Page 126 of Blaire
The leather couch creaks under someone's weight and hairs all over my body narrow. I take another step back to keep hidden.
“Charlie... you don't think you want her because you can't have her, do you? I know what you're like. You desire things people say you can't have.”
“No,” Charlie doesn't hesitate. “I can take her if I really want too—and trust me, you don't understand the irony of me saying that—but I won't just take her. I respect her too much then to just lock her up like an animal. I want her to feel freedom and peace with me.”
Peace...
He catches my emotions with one, single word.
I have felt peace with Charlie. The idea of never feeling it again cuts deep.
My eyes sting with tears.
“She sounds like a slow burning project,” Andres says.
“She is, but she's... Oh, I dunno...” Charlie sighs, and my lips wobble because there's something moving in his voice, “if you ever get to know her, you'll see why I like her.” His tone softens even more as he says, “She's so eerie and intense with eyes that take you straight to the dark side, and she's gotta stinking redhead attitude, but she's... she's the loveliest little thing. AllIwant todo is look after her but she won't let me.”
My heart goes. If only he knew how much I care about him... I wish I had the stomach to tell him.
Andres asks about me on a personal level: wants to know how Charlie and I have spent the past few months. “I know you said she's a bit feral, but have you taken her out or anything? Girls like that kind of shit.”
Feral?I nearly laugh, even through my depressive mood.
“Blaire doesn't want dinner dates,” Charlie laughs mordantly at his brother. “Trust me, I already tried that one and she looked at me like I was speaking a dead language.”
“Okay... Well, I know you said she's very into sports-”
“Yeah, she loves sports,andfood,” Charlie's voice is thick with amusement. “I'd love to see her on The Site, executing the training course.”
“Yeah, that'd be pretty cool,” Andres says. “I like women who are into sports... What was it like having her here with you?” Andres goes off in a different direction, studying his brother. “I mean, I know you like your own space.”
Charlie tells his brother everything about our time together, minus any sexual intimate details. “Life sort of became routine once she opened up to me: breakfast, a sparring session, dinner, free thinking conversation... I even told her about our parents and Gina.”
“What?” Andres is lost for words. “But... you-you don't talk to anyone about that.”
“I trust her on another level, brother.”
“Why though, Charlie? She's just a girl.”
“She’s not just a girl. You won't understand what it's like to be under Blaire's spell until you've experienced it,” he sounds lost in deep thought, “she draws me in with her undivided attention and keeps me there in an odd state of trust, consuming my fucking soul with the way she looks at me. It's like a therapy session talking to her.” Charlie laughs under his breath, as if he's recalling a memory or something.
I can't actually believe how he sees me. It's baffling. I'm nothing special. I'm just... well, I'm me.
“What'd you say to her about our parents exactly?”
Silence, then Charlie says, “She knows what I did.”
“What!?! And she doesn't think you're...” I don't hear what he says, so I shift a little closer to the door. I can just see a large figure dressed in black clothes sitting on the couch. It's not Charlie.
“No. She actually understood—said I should've tortured our mother.”
“Fuck...” Andres says, and I see he lifts a hand to his head. “You can't just send her back to Maksim. You obviously have feelings for her.”
“Course I do,” Charlie says with a hint of anger. “Nothing makes sense without her anymore. I can't imagine a single day without her.”
“Then take her, you idiot-”
Panic races through me and I step back again, clamming up.