sinceritas
integrity, honesty, moral purity
"Jane thinks you are interested in me."
Kent flicks his eyes up to hers, the candour of Maura's words stuns him.
He blinks, fidgets, tries to smile. And fails.
The restaurant is crowded, deafening, makes his head spin.
Maura is the only solid ground he finds, her look soft and her smile understanding in a way he can't comprehend.
She doesn't expect much, didn't mean to expose him.
And she hasn't. She chose her words carefully, he can tell, so not to force him and yet implying something that just he could understand.
He finds solace in the gentle curve of her mouth, in the tender expression she wears while undoing him so cleverly. He really admires her, really adores her.
"She really is a good detective," he dares to answer, lowering his eyes to the table. "Yet maybe a little blind when it comes to other's feelings."
She blinks silently at him when he looks back up, his phrase both a confession and an inquiry. He knows she understood him, sees her breath catch for the littlest moment. Her cheeks redden but she doesn't deny.
She looks smaller now but as soft as before, still accommodating.
"How did you understand?", he asks.
"When you kissed me – she begins – you really made an effort. You forced yourself to do it. I felt your discomfort. Not the discomfort of a man kissing a woman he doesn't like, but the one of a man going against his nature. That's what made me understand you did it to distract me. And when I cornered you in my office, you were terrified, completely out of place. You were not holding back because you respected me or just... didn't feel like it. You were afraid. You wanted to run away".
He should feel threatened, but that's just the furthest part of him, because all else is the awe he feels for this woman. His chest is light, the burden that weighted it down disappears among the words of the understanding woman in front of him.
"I want you to know your secret's safe with me".
He smiles, thanking her mutely.
"Yours is, too, Maura".
She doesn't dare say anything. Just lets her head fall a little. Her eyes are less happy now, a dark shadow crosses her face.
"Jane is a really lucky woman".