At least I hoped that was the case. Originally, I’d thought my eighteenth birthday would be a special event, but that had come and gone. Rather than urging me to get out into the world, Kitty had tightened the reins. At some point, I figured she would get tired of treating me like a child. That or I would at long last rebel and find out what it meant to live in that cardboard box after all.
A knock sounded on my door and instinct had me shoving my iPad beneath my pillow, not wanting to risk Kitty finding it and taking my one link to the outside world away from me.
“Come in,” I called out, reclining and staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the darkness beyond.
“Are you ready to get dressed for dinner?” Hannah asked when she stepped into the room.
No. No, I was not.
Ever since Hannah informed me I would be having dinner with Knox tonight, I had developed a knot in my belly. I couldn’t help but remember the way he’d looked at me, the way his hands had touched me out by the pool. But it was the heat in his eyes and my body’s instant reaction to him that terrified me more than anything.
Clearly not needing a response, Hannah came into my room, unlocked the drawer where she kept a variety of makeup before she began setting up things on my vanity table.
Yes, all the good stuff was kept behind lock and key. Including my closet. Only Hannah and Kitty had access. As for why Kitty didn’t think I was capable of dressing myself or applying my own makeup, I didn’t know. I figured it was just another way for her to control me. She’d gotten really good at coming up with new ways.
“Is it wrong to not want to have dinner with him?” I asked Hannah even as I got to my feet.
“It’ll be lovely, I’m sure.” Hannah’s smile was bright and warm. That glint I had witnessed when she had relayed Knox’s dinner plans was still in her eyes.
Poor woman. She was delusional, too.
“I’m sure it won’t,” I said with a frown, catching Hannah’s eye in the mirror as I took a seat at the smooth white vanity table now covered in a variety of glass bottles and plastic cases.
“If it’s any consolation, I think he’s looking forward to it.”
That was what I was afraid of. I didn’t think it was appropriate for me to be alone with Knox. Never had he made me feel uncomfortable before, but today … today he seemed to be going out of his way to push the invisible boundaries that came with his mother being married to my father. Maybe I was the only one who thought they were there.
Staring at myself in the mirror, I realized I was trembling.
“Now, now.” Hannah tapped my chin with her finger then nudged it in a silent request for me to close my mouth. “It’ll be good for you to spend time with him.”
I didn’t thinkgoodwas the right word for it. However, despite the real concern I had regarding Knox’s odd behavior and my absurd reaction to him, I couldn’t deny the bubble of excitement that swelled in my chest at the thought of enjoying a meal without the watchful eye of my stepmother. Which meant I could compromise if it would earn me a bit of freedom. At least for one night.
Once more I was thinking about the way his finger had trailed down my chest as though he had a right to touch me so … so …erotically. What was worse was the way my body had responded to that touch. There’d been foreign sensations, tingles and chills, not to mention a throbbing in places that had never throbbed before.
I sat perfectly still, Hannah applying pressed powder over my face, while my heart raced. It was a wonder she couldn’t hear the constant thump as it beat a tattoo against my ribs.
“But why alone with me?” I asked, referring to Knox’s request for my company tonight.
Ever since Hannah mentioned it would just be the two of us, I’d been trying to come up with an answer as to why he would even request such a thing. Everything I came up with was better suited for a fairy tale. Such as I was the prisoner in the castle and he was coming to save me from the evil stepmother. Or I was the poor, mistreated stepdaughter and he was here to save me from the evil stepmother.
Yes, it was a theme.
“He wants to spend time with you,” Hannah noted. “Isn’t that enough of a reason?”
“No, it’s not.”Why now?After all this time. Why did Knox feel compelled to spend time with me when we’d spent so much time apart? “He doesn’t even like me.”
“Now, Emily Elaine Grace, you know that isn’t true.”
I often wondered if Hannah was paid to lift my spirits, always contradicting anything negative I said. Maybe she simply felt guilty because I endured so much of it from Kitty that Hannah wanted to ensure I didn’t spiral into a deep depression.
“Oh, it is,” I said on a sigh. “Doesn’t he have a girlfriend or something? A wife, maybe? Why didn’t he bring her along?”
“As far as I know, Mr. Montgomery is not involved with any women.”
I frowned only to have Hannah tap the line on my forehead.
“I suggest you worry less and enjoy more,” Hannah added as she dusted eye shadow over my lids. “He’s finally home, which is what you wanted, right?”
