Page 59 of Claiming Sarah

He stared at me for a long moment, clearly seeing a very different side to me. One I hoped he took seriously.

“Join me,” he said, abruptly standing from the table. “I need to stretch my legs in the garden.”

Together, we left the dining area, and I followed Rex to the garden, which was filled with scented flowers I didn’t recognize, until we found some yellow flowered vine growing on the fence. I breathed them in, relishing the scent.

“I haven’t smelled jessamine since I left home. How—”

“I do my research,” he said, as we strolled along a pathway. “Thought you might like the scent of home.”

I found it odd that he’d planted the flowers for me, but expressed my gratitude anyway. “Thank you.”

He glanced at me, studying me for a long moment before speaking. “I like you, Sarah, and I do not say this to flatter. I am only telling the truth. You are powerful and ballsy and would make an excellent ally. But,” he took a deep breath and said, “I don’t know that I can be allied to you.”

“Why is that?” I asked, genuinely curious to hear his reasons.

He sat on a bench beneath a trellis covered in more jessamine, and exhaled hard. “Because, I can’t trust myself with you.”

I sat next to him, a little confused by his confession. “What does that mean?”

He shook his head and smiled, without flirtation and charm. “I…I find you more attractive than I thought possible. But you are a woman of high moral character, and so nothing will ever come of it. More than that, the penalties for committing adultery are—”

“Steep,” I reminded him. And there was no way I’d ever cheat on Jac and Deacon. Ever.

He nodded once. “Not that it matters. You have your morals.”

“You keep bringing up my morals, but what about yours?”

He laughed shamelessly. “Haven’t you noticed, Sarah? I have none.”

I studied his still handsome face, wondering what he would have been like alive. “You put on a big show about being some kind of terrible person, but you and I both know that’s not true.”

He was suddenly in my personal space, too close to my side and almost leaning over me. “Isn’t it?”

His words were a challenge, and he boldly touched the side of my face, ghostly fingers pushing my hair back. My body tingled, not in pleasure, but with something akin to a warning. A sixth sense that something was very off.

My instincts screamed at me to pull away from him, but I didn’t want Rex to think I was frightened of him and what he might be capable of. Even if Iwasscared in that moment.

“But, alas, you are too great a temptation for me to pretend to have morals,” he said, then he kissed me.

His lips touched mine before I could stop him, and I gasped at the electric sensation that rippled through me. I felt paralyzed for a moment, disoriented, and panic gripped me as I finally came to my senses and jerked away, then slapped the side of his face, shocking us both.

The sound echoed in the garden as he pulled back.

I stared at him in bewilderment and confusion.How did I do that?

Rex’s mouth was agape for a moment, before it turned up into a conniving smirk. “Interesting.”

CHAPTER 17

Jacaranda

“And if you needed to take a meeting with someone Sarah didn’t like, would you have asked her permission?” I asked, annoyed with Deacon’s continual rant after Sarah left our quarters.

“Of course I would,” he said defensively.

“Bullshit. You would have gone without a second thought!” I dropped my fork and it clattered against my plate. Our in-room breakfast had turned into an in-room argument. It was odd to me to see Deacon so out of sorts when he was normally the calm, rational one. Well, until last night, anyway.

“Well,Ican defend myself!Sarahcan’t—”

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