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His body stilled. “Marriage?”
“Yes, the human version of mating.”
His fingers wrapped tightly around my hip.
“I didn’t marry him. The whole thing was a long, drawn-out attempt to make a statement to my parents. The other family was going to kill me. When I heard them talking about what they were going to do with me, I waited until they were near a forest, and then threw myself out of the car. It was like… jumping off a running hellhound, I guess. But humans are a lot more fragile than fae. I got horribly injured in the process, and ended up spending a few days hiding out in the forest. Almost died a few different times. When my family finally found me, I was taken to a hospital, and ended up spending about a month healing there,” I admitted.
Priel was stiff behind me. Really damn stiff.
“Anyway, I survived, but I realized I needed to find a way out of my parents’ world. The problem was, there wasn’t one. They had the money, the property, and everything I would need to get away from them. When I asked them to let me leave, they said no, and warned me that they’d have to hunt me down if I ran, for my own safety. They didn’t give me the scars on my body, but as much as I hate to admit it, their choices were sort of the reason for the physical and mental reminders. And yet they still weren’t willing to let me go.”
“The day I wished on those candles…” I swallowed roughly. “I didn’t want to leave them. I loved them; I still do. They’re brutal, harsh, and terrible in some ways, but they were mine, and for that, they had my complete loyalty. I still feel guilty for making that wish, for leaving them.”
“They didn’t deserve you,” Priel said, his voice low in my ear.
“Maybe not, but they had me anyway.”
His hands stroked my hip, and we both grew quiet for a few minutes, lost in our own minds.
When I finally spoke up again, I was nervous. A little nauseous, too.
“If I let myself fall in love with you, it won’t be soft and gentle, Priel. I don’t love that way. When I care about something, or someone, I dig my claws into their skin and I hold on like the alternative would be my end. I don’t love lightly, or sweetly. You would get all of me. The shitty, angry parts. The scared, furious parts. The intense, obsessive parts. I don’t love many people, but when I love, it can be brutal, like the bastards who raised me.”
“Then I look forward to feeling your claws in my skin, Polaris.” His teeth brushed my throat, and I shivered. “And I can assure you that you will be loved just as fiercely as you love, should you let me in.”
My throat swelled.
“Tell me about painting. When did you begin?” His hand stroked my hip.
“When I was little, I used to draw on everything…”
Prieland I stayed in my bed for hours, talking. We didn’t touch intimately, or even kiss. But the conversations we shared, the stories we traded, were worth more than orgasms to me.
And as much as I’d fought it in the beginning, I was pretty sure that I was going to fall in love with that bastard.
The silences between stories were thick and comfortable, like a massive blanket. After one pause, I murmured, “Priel?”
He was silent.
When I paid attention to the rise and fall of his chest, I realized he was breathing evenly.
Happiness slid through me with that realization. The first day I was in his cave, I had thought it was an insult that he fell asleep so easily in my presence. Now, I knew it was a privilege that I relaxed him so completely.
I needed to pee, though, so I carefully eased myself away from him. It took a little time, but I finally made it out from underneath his thick, heavy limbs.
After I used the bathroom, I studied the man in my bed. He looked so peaceful.
My mind went back to the words of the poem we’d found.
I burn for you.
I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the intensity of my emotions, so I slipped out of my room for just a few minutes, leaving Priel asleep on my bed with one last long, backward glance.
My eyes scanned the living room. Everyone seemed to have gone to bed, except Mare.
I padded over to her, taking a seat on the other side of the couch. My legs slid up onto the cushions, and I wrapped my arms around them.
“You okay?” she murmured to me.
