His head tilted, curious.
“Being who you are doesn’t make it okay to treat you this way,” she said. “You shouldn’t be persecuted because of the blood that runs in your veins.”
Pain coiled its way through the parts of him she could still feel. A wry smile pulled at his mouth. “Haven’t you noticed? Blood means everything around here.”
She chuffed out an incredulous laugh. “If these people are stupid enough to let your blood scare them, then they don’t deserve you.”
David’s eyes sparked, and suddenly his hand gripped hers back. “They don’t?”
Had she moved? Why were they so close? No, she sat in the same spot. He’d angled himself toward her, narrowing the space between them.
“Who deserves me, then?” His demeanor transmuted into something else. Something focused and intense, a predator preparing to pounce.
Anna’s mouth dried to fluffs of cotton. Her heart stuttered in her chest, tripping along in a strange, fluttery rhythm. It pumped fizzling, unexplainable heat through her body.
“Hmm?” He lifted a lock of her hair, rubbing between two fingers. Black strands gleamed against his golden skin, and she stared at the contrast, afraid to look into his eyes again. The crystals lighting the room cast strange shadows, but the Luster remained faithful, glistening about him with magic. Ever the fairy prince, beckoning her closer. “I’d really like to know,” he said. “Because earlier you were asking me to keep us a secret as if you were ashamed of having me close.”
Wait…that wasn’t what she said.
“Earlier you said there is nous,” she replied.
His mouth—that dangerous, coercive mouth—curled up at one corner, and Anna felt it like a blow to her chest. “I lied.”
Her breath stuttered.
“So tell me.” His thumb brushed her knuckles. “Are you ashamed?”
She shook her head.
“Doyoudeserve me?”
“I—um—I’m?—”
Summoning her courage, she met his eyes. Her breath vanished from her lungs, and when she tried to refill them, she wasn’t breathingair buthim.
Spice and mint, and something dark and merciless. It whispered of temptation and falling from heights she might not survive. The inchoate attraction that had built a rickety home in her heart sharpened into focus and laid down steel girders. It coalesced into a single entity.
Want.
She’d never desired someone this way, had never even felt a smidge of curiosity regarding it. It was like sex hadn’t existed until this moment and now it was theonlything that existed.
Terrified at what it could mean, Anna tried to tell herself it wasn’t as serious as she was imagining. Pixies were capable of these feelings without love involved. Affection was all she needed, and hadn’t she already admitted to liking this man? To respecting him?
A person couldn’t fall in love this quickly. Such ideas were laughable. Fanciful.
He wasn’t even a pixie!
And now she wasn’t sure what to do.
Did he want to?—
Should she?—
The worst part was the knowledge that David could sense every confusing emotion inside her—the desire, the uncertainty, the warm treacly sensation she feared might be a too-strong attachment growing roots inside her.
He dipped a tad closer. “You don’t have to be nervous, Anna. It’s just me.”
“I can’t help it,” she admitted with a trembly voice. “You make me nervous. You always have.”
