Page 88 of A Vicious Love

The merger might end. Fine. Let it. Sienna would be free of me. I would be free of her. About fucking time. The Bellemere debt would move elsewhere, and I could go back to business without thinking about her.

So fucking what.

My hand moved before the thought finished. Under the table, I rested it on her lap. I had done a hundred times after she asked.

Except she had not asked.

Sienna went completely still. Her spoon paused halfway to the bowl. The table kept talking.

No one saw at first.

Three years of habit.

Nothing more, not because I liked her. Or that my chest had been tight for a week imagining Damius writing her name next to someone else’s.

Habit.

She was afraid. I felt it in the way she did not move. I should have removed my hand. I knew that. I was not completely without sense.

Instead, my thumb shifted once.

My throat tightened. I kept my face empty.

Because I was Jamison Crow. I didn’t care.

She might not be mine in a few weeks.

So fucking what.

Sienna’s fingers moved then. For one suspended second, I thought she might place them over mine.

My pulse hit once, hard.

She folded both hands tightly in her own lap, beside my hand but not touching it.

A refusal so quiet no one else in the room would understand.

I understood.

Something inside me tightened.

My fingers flexed once against her dress.

Sienna did not move. Her eyes stayed on her plate.

I leaned back slightly and removed my hand. The cold hit my palm immediately.

Ridiculous.

It had only been there a minute. Still, the absence felt physical. Harrison watched me like he could hear every lie in my head.

I picked up my glass and drank.

Marcel started a conversation about the preservation trust. Emmie gently redirected the table. Harrison kicked my shin beneath it hard enough that I looked at him.

He smiled.

The dinner went on.