Page 71 of The Forsaken
He smirked. “Something tells me that isn’t what you want.”
He was right.
“I don’t care what you do, Edgar,” she said. “If you will excuse me—”
“No.”
She turned to go.
“Is this about your drawing, Andromena?”
Blood rushed to her throat.
Edgar slid between her and the exit. Unable to meet his eyes, she stared at the brass buttons of his waistcoat.
He brandished the delicately folded page.
“Because I bloody forbid you to punish yourself.” The gentleness in his voice offset his command. “Andromena, you’re a bloody marvel with a pencil. I would trade my damned frigate to own it.”
He placed his lips beside her ear, the champagne on his breath as intoxicating as any glass consumed. “Fortunately, I don’t have to, as you left it behind and I seized it as mine.” Just as he’d claimed her heart. “You have my vow; no one will see it but me. I will not share, and I will savor it for the masterpiece it is.”
Her composure slipped. Why did he do this? Why did he exalt her and the things she did—things no one else ever bothered long enough to look at, or see in her at all?
“It’s not that,” Edgar. “A plea breeched her voice. She stepped around him into the shadows. This time, he let her go.”
She fell into his trap.
“You are hiding something, Andromena.”
His words cracked like a whip. Andromena stopped in her tracks. Her fingernails dug deep into her palms. The calming waterfall that fed into the grotto’s pool was her favorite place here. Even so, it failed to soothe her jagged spirit.
“Why are you avoiding me?” Edgar demanded.
She shut her eyes tight. Why was he being so difficult? He wasn’t supposed to have noticed her absence. He was supposed to be happily free of her.
“Edgar,” she said, her voice thick. “We have become too close—”
“No, we haven’t.” Edgar spoke with his usual bluntness.
A tired smile pulled at the corners of her mouth.
God help her, she’d tried. The truth was the only thing that would make him leave. “I am in love with—”
His eyes grew narrow. “Who?”
Surely, he was joking.
An eerie glow lit Edgar’s eyes. “Kilmartin?”
Edgar believed she and Kilmartin were romantically involved? This could be her answer and put his questions to an end.
Maybe. Possibly. Hopefully. She entertained the idea, a moment too long.
His eyes thinned to pinpricks at her continued silence.
A sharp curse from Edgar echoed deep inside the cave. “Impossible. You would never settle for someone as predictable as Kilmartin.”
No, she wouldn’t.
