AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Nothing.”
“You look like you’re staring at a whole ghost.”
No ghosts. A ghost would be entirely less disconcerting than this strange moment she couldn’t seem to dig herself out of.
This took some of her feelings from the date and put a name to them. And she didn’t like it. She wanted to shrug it off like a coat that was too heavy, but she couldn’t do it. She didn’t know how.
She cleared her throat and grabbed a scone, taking a bite, and regretting that she hadn’t paused to put curd on it or something, because it was just dry and felt like it got caught in her throat.
Acts of desperation were rarely smooth, and this was no exception. She coughed, and to her horror, Lachlan reached around the table and patted her back, then rubbed the center of her shoulder blades.
She froze.
His touch was warm and comforting, but there was more to it. She began to feel a strange tightening sensation in her breasts as they started feeling heavier. And as the feeling migrated from her stomach down lower, she jerked away from him and stood up. “I’m going to get some more tea.”
“Okay,” he said.
“Boil more water. I mean. For more tea.”
“Cool.”
“I’ll... Yeah. Okay. You’re doing great,” she said, trying to smile.
“Thanks,” he said.
“No problem.”
“Glad to know I pass muster.”
“You do. You definitely do.” Except she didn’t know why this had happened to her. This moment. Or why she couldn’t shake it off. She was a professional at being around Lachlan without being affected. Except now...
Now she was far too aware, and she couldn’t seem to get a handle on herself.
She went to the kitchen and turned on the water. She was tempted to run her hands beneath the cool stream to try and settle down some of what was happening inside her. It didn’t matter that he was handsome. Nothing had changed. This was a truth that had always been so when it came to Lachlan, and she had coexisted just fine with him without fixating on it for a very long time, and there was no reason she couldn’t continue to do that. And so she would.
She filled up the teapot and set it on the back burner. It felt symbolic. There were just some things you needed to put on the back burner. She was very accomplished at that. And she would keep doing it as long as she needed to.
*
SHEWASBEINGTWITCHY. Which was funny. Charity wasn’t often twitchy. Today she was wearing another of her comically sweet outfits. A floral dress and white socks, with stockings underneath. Her blond hair was loose. He wondered if she ever went and got it cut at a salon or anything like that. That was a funny thing he didn’t really know. It was just long, and he wouldn’t be all that surprised to find out she trimmed it herself. Not because it looked bad. It didn’t. It was just part of her shiny, wholesome-girl thing that she had going on.
For a moment he couldn’t stop staring. When he had taken her on the date, it had felt...nice. They went out to dinner frequently enough, but typically at the tavern, or at the café. And somehow it felt different, making all that effort to drive her out there. She had put makeup on, her dress a clingier material than usual, showing off her slight curves.
Her breasts might be small, but they looked firm.
He gritted his back teeth together. He should not be thinking about her breasts. He had, in fact, made a study of not noticing her breasts for a great many years. Ever since he had gotten old enough to channel his testosterone in the directions he wanted to, and not in whatever direction it wanted to go. He was only human. As a teenage boy especially, he’d been fixated on her and had wanted to see her naked. But then, he could remember clearly wanting to see Fia Sullivan naked, too. And Arizona King, God help him. Because the King brothers would have cheerfully dismembered him, and he did not wish to have his limbs strewn as far as the east was from the west.
So yeah. There had been a time when he’d been your basic horny asshole, and he hadn’t much been able to distinguish her from the other women in his life. But over the years, he had built a sacred wall around her. Put her up in a pristine tower where most especially his dirty thoughts could not reach her.
So why he was thinking about her breasts right now... The thing was there was a man coming here who would be thinking about her breasts quite a lot. And he was going to marry her. And, he’d probably already slept with her. Honestly. They’d been together for years...
That irked him. And it wasn’t fair. She didn’t belong to him.
That was the thing, he realized, as he tried to sort through his conflicting thoughts. The issue was that sometimes he felt like she did.
He was uncomfortable with the idea of things changing.
He wanted her to stay in the ivory tower. Where he and no one else could touch her.
