Page 109 of A Vicious Love

“I’m aware.”

His gaze sharpened because maybe I wasn’t usually aware. I looked at Sienna. She was watching me carefully, waiting for the next sharp edge.

“Come on,” I said.

She picked up her little gold clutch. We left through the private side stairs.

The lower drive curved along the cliff, lanterns shining over black cars. My driver waited with the door already open.

Sienna walked ahead of me.

Those heels were a fucking hazard. Thin straps. High gold stilettos. Elegant enough to make her legs look sinful and dangerous enough to break an ankle on the wrong patch of stone.

I watched each step.

She reached the car without wobbling.

The driver opened her door. She slid into the back seat. I followed. The privacy glass went up before the car moved.

Darkness folded around us. For several seconds, neither of us spoke.

The car pulled away from Tideglass Pavilion and onto the harbour road. Sienna sat beside me with her hands in her lap.

I had drunk too much. I could feel it in the heaviness behind my eyes, the heat in my blood, the way the last thin wall between want and action had started cracking under pressure. “You were quiet tonight,” I said.

Her fingers moved slightly. “I thought that was better.”

Better…because I had trained her to think quiet was safer. I should have apologized.

“Weston liked you talking.”

She turned her head. “I wasn’t trying to make him like anything.”

“I know.”

My own answer seemed to surprise her. Good. Maybe that meant it had come out less cruel than usual.

I looked at her mouth.

Bad idea.

Very bad.

She breathed through parted lips, nervous, watching me watch her. The car hit a slow curve. Sienna shifted toward me. My hand moved before sense could stop it. I caught her waist.

“Sienna,” my voice sounded wrecked.

She looked at my hand on her waist, then at me.

“You’re drunk.”

“Yes.”

That was the truth. Not enough to forget. Enough to want without the usual machinery cutting it into smaller, manageable pieces.

“I should sit back,” she whispered.

“Do you want to?”