Leaning back, I study her carefully, loving the slowness of this. The way time feels suspended just for us. The circumstances that led us here weren't great—blood, bullets, a job gone to shit.
But right now?
I'm in no rush to look away. No rush to leave. No rush to be anywhere but here, watching the firelight catch in her hair and turn it molten.
My mind cycles through options. Catherine? No, too common. Theresa? Doesn't fit her.
Obsessed with saints…a name she couldn't grow into…
I've got it. "Grace."
Her eyes snap to mine, surprise flickering there. She didn't expect me to actually get it right.
"Keira Grace," I continue, testing it on my tongue. "Your mother wanted you to be graceful. Holy and pure."
"Everything I'm not." She chuckles.
"Everything you don't want to be," I correct.
"I'm impressed, though. Most people would have taken too long to guess or given up."
"I'm not most people."
"No, you're not." Her eyes hold mine, and I feel it tingle down my back.
Fuck me.
"What about you? What's your middle name?" Keira looks away, playing with the label on the bottle.
"Hale."
"Tristan Hale," she murmurs, and the way she says it makes my pulse beat faster. "Like healthy?"
"More like breath. The bit in the middle. Inhale, exhale…the part that hurts if you do it wrong."
"That's kind of beautiful."
I smirk. "Have you met me?"
She laughs, big and loud, and I realize I'm grinning like an idiot.
"Shut up. You're so full of yourself."
I shrug, looking away so my stupid heart can stop beating so fast.
It's just the alcohol and the lack of sex in a while that's getting to me.
"I like it, your middle name—I mean," she says, thankfully oblivious to my inner turmoil.
"Oh yeah?" I glance up to find her watching me. "Don't get attached to my middle name, Red."
"What if I already am?"
Everything goes quiet.
All the noise in my head dims. The years of running, of killing, of pretending I don't feel anything—it all narrows down to this room, this woman, this silly conversation about names.
Maybe I'm tired of pretending. Maybe just for tonight, I can stop being the man with blood on his hands and start being someone who gets to have whatever this is.
