“What are you doing?” I ask softly, even though I don’t want him to stop.
He looks at me with those strange soft-gold eyes, and speaks, his words laced with that accent that I can’t seem to get enough of. “Taking care of you.”
No one ever takes care of me. I mean, maybe my mom and my dad when I was little, but as a grown ass adult no one has taken care of me, and I hadn’t really thought I needed anyone to take care of me. I mean, right? I’m fully capable of surviving on my own.
“Why?”
He gives me a funny expression. “You’re my wife.”
“Because of a peace treaty.”
He cocks his head, studying me. “I guess it’s time I come clean.”
“Come clean about what?”
“Do you remember when you dropped into my lap on my bone wyrm?”
“Yes.”How could I forget?
“The instant I touched you, the instant I saw you, I knew you were mine.”
“What?” My voice goes up a few decimals.
He nods. “My people experience something called imprinting when they know they’ve found their mate. Imprinting is hard to explain, but it’s an unshakable knowledge that someone has found their mate. The person they’re supposed to be with.”
I give a laugh that’s not humorous. “Are you sure? Because I don’t think that’s what I am…”
“You haven’t felt a connection to me?”
“No, well…”
He keeps watching me.
My cheeks heat. “I feltsomething, but I wasn’t sure what it was. I figured it was just a crazy attraction.”
“You find me attractive?”
“Well,”damn it, “I figured that was clear. What with all the staring and what not.”
He grins. “I’m glad, because, Harper, I find you very attractive as well.” And his voice takes on a husky note.
I’m embarrassed, unsure what to say or do.
“The truth is, if they hadn't offered you as my bride, I would’ve taken you as my bride. I wouldn’t, of course, have forced you to marry me, but I would’ve given you an opportunity to get to know me and feel the connection yourself.”
“So I guess this worked out for you.”
“It most certainly did.” He pauses. “And rest assured, this has worked out for you too, because I swear to the gods you will want for nothing, Harper. I will give you everything you desire and more. You will be covered in gold and gems. You will live in the finest castles. You will never be lonely or sad. And I will make you wet every single day, and when you want to come, you’ll come. Every time.”
The room becomes unreasonably warm as he slowly moves his big hands up my good foot and onto my ankle and calf. If I were a different kind of woman, I’d tell him that he’d already become successful in part of his plans for me.
“You’re not at all the way I thought you’d be.”
He looks amused. “Did you think I was just a bloodthirsty savage?”
I hesitate, then decide to be honest. “I thought you might be.”
“That’s because that’s what the Dravari think we are… what we’ve led them to think we are. Humans can be killed, but bloodthirsty, inhumane savages cannot be.”
