Synnr's Hope - Kate Rudolph Page 0,46

that she could challenge him like that. He acted like he came from money and she hadn’t been surprised to learn it was true, even if the amount had been shocking. He needed someone who was down to Earth to question him. Or maybe not down to Earth. It didn’t matter. He’d been given a human for a Match, a human who had fought for all she had, one who came from a long line of women who fought for all they had. She wasn’t going to just take this lying down anymore. She was sick of taking his declaration as a given. If he didn’t want to hookup, fine, she couldn’t force him. But she deserved an explanation for why they were just ignoring the sizzling chemistry sparking between them. “What’s your big hang up anyway? You say most Matches end up together. Clearly we’re attracted. Why not just see what happens? Why fight it?” She would have questioned how the whole Matching thing was affecting her free will under other circumstances, but horniness might have been interfering with her logic.

Just a little.

He wasn’t going to answer. He was quiet for so long she was sure of it. She didn’t drift off to sleep in that time, but she might have blinked heavily a few times. And then he opened his mouth.

“My father found his Match when I was a boy.” He said it sorrowfully, and if he’d already been born then his father’s Match was not his mother.

Lena let him keep talking.

“He and my mother had been married for years. They had me and my siblings, and they were happy and in love. Until he met Shodi. It turned out she was his Match. He said nothing happened, but it tore my parents, my family, apart. Ortid and Micia were too young to really remember, but I do. It was horrible. The lying, the cheating. And my mother... she’s strong. She doesn’t let anything in. And that hardened her so much. I... I can’t.” It sounded like he was cutting the words out of his chest and handing them over to her. This was an ancient pain, something foundational, something that defined him to the core of his being.

“That sucks.” It was such a trivial response, but what was she supposed to say? He was hurting. He’d been hurt by the actions of adults when he had no way to stop them. But she didn’t see what one thing had to do with the other. His parents had been married but not Matched. His father had cheated. She and Solan were Matched, not married, and neither of them had been romantically entangled before all this had happened.

“Do you understand why I can’t?” Desperation clung to his question and she could feel him staring at her through the shadows of the room, though she hadn’t heard him turn. She could feel his eyes pleading with her to let this go. He’d given her his truth, now it was her turn to accept it.

She could. It would be one simple word. One simple lie, and they’d never revisit it again. Lena’s heart hurt for him. She wanted to offer him the comfort he needed. But she couldn’t let her life be ruled by the mistakes of people she’d never even met. She wanted to take Solan’s pain away, but the root of all his suffering came from a lie, and she refused to compound it by lying again.

She understood why he said he couldn’t. But did she accept it? “No.”

The denial hung in the darkness between them and they didn’t say anything else. When sleep came it was fitful. But at least the house didn’t attack again.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

SOLAN ANGRILY SHOVED his spoon into his mouth and didn’t look at Lena. His sleep had been turbulent when he’d finally succumbed, tortured with visions of her laid out under him, her lips swollen from the power of his kiss. It was a miracle his cock hadn’t betrayed him in the night and only an incredibly icy shower had served to dull his desires enough once he crawled out of bed.

The house was too small. There was no place for privacy, especially since they couldn’t remove food from the kitchen.

Was his point about their connection so hard to understand? A Match could overpower all logic and reason if they weren’t careful. And if that one kiss was any indication of what it would be like between them... some things were too powerful to