Page 17 of Breaking Point
His smile was slow and heated.“I would be hugely disappointed if you did.”He drew her back to him.
Chapter Six
LUCIANA HAD ALWAYS FOUND LIFEinteresting, absorbing and fun, Now her life shifted to exhilarating.During the day, she would work on her business affairs, tour the market and talk to clients and customers.Little changed in her work world.
Then there were the evenings…and they became unpredictable.
She was surprised to find that Brice had no objections to spending as many nights at her house as she ended up spending in his sprawling glass and concrete palace.“We’re supposed to be giving this our best shot,” he pointed out to her.“To see where it goes and how long it lasts.I would be artificially constraining the arrangement if I insisted on not stepping outside the Palatine.”
“Or the Aventine,” she added with a smile, for some days she would find herself restless and would stop by the Tankball Association offices.
She swiftly learned that Brice did walk a lot.He would often arrive at her house as the sun lights were lowered, reeling and relying heavily on his cane, for he had walked from the Palatine hub.
“I’ve walked the length of the Artery more than once,” he confessed.“If I don’t want to lose all function in this leg, I have to use it, and often.”
Most of his walking was done at night, long after most people were asleep.He would walk around the Palatine, or the length of the Artery, when no one would see him and try to stop him and talk.
“I come up with good ideas when I walk,” he said.
Sometimes, Luciana walked with him.They would walk in silence…or not.One thing Brice was good at was silence.He didn’t rush to fill it or worry that she was not speaking to him because of some mood or other thing.He just let the silences stretch.
As Luciana’s days were filled with conversations, some of the quiet stretches when they walked through the forest in the Palatine, or late at night, when they strolled the Artery, were some of the most peaceful she had experienced.
And she, too, figured out solutions to knotty problems while walking, enough so that even when Brice was not there—which was not often—she would walk the Artery herself.
The sex was good.Of course it was.It was the entire point of the experiment, in Luciana’s mind.She had never had such wonderful experiences before.She printed a bigger bed and recycled the old one, even though the larger bed took up most of the room in her bedroom.
After banging her knees on the wall once too often, and when Brice drove his elbow into the doorframe as he moved around the end of the bed, Luciana paid contractors to come in and remove the wall between her room and Rayen’s old room, which had remained empty since she had left.The combined space felt luxurious to her, and neither of them rammed into walls, anymore.
Brice had not insisted upon keeping the arrangement a secret, and didn’t seem to go out of his way to avoid being seen coming to and leaving her house.Luciana followed his lead, and didn’t try to hide her movements to and from the Palatine.Yet neither did she tell anyone about…well, she wasn’t even sure what to call it.
Besides, who could she tell?She had no best friend, or even friends that she would trust enough to tell.
When Devar met her at one of the market stalls for lunch, one busy day, she realized that despite not advertising their arrangement, she and Brice had become notorious.
“Don’t you keep up with the Forum, mother?”Devar asked.He added darkly, “It’s all anyone seems to be talking about.‘The odd couple’.”
“I’m embarrassing you…” Luciana said, her heart sinking.She hadn’t been on the Forum for weeks, not to do more than deal with her personal messages.She was far too busy to gossip.
“No,” Devar said quickly.“I’m not embarrassed.Mostly, I’m baffled.What do you see in him?”
The direct question was just like Devar.
“I have no objections to answering that,” she said, “Except that I don’t know what to tell you.I don’t know myself.I just know that…” She could feel her face heating.“I like being with him.”
“The original recluse?”Devar shook his head, and picked out the pickles from his second sandwich.“I think I’m more surprised that he unbent enough to let anyone get as close as you have.”
“I’m not close at all,” she amended quickly.“I don’t know what we are, but we’re not close.”
Devar raised both brows.“I see.”He chewed, considering.“Well, he must be spectacular in bed.”
Luciana covered her face with her hands.“This from myson.”
“What?We’re both adults.Whatever he’s doing, it’s good for you, mother.I’ve never seen you look so well.You’re glowing.”
She found her voice and shifted the subject onto Caelen, for she knew that once she had Devar talking about Caelen, he would carry the conversation and give her a few moments to recover her composure.
And he did.
