and tried to respond in a normal tone of voice. “You’re welcome. I’m glad you had fun.”
We drove for a couple more minutes in silence, then Jamaal pulled into an illegal parking spot against the curb. I looked around, trying to spot whatever had inspired Jamaal to pull over, but instead of parking the car, he left the engine running and turned toward me in his seat.
“That might be the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me,” he said, meeting my eyes only briefly before looking away. “And I know it must have been painfully boring for you.”
“It wasn’t—” I started to protest automatically.
Jamaal met my eyes with a look of frank skepticism that killed my protest.
“You did a good job trying to hide it,” he assured me. “And I’m an asshole for taking advantage of you and making you wait while I looked at the reserve collection.”
“No, you’re not. If I didn’t want to do it, it was up to me to say no.” And as badly as I’d wanted to escape, I couldn’t have denied Jamaal the opportunity to see things the public might never see.
He straightened in his seat and leaned his head back into the headrest, closing his eyes. He was bracing himself for something, but I didn’t know what. He opened his eyes and huffed out a breath.
“You remember you said once that Sita’s attitude toward you might have something to do with how I feel about you?” he asked, looking out the windshield instead of at me.
“Yeah,” I said, then held my breath, wondering if somehow, miraculously, he was going to talk about his feelings after all.
“You weren’t wrong.”
Even though I’d figured all along that Sita’s dislike of me was a reflection of Jamaal’s own feelings, I still felt a stab of pain. Things had been strained between us lately, but I’d allowed myself to hope that there was still a spark of friendship underneath it all. The ferocity of Sita’s attitude toward me suggested maybe that had been wishful thinking.
“Okay,” I said. My voice came out a tad raspy, and I cleared my throat.
To my shock, Jamaal reached out and brushed a strand of my hair back behind my ear. The touch sent a shiver through my whole body.
“You weren’t wrong about Sita’s attitude being related to my feelings,” he said. “But you were wrong about what the feelings were. She’s jealous, Nikki.”
My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. “Your phantom tiger is jealous of me?” That might have been one of the most ridiculous things I’d ever heard. And it made me feel almost giddy with relief.
Jamaal graced me with one of his small, wry smiles. “Yeah. She’s jealous of anyone who might steal any of my attention from her, and you’re Public Enemy Number One.”
“Oh.” I wanted to say something more intelligent and useful, but my brain refused to feed me any words.
“I’m trying to learn to control her better. That’s why I’ve been practicing so much. Right now, I can keep her focused on me and obeying me as long as I’m concentrating my full attention on her. But if I let my concentration waver . . .”
“Or if you practice so hard that you pass out?”
He grimaced. “Yeah. That, too.”
“I don’t get why you’ve made this into a state secret. Why wouldn’t you just tell me what was going on?” He gave me a long, condescending look, until I answered my own question. “Because you didn’t want to admit feeling anything that would make her jealous.”
There was another long silence between us. I didn’t know what to say to Jamaal’s admission, and he didn’t seem to have much idea what to say, either.
“I’m glad you told me,” I finally said.
“It doesn’t change anything. It’s going to take everything I have to keep Sita under control the next time I summon her after tonight. It would be best if you weren’t even in the house when I do it, just in case I can’t stop her from going to look for you.”
Trying to manifest his death magic in the form of an animal had been my idea in the first place, and I’d thought it had turned out to be a pretty good one. It was nice not having Jamaal ready to fly off the handle at any moment. Now I was beginning to wonder if an out-of-control phantom tiger was really any better than an out-of-control temper.
“It’s an improvement,” Jamaal said. Obviously, it was clear what I was thinking.