AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ursula squeezed her crossed ankles together to push herself up straighter. She stiffened her spine. She’d have to be a champion for more than just Jay, at least in that moment.
“No, though are any of us, really?” she said, her voice somehow strong, despite how glass-like her innards had become.
Mrs. Truitt’s head shot up. Her eyes flashed light and green and hot—like Jay at his most passionate, when he was the best of himself.
Ursula almost laughed, but stammered on instead, her mind racing to keep pace with her mouth.
“We all have negatives, problems, demons, whatever one wants to refer to them as, Mrs. Truitt. Things we fight, things we live with, things we don’t even know about or truly understand, all that can strike at any time. To discount a person, to throw a person away, to never trust nor believe—because their dangers are near the surface, are known instead of hidden—”
Mrs. Truitt cocked her head, another mirror of her son.
Before either could say anything more, two small dogs raced towards the table and smashed into Ursula’s skirts, kicking up dirt from the path. Brown splotches dotted her hem.
Jay’s mother clasped a hand over her mouth. “Your lovely gown. I’m so sorry.”
Ursula almost didn’t hear as she rubbed the head of the first. She bent and pulled the second onto her lap. It licked at her neck, burrowing into the skin by her neckline—soft, so soft, with short, silky fur. Oh, to have an animal cuddle you. “What breed are they?”
“Italian greyhounds. They’re lapdogs.” Mrs. Truitt’s voice shook, as if she stifled a laugh.
“Obviously.” Ursula giggled and reached a hand down to scratch behind the one on the ground’s ears.
It yelped and danced around her feet, rubbing against her skirt. The one on her lap kissed her lips and her stomach relaxed. Dogs were wonderful. Why couldn’t people be like animals?
Mrs. Truitt took another sip of tea. “You have dogs?”
“A Japanese Chin, her name is Diana. I have lots of nonhuman friends—a cat named Artemis, and a macaw, Isis, and of course, Hecate, she’s a marmoset. There are horses too.”
Another Jay-like grin flashed on the woman’s face. “I adore animals. Jay and his father, not quite as much, though I believe the right creature could persuade my son.”
The animal gave Ursula another delightful lick. She snuggled the dog and pictured Jay subjected to the same treatment. She swallowed a snort. Such delicious torture. Not as much fun as him and Arte, but close. Watching those two was now her favorite pastime, well, one of them.
“For now, it’s amusing watching them interact.” Ursula laughed at her own joke.
“Yes, very.” Mrs. Truitt sipped her drink. However, the glass did not fully hide the smile creeping through her face.
Jay’s smile.
A happy sigh rippled through Ursula. In an instant she cou
ld no longer eat. She had to get back, and to be with Jay and somehow, some way make him feel all that she couldn’t quite say.
Chapter Twenty-One
Jay patted himself with the fresh towel, wrapped it around his waist and slid from behind the screen. He’d wallow a bit on the bed before ringing for someone to empty the bathwater, indulge for a little while longer, alone.
Urs had looked particularly fetching the prior day in her lavender calico gown. The costume wasn’t as revealing as the ball gowns, but the way her hair fell to highlight the right places...
He started. There, sitting on his bed, in what appeared to be a nightdress, white trimmed with lavender ruffles, was Urs.
“What are you doing in here? And don’t you ever knock?” he asked.
Despite everything they’d done, he worked to stare at the floor, as the longer his gaze lingered on her, the worse things would be for him. He’d be tossing off until next Tuesday and still need ice. Still, his traitorous eyeballs kept crawling back upward. She was wet, soaked, her hair dripping on her sheer gown. He wasn’t the only one who’d bathed.
“We’re alone again and I thought, perhaps...” Urs rose and strolled across the room.
Her gown clung to her body, leaving nothing to the imagination, but somehow more hypnotic than if she’d been actually naked. A worm itched at the back of his brain. He was supposed to tell her something. What was it? Whatever it was, it’d vanished from his mind. Her nipples, dark and at attention, jutted against the transparent cover. His mouth watered.
With a tight fist, he gripped his towel behind his back. He should’ve grabbed his robe. Good lord, not enough coverage and every thought was showing. He should hide behind the screen, but his feet were rooted to the floor.
