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She offered him a smile.
Luc held out his hand. “If it makes you feel better?”
She glanced at his hand, her smile bloomed brighter, this one truer than the last, and took his hand. Though he couldn’t explain to himself why, her doing so felt like an accomplishment.
Once through the skybridge, Luc led her down the hall, then stopped and opened another door, this one to a suite of rooms. “For you,” he said and stepped back so she could enter. “I’m just across the hall,” he said and pointed.
Brinna walked into the first room and turned, taking it all in, her eyes wide. “This is. Wow. And I don’t have to share it!” She turned and grinned, her eyes bright.
The main room was expansive, though he hadn’t ever thought about it. A wall of windows with an inset door offered a view of the balcony profuse with greenery and blue sky beyond. The large bed was clothed in ivory, the bed frame and tables fashioned of metal and light wood. There were sconces for light and clean walls devoid of anything. A plush rug stretched between the bed and a chaise lounge, a large mirror opposite. It was a rather sparse room. But that didn’t seem to bother Brinna, who moved in deeper.
“Yes. All for you,” he replied, unable to contain an answering smile. “You share a room?”
She walked through the room. “You haven’t been to the cottage. It has two bedrooms.”
“How many of you share your room?” Luc watched her touch the fabric of the bedspread, then stop at the windows to look out.
“Four of us. Jessamine, Tarley, Auri and me. Mattias sleeps in the living room.”
“I would kill my siblings.”
“I’ve been tempted a time or two.” She glanced over her shoulder and grinned, then turned back toward him.
“I doubt that,” Luc said. “Tarley perhaps.”
She laughed, but then her smile faded. “And now Tarley’s married.”
“And Aurielle soon?”
Her eyes flashed to his, and she nodded, her smile absent.
Unsure what to say because he didn’t like the way she’d sort of wilted, he tilted his head toward another room. “Here’s a bathing room.”
“A bathing room? There’s a whole room, just for bathing?”
He glanced at her. “You don’t have a bathing room?”
She barked a laugh.
“I take that it’s a ‘no.’” He lifted an eyebrow and opened the door.
Her swift intake of breath made him look at it again through her eyes, but he wasn’t sure what was so inspiring about a bathtub, a shower, and a water closet.
“Is that a place for bathing?” she asked, walking to the shower encased in glass and stone. “It’s so beautiful.”
He chuckled as he stood next to her. “Yes. This is where you turn on the water.” He reached past her, his shoulder brushing hers. “Step back or you’ll be doused.” Then he turned the knobs. They watched the shower come to life overhead. When he looked at her, her eyes were gigantic with surprise. They flitted toward him. She held her hand out to feel the water and grinned as if he’d shown her a room full of riches.
“Like a rainstorm. But it’s warm.” She laughed with delight.
Who was this woman? His woodland fairy. He should have remembered, recalling her poverty, thinking about the rudimentary conditions of her village, that of course she didn’t have running water.
He turned off the shower and turned. “Through here,” he said, leading her to a closet. “My sister Innes leaves her things sometimes, so I stash them in here. I think you might be able to find something to wear.”
Brinna walked through and touched the fabrics with her fingertips as though afraid she might hurt them. “They are so beautiful. She won’t mind?”
“Innes has probably forgotten they are even here.” An awkward feeling gripped him as he watched Brinna. An intense longing, which was strange. He needed to flee. “Well… I’ll just–”
She turned then. “Lucian?”
