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“Yes!” Evelyn clapped, far too eager by the proposition. “I really, really like this idea. It’s a good idea, Ms. Dae. I think maybe the best.”
I wondered if I should have covered her ears again before I’d asked, but I couldn’t help but glow that she wanted to spend her time with me.
His brow furrowed in a thousand lines, each carved of worry and question, reservations and relief and so many thoughts I doubted he’d let anyone ever see.
“Are you sure?” he finally settled on.
“I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t.”
He blinked, eyes an ice-storm that raged, uncountable secrets and a million regrets. His gaze moved between Evelyn and me. “Yes, I would really appreciate it if you stayed, Ms. Dae. I’ll be sure you’re well compensated.” His tone became business-like.
“I wasn’t offering so you could pay me.”
“Then why?”
I looked to Evelyn, tipped up her chin, and whispered, “Because Evie here is my friend.”
He grunted. “I’m still paying you.”
“Just pay me whatever that Ms. Sandberg hag was making, and we’re good.”
He shook his head and went back to cleaning the mess, and Evelyn was swiping the wetness from her cheeks.
She looked up at me through her soggy face and mess of brown hair.
And she beamed.
Beamed so bright.
And I realized I’d give about anything to see that look on her face.
“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.” I ruffled my fingers through Evelyn’s hair where she was at the table beneath the windows in the kitchen, sitting up high on her knees as she finished her sandwich.
“Only one day…it’s so fast.” She held up her pointer finger while shoving her sandwich into her mouth with the other.
My chest squeezed. “That’s right.”
I cast a glance at Caleb who remained at her side, his demeanor different, bigger somehow. Darker and lighter. As if a layer had been peeled back and I was seeing a different man underneath.
This one was scarier, somehow, because I felt my pulse quicken in my veins as he looked at me with those eyes. Polar caps that burned blue flames. Licked and wisped and blazed.
Clearing my throat, I forced a smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow at eight.”
I turned and made a beeline out of the kitchen, suddenly feeling like I needed to escape whatever was growing in that room.
Something that built from the depths and became powerful.
Because I didn’t need to go falling for this man, grabbing onto a crush that caught like a wildfire, incinerating the promises I had made to myself.
I might be strong, but my heart was fragile. It’d been broken, and I felt those fragments trembling, shifting like they were trying to take new shape.
A shape that would be as dangerous as the man who’d been looking at me like I was exactly what had gone missing. Or maybe like something that had never been there in the first place.
I’d almost made it to the front door when I felt the presence cover me from behind.
Intensity gushing out on a wave. That buzzy sensation vibrating in my veins.
I froze with my hand on the door latch, keeping my back to him because I wasn’t sure I could look at him right then.
He approached, the soles of his shoes heavy on the floor, his presence so powerful I lost my breath.
“Thank you.” The words were issued close, so close to the shell of my ear that chills lifted in their wake.
Flames that licked a path down my spine and settled in the pit of my stomach.
“I’m more than glad to.”
He shifted closer.
Electricity crackled.
A storm of volatility.
I finally sucked it up and turned to face him.
Blood sloshed and sped at the sight.
So intimidating, all harsh angles and sharp, sculpted beauty.
His throat bobbed when he swallowed. “Are you sure you’re up for this?”
“I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t. Are you having second thoughts?”
He lifted his hand, and my breaths turned shallow as he caught a lock of my hair and twisted it around his finger.
His head angled, so close that I breathed his aura.
Power and wealth and deep-seated secrets.
It felt as if he were devouring me on all sides without even really touching me.
Consuming.
Overwhelming.
“I question everything, Ms. Dae, but I’m having a hard time questioning you.”
His confession speared me, staked me to the wood. The truth that he didn’t trust anyone, and he was giving it to me.
“Your daughter is incredible. I would do anything for her.”
Pain blanched his face, his eyes squeezing shut as if my saying it punctured his wounds anew.
When he opened his eyes, he fisted a whole handful of my hair, gripping on like he didn’t want to let go.
Chest hitching and his breaths coming hard.
The same as mine.
His forehead dropped to mine, and he just remained there breathing me in, like he craved whatever I was emitting before he edged back and set his palm on my face, his words ragged when he let them go. “Thank you for coming back.”
