Chapter 4
“THAT’S...”
“Terrifyingly true?”
“No, and will you please let me go—”
“Not until you tell me why you’re crying.”
“It’s none of your—” His arms started to tighten in warning, and Kyara quickly backtracked. “Okay, okay, I’ll...I’ll tell the truth if you let me go.”
His lips slowly curved, but she told herself it was just a coincidence that her heart skipped a beat the second after.
“Surely you don’t think I won’t know if you’re lying.”
And that voice!
She didn’t know what it was with that voice, that accent, or was it the way he spoke?
Like he thought every word he uttered was a blessing to their ears?
Could someone’s arrogance be so contagious that you ended up believing what that person believed, and that was why every time her boss spoke, she had to remind herself she was loyal to Cyrus even though Cyrus wasn’t loyal to her, and* aaargh! *
Her thoughts were going nowhere, just like she would end up going nowhere, too, if she let herself spend another second caged in her boss’s arms.
So...be convincing, Kyara!
“I’m n-not lying.”
“I know you are.”
Kyara forced herself to look at him in the eye...and just the eye because honestly, being this close to Mr. Havington was making it so, so hard for her to ignore just how much his presence smoldered, and how devastatingly gorgeous—
Not helping, self!
She refocused on his gaze, and just his gaze. “I promise I’m not.”
Her body tensed as a moment of silence followed, but when she felt his arms loosen—
Gotcha!
She made a run for it—
Lyrius let her go because he wanted to see what she would do with the half-second of freedom he had given her. He was already moving when she pivoted toward the door.
“Like I said...”
But it was no use.
“I know you’re lying,” her boss said silkily, “but I wanted to see what you were planning to do, and so here we are.”
She had never stood a chance, and so there they indeed were, her being worse off than five seconds ago since he had used her own weight to shut the very door she had tried to leave...while Mr. Havington was right behind her, once just her boss, but now he was her warden, too.
“I expected better from you, Kyara.”
Her boss’s voice was softly taunting, but it was hard to feel mad when he was whispering every word into her ear.
“Lying is a sin. Or did Shayla—”
How in the world—
“—not teach you that?”
He had already stepped back by the time she whirled around to face him, but her boss didn’t even have the decency to look away.
“H-How do you know about Shayla?” Kyara really couldn’t wrap her mind around it. “How—h-have you—have you been spying on me? Because if you have, that’s—”
“—something I’ll have no qualms doing, if I deem it necessary. But in this case, however, there wasn’t any need.”
Kyara crossed her arms over her chest. “And you expect me to just believe that?”
“I was in a Zoom meeting with Adriano when I heard your voice in the background.”
Oh, how convenient.
“You were saying something about broccoli being better than ice cream—”
She took it back. This was absolutely inconvenient, and so she hastily cut him off, saying, “You’ve, um, convinced me.”
“Did I get that right?”
“I believe you now. You never spied on me—”
“What was that about, by the way? Broccoli and ice cream?”
“May I go now, Mr. Havington?”
Her boss slid his hands deep into his pockets. “Don’t you think it’s time for us to be truthful?”
Oh, if only.
Kyara wanted to laugh. She really hoped she ended up laughing, too...because otherwise she would start crying over Mr. Havington’s choice of words.
“You want us to be truthful.”
His gaze narrowed. “You sound like you’re allergic to it.”
Oh, you bet I am.
Every time her mother came back from a rehab program, sponsored either by the government or a rich person’s charity, she would tearfully ask for Kyara’s forgiveness, saying that she didn’t mean to be a bad mother.
I just want to live my life staying true to my feelings, baby. Is that so bad?
Kyara’s hands clenched against her sides.
She knew Shayla would be disappointed—no, wait, actually, she thought she was going to make her sad when she told her about this, but truth.
..had always felt overrated to her. She knew she was probably wrong about this, but it was how she felt, and that was why—
“Do you really want the truth, Mr. Havington?”
“I can already tell you intend to make the truth as unpleasant as possible, but yes, I still do want—”
“I’m with Cyrus,” she blurted out.
“An unfortunate lapse in judgment.”
“It’s not an—” Wait, she couldn’t let herself be sidetracked. “Anyway—” Kyara cleared her throat. “Cyrus and I had a misunderstanding—”
“What kind of misunderstanding?”
“But be that as it may, we’re still together.” For how long, she wasn’t quite sure, but that was none of his business.
“You still haven’t answered my question.”
Oh no.
She knew that tone of his. People who didn’t know him would probably describe it as lazy. But she had heard it enough to know that the tone meant her boss meant business. He wasn’t letting this go until she gave him an answer...even if they both knew none of this was his business.
“What kind of misunderstanding, Kyara?”
“A private matter.”
She held her breath as soon as she said this, but...
Okay.
Um.
Okay.
It had been crickets so far, and this had her feeling uneasy.
“A-Are you going to fire me?”
More silence.
So much silence.
Lyrius was deciding what to do with the line he had been holding behind his teeth for two weeks. He had been planning to give her time. He had revised that plan in the pantry an hour ago. And he was about to revise it again.
But just as she was about to squirm—
“No, Kyara, I’m not going to fire you.”
Oh thank—
“Because I’ll steal you from him instead.”
No no no—no.
“Mr. Havington!”
Kyara’s heart was absolutely pounding right now, but it was out of...of...dismay and...and...horror.
“I’m glad we had this talk, kyria.”
The Greek word came out of his mouth without his permission and he did not call it back. He had spent three years addressing her in English only. Tonight he had touched her for the first time, named her his out loud for the first time, and used his first language for the first time in her hearing.
“Y-You—”
“—should also call me Lyrius when it’s just the two of us, yes?”