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He snorted. “Because of yourears? How weak did you think I was?”
“I didn’t think you were weak. I thought you were an asshole, disgusted by my ears, and a fae elitist,” I said matter-of-factly. “I still believe two of those things.”
“I don’t even want to know which ones,” he grumbled. “If I made a disgusted face, it’s because I was disgusted by how badly I wanted to taste them.”
“You did not want totastemyears.”
He leaned his head down and slowly dragged the tip of his tongue over the curve of my ear. I shivered, hard. With my bare body literally in his hands, the moment was very, very intimate.
And I wasn’t entirely certain I didn’t like it.
I fought to keep my voice even. “I bet it tastes like an ear.”
“Want to try it?” He pulled my face away from his neck.
When I opened my mouth to ask how he thought I would taste my own ear, he slid his tongue between my lips… and licked the length of mine.
Then he withdrew and pulled my head back to rest against his throat.
My mind spun again at the sudden increase in intimacy. “You justlickedmytongue.”
“After I licked your ear.”
“You’re supposed to hate me,” I whispered against his neck.
“Tomorrow, perhaps.”
Panic swelled in my chest. “No. You can’t be nice to me today and then go back to being an asshole tomorrow. I won’t know what to think or how to feel.”
“I don’t value kindness the way humans do, Nissa. If someone deserves my respect, I give it to them, but I’m not going to walk around smiling and asking people how their day is. I’ll probably always be an asshole.”
He misunderstood me. “I knowthat. I just meant you can’t go back to being an assholetome. I don’t like the push and pull of it; it doesn’t make me feel safe.”
“I apologize for making you feel unsafe. That was never my intention, and it won’t happen again.” His voice was quiet, but I didn’t question him. Kierden had never been a liar. “What else did your people do to you?”
Well, that was a dangerous question.
“What do you mean, what else?” I asked. If he wanted vulnerable answers from me at that point, he was going to have to ask directly and share vulnerable answers of his own.
“I know they starved you, little human. I saw the evidence on your body. It infuriates me that I didn’t put the pieces together sooner—and frustrates me that you didn’t attack me for the first comment I made about your hunger.”
Hurt curled in my abdomen at the reminder, but I didn’t move away from him. His body still felt too damn good against mine to move away. “Whydidyou make those comments?”
He let out a long breath. “I am immensely attracted to you. I was trying to make you hate me, because your hate made it easier to stay away.”
“It didn’t make mehateyou, it frustrated me. I knew that if I told you the truth, you’d start loading my plate with your food. I just didn’t want you to find out unless you cared about me enough to ask.”
“If you knew I would’ve fed you, doesn’t that imply that I would’ve cared?” he countered.
“Maybe? I don’t know. I was just hurt, and I didn’t understand the way you were treating me.”
A moment passed before he admitted, “I’ve told you before that those who seal mate bonds in my kingdom are murdered. Despite the danger, some couples choose to create a bond secretly. No matter what they do to hide it, we always find them dead in their bed within a few days, with glowing golden handprints confirming their connection.”
Sadness flooded me for their sake.
Though I couldn’t imagine a love strong enough to make me risk my life for it, I still ached for them.
Kierden admitted, “Sometimes they tell me after they create the bond, in hopes that I can help protect them. Even when I guard them myself, they still die. We’ve never found the cultist who must be hiding among our people. It’s the greatest shame of my life.”
