The frown slides off Cainon’s face, and his features harden.
Sharpen.
“Are youofferingyourself to me, petal?”
I open my mouth, almost spilling a prickly sprout of denial before I hack at its roots. Feel it wither against my tongue. “What if I am?”
He releases a deep, gravelly growl that lifts the hairs on the back of my neck, then threads his fingers through my sodden locks, gripping so hard I choke back a scream. “Why?”
That causticthingbeneath my skin swells to a splitting degree. Everything feels too tight.
Too small.
My heart thunders, head spinning, words clanking together like boulders, making it hard to pick the right ones.
“I saidwhy?”
Because I need to become indispensable.
Because I need your trust if I’m to get out of here and save these people.
He steps closer, his hard, hot body again crushing me against the bars.
Too close.
Focus, Orlaith. Focus.
“Because I know how it feels to hide the monster within,” I rasp, pulling a strangled breath. “To wear a brave face while all that ugly stuff inside gorgeson everything you love.”
The muscle in his jaw bounces, his stare unflinching, penetrating—a tower of menacing brawn poured upon me, oozing arrogance and something … else.
Something that makes another tendril of sadness twirl up my ribs and peck at my heart.
There you go again, pushing me away.
Would it be so hard? To love me?
Her aim wasn’t as good as yours.
His earlier words strike me like a volley of stones, and that beating organ inside my chest spears itself on a rib as I piece together the fragments of his damage …
His bestial, broken father on the floor.
The way he spoke about his mother.
The scar on his chest.
I look into his hollow eyes, and all I see is a lost, lonely boy desperate to prove his worth.He’s reaching for a love that isn’t his, and I understand that brutal beast too fucking well.
I hung off Rhordyn’s every move since I came of age and noticed him around the castle.Trulynoticed him as more than just the High Master who offered me refuge and took my daily offering. I noticed his stoic dominance and unflinching manner. His rich, rumbled words that bored beneath my skin and rattled my bones.
My soul.
I noticed the way my heart began to race every time he cast fleeting looks in my direction, like a single word from his mouth could will it to stop.
To start.
I grew in a pot of unreciprocated love, then went into shock when he came to Bahari, crumbled that pot in the might of his crushing fists, and shook all the soil from my roots.
