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ChapterSeventeen
Vori laughed, a breathless sound because Perry squeezed her so tight.Or maybe because she’d been relieved to find him here safe.
He held her as though she might disappear again.“How—?”
She pressed her hand over his lips to cut off the questions.Her consort was ever the lawyer, always examining and inquiring.“I have my ways.”She would never forget the sheer joy on his face when she’d dropped the shadows surrounding her.It made her wish they had more time.
He kissed her palm and her fingertips.“How did you escape?Where did you come from?I went over every inch of that closet looking for a secret passage.”
“You were searching for a way out?”This enterprising man.She’d definitely picked a survivor.
“Your pet book helped me out.”He met her gaze, reeling her in with the intensity of his.“I told you I would come for you.”
He’d been trying to get to her.The knowledge tugged at her heart, making it bump faster.“And what’d I tell you?”
“You’d find me first.But how?”
“You should know better than anyone that locks won’t hold me.I’ve gotten you out of not one, but two witch prisons.”
He narrowed his eyes.“How certain were you that you could escape?”
“Pretty sure.”
He breathed out a shaky chuckle.“Of course you were.”
She let his scent and muted powers and warmth comfort her as much as she’d wanted to reassure him.“I had to wait for the guards to leave long enough I could come.”
“They’re here too, outside the door.”
She stiffened.What if they’d heard her?
“Privacy stones,” he said, as if he’d read her thoughts.“I was gathering anything I could use to break you out.”
“Oh yeah, what else did you find?”
He tensed beneath her touch.Was he hiding something?“The lemon drops I packed for you.”
Oh, a good secret.“You brought me candies?”
“Packing some seemed smart the way you live on them in the human realm.You planning to answer any of my other questions about how you’re here?”
What had he asked?It was hard to concentrate with him this close.“Pick one.”There.He’d never need to know he’d made her forget.
“That kiss…” He trailed off.
Of course he would start with the kiss.“Not a question, counsel.You’ll have to do better if you want answers.”
“Did you mean it?”
Hewouldask the complicated first.It wasn’t an easy yes or no question.
Everything had been falling apart around them, and she’d gone with her instincts at the time.Risking rejection, letting him slip past the ginormous barriers she’d built around herself to guard against everyone but her adopted family, she’d opened herself.She’d taken a chance, and he’d kissed her back.
The memory made her lips tingle, her stomach flutter, and heat zip through her.She wanted more.But she’d already taken so much, had crossed the unspoken boundaries of their arrangement.
He pulled away.“If the kiss was part of being your temporary consort, to protect me, to hide my powers… If it was any of those things, I understand.”A master of argument, he’d almost hidden the hurt in his voice.Almost.
Damnit, she shouldn’t have hesitated.She should’ve told him.Revealing the truth wasn’t her norm.She’d hidden in literal shadows for so long, it was her automatic default.“No.The kiss wasn’t a political move.”Or it hadn’t only been one.“I meant it.”
