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"Do you accept the possible consequences?"
What was he doing? Was he trying to convince her not to do it now?
"I'm well aware of them. Are you having second thoughts?"
"Your life is no longer in danger, so it's not necessary, and the truth is that Kian wouldn't approve of me giving it to you under these conditions. He was only willing to allow it to save your life. Also, I will have to thrall you to forget that it ever happened. In fact, I should have done that before the nurse came to see you."
"I didn't tell her anything. You said it was a secret."
"She could have plucked it right out of your head. Luckily, the clan has rules about thralling humans for frivolous reasons, so she wouldn't have done that unless she was forced to do it to save someone's life or to keep the existence of immortals a secret."
Despite the gentle kiss he'd given her, Dagor sounded so cold and detached that Frankie was starting to have second thoughts about her decision.
Perhaps she'd been wrong, and what she'd interpreted as love was a worry for her life or guilt for failing to protect her as he had promised.
If he didn't love her, she didn't want him to be her inducer. She would do what everyone was expecting her to do and choose a nice immortal male who would be delighted to have her as his mate.
She deserved to be wanted, goddammit, to be desired and cherished, and she wouldn't settle for less.
"You know what? Forget it. I don't want to antagonize Kian. Although I don't understand what the difference is between this and being later induced in the village by an immortal who would fall head over heels in love with me." She batted her eyelashes at him. "I deserve nothing less."
"You are absolutely right." He took her hand and lifted it to his lips for a kiss. "You deserve to be cherished and adored. But the difference between giving you a transfusion of my blood and doing this the traditional way is that the blood is a big-time secret while the venom bite is not. If you miraculously heal, Bridget will know that something is up because you are in no state to get randy with me right now."
"So? You can just thrall her like you were planning to do to the nurse."
"What about everyone else on the ship? The rumor about your injury has spread all over by now."
"It has? Then where is Mia? Why hasn't she come to see me yet?"
"Toven is waiting to hear from Aru that it's okay. He didn't want her to see you while you were unconscious, and since I needed to discuss the transfusion with you, I didn't inform anyone other than the nurse that you were awake."
"Right." She let out a breath. "Well, since it's not really necessary and it will anger Kian and create a huge headache for you, I'd better not do it now."
In a way, it was a relief.
People thought that she was impulsive, but the only impulsive thing about her was her big mouth, which she didn't know when to shut. Other than that, Frankie was levelheaded and she didn't like to rush into things.
She'd known Dagor for such a short time. Even if he had been all for it, she shouldn't tie her life to his based on the little time they had spent together.
If she hadn't promised Dagor to be his for the duration of the cruise, she could've started scoping out the available immortal males as soon as she was up to it. But she'd promised, so it would have to wait until she got to the village, which was better anyway because she wouldn't have to rush.
She would have plenty of time to choose a mate and make sure that he was someone she could see herself spending her immortal life with.
Dagor
Dagor's relief was mixed with a profound sense of loss that didn't make any sense. Frankie was right about refusing his offer, and he should feel relieved instead of disappointed.
"You're making a wise decision." He tried to sound unaffected and hide the turmoil he felt. "It doesn't make sense to rush into life-altering choices in the absence of a compelling reason."
He could feel a wall building between them, a barrier made of unspoken words and unacknowledged feelings, but he couldn't see a way around it.
Despite Frankie's naive belief that where there is a will, there is a way, not every challenge in life has a workaround. Sometimes, the price is either too high or too difficult to determine to justify moving in one way or another.
"There are plenty of compelling reasons," Frankie murmured. "I don't want to spend the rest of the cruise stuck in the clinic or in my cabin. I have nine more fancy dresses to wear to nine more weddings, and I want to have fun with you. None of that will be an option if I have to heal at a normal rate."
His heart skipped a beat.
Frankie still wanted to do it with him, not some immortal in the clan's village, and the only reason she had told him that she'd changed her mind was what he'd said about Kian disapproving of the procedure and how difficult it would be to hide her rapid recovery from everyone on the ship.
