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“I wanted to know more about you.”

“Like what my nipples feel like in the dark?”

“Sure.” He smiled, and I felt a twist of unease work its way through me. Was that all it was?

Don’t be silly, Sara. Of course that’s all it was.

I looked at the bookshelves, my eyes unfocused.

“Did you want to talk?” Rien asked. He came back over to the end table and set the tray down. The plate clinked lightly against the silver.

“There’s not much to say, is there?”

He looked at me without speaking for a moment. His gold eyes ran down my body, resting on the curve of my hip where his shirt stopped at my thigh.

“Why did I come to you last night?”

“You’re asking me?” I said. “I don’t know. Maybe it was your unconscious identity making the moves.”

He studied me carefully. Under his hard gaze, I felt my skin burn. I turned back to the bookshelves, resting my fingers lightly against the spines of the books.

“You’re different in the light,” he said finally.

“Yeah, lots more photons bouncing everywhere.”

“You’re different. More sarcastic. Colder.”

He stepped toward me, and I could feel his presence pressing the air back. The library felt different now. Hotter. Wetter.

“You just can’t see me scowling in the dark,” I said flatly.

“Is that what you call it?”

I flushed.

“I don’t know how not to be sarcastic,” I said. I pulled a book out of the bookshelves and flipped through it, not seeing the words.

“You weren’t sarcastic last night.”

“I don’t know what last night was.”

Rien leaned against the bookshelves and looked up into my face. I bit my lip and looked straight at him. He was never different, I thought. He was always cool, unflappable. He was the most confident person I’d ever met. I’d only ever seen under that calm confidence once. Last night.

“Why did you want to be an actress?” he asked.

“This again?”

“Is it the fame? Money?”

“Why are you asking me?”

“I want to know why you wear so many masks.”

“Everybody is fake,” I said, shoving the book back into the shelf. “Why shouldn’t I be good at being fake?”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Sure it is.”

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