in my life. “No, they’re fine.” My voice came out soft, almost too low. “I used to dance until my feet blistered and bled. I could walk for hours in these without one complaint.”
The offhanded comment about “used to dance” seemed exactly that to me, a comment about my life before my brother had died, but when I said it Brando squeezed my hand. It didn’t seem to be done on purpose.
“You’re good, Scarlett. At the dancing thing.”
The way he said my name made a blush creep up my cheeks. “I was born to dance. Or so they tell me. Now I’m not sure what I was born to do. My stars have shifted.”
“You gave up,” he said, an almost accusatory tone to his voice.
“No. I lost interest. Like you.”
“I lost interest in the party because I couldn’t leave you that night.”
The admission came abruptly, so sharp in its release that it almost felt like an arrow of truth through my heart. I stopped walking, and our hands stretched, stretched, until we lost the connection. I reached to grab at his hand, to keep him close, to be sure he wouldn’t bolt on me, but he raised his hands in surrender.
“I vow to you, my word is as good as my blood, Scarlett. You have me.”
I tapped my foot against the ground, my heart not feeling so sure anymore. When I could feel him and keep him close, the peace of his nearness soothed me. It was an odd place to be.
“You felt the same that night.” He tilted his head to the side, staring at me with an intensity that made me almost shrink back from his gaze.
“Yes.” I was surprised at the strength in my tone. “I felt the same…after Elliott gave me the gift and then walked out of the dance studio. Panicked. Even that is lacking in description. The only way I can think to describe it is the sensation you get right before you fall down a steep flight of stairs—a complete loss of control. All you can do is try to protect yourself as you go barreling into the unknown. Then Elliott really left, and you were still there, which confused me. The moment I realized you were staying my heart settled.”
“My heart is better.”
“What?” I breathed and took a step closer to him.
He took a step back, keeping his hands up. “That’s what you said to me that night. My heart is better.”
“It was, when I knew you were staying.”
He stopped walking, allowing me to catch up and walk beside him. “I’m not used to asking questions, Scarlett. I’m not used to losing control.” His jaw tightened and a vein in his forehead appeared. “What happens from here?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I just know that when I saw you walk away with that group, I had to stop you. The feelings I felt tonight were similar to that night out in the snow. It’s hard for me to explain… But there’s a difference. When you’re in trouble it’s like nothing I have ever felt before. When we’re this way, as we are, it’s like nothing I have ever felt before either, but different than when you’re in trouble. It’s like seeing two similar colors side by side.”
He gave me a sideways glance. “You feel me all of the time?”
I hesitated. A moment later, I decided to tell the truth. “I’m afraid so. I can tell by—” How do I even say this without sounding mad? “—I mean, it’s the humming in my blood. Even the temperature of it.”
“I’m in your blood.”
“Perhaps.” He wasn’t doing it on purpose, I could feel that much, but because he was being so truthful, his comments were starting to make me blush from embarrassment. “I think it’s more complicated than that.”
“Complicated?” It wasn’t much of a question. He was digging and wanted me to keep talking.
“Does it seem simple to you?” I asked. I wanted to keep him talking too.
“Yeah,” he said, nodding. “Something inside of me calls to you.”
Well, when he put it that way… He had simplified it. I had even considered Plato’s four arms, four legs, and two heads theory presented by Aristophanes. I had dismissed it, though; in light of the fact that Brando Fausti’s beauty was too great to share with another being.
The silence between us stretched, and I knew our thoughts ran parallel. It was hard to ignore the complex nature of…us. What this connection, for a lack of a better