My every sense locked onto him, and my voice dropped to a mere whisper. “Why not?”
His gaze fell to the bed, and he released my face.
I pushed closer, begging silently for answers. “Lucas? I need to know why. Please.”
Jaw clenching, he took a steadying breath, like he needed the strength to look at me again, as if barely healed wounds inside had ripped open, and he was watching them bleed out with no way to stop it.
His attention moved to me by degrees, and the aquamarine turned liquid. Bottomless. Full of pain.
He said nothing, but the truth was there, sparkling in his eyes. He looked at me like he was staring at the rest of his life—tenuous and easily taken—and the realization didn’t please him.
I tried to swallow, but my mouth had gone dry.
Without thinking, I surrendered to the urge of my body and tipped forward. My lips touched his in a single, slow kiss, worlds different from the frantic, fake kiss from last night. This one was soft, brimming with an understanding that something pivotal had shifted between us, even if neither of us would ever admit it.
When I pulled back, the blue in his eyes was on fire, flames devouring the restraint that always leashed him. Still, he didn’t move. Instead, his mouth opened and formed words that looked as if they hurt him to say. “You need to go home.”
He was right.
Iknewhe was right.
I couldn’t make myself move.
“Sophia,” he said, gaze still latched on mine. “It’s nearly dawn. You need to go home.”
I nodded—a strange, jerky movement—then stood. Before I could leave, his hand seized my sore wrist, holding me in place.
I looked down at him. “Lucas?”
Staring at his hand, he started to pull me back, then abruptly let go. “Be careful.”
“I will.” I made it to the door before I turned back to him, curiosity staying my feet. “What happens on Fridays, Lucas?”
He lifted an eyebrow.
“That officer said your Fridays were getting tame. What happens on Fridays?”
His mouth—the mouth that I’d just voluntarily kissed—tipped up at the corner in the smile buried deepest under my skin. “Maybe one day I’ll let you have my secrets.”
“But not today?”
“Not today.”
“He chained you to a bed?”Theo demanded after I rehashed the entire story, rage blazing across his face.
The impulse to defend Lucas could not be ignored, and I stiffened in the chair before Theo’s desk. “He was trying to keep his cover. Foryou.”
The general’s eyes narrowed, and he templed his fingers under his chin. “For theDefiance.”
I slumped back into my chair. “Yeah. He was just protecting me.”
“Thatis protecting you?”
“It’s more than what you’ve done,” I snapped.
Theo froze, and I regretted my harsh words at once. He hadn’t wanted me to accept this position as Lucas’s contact. I’d agreed to it willingly.
“You’re right.” He dropped his head. “I should have done more for you. After your parents?—”
