Page 120 of Chandelier Sin
“In your world.” I kissed his chest.
“In my world, I don’t sleep with the enemy.”
I ignored that. “I want to know more about you.”
“You have enough intel.”
I raised my head to study him. “You still don’t trust me.”
He kissed the top of my head and it felt like he did it to placate me. “I’m not willingly giving away secrets.”
“Secrets? Sounds compelling.”
He rolled onto his back and rested his head on his arm. “I was born in Seattle. Moved to Los Angeles to be closer to my sister. To watch over her, to be honest. We all know how that worked out—”
“Why did she move here?”
“To pursue acting.” He smiled. “She was talented. But the auditions are grueling. Rejections are hard no matter how gifted you are.”
“What about your parents? Are they still in Seattle?”
He looked at me for the longest time. “You’re married to an arms dealer. There’s always the risk anything I share could go back to him.”
“We rarely talk. I’m like an annoying bee.”
“More like a butterfly.”
“A bumblebee.” I looked over at him suggestively, hinting that I’d watched him rescue the bee from the fountain.
He grinned and glanced away. “What about you, Eve?”
“I was born in Thailand. Given up for adoption.”
It was better than the other version. Where I suspected I’d unwittingly run off to explore something and she’d been unable to find me. Though I had no proof.
“What were your parents doing in Asia?”
“I don’t know. Never knew my dad.”
“Have you tried to find your mother?”
“Once.”
That plan had been scrapped by Aemon, who told me he’d tried to find her himself. And if he couldn’t, what chance did I have?
A memory flurried back. “I grew up in this big old boarding home. One by one, my friends left Lavender House. I never stayed in touch with anyone.”
He mulled that over. “How old were they when they left?”
“Teenagers.”
Just like me, when I’d stolen out into the night and gotten into trouble at a bar. It was Aemon who’d rescued me that night—when the bidding had gotten out of hand and the men had become terrifyingly raucous.
That night.I was seventeen. I never went back to Lavender House.
I stayed withhim.
“Lavender House, huh?”
