Second (Betrothed 6)

It’d been a week since I’d seen her at the hospital. She’d given me a ride to the office, and as we sat in front of the entrance, we had the longest and most silent conversation in the world. It was intense…even though I had no idea what she was thinking.

But I knew what I was thinking.

I assumed after the initial tension was broken, she would become a former flame who dulled into a stranger. But it seemed to get more difficult for us to be in the same room together. When I saw her stained cheeks at the hospital, I didn’t think twice before I comforted her as if I were her man…and she was my woman. I knew she was worried about Sofia, and that triggered her own painful memories of losing her child. I couldn’t explain how I knew that, how I could read her eyes like words on a page, but I could. Knowing she was in pain broke my heart, and I immediately reverted to who we used to be, when I was the man who picked up the pieces of her pain and put them back together.

People continued to come up to me and talk to me, most of them people I knew from the bank. But sometimes, a woman would have the courage to flirt with me, to make small talk as she found an excuse to touch my tie, and then she would slip me her number.

I didn’t even have to try.

That should be a good thing, a victorious feeling. But instead, it made me lift my gaze to look at Annabella, to see if she’d noticed what just happened. She was married, so she shouldn’t care.

But I wanted her to care.

When I looked at where she’d been a moment before, she was gone. Liam was still there, having an intense conversation with Hades as he made punching moves like he was describing his last fight.

She could be anywhere, and there was no way I would find her. But my body seemed to know exactly where she was, like a silent sonar that could pick up her movements through crowds and walls.

And I spotted her through the cracks of people as she headed outside to the balcony. The doors were closed because it was too cold, but she went out there anyway as if she had an objective.

I finished my scotch and left the empty glass on the table before I followed her.

The second I stepped onto the patio, the vapor left my mouth and evaporated into the dry hair. It was thicker than the smoke from my cigars. My suit was a heavy material so I was immune to the cold, but she only wore a little dress that looked practically like lingerie.

I didn’t see her anyway. The patio was large and overlooked the city with lots of seating for guests, but she was nowhere in sight. I walked to the right where the windows disappeared, and I spotted her around the corner where there was a small section of balcony area left. It was out of sight from the building, so it was totally private.

She stood with her hands on the rail, looking out at the lights that shone from the cathedral a few blocks away—where she got married. The wind moved through her hair gently, and her skin was already turning pale because of the cold. Her eyes were lifeless as if she were focused on her thoughts with deep concentration.

I approached her from behind and stripped off my jacket so I could place it around her shoulders. I purposely made my footsteps loud, so she knew she wasn’t alone when I came close. But she seemed to know I was there because she didn’t flinch as the jacket was placed around her petite shoulders. I pulled it tighter over her body so my body heat would stay close to her skin as long as possible before it escaped.

She pushed her arms through the sleeves then hugged it across her body. “Thank you.”

I leaned against the rail with my back to the city, my eyes on the stone wall that comprised the exterior of the ballroom. It was a freezing night, but somehow, I wasn’t cold, not even with the loss of my jacket. “This is where Hades and Sofia spoke for the first time.”

That seemed to distract her from whatever she was thinking about. “Really?” She turned her head toward me, her curls stretching down one side of her chest. In this light, she looked beautiful, the distant illumination from the cathedral making her eyes glow like she possessed the spirit of an angel.

I nodded. “She was just eighteen, and he was in his twenties.”

“I didn’t realize he was older than her.”

“You would never know, huh?” I slid my hands into my pockets. “But all that booze and cigars will catch up to him soon.”