Page 34 of A Vicious Love

His right hand had been cleaned. The blood was gone, though the skin around his thumb looked faintly red where someone had wiped too hard. He watched me approach with an expression I could not read. His eyes moved over me, pausing on my face.

I stopped a few feet away.

He looked at Emmie. She did not release my hand immediately.

“Sienna,” he said.

I nodded.

“The table,” he said, quieter than usual.

I nodded again.

Emmie’s fingers tightened once before she let me go. I walked beside Jamison into the ballroom. I did not ask for his hand. Never, a frightened part of me thought.

Never again.

At the Crow table, my seat was beside Jamison’s.

Of course.

I sat carefully, smoothing my dress over my knees. My hands went into my lap. I clasped them together so tightly my knuckles hurt.

Jamison sat beside me. Too close. I could feel the heat of him. The expensive scent of his cologne, surrounded me.

Dinner began.

The first course was placed in front of us. Some kind of pale soup. I picked up my spoon.

My hand shook.

I put it down before the soup spilled.

Jamison noticed. He shifted beside me. The movement made my body flinch before I could stop it.

His whole body went still.

I stared at my bowl.

“Sienna.”

I did not look at him.

The table conversation continued around us, strained but functioning because Crows were good at continuing through anything. Marcel spoke to someone across the table. Harrison asked Emmie about an auction lot.

I kept staring at the soup.

Jamison leaned slightly closer.

I flinched again.

“Stop flinching from me.” His breath left him in a sharp, angry exhale.

The words were low, meant only for me. They still struck hard. I turned toward him automatically.

“I’m—”

Sorry.