After He Watched Me Drown, I Built My Empire novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Her Right Hand

I took him to the cottage, because it was the one place on the lake that had always been mine.

We walked there through the pines in the dark, from the big house, with my father's envelope in my pocket and Remo's hand in mine.

I unlocked the door of the guest cottage and turned on one lamp.

The room was small and ordinary.

There was a narrow bed with a blue quilt, a shelf of engineering textbooks, and my father's old drafting table pushed under the window.

Remo stood in the doorway, with his shoulders nearly touching the frame.

"I've never been in here," he said.

"Nobody has, except my mother."

"I wasn't invited."

"You're invited now."

I shut the door behind him and leaned on it.

"I'm going to say the rules out loud," I said. "So that they're over."

"All right."

"Rule one. I can leave any door at any hour." I flattened my palm on the wood behind me. "I'm not leaving this one."

His throat moved.

"Rule two. You don't touch me unless I start it."

"I remember."

"I'm starting it for the rest of my life. Touch me whenever you want to."

He made a low sound.

"Rule three. I tell you the truth about what I want."

"Silvia."

"I want you in this room," I said. "I want you in my bed and at my table and at the end of every dock I ever stand on. I want you to stop standing at the back of rooms."

He crossed the floor in two strides.

His hands came up and framed my face.

He kissed me until the door was hard against my back and my fingers were in his hair.

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