Page 70 of Burn Bright
“What a revelation,” Charlie says dryly while checking the time on his irreplaceable Philippe Dufour watch.
Eliot smiles deviously at me. “And Ben? You lose it yet?” He knows this answer. Just like he knew none of us are virgins.
“Several years ago. Thanks for the condoms, by the way.” I asked Eliot if he had any the night of Homecoming. I’d thought there’d be a chance I’d go all the way with Courtney, but I didn’t have time to run to a drugstore and buy them.
“I have plenty more wherever the night may bring you.” His eyes ping from me to Harriet and back to me with a Cheshire grin. Seconds from playing the part of Cupid.
Fucking Eliot. No one in their right mind would give him a bow and arrow and let him be a matchmaker. He can’t even fixmy decayed friendship with Xander. He doesn’t repair. He destroys.
“No thanks, dude,” Harriet says, biting on her candy. “I already have condoms. I don’t need anything of yours.” She studies the apothecary cabinet again, leaving an intrigued Eliot in her wake.
He tips his head to me. “Does she always look like she’s about to rip off a cock?”
“Pretty much.”
He laughs and pats me on the back, “I’d say protect your balls, but maybe you like the challenge.”
“I don’t think it’s that,” I whisper, even knowing Harriet feels like a flighty, rabid bat that might bite if caught. Sheisa challenge, but that’s not what interests me the most about her. I like how she might feel the safest with me—that I’m a place of solace for her when she’s never had a good place to land.
I want to wrap my arms around her. Protect her. Give her security and the kind of love she’s lacked her entire life. I feel it gnawing at me like a hunger I won’t be able to feed. Because of my plan.
I’m leaving.
Still, I can’t stop fixating on how much I like her. On how when I return to her side at the cabinet, she hands me a vial and orders me around like I’m her lab partner. How she’s trusting me to pour the liquid when she should know I’m a hundred times more focused on her. On how she blows out a disgruntled breath from her lips and squats to jerk open a cabinet drawer. On her furrowed brows that pinch harder with concentration.
She catches me smiling at her, and blush coats her cheeks again. I want to say,yeah, I’m checking you out right now when I shouldn’t be.
I shouldn’t fucking do this with her.
But I. Can’t. Stop.
I love how she’s overpowering this edged panic inside me. I’m not fixating on the possible worst outcomes of tonight. Orany dangers present. For once, I let myself have fun with my brothers.
All of us but Charlie have returned to the quest at hand, and fifteen minutes through, Harriet has balanced the correct weight on the brass scale. Fake lightning flashes through the room, along with the sounds of thunder. Then the fireplace extinguishes, and a metal cigar box drops onto the faux logs.
I blow a loud two-finger whistle, then clap for Harriet. “That was all you, Fisher.”
Beckett and Eliot applaud her with rising grins of pride. Tom’s hearty yet reluctant claps—like the sheer effort is pulling teeth—make me laugh.
“It was nothing,” Harriet says, shying from my gaze while she treks over to the logs.
It takes me aback. No one but Harriet has solved a single part of this escape room yet. “That was not nothing.”
She shrugs, minimizing what was an achievement she should be stuffing in all our faces.
Beckett slips me a furtive look. “Auto-dérisoire.”Self-deprecating.
Eliot adds, “Docile.”Meek.
I don’t believe she’s eitherof these things, but I’d love for her to celebrate her intelligence. It’s worth the applause. Defending Harriet is an instinct, and I shoot back to my brothers, “Elle peut être sans prétention.”She can be unpretentious.
Beckett raises his hands, saying he’s not attacking. “Ce n’est pas un mal à moins que quelqu’un ne la fasse se sentir petite.”It’s not bad unless someone made her feel small.
Eliot narrows his gaze. “Cette personne devra mourir.”That person must die.
Dramatic as fuck and on brand for my family, yeah, and my flexed muscles are agreeing with the sentiment. I head over to Harriet as she pops open the metal cigar box and retrievesthe first key. After unlocking the cupboard of the apothecary cabinet, she finds a slip of paper to a three-part riddle.
This is going to take a while, and I catch myself smiling. Excited about it. Beckett and I work on the map together.
