you will meet all your loved ones again someday in the afterlife. You are denied that comfort because of the nature of who and what you are. I can’t even imagine how much pain that causes you.”
“It is … it is not an easy choice to come back from the Ether. It takes great fortitude of spirit to encourage ourselves to leave the relative safety of it. But that would be like shutting yourself off from the beauty of loving relationships because there is the painful possibility it will fall apart. Right now my queen is struggling with this very problem. In spite of her devotion to our people, her commitment to seeing an end to this infinite war, she did not want us to be reborn because it would mean one of us would eventually have to watch the other die. When you love as deeply as we do, with every corner of the soul … the loss is incomprehensible. And even a hundred years in the Ether is not able to erase the agony of it.”
“Y-your … queen?”
Menes looked at her in surprise, suddenly realizing how much he had c to make me feel …s dangeronfided in her. He had not wanted to mention Hatshepsut to her just yet, to lead her to believe that Jackson was unattainable because he was destined for another. It was bad enough that Jackson was struggling with his conscience on that one.
But perhaps it would be for the better, he mused thoughtfully.
“Yes. My queen. She is in the Ether, awaiting rebirth. She and I … there is nothing to compa26; and
CHAPTER TEN
, wouldn’t you say?m“If you
She was pissed. Really, really pissed. Probably because her whole body was burning with the embarrassment of having been made a fool of. It was bad enough that Jackson had been yanking her out of her comfort zone and rubbing her raw against her grating ethics, but to know that he knew there was no future between them and had manhandled her anyway?
Oh yes. She was furious. Her whole face and body burned with it, her heart sinking with shame for being so foolish even as her back rose into defensive hackles. Her fingers curled, as if they wanted to grab him around the neck and choke the life out of him. It was no wonder, because the impulse was not all that far off in that moment. And he was smiling at her still! That cocky, smug little smile that felt to her like he was thinking dirty, dirty thoughts about her.
The pig.
“It figures you would be proud of yourself for that! Quite the accomplishment, getting your hands on my ass. Wow. I see why you’re the ruler of your people,” she said, venom in every single word she spat at him. “With deception skills like that you are perfect for politics!”
“If you equate me with the politicians of your society you are mistaken,” he said with serious intellectual contemplation in his tone. “They are renowned for their treachery and deceit. I, however, have never lied to you.”
“Oh sure, you just decided to omit a few key details,” she said bitterly.
He stepped closer to her then, invading her personal space and forcing her to look up. She tried to yank her wrist free of him and backpedal, but to her dismay the wall was at her back and his grip was not easy to break. After all, he was a titan. What chance did she have against such a powerful being?
Well, she might be outmatched physically, but in the matter of wits and, apparently, ethics, she had him in her dust.
“That’s just as bad as lying,” she railed at him, but awkwardly realizing it was very uncomfortable to argue and make a stand when being bathed by the overwhelming heat of a powerfully potent male. “It makes you even more of a pig because you can justify yourself in such a self-serving way. No wonder your people have been at war for eons!”
“I’m so surprised,” he said in a soft, matter-of-fact manner, “to find you so harshly judgmental without even giving opportunity for explanations.”
“I think the topic at hand is pretty self-evident!”
“How strange,” he said with a soft, honest sense of musing as he reached out and caressed her temple lightly before running two fingers along the length of her hair, “that you profess such unequivocal knowledge about a person belonging to a species that, for you, had not existed before today. I had thought you