"Roberts, Nora - Stanislaski 08 - Dance of Dreams" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberts Nora)

honesty? They wouldn't accept platitudes or pat answers. "Shouldn't I be?" she
countered. His fingers tightened on her wrist as she started to rise.
"Ruth." She had no choice but to face him again. "Are we friends?"
She fumbled for an answer. A simple yes hardly covered the complexities of her
feelings for him or the uneven range of their relationship. "Sometimes," she
answered cautiously. "Sometimes we are."
Nick accepted that, though amusement lit his eyes. "Well said," he murmured.
Unexpectedly, he gathered both of her hands in his and brought them to his lips.
His mouth was soft as a whisper on her skin. Ruth didn't pull away but
stiffened, surprised and wary. His eyes met hers placidly over their joined
hands, as if he were unaware of her would-be withdrawal. "Will you tell me why
you're not happy?"
Carefully, coolly, Ruth drew her hands from his. It was too difficult to behave
in a contained manner when touching him. He was a physical man, demanding
physical responses. Rising, Ruth walked across the room to a window. Manhattan
hustled by below.
"To be perfectly honest," she began thoughtfully, "I haven't given my happiness
much thought. Oh, no," she laughed and shook her head. "That sounds pompous."
She spun back to face him, but he wasn't smiling. "Nick, I only meant that until
you asked me,
I just hadn't thought about being unhappy." She shrugged and leaned back against
the window sill. Nick poured some fizzling water and rising, took it to her.
"Lindsay's worried about you."
"Lindsay has enough to worry about with Uncle Seth and the children and her
school."
"She loves you," he said simply.
He saw itЧthe slow smile, the darkening warmth in her eyes, the faintly
mystified pleasure. "Yes, I know she does."
"That surprises you?" Absently, he wound a loose tendril of her hair around his
finger. It was soft and slightly damp.
"Her generosity astonishes me. I suppose it always will." She paused a moment,
then continued quickly before she lost her nerve. "Were you ever in love with
her?"
"Yes," he answered instantly, without embarrassment or regret. "Years ago,
briefly." He smiled and pushed one of Ruth's loosened pins back into her hair.
"She was always just out of my reach. Then before I knew it, we were friends."
"Strange," she said after a moment. "I can't imagine you considering anything
out of your reach."
Nick smiled again. "I was very young, the age you are now. And it's you we're
speaking of, Ruth, not Lindsay. She thinks perhaps I push you too hard."
"Push too hard?" Ruth cast her eyes at the ceiling. "You, Nikolai?"
He gave her his haughtily amused look. "I, too, was astonished."
Ruth shook her head, then moved back to the piano. She exchanged Perrier for
yogurt. "I'm fine, Nick. I hope you told her so." When he didn't answer, Ruth
turned, the spoon still between her lips. "Nick?"
"I thought perhaps you've had an unhappyЕ relationship."
Her brows lifted. "Do you mean, Am I unhappy over a lover?"
It was instantly apparent that he hadn't cared for her choice of words. "You're
very blunt, little one."
"I'm not a child," she countered testily, then slapped the carton onto the piano