Page 36 of Fearless
Kitty couldn’t help it, she laughed. She also picked up her mug and they both drank.
Setting his cup back on the table, Noah gestured to her plate. “You’ve had enough to fortify a small bird. I’d like to see you finish the sausage and at least half your second slice of bread. You’ve someone else to think of now. I need you to start eating like it.”
Hoping he never knew how much she liked it when he got bossy like this, Kitty used her fork to scrape together her shredded toast.
“My turn to ask a question,” Noah said, as she polished off her last bite. “What’s Kitty short for? Vicky? Victoria? Katherine?”
And so, they leapt from one awkward round of questions straight into another.
Pausing, Kitty took a moment to swallow, giving herself as much time as possible before answering. It didn’t change the truth, and though she was tempted, she couldn’t bring herself to lie. “It’s, um… It’s not my real name.”
“What is your name, then?”
She poked and re-poked the sausage.
“It’s dead,” he joked. His smile hadn’t dimmed, but his gaze sharpened. It was on her again, once more reading her in that frightening way that saw way more than she wanted him to. “Come on. I’m not going to laugh at you. What’s your real name?”
She rolled her lips, then cleared her throat, steeling herself for the harder questions that were sure to follow. “Portia.”
“Very pretty. What’s your last name, Portia?”
“Raine.”
“Middle name?”
“Louise.”
“Portia Louise Raine.” Noah let it roll off his tongue. “Very nice. I like it.”
In the pause that followed, she knew she should say something, so she thanked him. But, she could already hear it coming.
“So.” He sopped his egg with his toast, his gaze firmly on her. “Why Kitty?”
And there it was. She almost hung her head.
“Is that something he chose, or did you get a say?”
“No, no.” She tried to wave it off, laugh it off. Anything to avoid the question. “It wasn’t like that. It…”
“Quid pro quo,” Noah reminded. “Rule Number Ten, either of us can call a Q&A, but while it’s in force, any question asked must be openly and honestly answered. We both agreed to that and there’s still ten full minutes left in this session.”
She didn’t quite groan, but she did sigh. Under the table, her leg jiggled.
“It was a mutual thing,” she said, hoping that might be an end to it.
It wasn’t.
“How so?”
He was going to laugh at her. She dropped her fork on her plate and clasped her hands tight in her lap. God, she didn’t want him to laugh at her.
“How so?” he gently repeated.
She wished she could smile as easily as he did. Then he might think she was joking, or that it didn’t matter as deeply as it honestly did, or maybe he’d see that it did matter, but let her gloss over it so they could go on to a different question.
“Do you need to bend over your bed while I fetch the strap?” he asked gently, as if he hadn’t just threatened to spank her.
“It was what I did,” she finally choked out.
