Her lips thinned. He’d overheard one of her phone conversations with Trey yesterday. He hadn’t asked questions, but he’d heard enough of her side to glean that Trey had run up another astronomical bill that she was still trying to figure out how to pay without getting their electricity shut off.
“Maybe it was the polite version of ‘I had a rough day but I don’t want to talk about it.’”
When she looked back up, it was to see the intensity of Cass’s gaze replaced with empathy. Her stomach dropped. Everyone in Nowhere knew her story, looked at her with drawn-down lips and crinkled eyes filled with pity. How could they look at her with anything else when just a week before Cass’s arrival she’d had to drag her own stepfather out of the Ledge, drunk as a skunk and leaning on her as he’d sobbed her mother’s name over and over again.
As much as she craved the help her neighbors sometimes offered, it wasn’t worth the shame that would come when they saw how much of a hell her home had turned into. The sidelong glances she got now, the clucked tongues she overheard in the grocery store about how much suffering the Smith family had endured, all of it pressed on her, added to the pressure of being the sole provider for three broken people. She hated the darkness Trey had retreated into, the apathy her stepsisters had pulled around themselves like armor from the cruelties of the world.
Although, she acknowledged to herself,they’re not the only ones. Despite her attempts to maintain a sunny facade in front of Trey and the girls, she had pulled back, too. She’d always existed on the fringes of the world created by her mother and Trey’s marriage, putting on a face for her mother so Marie would never guess the depth of distance between her husband and daughter. Sometimes, if Briony had pretended hard enough, she had felt like they were all actually family.
Now she didn’t even want to be a part of it all.
She winced. Just thinking that made her feel guilty.
She looked away from Cass. She didn’t want pity from her neighbors, and especially not him. She’d wanted a flirtation and the chance to pretend that maybe, just for a little while, she could have a fairy tale instead of the nightmare her life had turned into.
“You can talk to me, Briony.”
The words hung in the air, spoken in that seductive, honeyed voice. Her lips parted. What would it be like to confide in someone, especially someone like Cass who looked at her as if he saw her, truly saw her, and not just the persona she presented to the rest of the world?
Justin Lee and his sister Michelle wandered up to the bar, singing off-key.
“Bri!” Justin hollered. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.”
“I’m surprised you can see straight,” she retorted good-naturedly.
“Two more?”
“You got a ride?”
“Walking tonight.” Justin clapped Michelle on the shoulder, who rolled her eyes. “My sweet baby sister is letting me crash on her couch.”
Briony nodded to Cass.
“Be right back.”
As she walked away, she felt Cass’s gaze burning into her back. Their casual flirtation had deepened in the blink of an eye. She didn’t know what to make of it, or him, for that matter. That she had almost slipped and confided in him should worry her. The fact that it didn’t was even more concerning.
Perhaps she was just exhausted. Yes, exhausted and lonely. Otherwise she wouldn’t be acting like this.
Because really, she thought with another quick glance at his dark profile, what did she actually know about him?
Cassius Morgan Adama prince of Tulay, watched his future wife pour beer into two frosted glasses. Fate had gifted him not only with a means to finally right the wrongs against his family and his homeland, but a stunning instrument with which to exact justice.
He’d seen photographs of her. None had done her fiery red locks, her bright emerald eyes or the cut of her stunning cheekbones justice.Elfinwas a good word to describe her beauty, althoughwarriorwould also be appropriate, her arms slender yet muscular as she lugged trays and crates around the bar.
Yet what had stood out most to him was her smile. When he’d first walked into the dark interior of the Ledge last Thursday at three o’clock in the afternoon, Briony had turned around, flashed him a sunny grin and kindly yet firmly said, “Sorry, sir, we’re closed until four. Be happy to serve you then.”
When was the last time he hadn’t been recognized? Fawned over? The brief flash of irritation had vanished, replaced by unexpected excitement and anticipation. He hadn’t planned on revealing who he was to Briony, not yet, but he hadn’t anticipated how satisfying it would be to be nobody for a while.
Briony’s sassy sweetness had been an added bonus to her physical attractiveness. He’d known when he’d set upon this course that he risked being married to someone of unknown personality. Timid, vapid or even cruel; he’d dated plenty to be familiar with the negative qualities he might expect in a spouse.
But Briony was none of those things, at least not that he had seen in the last week. Judging by how easily she’d handled the crowds streaming through the bar, the occasional drunk or mouthy vacationer, Briony was anything but submissive. Yet she never made anyone feel small or set out to ridicule or embarrass them. She was just doing her job.
Satisfaction settled like a warm blanket over his shoulders. Yes, she would make an excellent wife and princess. The kind of woman his people could look up to and follow.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only man to be drawn in by her. Judging by the sappy expression on the drunken Justin’s face, he had also been attracted by her sparkling magic.
Among other attributes, he thought testily as Justin’s eyes dropped down to Briony’s chest. His fingers tightened on his glass. If that clown had any idea who he was, who Briony was, he’d pick his jaw up off the floor, turn his eyes away from her stunning figure and slink off before Cass had him thrown in prison.