***Cassius***
I stood behind the closed door and didn't move.
My hands were shaking.
Not the fine trembling from earlier, the kind I could attribute to shock or surprise. This was deeper, running from my hands all the way up my arms, settling somewhere in my chest where it had no intention of leaving quickly.
I pressed my back against the door and breathed.
That had been too close.
Not because I'd broken, I hadn't, I'd maintained the lie, kept my voice level, held his gaze without flinching. But there had been a moment, when he'd said Cassius for the third time with that quiet certainty, when I'd felt the words rise in my throat almost past stopping.
'Even if I was Cassius, I wouldn't want anything to do with you.'
I'd swallowed them back at the last second.
Which was the right thing to do, obviously, saying that would have confirmed everything, would have shattered the pretense I'd built my entire new life around.
But the words had been there.
