"I'm not...." He stopped. Considered. The innocent expression shifted into something more honest. " It's just that your hair smells different."
"Different how."
He opened his mouth. Closed it. Frowned like he was reaching for a word and couldn't find it. "I don't know," he said finally. " It's Just..... different. Good different." He paused. "Really good different."
She stared at him.
He looked genuinely puzzled. Which was unusual for Lucian....he was many things, but puzzled was not typically among them.
"You're serious," she said.
"Why would I joke about your hair."
She turned back to her dinner.
Nicholas she almost missed entirely.
Because Nicholas's version of shifted was so subtle that she nearly wrote it off as her imagination. He stood closer than usual....not close enough to touch, just inside the boundary of what was comfortable, like he'd recalibrated the acceptable distance between them without noticing he'd done it.
