But then, when I heard his footsteps behind me, I spun abruptly and threw my hand out to stop him, only to collide squarely with his chest.
Solid.
Unyielding.
And clearly, the impact startled me more than it did him. His gaze dropped to where my palm rested flat against his shirt, and for a second, neither of us moved. Heat rushed to my face, and I withdrew my hand quickly, almost gingerly, as though I had touched something that might burn right through me.
“You’re not following me,” I stated, attempting authority I didn’t quite feel. He looked at me steadily, something restrained simmering just beneath the surface.
“Forgive me if my trust has its limits,” he replied, voice cool but edged now.
And there it was again… Not anger. Not frustration…But disappointment.
Something that struck deeper than I expected.
“I…I…” I stammered, unsure of what to say. However, he didn’t suffer the same infliction as I did, as he knew exactly what to say.
“We were having coffee,” he continued, quieter but no less firm.
“And you walked away.”
I flinched before I could stop myself, hating the regret in his tone. So, after a few tense moments of silence, I released a deep sigh and told him,
“If you want me to pack a bag, I’ll do it, but I want to do it privately,” I insisted, lifting my chin, but he clearly had other ideas.
“No,” he stated firmly, making me roll my eyes and argue,
“What do you think I’m going to do? Jump out of my window from five floors up? Sprout wings or fashion a knotted rope out of my sheets?”
“It’s not you learning to fly that concerns me,” he said smoothly.
“It’s that you’ve already proven you’re quite capable of disappearing in other ways.”
I groaned under my breath and turned away from him, storming into the bedroom, and, of course, he followed. However, when he stepped through the doorway, he stopped.
As in,stopped dead.
A soft, involuntary sound escaped him and, once again, I rolled my eyes without turning around.
“Yes, yes, I know. Lilies. Frogs. Botanical nightmare. I get it, it’s all very shocking,” I commented dryly, knowing full well this was one of the reasons I’d tried to keep him out. Also, the room was still a battlefield of my hasty packing from just before he arrived.
But when he didn’t respond and the silence stretched, that was what finally made me turn around. He was standing just inside the doorway, gaze sweeping the room slowly, not in judgment but in something closer to stunned astonishment.
In fact, for a moment, he looked almost…speechless.
“Well?” I demanded when he said nothing.
He inhaled once, then finally asked,
“Do I want to know?”
“More like, do I wish to tell?” I muttered, yanking open my wardrobe and dragging more clothes out with unnecessary force.
“And the answer to that is no, I do not.”
I stuffed them into the suitcase, shoving fabric down with my forearm to make space, and his attention quickly shifted to the suitcase on the bed.
“Were you planning to go somewhere?” he asked after a beat.
