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He raised an eyebrow, grinning. “Are you worried about me, Ms. Stark?”
I scoffed and started moving toward the open doors. “Listen, ifyouwant to end up with hypothermia the night before our wedding that’s fine. Just make sure you don’t try to get mad atmefor it, okay?” I shrugged, following him out onto the cold, snowy balcony.
“Look out there.” He pointed. “At the sky. I know there’s a little snow still coming down, but there’s barely any light pollution out here and you can see it even better than usual in the cold. If you’re looking hard enough.”
I looked, just as he was directing, but couldn’t figure out what the fuck he was talking about. A question about if he’d been drinking too was right on the tip of my tongue, but then it hit me, very suddenly, a moment later.
The stars.
He was talking about the stars.
And he was right.
Even with the occasional fat flakes of snow cascading down, far up in the sky was inky dark. The stars glittered like jewels against the midnight blue and I shivered a little as Orion moved to stand behind me.
I didn’t know what was going on.
But, I didn’t fight him as he positioned his hands at the back of my head, guiding me to look where he wanted. Once I was looking in the right place, he reached past me, using a thick finger to make an outline, bringing my attention to specific stars.
“That right there,” he said. “That’s my father’s constellation.Leo Caspian.The constellation is Leo, but he went by Caspian.”
I didn’t say anything. I just listened, cooperating as he moved me around, pointing things out.
“Over there, that’s my grandmother.Calliope Columba. The constellation isColumba.”
He pulled me further out onto the balcony, from underneath the sheltered roof to steer me to a different place. “There are my brothers. Ares, orAries.And TitanCetus.The constellation isCetus.”
“So… is that a thing for the whole family?” I asked. “Everyone has a constellation in their name?”
He nodded. “First or middle. And when we need to, we’ll repeat.”
“How long will that take?”
“Well… there are eighty-eight officially recognized constellations. Some of the names are a little wilder than others, so nobody chooses them. So… maybe not that long.”
“Interesting. Where’s yours?”
“Right over here,” he said, tightening an arm around my waist as I stumbled a little in my heeled boots. His mouth was right against my ear. “Thatis mine.”
This…could have been romantic.
Wouldhave been romantic, if that kind of connection existed between us.
Instead I just felt… uncomfortably comfortable with his arms around me, a realization I quickly chalked up to the liquor I’d consumed earlier in the night.
I stepped away, breaking the contact between us before I turned to face him. “That is…pretty cool,” I admitted, nodding. “A little strange to need to show me at two in the morning.”
“I would’ve shown you earlier, but you were out with your friends.”
I raised an eyebrow. “So you were waiting up for me, all this time?”
“All of it? No,” he said, pushing his hands into the pockets of the pajama pants he was wearing. “I had things to keep me occupied.”
“Like Jessica?”
He chuckled at me, then turned to walk inside. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think what you were showing me right now was jealousy.”
“I’m glad you know better then,” I chimed, following right behind him. The heat inside the room instantly gave me thatunthawingfeeling I ignored in favor of setting him straight. “I’m just making sure you plan to uphold the terms we negotiated. Akeyone of which was,do not fucking embarrass me.”
