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“She’s quite breathtaking, isn’t she?”
Scout glared at him, refusing to be baited.
“Lucian cares very much for Isadora. Have you met her yet?”
Have I met her? No, she hadn’t met her! Her limbs began to tremble. Lucian was right. Slade didn’t dislike her. It was way more than that. He hated her.
Lucian came back into the room and stopped, noticing her upset.
“Evelyn?” He looked accusingly at Slade. “What’s the matter?”
Scout stood up, kicked her robe around her ankles, and marched into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her. She barely had time to cool her temper when the door opened. Without a word, Lucian stormed up to her and swept her up and over his shoulder.
“Put me down!”
“Hush.”
His hand swatted her ass, leaving her momentarily speechless. He marched her back into the common area and plopped her unceremoniously on the couch. She gave him her fiercest glare and refused to look at Slade the snake.
“Tell her,” Lucian growled the command at his friend.
Not seeing the point in all this, she turned to Slade. He sighed and said, “Isadora is Lucian’s sister.”
The relief that swept through Scout was immeasurable. She may have actually moaned.
“It seems my friend here,” Lucian began dryly, “needs to work on being a bit more unambiguous with his words. People seem to keep misinterpreting his meanings.”
Slade’s jaw ticked. “My apologies, Ms. Keats. I’ve forgotten my manners. It won’t happen again.” He was doing the Gilligan’s Island rich person teeth-talking thing.
The apology was forced and she didn’t believe one word of it was genuine. Scout wasn’t sure how to react to such insincerity. There was a long, awkward moment of silence. Finally, Slade said something about making the next call but Lucian interrupted. “We’re done here.”
Stymied, Slade said, “Lucian, we have to—”
“I said we’re done.”
Realizing Lucian wasn’t going to budge, Slade stood irritably and gathered his things. Once he had everything back in his briefcase, he turned to his partner. “You need to remember who you are and stop trying to be someone else.”
“And you need to remember it’s my name on the door,” Lucian retorted, eyeing the other man intensely.
Slade turned. “Ms. Keats.” He nodded and left in a huff that ended with a sharp click of the door.
She faced Lucian. He wouldn’t look at her. “I’m sorry about that. Slade is . . . he doesn’t deal with change well.”
Scout stood, wanting to hit the reset button on the entire morning. “I’m going to take a shower.” Nothing else was said.
Chapter 24
Too many sunrises . . .
Scout took an extralong time in the shower. Her second attempt at shaving her legs went a lot better than her first. Rather than turn into the bride of Frankenstein with the help of the blow-dryer, she simply braided her hair into one thick rope. T-shirts had mysteriously appeared in her closet, and she chose a soft cornflower blue one and a pair of plain boot-cut jeans. Then she waited.
She sat on the bed and braided her hair again. After pacing a rut in the freshly vacuumed carpet, she turned on the television, but there weren’t any cartoons on at the moment. She couldn’t relate to daytime television and found it annoying. Unable to take her silent restlessness anymore, she went out to bug Lucian.
Scout expected she’d be interrupting him, but his chair was turned away from his desk as he stared out the window. He appeared deep in thought. She approached quietly. He didn’t seem to notice her watching him.
She wasn’t sure what made her do it, but she stepped close to his chair and sat on the floor beside him. He looked down and she pressed her cheek into his thigh, wanting to breathe in his closeness. His fingers picked up her braid and turned the long rope of hair.
“Your hair’s so beautiful.”
Her lips pressed tight as his praise fluttered through her chest. He draped the braid over her shoulder.
“Lucian?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you avoiding me?”
He didn’t deny it. He took a deep breath and returned his gaze to the world outside. “Would you like to do something today?”
More avoidance. She pivoted on her knees and faced him. Her fingers plucked at the button on his shirt. “If you’re not busy we could go back to bed and spend the day there. It looks like it’s going to rain. We could light candles and—”
“That’s not what I meant, Evelyn.”
His instant refusal threw her off. She had no experience with seduction, but she was a girl he had once found attractive. How hard could it be?
“I know that wasn’t what you meant. I was making a suggestion.”
The patronizing way he looked at her made her bristle. “I’m sure you’d rather do something else.”
Her back teeth clamped down. Don’t get frustrated.
“I’m pretty sure I just told you what I wanted to do. Why are you . . .” It hurt to actually ask such a question. “Lucian, did I do it wrong?”
