You Belong To Me

Chapter Eva

'Pedigree is never subject to circumstance.
Either you are or you aren't gentre.'
Eva...

Trey did not go out for a few nights following his outing with Ali into the city. He hadn't a need to be seen anywhere for awhile. Not to mention he still felt a little peeved with himself for leaving her to her own devices and allowing her to become so askew in his absence a few days back. Instead he spent time with her in and around town and his country estate, the home of his ancestors. They played board games and discussed literature and music. Trey and herself took lunch in the city once. They shopped at the local jeweler and Ali had finally chosen her own item to possess...

It was a canary yellow diamond necklace that she had sufficiently fawned over all the while she insisted that she didn't need any more jewelry. The stone hung lonely on a silver chain and threw a wondrous and delicate array of colors along the walls of the small jewelers shop. Trey did not have to argue with her over wearing it out of the shop or even across the street to the cafe for lunch.

Instead she held his hand. She smiled fully and did not try to hide from the bevy of women hanging out of the saloon and tavern trying to get a look at the woman seen with such an illusive bachelor. Ali had been confident and flirty and completely friendly and pliant.

And Trey had played ever the doting benefactor, basking in her sweet laughter and soft delight every time she looked into his eyes. He grinned under her praise, he touched her warmly and shielded her from stiff winds. Trey patiently calmed her small dramatics at bugs in the pasture and any of her discomforts in their car. He kissed her puckered lips every night and wrapped her up in a intimate embrace every morning.

But he had never been anyone's fool and he certainly hadn't become one for some slip of a woman still behaving as a child would. He supposed around the second day of their time together he could tell that there was something vaguely different about her attitude. He just couldn't put his finger on it. She was still well mannered and spoke when spoken to. She grinned and thanked him profusely for outings and shared meals as though he needed constant positive reinforcement. Trey had had a hell of a time trying to understand what she was doing differently before it finally hit him.

She was flirting with him.

She was flirting and attempting to be charming.

Ali had always been rather endearing and curious in the sense that one wanted to be around her so that they might understand how she worked and what made her so interesting to everyone she encountered. And she certainly never had a problem keeping his interest or being found attractive by him or anyone. She hadn't needed to lower her voice to sultry or giggle over a naked shoulder at him for Trey to want her pressed against bedsheets and panting his name. Ali was sexy in her own right and desirable because she didn't desire to be. She always had been.

And so when Trey finally took in her polished and carefully plotted moments of flirtation and placating he became slightly curious. Then he became a little irritated because he remembered who she really was. She wasn't always so agreeable. She didn't like to feel as though she was an inconvenience or beholden to anyone. Ali didn't like feeling useless. She loved melon. And hazelnut flavored chocolate with breakfast was her favorite.

On one particular morning when he specifically asked for mint chocolate she didn't say anything. She'd only smiled over her shoulder at him from the chaise lounge.

Since there was no one for him to answer to Trey had no problem admitting to himself that he had been systematically testing her... gauging her responses to things to see if her changes were in his mind. He waited until a heaping mountain of melon medley appeared with their meal and immediately sent it away after it touched the table. Trey called instead for mixed berries. It would have been nothing at all for Ali to admit that she might like to keep the melon as well. No one would have objected or suggested she might be thinking she was hungrier than she was. But she hadn't said anything. Ali had only spread her napkin over her lap and began pouring him a serving of the chocolate.