Page 37 of Captured Heart

“Before you know it, you’re gonna be a sentimental old fool like me, holding onto the little things.”

He gives me a disinterested eye roll. “Yeah, I doubt that.”

“Hm?” I catch my locket between my thumb and forefinger, moving it from right to left. “Let’s test that theory, shall we?”

I look down, scanning myself for something to use. I think about using an earring, then spot something better. Reaching over, I grab a sneaker I’d left in the corner earlier and drop it on the table, the cutlery rattling on the dirty plates when it lands.

“What poise,” Alex quips. “What grace. What table etiquette.”

I chuckle because he can be quite funny when he wants to be. I undo the brown lace on my sneakers and pull it out. “Here.”

I remove my leg and take hold of his wrist. He stiffens at the contact, the muscles on his forearms tensing beneath my fingers.

“Are you uncomfortable with me touching you?” I ask meekly.

“Very.”

“Should I stop?”

Those stormy gray eyes lock on mine, holding my gaze until his muscles eventually relax. “No.”

I nod, then proceed to tie the lace around his wrist. It’s roundish, not flat, more like a thin rope than normal laces. I knot it in two places to make it more like an adjustable strap, so he can easily take it off when he wants.

“There you go,” I say. “I’ve now given you something that has no real value, but let’s see if it’ll end up meaning anything to you. Will this thing remain just a thing? Or will you grow some kind of attachment to it? Which one will it be?” I smile, leaning closer. “I don’t know about you, but the suspense is killing me.”

“You know what I can’t wait to see?” He shifts back to reinstate the distance between us. “I wanna see how the control freak in you is going to survive with one shoe having laces while the other sits there bare.”

“Ah, shit.” I look down at the one in front of me, then the one still in the corner. The mismatch already bothers me. “I didn’t think about that.”

“Clearly. And if you want this silly thing to mean anything to me, then you can’t replace the lace. If you wear those sneakers again, you have to wear them exactly as they are now.”

My eyes stay focused on my sneaker, and I wonder if I’m even capable of committing such an egregious crime. Walking around with only one shoe laced up. It’s unthinkable. “What you’re asking of me is utterly diabolical.”

“C’mon, Rebel. You can do it.”

“Fine,” I relent, standing up. “And I just want to point out that I have now proven that Iampersuadable because you have successfully pushed me out of my comfort zone.”

“Yeah, that wasn’t the comfort zone I wanted to push you out of.”

That sentence drops like an anvil. Something happens, a shift in the atmosphere. The temperature goes up a few degrees. An unknown force extracts all the oxygen out of the room, and we get sucked into a vacuum. We both go still, not even breathing for a few beats. My mouth opens, but I struggle to find the words to get my question out.

He immediately stands up, looking everywhere but at me. “Uh...I didn’t mean that...the way it came out.”

This is a pattern I’m noticing. He does it quite a lot. He’ll say something, instantly regret it, then try to remove himself from the situation or change the topic of conversation to make it less awkward. Usually, I handle the awkwardness better than him, but this time, my cheeks are aflame, burning with a mixture of embarrassment and...desire.

That discussion we had last night was far more candid than I would’ve liked. It was probably more information than I have ever given Karmani. He knows such personal things about me, and I’ve only known him for a few days. It’s a little weird that a virtual stranger knows such intimate details about my sex life. Weirder still is that he’s brought it up so casually in a conversation that wasn’t sexual at all. So, was he thinking about that?

And now he adds another layer of weirdness because...what does that even mean? If I’m not supposed to take that the way it came out, how else could I possibly take it?

I notice that I’m toying with my locket and drop it before he sees me. It’s a dead giveaway that I’m overthinking something, and I’m trying to play it cool.

Alex breaks the uncomfortable silence. “Hey, aren’t we supposed to be watching a movie?”

“Yes!” I’m grateful for the excuse. The tension cracks, and I release a slow breath as I collect the dirty plates. “We are.” I glance at the clock on the kitchen wall. “Wow, we’ve been talking for three hours.”

“Really? I can’t believe I lost track of time like that.” He seems disoriented for a few seconds, shaking his head as if he’s upset with himself. “That seems to be a regular occurrence around you. Listen, is there a bathroom I could use?”

“Yeah. Upstairs. First door on the right.”

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