“Mmm-hmm.” He rubbed the side of his jaw. “Why did you choose to experiment with me?”
A chill ran through her. She swallowed down an unexpected urge to tell him she’d wanted to kiss him and him alone for a long time. What good could come from admitting something like that? Besides, she was starting to think she was simply confused, caught up in the moment. “You were there. We were alone. I’ve come to trust you.”
He jerked back. “You trust me? Do you mean you understood that I wassafeto experiment on?”
She shrugged apologetically. “You said you’d help me try anything I’d like before I return to the temple.”
He gaped at her, gobsmacked. “I thought you meant tribiscal wine or cliff jumping. I didn’t think it would involve your tongue down my throat for sport.”
Uh-oh.The look of disgust on his face made it clear that she’d offended him. “You’re a man of honor. I shouldn’t have kissed you the way I did without asking your permission first. I am sorry, Colin. It was wrong of me.”
He nodded slowly. “Nice story.”
“Hmm?” She shook her head.
“I think you’re full of shit.”
She gasped. “Colin, I said I was sorry. You don’t have to be rude.”
“You are. Full. Of. Shit.” He moved nearer. Leather and cloves filled her senses. His scent. Close, warm, dragon male. She’d noticed it before on the beach, but here in the cramped quarters of the tent, it was unmistakable.
She rubbed her nose to distract herself from the intoxicating fragrance. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Her back bumped the wall of the tent, and she realized she’d been retreating from him, but now there was no place left to go. His superior height left her tipping her head back so she could see him clearly as he moved in even closer, until only a fraction of an inch separated her from his distinctly male smile.
“This is what I think, Leena. I think you’re attracted to me. I think you kissed me because you were drawn to me just as I am drawn to you and have been for a long time.”
She shook her head. “No. No, Colin. I can’t. Scribes don’t—”
He laughed. “Scribes don’t experiment with kissing?” He reached out and lifted her braid between his fingers, stroking it with his thumb in a way that made her long to be that plait of hair, long to feel that touch on her skin.
“Scribes…” She didn’t want to hurt him, but she needed him to know the truth. “Scribes can experiment, but we don’t mate or marry. We swore an oath to our work. Our only permanent attachment can be to the goddess. Kissing you was an experiment. Just physical. But when I heard your trill, I knew it was more for you. I knew I had to stop.”
He chucked her under the chin with his knuckle. “Here’s what I think. When you kissed me, you were experimenting with far more than a little lip-lock. You were testing what it might be like to have a different life. You’re questioning whether being a scribe is the future you want. When I asked you to be mine, you considered it and that scared you.” His last words came out as a whisper, but she had no problem hearing them. He was so close now he said it directly into her ear.
Her body started to tremble, and her eyes burned with unshed tears. “Yes,” she blurted. “Does that make you feel better? I thought about it. I considered it. I was tempted. Is that what you want to hear?”
“Yes!” His brows lifted with his smile. “Leena, you don’t have to go back. Quit the temple and become my mate. You can choose.”
“Can I?” She scoffed. “Give up everything I’ve ever known for the promise of something I don’t? I should leave one lifetime commitment for another so easily?”
He grunted and tugged at one ear. “Okay, when you put it that way, I can see why you’d have reservations.”
“I have more than simple reservations, Colin.” Heat from his body was doing wicked things to her insides. She sidestepped and moved to the other side of the tent. “The Temple of the Sacred Pools isn’t a tavern or an inn. I can’t leave and return on a whim. If I give up my quill and my duties as a scribe, there’s no going back. If I make a mistake, it can’t be undone.”
His brow furrowed. “There’s no rejoining after you quit?”
She shook her head.
“When dragons mate, they mate for life,” he rumbled. “I would never leave you.”
“There is nothing more permanent in Rogos than the devotion of a scribe to their work for the goddess.” Leena toyed with her braid. They were talking in circles. “You were right before.”
“About what?” Hope flared in his eyes again, and her stomach dropped to know she was about to extinguish that hope for good.
“My actions weren’t an accident. I kissed you, and I meant to kiss you.”
“Leena…” He reached for her, and she dodged.
