“You were looking at one of the men downstairs,” he told me, his voice laced with a little doubt. “You know one of them?”
I shook my head.
“Honestly, I’m so tired, I haven’t really had a chance to take anything in,” I told him, hoping a small smile would be enough to make up for me ducking and diving out of his questions. He didn’t reply for a moment, just looking at me, as though waiting for me to come out with something else that would explain why I was acting so strangely.
I made my way towards him, resting a light hand on his arm. A little physical contact would be enough to get him to forget about anything lingering inside his head.
“Thank you for bringing me here,” I murmured to him, and he reached up to caress the back of my neck. I did my best not to flinch away in disgust, not wanting to scare him off, not wanting to give him reason to think any of this was ingenuine.
“I think you’re going to fit in well here, Arianna,” he replied. I smiled back, keeping that sweetness at the front of my mind, and I hoped against hope that he wouldn’t ever see what was underneath it.
And that he wouldn’t work out just what had happened between Dean and I that had led me to lose my breath when I saw him again.