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My brothers pleading—
“Jude?” she pressed. I swallowed hard, focusing on her face as I found my way back from drowning beneath the weight of the past.
“Let’s just say I’m good at what I do,” I said vaguely, hoping to leave it at that. Of course, she wouldn’t let it go.
“And what is it that you do? Because I’ve yet to see the fearsome commander in action. I’ve observed Harlow and even Carter during training sessions, but never you, not really. You’re always a shadow lurking in the corridors, watching. A ghost, more like. Even when you knocked Adam on his ass in the library, I couldn’t see a damned thing.”
Her thigh pressed against mine, her inviting heat dispelling the instinct to dodge the question.
Iwantedto answer. Maybe then she’d see the monster I was. “I’m good at killing the king’s enemies.” I held her eyes as they widened. To her credit, she didn’t recoil. “I’m sure the rumors you’ve heard of me already paint a pretty accurate picture.”
The moment of shock passed quickly, and Kiara raised a single brow. “Don’t forget, you’re also quite exceptional at shifting most of our conversations toward the horribly bleak. It’s actually a skill.”
I basically had just admitted that all the rumors of me torturing, maiming, andkillingwere correct. And the weapons with which she chose to respond? Sarcasm and a smile.
“Is that so?”
“Absolutely,” she affirmed, nodding emphatically. “You’renearlyas impressive as I am at turning serious situations around with pure wit and natural charm.”
“For such a tiny person, you carry anobsceneamount of confidence.”
She scoffed at my astute assessment.
“I suppose we’re lucky we’re both here to balance one another out.”
That last part slipped out. But it held enough truth that she grinned, the pure genuineness of it devastating me. I dug my nails into the flesh of my palms. The bite of pain did nothing to break her hypnotic hold, so I pressed harder.
I’d killed and tortured men, had their blood paint my face and hands.
I could ignore their desperate begging, turn off my emotions as they screamed for the pain to end. Formeto end it.
But one spirited girl could send me to my knees.
Kiara didn’t seem to notice my struggle. “Together, we make onealmoststable individual,” she replied, repressing a snort.
I wondered what her laughter would sound like if she truly allowed herself to be free. If the weight of this world wasn’t so devastating.
That magnetic lure I’d failed to fight pulled us together, and as if an invisible string was tethered between us, we drew closer. Kiara’s face hovered but inches before my own, and a burst of adrenaline prickled at my insides, a fiery heat coiling in my stomach.
The rest of the world could go screw itself.
I hardly noticed the others playing their card game, hardly made out their voices.
I forgot about all the reasons Ishouldn’tbe talking with her, leaning into her body, allowing my baser desires free rein.
I forgot myself, and therefore, I lost control over my mouth.
“You are what I imagine the sun to be like,” I whispered so softly I wasn’t sure she could hear the admission. “Fiery. Beautiful. Damning.”
She didn’t reply, didn’tmove.But her eyes… They fell to my mouth, a rosy blush creeping up her chest and to her neck. The instinct to lean down and taste her heated skin had my hands twitching, my control slipping.
I shouldn’t have even said those words, but it was too late, so I hastily added, “Don’t have anything to say now, Kiara?”
She shivered as I spoke her name, which came out as a raspy plea.
All the cockiness, the swagger, had been wiped from her features. I had the impulse to close the distance and see if she tasted as I remembered. It had been too brief, that kiss. If anything, it had been a tease of what might happen should we both give in, which was probably why I was acting against Isiah’s warning.
I’d never wanted anyone as badly as I did her, and how she looked at me—like I was ahero, a man worthy of her respect—had grown addicting. I wanted to drown in that look and never come back up for air.
