The Woman from the Past (Grassi Framily)

I didn’t want to say it for two reasons. One, I didn’t want to give Colin’s savage anger any more ammunition to go at Larry with.

Two, I didn’t want to make any sort of sexual comment in front of Colin. I’d been really careful never to let anything even slightly dripping in insinuation came out of my lips.

“Cameron,” he snapped, slamming a fist onto the table, making our settings jump and settle out of order.

“I sassed him,” I admitted. “About his body spray,” I told him.

“And?”

“And he said something about my mouth.”

“That’s not it,” he said, reading me too well. “That’s notallof it,” he clarified. “You will tell me,” he added, and the way the hair on the back of my neck stood up told me that I didn’t want to make him make me tell him.

“He wondered what you were going to do with my mouth,” I told him, feeling queasy.

“Did he?” Colin asked, tone calm again, and I didn’t know if it was because he’d won, because he didn’t care about the comment, or because he would deal with his feelings on it later.

My money was on the latter.

“Smelling like toppings aside, I had a good time today,” I told him, hooping to move the subject away from anything sexual.

“My mother called me and told me you can come back the day after tomorrow,” he told me.

It seemed almost sad, but the way my heart swelled in my chest was testament to how trapped and lonely I had been for so long, that I was looking forward to another day of getting yelled at by my captor’s mother.

“I’m happy to hear that,” I told him, taking a sip of my sparkling water, trying to pretend it was something better. Like soda. Or plain, flat water, even.

“I hear you went to the coffee shop on your break.”

Oh, this was dangerous ground. Especially because I knew it was off-limits to his people. And I had no idea if someone had seen me talking to Massimo.

Crap.

Crap crap crap.

“Oh, was that not allowed?” I asked, making my eyes go round and my lips part slightly, the poster girl of innocence.

Luckily enough, Colin wasn’t as savvy with feminine wiles as he was with other things.

To that, Colin mulled his response for a moment as our food was brought out.

I forced out a thank you to the cook even as I tried not to take deep breaths of the fishiness.

“I see no reason you may not go to the coffee shop,” Colin declared, and the relief was immediate. “So long as you don’t start picking up the toxic beliefs of that owner.”

Traveler, from what I could tell, was a very young, successful business owner who was fully independent and educated.

I couldn’t imagine anyone else I knew personally at the moment that I could look up to more.

“She does seem a bit extreme,” I told him as I picked up my fork to start picking at the bed of sautéed kale under the salmon.

“You need to eat the salmon as well,” Colin chided when I took my second forkful. “Lean protein is important.”

I took a forkful of the salmon and a load of kale, and put both in my mouth, trying to chew fast and swallow.

It wasn’t like I could even wash the taste down with something flavorful.

I just had to struggle until he was satisfied that I’d eaten enough.