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Well, that glimmer of hope died quickly. I lowballed him once, but it appeared he wouldn’t let me do that again.
“Six weeks.”
“Eight months,” he countered with a tilt of his head.
“Two months.”
“Seven.”
“Three.”
“Six,” he said, “and I won’t go any lower. This is meeting you halfway when I don’t have to at all. Consider it, what did you say earlier? Ah yes. A gesture of goodwill.” When I opened my mouth to respond, he added, “Six months, and if you still don't want to be here, I'll let you go.”
“You’ll ... let me go? Just like that?” He inclined his chin, but darkness clouded his eyes.
Eres and I both felt uneasy. The next question was perhaps the most important.
“And when that day comes?—”
“If,” he growled.
“Then what of ... what I guard? You’ll let me walk away as your mate, and ... that’s it?”
“I’m still working that out,” he began, sighing between his responses. “But yes, I will let you go. You have my word.”
“Fine,” I whispered. “Six months.” I tried not to focus on how long six months felt on Earth, much less what it could feel like as a prisoner.
An invisible thread pulled taut as the bargain we’d made solidified, the universe sealing it between us. The smile he gave me was blinding.
“Shall we kiss on it, then?”
“Yeah, right. Why not?” I mumbled, but my sarcasm was misinterpreted. Caius closed the distance between us in two strides. My lips parted at our sudden proximity, and his mouth came down on mine with a passion I didn’t expect.
My blood ignited. Everything else faded away, apart from his lips on mine. His taste invaded me, earthy and deep. He licked and nipped at me, causing me to shudder. I didn’t realize until our tongues twined together that I’d kissed him back, and gods, it was good.
A faraway part of me was saying this was wrong. That I shouldn’t be doing this, but that voice was silenced when his teeth scraped my bottom lip. I gasped at the sensation. Heat ricocheted through my chest, down to my belly, where it settled in my throbbing center.
“Ahem.”
My cousin’s fake cough startled me, pulling me out of the moment. I pushed at his chest, ignoring the hard muscle that met my hands. Caius released me but didn’t move an inch.
Clearing my throat, I wiped my mouth with my wrist. “That was meant to be sarcasm.”
Dark, bottomless eyes followed my hand’s movement, and his nostrils flared. “Whose smell is on you?” he ground out.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, taking a step back. “People. I live with a bunch of them, you know.”
“I know the scent of those I met in your home. This isn’t someone from your family.”
“What are you even—” I paused, flexing the aching joints in my right fist, and I groaned when I realized what he meant.
He snatched my wrist before I could pull it away. Caius inspected the small split in the knuckles, the healing bruise, and the slight swelling. Then he sniffed my hand, and a low growl rumbled in his chest.
“What happened?”
“It’s nothing,” I said, yanking my hand back and taking a step to put some distance between us. “I just took care of something before I left.”
Clara exhaled in an annoyed huff. “I knew I should have put up a shocking spell in case that douchebag showed up. I’d pay good money to watch him get electrocuted.”
