Page 28 of Secrets & Desires
He stood to greet his mother’s old lover. Charvi looked nervous too as he kissed her cheek. “You look just like her,” Charvi said, her voice trembling. For a moment, they stared at each other then, as a tear dropped down Charvi’s cheek, they fell into eachother’sarms.
“I miss her,” was all she said and Nox, overcome with emotion,nodded.
“I know.Iknow.”
They sat down, Nox noticing Livia quickly brushing a tear away from her eyes. He kissed her. “Thank you,” he murmured it into her ear and shesmiled.
“I love you,” she said, sweeping a loose curl away from hisforehead.
After that, the tension had all but gone from the small party. Marcel and Nox chatted about business, Charvi, Moriko, and Livia about nothing in particular. Easy, fun. The restaurant they had chosen was spectacular. Nox liked Livia’s small group of friends; they were funny, erudite, down to earth—just like Liv. She was sitting in the curve of his arm, her body next to his as she ate and laughed with them all. He buried his face in her hair and breathed her in as she talked to her friends, but he felt her hand on his thigh. God, he loved thiswoman.
His cell phone bleeped and he glanced at it. His throat constricted and he stiffened. Ariel. A photograph of her, laughing and smiling, her dark hair backlit by the sun. He frowned. Who the hell was sending himthisnow?
There was no return phone number. Another text came through. This time, it was a crime scene photo, one he had seen so many times it was seared through his brain. Ariel, dressed in a grey gown, lying on top of one of the tombs in the Lafayette Cemetery, her blood soaking both her gown and the white marble tomb she was laid upon. She looked like she had been sacrificed to some dark god. The blade of the dagger still buried deep in her belly, her eyes were open and her mouth locked forever in a scream of terror and pain. Nox felt a wave ofnausea.
“Excuse me,” he muttered and got up to go to the restroom. He made it just before he threw up. Someone was playing a sick game sending him thosephotographs.
But this wasn’t the first time. After his family had died, friends of Ariel’s had sent him the photographs then, taunting him, making it clear they thought he was a killer. It had gotten so bad that in his lowest points, he even asked himself if he had done it…even though, rationally, he knew it was impossible. The police had questioned him for hours—days—after both tragedies and had released him without any charge, or any caution. Nox knew he was innocent, but it didn’t stop him from feeling the weight ofresponsibility.
He went back out to the group. Livia looked at him, concern in her warm brown eyes. “Youokay?”
He smiled at her. “Perfectly, baby. Sorry, just felt a little queasy for a second. Probably just a kickback from being nervousearlier.”
Livia slid her arm around his waist and kissed him tenderly. “I think it went very well,” she said, in a low voice, a subtle nod to Charvi. Noxnodded.
“Thankstoyou.”
Livia shook her head. “You would have found each other again, with orwithoutme.”
Nox brushed his lips against hers. “I never want to be without youagain.”
“Youneverwill.”
After dinnerthey said their goodbyes. Nox and Charvi had a moment alone together. “Your mother would have been so proud of the man you’ve become, Nox. And she would have adored Livia. You two are made for eachother.”
Nox smiled at her. “I thinksotoo.”
“You promise you’ll take care ofmygirl?”
“With all myheart.”
Livia came back to stay with Nox again. As they walked into his bedroom, he smiled at her. “Liv…you know, you could move in herewithme.”
Livia was silent for a while, and then she sat on the bed. “Is ittoosoon?”
Nox felt a little stung, but he could see where she was coming from. “I honestly don’t know. But I do know I’d like it—verymuch.”
She half-smiled at him. “I would too, but I don’t want to leave Moriko in a difficult position. We can barely afford our apartment between the two us—and before you make any grand gestures, hear me out. We both needed to do it. We both needed to prove we could—can—make it on our own. Nox, you know that that fact that you’re rich has never bothered me—I’m not interested in your money, it’s you I want. But neither am I naïve. I still stay here with you, eat your food, travel with you… But it is important to me that I keep in touch with my base. I make my own money, I pay my own way. I have no earthly idea if I’ll ever be on the same financial footing as you—as a musician, probably not,” she laughed. “But I have to have a balance. I won’t bethatwoman,youknow.”
Nox crushed his lips against hers. “Do you know you’re myheroine?”
“With an ‘e’ or without?” She grinned and helaughed.
“Both. Definitely both. And yeah, I get it. Can wecompromise?”
“Howso?”
“At least bring some stuff over here, take space in my closet so that when you’renothere—”
