Chapter 8: The Door He Guarded

They gave me the best room in the west wing, with a bed the size of my garage's office.

Hattie got the room next door.

Dad got a room in the east wing, with a guard.

Corbin had given Ansel one Order before he sent us up.

"You will stand outside Miss Heikkinen's door tonight. If she leaves it, you will walk her back."

I heard him say it, and I heard Ansel say, "Yes, sir."

Now it was one in the morning, and I was standing at the window in my socks, not sleeping.

I could hear him through the door.

He wasn't moving, and he wasn't making a sound.

He was simply there, on the other side of a plank of wood.

I opened the door.

Ansel stood in the corridor with his back to the opposite wall and his hands behind him.

The light in the hall was low and yellow, and it caught the pale band on his wrist.

"You're supposed to walk me back if I leave," I said.

"Yes."

"I'm not leaving. I'm asking you to come in."

His eyes went to the floor.

"That's not what he meant."

"I know what he meant." I stepped back and held the door open. "I'm telling you what I want."

He didn't move for a long moment.

Then he came through the door, slowly, and I shut it behind him and turned the lock.

"Dara." His voice was rough.

"I knelt tonight in front of two hundred people. I don't want you to think I..."

"I don't," I said. "I watched you do it, and I hated it. You never have to do it again."

"I called you..."

"I know what you called me." My own voice shook.

"I'm sorry you had to say it."

He looked at me, finally.

I could see the shame sitting right at the surface, and under it something much hotter.

I put my hand flat on his chest.

His heart was slamming under my palm.

"Terms," I said. "I said you don't touch me unless I say so."