Page 95 of As the World Falls

I glance at him as he stands in the corner of my office, finishing his phone conversation with Cecilia. I tried to hear her voice to see how she sounded today, but I couldn’t hear her. He finally hangs up the phone and sits back down, looking more tired than before, like he’d just fought a grizzly bear.

“That girl stresses me the fuck out,” he exhales.

“I have a thought,” I tell him, still unsure about it myself.

He sighs tiredly. “The last time you had a thought, we almost ended up victims of an Irish gang.”

“They’re dear friends now, though, are they not?”

He sighs again. “What’s your thought?”

“I have my house in Boston. Your sister lives in Boston. Why don’t we have her stay there for a while so we can keep a better eye on her while this whole ordeal plays out?”

He does that slow blinking thing again as he stares back at me. “You want my sister to live with you?”

Fuck yes, I do. But I don’t tell him that. “I’ll hardly be there, and I have a full security team. The house is more secure than the White House itself. She’d be safe there, just in case.”

He’s silent momentarily, his face frozen, which I recognize as his thinking face. It’s almost as if his mind leaves his body and goes to another place to think, leaving him physically catatonic. Then he blinks, and he’s back. “It’s actually not a bad idea.”

“She’ll never go for it, though.” I could already foresee the fit she’d throw over it. I couldn’t wait to banter with her again. It had me clenching my hands in anticipation under my desk like some anxious teenager talking to a girl for the first time.

“She’ll do it. I’ll throw her over my shoulder if I have to,” Tobias vows.

I grin at the idea. “Why don’t we sit her down and discuss everything? I think she’ll appreciate the transparency. It might make her more compliant.”

He pulls out his phone again, grinning at me. “I’ll make dinner reservations tonight.”

I match his expression. “Perfect.”

Later that night, I watched Tobias check his watch for the fourth time since he was seated at the restaurant. Cecilia was nearly twenty minutes late, and I could tell that it had stressed him out. I couldn’t call him on it, though, because I was beginning to become a little worried myself.

We were at the finest dining restaurant in Boston, which was less than thirty minutes away from where she lives, so unlesstraffic is horrific or she sucks at time management, I didn’t see the hold-up.

“Maybe I should call her again,” Tobias gripes, his gaze glancing every two seconds to the entrance. “I knew we should have just picked her up.”

“She told you no.”

“That doesn’t mean I have to listen.”

“Apparently, it does.”

He looks from the entrance back to me, a scowl marking his face now. He’s about to say something, but an approaching figure snags both of our attention. While Tobias looks relieved, I’m too busy picking my jaw up off the floor and thinking about ripping the ones off of every other man in the room, who are also gawking at her.

My Cecilia.

She’s in a fitted satin dark red dress with the thinnest straps I’d ever seen. I couldn’t stop staring at them over her bare shoulders, just waiting for one to snap. Her hair was in a messy updo, with just the slightest curls springing down and framing her face. Big shining diamond earrings dangle from her ears, drawing my attention from her shoulders to her collarbone and neck. She looked painfully beautiful tonight as if the air around her was different. She seemed different, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was, except that I had never seen her dressed so elegantly before.

Either way, I knew keeping my eyes off her all night would be hard.

“Sorry I’m late,” she rushes out as Tobias stands up to hug her. “My hair wasn’t cooperating.”

“Really? You were late because of your hair?” Tobias gripes.

“Yes. You sprung a last-minute dinner on me at a fancy restaurant, and you think I’m going to show up with a lion's mane?”

“What's wrong with a lion's mane?” I interject. I particularly liked it when her hair was down and crazy.

She glanced at me, seeming annoyed by my input. “Oh, hi, Mr. Kingston. It's nice to see you again,” she mutters politely.

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