Page 16 of Hush Darling
He grinned as if her admission pleased him, and a sense of intimacy tightened between them, shifting the energy in the air much like it shifts before someone shares an incriminating secret.
“I think there’s something feral in you.” He studied her for a long moment, not in the playful way he had before, but with deeper investment as if just realizing her hidden value. “That must be terrible for you, getting paired off with men based on nothing more than their bank accounts.”
“Security is important.” She sounded like her mother.
“Security is for graveyards. Life is important. Living is how we know we’re still alive.”
“Well, money gives you freedom.”
He glanced out the window. “The maid has a hell of a lot more freedom than you and nowhere near your fortune. Money is an illusion of safety. We’re all one crisis away from bankruptcy—moral or otherwise. You shouldn’t let finance control your future so much.”
He was right. “If I knew another way, I’d take it.”
“There are plenty of ways. You could walk out that door right now?—”
“And do what?”
“Anything you want! You’re an adult. Nothing’s stopping you.”
But something was stopping her. The fear of being cut off, of facing scarcity. The fear of disappointing her parents, shaming them, not living up to their expectations… It all weighed on her to the point that she felt anchored to this time and place, forced to be exactly who they told her to be.
“Do you want to feel alive, Wendy?”
Her breath caught in her chest as he lifted her chin and seemed to look deep within her soul. It was the question of all questions because the seclusion of her current life was killing her. More than anything, she feared becoming dead inside if something didn’t change soon.
This time, she couldn’t lie. “Yes, I want to feel alive.”
He leaned close, teasing his lips to the corner of her mouth, then trailing his nose along her cheekbone as he whispered, “You can forget them all. Just turn off the pressure and responsibility you feel toward them, and there will be no guilt. You’ll be amazed how quickly you forget them. Just say the word, and we’ll fly away.”
Consent danced on her tongue, caged only by her teeth. The desire he mentioned earlier burned in her belly like a glowing ember. Would she ever have such a chance again?
“I don’t know…”
He laced his fingers with hers. “Say yes. Later can wait. They can all wait. Only you can make this time count the way it should.” He stared into her eyes. “Think of how delicious it will be to do something reckless and totally selfish for a change.”
If she left with him, her fate would be in his hands. Could she trust him? What exactly was the cost of her passage from this repressive cage into the Isles of Kassel? She suspected it was far steeper than a kiss.
“Will you take me to the Never Lands?”
Backing her into the bookcase, he cupped the back of her neck and kissed her with far more aggression than he had before. Her hands pressed into his chest, but she soon softened and closed her eyes.
“That’s it,” he whispered, hiking up her robe and nightgown until his warm hand dragged along the back of her thigh, much like the strange man outside had groped Liza. “Prove you’re not the helpless little girl they think you are. You’re Wendy Moira Angela Darling.”
She broke the kiss. “How do you know my full name?”
He reached over her shoulder and tapped her emblazoned name on the plaque. “Prima Ballerina. Impressive.”
She flushed with embarrassment. Peter was in his mid-twenties, so such awards probably looked juvenile and foolish to him.
“You’re mocking me.”
“Not at all.” He glanced at the line of trophies. “I find these pieces of your past charming. What a perfect little life you’ve led.”
He liked teasing her, but she wasn’t sure they were friends. “Can I trust you?”
“Absolutely not. But nothing worth having comes without risk.” He jerked her into his grip. “What’s it going to be? Singing to the stars by midnight or playing with sewing boxes while sipping tea, waiting for your dull husband to arrive?”
She scowled at such a nasty taunt. “I drank merlot tonight.”
