Darknight(15)

“Have it your way,” I said, and recklessly poured the remainder of the malbec into my glass.

A pained expression crossed his face, but whether that was because I’d taken the last of the wine for myself or because he was still irritated with my line of questioning, I couldn’t be sure. In silence he set aside his napkin and rose from the table. For a few seconds I thought he was walking away because he was upset, but then I realized he’d simply gone to the kitchen to fetch another bottle. Not a malbec this time, though; the sunburst on the label was familiar. Arizona Stronghold.

He yanked out the cork and refilled his glass. “Did you email anyone while I was out?”

Talk about your abrupt shifts in conversation. “No,” I said.

One eyebrow lifted slightly. “Why not?”

“Well, the damage was already done, according to your brother. I didn’t see the point.”

It was obvious he couldn’t quite figure out what to do with that statement. He fiddled with the cork, which he’d left sitting on the table, before swallowing some of the wine he’d just poured. To tell the truth, I still wasn’t quite sure why I hadn’t sent another email, except that my family already knew the most important thing — that I was all right — and I didn’t really know what to say besides that. I wasn’t ready to let them know that Connor was my consort, the man I’d been dreaming of for the past five years. Goddess knows what their reaction would be to that little bombshell.

Maybe I could’ve tried confiding in Sydney, but she really didn’t have a grasp on the politics of the situation. She probably would have asked me why I hadn’t jumped Connor’s bones already. Some part of me was trying to figure that out, too — the part that seemed to go into heat every time I stared too long at any one portion of his anatomy.

He set down the wine cork. “I’m having a hard time figuring you out, Angela.”

“You’re not the first,” I said with a shrug, trying to lighten the moment. “I drive my friend Sydney crazy sometimes.”

A nod, and the beginnings of that smile once again. I hoped it wouldn’t disappear quite so quickly this time. “Full?” he asked, nodding toward my plate.

I actually was. That last date had pretty much done me in. “I think so.”

“Well, I hope you saved a little room. I got some dessert, too.”

I always had room for dessert. “I could probably squeeze that in somewhere.”

“Good.” He got up and began gathering up the plates, and when I began to stand so I could help, he waved me off. “It’s okay. You stay put.”

Whether he was being extra conscientious to make up for his brusqueness earlier or because he was trying to make nice on my birthday, I wasn’t sure, but I stayed where I was and allowed him to clear the table. He busied himself in the kitchen for a few minutes, and then he came back out with two slender slices of what looked like flour-less chocolate cake on fresh plates. A lumpy white bag was shoved under one arm.

He put the larger of the two slices in front of me. “I don’t have any candles, but — ”

“It’s fine,” I said hastily. The last thing I wanted was for him to start singing “Happy Birthday” to me or something similarly corny. “The cake looks great.”

“There’s a bakery around the corner. I went and got the cake while they were working on my order at the tapas place.” As he sat down, he extricated the white bag from under his arm and set it on the tabletop. A brief hesitation, and then he pushed it toward me. “I got you something. I know it can’t make up for not being there with your family on your birthday, but….”

Mystified, I set down my fork before I had even taken a bite of cake. He’d bought me a birthday present? When would he have even had time for that? I surmised that maybe he hadn’t actually been at the gallery all the time he was gone. But still, that he’d gone out and gotten something for me —

“You didn’t have to.” The spiteful part of me wanted to say that he couldn’t make up for kidnapping me by buying me a birthday present, but I held my tongue. He was doing the best he could. It wasn’t his fault that he’d gotten sucked into his brother’s crazy schemes. It seemed clear enough to me that he was doing everything in his power to make sure I didn’t suffer any more in the aftermath of those plans.

“I wanted to.”

Now I was the one who looked away first. I’d seen need in those eyes, and desire…but hesitation, too. He wouldn’t force me, no matter what. Of course, with the way my body reacted to even his briefest touch, I thought there wouldn’t be a good deal of forcing involved.