Word and Breath (5 page)

He’d been fond of her once—when they were Readers together in the office. Very fond of her. At first, she’d been like a pesky little sister, but it hadn’t taken long for that to change. He’d even entertained dreams of the fondness turning into something else.

He’d given those dreams up, though, even before he’d gone underground.

Some things were hopeless.

A loss but a necessary one.

“I know you think I’m acting irrationally, but I
have
thought this through.” Connor was pleased his voice sounded natural and composed. “We have Readers. Riana can’t bring us anything we don’t already have. Plus, she doesn’t want to get involved in this.” When he saw Jenson was about to interrupt, he spoke over him. “She doesn’t. I know her. She has enough to deal with in taking care of her sister. She doesn’t need any more…” His voice drifted off, cracking on the last word, “Stress.”

“She has stress, whether you want her to or not. And she’s already put herself at risk with the Union.”

“What? What have you done?”

“I haven’t done anything.” Jenson sounded more annoyed than anything else, and his blue eyes were hard as granite. “She made the choice herself.”

Connor had to prevent himself from shaking the story out of his cousin by force. He willed back the impatience, however, and listened as Jenson explained.

“She found the anomaly with ‘wordless’ in a few stray pieces of our correspondence. I asked her to leave it alone. When Smyde asked about it this afternoon, she said it was nothing.”

Connor’s knuckles on the handle of the door were white. “Was she convincing?”

“Very. She’s good. And smart. And the best Reader I’ve seen since—” He snorted in wry amusement. “Since you. We can use her.”

“So you made the decision on your own to bring her into this. Why didn’t you—”

“Give it up,” Jenson snapped. “You’re acting on emotion, not with reason or purpose. I had to do something. She would have taken her findings to Smyde otherwise. She brought herself into this, and I’m telling you she’s up to the challenge.”

“I know.” It had never been an issue of not trusting Riana’s strength, wit, or discretion. “I just don’t want her involved.”

“She deserves to know the truth. It’s not just politics and covert maneuverings. We’re talking about the difference between truth and lies. I don’t like seeing her every day, talking to her, and being forced to keep her in the dark about something so important.”

Something in Jenson’s tone made the skin at the back of Connor’s neck break into goosebumps. “I didn’t realize you were that close to her.” Despite his stoic resolve, he couldn’t help but feel a stab of jealousy. Connor hadn’t seen Riana in years. He hadn’t let himself.

“We’ve always been friends. I respect her and like her. And I think there’s more to her than you’re giving her credit for.”

If he’d been trying, Jenson couldn’t have said words that would irritate Connor more. “I know exactly what she’s worth.”

“Well, you’re not acting like it. She’s an adult. An intelligent, capable woman. You’re treating her like a child. If you really knew what she’s worth, you wouldn’t insist on coddling—”

Connor raised a hand to silence Jenson. He’d heard enough, and Jenson’s pitiless tone broke through the last of his defenses. “Fine. Fine. At least do me a favor, though. Wait a week before you talk to her.”

“What would a week do?”

“It would give you time to watch her and make sure you’re satisfied that doing this is the right thing.”

“I already know—”

“I know you think you know, but I’m not convinced myself. Wait a week.”

Jenson shook his head. “All right. A week. Unless something else happens to make it necessary to tell her earlier.”

“And make sure you just bring her in on the outskirts. She’s not to know who I am.”

“Understood.” Then he looked away from Connor at last, muttering, “You’re a fool.”

Connor bristled and opened his mouth to respond, but Jenson put out a palliative hand. “Don’t bite my head off. Tell me how much you want her to know.”

Connor didn’t want her to know anything.

But some things he couldn’t control.

***

As she reached her block and passed the coffee shop across the street from her building that evening, Riana couldn’t resist glancing in the large window.

Mikel was there—drinking coffee and scanning images in a newspaper.

She paused, suddenly torn. She’d had no intentions of talking to him again. There was no reason for it. Pursuing a futile interest in a stranger was absolutely idiotic.

The stress of the week had left her at loose ends, though, and she wanted to do something unexpected, unpredictable.

She didn’t like that Jenson thought he could read her so easily.

Maybe she wasn’t as predictable as he thought.

As everyone thought.

Dressed in a stylish black shirt and jacket, Mikel was incredibly attractive. He wasn’t watching her. He hadn’t even noticed she watched him through the window.

Why shouldn’t she just say “hi” and thank him again for last night?

She would bring Jannie a cup of coffee. Her sister loved the coffee from this shop.

So she walked in and got into line at the counter. It was a silly subterfuge—since she’d obviously come in to see Mikel.

But she didn’t want him to think she was too eager or desperate.

She didn’t look back at him until she’d bought the coffee and turned toward the door.

He had noticed her by now and was smiling in her direction.

She returned the smile and waved, walking over to his table.

“I was hoping to see you,” he said, gesturing to the seat across from him.

Riana figured she might as well sit down. It would be pretty silly to refuse after coming in to talk to him. “So do you come here every day after work?”

“Not every day. But a lot of them.” Mikel’s smile was absolutely irresistible.

She hadn’t known it was possible for a man to be so handsome. Underneath the powerful attraction, she was nervous about it.

It didn’t seem natural for a man to be so utterly compelling. It didn’t seem entirely safe.

“So what are your plans for the evening?”

Riana blinked at him for a minute. It had been ages since anyone had asked her that, since her answer was always the same. “Nothing much. Just going home to my sister.”

“Why don’t you have dinner with me?” He gave her a slanting look—half ironic, half charming.

If it wasn’t for the irony and his obvious intelligence, Riana would have felt sick from so much charm. As it was, her anxiety deepened. She shook her head and stood up. “I can’t. My sister is expecting me.”

Mikel stood up too and fell in stride with her as she left the coffee shop to cross the street. “Then she can come too.”

“No, she can’t. She has mobility issues.”

Mikel’s forehead wrinkled in surprise. “Surely we could work around—”

“No. Seriously.” Riana held the coffee so she wouldn’t slop it as she reached the door to her building. “I appreciate the offer, but I don’t think so.”

Mikel didn’t argue, accepting her refusal good-naturedly. “So when can I see you again?”

Something about the question—about the absolute incongruity of this gorgeous, charismatic stranger asking her out for no apparent reason—caused a sudden wave of suspicious to slam into her. “What do you want from me?” she demanded, taking a step back and almost stumbling on the stoop.

Mikel’s eyes widened. He looked genuinely confused and slightly offended. “I just want to get to know you better. I thought I’d made that clear. To tell you the truth, I was waiting in the coffee shop on purpose, hoping to see you pass by.”

“But why?” Her guard hadn’t lowered, despite his convincing response. “You must be able to have any woman you want. What do you want with
me
?”

Unexpectedly, Mikel’s face cleared, and he gave a wry laugh. “I see. You underrate your own charms.”

“My charms, as you put it, are dubious at best. And you haven’t answered my question.”

He gazed down at her face, his black eyes softening in admiration. “You know, I think you really don’t know how beautiful you are.”

She swallowed hard, pleasure and confusion washing over her. No one had ever called her beautiful before, and Mikel seemed to really mean it.

She
felt
beautiful. For the first time she could remember.

“Anyway, you’re wrong about me.”

Riana had lost track of the conversation. “About what?”

“I
can’t
have any woman I want. You keep shutting me down even when I use my best moves. Maybe that’s why I’m so interested.”

His answer was so natural, so self-deprecating, and so adorable, Riana relaxed her shoulders and couldn’t hold back a laugh.

When she saw his eyes warm with deeper appreciation, her cheeks grew hot with an unfamiliar shyness.

It was kind of nice, she thought—fighting the urge to squirm—to enjoy something so relatively normal. So much of the week hadn’t been normal.

“You’re too much,” she told him as she opened the door of her building, laughter still in her voice. She knew very well she was flirting back when she gave him a teasing look over her shoulder. “Maybe you should think of some new moves.”

His gaze turned almost quiet for a moment, although it was still as intense and attentive as always. He reached out and brushed her cheek gently with his knuckles.

At his touch, she felt a jolt of feeling—thrilling, intoxicating, completely foreign. A feeling of almost intimate connection, from no more than the light touch. Her skin broke out in goosebumps as she stared at him.

Flushed and breathless, she jerked a step backward.

He grinned—almost boyish as the setting sun shone on his fair hair. “I’ll work on some new moves then, as you suggest. And I’ll be at the coffee shop tomorrow. In case you want to stop by and judge them.”

She couldn’t help but smile back.

***

She didn’t even pretend the following day. When she saw Mikel at a table through the window of the coffee shop, she waved and went in to join him.

He bought her a cup of coffee and they talked for almost an hour. Neither shared anything particularly personal, but Riana was surprised by how many interests and observations they had in common. She could have chatted with him all evening and not even begun to get bored.

The next day they talked over coffee again, longer than the day before. And the following day yet again. And the day after that. Soon, she was telling him about Jannie and her mysterious illness. About her parents being killed in the raid on the Eastern bank. About how she’d become a Reader. About her grandfather.

Mikel seemed to want to know everything about her, to know her more deeply than anyone had since Connor.

And she wanted him to know her that well.

Six days after they first met, he walked her across the street to her door as he always did. It was already getting dark outside. They’d talked over coffee for more than two hours.

Riana’s heart was racing in expectation of saying good-night to him. Each day, he grew bolder as they parted. The night before, he’d kissed her lightly on the cheek and a rush of sensation had overwhelmed her.

“Have dinner with me tomorrow,” he suggested, as he did each evening.

Riana startled herself by saying, “Okay. Why not?”

He smiled with pleased surprise. “Should I pick you up? I wouldn’t mind meeting your sister.”

The idea of his meeting Jannie made her nervous. It would make this whole thing
real
. “Why don’t I just meet you at the coffee shop at around seven?”

“Sounds good. I’m looking forward to it.”

That was the moment she should have started to open the door to go in, but she didn’t. She just stood like a ninny and stared up at him.

He was so incredibly handsome, and—what was more—she felt like she really knew him. He hadn’t told her a lot of details about his background and life, but that did nothing to mar her certainty that they’d made a real connection.

His face changed as he looked down on her. It softened, warmed into a palpable heat. “Riana,” he murmured, taking her face in both his hands, the touch sending shivers of excitement down her spine.

She leaned into him, instinctively wanting to feel even more.

He responded to her silent invitation and tilted his head into a soft kiss, brushing her lips very lightly with his.

Another jolt of feeling, so powerful she was panting as she pulled away,

“What?” she breathed, in response to absolutely nothing.

He smiled and stroked her hot cheek with his knuckle. To her relief, his breathing wasn’t slow and even either, and the color had deepened on his face. Evidently, the kiss had affected him too.