The Shadows (Black Dagger Brotherhood #13) - J. R. Ward Page 0,102

answered him in a shout. “About what?”

“What you were doing last night?”

She forced herself to hold his stare. “I went for a drive.”

“Why were your clothes covered with leaves?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Your clothes. Last night. When I took them upstairs, there were dirt and leaves on them. If you walked across the courtyard and fell in the vestibule, why were they like that?”

She dropped her eyes from his even though she knew that made her seem guilty. Then again, she was guilty.

“Layla?” He cursed softly. “Look, you’re a grown female. Even though you’re carrying my young, I don’t have any right to know what’s doing in your life except for pregnancy-related stuff. I just want to make sure you’re safe. For your sake. For the young.”

Shit.

Now was the time, she thought. Now … had to be the time.

“I feel trapped,” she heard herself say.

Between Xcor and the Brotherhood. Between danger and safety. Between desire and damnation.

“I kind of figured that.” Qhuinn nodded. “The drives. You’re going out a lot.”

“I walk.”

“Where?”

“Outside.” In her head, she tried on a variety of come-clean confessions, swapping out nouns and verbs, trying to find a way for her to describe what she was doing without having him lose his shit all over the place. “Out … in the country.”

Qhuinn walked across the room and straightened the already straight framed picture of a weeping willow. “People do that when they’re working on something. In their head.”

You got that right, she thought.

Dearest Virgin Scribe, she wanted to tell him. She really did … but the revelation was stuck in her throat.

For the first time, she started to get pissed off. At herself. At Xcor. At the whole goddamn thing.

“Did you trip and fall while you were walking?” he said.

“Yes.” She took a deep breath. “I was stupid. I fell over a root.”

So close to the truth. Just with all the salient parts left unspoken.

Man, this was killing her.

“Most females…” Qhuinn came over to the foot of her bed, put his hands on his lean hips and stared down at her feet. “Most females have a partner they can go through this with. I want to be that for you. So does Blay. We don’t want to let you down.”

Great, now she got teary that he might ever doubt how supportive he was. “You are incredible. Both of you are. You are utterly amazing. It’s just … there’s a lot going on.”

At least that was not a lie.

“More now with twins.” He shook his head. “Twins … can you believe it?”

“No.” She rubbed her belly. “I don’t know how they’re going to fit. I already feel huge, and I have how many more months to go?”

“Listen, please know, I got you. I’m here for you, anything you need—”

As a shrill alarm started to sound next door, the two of them frowned at the same time and looked around for the source of the noise.

“Is that coming from Luchas’s room?” she asked. “Oh, my God, is that…?”

Shouting out in the hall. Running footsteps. Jane’s voice barking out orders.

“Fuck, I gotta go see,” Qhuinn said as he pivoted and lunged for the door. “I gotta go help…”

As he bolted for his brother’s room, Layla sat up. Got to her feet. Steadied herself.

Whatever was happening next door was bad news. And she was damned if Qhuinn was going to face it alone.

THIRTY-TWO

As Selena sat in the back of the giant Mercedes, the one that Fritz drove and was, in fact, driving, she was smiling so widely, her cheeks were numb and her jaw hurt.

Up ahead of the sedan, the skyscrapers of Caldwell glowed like the mythical sentries of some fantasy realm, and she leaned into her windshield, trying to see the particular one they were going to, the tallest of the giants, the pinnacle of them all.

“I can’t wait to see what the view is like.” She turned back to Trez. “I’m so excited.”

When he didn’t reply, but just kept staring at her, she smiled even harder. The male hadn’t looked away from her since she’d come down the stairs, his eyes roaming, always roaming, over her lips, her breasts, her thighs and calves, back up to her hair, her face, her throat.

His arousal was straining the front of his black slacks. And even though he kept trying to put his jacket or his arm or a casual hand across his hips, she could sense his sex as clearly as if he were naked.

She leaned in, getting close. “Kiss me?”

“I don’t trust myself.”

“Sounds