Page 41 of Fragile Touch (Fragile 1)
“What do I have to do to persuade you that I’m the best for you?” A sneaky smile waved over his mouth. “The best for your training, I mean.”
Everything in this moment seemed so normal that Lillian let herself laugh at yet another one of Cayden’s dual-meaning jokes. He chuckled with her, and they let their gazes settle on each other.
“What are we doing?” The words escaped her throat before she even knew they were there.
It caught him slightly off guard, but he seemed to know immediately what she was talking about. “What are we doing, Lil?”
“I feel like things are really unclear between us.” The fatigue was wearing on her mind, breaking that wall that kept her from saying what she wanted to say so often. “We’re in some weird kind of limbo right now, and we need to straighten things out. I think I need to know.”
“Sounds very academic.”
She looked down at her half-eaten pancakes. “I need clarity. I wish I didn’t, but I do. This ‘us’ thing is throwing me for a loop because we haven’t even acknowledged what’s going on.”
“Except for the fact that we slept together.” As he spoke she felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment, but he still had that pleased look on his face. “Which, by the way, was an excellent experience.”
A flashback hit her, and she felt his skin on hers. “Yeah,” she nodded, “it was.”
“So...” Cayden leaned back and motioned at the bottles on the counter. “When do you take those? Or are they just there for good measure?”
“Oh, damn!” She scooted back from the table quickly. “I’m supposed to take these with food in the morning.”
“Perfect timing then. You have food and it’s morning.”
“Very funny.” Opening the bottles to measure her pills, she stuck her tongue out at him and saw him smirking fiercely. “What’s that face for?”
“Just...” That sparkle in his eyes drove her crazy. “Before, you’ve been really anxious about anything medical-related in front of me. And right now you’re acting fine.”
Oh, he’s right. She added the last pill to the small pile on the counter. “That doesn’t mean I want to talk about it.”
“You want to talk about us, but you won’t talk about this?”
Lillian didn’t say anything as she sat back down and swallowed the pills one by one with her coffee.
“How about this.” He sounded like he was deliberating something. “How about I tell you one thing, and you tell me one thing. Something we wouldn’t normally talk about.”
“You just want me to talk about the meds.”
“Not the meds,” he replied simply. “I want you to talk about you. And how I can help you be better.”
“That’s two things.”
“Take two turns, then.”
“Cayden.” She put her elbows on the table and rubbed her forehead.
“Oh no, not the face rub.”
“Yes, the face rub. I’m still processing last night.”
His eyes rested on her plate. “I know. It sucked. But the fact that you were hurt at all tells me that you care about me.”
“All right, Dr. Phil. But what about you?”
He just looked at her.
“What are you feeling?” When she asked it, she saw the little gleam in his smile fade.
He sat back in the chair and laced his fingers together. “This will be my first thing.”
