Abruptly he released me and backed away, staring at me with wide eyes as his chest rose and fell rapidly.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Why did you stop?”
He looked away and shook his head almost violently as if trying to rid himself of a persistent hornet.
“We can’t. I can’t.”
“Why not?” I asked, wading closer to him again on tiptoe. “I can tell you want to.”
Pharis had the nerve to deny it. “I don’t.”
Taking in my incredulous expression, he corrected himself.
“Iwon’t.”
Reaching for his waist, I wrapped my arms around it and pulled myself against him again, burning with passion and the kind of frustration I’d never felt before in my life. I pressed imploring kisses to his hard chest.
“It’s okay, Pharis. I’m ready. I’m willing,” I assured him.
“No.”
He broke my hold and in two powerful strokes, reached the side of the pool, pulling himself out.
Without waiting even a few seconds for his skin to dry, he grabbed his pants from the bank and began yanking them on.
I swam to the side of the pool, watching in bafflement as he hastily dressed. Whereas I hadn’t noticed the cold at all in the past few minutes, suddenly, I was very aware of it.
What had changed?
“Why are you behaving this way? What happened?”
“Nothing. It doesn’t matter. It’s not going to happen,” he said.
While my body was still buzzing with pleasurable sensations, my mind was clearing slowly. And filling with irritation.
“Was this some kind of a joke to you?” I demanded. “I wastryingto walk away, but then you lured me in here like a Selkie. Youinvitedme to come into the water.”
“I know. It was a mistake. I… it’s not like that with us, little Wyn. It never will be.”
I was so frustrated I wanted to scream. It was definitely “like that” with us—and always had been.
“So you’re saying this is all in my head?” I asked. “That you don’t want me that way?”
It was obvious he was still aroused. I could see it, and I could feel it in the waves of heat still emanating from his body.
Though his eyes still roamed over me, filled with unmistakable hunger, Pharis continued to lie.
“I would have responded like that to any naked woman.”
“Really?”
I climbed out of the pool and walked toward Pharis, daring him to look away. Finally he did, breathing like a winded horse.
His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides.
“Don’t come any closer,” he said.
Once again, his words were laced with freakishly strong Sway. With no other choice, I stopped in place.
