Dark Sexy Knight (A Modern Fairytale)(30)

There was a long pause as he listened to whatever the other person was saying.

“Right,” he said, his voice softer and defeated. “Yeah, I know.”

“No,” he said. “Don’t do that. I just . . . I’m so f*cking sorry I—”

He inhaled and sighed, nodding at whatever the other person was saying.

“Okay. Yeah.” He paused for just a moment, starting to lower the phone, then pressed it back to his ear. “Hey! Wait! If she wakes up, tell her I’ll be there tomorrow. I’ll leave here at dawn and slip into her bedroom and be the first thing she sees when she opens her eyes, okay? Yeah. Bye.”

And suddenly Verity wished that she hadn’t been listening.

She had no idea who “she” was, but she obviously meant a lot to Colton. Not only had he offered to “drop everything” and run to her side, but he planned to go and see her first thing in the morning. No, not just see her, but “slip into her bedroom.”

Who was she? And why did Verity feel like busting into tears?

“Fuck,” muttered Colton, turning around to find Verity standing behind him on the patio.

She raised her hand limply in greeting. “Hi.”

His eyes combed her body, but he didn’t smile, as she’d imagined he would. He took a deep breath and exhaled on a huff, shoving his phone into his back pocket. “Hi.”

She glanced at the table. “Everything looks really . . . beautiful.”

He nodded, looking down at the grass, his face miserable.

“Hey,” she said, taking a step toward him. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said, clenching his jaw as he looked at her. After staring at her for a second, he stalked over to the grill. “How do you like your steak?”

“Umm . . . I don’t . . . however you like yours.”

He grunted, taking a covered plate from the table and keeping his back to her as he pulled off the foil and placed two steaks on the grill.

A lump rose up in her throat as she watched him. He wouldn’t look at her or talk to her or even acknowledge that she was standing there behind him, and it hurt, because tonight was supposed to be special. She looked up at the twinkle lights, feeling confused. He’d obviously put effort into making this evening special. Why was he acting like this now?

The answer came swiftly.

Because of the call. Because of her, whoever she was. Clearly he wanted to be with her, not Verity. And clearly being with Verity wasn’t so appealing to him anymore. She felt foolish. She felt like an inconvenience. She felt unwanted, and it made hot tears burn her eyes.

“We don’t have to do this,” she said softly to his back, “if there’s somewhere else you need to be.”

“Food’s already cooking. We may as well eat it.” He looked at her over his shoulder, then turned back to the grill. “I can’t give you a ride to work in the morning. You’ll have to take the bus.”

Why this felt like a slap, she wasn’t certain, but it did. It stung. And it took her a long moment to remind herself that he didn’t owe her anything. He’d helped her get a job and given her a place to live. He’d never signed up to be their daily chauffeur.

“Okay.”

“Don’t bother making me breakfast.”

“I won’t,” she said, but those tears were very close to falling now, and she couldn’t bear to embarrass herself by crying in front of him. “You know? I think, um, maybe we should do this another time. I mean, I feel like something’s going on with you, and maybe . . .”

Her voice trailed off. She stood there like an idiot, talking to his back, waiting for him to answer, but he didn’t. He didn’t do or say anything at all. He certainly didn’t try to stop her from going back in the house.

She gulped over the lump in her throat and walked around the table, heading for the stairs that led to the kitchen. There was someone else in his life, obviously. Someone who was first in his heart, which meant that she’d be a fling at best, and frankly she already knew she couldn’t handle a fling with Colton. As soon as possible, she’d find somewhere else for her and Ryan to live.

She was almost on the landing when she felt his arms wrap around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest. Gasping in surprise at the sudden, unexpected contact, she backed down one step to be closer to him, and his forehead dropped gently to rest on the back of her head, his breath hot on the back of her neck. He inhaled deeply, his chest expanding into her back as his arms held her tightly.

“Don’t go,” he muttered, his voice strangled and grave, pleading and sorry, frustrated and weary beyond his twentysomething years. “Please, Verity . . . don’t go.”





CHAPTER 8


He was acting like an * and he knew it, but Aunt Jane’s words— If she doesn’t have you, Colton, she has no one—tormented and shamed him.

Tonight Melody had had no one. He’d been so distracted getting ready for his date with Verity, he’d failed his cousin—his flesh and blood, whom he’d promised to look after. And in startling, striking clarity he understood what Aunt Jane had meant when she asked him to be careful about whom he loved. It wasn’t just his temper that could get him into trouble and sidetrack him from Melody’s best interests. Loving someone else had the potential to imperil Melody’s prominence in his life. Perhaps that had been Aunt Jane’s primary concern all along—that whomever Colton eventually chose to love would own his heart to such an extent that there wouldn’t be any room left for Mel.