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But the best way to get Pax to go away is to distract him with something shiny or give him what he wants (which is easy enough, since what he wants is usually someone to watch his cooking show with him). So I rest my head on my hands and listen with half an ear as Pax paces across the rug, flapping his hands in agitation.
“I saw Bree talking to her father. He told her that the real estate agent will return on Sunday. And this time she is bringing people who want to buy the house!”
“And?”
“And I think that we should make sure they knowexactlywhat kind of house they’re buying.”
A slow smile spreads over my lips. “Sometimes, Roman, you and I speak the same language.”
“We do. You taught me modern English because you said that Latin was too difficult and your schoolmaster used to punish you when you got your declensions wrong—”
“Yes, yes, fine. Whatever devious plan you have in mind, consider me at your disposal.”
Pax rubs his hands together with glee. But he doesn’t stop pacing. And he doesn’t leave.
“Is there something else?”
The Roman’s eye twitches. I glare at him. He shifts his weight from foot to foot.
Is Pax…nervous?
“Out with it,” I snap. “Or I will be forced to draw the truth from you with a particularly vicious sonnet.”
“I need you to show me how to make love.”
Of all the words I expected to come out of Pax’s mouth, those were somewhere near the bottom of the list, alongside, “Only silly people enjoy fish sauce with every meal” and “I’ve decided to employ the use of a fragrant oil so the rest of you don’t have to enjoy my natural manly musk.”
Which israthermanly…but still.
Pax wants me to show him how to…make love?
Me.
“No offence, Roman, but you’re not my type.”
“By Jupiter’s dangly dongle, I do not wish to make love to you!” Pax looks so horrified at the thought that I can’t help but feel a little offended. “I wish to make love to Bree.”
“From what I’ve seen, you’ve done perfectly well on your own. Not as well as I might, of course, given the same corporeal appendages, but I guess she’ll never know what she’s missing—”
“Bree still will not call me her boyfriend.” Pax sets his jaw into a firm line. “She won’t call any of us her boyfriends. She says it’s because her parents won’t understand, but they told her just now that they do. She says that she’s too worried about the Ripper’s return to think about it, but I believe she thinks about it all the time. I told her that I would wait as long as it takes her to feel comfortable, but I’m not good at waiting! I need action! Ambrose says that your beanstalk could make women declare their love to you. You will show me how to use mine to do the same to Bree.”
“If Brianna is not in love with you, then not even my carnal tricks will convince her otherwise.”
I go to turn away from him, so he can’t see the lie in my eyes. I know my Brianna. Sheisin love with Pax. I see it on her face every time he’s in the room.
She merely won’t say the words because she’s afraid.
She does not know she is afraid, but I’m a man who has lived with fear and regret long enough to recognise its shadow.
Brianna has already lost Pax twice. Three times, if you count when she told us to leave and we lived in the dreadful attic. She believes that if she holds her whole heart back from him, it won’t be broken if she loses him again.
She is wrong, of course, but women must be allowed their indulgences even when they are wrong.
My Brianna is not so different from me. I am holding my heart back from her because it is tearing me apart that I cannot be with her as the others can.
“Please, Edward?” Pax wheedles. “If you help me, I’ll let you win our next duel in front of Bree.”
“Not good enough.”
