But in many ways, that was clue enough. After all, he knew precisely what I'd been thinking.
"Just because I can read your thoughts does not mean I always do," he said softly.
"And yet you are right now."
"Yes."
"And?"
"And what?"
I scanned his broad back, willing him to turn around and face me. He didn't. Meaning he wasn't about to make this easy. This step, if I took it, would be my decision and my decision alone. Despite his words earlier, he wouldn't do anything further to influence me. "You have no thoughts? No desires?"
"I have plenty of both, but ideally, none of them are ones that I should act upon."
I forced my feet forward, closing the distance between us. Even though the heat radiating off him burned across my skin, making my breath catch and my pulse race, the few inches that now separated us still felt like a mile or more.
"And realistically?"
"Realistically, I wish to plunge Valdis's screaming heart into the Aedh's flesh and rip him asunder."
Though there was no emotion in his voice, I felt it nonetheless. It burned inside me, bright and fierce. I licked my lips, wondering why I was suddenly so attuned to him. "Why do you want to kill him?"
He didn't answer, but just for a moment, flames flickered down Valdis's side, rich and red. The color of anger. The color of desire. It stirred through the threads of my being as sweetly as a caress.
"I didn't think reapers were capable of an emotion as strong as jealousy." I was standing so close to him that my breath washed across his shoulders as I spoke. His skin twitched so sharply it was almost as if I were flaying him.
"It is not jealousy," he retorted. "I simply do not trust him. And I do not like the timing of that phone call, so soon after Logan was killed."