Page 46 of Moonlight Hearts

I felt my cheeks heat.“I’m wishing the two of them the best.Aren’t you?Isn’t it nice to know the people you’re working with—the people who are bodyguarding your fiancé—are happy?Oh, that reminds me of something.”

He kicked the door shut and went right for the zipper of my jacket.

“Hey!”

He slapped my hands away when—slightly amused—I tried to take off my own jacket.

“You’re too slow.What does Ben’s dating life remind you of?”

I shifted my weight from one foot to the other.“It’s just an idea.”

Soyer narrowed his eyes at me, and he actually paused pulling the jacket off.“What?Spit it out.The suspense might kill me.”

“Well, I was thinking that Thanksgiving is coming up.”

“Fucking hell.”He took my jacket and put it away in the humongous walk-in by the door, putting his own half coat on a hanger next to it.“Thanks-fucking-giving.Go on.”

“It’s probably a bad idea.Forget I said anything.I won’t mention it again.”

He walked back out into the hallway, stopped right in front of me, and cupped my cheek.“You, my love, will do no such thing.If you want something or want to talk to me about something, you will tell me, and you will demand whatever it is you desire.And then you shall have it.That’s the breadth of it.”

“Why do you sound so pissed off, then?”

“You’re about to ask me to help you plan a Thanksgiving party, aren’t you?”

I shrugged.His hand was still warm on my cheek.“I just wanted to ask what you think about maybe asking a few people over.And, I don’t know, maybe Ben and the writer are busy that day.But it doesn’t hurt to ask.Maybe.”

He sighed.“We can do that.Fuck.I’ll have to see about renting a table, depending on how many people fall for your charm.”

“I don’t know about my charm, but I’ll tell them you’ll cook.They’ll fall for that.”

Soyer let his hand drop from my cheek to fiddle with my bow tie instead, undoing it as a sickle-like smile spread on his face.

“Do tell them that.It should scare off some of them.”

“You really aren’t that scary, Soyer.”

He ran his fingers over my chest as if he wanted to check that all of me was present and accounted for.“It’s love that makes you say that.No one else has had that particular kind of poison, and they know I wouldn’t care if I served poison.”

I rolled my eyes.“You do nice things.You just gave Ben and Rae a raise today.”

He pulled the ends of my bow tie, using it like a leash to bring us nose to nose.“Careful, Amory.You’re just tempting me to use the entire arsenal of my imagination on you.”

“Are you going to invite anyone?”

“Fuck no.I don’t like people.Other than you, of course.Everyone else can get fucked.”

I put my hands around his.“I sometimes think you’re the boy who cried misanthropy.”

He snorted.“Oh, Amory.I see now.It’s too early in the night, and you still have all your energy.”He looked at me, his dark lashes perfectly framing his black eyes.“What’s there to be done about that?”

As certain as the sun would rise tomorrow, I knew that if I told him there was nothing to be done, he’d relent, put away his bedroom eyes—I assumed that was what you’d call them, but my experience was limited to Soyer looking at me—and go back to making dinner and conversation.

I loved him for that.I loved him for so many things.It was a realization that had spread through me slowly but surely, that this was love, and nothing else.I wanted to be loved by him in all the ways that mattered.I wanted the sex, for myself, but also for him.He’d taken care of me diligently, and I didn’t want him to see me as just someone who’d never be able to get past that witch, not when I knew what pain he’d endured from one of them.

I held his gaze.“I’m not sure, but I feel like I should be running away from you.”

“You want that?Not very smart.I can see most of the apartment from here, so it’d be easy to chase you down.”He let go of me and stepped back.“You better move fast.I’m not inclined to give you much of a head start, Amory.”