“Because someone was missing.”
I’ve never felt this understood, this seen and heard, yet still seen as strong.
Dair’s gaze locks on my phone screen and on who else is in a final photoshoot image. “He’s… He’s very good-looking.”
“Who is?”
For once, I’ve said the right thing at the right time. I must have—Dair kisses me again beside more signage, and I don’t need any assistive tech after our kiss ends to tell him what that sign mentions. Flynn read it out during our first museum visit and told me how us partnering on his project could be life-changing for us both.
I tip my head at that sign beside us. “The master craftsmen here run specialist restoration training courses. Flynn said that once his lease was up and we sold everything I restored for him, my share could fund this accreditation. I never told him that I wouldn’t be able to do it without reading or writing, butcoming to a taster session here did make me want that change in direction.”
“You want to become a master craftsman?”
Want it?
It would be a dream come true. “He said a qualification from a national museum could attract clients with real money.”
“Attract them to what?” I kinda love how his brow crinkles. “To your cousin’s house-clearance business?”
“No.” I’ve started so I might as well finish letting out all the ways I misread a one-way situation. “To my own restoration business, only Flynn fucked off and had everything I worked on taken. Probably just as well. I should stick to being hired muscle, right?”
Dair doesn’t agree. “Wrong. You’re a lot more than muscle, Vincent.” He points out a portrait right behind us. “That could be you. Lord of the manor with your own private army.”
I turn to see a life-size portrait of someone as dark-haired and bearded as me. The difference is that he most likely owns the land he guards with a raised sword. The glint of steel is vivid. So is his air of command over the men around him. “Lord of the manor? That could never be me.”
“Yes, it could.” He touches my chin. “Lift this. No. Even higher.”
“Why?”
“Just do it. For me.”
I comply with his request, only maybe not fast enough—Dair gets handsy with me, and I’m not complaining when it means he touches my jaw. His own clenches as he sweeps hair to one side across my forehead like he wants the world to see what I usually keep hidden, and I let him. His fingertips ask me to tilt my head, and I do whatever he wants. Dair takes out his phone to take a photo. Before he does, he murmurs, “For after I’m gone.”
I find out what that does to my expression when Dair holds out his phone so I can see what he’s captured—what he somehow saw was hiding like the treasure all mudlarks hunt for in Thameside mud and gravel.
He’s caught me looking as fierce as when men carried swords instead of iPhones.
And as protective.
I’m aware of movement—a private army of Exes gathers to see Dair turning as fierce as I look on his phone screen.
“I’m saying that you make things happen. Like you getting everyone here to work for me. And like that midnight flit your aunt organised for someone in trouble. It couldn’t have happened without you, could it?” His fingers find where my life first fractured, his touch light. I still feel it long after his hand drops. “You even tracked down a business to buy my dinged-up chairs and tables. You made that happen.” Dair points at the portrait, then turns his phone to face me. “Of course, this is exactly how I see you.”
Exes crowd close, each of those fuckers cooing over that photo. It takes a while to realise they aren’t taking the piss.
Blake confirms it when he hands back Dair’s phone. His eyes pierce me, sharper than any sword blade. “You remind me of my Riding Master.” I guess that’s someone high up in the Household Cavalry when he adds, “One look from him, and we all jumped to attention. No wonder Harry left you with his pen.”
He’s calling me a leader for real, and he means it.
I could turn around to hide what that does to me.
Yesterday, I would have.
Today my eyes sting, and I don’t care who sees it.
12
I wishI could say our museum visit ends with a last-minute discovery worth a fortune.
