As simple as making her proposal had been, and as readily as Velario had agreed, the one thing Reyn had not anticipated was the nerves that would settle in during the wait.
Even in Lhanaperi, it would not have been the done thing for Velario and her to retire to her room at noon. Maybe if they had been at his house, with no one expecting them at luncheon. But they had been in Master Petro and Princess Biatra’s home. Selona’s home. Where Reyn was a guest. So they hadn’t tested her theory of her lure then. They had arranged to meet that evening.
And here Reyn was, as nervous as a debutante being asked to her first dance. And worse, letting it show.
Selona eyed Reyn’s hands, which were now knotted in her skirts instead of smoothing them compulsively. Oh well, at least there would be wrinkles to smooth the next time she gave into that urge.
“I am glad you and Velario are going out this evening; I truly appreciate that you are willing to make this work, but are you really that nervous about spending time with him?”
Reyn shook her head.
“You can be honest with me, Reyn. He was horrible the other night. I don’t know what got into him. If you aren’t comfortable, we can maintain the ruse without you having to go out with him privately in the evening. Public engagements will suffice.”
“I am fine, Selona.” Reyn worked harder to sound carefree. The last thing she needed was her friend stepping in to cancel the evening’s plans. Selona thought tonight’s outing was another part of their ruse. Reyn couldn’t let on that her plans for the evening had nothing to do with cementing the impression that she and Velario were a couple. “Velario and I said what we needed to say to each other this morning. Besides, if he slips back into bad habits, I can handle him.”
Selona would have said more, Reyn was certain, but they heard the knock on the door at that moment. Reyn listened to the Ferrini’s butler greet Velario, then made her way out to the foyer without waiting. Selona followed a pace behind her, almost certainly glaring at her cousin over Reyn’s shoulder.
Velario didn’t even look at Selona. His eyes never strayed from Reyn. She smoothed her skirt one more time, looking down so that she could watch him under the cover of her lashes.
There was something about him tonight that made her want to stare. He wasn’t dressed any finer than usual, for their stated plans for the evening were strolling around a garden decorated and lit up for twilight guests. Nevertheless, Reyn saw him in a way she hadn’t since the first afternoon when she met him. For those few seconds after she had seen him, before he had deemed her beneath his notice, that is.
Velario was handsome. She knew that. She was even willing to admit that while he behaved like a bastard. But tonight, he was also vulnerable in a way she couldn’t quite put her finger on. It was his eyes, she thought. Something in the way he looked at her had changed. And it had changed before she even said a word to him that morning. She had simply been too intent on her proposal then to notice.
He grabbed her fur-trimmed cloak from the butler, settled it around her shoulders—did his hands brush against her more than was necessary?—and led Reyn out into the streets of Tryn.
They walked for several blocks in silence. A few minutes from Velario’s home—their true destination for the evening—he spoke.
“I gave the staff the night off. I told them we’d be out at Dewra Gardens late and that I’d be fine on my own when I returned.”
“Will they assume you made an excuse to keep them out of the way during a dalliance?”
Velario winced. “I honestly don’t know. I’ve never done such a thing before. Though I have given them free nights when I knew I would be out late in the past.”
“I suppose it doesn’t matter. If you didn’t give them leave, they’d know what we were up to. So, if they suspect, it is no great loss.”
“True.”
Velario led them to a side door in his home, and then they were inside. Alone. In order to test Reyn’s theory.
She lifted her hand from his arm and tried to sound matter of fact. “Which way?”
“Upstairs.” He pulled off her cloak and hung it up, along with his greatcoat.
For a moment, she feared Velario was going to ask if she was sure she wanted to go through with this. She was sure. She wanted to. But if he asked, she did not know if she could say the words, at least not convincingly. But he didn’t ask, just led the way up the stairs and to a bedroom.
His bedroom.
The only light came from the fire in the hearth, which Velario stirred to greater heights upon entering. Reyn spun in a slow circle, but as curious as she was about his private chambers, she was too distracted to take much in. She didn’t fight the urge to stop her slow survey when she faced the fireplace. She watched the shadows play over Velario’s crouched form, his muscles bunching in a way that drew her eye.
When he rose to his feet again, she clasped her hands in front of herself and looked past his shoulder.
