Terena turned back with a frown. “Croak?”
“Aye,” he said. He took a couple steps closer and Terena braced herself. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of thinking she wasunnerved by him and wanted to keep as much distance as possible between them. The tension she’d experienced around him ever since the fiasco at the castle was unnerving.
“Well. He is. I mean… you know. He is, though.”
Terena cringed, hoping it was dark enough to hide her face.
Daris crossed his arms, his face guarded. “I had thought…”
The moment stretched while she waited for him to finish.
Then realization hit her.
A burst of laughter escaped her mouth before she could stop herself. She clapped a hand over her mouth but couldn’t hide the grin stretching her face to the point of pain.
“Sorry,” she said, her voice shaky with laughter. “Not laughing at you. Just…” She shook her head and gestured at him. “You thought he was my—you thought we were together?”
He shrugged, a small smile on his face.
Terena’s heart skipped.
“I wasn’t sure,” he said, his voice low. It rumbled through her. She wrapped her arms around herself to keep from shaking. “I didn’t think so when I first saw you. In Aurora. Thought maybe he was a colleague. Danilos didn’t bother to say, and I didn’t bother to ask.”
He raked a hand through his hair.
Terena watched him like a hawk.
“And in Sparta, when you were all out together; the way he’s always near you. Or how he touches you…”
“Oh gods, gross!” Terena cringed as the words escaped her mouth with such force she almost leaped toward him to stop them from coming out of his lips. “No,nota lover. Just my brother. We’re only a year apart, so we’re close.” She shook her head and loosed a sigh that was half laugh. “I’ll make sure he touches me less. Gods.”
Daris’s smile widened and he dipped his chin. “That’s good to know.”
Awareness filled her and her heartbeat ratcheted up. Terena’s pulse throbbed in her ears. “Why?” She cleared her throat. “Why is that good?”
His smile slipped but a look crossed his eyes that made her shiver.
A predator watching his prey.
“I’m curious about you,” he said, his voice almost a purr. He took another step closer. Right then, she wished so badly she didn’t reek of horse and sweat and a week’s worth of riding.
But she didn’t move away.
“Truly?”
He nodded.
“What,” she swallowed. “What would you like to know?”
He took another unhurried step closer.
She didn’t move.
Danger.
“What were you doing in Aurora?”
The fire in her blood winked away.
