Page 48 of Skinwalker's Bane
The meal was ready when they reached the kitchen and the savory smell of meat and spices and caramelized onion was powerful. For a few moments they ate ravenously, too hungry to talk.
When Adam had cleared his plate, he got up and shoved it all into the recycler and sat back down again, watching her eat the last morsels. Devin half-expected him to steal one from her plate, yet he just watched. There was a sense of wariness about him.
“What’s up?” she asked, her heart doing a little flip. She waited for his answer, deliberately not trying to anticipate what he would say.
“It’s just that…” he began. Then he cleared his throat. “I don’t know how to start,” he admitted.
Her heart thudded heavily. “Just say it. However it comes out, we can sort it out once you’ve said it. Mind-reading is not one of my skills.”
“You had me fooled twenty minutes ago, then,” he said, smiling.
She could feel her cheeks heating. “And now you’re trying to change the subject.”
His brows raised. “Damn, yeah. I did, didn’t I?” He drummed the table with his fingers, a nervous little tattoo. Then he lurched to his feet. “Fuck it,” he said shortly and walked out to the front door.
Devin’s chest constricted and she stopped breathing. For a moment, she thought he was leaving, that she had driven him away with that simple exchange.
Then he came back into the kitchen, carrying his jacket, with the loaded-down pockets that rattled with tools. He was digging into one of the big ones.
Devin put down her fork, her relief so great that it felt like a hot river rushing through her, her muscles all relaxing at once. She trembled in response.
Adam put a data ball on the table in front of her plate, then rolled it toward her. “Here.”
She stared at it. “I don’t understand.” Her lips felt rubbery.
He rolled the ball until the flat connector made contact with the surface of the table and it steadied under his fingers. He looked awkward. Guilty, even.
Her heart picked up speed again.
“You were talking about the soiree and how big a deal the dress is and how impossible it is to get an appointment with Liya.”
Devin licked her lips. “Itisimpossible. She is completely swamped with the soiree. Everyone wants one of her dresses.”
Adam nodded. “That’s what Liya told me when I spoke to her yesterday.”
“You did? Speak to her?”
He sat down again and scratched at his neck. His awkwardness had increased. “I’ve known Liya for years. I thought I could ask.”
“For me?” Her heart gave another little flutter. Suddenly, the meal she had eaten seemed to congeal into a plasteel lump in the middle of her belly. She got up and shoved the plate into the maw of the recycler. She stayed there, wrapping her arms around herself, feeling cold.
Adam’s gaze met hers. “Is that okay? I mean…” He gave an impatient sound and pointed at the ball. “It’s a dress,” he said flatly.
Devin sucked in a breath. “It is?”
“Liya said she can’t possibly squeeze you in. She thought you might like this, instead. It’s a new dress. No one has it yet. The file isn’t in general circulation. You’d be the only one wearing it and she says if you print it in emerald green, it will look good on you and I have to agree with that, because with your eyes and your hair, it will look just great, especially if it’s that shiny stuff some dresses are made out of, because then the dress will glow just as you do…and listen to me talking.”
He pressed his lips together and held still, watching her.
Devin moved over to the table and made herself sit down again, staring at the ball. “An exclusive Liya Cassel dress…” she murmured.
“You don’t mind, do you?” he asked. “I know you have a thing about gifts, only you really needed this and I could do something about it and…” he shook his head and closed his mouth again.
Devin touched the ball. It rocked, then steadied, as it was already settled on the flat side. She looked up at him. “No, I don’t mind,” she said softly.
He considered her. “Because it’s a dress you really wanted, or because you don’t mind getting a gift from me?”
“Both.” She drew in a breath and let it out. She let herself smile a little. “I changed the house AI security parameters when I got home this afternoon. Your bio keys have been added. You don’t need to wait for me to let you in, anymore.” She met his gaze. “Do you mind?”
