“Darius?Are you telling me the truth?”She stared at me with suspicion while biting her lower lip, likely unaware of this glimpse of vulnerability.
“Does it matter?”I growled, feeling stupid.
Wanting to hear a passionate declaration of love before I admitted to anything more, I knew the remote chance of that happening and felt a huge wave of frustration.
Why couldn’tshetell me howshefelt?
I tried to sneak a peek at her thoughts but was rebuffed by a strong inner wall.And Samantha said she had no power.As my frustration built, her napkin began to smoke.Damn it.
She hastily smothered it with her water glass, glancing up at me in surprise.“What was that for?”Instead of sounding shocked or scared, she sounded annoyed.
Her prickly tone made me want her all the more.
And I knew.
By the Light.I’m in love.
Chapter24
Samantha
Icouldn’t stop staring at Darius’s clenched jaw.I didn’t think I could say anything coherent following his admission, stunned by what he hadn’t wanted to admit.
Affai.Heart mate.Beloved.
Thrilled yet scared, I didn’t know what to say.I had trouble explaining my own feelings for a man I’d only recently just met.Yet the truth couldn’t be denied.
I loved him.Was he really saying he loved me too?
I wished I had the courage to ask him outright, but I didn’t want to face rejection yet again.So what that “affai” meant beloved?Perhaps he’d gotten carried away during sex.Men often said things they didn’t mean in the throes of passion.
Then why had he been he so hesitant for me to know what the blasted word meant?
Shoving my scorched napkin aside, I focused on my food.Darius remained quiet and continued to eat as well, shoveling his food into his mouth as if the world were about to end.
The silence lengthened.What did he expect me to say?That I loved him beyond anything I’d ever known?We’d only just met, and I had a five-year plan to follow.So far, the no-sex rule had gone out the window, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t focus on myself and my career before looking for a man to complete the picture.
I pushed my vegetables around on my plate, isolating the red and yellow peppers from the good stuff.I didn’t like feeling so conflicted.Because the trouble was, I had a feeling I’d finally found Mr.Right.He was the real deal.
But of course, with my luck, Mr.Right had to be from another world in which he was freaking royalty!
No, his title didn’t impress me.It intimidated me.I was just too stubborn to say so.
I glanced up from my tortured food and met his angry gaze.His eyes blazed red behind his contacts before he blinked the heat away.
Why hadn’t I dropped the subject?But no, Ihadto know what affai meant.Yet as much as I wished the tension between us would ease, I couldn’t help the spark of hope that lingered, that Darius might actually think of me as someone special, as someone he might come to love.
Could he really feel as much for me as I did for him, despite our different backgrounds?
Did it matter, though?I didn’t want to risk being hurt again.Josh had done a number on my ego and my heart, and I hadn’t felt half the intensity for him that I felt for Darius.Besides, Darius wanted to go back home, wherever that might be.I lived here, on Earth.The man had a world—akingdom—to return to, one to which I didn’t belong.
I sighed and reached for my water, only to accidentally knock it over his nearly cleared plate of food.He snarled something in that foreign lyrical language and pushed his plate away, calling for the check.
The evening went progressively downhill from there.We left the restaurant in an awkward silence that continued on the drive.I stared unseeingly at the wooded areas we passed, conscious we headed not toward Green Lake but along a route toward that would take us near Golden Gardens, a scenic area full of trees and a hint of beach.Too unnerved by our dinner conversation to care, I couldn’t help wondering how our night might have gone if I’d admitted to Darius that I loved him.
His head turned so quickly I worried he’d caught my thoughts.Shoot.Had my mental shields been lowered without me being aware?
“Get down,” he said, his mouth grim.
