Damn, this curry is doing really sexy things to my mouth. Even if I hadn’t been thinking about sex already, I would be now.
I moan again, and Jeffrey scowls harder. “Of course not.”
“A genie who can grant me three wishes?”
He sighs. “I’m serious, Elizabeth. Can’t you at least allow the possibility that you’re wrong? That something that happened when you were too young to process a traumatic experience warped your view of the world in a way that’s destructive to your hopes for the future?”
I glance down at my plate, pushing a broccoli stalk out of the way to get to a mushroom. “Of course, I can allow that. I have allowed that. I don’t want the curse to be true, but too many things have happened. Like I said last night, her predictions have come true too many times to ignore.”
“Like what?” he presses, stabbing a piece of chicken with a determined poke of his fork that makes it clear he doesn’t intend to let this go.
Fine, if he wants to hear spooky stuff, I can oblige.
“She said that Sabrina would grow out of our allergy to strawberries and bananas, but I wouldn’t,” I say, earning another eye roll from Jeffrey. “What’s eye-roll worthy about that?” I demand. “How did she even know we were both allergic to those things in the first place?”
“She talked to someone at your doctor’s office or heard your nanny gossiping on the playground. Those are just two options off the top of my head.”
I pop another mushroom between my lips. “Fine. But that doesn’t explain how she knew I’d remain allergic and Sabrina wouldn’t. We’re twins. Identical twins. Being the same is kind of a thing with us.”
“But it isn’t,” he says in a softer voice. “The moment Sabrina sat down to dinner her first night at the castle, I suspected the truth. Yes, you resemble each other, but you’re not the same. She’s…”
“She’s what?” I press. “Say it. I’m well aware that Sabrina’s prettier and stronger and a little taller and able to talk to anyone without stuttering like a scratched record.”
“You don’t stutter with me,” he says, his eyes blazing into mine all over again. “Why not?”
“I just…don’t.” My heart thumps harder in my chest. “I told you, I feel safe with you.”
“But why? We barely knew each other before this past week.”
I take a measured breath but decide there’s no harm in telling him the truth. “That night after your parents’ party. You caught me in the library and were so lovely to the awkward kid your brother was engaged to marry. You…made an impression.”
“You weren’t awkward, you were interesting,” he murmurs. “You made an impression, too. That’s partly how I knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That Sabrina wasn’t Andrew’s fiancée. And that I had to come looking for you.”
I arch a brow. “To prove you were right?”
“To ask how you liked Lady Chatterley’s Lover.”
A surprised grin explodes across my face, making me grateful I don’t currently have food in my mouth. “You remember that?”
“I remember everything about that night.”
I bite my lip. I remember everything about it, too, but I can’t tell him that. Or that I spent months after our interlude in the library imagining I was the lady of the house and he was the stable hand who loved rolling in the hay with me. He’d be horrified. I was still a child, or far too close to it for comfort.
But you’re not a child now…
I ignore the inner voice.
No, I’m not a child, but I’m coming to suspect that I’m trouble. At least for Jeffrey.
A man doesn’t try to save a woman he doesn’t care for, at least a little. And even a little caring is too much for him to remain a candidate for the Bone Him Before I Die Club.
I refuse to leave any more hurt behind when I go than I have to.
So, instead of revealing anything else, I stuff a bite of cauliflower in my mouth and change the subject. “There are other things, too. Things the woman said would happen. She said Sabrina would bring people from all around the world to our land and that Zan would be the first to leave home, even though she was the last one born. Both turned out to be true.”
“Again, lucky guesses, and not much of a stretch if she knew the three of you at all. Zan has always been headstrong. Even when she was a tiny thing. Remember that summer we spent together when we were kids, when she almost drowned Nick?”
My eyes go wide. “I was just thinking about that earlier. It was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. I thought she’d drowned, too.”
“But she was just holding him under.” He shakes his head. “I can’t believe he went back in the water with her the next day. But he’s always been an idiot when it comes to the ladies.”