Her voice lowered. “Did you mean that kiss yesterday?”
“I don’t do things I don’t mean.” His brow lifted. “Unless I’m forced to.”
Tingles cascaded across her skin. So he was truly interested, then? This wasn’t a game or a mask to hide behind?
If so, she wanted to tread carefully. Gently. Starting with?—
“You wouldn’t tell anyone, would you? About us?”
As soon as the question left her mouth, his face drained of color. The glimmers she usually caught behind the ice went dead. He laughed softly. “There’s nothing to tell.”
Shit.Had she overestimated her importance again? Was she looking for things that weren’t there? “I—I didn’t mean to imply there’s anus,” she said, taking two steps closer.
He took two careful steps back. “That’s good. Since there’s not.”
She waited for the addedYet.
It didn’t come.
Stinging heat crept up Anna’s face as humiliation settled into every crack and crevice. She fought the urge to walk away. Pretend it didn’t happen. Ignore her idiocy in thinking this was anything other than a tentative friendship, and barely even that. A single kiss didn’t mean he wanted more.
Of course he didn’t.
But she held firm and even managed to look him in the eye when she said, “Right. My mistake.”
His eyes flared with something close to surprise, but he remained otherwise still.
“David?”
Incandescently gold hair fanned over his scarred forehead as his head quirked. “Yes?”
“You’re okay?”
A weird smile twisted his mouth out of its straight line, far different than the curve of temptation from earlier. “I’m always okay, Anna.”
Anna sensed the inexplicable distance between them expand. She preferred the fake flirtation over this cold, emotionless shell, but she didn’t know how to fix this, didn’t understandwhat she’d done wrong.
“Are we done here?” David asked. “There’s a pile of books waiting for me in the library.”
“Oh.” She blinked a few times. “Sure. Mind if I join you?”
He stared for a moment, opaque eyes scrutinizing. “To what purpose?”
A fist squeezed around her heart, and pressure built behind her eyes. She’d nearly forgotten she hadn’t visited the library with him in weeks. “Never mind. I’ll see you at training tomorrow, then.”
CHAPTER 27
SEAN
Distracted by David, Sean failed to block Cathaire’s blow to his face. The pain slammed into his jaw, and he winced, holding a hand to his bloody lip.
“Pay attention!” Cathaire demanded. “Do you think you’ll survive Viterra if you can’t focus?”
Sean’s attention returned to the back of David’s head, and the urge to follow him grew impossible to ignore. “Something’s wrong,” he said.
Cathaire followed Sean’s line of sight, his brow scrunching. “In what way?”
“I’m not sure.”
