Page 339 of Chaos has a Name
Maybe she was right.
Maybe he was interested.
“Partially,” he stated.
She put her fork down.
“Caspian, just tell me what’s going on because I’m confused. You act like I’m trying to waterboard you to get information, then you basically put out the‘no trespassing’sign when I bring dinner, and now you’re here. What is it that I’m missing? I’m smart enough to know I’m missing something.”
He chose his words carefully.
“I’d like to get to know you. I come across…cold,” he admitted.
She ate some rice with the deliciously fragrant dish she’d chosen for dinner for them.
“Cold wasn’t what I picked up.”
Oh, well, he wasn’t. Everything about him ran hot, especially what he wanted when he was with her. No one had made him feel this tied up in knots like she did.
“Really. Just say it.”
Caspian wanted to. He just didn’t want her to mock him.
“I suffer from a severe speech impediment. I work very hard at not stuttering.”
She stared at him.
Was that it?
Really?
Was he protecting himself because he thought she’d be cruel and laugh at him?
Christ.
That said a lot about him, and it broke her heart.
“Okay, and?” she asked, wanting him to know it was no big deal. Honestly, she didn’t give a shit about him stuttering.
Clearly, he could control it.
Caspian was honest, and slow to answer so he could rehearse what he wanted to say so the words were chosen carefully.
And calculated.
“My whole life, even by my father, I was told I needed to hide me, because I was broken. Faulty. I don’t want people to keep thinking that about me.”
Rayna sipped her wine.
“Okay.”
He lifted a brow.
“That’s it?” he asked.
She was honest.
“It’s a speech impediment. It’s not the end of the world. I don’t care that you have one, but clearly, you do. Does it come out when you’re nervous?”
