Chapter Five: One Umbrella

Aurelia's POV

The rain came down so hard it bounced off the pavement in a fine mist, soaking my shoes within seconds.

Kael crossed the street without an umbrella of his own, his suit jacket already dark with water by the time he reached me. He didn't say anything,he didn't ask permission,he just opened the umbrella he'd grabbed from the sedan and held it over my head, angling it so the wind wouldn't tear it from his hands.

For a moment, neither of us spoke.

The rain hammered against the fabric above us, loud enough to fill the silence neither of us knew how to break.

"You shouldn't be here," I finally said, my voice barely audible over the storm.

"Neither should you," he answered, low and even, like he'd rehearsed the words a hundred times before he ever needed them.

I looked up at him,water dripped from his hair onto his forehead, and he didn't bother wiping it away,his eyes stayed on me the way they used to, back when I was someone he was allowed to look at like that.

"Kael…."

I never finished the sentence.

Headlights swung wide across the wet street, too fast, cutting through the rain at an angle that told me the driver had lost control before I even understood what I was looking at. Tires screamed against the flooded asphalt, the car fishtailed, sliding straight toward where I stood at the curb.

I didn't have time to move.

Kael did.

His arm hooked around my waist and he pulled me backward so hard the umbrella flew out of his other hand, spinning off into the storm.

I crashed into his chest, my palms flat against his shirt, and the car skidded past close enough that I felt the spray of water it kicked up against my legs. It clipped the curb where I'd been standing seconds earlier, then straightened out and disappeared down the street like nothing had happened.

My heart was slamming so hard I could hear it in my ears.

Kael's arms were still around me,I could feel him breathing, fast and uneven, his hand pressed flat against the back of my head like he was shielding me from something that had already passed.

"Are you hurt?" His voice was rough now, stripped of the composure he'd worn all night.

"No. I don't think so." I pulled back just enough to look up at him, and that was when I realized how close we still were, how his hand hadn't moved from where it rested against my spine.

Neither of us let go.

I told myself it was shock,I told myself it was the adrenaline, the fear, the cold rain soaking through my dress. I told myself a lot of things in those few seconds, and none of them explained why I didn't step away.

Neither did he.

"Aurelia."

Cassian's voice cut through the rain like something breaking.

I turned my head and saw him standing a few feet away, one hand still on the open door of his car, rain plastering his hair to his forehead.

He must have come back for the folder he'd forgotten, the one Bianca had walked in with earlier that same night,he wasn't looking at the street where the car had nearly hit me,he wasn't looking at the skid marks still visible in the wet asphalt.

He was looking at his brother's arms, still wrapped around his wife.

I stepped back so fast I nearly lost my footing on the slick pavement. Kael's hand fell away from me like it had been burned.

"Cassian." My voice came out thin. "There was a car….it almost hit me. Kael pulled me back before…."

"I saw." His voice was flat…too flat. The kind of calm that scared me more than shouting ever could. His eyes moved from me to Kael and stayed there for a long moment, something cold and unreadable passing behind them.

Kael didn't flinch under the look. "She could have been killed, Cassian. I wasn't about to stand there and watch it happen."

"I'm sure." Cassian's gaze finally slid back to me, and whatever warmth I'd seen in him at the office that afternoon was gone completely. "Explain."

The word landed like a slap.

"Explain what?" I asked, my voice shaking now, though I couldn't tell if it was the cold or the fear. "I just told you,the car came out of nowhere. If Kael hadn't….”

"I don't care about the car, Aurelia." He took a step closer, rain running down the collar of his shirt, soaking into the fabric. "I care about how comfortable you looked in my brother's arms."

"That's not fair." My hands curled into fists at my sides. "I almost died a few seconds ago and that's what you're worried about?"

"Should I not be?"

Something in his voice made my stomach drop,this wasn't jealousy over nothing. This was a man looking for a reason, any reason, and finding exactly what he wanted to see.

Kael stepped forward, his jaw tight. "Watch how you talk to her."

Cassian's eyes snapped to him, and for the first time that night, I saw something raw crack through his composed exterior. Years of quiet rivalry, buried under boardroom smiles and family obligation, rose to the surface all at once.

"Watch how I talk to my own wife?" Cassian's laugh was short and humorless. "That's rich, coming from you."

"Cassian, please." I stepped between them without thinking, my hand pressed flat against his chest. "This isn't what it looked like. Nothing happened."

He looked down at me, rain dripping off his jaw, and for a moment I thought I saw him soften.

Then his eyes lifted past my shoulder to Kael, and whatever softness had been there disappeared completely.

"Get in the car, Aurelia."

I didn't move. "Cassian…."

"Now."

I looked back at Kael one last time,he stood perfectly still, rain soaking through his ruined suit, his eyes locked on mine like he was trying to memorize something he was about to lose all over again.

Neither of us said the words we both knew were sitting between us.

I turned and walked toward Cassian's car, my legs unsteady beneath me, my heart still pounding from the accident, from the almost, from the look on my husband's face that told me nothing about tonight was over.

Behind me, I heard Cassian's voice drop low enough that only Kael could hear it.

"Stay away from her,I mean it this time."

I didn't hear what Kael said back.

I didn't need to.