I held my breath at the battle raging behind his words, the reluctance lining his taut shoulders.
“But I can’t let you have this secret. Not fully,” he continued, his words growing quieter. “I’ll have to blindfold you.”
Instinctively, I stepped back, right into a wall. He didn’t pursue me.
“Why?” I rasped.
“I feel it is necessary to protect the heart of what I do. But I won’t do it without your consent.”
I bit my lip. He’d never hurt me or tricked me, even when he had the opportunity. He’d rescued me, healed me, fed me, keptme safe. If I ever wanted his trust, I would have to offer a slice of my own.
“I’ll allow it.”
He nodded. “Don’t move. I’ll be back.”
He was gone only a few moments, reappearing with a silky purple scarf threaded with gold. He must’ve bought it off one of the merchants.
He stepped forward. Close enough that I could smell him again, that salt and sunshine mixed with soap and spice. His scent and his nearness seemed to have a habit of nudging my heart into a gallop.
But I wasn’t afraid.
“Turn around,” he said in a husky voice.
I tried in vain to calm my breathing as I faced the cracked clay wall. He tugged the hood from my head. Silk whispered over my skin as he wound the scarf over my closed eyes. Could he feel the tremble that slithered from my head to my toes?
He finished knotting it, trailing his fingers over the ends. “Bearable?” he whispered in my ear.
No. He was torturing me. Albeit a different kind of torture than one would find in a prison. This kind incited a riot of goosebumps on the back of my neck.
I nodded, not trusting my voice.
He drew my hood back up over my head and threaded my arm through his, like we were strolling through a royal ballroom instead of shadowed alleys.
“What if someone sees us?” I murmured.
“They will not question a man leading his blind wife home.” Aiden’s voice sounded deeper and richer in my darkened world. And the words he spoke...
I stiffened. I couldnotlet him think he affected me. He would use it against me, surely.
My boot struck a stone, and I clutched his arm to keep from sprawling. “How long will this take?”
“Not long.”
We walked for some minutes, turning far too many times to be necessary. But I didn’t comment on his misdirection, focusing instead on keeping my balance. Eventually, I stumbled less and less. I anticipated his movements by each subtle turn of his body. Like we were dancing. Gods, I hadn’t danced in years.
What would it be like to dance with him? I slapped the thought away. Our story could only end in betrayal and death, not dancing.
“Wait a moment,” he whispered, then dropped my arm.
His warmth disappeared. I threw out my arms to gain my bearings but met air. There was thesnickof a lock opening. Aiden grunted as he shoved against something heavy. The croak of door hinges.
What if the blindfold were to slip just for a moment? Would he kill me for peeking? I hadn’t seen any weapons on him, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have concealed one somewhere. His boot or the back of his waistband, perhaps.
He’d also shown me he could cause plenty of harm without one.
Before I could decide, his hand wrapped around my arm again. “In here. Three steps down. Good. Hold still now.”
I froze, not daring to move. Instead, I listened. He had moved farther away from the scraping and creaking of heavy objects being moved around.
