Page 64 of Fallen Hero

“Mason.”

“Calli.”

I could tell him I’d been busy all day going over files, but he’d ask me what files, and I didn’t want him to know. I could lie and tell him I’d had a headache and lazed in bed all day, but he’d call me on it.

“You’re right, I have been.”

His torso swung back like I’d stuck him.

Which reminded me, I needed to take my gloves off and think of what I was going to do if Amir came back and told me dinner was off.

Tom would be pissed.

Tom could go fuck a duck.

I walked to the mini kitchen and tossed my glove on the counter, set my phone next to the glove, and got to work on the other.

“Why?”

Was he really going to play dumb?

“I didn’t take you as obtuse,” I told him, as I yanked off my other glove and tossed it with its match.

“Obtuse?” he asked from closer.

I turned around, not expecting him to be that close.

“Do you mind stepping back?”

He didn’t budge.

Fine. He wanted to play it this way, I’d play.

In here, I wasn’t Calli.

“I’ve been avoiding you because I don’t like to admit when I’ve made a mistake. So I sulk, then, after I’m done, I face it and make sure I never repeat it. So now that you’re here, I can face it and move on.”

“Which part of last night was a mistake?”

I remained silent. He knew, and I wasn’t going to be bullied into saying it.

“We’re alone in here,” he pointed out. “Cone of silence, sweetness. Tell me, which part was a mistake?”

Mason stared down at me.

I glared up at him with my shoulders stiff.

“Was you telling me your favorite songwriter is Stevie Nicks a mistake?”

Jerk.

“Me telling you something that only two other people know, was that a mistake?”

Only two other people?

He told me a secret-secret, not just something he doesn’t want common knowledge.

Ho-lee shit.