Page 48 of Sky Song
“Picked your lock.” He sounded so damn nonchalant.
“You’re… a burglar!”
“Among other things.”
“And you… walked the streets! Alone! In the middle of the day!”
“There are ways to blend in.” He was suddenly close.
A churning blend of irrational anger and belated fear suffocated Cricket. “You were supposed to wait for me in that goddamn staircase like a good fucking alien,” she screamed in his face, “and not sling your dickheaded ass around Shadush in daytime foreverybodyto discover…”
His large cool hands framed her face in a hold that was totally unshakable yet oddly calming, acting like blinders on a troublesome horse.
“Hush now. You can scream at me later.” His thumbs smoothed her hot cheeks, up and down, forcing her to focus. “There are people coming to your door, I can hear them.”
She grasped his thick wrists. “Lyle…”
“Yes, sky song, stay with me.”
Her breaths came out in hot puffs and mingled with his steady exhales. His eyes, his beautiful black eyes, were trained on her and only her, and she was drowning.
“Lyle,” she whispered, and he abruptly let go of her face, engulfing her into a full-body embrace. She wrapped her thin arms around his neck and held tight. “I was afraid you’d get caught.”
“I’m hard to catch.”
“No one’s infallible. I was afraid I’d never see you again.”
“That’s impossible.”
A sound of voices came from the street, from Mr. Sulys’ side. The Zen garden rescue brigade was quizzing him. Wherever he did to Hipper, the animal stayed quiet and, presumably, out of sight.
Lyle’s body pressed hard against hers, his arms a safe haven. Giving in to the temptation, she put her face to his neck,inhaling that vaguely sweet scent that went at odds with an adult male.
They were knocking on her door.
“I can handle them if you let me,” Lyle whispered into her hair.
“No, no.” She tightened her hold on him. “If they see you, it will be a disaster.”
“Not if I kill them quietly.”
“It’s not funny. You don’t mean that.”
“Of course.”
The knock came again, louder this time, more insistent.
The obedient, rational part of Cricket urged her to open that door and answer the admin’s questions, to act normal. But the rebellious side, the reckless part, told her to screw it.
“Let them knock,” she whispered. “The lights are off in the house. Nobody’s home. What are they going to do?”
“Notbreak in.” Lyle whispered back, amused.
“No.” She smiled against his neck, her heart rate slowing to its normal speed.
The brigade knocked for some time and moved on to Paloma - Cricket heard her talking to them in a lisping little girl voice, acting out a dingbat role. Finally, the street quieted down, and Cricket’s blood cooled down enough to allow clear thinking. She relaxed her arms and put a tiny bit of distance between their bodies, but they continued to be entwined.
He blinked, that lazy blink of his, and Cricket didn’t know if he was disoriented and trying to focus, or if it was merely a trademark habit of his.
