Tell Me Not to Love You novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Her Turn

I did not go down the ravine stair that night, and I did not use the kitchen door.

I walked up the drive at ten o'clock in my good sweater, with my braid undone and my heart going.

I opened the great oak door myself.

The hall was dim and smelled of beeswax.

I climbed the grand staircase, one marble step at a time, in full view of the portraits.

At the top, a strip of light lay under Rosalind's door.

It was still there when I reached it.

I stopped, and for a moment I thought it would open.

"Good evening, Mrs. Whitcombe," I said to the wood, clearly, and walked on.

Nothing moved behind it.

Garrick's room was at the end of the east hall.

It was a high square room with bookshelves and a narrow iron bed he'd had since he was a boy.

He opened the door before I knocked.

He was in his shirtsleeves, with a pen behind his ear and his hair standing up.

When he saw me, his whole face emptied out.

"Sol."

"I came the front way."

"I heard the door." He looked past me down the hall. "My mother..."

"Knows I'm here. I told her goodnight."

His mouth shook, and then he laughed, helplessly, and put his forehead against the doorframe.

"You told her goodnight."

"I did," I said. "Are you going to let me in or not?"

He stepped back.

I walked in, and I locked the door behind me myself, and I turned and pulled my sweater over my head.

His eyes went to my bare skin and stayed there.

"Tonight's mine," I said.

"I decided it on the lawn, when you asked and waited."

I lifted my chin.

"I want it slowly, in a bed, with the door locked and the lights on."

"Anything."

"I'll tell you when."

"I'm listening."

I crossed to him and unbuttoned his shirt, button by button, the way he had done mine.

I pushed it off his shoulders and put my mouth on his chest, over his heart, and felt it pound against my lips.

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