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They wouldn’t need my assistance for that. Grace was far better at handling those kinds of situations. Shit. Mel was there too, though. She’d only make it worse. She never softened the edges of her dagger-like tongue for anyone. I read the message twice more before clicking the location link.
Realizing who was still right in front of me watching this all happen without saying a word, I left the map pulled up, and slid my cell back into my pocket.
“So…this little chat has been super random. Next time we speak let’s pretend it never happened.”
I went to step around him and immediately found my path blocked. Now even closer than before, I had to tilt my head back so that I could still see his face. “What are you doing?”
“I’m sorry,” he apologized, “I didn’t come up here to scare you.”
Laughing lightly, I took a step away from him. “I’m not scared of you.”
“Good. Remember that.”
“I just said we shouldn’t remember this.”
His head tilted slightly to the side. “So, you still won’t be talking to me then?”
“Okay, I’m really…” Oh.
My sluggish brain finally understood his question. That undivided attention comment didn’t seem so far out of left field now. The knowing glint in his eyes clued me in that he was aware it’d all just clicked for me.
He and I encountered each other multiple times at various events alongside our families, but we’d never officially met.
There were no grand introductions but more of a hand gesture with muttered honorifics. My parents were good at making nice with people they didn’t like, but over the past year or so tension between his family and those closest to them family had gotten so bad they didn’t even try anymore.
What they didn’t know was that Ciaran and I had an unnerving magnetic pull to one another we refused to act on. Neither of us had ever allowed ourselves to be drawn in too close.
Ciaran would occasionally watch me from afar and I sometimes watched him back.
It was a subtle game of cat and mouse. There wasn’t an opportunity to speak freely. We both did a good job of making sure there wasn’t a situation where we’d be tempted to. Too many eyes watched our every move as if anticipating the day our dynamic would change.
We always wound up doing the same song and dance, two sharks making figure eights in blood-infested waters, purposely remaining out of reach from one another. It was a dangerously unorthodox relationship we’d developed, but neither seemed inclined to end it.
Whatever his reason was for speaking to me all of a sudden and breaching a barrier I thought we’d established would have to remain a mystery. I couldn’t stand around playing twenty-one questions to figure it out. I peered up at him and ignored the voice in my head telling me to get closer.
“I guess I’ll keep this in mind then,” I responded with a pep I didn’t feel.
He stepped out of the way to let me pass, throwing one last curveball at me. “You’ll say goodbye before you go?”
“Maybe.” I tossed him a smile and walked away. I swear he laughed, but I refused to look back.
I needed to find Lamia and leave. I kept my pace natural and confident, eyes trained straight ahead. I felt his stare on my back the entire way down the hall.
Only when I reached the bottom of the staircase did I feel like I could breathe freely again. All the sounds that had faded into the background surrounded me once more now that I’d escaped the dark orbit, he’d pulled me into. The delayed sensations now spiraling through my chest had nothing to do with me being afraid. I’d been telling the truth about that.
Though, in this scenario that might do me some good.
Sometimes fear wasn’t a bad thing. It was natural and under the right circumstances kept people alive. What I was feeling now was much worse. I was far too curious for my own good, captivated by someone that was not only bad for me but off-limits.
I was on a path I had to carefully navigate if I had any chance in hell of being free of the chains my family had me in. I needed to stay focused and away from everything that tempted me to stray. Ciaran Belair was at the top of my list.
CHAPTER TWO
Despite the path between the trees being mostly clear of leaves and lit by softly glowing lights, I didn’t think we were supposed to go into the woods. No-one stopped me or asked what I was doing when I came this way, though.
The party was in full swing a few yards behind me while straight ahead was nothing, but a trail of dancing shadows wrapped in silence. If the circumstances were different, I would have found this as serene as the upstairs view. Who didn’t love a good evening stroll through nature?
