Page 26 of Breaking Point
“It could take a while to get food,” Luciana judged, eyeing the lines.
“I brought food,” he told her over his shoulder.He was leading her through the maze of blankets and chairs that were blooming like flowers across the open area in front of the stage.
“How far away from the stage did you get?”Luciana asked, as he walked on.
“Just a bit farther,” he said, his tone encouraging.
Luciana didn’t feel any of the intrigue he clearly wanted her to feel over their final destination, even though he was leading her to the far back of the picnic area, almost to the line of trees there.
When he stopped in front of a whole sofa, sitting on the grass with a floor rug in front of it, she blinked.
“Asofa?”she asked woodenly.She couldn’t quite wrap her mind around why the sofa was here.
“There is a whole catalogue of files in the archives.You print off a block about this big,” and he spread his hands a half-meter apart.“Then you break the seal and up pops tables and chairs…and sofas,” Brice said.His smile faded.“I can’t sit for long on the ground.”He sounded apologetic.
Luciana found her gaze was roving over his face, taking in details that she hadn’t consciously noticed for a while.He was a good-looking man.Too good looking.She had seen images of him when he was playing tankball, when he was feted and fawned over, and had his photo or videos of him appear on the Forum daily.In the near twenty years since, he had not changed greatly.He’d lost some of the muscle mass, but not all of it.And his face was still a mass of sharp lines and angles, with the curly black hair hanging heavily over his forehead.
She knew all those lines well, now.
Her heart squeezed hard, and her breath hitched.Get control of yourself!She shouted in her mind.“How are you planning on getting it back to the house?”she asked him.
He frowned.“Is something wrong?”
“Nothing.Isn’t the sofa the wrong color for the house?It’ll clash with the square ones you already have.”
“I’ll recycle it for the credits.Luciana, look at me.”
She laughed a little.“I’m not sure I should sit on it, anyway.”
“Why not?”His voice was low.Wary.
“The color of the cushions…they would better suit a red head.”It was out before she could censor it and clamp her jaws shut.It launched from her, full of heat and fury.
He grew still.
Luciana shifted on her feet.She felt sick.Exhausted.She wanted to go home.She wanted to be anywhere but here.
“You’re talking about Jenny.You saw her.”Brice’s expression was more than wary now.Caution was there, too.
Luciana pressed her hand to her breastbone as her heart physically hurt.He wasn’t denying it.
“I hoped you would see it,” he added.
Luciana moaned and turned away.“You know what?It’s none of my business.I’m going to find Devar and sit with him and Caelen.”
“Wait, Luciana.”
“No.”
He gripped her arm.“Wait a damn moment.”
“I saidno!” Her voice rose to a near shriek and people on nearby blankets turned their heads to watch the drama.
She didn’t care.She just wanted to be gone from here.She wanted to lick her wounds in private, and figure out how she was supposed to survive this misery.“Let go of me,” she told him.
Brice released her arm and raised his hands.“I want to tell you about Jenny.”
Luciana felt sick.“I don’t want to hear it.”She looked around, hoping she could find Devar.There were so many people….
