses spilled out of gorgeous arrangements perfuming the air around me. I felt like I’d stepped inside of a fairy tale meant for the likes of people like Lila.
Yes,I thought,I definitely felt I’d wandered into the wrong story.A story that was meant for someone who was gorgeous who would immediately capture the heart of a prince.
"Stand up straight," my mother murmured beside me, already scanning the room with the focused intensity of someone running a military operation.
I did as I was told, pulling my shoulders back a bit, my spine locking into place.
Lila appeared at my other elbow approximately thirty seconds after we walked in, which had to be some kind of record even for her. She looked stunning in a silver gown that probably cost more than my rent, her hair swept up in an elaborate style that I would never in a million years be able to pull off.
"Amara," she said, her eyes sliding over my burgundy dress with a smile that didn't reach anywhere near warm. "You look...sweet."
There it was.
Sweet.
The same word she'd been using to diminish me since we were twelve years old.
"Thanks," I said flatly and my shoulders drooped a little on their own.
Colin materialized somewhere behind her, handsome and uncomfortable in his tux, his eyes skating away from mine the second they landed on me.Good. He should be uncomfortable.
Lila leaned in close. "I heard the Solas brothers are all here tonight. All four of them. Can you imagine?" She pressed a hand to her chest like the thought alone might finish her off. "I've seen photos of the oldest one. Damon. Absolute perfection. Total hottie!”
I made a sound that I hoped passed for interested and looked out across the ballroom.
And then my brain stopped working entirely.
Because across the room, standing with a group of people who all carried themselves like they'd been born owning every space they'd ever entered, was Kael.
My Kael.
Except this version of Kael was in a perfectly fitted black tux with a burgundy pocket square, his short brown hair neat, those hazel-green eyes calm and commanding in a way I had never seen behind a bakery counter. People moved around him like water around a stone. A man leaned in to speak to him and he responded with a slight nod, unhurried and completely at ease.
I blinked and looked again.
Definitely him.
For sure the same jaw and the same broad shoulders. The same hands that slid honey-ember tarts across a counter every single morning with flour still caught under his fingernails.
