Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ISABELLE
It was quiet and it was dark. The candles we’d lit around the room offered the barest light.
Ben remained outside, despite the protests of Seb and his brother, in a bid to restore electricity to the house.
The dinner of cold cuts and the last of the fresh vegetables had been tidied up, and the dishes sat on the sideboard.
Ben’s meal remained untouched, and that had both men on edge.
No sooner had the thought to exit the room and read in bed arrived than Alex excused himself with a surly glower in my direction and retreated back to his study. Again.
“Come on, Killer, I’ve got something to show you in my room.”
I barked a laugh. “I don’t think we are there yet, Seb.”
He beamed. “I didn’t mean that, but good to know it’s in our future.”
He dragged me upstairs to the threshold of Ben’s room, where I stalled. I’d already invaded at least one of his personal spaces today; a second was a step too far.
“Be right back.” Seb dipped inside and came back, brandishing two large chocolate bars. One was a luxury milk chocolate, the second was a brand adored by children, full of jelly sweets and popping candy.
I pointed to the candy one and utter joy lit his face. “Good, it’s Benji’s favourite too.”
I smirked at the thought. “Not Alex’s?”
Seb’s happiness swelled. “He won’t admit it, but he loves it.” He winked. “We can save him a bit. If you think he deserves it.” His tongue peeked between his lips and it served as a distraction.
Throwing the spare bar back onto what I figured was the bed, he pulled the door closed and gripped me, backing me towards the stairs.
“Uh-uh, Killer. That look you’re giving me, this close to bedrooms, well, you’re getting me there now.
” He echoed my earlier sentiment, and I stifled my happiness at the very thought.
He was a bad influence, and maybe what I needed.
Frog-marched into the lounge where a fire already blazed in the hearth. Ben was sitting opposite, staring into the flames, a forlorn irritation radiating from his oil-slicked form.
“Benji.” Seb collapsed onto the sofa right beside him, jostling Ben slightly. He blinked out of his haze. “You’re doing a brilliant job out there. Alex said the generator was ready to run?”
Ben sighed, sucking his lip into his mouth. His glasses shifted slightly as he frowned deeply. “If we turn it back on now, it will fail again in days.”
“Okay…?” Seb’s hand landed on Ben’s knee, and I watched it curiously. His fingers flexed fractionally on Ben’s thigh, the action drawing Ben’s focus up to him.
Seb tenderly removed Ben’s glasses. He didn’t look frustrated. He was upset.
“Benji,” Seb coaxed. Ben remained quiet. “I know it’s an open loop. And I know you are frustrated that you can’t switch off until it’s done. But we can’t carry on tonight.”
Ben squeezed his eyes closed.
“So, we regulate and we go again fresh in the morning.”
Ben nodded jerkily.
“Shower?”
He nodded again.
“Need me?”
Ben looked from Seb to me, where I still stood between the lounge and kitchen, then back to Seb. Before he could reply, I jumped in.
“I can leave you both to it. Alex gave me some books, so…”
Seb didn’t look up but spoke clearly. “Good to know Alex finally located his hosting manners, but stay exactly where you are.”
I halted. Why did I stop?
“Benji?” he continued. Ben’s attention was back on Seb, and he shrugged, then nodded.
Seb rose, Ben following suit.
“Killer.” He closed the distance between us, Ben on his heels, until the three of us stood, Seb sandwiched in between us. He pressed the chocolate into my chest. “Get comfortable. I expect a sizeable dent in our evening snack when Benji and I return.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but the look Seb gave me had me clamping it shut. This side of Seb didn’t brook an argument. I dipped my head in acceptance, and he smirked. “Good girl.”
It had been a good half an hour, and I’d managed a handful of squares of chocolate.
The candles were wearing down, and I considered making an exit again, but no sooner had the thought arrived than I convinced myself that Seb would be back soon.
I wasn’t ashamed to admit how the way he called me ‘good girl’ had my thighs clenching on nothing.
Maybe I wanted to be his good girl. Isabelle!
I felt my cheeks warming, and I blamed it on the fire and not the images being painted inside my head.
A large shape approached, propping itself on the back of the sofa. Alex’s huge form looked down at me. The anger from earlier was still evident in the press of his lips, but it didn’t extend to his eyes. There, I thought I could see something closer to concern.
“Hi, Alex.”
He didn’t speak for a moment. A prickle raced over my body, brought on by his observation. My fingers twitched with the need to move.
“Who are you?”
I swallowed. “Isabelle.”
He squinted at me.
“Are you asking my surname? Or about my family?” I asked.
His shoulder lifted in a half-shrug, then dropped.
I slid the chocolate along the back of the sofa towards him. He glowered at it and then took a square, chewing on it while evaluating me.
“Well, which is it? You are asking for more information, are you not?”
The muscles in his shoulders tightened, and he forcibly rolled them.
“I am sorry for invading your space, Alex. I can see your privacy and solitude mean a lot to you.”
He huffed, taking more chocolate. He did like it!
“I will be gone with the snow, and I’ll pay for anything I use, anything that you have to replace.”
He huffed again. “The police called.”
My attempt at making amends with him ceased.
“A girl is missing. And given the house calls they said they hoped to make, I assume the heightened concern means she is something to someone important? Powerful?” He pushed the snack back to me while he spoke, a peace offering?
“Important to some,” I conceded. The way he phrased it sounded as if it were a blessing to be something to someone.
“Power by blood, or office?” He’d correctly assumed there was money or political assertion behind the police’s interest.
“Office. But that runs in the blood.”
His scoff didn’t carry judgement.
“I’ll be gone, there won’t be trouble at your door,” I repeated.
His next scoff did seem more dismissive.
“That’s what worries me.” He stood, expanding when he saw my confusion. “Not the trouble at my door. The power of office is no stranger to this household; we are above that kind of trouble.”
“Oh?” I didn’t hide the surprise.
“Tell me, Isabelle.” Alex’s voice turned ice cold, and a sense of dread skittered over me. “If I were to call the police back, tell them I’d found their missing young woman.”
I gulped.
“How long would it take them to collect you? How quickly would they come?”
Alex arched a brow, and I realised how menacing he could be.
“A week?” he continued.
I shook my head.
“A matter of days?” He was looking less impressed by the second.
I sucked my cheek between my teeth, working the skin before I decided on the most likely outcome.
“I’d say a matter of hours.” That was completely true. If Father and Teddy knew where I was, I’d be in London this evening.
He glared.
“Am I that much of an imposition, Alex? That you’re threatening to turn me in? You can’t stand me being around you, so you’ll call the police, hand me over?” I couldn’t hide the hurt and fear.
“You assume my demeanour is only because you invaded my personal space?” He sounded as if he thought I was being obtuse.
“And it isn’t?” I snapped.
His slow inhale told me I was working on his nerves. “It is and it isn’t,” he admitted and I smiled in triumph. “But the issue isn’t any trouble at my door. It is the risk of the devastation you could cause inside my home.”
I blinked slowly, and he actually rolled his eyes.
“Seb? That will upset Ben?”
The laugh he released was not of pleasure. “Obtuse.”
“Ah, you two are getting along,” Seb announced his arrival. Someone here always interrupted every conversation.
“Not exactly.” Alex gave me a final glower, any concessions relinquished, and retreated.
“Is he always like this?” I tilted my head back to see Seb, freezing as his fingers caressed down the column of my neck. I gulped under his palm.
“He warms in time?”
I opened my mouth to speak but there were no words, his touch leaving me speechless.
Seb released me and I sighed. “How much time?”
Seb shifted to show Ben behind him and I sat upright, turning. Ben looked better, the light grey t-shirt he wore much softer against his pale skin than the usual black. I was pleased to see he looked more at ease.
“What did it take for him to warm to me, Benji?”
“Three years.” Ben slotted back onto the sofa and I tucked my legs up, it was plenty large enough for me to give him his space but Seb dropped into the seat between us, grabbing my feet and dropping them into his lap.
“Three years, Killer.” He snatched the chocolate and broke some off, passing it to Ben who nibbled on it slowly.
Pressure dragged over the arch of my foot and I gasped, the sensation pleasant on an ache I didn’t know I had.
“I’d known Benji here maybe two years before he came to be a Cavendish?”
Ben thought. “Twenty-seven months.”
Came to be a Cavendish?
“We knew each other from the town, and he wasn’t going to shake me that easily.”
“He’s persistent,” Ben supplemented.
I shuddered with a silent giggle and Seb turned his sad faux-shock on me. “Something funny, Killer?”
Clamping my mouth closed I shook my head. The thumb he ran over my arches turned to fingers, dancing over the soles of my feet making me twitch, squealing sharply. I was horrendously ticklish.
“Seb! No! Sorry.” I thrashed under his efforts, dragging myself closer to try to manually drag his hands away, ending up almost in his lap. I shoved my assaulted feet into the small gap between him and Ben, throwing an apologetic look in Ben’s direction.
He may have seemed more comfortable with me but there was comfort in proximity and then there was me wriggling into his physical space.
To my surprise, Ben didn’t shrink back or scowl, he was laughing.