“Anything.” He lifts a hand, cupping my face and dragging his thumb lazily along my lower lip. “As long as I can watch your lips.”
“I can’t think of a single song.” My cheeks are burning.
“This is why I never wanted you to look at me,” he says slowly, a smirk curling his mouth dangerously. He looks as if he intends to devour me. “Because I knew if you did you’d be stunned into silence. And I never wanted to see you quiet.”
I laugh with more conviction. I’ve never had anyone tell me they wanted to hear me before. Feeling heard and seen is more intoxicating than too much faerie mead. “I thought it was because if I looked at you, you could never let me go?”
It’s his turn to chuckle. “You remember that.”
“I remember every single night we spent together in excruciating detail.” I shift, our thighs brushing, pressing closer together.
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“As do I.”
“Davien…” I search his eyes for an answer I know I can’t find without asking both him and myself. “What am I doing here? What are we doing right now?”
Davien hooks my chin, directing my face upward. He leans a bit closer. “I don’t know…but I think I like it. Do you?”
“I—I don’t want to be hurt.” Anything more than a whisper would feel like a scream now. He’s so close. A breath away. A mere quiver and my lips would be on his. A shiver tickles my spine, tempting me to test the theory.
“I would never hurt you.”
Truth. My eyes prickle. How can something be both truth and a lie at the same time? How is it possible for him to mean something completely and yet I know it’s untrue? “All of this will hurt me though.”
“All of what?”
“All these feelings. I know how this ends.” It ends with a cold house and a one-sided marriage. It ends in emotional warfare with words sharper than any steel.
“Then let’s not worry about them,” he suggests casually.
That is everything I hoped for. “Can it really be so simple?”
“I told myself when I married you that I could never love a human.”
“There is no way I’d ever love you.” Or anyone else.
“Good, then we’re on the same page.” He keeps leaning forward and I keep leaning back. Soon I’ll be flat against the armrest and sofa. Soon he’ll be on top of me. Heat rushes throughout my body.
“No emotions?” My eyelids are heavy. Every blink is longer than the last. His lips curve like a scythe, and I am ready for harvest.
“No love.” It sounds like a promise. “Though, if you let me, I will make you feel.”
“Feel what?” My voice quivers.
“Everything.” The word hangs as he waits for my objection. This is the point of no return I saw coming days ago. Everything about him is forbidden, everything screams of heartache. But I will not be my father’s daughter. I can indulge in these physical needs without falling in love and giving all that I am in the process.
Can’t I?
Before I have a chance to reexamine, his mouth crashes on mine.
