Page 28 of Forsaken Fate

I had the impulse to answer, you are. I said nothing for a minute as I slipped my arms through the sleeves of a newly pressed white dress shirt and began buttoning the cuffs.

“You’re leaving, aren’t you?” she said.

I stopped and went to her, stood over her as she looked up at me with those luminous green eyes. “I have to go home. I have business in Michigan. I’ve been gone over a week.”

“Of course,” she said. “I’m surprised you stayed out here this long.”

I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She stiffened for an instant and then relaxed, giving me her chameleon smile. I ached to know what she masked.

“I had a reason to,” I said looking her straight in the eye. If her shields were up, I decided to give her a sliver of honesty. She flinched.

“When are you coming back?”

I think I flinched this time. “I don’t know.”

Brynna moved to the other side of the bed and slid out. She didn’t try to cover her nakedness. She simply walked to the center of the room where she’d cast off her clothes ... where I’d ordered her to strip for me.

“You made a promise to Grayson,” she said as she slipped on her panties first, then her jeans. It was just as much of a turn-on watching her put clothes on as it had been when she took them off. “To give me away at the Gathering, remember?” her tone a skewering deadpan.

The laugh that came out of me was more of barking snort. “I think this makes me the worst best man ever ... or maybe the best worst man. I think that’s kind of out of the question now.”

Brynna hooked her bra and reached down to grab her tank top and jacket. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“You’re sorry?”

“A little, yeah,” she answered. “I get that this whole thing is fairly fucked up. I’m not sorry for all of it ... but I’m sorry if it messes things up with you and Grayson.”

“We’ve been messed up forever. And it hasn’t messed things up with you and Grayson?”

Brynna stiffened; her eyes flashed something I couldn’t quite read. If I had to name it, she had a moment where she looked like she was getting ready to confess something but thought the better of it. “I’m not going to say things aren’t complicated ... but my plans haven’t changed, if that’s what you’re asking me.”

“I wasn’t,” I said. “It’s just ... are you sure you’re okay? You just ... I don’t know ... I guess it’s none of my business. You’re a grown-up. But is Grayson’s mark really what you want?”

She nodded as she slipped her arms into her jacket sleeves. She was standing right in front of me and without thinking, I put a hand on her shoulder and gently pulled her thick hair out from under her collar. The blush came into her cheeks again as she shook it out and ran a hand through her dark locks from crown to end.

“I love this,” I said, capturing a hank of it gently between my fingers. “It’s the darkest I’ve ever seen that I don’t think came out of a bottle.”

She smiled. “Black Irish.”

“What now?”

When she laughed, her smile finally reached her eyes, making them sparkle. “It’s like my dad’s ... I mean ... that’s what I was told. My grandparents emigrated from Ireland. Instead of red hair and freckles ... black hair and green eyes.” She made a gun with her hand and pointed to her eyes. “Black Irish.”

“Ah. Is he coming to the Gathering?”

The smile vanished, and she flinched again. She shook her head and then put the mask back up. She bit her bottom lip and shrugged.

“I don’t have any family left. It’s just me.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I guess that’s something else we have in common.”

“Right.” Brynna went over to the bureau and slung her purse over her shoulder. She turned back to me. “I’m really sorry that happened to your mother and your sister. Grayson told me.”

If she was reading me as hard as I was trying to read her, she would pick up on my balled fists and clenched jaw. “Grayson has no idea about what happened. He only knows what Diana chose to tell him.”

“I know your mother and your sister were killed when the war broke out. They were taken out by a tiger clan. It’s horrible and I’m sorry it happened. Really.”

I nodded. “Thanks. Like I said ... it looks like we have more in common than I thought.”

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