Page 42 (1/1)

Nora stared into his eyes and saw nothing but the truth in them It was a beautiful truth, one she wanted to be a part of Anything she wantedfrom her Wesleyand she knehat her ansas She wanted to take hiht andshe knew about sex and how good it felt and how right it could be to join your body with someone else’s and let the entire world fall away fro left but you and hiether She wanted his virginity for her birthday and his heart and body every day after that And she wanted that because she loved hi hih she loved that sort of thing, not that he would ever understand that And she didn’t care that he didn’t understand She cared that he loved her Oh, yes, Nora knew exactly what she wanted from Wesley for her birthday She wanted to look into his eyes the moment he entered her the first tie with the first thrust, wanted to hold hi he felt and everything he wanted

But she couldn’t ask for that, could she? Wesley deserved a little bit better for his first tiuy she’d fked an hour ago She still could feel Griffin’s warainst her brsts, could still remember the press of him inside her As cute as he was to offer, she knew Wes couldn’t buy her emeralds and castles Maybe he wanted to see if she’d believe him Maybe he wanted to knohat she’d wish for if she could have anything on earth

"Anything, Nora," Wes whispered, and took both her hands in his Nora smiled

"I’ll take the presents on the table, the dinner with you and theout to cup his face She kissed hiave her a smile In his eyes she saw a flash of disappointetting Indian, right?" she asked "The correct answer is yes"

"Yes"

"You e out of the fetish-wear first"

"Thank you And I’ll change into mine"

"The assless chaps, please It isfor you"

At the bottom of the stairs, Nora turned around and found Wes still looking at her and on his face she saw no subterfuge, no lies, no jokes, no tricks When he said, "Anything for you," hethe birthday presents on the table?" Marie-Laure asked, dragging Nora out of the past again It hurt leaving thatto the presentshe sat cuffed to the bed of a psychopath While she dredged up her past, Marie-Laure sat on the bed four feet away, fluffing her goddamn pillows

"No Yes Maybe" Nora exhaled heavily "The only thing I wanted was hi for Castles are too much upkeep Emeralds I could buy for myself But I couldn’t buy hi back home just so he could wish me happy birthday and take me to dinner And he didn’t even want to fk me And even if he did want to fk ht but put his arainst him while atched ht curled up with Wesley, eating cake, talking, being vanilla and boring and happy She forgot all about sex with Griffin, the Gansevoort, even forgot about her birthday She didn’t even reht and found a box frosley had a key to her house He s sneak it in while she and Wesley were gone It took her a week to work up the courage to open the box and a week to recover frolass hart, tiny and exquisite, its antlered head held high proudly When she was fifteen, she’d dug through boxes of her old toys until she’d found a little plastic hart that had been part of a set of toy aniiven it to Søren after ht mass on Christmas Eve A visual pun, she’d explained to hilass hart meant she didn’t want to think about Was Søren re she still had his? Both, most likely, because she knew both were true

"You know your Wesley’s truth now--his family, his fortune Do you wish you’d chosen the rabbit hole?"

As ood question

"I faced that sa back tears "I could learn the truth about hied forever Or walk away fronorant"

"You made a different choice with my husband"

"I did I was seventeen years old and it was here in this house His father had died and he finally felt safe enough to tell e everything and that once learned it couldn’t be unlearned"

"What did you say to him?"

"Tords--tell me"

Tell me

And he had And as he told her the truth of what he hat she hat they could be together if she chose, she felt like an aetfulness and finally reht were the ones she already kneithout knowing she knew them