I didn't answer. I couldn't. I tasted no lie in his words and yet I had an odd feeling it wasn't exactly the truth. And while I did trust Lucian, there was that growing niggle in the back of my mind that kept suggesting he wasn't being honest with me, that he'd never been entirely honest with me. Oh, his much-stated desire to seek revenge on those who'd ripped his wings from his flesh was real enough—and understandable, given that the process also robbed him of his ability to take Aedh form—but I wasn't so sure that anything else was.
Of course, that niggle might also be nothing more than Azriel's distrust worming its way into my thoughts.
"Your turn," he added, a touch of impatience coloring his voice.
I snorted softly. "Why should I have to tell you? Why don't you just pluck the answer from my thoughts like you usually do?"
He growled low in his throat and pressed against me, pinning me hard against the cool white tiles. The water that streamed down on us did little to ease the heat and awareness that surged between us.
"Once I might have. Now, that is not so much an option."
I frowned, my gaze searching his, seeing frustration mingling with growing arousal. He wasn't lying—not about this. Curiosity mingled with relief. "Why not? You've had no trouble before now."
"I know." He pressed one knee between my legs. I tried to shove him back again, but with as little success as before.
"Then what's changed?"
"I suspected the reaper might have had something to do with it, but this has not got his imprint."
Alarm stirred. Reading my mind was one thing, but if Azriel was also altering the direction of my thoughts… "Meaning you've felt him before?"
"I've sometimes felt his echo. He reads your mind far more than you think, Risa."
The alarm abated. I was well aware of just how often he was reading me. It was the thought of him actually doing more that had me worried. But even as that thought crossed my mind, I swiped it away. Azriel wouldn't do that. He was a man—a being—of more integrity than that. Lucian, on the other hand, was an entirely different matter.
He nudged my knees farther apart, obviously preparing to claim me more intimately. I ducked under his arms and retreated, but I was nowhere near fast enough. He grabbed my hands, pinning them behind my back as he pressed me belly first against the wall.
"Damn it, Lucian, this has gone far enough."