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“Well, I want to make sure I do this right so I don’t have to use those crutches any longer. All the chafing is giving me a rash under my arms.”
He came close to me but left a foot of space between us.
I didn’t want him any closer than that.
His dark eyes shifted back and forth between mine, reading my energy like an email on his computer. He moved away to the edge of the pool, leaning against the wall and resting one arm over the pavement. Hugo appeared and placed a tray at the poolside with a couple drinks then disappeared.
Cauldron grabbed a glass and took a drink. It looked like scotch on the rocks. The other was a pink drink, fruity, with a yellow umbrella. He picked it up and held it out to me.
Ain’t going to say no to that.
I took it from his hand and sipped it, tasting the mix of guava and pineapple juice along with the smooth tequila. The back of the pool had a stone seat that spanned the entire wall, so I took a seat and crossed my legs. The depth of the pool never extended more than five and a half feet, so I could tiptoe around without getting my hair wet.
He stayed in his spot, drinking his scotch and looking over the lush grounds.
We were quiet for a long time. So quiet, it seemed like he had no intentions when he joined me.
A part of me wanted him to leave because I couldn’t really relax whenever he was in my presence. It was like a gentle electric current humming in my veins. It wasn’t enough to shock me, but enough to make me uncomfortable. “Don’t you have work to do?” The words burst out abrasively, far harsher than I meant them to.
If he was offended, it didn’t show. After a beat, he turned to look at me. “You want me to leave?”
“I just… You’re usually in your study so…”
“Thought I’d take a break.”
I continued to stare, unable to deny his handsomeness but still despising his soul. It’d been weeks since he broke my heart, but I was still in fragile condition. I wasn’t just hurt, but humiliated. Didn’t know how I could ever let my guard down again. Didn’t know how I could be intimate with him and feel safe.
He held my stare before he grabbed his glass and finished off the scotch. It wasn’t even noon yet. He always drank like that, having the occasional iced tea over lunch. I could never tell when he was drunk. Unless he was always drunk. “I know when I’m not wanted.” He returned the glass to the tray and exited the pool.
My eyes stared at his muscled back as more became visible above the surface of the water. More lines. More segments of muscle carved by strength. Wide shoulders narrowed down to slim hips and a tight ass shaped by his wet swim trunks. His feet touched the pool deck, and the water splashed down around him. After he grabbed a white towel off the table, he dropped his swim trunks right on the deck.
I couldn’t look away.
The soft towel dried him everywhere, moved behind his neck, into his short hair and over his ass, as well as between his muscled thighs. Then he tied it around his waist as if he’d just gotten out of the shower and walked inside.
I knew that little strip show was intentional. No doubt about it.
Bastard.
“Mr. Beaufort requests your presence over dinner.” Hugo stood in my doorway, polite in tone but hostile in stare. He wouldn’t dare disobey his master, but that didn’t mean he enjoyed treating me with the same respect as Cauldron.
I continued to spend my time in solitude, unable to write notes out of fear of their discovery. It made me feel alone. But the stranglehold of solitude was never painful enough to desire his company. His knife went in so deep, I was convinced the tip was still in place, pressed so close to my heart it nearly pierced it. “I’ll take my dinner in here.”
“He said he would join you if that were the case.”
Just like when I first came here, Cauldron pressed up against me harder and harder, infecting my space until he was fully in it. His patience had run its course.
“The dinner would be better served at a dining table anyway.”
Like I cared. “Fine.”
Hugo left my bedroom.
I threw something on, then used my crutches to get downstairs. The wrap was off my ankle, and I could not only put weight on it, but use it fully, but I still had a few more days before the crutches could be abandoned altogether. Slowly, I made it downstairs, the gentle tap of the crutches the soundtrack of my life over the last couple weeks.
