Awareness swept over her with a crackling intensity as she felt him come closer, felt the heat of his body as he stopped mere inches away.
“I missed you, Briony.”
Slowly, ever so slowly, she turned and looked up to meet Cass’s smoldering golden-brown gaze.
“Did you?”
“Very much.”
She swallowed hard. “I’m a surprised to see you here given the way our last conversation went.”
“I imagine you are.”
He breathed in and she realized Cass was nervous. The thought made a laugh rise in her throat that she barely bit back in time.
“It’s rather crowded in here,” Cass said as he cast an eye over the bar.
“Football game tonight.”
He rolled his eyes. “I forgot how you Americans use the wrong name for your sports.”
Briony arched an eyebrow as she folded her arms over her chest. “You came all this way to criticize one of our favorite pastimes?”
Before she could pull back, he cupped her cheek. The shock of his bare skin on hers after several days apart electrified her senses as she instinctively leaned into his touch. He bent down.
“No,” he murmured, the warmth of his breath brushing her ear. “I came all this way for you.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CASSWAITEDWITHbated breath as Briony watched him with an opaque stare. She would be well within her rights to have him tossed out of the bar and tell him she never wanted to see him again. The thought made him press his hand more firmly against her cheek. If this was going to be the last time he got to touch her, he would soak up every moment he could.
“We can talk on the patio,” she finally said.
Relief spiraled through him. Talking was a start.
Briony led him through the crowds. He spotted more than one curious stare, and a couple people snapping photos. He grimaced. One of the positives of living in security-tight Linnaea the past month had been not having to worry about the media or a wayward tourist snapping his photo. Who would have thought he’d have to worry about such things in the middle of a Midwestern prairie?
The patio was mercifully empty. Surrounded on three sides by a wooden privacy fence and dotted with chairs and tables, the patio was covered in snow. With a string of lights casting a glow on the snow and a lone firepit flickering in the center, it offered a cozy and intimate atmosphere. Perfect for what he had to say.
And if Briony walked out of his life after she’d listened to him, he’d have somewhere private to mourn.
Briony brushed some snow off one of the chairs and sat, holding her hands out to the fire. She kept her gaze focused on the flames. The light brought out the gold intertwined in her strands of red.
When it seemed like she had no intention of saying anything, he decided to plow forward.
“You saw the press conference.”
“I did.”
Her tone betrayed nothing. No anger, no sadness, no happiness. Her face remained a blank mask.
“What did you think?”
“It was surprising.”
He stifled his initial irritation at her oblique answers. It was no more than he deserved.
“I did it for two reasons.” He moved toward the fire and sat down in the chair next to her. When she didn’t move away from him, he took it as a positive sign. “You were right, Briony.”