Page 47 of Prelude To You

He lifted my chin and inspected my eyes.

I continued without taking a breath. “I mean who puts drugs in a Tic Tac box, right?”

“The drugs can’t be too powerful, your pupils are normal.”

“Okay that’s a relief,” I sighed, and glanced up at him with a bright smile. “Meg said they last for like ten minutes or something. At least she was sorry about it and the pills didn’t hit me until I was halfway down the lawn. I know what you must be thinking, and I’ll just cut this short and say thank you for the book. It’s honestly the second-best gift I’ve ever received—”

He seemed intrigued by my statement. “Second best? Now I’m curious about the best.”

“A handwritten family recipe book passed down from my great-grandmother to my grandmother to my mother and now to me. I mean you can see how that’s pretty spectacular.”

“Yes, I can see that.”

Maybe it was a whimsical observation on my part, but for a second it seemed his eyes were filled with wonder, as if he was envisioning what it might feel like to receive a precious gift like that.

But as quickly as he let down his guard, it went right back up again and he regarded me with what I thought was hesitation.

Looking at it from his perspective, yes, sure this was an odd situation and everything about it suggested that I could be a stalker. But there was no ignoring his probing gaze.

“So again, thank you for the book,” I chattered, trying my damnedest to sound fully in control of myself. “And that basically concludes our business here since that’s theonly reason why I came here. Okay, nice seeing you again, goodnight!”

So with what I thought was an enigmatic and very apologetic smile, I set off in some arbitrary direction to God only knew where. I didn’t have a phone, and the shoes didn’t make a long trek feasible, but at least I was getting away from him.

Not that I got far. I barely took one step before he gently pulled me back, barely sparing an inch of space between us. The faint fragrance of man, spice and cologne released what latent hormones were still dormant in my body.

A whirling sensation blazed through my insides and settled into a searing fire, pulsating in slow rhythmic spasms just below my belly.

“I won’t allow you to go out there on your own,” he said, his gaze never leaving mine. “Not in your current condition.”

He won’t allow it… Be still my beating heart.

Which emancipated any and all reluctance that might have lurked in the crevices of my inner self. And not that he couldn’t let me; hewouldn’t allow it.I indulged in being at the mercy of his command. For maybe five seconds.

“I’m fine…” I said, scrambling for an excuse to leave. “But I have to go.”

My unapologetic willingness to become his concubine was alarming and I recognized this fact even in my drug-induced state. All I knew was that I needed to get away or suffer the consequences. Who knew when Meg’s drugs would be done with me.

You’d think with all these red flags waving franticly on the horizon I’d make a more serious attempt to wriggle myself away from his presence.

But I didn’t.

A vein was throbbing in his temple, his mouth was firm and resolute, and a stray lock of hair had fallen onto his forehead.It was as if this man was steeling himself to go up against some unimaginable enemy on the battlefield.

Which under the circumstances appeared to be me.

Was he embarrassed being seen with me but felt it his civic duty not to send me out into the night alone in my intoxicated state?Yes, that had to be it.

My mind was racing. I wanted to make this better and at least not leave him with the worst possible image of me. There was no real plan I could come up with to change this disastrous state of affairs. And his hand circling my waist to keep me steady wasn’t helping to clear my mind.

At all.

His gaze remained fixed on me. “What’s your name?”

I toyed with the idea of giving him a fake name, and then on the off chance that I ever “ran into” him again I could blame it all on my “twin sister” Victoria. But that idea went onto the reject pile because if anyone could make a mess of a lie it would be me.

Still, I was reluctant to blurt out my name. Did I want him to associate me with this tacky behavior tonight? No, but I didn’t think that rationale was going to stick with this guy, and compliance was the only way.

I was also not so accommodating that he might think I was a weakling. “You give me yours and then I’ll consider giving you mine.”

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