AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 13
Ana
Idon’t know how to feel about what happened this morning with Mr. Tzelik.
Or rather, I feel disappointed that despite the way he was looking at me and the fact that he pulled me into his damn lap, he didn’t kiss me. And I don’t know how to feel about that.
Why am I disappointed?
I should be relieved that he didn’t kiss me! He’s my boss! He shouldn’t be pulling me into his lap, and I sure as hell shouldn’t be liking it!
The memory of him beneath me flashes suddenly through my mind, and I have to squeeze my eyes shut and forcemyself to stop imagining what it would have been like if I’d had the guts to spin towards him, to turn and straddle him, feeling his strong thighs underneath mine…
“Ana.” Asili’s voice is quiet beside me as he reaches up to grasp my hand, and I shake myself out of it and squeeze his hand back.
“What’s up?” I resist the urge to crouch down beside him, afraid I might rip my extra-fancy outfit today. Wearing my black, tight fitting dress and silver cloak with a gorgeous green emerald clasped at the throat, I thought I’d be a little overdressed for this child’s birthday. But there’s a woman here in an honest to god ballgown—or at least a puffy-skirt, short-cropped shirt version of a gown—dripping in jewels from her hair to her actual toes as she wafts through the many gilded gazebos dotted across this garden, and honestly, now I’m feeling under-dressed.
“Can we go home yet?” Asili mutters, and I try to give him an encouraging smile.
“Honey, we just got here ten minutes ago.” And it hasn’t escaped my notice that he’s been hovering beside me like a magnet since the moment his father was whisked away in a flurry of handshakes and introductions. “Why don’t you go play with those kids over there?”
“The other infants don’t like me,” he says with a frown, and we both look towards the quiet circle of children his age all sitting within the shade of a pavilion. “I was only invited because Stynava’s parents wanted Father to come.”
I look at him thoughtfully for a moment and then back across at the children.
“Alright, how about this. We’ll go over there and you can try to play nice with those kids and see if you can have a little fun. I’ll stay nearby, and when you’ve had enough, we’ll leave. If it’s too early to leave the party, we’ll just go to the other side of this huge garden. How does that sound?”
His brows scrunch and he takes a deep breath and holds it, but doesn’t have a meltdown. If he’s anything like Elena used to be, this is the moment when he’ll consider his options and makes his decision—to tantrum, or not to tantrum?
After several seconds he lets the air out in one blowing gush, and I feel my lips twitch. Success.
“Promise we can leave as soon as I want?” he asks.
“Of course.”
“Even if it’s just been one minute?”
I narrow my eyes, although my smile stays. “It has to be at least five minutes.”
“Alright. Deal.”
I walk him over to the children and set him loose into their eerily quiet circle, before grabbing a flute of champagne from a passing butler and moving far enough away that he’ll have his privacy, but close enough that he can see me.
After a few minutes, I’m joined by an extremely bubbly Zvezdi woman. That is to say, when she walks up to me and lifts her pale blue lips in a customarily polite smile, it almost reaches her vivid orange eyes.
“Which one’s yours?” she asks, sweeping up her own glass of champagne and coming to a stop beside me, facing the kids the swish of her full-length, high-waisted skirt.
“Oh, uh, I’m not—I’m just a…caretaker.”
“Well, that much is obvious,” she says nonchalantly. “There are no half-cast infants present.”
I blink at her, wondering if there’s a barb in her words or not. It’s sometimes hard to tell, with how muted the Zvezdi’s emotions seem if they’re being mean or just being blunt.
She flicks me a glance and then points a blue finger towards a green-haired little girl sitting primly in her calf-length dress, as the kids all go around in a circle taking turns telling stories, it seems. “I nanny for the Vroneliks. Katriz there is my charge.”
“I’m looking after Asili,” I say, watching as the boy in question seems to be zoning out of reality from sheer boredom.
“Asili Tzelik?” the woman beside me says, and there’s actual inflection to her tone. “Really?”
