the wrong idea,” the Macronite woman on the screen said. She was standing next to Rahl the Nourisher, and that probably meant that she was his sister, Wisteria. “The Hollander princes are too wholesome to deceive you like that. No offense, Soren, but you know it’s true.”
“None taken,” Soren said.
“Then why do I feel like this?” I muttered, more to myself than to my unwilling audience. I wanted to believe what Wisteria had just said, but in the end, she was nothing but a talking screen.
It was hard to reconcile all those conflicting thoughts. On the one hand, I wanted to believe these people were trying to help. They sounded genuine about their intentions, and Dylan seemed to be getting better, too.
“Feel like what?” Soren murmured, his gaze locked on mine, an emotion I couldn’t name flickering in his eyes.
I straightened my back and held Soren’s gaze, allowing everything but his presence to fade. “I’ve just seen you do only God knows what to Dylan, and I’m still drawn to you. I want nothing more than to trust you, and just as much as that, I want to kiss you. Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds?”
I was putting it all out there now, and Soren was watching me closely, listening intently. My heart pounded and my stomach was a jumble of nerves, but I’d said this much, so I might as well keep going.
“That’s not me, Soren. I’m not an idiot. I’ve never paid much attention to men, let alone men from some other planet, but this...hell, this is ridiculous. Unbelievable. I’ve never even had sex, so why in the world am I feeling like this, and with you of all people?”
I swallowed hard, my stomach roiling now. I hadn’t meant to blurt that out, but it was the truth. I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted a man before.
Soren stared at me, his mouth parting and his eyes widening slightly. Maybe I shouldn’t have been this forward, but I was way past caring. I just wanted to get it all off my chest.
“Really?” he muttered, sucking in a sharp breath and blowing it out slowly. It was obvious he was struggling to keep his voice neutral. “I...didn’t know that.”
I crossed my arms and jutted my chin out. “Well, now you do.”
“Listen, Maya, I know this is pretty new and scary, but there’s a reason why you feel that you can trust me—and that’s because you can. I don’t want to hurt you, nor will I ever do so. Not now and not in a million years. And there’s a reason why you—we—feel that way.” I could barely breathe, barely move or do anything more than stare back at him as he made that revelation. “Our feelings, the way we’re being drawn together like this, it—”
Soren trailed off when someone cleared his throat. The sound of it cut through my mind like the crack of a whip. I’d completely forgotten that we weren’t alone here. I closed my eyes as my face warmed.
“I think this is the moment when we leave,” Wisteria said, casting a sideways glance at Rahl. He seemed as uncomfortable as she was.
“That’s right,” Aiken added, and then he cleared his throat once more. “Before we go, though, I just want you to know something, Maya. My heart goes out to you. This situation you’re in is a dangerous one, but we’re all here for you. You don’t have to face this all by yourself.”
“Absolutely,” Wisteria said. “I don’t expect you to trust any of us yet, but we’ll work hard to earn your trust.”
“And we’ll do everything we can to help.” Now it was Rahl’s turn to speak up. “Just know that you’re doing an excellent job at raising this child, Maya. I didn’t believe someone as young as you are would hold it together like this, but you’ve been absolutely brilliant.”
I didn’t know how to respond to such an outpouring of support, especially when I had just been so nasty to every single one of them, but thankfully no one expected me to say a thing.
“Well, I think that we’ve said it all,” Aiken piped in one last time, shrugging his shoulders. “It’s time we let the two of you get back to your, uh, talk.” He reached forward to terminate the connection, but right before he did it, he looked straight at Soren and lowered his voice. “And, Soren, go slow with that stuff about the gene.”
With that, they all