CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
Red wine?” Brayden asked once they were alone in his room. “I have that or whiskey.”
Scarlett swallowed as she eyed the bed before sitting on the leather couch in front of the crackling fireplace. “Sure. Red wine would be nice.” Her palms were sweating as she anticipated what would come next. Part of her wanted to study his bedroom, but she couldn’t take her eyes off him for long enough to look at anything else.
He pulled two glasses and a bottle out of a small cabinet next to his desk and set them on top of a trunk serving as his coffee table. Their soul lights flitted around each other as he poured the wine. After handing Scarlett her glass and setting his own on the trunk, he kneeled before her to unlace her boots. “What are you thinking?”
The sweetness of the gesture plucked at her heartstrings. “So many things. It was such an overwhelming day.” She took a big sip of her wine, anticipation coursing through her. Their first kiss had been everything she’d dreamed it would be. But what did it mean? Whatcouldit mean, with everything happening in her world?
Brayden sat next to her and took his own boots off. Withoutwarning, he picked Scarlett up and slid her into his lap as he stretched his legs along the length of the couch.
She was completely surrounded by his sturdy body. As she leaned against his chest, the contact relaxed her. Things were complicated, but he wouldn’t be so affectionate if something were wrong.
“Is there anything specific you want to talk about?” he asked.
“I’m curious what’s going to happen between us. Like, in general.” She hated how trite the words sounded, but this was Brayden. She could be honest with him.
He dragged his rough fingertips gently over her forearm. “What do you want to happen?”
If she wanted to keep things simple, she’d ask him for another kiss, but that wasn’t right. Not after the worries he’d expressed and what she’d seen in the mirror. She wanted to address some of the complexity between them. Her chest tightened as she tried to formulate an answer.
“Before my dad died, when I thought I was going to come for a visit, I hoped it’d be the start of something for us. Then I ended up fleeing here unexpectedly, but I was so damn happy to see you. I immediately started thinking about what might happen between us even though everything was chaotic. OfcourseI want you—you’re my favorite person, andlookat you.”
His chest rumbled with quiet laughter against her, and she smiled too.
“You’re my favorite person too,” he whispered in her ear.
“That’s good.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I guess I’m just saying I get why you were hesitant. The truth is, if my life weren’t such a mess, I’d want everything with you. But my lifeisa mess. I…” She took another deep breath. “I could come back when things calm down.”
He was silent, but his fingers began kneading her tense shoulders. Something tight eased in her chest.
Scarlett went on. “We both know you belong here and I belong there. Lachlan needs you, and I have such a huge responsibility to Soleil.”
His fingers moved down her spine. “So you’re scared, but you want everything with me?”
She didn’t miss the satisfaction in his voice. “You’re oversimplifying, but yes.”
He pulled her close to his chest once more. “I have something to tell you, but first, will you tell me what it was like when you saw me in the mirror at the Forest Temple? Tell me exactly how it felt.”
“All right.” Her curiosity piqued, she snuggled into him, reveling in the warmth of his chest against her back and his shoulders encasing hers. Joy filled her as his arms brushed against her and his masculine scent flooded her senses, but the happiness was bittersweet. In another life, this could have been hers every night. But right now, all they had was tonight. “You looked a little bit different. You had a scar on your eyebrow, right here.” She twisted around to touch where the scar had been before settling back in his lap.
“What else?” he asked, leaning forward to rest his chin on her shoulder, his hair brushing her cheek.
The mirror room came back to her in a rush, and her voice was laced with longing as she went on. “It felt like you were mine. There was this depth to it… I’ve never experienced anything like it before. I wanted to climb into the mirror with you. I was desperate to touch you.”
He placed a soft kiss on her neck, and Scarlett shivered. His lips on her skin… She was heartbeats away from turning her face toward his.
“What did you say when you saw me?”
“I asked why I was seeing you. The Brayden in the mirror said it was because we’re meant to be.”
“That’s not intense at all, is it?” he said with a chuckle.
She laughed. “No, it was casual.”
“Did it scare you, seeing me like that?”
