“Oh, Kinan.”
And finally, Cormal understood. For seven years, Kinan hadn’t been able to touch anyone. He’d already been living a nightmare, and Cormal had managed to offer him somethingworse.
“I’m so sorry,” Cormal breathed. “I want so much to make this better for you. But I didn’t—I don’t ever want to hurt you. I’m sorry.”
Kinan’s gray eyes were swimming with tears. “I couldn’t bear it, Cormal, truly I couldn’t.”
Cormal shook his head. “No, I see that you couldn’t. I’m sorry for suggesting it.”
“Truly?” he asked, voice small. “You’ll let it go? You swear? I can’t—”
He cut off, voice choked, and never had Cormal wished more to be able to touch him. He stepped closer to him instead, so thatthere were only a couple of inches between them, and stared into his eyes.
“I swear to you, Kinan, I won’t plan or suggest it again. I’ll let everyone else know it’s not an option. I’m sorry I hurt you. It was never my intention.”
Kinan’s voice was wet but his tone had a trace of teasing in it. “You’re anidiot.”
Cormal admitted, “It might not have been my smartest moment.”
“How could you ever think that I’d pick a body over you?” Kinan asked.
Cormal sucked in a sharp breath.
Kinan looked a little despairing. “Cormal,I love you. I will happily spend the rest of my life like this if I get to keep you.”
A full-body shiver raced through Cormal. It was his turn to blink back tears.
“I love you, too, Kinan. I want so badly to help you that I sometimes lose track of the cost.”
“Idiot,” Kinan repeated.
Cormal did his best to run his fingers down the side of Kinan’s face, approximating a caress.
“You knew that already, didn’t you?”
Kinan snorted, and he finally looked like he was mostly relaxing. “True.”
“You want to sit here for a little while?” Cormal offered.
Kinan nodded, and the two of them sat down on the rock together. They were quiet for several minutes, but it was mostly companionable, no longer stretched to the breaking point.
Kinan broke the silence. “You’re not going to let me do this in the future, are you?”
“What?”
He gestured around him. “Just being out here in nature like this. What if there’s a demon?”
“Oh,” Cormal said a bit blankly as he understood. He kind of wanted to hurry Kinan back inside now. “Well, I confess, I was a lot more reassured when I thought that nothing could touch you. But this just means that you’re vulnerable again, if in a slightly different way from someone else. Truthfully, you’ve never had the freedoms of those not born to your position. I’d want to make sure you have more protection. But I’m sure we can still come up with a few places that you can go. Maybe not sneak off on our own?”
He shot Kinan a look with a tentative smile, hoping to share the humor, but the other man’s face was tight.
“Did I cause the attack, do you think?”
“What?
“At my secret place. Molun. Did the demons come for me?”
“Oh!” Cormal said, truly startled. That had never occurred to him. “I don’t think there’s any way of knowing for sure.”
