Page 26 of Stay Close
“Maybe you can reimburse the diplomats. It suits you.” He works the fastening closed, and I touch the soft drop of amber, the cool stone quickly warming between my fingertips. There’s a whole forest of amber under the North Sea. Maybe I can keep it.
“I can’t keepthis,” I groan, unearthing a brick of Vorburgian currency. “Nope. Nope. This is a bribe.”
I do some quick calculations on the supposition that each note is the same, estimate the amount of money, and run it through the favorable exchange rate. My brows shoot up. With this amount, I could probably afford a nice villa outside Djolny. Not one of the really fancy areas. I might only be able to afford one cow and have to put up with the inconveniences of a septic system, but I wouldn’t have a mortgage.
Lucas takes the brick, peeling back the plastic wrap and withdrawing a 300polskanote, holding it up to the light. It bears the watermark of King Otto, and there’s a silver foil thread running through the paper. It’s real.
I reach for the phone. “Caroline—”
“Bribe?” she asks.
“Bingo.”
When she returns, I hand her the money brick. “I’ll keep the consumables. Can you find out how much I should reimburse them for the necklace? Also, do you know of a diplomatic way to tell them to stop doing this?”
A smile tucks her cheek. “King Otto likes to take his chances. Don’t hold it against them, will you?”
When she goes again, Lucas takes a seat and gives me a long look. “You weren’t tempted?” he asks, tipping his head in a way that makes me want to crowd into his personal space again. “No one but me would know, and I signed a nondisclosure agreement.”
“I would know,” I say.
He sits forward, hands hanging down, clasped between his knees. “That’s something I like about you.”
I stop breathing. We aren’t comfortable yet. We haven’t reached the point where I can snuggle in next to him and ask him to recite a long list of other things about me that he likes. This is the first thing, and I hold it in my hands like a glowing drop of amber.
I see a vision of a future—insubstantial, like a distant mirage. I can’t mumble all the things I like about him while he touches my hair and drifts off to sleep, yet. Someday.
“You like that I don’t take bribes? That’s a low bar.”
He stretches, and I see his white shirt pull across his chest. He closes his eyes. “You might be surprised how few people clear it. But, no, I like that you didn’t even think about it. I swear Caroline was waiting in the hall for your call.”
I tuck my legs under me, leaning my head against the back of the sofa. My eyes trace the long eyelashes resting against his cheek. I nudge him with a toe. “Why are you so sleepy?”
He grunts a laugh. “My adrenaline found an outlet.”
He breathes in and out, deeper each time. I’ll lose him in another minute. “Why are you single?” My cheeks burn.
He grins. “How do you know I’m single?” he asks, snaking a hand out, pulling me close. I don’t think his eyes ever opened. I’m rigid, pulling away from him, but he holds me until I surrender to the sofa.
“You wouldn’t have kissed me if you weren’t.”
His thumb strokes my arm in lazy figures. “True.”
“So why are you single?”
“Why areyousingle?”
Easy. “Because I work like a demon and only learned about skin care last year.”
Another grunt. “I’d chase you without the skincare.”
I laugh, but he opens one lazy eye.
“Are you serious?” he asks. “No one’s chasing you?”
“No one but randos with fish hooks and lemon pies.”
His eye closes, and he’s silent so long, I want to grab a mirror and check his breathing. “That’s a waste.”
