Page 123 of The Stone Secret
“Oh. For the love of…” Selas shook her head.
“What do you say, Cameron?” Serath asked. “Would you like to take a walk with me?”
He was looking at me. I could feel his regard on the side of my face, and for some reason it pissed me off. What the fuck was this Jekyll and Hyde bullshit?
I turned to him with a stiff smile. “I’d love to.” I shoved back my chair and walked out of the restaurant.
He joined me on the street a moment later. “You’re angry.”
“What gave it away?”
He chuckled softly. “You don’t hide your emotions too well.”
“I seem to have an issuereadingthem too, because if I’m not mistaken, the last time we spoke, you made it clear that you didn’t want us to spend any time together.”
I picked up my pace down the street, wanting to walk off the anger.
“Cameron, wait. Please.”
Damn him and that pleading tone. “What?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to spend time with you, it’s just that I know we shouldn’t. Sometimes I can uphold that, and others…” His eyes darkened. “Others I can’t. I’m not as strong as I’d like to be, not when it comes to you.”
The rage bled out of me in the face of his candor. Because how much had I truly helped the situation? Yes, the wanton episodes weren’t intentional, but they hadn’t helped. I should have taken some responsibility for keeping the boundaries and not left it all on his shoulders.
“Look,” he said. “Here, in Asteria, it’s a safe zone. No one knows us, and yet we’re surrounded. For a little while, we can just…be.”
“Just be?”
“Take that walk we once talked about. Eat those scones I promised you.”
A lump formed in my throat. “Yeah?”
“Yes. Let’s have this moment, Cameron. Something we can take with us. Something to cherish that no one can take away.”
I nodded dumbly because if I spoke, I’d unleash the sob that was locked in my throat.
He stepped forward, steering me into the shadows of an awning and cupping my face. “I’m so proud of you. So very proud.”
I never thought that being praised would have such a visceral effect on me, but I guess it wasn’t the praise, more the person who was delivering it that mattered.
I covered the backs of his hands with mine. “Is this our wish moment?”
“It is.”
“Then let’s make the most of it.”
* * *
The bakery was an all-night place,tucked down a side street but easy to find because of the wonderful smells drifting from it. We took a table outside, despite the chill.
Serath placed an order of hot chocolate and scones before fixing his pale blue eyes on me. “I’ve fantasized about this so many times.”
To someone else, this scenario might have seemed mundane, but to us, it was a fantasy. Being together like this. Just the two of us. This…date scenario.
“Me too. I’m glad you invited me.”
“We can make more of these memories,” he said. “If we get a chance before—”
