Page 137

A blood nanny. The words were nothing more than the truth, yet they chilled everything the night before had warmed inside me.

“But you’ve taken my blood. And that is illegal.”

“Renaud doesn’t know about that.”

“Maybe not, but he knows enough,” I countered. I should have stopped there, but I didn’t. “Your courtiers already suspect we’re in love. They accused me of it at tea.”

Yves went completely still. The wax cooled around his seal. Beyond the open balcony doors, the tide broke against the rocks. I waited for him to dismiss the accusation as court gossip that meant nothing. Instead, his chair shifted against the floor as he stood.

I watched him come around the desk, heart pounding. He stopped in front of me, close enough that I could feel the cold coming from his body.

Yves lifted his hand slowly, giving me every opportunity to stop him. His fingers swept a loose strand of hair behind my ear before tracing the curve of my cheek. I leaned into his palm before pride could save me. His thumb moved beneath my lower lip. My pulse stumbled, and the slight change in his expression told me he had heard it.

“Are they wrong?” he asked.

“About what?”

A cowardly question, even for me.

His thumb stilled against my skin. Yves expelled a tight breath, then allowed his hand to fall from my face. He reached behind his neck and unclasped the bloodstone.

“I don’t know why the gem doesn’t recognize you.” He placed the stone in my palm. “But I do, Cora.” His fingers folded mine around it. “I recognize you.”

My breath caught.

“I’ve recognized you since the moment I saw you through my telescope.” His hand remained wrapped around mine as the words began coming faster. “And I know you said this was just for fun. I know you said it wasn’t going to mean anything.” He brought our joined hands against his chest. “But it does mean something.”

His gaze searched mine, and for the first time since I had known him, Yves looked frightened.

“Cora, I love you.”

My entire body seized around those four words. Clenching tight, like I could pull them into my core and make them stay. My gaze dropped to the stone trapped between our hands.

He tipped my chin up to meet his gaze. “What if you were my mate?”

The hope in his voice hurt worse than the confession.

I pulled my hand from his and held up the bloodstone. “This says otherwise.”

He ignored the stone. “I’m not talking about my vampire mate. I’m talking about the mate Maris may have chosen for me.”

“Maris?”

“Yes, Maris.” He pressed his lips together and drew in a tight breath. “I realize how that sounds, especially to someone who isn’t from Valemer.” He dragged a hand through his hair and turned away from me. “I’ve never told anyone but Emmaline this, but the ocean was my first love. The sea and stars were the only company I had ever been fully comfortable with. Even when she was alive.” His gaze traveled toward the open balcony doors. “Then Maris’s star returned, and I looked through my telescope…” He turned back to me. “And there you were.”

I shook my head. “I was chasing after my mother’s ghost. That is not Maris’s doing. That was—” I tried to come up with a word to explain it. “Stupidity.”

“Or perhaps,” he offered, “serendipity.” The corner of his mouth lifted, but the smile disappeared almost as soon as it appeared. Yves began pacing beside the desk. “You are so much like the sea that I cannot believe none of it means anything.”

“How am I like the sea? I can’t even swim.”

“You are restless and contrary. Impossible to command. Frequently dangerous.”

“Yves…”

“I haven’t finished.” He stopped pacing and turned to face me, and all the humor had disappeared from his expression. “You are also the only person whose company feels as natural to me as sitting before the ocean. You make it possible for me to breathe. You make me want to leave that damned balcony and participate in my own life.”

Every word carried him closer, until only a few steps remained between us.