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My laughter turns into the deep and uncontrollable kind, the kind I haven’t experienced in years. Amusement mixes with relief, and my heart swells. The way she’s looking at me hasn’t changed, and the connection I felt is still there. My identity hasn’t changed anything between us, like I thought it would. It’s just made her look a little more at ease, like knowing who I am truly did provide the safety she’d been looking for. Raya Lewis… she’s unlike anything I’d expected, and I’m not quite sure what to do with that. It’s not often I find myself surprised.
“Fine,” I tell her, barely able to suppress my smile. “I won’t tell her, but there’s a price to be paid for my silence.” Raya looks into my eyes, her embarrassment making way for intrigue. “If you want me to keep quiet, you’ll have to seal my lips.”
Her gaze drops to my mouth, and my breath hitches. “And how do I do that?” she asks, her gaze growing darker.
I tighten my grip on her hand and bring it to my chest as I lean in to whisper in her ear. “You know how, my little fairy.”
She draws a shaky breath and turns her face, her nose brushing against my cheek. My eyes fall closed when she presses the sweetest, softest kiss to my cheek, and something odd happens to me. My stomach does a strange fluttery thing, and though I know it isn’t physically possible, I’mcertainmy heart skips a beat.
She pulls away with a blush staining her cheeks a pretty pink, and I just stare at her wide-eyed, my heart racing. Raya bites down on her lip, and it takes all of me not to kiss her right here and now.
It’s been so long since I’ve been lost in the moment, since I’ve done something that wasn’t perfectly thought out. I’m not even sure what I’m doing anymore — things were never meant to escalate like this, but I can’t make myself stop either.
My fingers slip between hers moments before my car comes to a stop, and I look into her eyes, searching for the slightest hint of reluctance but finding none. Instead, my beautiful fairy smiles at me, her cheeks flushed. I can’t help but grin back as I raise our joined hands to my lips and kiss the back of her hand before helping her out the car.
Six
Raya
“Truth or Dare?” Lex asks as we walk into the Windsor Residences building, his grip on my hand firm, reassuring.
I glance at him, unable to steady my nerves. I’d been so shocked when I realized who he is that I didn’t ask him where we were going. “Truth.”
He looks at me, his gaze tinged with concern. “Tell me what’s on your mind right now. You’re suddenly very quiet, and I’m concerned you’re uncomfortable.”
I shake my head and squeeze his hand. “I’m honestly just trying not to overthink things. I’m really good at that, you know. Overthinking.”
I hesitate as we walk past a set of elevators, toward one that has a security guard standing next to it. The man nods at us both and presses the button for us. “It’s just a little surreal to be standing here with you,” I admit as we step into the elevator. “I’ve studied your company extensively, and the fact that I didn’t instantly recognize you makes me feel so dumb.”
He stares at me, almost like he can’t quite figure me out, when there truly isn’t muchtofigure out. “Raya,” he says, his voice soft. “I’m glad you didn’t recognize me. When you look at me, I don’t want you to see the CEO of Windsor Motors. I just want you to seeme.”
I nod in understanding, but it doesn’t take away any of my awkwardness. Lex grins as the doors open right into his penthouse, and he guides me into his home.
“Wow,” I whisper, surprised to find so many family photos on the walls in the hallway. Somehow, I hadn’t expected his place to actually look like a real home.
My fingers trail over the photo frames on the wall, and I try my hardest not to fangirl over the women in all of Lex’s family photos, most of them taken at weddings and family gatherings.
There’s one with Raven herself, at what appears to be her wedding. Very little is known about her wedding, and only a handful of photos were ever published by the papers since the press wasn’t even aware of her highly secretive ceremony. It feels like an intrusion to look at the photo, but the way Lex and Raven smile at each other is captivating.
Right next to it is a photo of Lex with Valentina Windsor — another one of his sisters-in-law, Luca Windsor’s wife. This photo was clearly taken on the day she became the COO of Windsor Finance, and the pride in Lex’s eyes is enough to make my heart skip a beat.
I know Valentina used to be Luca’s secretary, and when it was revealed that the two had gotten married secretly, the media went wild for a while. They’d made Valentina seem like some kind of gold digger, and the Windsor family very swiftly and ruthlessly had several papers shut down entirely as a result. The Windsors always seemed like such an unattainable family, and to be standing in one of their homes now is beyond surreal.
“You have more photos with your sisters-in-law than your brothers,” I note bemusedly as Lex leads me further along the hallway slowly, as though to give me sufficient time to explore, his hand in mine.
“They’re the ones that keep our family running. They keep us together,” he says, clear reverence in his voice. “Each and every one of those women truly have become sisters to me, and I’m not sure I could see our lives without them anymore. They saved me, and they don’t even know it.”
He smiles to himself as we pause by a picture that was taken in the cockpit of a plane. “That’s Faye,” Lex tells me, pointing out the redhead in the photo — like I wouldn’t recognize one of the most famous pianists in the world. I nod nonetheless, scared he’ll think I’m some kind of weird groupie if I react any other way. “And that’s my brother, Dion, who has feared flying for years but voluntarily stepped onto countless planes because Faye loves to travel. He even made me fly commercial planes for her one summer and trembled every second of every journey but suffered through nonetheless, all without her knowing, simply because he was worried about her safety as she explored the world.”
He looks at me then, his gaze contemplative, almost like he’s trying to assess my reaction to his words, to the photos. “That’s what my family does — we love fiercely, and there’s nothing we won’t do for those we love. I’d never let anyone hurt them.”
His voice is soft, but there’s an edge to his tone, a quiet warning accompanied by a deep loneliness in his eyes, something I’m sure he never meant to let slip. I can’t imagine being a Windsor — constantly having to be on the defensive and aware of your surroundings lest someone capture a vulnerable moment and sells it for a profit. Shame hits me hard and fast when I realize that I’m one of the people that added to Lex’s torment by reading the articles about his family like they wereentertainment, when they’re real people that never asked for the media’s attention.
“Come on,” he says, entwining our fingers. “You can get all starry-eyed over them in person at some point. For now, there’s something else I want to show you.”
My lips part in surprise, but my denial dies on my tongue as he chuckles and pulls me into the living room, where we both pause for a moment to take in the beautiful skyline and the dazzling skyscrapers that light it up.
We both stare out the floor-to-ceiling windows speechlessly, lost in the moment. “I wasn’t all starry-eyed,” I murmur eventually, sounding far more petulant than I’d meant to. The last thing I want is for him to feel like I’m after him for who he is, like he clearly fears.
