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I bit down on my lip, stopping myself from immediately denying it. “I am normally this fidgety,” I admitted. “And you do make me nervous. If you said there was no reason to be, I’d still feel that way.”
“But I wouldn’t tell you that,” he said. “You should always be nervous around one like myself.”
“Oh,” I whispered. “That’s . . . that’s reassuring.”
The Hyhborn lord smiled. There was this razor-sharp, almost predatory edge to it. “But you don’t have to fear me. There is a difference between the two.”
“How would you know if I’m nervous or afraid?”
“It’s in the quickening of your breath and your heart.”
My brows lifted. “I . . . I didn’t know you could hear that?”
“It’s not so much hearing, but if we’re focused on an individual, tuned in to their essence, we can. It’s how we can feed.” A hint of smile briefly appeared. “And I’m focused on you enough that I can tell exactly what causes that hitch in your breath— when it’s not fear that causes a change in your breathing and when it’s pleasure.” A pause. “Arousal.”
I inhaled sharply. “I’m not— ”
“Going to lie to me? Because I’d know better.”
“I don’t think you do,” I countered as I scooted back, the shirt snagging around my thighs.
“But please do lie. It amuses me.”
I frowned at him, thinking that was odd.
He planted a knee on the bed. Our gazes locked, and the urge to ask if he recognized me hit hard. He obviously hadn’t. If so, he would’ve surely said something, but for some ridiculous, pointless reason I wanted to know if he even remembered.
“Do you— ” Something stopped me. I wasn’t sure what it was. Why would it matter if he did? Or if I told him that we’d met before?
Then it struck me.
It was my intuition. The heightened level of instinct. There had to be a reason for that, especially since my intuition rarely worked to my benefit. My intuition was stopping me. Why, I didn’t know, but my heart turned over heavily.
“Are you all right?” the Lord asked.
“Yeah. Yes.” I cleared my throat. “I’m just tired. It’s been a strange night.”
He stared at me for a moment. “That it has.”
The nervousness he sensed earlier returned. “We should be leaving before— ”
“I know,” he said, and then the Lord moved so unbelievably fast. He was above me before I took another breath.
His mere presence forced me onto my back. Our bodies didn’t touch, but he was caging me, his large frame blocking out the quarters— the entire realm— until it was only him. Only us. He brought his fingertips to my cheek. My entire body jerked at the touch. The blue swirled completely into the green of his eyes as he drew his fingers down my cheek, catching a strand of hair. He tucked it back, his gentleness shocking.
“You’re not afraid of me now,” he noted.
“No.” I sucked in a small breath as the pads of his fingers made another pass over my bottom lip. “Are you trying to make me afraid?”
“I’m not sure.”
A shiver of apprehension tinged with something I couldn’t acknowledge skated over my skin.
His gaze swept over my face and then lower, across my throat. “I know you said you were fine earlier, but in a few hours, the skin beneath your eyes and nose will darken, joining the bruises I left upon your throat. Let me change that.”
I stared at him. “You . . . you can do that?”
“There are many things I can do.” That half grin returned as my eyes narrowed. “Let me do this for you.”
