My heart stopped.
I’m dreaming, like the last time. I searched my mind to shake off sleep. There was nothing to shake. I was conscious, perfectly.
I slowly opened my eyes.
His hand froze, all of him did. He met my gaze.
I saw it in his eyes. He’d said it. He’d meant it.
“I love you too,” I whispered.
His hand curved over my cheek as he read me, carefully studied. Slowly, like shadows creeping across the ground with the rising sun, his concern faded into a smile, the bright one, the one that was real, that he so rarely wore.
And then his brow furrowed.
He pulled me to his chest, his tightened chest. I rubbed my thumb across his ribs, hoping he would relax like he had before when I’d touched him.
He didn’t.
I pulled myself closer to him. “Stay all night.”
He held tighter and kissed my cheek. “Sleep.”
I listened to the slow intake of his breath, felt his arms around me. He didn’t move. I drifted off while debating if I should ask what was wrong.
When I woke, he was holding me the exact same way, just as tightly.
“Alec,” I murmured.
His voice was clear, not subdued from sleep. “It’s getting late.”
I shifted to sit up, to look at him. As I did, he swung his legs around and stood from the bed.
I sat up on my knees. “Alec.”
He rested his palm on my cheek. “Do you feel better this morning?” His thumb brushed along my skin. “Do you feel safe?”
“I always feel safe with you.”
“Good.” He bent closer and touched my lips with his. Then he turned and walked toward the door. He was gone before I could think of how to word my questions.
With a sigh, I slipped out of bed and went to the bathroom to shower.
I was just pulling on a shirt when there was a soft tap on my door.
It sounded like the way Alec usually knocked, but he was likely already gone for the day. I set my brush down then walked over to answer.
Alec’s expression was still subdued. “I only have a little time.” He held his hand out. “But would you come have breakfast with me?”
I set my hand in his and let him lead me down the hall. I wasn’t sure how to talk to him, what to say. I almost felt like I should apologize for what I’d said last night. Did he think I now expected a lifetime commitment or something?
In the great room, Ben was on the couch reading his paper with his eyelids half down. He hadn’t shaved yet. Had he been there all night? Perhaps I’d made him and Hanna more nervous than I thought. I’d have to work on that.
He lowered his newspaper, and his gaze flickered to Alec’s and my hands.
I glanced at Alec to see if he noticed, to see if he would prefer not to hold hands in front of the others.
Alec nodded a greeting to Ben, and the corners of Ben’s eyes crinkled.
Ben was easier than the others, though, even better than Hanna in a way; he wasn’t so curious. And he’d probably already seen Alec leave my room this morning—my door was visible from where he was sitting. Any shock had surely already passed for him, not that he was the shocked type.
I decided to play it safe around Alec’s men, especially Vincent. I doubted Anthony and the other two had any idea how much time Alec had been spending with me, and I worried that perhaps Alec would prefer they not know.
While Hanna and I prepared breakfast, Alec stood in the doorway, leaning on his shoulder. Hanna kept glancing at him.
“Didn’t you used to include walnuts in the pancake mix?” Alec asked Hanna.
She smiled as she stirred. “Gertie liked them that way. That woman would just assume I put walnuts in everything.” She added a little more milk to the mix. “I’m surprised you remember that.”
Alec’s voice started to pull out of that subdued tone. “I remember how she used to say walnut.”
Hanna swung her hips like she was about to break into a line dance. “With that twang.”
Alec’s eyes smiled.
I opened the pantry and grabbed a bag of walnuts from the shelf. I spoke to Hanna. “I’m sure you have a nut chopper around here somewhere.”
“Sure do.” She reached into an upper cabinet.
I chopped the walnuts, and Hanna mixed them into the pancakes. Alec stayed leaning in the doorway watching us and talking a little with Hanna. Her smile seemed brighter than usual.
Once the cooking was almost done, and there was nothing simple left for me to do, I took a stack of plates from the cupboard and turned for the dining room.
Alec caught my eye and winked.
The plates slid against each other, but I recovered before they toppled.
He was now grinning. I hoped he was over whatever was wrong with him, not that he was just faking through it.
I glared, and he grinned wider.
After making sure the plates were steady and adding napkins on top, I continued toward the dining room.
The doorway wasn’t wide, and he didn’t move from his spot, still leaning on his shoulder. I kept my gaze away so Hanna wouldn’t have a heart attack at the crash of plates against the floor. I had to brush against him to get by.
“Need help?” he murmured in that low voice.
I kept going. “Not helping.”
He laughed. I saw Hanna’s head jerk from the corner of my eye.
He followed me to the dining room and reached for a plate off the stack.
“Uh, uh,” I warned, and then took the stack and continued setting the table.
“This is my house, you know.”
“I know.” I moved around to the other side of the table. “That’s my point.” He provided for all these people. I wasn’t about to let him do housework.
He opened his mouth—surely, to argue. Then Ben came in.
I smiled tauntingly at Alec, and he narrowed his eyes. Ben was watching us. I finished setting the table without looking at either of them.
I went to bring some of the food in, and when I came back with a platter of sausage and bacon, the others were beginning to arrive. During the meal, I listened to the conversation, while keeping a peripheral eye on everyone, especially Alec.
My left hand rested on the table, and Alec reached over to hold it, like it was the natural thing.
Vincent looked up. He didn’t seem to move for a long time.
“Hey, Vincent,” one of the others said, “Practice this morning?”
“No. You should get some rest.” He sounded angry. No one asked him any more questions.
Alec looked straight across the table, to where Vincent sat. I didn’t look up to confirm my fears, to see anger on Alec’s face as well. A feeling of unease coiled around the table; I swore I could hear it hissing as it slithered.
Anthony glanced at Vincent then back to his plate. The other two looked at each other.
“The eggs are very good this morning,” Alec said in a level voice as he looked down the table. He hadn’t touched his eggs yet.
The other two men resumed eating.
“I put cheese in them,” Hanna said.
Alec looked at her, and his lips curved, only his lips, nothing else. “They’re good.” His right hand still resting on mine, he used his left to take a small bite of the eggs.
I brushed my thumb along his pinky finger.
“Do you like the pancakes?” Hanna asked.
Alec nodded.
“I like ’em,” Ben said, and he poked his fork into another pancake and put it on his plate.
Alec’s gaze flickered to Ben, and his jaw unclenched.
“You’ll have to teach me how to make them without a box of mix,” I said to Hanna.
She smiled. “It’s easy.”
“Are you saying my cooking skills are lacking?” I teased.
Alec held my hand tighter.
“You do a very good job,” Hanna said.
“Maybe at cleaning.”
Hanna’s smile widened and curved the wrinkles in her cheeks up, as if her smile was reaching toward her ears.
Slowly, the conversation relaxed back into its normal comfort level.
As they finished the meal, everyone dispersed, and Hanna said something about throwing a load into the washer before she cleaned up.
Before he left, Alec stood with me by the front door for a of couple minutes.
He touched my hair, brushed it away from my face. “Thank you.”
“Are you all right?”
“Everything is fine.” Then he leaned down and touched my lips with his. The kiss was soft, and then he rested his hand on my cheek and slid his tongue along my lips.
I couldn’t remember if I was standing, if I had legs. I couldn’t feel them.
He drew back and murmured in my ear. “I love you.”
I tried to breathe.
He stepped back and trailed his fingers along my jaw. Then he turned and disappeared out the door.
I looked at the door for a few seconds.
Then I noticed movement from the corner of my eye.
Vincent. He was standing by the stairs, glaring at me. I took a step back as though stumbling under the weight of his anger.
He stalked away.
I almost let him go, let him take whatever his problem was with him.
But then I went through the kitchen to head him off. “Vincent?”
He didn’t stop.
“Please,” I said to his back.
He paused but didn’t turn. “I’m busy.”
“But you don’t have practice this morning.”
He looked at me, glared as if hatred was oozing from his eyes.
“Can I talk to you for a few minutes? Please?”
He walked by me and into the kitchen. He just stood there, straight and solid, like the barrel of a gun. He stared past me at the sink.
My heart leaped up my throat to eat my words. I had to do this, had to make it right between them, at least try. No matter what happened with Alec and me, Alec would still need his friend, especially when he insisted on putting himself in harm’s way.
Vincent glanced at me, as if impatient for me to say what I wanted to say.
“I promise I won’t hurt him,” I said. When Alec was ready to move on, I would let him go. I was determined.
Vincent hesitated, and his eyebrows pulled together. “It may not be your choice.” The angry edge of his voice was softening.
My expression strained. “Is something wrong? Is he doing something—Is he in trouble?”
“That’s not it, exactly.”
“Are you completely incapable of giving a straight answer?”
He was looking at me like he’d never seen me before. “He’s fine.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“You can’t stand there and tell me it may not be my choice he’s hurt and then tell me he’s fine.”
There was a long pause. Any residue of his anger seemed to evaporate. He looked like he was reading me, evaluating, forming an answer.
“Adriane,” he said. “When your fa—”
His attention snapped to the door.
Alec was across the room instantly, and slammed Vincent’s back into the wall with a thud that echoed through the house. Alec clutched Vincent’s shirt. His hands were steady, but the rest of him shook, like the aftershock of an earthquake.
“Stop,” Alec said through his teeth.