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“This one.” Her eyes motioned to their clasped hands where her white-gloved thumb slid along the scar that ran from the inner side of his wrist, around the bone, and up onto the back of his hand.
Maybe he should have worn gloves.
He’d thought she was done asking about the past, asking about pain. He should have known better. And where better to ask than in the midst of a crowded dance floor?
He looked to his hand, following the line of tough white skin. “A skirmish.”
“A skirmish with who?”
Rune stifled a sigh. Short answers were becoming less and less effective with her. “Men in a tavern in the Caribbean. It was in the early years on theFirefox.We had just taken a pirate ship. A lucrative one and word had travelled fast. A slew of men thought to rob us.”
“Who were you with?”
“Just Des and Pad that night. There were eight of them, nine if you included the one that ran away in the midst of it. They were all quick to attempt to slice our throats.”
The grip of her fingers tightened on his hand as her blue eyes went wide. “Rune…”
“This is why I don’t speak of the past, Elle.” On his step backward he bumped into another gentleman. Bloody crush. He shortened his steps. “Everything that has happened, has happened. It’s done. The only thing accomplished by talking about it now is to send fear and outrage into your eyes—why would I want to see that? Why would I want you to suffer that?”
Her lips pursed. “The fear is because I care. The outrage is because someone made you bleed. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to know these things that are a part of you.”
He veered their steps to the left to avoid a portly gentleman out of step with his partner.
Her balance shifted effortlessly with his unexpected move and she looked up at him. “You three survived?”
“We did.” He gave a short nod. “The blade that did this was a desperate move on my part to block a short sword from meeting Des’s neck.”
Her body stilled with a gasp. “You saved his life?”
His feet kept moving, nudging her to keep step. “He’d saved mine not but ten seconds before. It happened back and forth between us more than I can count in those days.”
“And the men that attacked you?”
“All met with the blade.”
“You and Des and Pad…killed all of them?”
His jaw shifted to the side as his stare set on her. “It was the life, Elle. Survival meant killing.”
Her face blanched for a long moment, but then her chest lifted in a deep breath as her shoulders quivered. “You’re right. I don’t like thinking of you close to death. Of Des close to death.”
“Does that mean you’ll stop asking me on the scars?”
Her right cheek lifted in a crooked grin. “You will not escape my curiosity that easily. I will, however, begin to space out my inquiries so my heart can survive the tales.”
He closed a step, shifting to his right and immediately bumped into a tiny woman that had escaped his vision. Too many damn people. They were now nearly standing still on the dance floor.
His look centered on her blue eyes. “You realize it is acceptable to not need to know about my past—my scars?”
Her gaze pierced him. “Is it? They’re a part of you, Rune. They hide you from me and I don’t care for that. If I could erase every one of them—see beneath them—I would.” A determined smile made way across her lips. “So you can expect more questions in the future.”
Rune drew a breath, holding it in his chest. She’d not give up her questions of him, but she did actually allude to the future. It sounded like a solid trade.
By the grace of the gods, the music ended and Rune happily stepped off of the dance floor, weaving them through the mass of people to the edge of the room where he spied a footman with a full tray of drinks.
Passing a flute of champagne to Elle, he grabbed a glass of red wine for himself and then turned toward the expanse of the ballroom. For the amount of people stuffed into the massive room, he felt sorry for the couples still on the dance floor attempting to get a few steps in as the music started again.
He looked to Elle as he took a sip of wine. “Tell me, if Lord Kallen hates everyone and everyone hates him, why does everyone on the island come to this event?”
