his tongue.
“You are so proud, so sure of yourself. Did you not care for me at all?”
“Of course I did. This was not a game, Ily. Never a contest to see who could sell more in the marketplace or barter the better deal. This is my daughter’s life. I had to protect her.”
No one had protected Ily from the monsters in this world, from the man whose duty it was to protect the youth in his charge, not prey upon them. She’d been hurt badly and despite that she’d begun to trust him. He was only beginning to realize the enormity of the mistake he’d made. “I crossed a line. I shouldn’t have taken you to bed until after you knew the truth and understood the entirety of what I wanted of you.”
“You are very stupid, Kal, when I thought you were so clever. I was the one who asked you to bed.”
“I was grateful for every moment.”
“Grateful,” she sneered. “I’m not angry about the sex. I wanted it. You were right about that from the beginning.” Glistening eyes, bright as diamonds. “I was so easy for you to read, like a gullible child.”
Ironic, that. He couldn’t read her now. He knew she was hurting and that he was the cause. He felt that he’d betrayed her, but they’d negotiated every detail. If she wasn’t angry about the sex, he did not understand.
She swiped at her face and her shoulders sagged. “You didn’t have to be kind. To make me feel safe here. I wouldn’t have turned my back on a child. You didn’t have to make me love you.”
He rocked back on his heels, joy and loss crashing into him at the same time. Love. He hadn’t let himself dare hope.
“That’s not...Ily,” he called out, but she continued toward the door with quick determined strides.
He was not clever. He was the dumbest ox of a man. He caught her arm, felt the muscles tighten under his grip, but he didn’t release her. Despite her promises, he didn’t trust her not to run.
She spun in his arms and lifted her chin defiantly. He touched her cheek, feathering his fingers over her sticky damp skin. Her eyes were rimmed in red, magnificently dramatic. His heart was like a rock in his chest. “Don’t tangle this. The commission, Nira. They have nothing to do with what is between us.”
“You tangled this. Why did you seek me out in the marketplace?”
His jaw clenched. He barely understood it himself. He’d seen her, he’d wanted her, he’d recognized what she was and saw a hope for Nira. All coming together in one perfect moment, one perfect person. He’d reached for everything.
She loved him. He should tell her he loved her. But what did he know of love? His father had trained him to rule. The only love he’d gotten was the devotion of servants, his brief infatuation with Salina, Nira’s mother. He’d only been seventeen then, and she ten years older. From Iril, her people believed blindness was a curse. She’d wanted nothing to do with their child and learning that, he’d wanted nothing more to do with her.
At every turn, what he learned of Ily only made him want her more.
He opened his mouth to try to put that into words. She stepped into him, lifting her body at the same time she grabbed his face and pulled him down. Too stunned to pull away, he accepted her kiss. Her delicious mouth, salty with tears. Still soft and sweet and perfect.
“Ily? What are you doing?”
She muttered something into his mouth. The words were muffled by his lips, but they didn’t sound complimentary. She pulled back just enough to look in his eyes.
“I’m untangling it.”
“What—?”
She nibbled all along his lower lip before catching it in her teeth and giving it a sharp tug.
“This won’t untangle anything.” He grabbed her ass, locking her body against his, pressing his erection into her belly. “We should talk.”
“Talk?” She shook her head, a strand of hair caught in the stubble on his jaw. “I want to know if it was all a lie.”
He tipped her face up. “You think I didn’t want you? Sweetling, I’m not that good of a liar.”
The twist at the edge of her mouth said she disagreed, but she didn’t argue. Her deft hands busied themselves with removing his clothes. He helped her. Eager, willing, desperate to ease her in any way possible. But this was wrong. He thought she meant to punish herself or