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Lia led August into her bedroom. She had a feeling she would regret letting him sleep over, but the truth was—not that she’d tell him this—she wanted him to spend the night with her.
“Where did you go?” he asked. “After you left me. I know it wasn’t straight home. I was here half an hour before you made it back.”
“Testing myself,” she said. “Went by the Attic Gallery. Don’t know why. Guess I just needed a practice run for Friday when I have to face David again.”
“How did it go?”
“Huge poster of him in the window.” Lia turned on her bedside lamp. “I flipped him the V and walked off. Didn’t cry. We’ll call that progress.”
Gogo lay diagonally across her covers. He lifted his head and barked a happy greeting.
“Get inyourbed, silly boy, not mine,” Lia said as she reached out and gently tugged her dog’s ear. Gogo reluctantly returned to his own bed as August stripped out of his T-shirt. He had such a long, lean, lovely body, and yet with muscles in his arms that made her wonder what he did when he wasn’t busy shagging half the kingdom.
He caught her looking at him and reached for her. Once she felt the heat of his body through the fabric of her dress, she knew she wanted more of it. She leaned against his chest and wrapped her arms around his back. August drew her close and held her tightly. Her head fit so perfectly against his bare shoulder she felt like she’d been made to rest against it.
Out of nowhere, Lia began to cry.
At first she tried to cry in silence, but a whimper betrayed her. August must have heard her, because he kissed the top of her head and held her even tighter against him.
“Tell me,” he whispered.
“My heart died when he did that to me. It just...it died. I loved him. God, I loved him so stupid much. I can’t believe how stupid I was.”
“You’re not stupid. He was handsome, older, and he made you feel good about yourself. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to fall in love under those circumstances.”
“He’d pinch my nose when he saw me. Isn’t that the stupidest thing you ever heard? Daughter of a rich earl, and he’s this nobody American painter with seventeen dollars to his name, and he pinches my nose and I fall for it like he put a spell on me. What’s wrong with me?”
“Falling in love is brave and dangerous,” August said. “Like climbing a mountain or going to war. Foolish, too, just like climbing a mountain and going to war. You shouldn’t hate yourself for doing something brave and dangerous.”
“He told me I was ugly and stupid, shite in bed, and he wanted my mother more than me.”
August stroked her hair. “When a girl doesn’t worship a man the way he feels entitled to be worshipped, it unleashes the beast inside him. Beasts are at their most dangerous when wounded and cornered. You’d wounded him, and you had him cornered. That’s why he lashed out so viciously. He didn’t mean what he said. You aren’t ugly—obviously. You’re stunningly beautiful. You aren’t stupid. You graduated with honors from King’s. You’re talented, artistic. Your cunt is tight as a rosebud, and I’d happily spend the rest of my life balls-deep in you.”
“Thank you? I think?”
“You’re welcome,” he said.
“There is absolutely no reason for you to like me,” she said, though she still clung to him tightly with her arms even as she tried to push him away with her words.
“Why not?”
“I’m surly.”
“You’re charmingly surly.”
“I’m bitter.”
“Not bitter. Just tart.”
“I have a heart of ice.”
“A heart of ice cream,” he said. “You’re like a kitten with a switchblade.”
“A kitten with a switchblade?”
“Give a switchblade to a kitten and the kitten somehow gets cuter, and also, even the switchblade becomes cute. That’s you.”
She didn’t have a switchblade so she stabbed at his rib cage with her finger. August’s chest moved under her head when he laughed. She loved feeling his laugh as she heard it. She turned her head to him and kissed the center of his chest. He heaved a little breath. He lowered his head and kissed her mouth.
