“But we’re talking of a potential mate,” I point out. “Not me.”
A slip of his tongue. He frowns.
A little tremor of nervousness goes through me. How much of the water did he drink? Is it enough?
“I made a bargain with Kasaros,” he murmurs as he braids my hair. “Over my mother’s deathbed. If he gave me the power to defeat my enemies, then I would sacrifice any hope I ever had of taking a mate.”
Bael blinks, and I realize he didn’t intend to tell me that.
I slide my hand over his thigh, trying to distract him from thinking too deeply upon the truths that slip from his lips. “Then why do you want to claim Kari?”
“For my brother.” His thumbs dig into my thighs, eyes slightly glazed. “Gods, you’re so beautiful.”
“Bael,” I protest.
“I never expected you to be so beautiful,” he murmurs. “In all my conjuring’s, I could not have imagined you.”
What does he mean? “Bael, you’re not making any sense. You imagined me?”
Bael presses his face into the palm of his hand, then shakes his head. “Ignore me.”
Suddenly, I very much want to know the answer. “No, I want to?—”
He captures my hair in his fist, winding the braid around his knuckles as he hauls me closer. Firm lips meet mine, capturing the gasp on my lips. It’s not just the truth on his lips, it’s truth here now, between us. All of his barriers are stripped away and I see the sheer hunger in his face as he drags me into his lap.
And I feel it answering deep within me.
Want.
Need.
Desire.
No matter my fears, my body know his.
“Bael,” I gasp as his mouth claims mine, hard and savage.
“Mine,” he grinds out, breathing the words against the skin of my throat. There’s something primitive and savage underlying the words, something that makes the lonely girl inside me thrill.
Hands envelope my ass, grinding me against him and I gasp again as I feel the thick rasp of his erection against my inner thigh. My hips rock, slickness dampening his trousers. His hands slide up underneath the nightgown, finding soft flesh and I am lost.
“Please,” I gasp, sinking my hands into his hair and kissing him back. We have to stop. We have to… I need answers.
“Bael.” I pull back, resting my forehead against his, but he comes after me again, claiming my mouth in another bruising kiss. “Bael,stop.”
A shudder runs through him and he stills, hands still on my ass. “Why?”
“You don’t want me,” I blurt.
His eyes are pure bronze, glittering with something inhuman. “I’ve wanted you from the moment I first saw you. You’re so fucking fierce and perfect and it makes my soul hunger.”
Uh. I feel like he’s punched me in the solar plexus. “This is not your first time in this Labyrinth,” I blurt. “Tell me about the other brides. Tell me… did you kiss them too? Did you tell them they were yours?”
Bael pinches the bridge of his nose and shakes his head. “No.”
I chase after the thought. “Have you ever killed a bride?”
“What?No!” His fist curls in my nightgown, but not with desire. Almost as if he feels the need to hold onto something. “I feel… strange.”
