Page 129 of Seasons of War
She didn't respond. These men put themselves in too much danger every day. They may not be able to get her out, and she wouldn't stand for either of them getting killed trying.
Zayne caught up with her, holding his helmet under one arm.
In the strangest way, this all made sense. Who else, other than Zayne, could get away with betraying the Phaedra right below his tower? Who had the resources and power to survive fighting against him in his capital this long? This was how her masked stranger always found a way to reach her. Always knew what she was doing no matter how well she hid it. He wasn't just any soldier.
Zayne hated himself for all he'd done to make it here, for all he'd do to keep his power. Might not have found the right way to fight yet. But that boy inside of him did not die. Did not give up.
Kira wouldn't either.
Though neither of them talked on the way back to his parents' house, things between them felt anything but quiet. Every step of the way, her skin burned, and her insides ached with the space between them, so much distance that she knew better than to try to overcome. No matter how much she looked at him, she couldn't believe what she saw. Her mind stitched together the memories of her stranger and those of Zayne into one and the same.
Zayne's tongue had danced along hers.
His.
Heat burned at her core, and she couldn't let herself imagine it. Not right now. It was too much.
“I know you don't ever want to talk about it.” Kira did him the favor of not looking at him while she said it. “You owe it to me though.”
“I know.”
“You don't let people close. So why did you do it?” Whether he answered or not, she might never get to ask him again, and she needed to know what he'd say. If he'd face her or turn away. “Why did you kiss me?”
When his gaze found hers, it stripped the breath from her lungs. She expected him to stare off into the distance and refuse to answer, not look directly at her. “You wrote in the sky over the Phaedra's tower.” That was a new look he gave her, one brimming with more than suffering and tension. One full of something else entirely. Maybe admiration. And he didn't say anything else, as if that was answer enough.
Respect was not something he gave out easily, and while feeling his appreciation and respect filled her with warmth, there was a sting too.
Kira thought about him too much over the years. It meant more to her than mutual respect.
What did that matter? That man she longed for was marrying another woman and hardly looked at her. He'd never been hers. He promised to never see her again, and when he'd been forced to, he still tried to look beyond her.
“You knew this whole time it was me, but I had no idea it was you,” Kira said. “It's been three years, and I never stopped hoping I'd meet you again.”
He sighed as they walked, expression unreadable. “There's nothing here.” It was the closest Zayne had ever come to stammering. The tension in his voice was clear. “Nothing between us.”
“Thank you for informing me of that.”
“You're my prisoner. The past is the past.”
She stopped, but he continued. “I wasn't your prisoner then.”
Frustration overcame any embarrassment when he kept walking.
“You breathed all over my lips and down my throat.Downmy throat, Zayne.”
Now he did slow, pausing before he worked around to face her.
“Is that your usual go-to for a first kiss?” she asked.
Though he looked at her, it felt like he didn't see her. “No.”
Of course, Zayne wouldn't offer her a crumb more than she demanded. Holding his stare, she said. “It was the best kiss of my life.”
Reading his expression proved as hard now as when he wore that mask, but Kira finally had her wish. He'd removed it, and she could see his face and eyes. It didn't help her understand him any better, but reconciling Zayne Riven with her masked man sent tingles throughout her body.
Zayne refused to touch her, but she viscerally remembered the hardness of his body against hers and the tenderness of his embrace. Those soft, strong lips.
Her cheeks warmed at how he could make her feel. This infuriating, stubborn, distant man did that to her?
