The question is not cruel.I want to tell her yes.I want to give her the easy answer.The pretty answer.The one that makes me look less like a threat and more like a man.But I told myself I would not lie to her.
“I don’t know,” I say.
Her face stills, and the room seems to hold its breath.
“But I am better when you speak,” I add.“Your voice reaches me.”
Something moves across her face.Fear.Awareness.Heat.A complicated tangle I want to unravel with my teeth and hands and patience I don’t possess.
She looks away first, and the beast preens like an idiot.I hate him.I am him.
After the meeting, everyone scatters to prepare.
Aldron disappears beneath the bar to contact informants.Malichai drags Ari into a private conversation that starts with her saying, “Don’t use your king voice on me,” and ends behind a closed door.Akasha and Krishka leave for the coven’s supplies, Korvin shadowing them.
Cruz goes to check weapons.
Briana remains at the bar, staring at the blueprint.I should leave her alone.Instead, I stop beside her, keeping distance between us.“You don’t have to stare at it until your eyes hurt.”
“I’m memorizing.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you bothering me?”
“Because you haven’t blinked in a while.”She blinks deliberately.
She folds her arms.“Better?”
“No.”
Her mouth twitches, then falls.“I hate that place, and I haven’t even seen it.”
“You don’t have to go.”
Her eyes cut to me, and I lift a hand before she can stab me with more words.“I know.Your choice.I’m just saying it once.”
“Only once?”
“I am capable of growth.”
She huffs a laugh, and the sound does something dangerous to my chest.I look away, because watching her laugh feels too much like touching something sacred with blood on my hands.
“Knox.”I look back.“Do I scare you?”she asks.
The question guts me.“No.”
“Then why do you always look like you’re about to run from me?”
“Because I am.”
Her breath catches.I force the truth out before cowardice can stop me.“Not because you scare me.Because I want things from you I have no right to want.”
Her cheeks flush.Not much, but enough.
“What things?”she whispers.
The beast rises with a low, eager rumble.I could tell her.
