Page 62 of Sky Song
“I shared my concerns with Paloma, and she acted like she didn’t believe what I saw. She made me doubt my own sanity. And tonight, I recognized the bartender as the guy I’d seen. She knew him! He probably came here to see her. And…”
“And?” he prompted.
“She has a right to her secrets and all that, but… I don’t know. I guess I’m hurt that she hadn’t shared this one with me.”
“And is she angry that you didn’t share me with her?”
Cricket sighed. “Yeah. I guess.” She raised her eyes to his face. He was so beautiful, his skin like peaches and cream, his fine brows two sharp little wings above the huge otherworldly eyes, flat and watchful.
Cricket frowned. “Paloma made some unfair assumptions about you.”
“Don’t let it bother you.”
“She said…”
“Cricket.” There is a warning in his tone. “Let it go.”
“I can’t.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
His eyes drew her like magnets. So magical. So frightening.
“Lyle,” she breathed. Words suddenly became hard to find.
“My hearts.”
She slowly raised her hands and fisted handfuls of his shirt. “Please tell me you’re a nice quiet doctor who dedicated his life to medical research to benefit his nation, and that you’re here for the symposium, and that you can’t go back because of a freak accident outside your control.”
He allowed himself to be manhandled for the second time tonight. “Nothing I can say right now will be productive.”
His evasiveness made her sink deeper into the quicksand of her doubts. “I believe what you say, Lyle,” she warned him. Threatened him.
“I know,” he said seriously.
“I felt sorry for you, and I let you into my home, tried to protect you.”
Lyle’s eyebrows twitched like they did when he was displeased. His hands encircled her wrists, and just like that, she was manacled. She didn’t struggle, but she knew her struggles would be for nothing - he was much stronger.
“About protection.” He leaned closer. “Please do not, ever, try to physically defend me like you did at the club.”
“So I should just sit back and watch…”
“Yes.”
“But…”
He shushed her. “I may be pilled out of my mind, but I’m not helpless. What were you thinking, pouringmydrink all over that guy? Do you know how close he came to hitting you?”
“You weren’t going to drink your drink. And I’m not afraid of Gus.”
“Neither am I. But Iwasafraid I’d have to turn his head backwards right there in front of everyone, and it’s a bad way to build a reputation.”
Realizing how tight he was squeezing her, Lyle abruptly released her wrists and stepped back.
Cricket rubbed her reddened wrists, angry at him, angry at Paloma, just plain angry. “Fine, I will never come to your rescue again. Which won’t be a problem if we don’t go back to Atticus. I don’t even know why we were there in the first place.”
“For contacts.”
