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“I did not ask for your fear. You offered freely. You can try to pretend that you do not but...”
“Do you have cameras in here?”
She was actually used to being under surveillance. It was something that she accepted as part of her life, but she did not know him, and she did not have to accept it here.
“No,” he said. “It is simply an intercom system with which I can speak to you. The common areas of the home have cameras, but not the private spaces.”
“But you can hear me at all times.”
“No. Only when I have the conversation opened up. I have no desire to hear you at all times. If I wanted that kind of distraction I wouldn’t live here.”
“Perhaps, if you are so attached to your solitude, you should set me free.”
“Back into the woods?” He paused for a moment. “You must have been hiding from someone who truly frightened you, my goddess, to have scrambled out into the forest and curled up in a shack such as that.”
He wasn’t wrong. And it alarmed her how that insight curled its way through her stomach, and felt warm. Nearly felt like care.
“You asked for my protection,” he continued. “I can offer it to you.”
She looked around, as if she could see him when she knew she couldn’t. “How?”
“Go have some dinner first.”
“Will you be joining me?”
He laughed. The unkind, hard-edged sound filled the room. And cut her like a knife. What had been warm and sensual a moment before now felt frightening.
“No. And you will not thank me if I do.”
“H-how do you know I won’t thank you? You cannot simply make assumptions about me. You don’t know me at all.” And she was tired of people assuming they could speak to what she wanted or needed.
“Andyoudo not knowme.”
“You say that you don’t wish me to be scared of you, and yet you do seem to go out of your way to engage in intimidation tactics. To make yourself as mysterious as possible. You call yourself the devil, and yet you have not hurt me. I know more about you than you might think.”
“So you think. Go and have your dinner. We can speak like this.”
She huffed, but found the door to the room unlocked.
“The castle is still locked,” he said, his voice following her. It was disconcerting. She had wondered if he could read her mind, but realized that it was a natural thought process to have, when she had been previously kept in the room. So it wasn’t as if it was a reach for him to guess that she was wondering about her range.
“You’re headed the right way,” he said.
“This is really annoying,” she responded.
“I’m sorry that your prison isn’t to your liking.”
“You say that as if I should expect to be in a prison. I believe this is quite a high price to pay for a croissant and a cup of tea.”
“So you say.”
She didn’t know why the conversation verged on enjoyable, he was being ridiculous.
“So would saymostpeople.”
“And what do you know about the world?”
He had a point, she couldn’t deny that. “Very little. I have been kept in my father’s compound for all this time. But... I have had the chance to observe the way people behave when they are jockeying for power. And so, I think in some ways I know quite a bit. I know that you can be surrounded by luxury, and yet, the people around you can be craven. I know far too much about things like that.”
