W-what?
Moe bursts into laughter.
I groan into the floor. “Are you trying to kill me now?”
“You deserved that,” she says between laughs.
I push myself up onto my elbows and glare at her from where she stands near the bed, positively radiant with vindication.
“You laid a trap for me.” I raise a brow at her.
“I placed an obstacle,” she corrects primly. “You chose to charge into it like a lunatic.”
“You fled from me!”
“Because you gave the worst possible answer to a very important question!”
I stand up, rubbing my abused shin. “I gave an honest answer.”
“You said youonlykissed me because you thought we were dying!” Moe glares at me.
“No…well—” I grimace. “That was the reason I finally did it, yes.”
Her eyes widen in outrage. “Unbelievable.”
She throws her hands into the air and starts pacing the room. “So if we hadn’t almost been killed, you would have just… what? Continued to stare at me like a lovesick idiot for another decade? Another hundred years? Maybe a thousand, or is that still not enough?”
My mouth falls open.
“That is not?—”
“It is exactly what you were doing!”
“I was being respectful!”
She spins back around so quickly her hair whips over her shoulder. “Respectful? Nykander, you have been looking at me like you want to devour me for months!”
I pause and nod thoughtfully. “Well. That part is true.”
She makes a strangled sound of frustration.
“But that is not the point,” I continue quickly, stepping toward her. “The point is that I did not kiss you because I thought we were dying. Well notjustbecause of that. I kissed you because I have wanted to kiss you for an embarrassingly long time and nearly dying merely removed the part of my mind that kept telling me not to.”
That gives her pause. She blinks.
Some of the fury leaves her face, but there is still some suspicion lingering. “Then why couldn’t you say so?”
“Because I misunderstood the question,” I say, exasperated. “I thought you meant if almost dying pushed me to finally act on it. In which case, yes. Obviously. I had every reason to believe we were seconds from death, and I found the thought of dying without ever kissing you intolerable.”
Silence. Moe opens her mouth to say something then closes it. Finally, she clears her throat. “You’ve wanted to kiss me for that long?”
I laugh under my breath, though there is little humor in it. “Moe, I have wanted to do far more than kiss you for alongtime.”
Her face turns scarlet.
I don’t tell her exactlyhowlong, or she might get even more embarrassed. I mean I doubt she wants to hear how her employer was touching himself to thoughts of her at night while she was sleeping in the next room. Perhaps I’ll keepthatto myself. For now.
She folds her arms over her chest, her face still red and flushed.
