Chapter 9: Name Only

I took my hand off his arm.

It was the hardest thing I had done all week.

"You said you told her no," I said into the dark.

Kellan went still beside the bed.

"I did."

"You listened to her for four minutes first."

The rain filled the room.

"Who told you that?" he asked.

"Nobody. I can tell when a man leaves something out."

I sat up with the quilt around my knees.

I had been holding it since the dinner, and it came out hotter than I meant.

"You sat across a table from me and said she asked for ten minutes and you said no."

"You let me think I had one person in that house who wasn't hers."

"Leonie."

"You heard whatever she told you about me, and you came to the lawn anyway."

"You shook my hand and let me recite my terms to you."

"I never believed a word of it."

"Then why were you still listening on the fourth minute?"

He was quiet for a moment.

I heard him think, I can't say it yet. If I say it now I lose her before I've earned her.

"I can't tell you that tonight," he said.

"Then don't tell me anything."

"You want to talk about what we leave out?"

He stood, and in the light of the next flash I saw his face.

It was not cold.

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