“Initially. Ben sent her home early because he thought it might upset her.” Which was an overly generous assessment of his capacity for mercy; it was far likelier that he hadn’t wanted their father taking the matter of her correction into his own hands when he discovered her disdain for taking on a position of subservience during her brief tenure at Ravensgate.
(That’s frighteningly draconian, even for a lawyer)
“Did Ben—would he ever hurt my sister?”
Again, he felt that spark of suspicion, honed by years of picking apart minor details, sifting through them like an old prospector panning for inconsistencies. This line of questioning was far too targeted. Someone had primed her with information.
“I never saw him raise a hand against her. Her leaving wrecked him.”
More half-truths. They felt like lies. She clearly thought so.
“He’s . . . intense.” Nadine hazarded another look at him.
“Yes.” The light grey irises of her eyes were darker when she tipped her head at certain angles, just a few precarious shades away from navy. “I’ve been told we all are.”
He shouldn’t have brought her here. It was wrong to toy with her like this, knowing her fate hung suspended over her throat like a hovering sword. If his family knew what he intended for her, they wouldn’t even bother waiting out the festival.
Originally, he had merely intended to gauge the depths of her knowledge and have some fun doing it. But this was a far cry from the brutal follow-through that came from a passion thatoverflowed like blood from a sliced artery. He was as close to relaxed as he had ever been.
The paragon of all of his infinitely possible selves.
She slid her plate around with a soft scraping sound as she considered her next question. “You were going to kiss me at the wedding.”
Cal felt his mouth twitch at the memory. “That’s not a question.”
“Why then?”
Rather than the challenge she intended, it came out sounding like a plea. “Because you looked so scared and lost,” Cal said, picking up his steak knife. “Like a bird in a cage. And all that nervous fluttering you were doing made me wonder what you’d be like in bed.”
Her warped look of shock reflected back at him from the mirrored surface of the blade. She was too discomfited to bother closing her mouth or composing her face, and he found that he vastly preferred her this way: out in the open, with nothing to shield the beating of her innermost heart or her far-too-honest face.
“You looked trapped,” he continued, rotating the knife in his fingers. “Unhappy. But you don’t look quite as trapped now. That just makes me think you need the bars, though. Some women do.” When he looked at her this time, he made it deliberate. She had gone utterly still. “Does it scare you, Nadine? How badly you want it? Having control taken from you again and again, while someone tells you to do things you can pretend you don’t want to do?”
When he set the knife down with a quiet clink, she jumped like a hare.
“Maybe,” he said, letting out a steeled breath, “I wanted you to pretend with me.”
“Howdareyou,” she said, in a way that was quite at odds with her scandalized declaration.
“You asked, Nadine.” He looked at her mouth, still glistening from where she had wetted it with her tongue. “Did you want me to lie and say it was because you looked sweet? Because you do—but you can still be sweet, even if you kiss like you don’t want to be.”
She inhaled sharply; it sounded breathless.That’s an interesting reaction.
He settled back in his chair, no longer even bothering to hide his delight as her chest rose and fell with manufactured outrage. A shy little firebrand, shooting off sparks. Too hazed with fear to know her own passion. God, how he wanted to fuck her. He knew it would be good.
“Next question,” she said, with effort.
“No. You’ve used them all.”
“I have two left!”
“No, darling. You asked a follow-up about your sister and Ben, if you’ll recall. And the last one you asked me, just now, was about how I dared. I made sure to explain myself fully.”
She sputtered delightfully. “That wasn’t a question!”
“But I answered it.” He flicked his napkin from his lap and dropped it on his plate. “I might answer more if you kiss me again. But since you’ve rejected our initial agreement, you should know that I’ll be seeking out specific performance from you, the breaching party.” He checked to make sure she was still watching him; she was. “Are you up to performing for a breach?”
A gasp sounded from behind them and Cal glanced over his shoulder to see the hovering waitress, one hand clapped over her mouth as she held the check in her other hand. Taking advantage of his distraction, Nadine slipped free from the booth and fled, pingponging off the side of a table in her panicked dash for the restroom.
