Page 14 of Close Quarter
"Because"--Rhys lowered his voice--"I can't tell you what I'm about to tell you. That was the deal. But you won't understand if I don't."
Silas tipped his head to one side, his expression changed. Intense curiosity. "No, no one will hear."
"I mean, could another fae...?" Rhys waved his hand over the table.
"Another fae can see and hear through my glamour, yes. But there isn't another of my kind on this ship. I'd know if there were."
"What about someone like me?"
Silas stilled and spoke as if choosing his words carefully. Even his accent became more pronounced. "I believe you're fairly unique in the world."
Rhys chewed on that. Unique. He pushed the upwelling of questions aside.One thing at a time.
"Nine months before I was born, on the last night of a tour in Europe, Mom had an affair with some guy she met at the after-concert cocktails.
Came home with me. Told no one."
"But she knew she was pregnant by him?"
"Yeah. And apparently that guy found out she had his kid and gave her a ton of money never to tell anyone. Not even her husband. Or her son."
Silas shifted in his seat. He leaned forward over his coffee. "That's a very odd thing to do."
Understatement of the year. "It's a fucking hideous thing to do. At the reading of the will, not only did I have to face the contempt and hatred of the man Ithoughtwas my father, but I found out he wasn't my father at all. And the guy who is wants so little to do with me he is willing to fork over eleven million dollars so I never seek him out."
Rhys drank the rest of his coffee. "In an hour, I learned everything I ever knew about my life was a lie. A dead mother who lied to my face and two fathers who'd rather see me planted in the ground."
Silas sat back and watched him but said nothing.
Rhys ran a hand through his hair and lowered his voice. "You know, most of the stuff in the papers is shit. But some of it isn't. I didn't handle the news well. Got drunk out of my gourd and smashed a car into a fountain in Vienna. Spent five days holed up in a hotel in my underwear. Punched a photographer."
Silas nodded. "Rage. Understandable."
"But that isn't me. I've been...shattered.
Broken. For weeks." Rhys drew a breath. "And then I met you."
"And?" Honest curiosity in that voice.
"I felt whole again. Myself." Rhys laughed.
"And now you tell me you're fae, which pretty much destroys what I know about the entire fucking world."
"And?"
"I feel as though everything is exactly right.
Like my whole life just snapped into place."
Chapter Four
Silas could have dealt with confusion, lust, or even anger. He understood those emotions. Not this. Notthis.
Wholeness. Rightness. Those words rammed through him like a pike to the gut. Sharp. Fast.
His reaction surprised him far more. Warmth.
Pleasure. A fierce protectiveness. If Rhys was what Silas thought he was...
