ALDRIC
The spoon slipped.
I did not drop things. I was not the kind of man who dropped things. And yet there it was, catching the edge of my plate with a sharp little ring that cut right through the room and brought every pair of eyes to me at once. I felt them. Every single one.
I picked it up. I adjusted it in my hand. I let the silence close back over it like water over a stone.
What the fuck was going on. I looked back at Cian and he was talking again. Like everything was fucking fine.
"Oh," I said breaking his small talk. I still needed a second. So I used the word to buy it. "Really. It is surprising to hear. I'll be honest."
Cian looked at me with the same unhurried ease he had worn all through breakfast. Nothing tight in his jaw. Nothing guarded behind his eyes. Just a man eating his eggs and delivering information the way you might read out a weather report.
