Quickly, I type out my response as I carry my phone back over to my things.
Me:It’s worth a shot. Darcy and I will be unavailable for the next few hours. Session is starting.
Dumping my phone, I go to my assigned seat. Her hair tickles the skin of my back, eliciting a shiver down my spine.
“Here, princess, lean forward for me,” Darcy requests, then I feel his hands between us, gathering her hair and moving it to what I assume must be over her shoulder. “Okay, so we are keeping today simple. I just want to get some sketches of youholding someone’s hand. We are going to do two poses today—this one and a single suspension.”
Darcy comes into my view, his eyes wide, and he mouths some words at me.She’s crying.
My heart thumps painfully in my chest, and I nod so that he knows I read him.
“Okay, Hudson, if you could let your arm hang, yeah, just like that. And, Emery, I’m going to need you to place your hand in his.”
There is an incredibly long pause between Darcy’s request and when I feel her palm press against mine.
My heart turns heavy in my chest, and I tip my head back, throat tight as I slip my fingers between hers. Eyes burning, I inhale deeply and let it out as quietly as I can before leveling myself and staring out the window, doing my fucking best not to clamp my hand around hers so that she can never leave me again.
Chapter 59
Emery
This. Is. Fucking. Torture.
Why didn’t Darcy tell me that Hudson would be here today?
No. I know why. Because he knew I wouldn’t come.
I can’t even deny it, either. There is no way I would have put myself through this willingly.
My hand, tiny and fragile, is lost to his. His warmth is radiating up my arm, and it is taking everything inside of me not to yank my hand away.
Darcy appears in my field of vision, his eyebrows creased together. “You okay, princess?”
I would nod, but I’ve managed to stop the tears, so I force out a word that is barely louder than a whisper. “Yes.”
I’m not sure he believes me, but I honestly don’t care. I’m not here for my benefit. If he chooses to not believe me, then it’s only his time that is being wasted. And Hudson’s.
“If that changes, you’ll tell me?” he presses, reaching up to wipe at my cheek.
A streak of wetness is left behind. Okay, so I haven’t stopped the tears. “Yes.”
He lets out a heavy sigh. “I’m going to add the ropes now.”
The room lapses into silence; the only sound is the coiling of the rope as it moves against the floor and through itself.
“Not to mess with your process, but could we have some music?” Hudson asks, his hand flexing in mine, gripping me tighter. “If you’re going to make me sit here for hours on end, can I at least have something to distract me?”
I bite my lip at the increased pressure applied by the ropes.
My glimpse of him when I first arrived was just that, a glimpse. I’d forced my eyes away almost immediately. Two of them in one space. It wasn’t playing fair at all.
The last time the three of us were alone, I ended up sandwiched between the two of them on Hudson’s desk.
That will absolutely not be happening today.
I need to get it together.
There is a huff of laughter from Darcy. “Emmy and I have been doing just fine with silence for our last few sessions.”
