Ghost Silk (Ghost Perfume, Book 2) | ✔

6 - Cry for me - Part 1

"I never went to one before," I confessed shyly. "Not counting Tommy's parties."

Alexander's eyes narrowed.

"Do you want to throw a party?"

He sat with his ankles crossed on the coffee table, slouched back on the couch. His feet were the length of my forearms and the lines of his legs were endless. His blazer fell open, showing the black sweater that stretched across his chest.

"No, I mean I'll just go to Tia's. She said she'd throw it soon. But ... could I even invite people here?"

He shrugged.

The movement was mesmerizing. Unfair how his presence rearranged the air in the room, how he was the densest planet wherever he went.

"You could invite your friends to the pub," he said, not really answering my question. "We could close it to everyone else."

"No, I'm good."

His phone pinged. He glanced down at it, towards his hip.

I sighed and scratched a mastiff behind the ears, bending to kiss his face. Alexander and I were the only ones home; everyone else was at work.

Alexander shouted loud enough that Invader's head shot up in alarm, ears flattening. A grin broader than I'd ever seen Alexander wear stretched across his lips. He collapsed back on the couch, his shoulders falling back.

A weight had lifted off them.

He gave me a look I couldn't puzzle apart. It was equal parts fondness and possession. As if I had done something to please him.

"Good news?" I ventured.

"A promotion for Gabriel," he said. He stood in a sudden motion and strode to the bar. "Shall we celebrate, Rose?"

I clapped my hands excitedly. "Let's wait for Gabriel."

"It'll be a while." He poured an amber fall of scotch into two glasses.

I stepped around a mastiff to accept my glass. "Are they celebrating for him at work now?"

He nodded. His gaze still brimmed with a fierce emotion as he clinked his glass to mine. "Here's to ... Gabriel's success."

"Well, a win for any of us is a win for us all!"

His laughter boomed around me. "Yes."

I had to stop my jaw from dropping. I'd never seen Alexander giddy.

The high-proof scotch ran a line of fire down my throat, straight to my heart.

"What does the promotion mean?" I asked, honey leaking accidentally into my voice.

"Power, baby. He gets to make more decisions. We'll have more leeway to do what we want."

A mastiff leaped to his feet to put two front paws on my shoulders. I giggled, holding his paws. "Should we take the dogs outside? They're bored ..."

His teeth flashed. "Sure." He downed his glass.

I sipped a few more times from mine before leaving it at the bar.

Alexander wrapped my coat over my shoulders at the door and snapped his fingers at the mastiffs to come to heel. They had begun jumping and barking when they realized we were going out; they settled instantly at his order. But we were soon strolling in the forest behind the house, where they could run ahead free. 

Alexander kept pace at my side. He turned his gaze up to where the moon was a fallen fingernail in the dark blue sky.

Oh, where were Jane and Ellie and Jackal and the others? Whenever I looked at the sky I thought of them. I hoped they'd come back soon.