She nodded swiftly, pressing her phone to her chest as if it were the most precious thing. “I understand. I planned to disconnect anyway.”
Paulo smiled briefly, which my irrational mind didn’t like. His eyes were on her longer than they should have been, which was at all. I knew he was simply being polite and respectful, but I feared that if he continued to look at her, I might rip his eyes out.
He quickly looked to me as if he could feel my annoyance burning on his skin. “I’ll be going. I’ll make sure we end this.”
I nodded, moving slightly in front of Camilla, trying, and failing, to fix the scowl on my face from their miniscule interaction. “Thank you. I’m going to text you a list of food. Send it to someone to get.”
“Of course.”
“Thank you, Paulo,” Camilla said, waving goodbye as she peeked around me.
He gave a curt nod and walked away. I took my phone back out to send our orders to Paulo. “What do you want to eat tonight?”
She lifted a shoulder. “Pizza is fine.”
“Your favorite. You didn’t change.”
She scrunched her face. “Who grows out of pizza?”
After I sent a request for dinner, I turned to see that Camilla had gone. She couldn’t have been far because I didn’t feel like death. Part of me wanted to look for her, but I understood thatshe needed a moment to herself. She wouldn’t have many, and I couldn’t say that didn’t excite me. I would have her all to myself, and my mind was already racing with ways to seduce her, woo her, love her.
Dinner came, and she ventured downstairs where we ate pizza together in the living room, wordlessly watching some mediocre action movie on one of my streaming services. She hadn’t eaten enough by my standards when she got up to put her plate in the dishwasher. I turned slightly to the dining and bar area behind the living space and watched her pour herself another whiskey.
I stood up and walked over to her. “I can make you a cocktail.”
She shook her glass at me. “Nope, this is good. You know I’m simple when it comes to my drinks.” She finally smiled up at me, and I couldn’t explain in words how much I needed to see that. My heart expanded just a little for her, and I welcomed it.
“Look, I know this is happening to us both. How are you holding up?” she asked in a quiet voice.
I picked up the decanter and poured myself another drink. “I’m used to threats. You aren’t. Nor do I want you to be.”
She glanced at me, then quickly looked away as if shy. That was new. Camilla had never been shy with me. At least not since she was a tiny child. Was I making her shy again?
“Well,” she began, “it’s different seeing you so in control. Running things with people calling your boss. Getting things done. You have a lot of power.”
I didn’t respond. She was right, I did have power. Power that had made me weary. However, I’d trained and worked in this life since I was a teenager. It was only when my club started to make a real profit that I believed I could live a life of my own making. Away from death and violence and the sheer exhaustion of constant paranoia. I could turn my family legit. Or at least close to it.
She leaned a hip against the bar counter. “You said a lot to me, Harris, before you stepped out my cottage.”
I nodded slowly. “I did.”
“You insinuated that you loaned me to my ex, like I was some toy.”
“I don’t think you’re a toy, Camilla.”
She sighed. “Good.”
I took a sip of my drink. “But you are mine.”
She raised her eyebrows, shaking her head in confusion. “That’s crazy. I’m yours, but you had no problem with me being with other men.”
I grimaced, trying my best not to picture her with anyone else, especially her ex-husband. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do: give her up. It was that whole, if you love someone, set them free thing. However, that time was over. “I always had a problem with it. I just didn’t have a choice. It would have been cruel to deny you companionship all this time. I’m not that much of an asshole.”
She considered me for a moment, eyes searching mine as if she were looking for something I wasn’t freely sharing. “I don’t know, Harris, I’ve been replaying everything you said earlier over and over in my head. I don’t get it. I’m not your type. I’ve seen the women that you dated. The mother of your child. I know you, remember? You never flirted with me. Even when we were teens. I remember when your parents suggested we go to junior prom together, and you gave them a look of disgust and said it would be like going to the prom with your sister. That kind of hurt, but I got it. I knew who I was to you.”
I looked out of the window; it was dark now, so I could see nothing but our reflections. She was much shorter than me but still taller than the average woman, which was natural for elves. Still, I wanted to pick her up, have her wrap her legs around me. I wanted to finally kiss her, lay her back on the dining table, anddo things to her that I’d only dreamed about. It was time to tell her everything. Leave no more confusion. “My father wanted us to marry. Actually, both our parents wanted us to be married. I’d heard them talk to each other about it when we were in college. I adamantly resisted, and it was the one thing my father allowed me to do. Secure your freedom and safety.”
Camilla blew out a breath, eyes spanning the room before she spoke again. “Wow, didn’t know that. I would have liked to know all this when it happened.”
