Page 71 of The Artist
Mason and I didn’t speak until Freya and Pearl had left the room and closed the door after them. Their cups of tea still stood on the table, which shook when Mason leaned forward and placed both hands around the edges.
“Look at me, Belle.”
Biting down on my lip, I raised my head and met his eyes.
“Did you do this on purpose?”
“Nooo…” My eyebrows curled in a grimace of disbelief. “How can you think that?”
Mason kept watching me. “I can’t tell if you’re lying, but I can tell you this: you’re not leaving here until we know if you’re pregnant with my child.”
“Okay.”
He jerked his head back. “Okay?” It clearly surprised him that I’d given in so easily but then he never understood my feelings for him.
“I understand, Mason,” I said.
“Hmm.” Straightening up, he squared his shoulders and crossed his arms. “Why do I have a feeling that you’re saying that to appease me and the moment I look the other way, you and the rest of your delegation will be halfway across the Atlantic Ocean?
Mirroring his crossed arms, I folded mine and met his gaze straight on. “I’m not running away.”
“No, you’re not, because I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“Mason, don’t be like that. You know that you can trust me.”
“Even if you’re willing to keep your promise, Victor will want you to go with him when your delegation leaves tomorrow. Once he realizes that we’re serious about keeping you here until we have a result, he’ll come up with a sneaky plan.”
Tilting my head to one side, I thought about it. “Probably.”
“I’m not giving him a chance to sneak you out in the middle of the night, so you’re sleeping in my room.”
“Fine.”
Mason shifted his balance from one side to the other, uncrossed and crossed his arms again. “It might take a few days before we have a result.”
“I know. Maybe even a week.”
“You’ll stay with me while we wait.”
He didn’t phrase his sentence as a question, but I still answered, “Agreed.”
“Good!” Mason stood for a second as if waiting for me to say something, but when I didn’t, he grabbed a handful of biscuits. “Well, come on then.”
“Where are we going?”
“To tell Victor that he’ll be leaving without you tomorrow.”
After moving sideways on the bench to get out from the reading nook, I stood up. “He won’t like it. As the oldest and highest-ranking in our delegation, he’s responsible for getting us all home as a group.”
“That’s too fucking bad. Victor will just have to extend his stay or go home without you, because you’re staying with me.”
CHAPTER 19
Piss on Bonfire
Mason
“So, this is your room.” Belle looked around. “I imagined something a little different.”
