Three words now.
Just three words, and the sun inside my heart starts shining again.
His hand comes up to cup my face, his thumb brushing across my cheekbone so gently it makes my throat tight. I should push him away. I should demand more answers. I should do something other than stand here melting into his touch like I have no self-respect whatsoever.
But my body has apparently staged a mutiny against my brain, and all I can do is stare up at him and wait.
“I wanted to marry you off because that’s how my people used to solve things.” His thumb traces my jaw, featherlight. “I thought I’d find you someone safe. Someone capable of protecting you. Someone who deserved you in ways I never could.”
My heart is pounding so hard I can barely hear myself think.
“But now?” I whisper.
“You make me feel things—” His voice is low, almost pained. “—when I never used to feel. You make me think of things a man like me has no business thinking. And you—” He exhales, sharp and frustrated. “You disturb me.”
That should sound like an insult.
But the way he says it—like it’s been torn out of him, like he’s confessing a sin—makes warmth bloom in my chest instead.
Mira the Disturber.
I kind of love it.
“I overheard you talking about Luc.” His jaw tightens on the name, and I hold my breath. “When I didn’t know he was fictional—”
“And it disturbed you?”
“Yes.”
Oh wow.
“And when I saw someone pick you up at your cousin’s wake—”
My eyes widen. “I thought you left!”
“It would have been better if I had.” His voice is rough. “I would have been spared watching you run into another man’s arms. Watching you cry on his chest.”
“And that...also disturbed you?”
“Extremely.”
I should not be this happy about disturbing him.
And yet...
“Dane is just my friend,” I blurt out. “We’ve never—he’s not—I don’t think of him like that at all.”
“It didn’t look that way.”
“He’s Trina’s ex. They dated in high school, but they kept it secret because his parents thought she was bad news.”
He goes very still.
“I swear,” I add quickly. “We’re just friends. He’s still in love with her, I think. He probably always will be.”
For a long moment, he just looks at me. Then he exhales—a long, slow breath, like he’s releasing something that’s been coiled tight inside him for days.
And I don’t know what comes over me—
