Page 163

Maria laughed. "You've always been a terrible liar."

Soren sighed. "I don't lie."

"No." She smiled knowingly. "You just omit the truth."

He walked out to the garden and found Lily sitting on the edge of the stone fountain in the center of the enclosed courtyard. A leather-bound sketchbook rested on her lap, and she had one pencil tucked behind her ear while another moved across the page in quick, practiced strokes. She hadn't noticed him. Soren stopped several feet away, and for the first time since meeting her, she looked peaceful.

Sunlight filtered through flowering trees overhead, casting shifting shadows across her blonde hair. She bit her lower lip as she concentrated, and her brow furrowed just before she smiled. It wasn’t the hesitant smile she'd given him upstairs. This one was effortless and real. He understood immediately why he hadn't interrupted. She deserved a few uninterrupted moments of joy. Unfortunately, they didn’t last long.

His phone buzzed, and Lily startled, nearly dropping the sketchbook into the fountain. She looked over at him and quickly closed her book. "Oh." Her shoulders relaxed. "You scared me."

"I apologize." The words surprised them both.

Her eyebrows lifted. "You can apologize?"

"When appropriate,” he grumbled.

"I didn't think men like you did stuff like that," she said.

"Men like me?"

She looked momentarily embarrassed. "You know⁠—"

"No, I don’t know,” he said. He wasn’t about to let her off the hook because watching her squirm was fascinating. He couldn’t get enough of her pink cheeks and the way her breathing picked up when she was embarrassed.

"Dangerous men."

Soren accepted the description without offense. “I guess you’re right. I am dangerous—sometimes."

She clutched the sketchbook in her arms, as though shielding her drawings from him. “You draw?" he asked.

"Yes, it helps,” she said, holding the book a little bit tighter.

"Helps with what?” he asked.

She shrugged. "It helps with thinking things out."

"Does it help with your nightmares?" he asked.

Her eyes widened. "How did you⁠—"

"You slept for less than four hours."

"You heard me? I’m sorry if I woke you,” she said.

"I heard the security alert when you went to the kitchen for a midnight snack."

She looked down. "I was looking for something to clean up the glass from the lamp." He took it as a win that she wasn’t apologizing again for breaking the lamp.

"It was replaceable,” he insisted.

She smiled faintly. "So you keep telling me."

Soren moved closer until he stood beside the fountain. "What were you drawing?"

She hugged the sketchbook to her chest tighter. "It's nothing."

"If it were nothing, you wouldn't hide it from me,” he said.