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He watched me for a long moment, scanned the room again, and then gave me his eyes once more. “I have an affinity for creatures like the Souldirge. I was able to reach out to it in a way no one else had even tried.”
“What do you mean by affinity?”
One of his eyebrows arched. “I believe you owe me an answer, now.”
I paused, considering what I was going to say. “You looked a little sad, all by yourself,” I said.
“With respect,Princess, I don’t like half-truths, either.”
“It is the truth.”
“Not all of it. And I wasn’t sad.”
I gently shook my head. “That’s not what I see when I look at you…” I said, trailing off. “Maybe it’s not quite sadness I see, but there’s something there, like a grey cloud that hangs over you. I doubt if anyone else can see it, or if anyone else cared if they could. But I see it.”
“Do you care?”
I swallowed hard, my heartrate suddenly rising. “That’s… a question. It’s your turn to answer one.”
“I don’t like this game,” he grunted.
“Who says this is a game?”
“You’re right. It’s a chase.”
“Only, who’s chasing who?”
“I think it’s pretty obvious.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. You act like you have your guard up, but you could have chosen to avoid me at all costs, and even a man of your size could have succeeded. It’s not like there aren’t plenty of places to hide in this room.”
“Judging by the way you shot toward me, I have no doubt you would have found me no matter what.”
“Maybe. But you didn’t make yourself hard to find, which tells me you wanted this as much as I did.”
Another pause. “And what is this,Princess?”
My eyes fell to the top of his shirt, his loose buttons, and his bare neck. I was trembling, somehow. It wasn’t fear, though, butexcitement. Something about this man tickled all of my instincts and each and every last one of my senses. I couldn’t understand why, but the wolf inside me begged me to pull him close and wrap myself up in his scent.
There, I was promised an answer, and I had to find it.
Valerian looked puzzled. I hadn’t answered his question yet, and I was staring at his neck like I wanted to take a bite out of it. In truth, maybe I did… just a little. I shook off the strange desire, though, and instead drew myself closer to him, pressing my chest against his. Carefully, gently, I stood on my tiptoes, just enough to bring my nose closer to his skin, to the gap at the top of his shirt where there were no buttons. The world was watching, and I knew this as a fact, but part of me didn’t care about any of that.
I needed my answer, to find the truth his body was hiding from mine.
I had barely closed the gap between us when Tellren coughed loudly enough to attract the entire ballroom’s attention. I paused and looked at him, realizing only after Tellren’s eyebrows both arched that I had Valerian’s shirt in my hands, my nose was inches away from his neck, and I probably looked wildly insane.
Now, I cared.
“May I have this dance?” Tellren asked.
Valerian pulled away, offering only a slight bow. “Of course,” he said, giving me his eyes once more as he gave Tellren space to intervene.
Tellren took my hand in his, placed one of his hands on my shoulder, and danced us away from Valerian, who could only watch from where he stood. If I had to guess, though, he was relieved to be away from me, and that was even more infuriating than his refusal to answer my questions.
“Are you quite alright, Princess?” Tellren asked, looking down at me from atop his long nose.
“I am,” I said, “Why do you ask?”
