Page 9 of As the World Falls

Chapter Four

Cecilia

His eyes. His voice.

The words keep chiming in my head like a relentless chant. His eyes. His voice. His eyes. His voice.

I’d never seen eyes quite like his before.

One was light brown, like caramel milk chocolate, and the pupil appeared larger than his other eye, which was a dark thunderstorm gray. They were beautiful in a way that reminded me of war—light and dark, warm and cold.

Except I was only feeling cold from him. There was zero warmth to be seen despite him offering a supposed nicety that only turned out to be condescending orders.

All his features looked cold to me except that one brown eye.

And his voice.

I really hated that he had an accent because I had a thing for them, no thanks to my favorite historical romance books. Thankfully, his accent was easy to ignore when he spoke with such rudeness, but then there’s the rest of his body that makes even that easy to forget.

His hair was pale blonde, nearly white, with the slightest touch of a golden tone and dark roots. I had also never seen hair the color of his before. His eyebrows were dark like his roots, making his face look even more savage. His face looked like it had been cut and chiseled by the jewelry makers he employed himself. His jaw, shoulders, and stone-like body were strong and squared. He looked hard and powerful.

Dangerous.

I tried to remain unbothered, although I was feeling anything but. He'd probably see my legs shaking if my jeans weren’t so baggy. I usually wasn’t this annoying or relentless, but I felt something was wrong about this whole ordeal with my brother. It kept me up all night, making me toss and turn in bed. I couldn’t fathom how quickly and dramatically things changed for him, and I had a gut feeling it wasn’t good.

“Can you just tell me where he’s at right now?” I ask.

His jaw clenches like he’s annoyed I’m still talking, and I knew he probably was. He probably had more important responsibilities, and here he was dealing with me, but I didn’t care.

“It’s against company policy to give out information on my employees,” he says as if the fact pleases him.

“Seriously? I’m his sister.”

“One I’ve never heard of, I might add. For all I know, he wants nothing to do with you.”

The knowledge that my brother has never mentioned me creates an ache in my chest. Was it easier for him all this time without me than it was for me? Did he really not care about me as much as I did him? We were so close growing up, and the fact that his own boss didn’t know he had a sister made me feel like our connection wasn’t what I thought it was.

I look up at James Kingston, noticing that he’s watching me more intently now, and I take another step back like it would protect me from his unwavering gaze.

“Fine,” I relent. For now. “I guess I’ll go.”

“Doors that way,” he says with a smirk, pointing at the obvious door behind me. I roll my eyes and leave, wanting to be as far away from the dreadful man as possible. He may be stunning, but he seemed to be all sour on the inside.

I decided to stay in the city for a couple more nights, hoping I could catch up with Tobias again at some point. I couldn’t get rid of this clawing feeling that something wasn’t right. Or maybe his unexpected presence in my life sparked a fear of letting him go again. I wasn’t sure, but we still had things to discuss, like why he hadn’t mentioned me to his boss.

Maybe he doesn’t like him. Yes… that could be it. Perhaps he doesn’t want him to know anything about me because he’s not a nice person or something. That would make sense because the man I met earlier was enough to repel me from the entire species of men.

He was so arrogant, self-assured, and beautiful but extremely rude. I could understand Tobias not getting along with somebody like that, ignoring the irritating fact that he told me they were friends.

I go back to my hotel room and text Tobias, letting him know I was in the city and where I was staying since my surprise drop-in didn’t go according to plan.

Hours later, I heard a knock on my door, and I sat up in bed, realizing I had fallen asleep. Damn hotel beds. It sucked me right in.

I rubbed my eyes, crawled from the bed, and stumbled towards the door. When I opened it, I was met by Tobias, who didn’t look as happy to see me.

“Hey,” I squeak out.

He brushes past me and walks into my hotel room. I shut the door behind us and turned to face him, my stomach feeling tight like it was about to receive a lashing any moment now.

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