Now, she was watching him move silently about the sitting room, gathering various items. She had no doubt he was about to slip away to his study in the catacombs. But the Union Celebration was next week, and she needed…direction? Reassurance?
Answers.
She needed answers.
There was too much happening outside of her control in this moment, and she needed to turn the tables back in her favor.
“Can we speak now?” she asked, stepping from the dark corner she’d been watching from.
He didn’t even jump, just confirming to her he always seemed to know where she was.
“Were you going to attempt to follow me tonight, tiny fiend?” he asked, straightening and slipping a hand into his pocket. The other rubbed along his jaw as his eyes ran over her, and there was no mistaking he was thinking about earlier.
And now so was she.
Dammit.
“Stop that,” she said, coming closer. Each step was careful, making sure she kept her defenses up. Forcing herself to concentrate and remember her training. “You Travel wherever it is you go,” she continued. “How could I possibly follow you?”
“I believe you’d find it easier than you think,” he answered, his other hand going into his pocket now. He rocked back on his heels, watching her as much as she was watching him. “What would you like to speak about?”
“What would I…” She trailed off incredulously. “Cethin, what do you think I want to speak about?”
“There are a number of topics with you, wife,” he replied conversationally. “But I’m hoping you want to discuss the way my lips felt on yours, because then I would want to discuss how you tasted with your tongue in my mouth.”
“I…” She felt her cheeks warm, and she hated it. Clearing her throat, she said, “I do not wish to discuss that.”
“That’s disappointing,” he said, and her eyes narrowed as she watched him fight a smile.
“Cethin,” she deadpanned.
He sighed, all mirth leaving his face. “I’m not going to apologize for earlier today, Kailia.”
“Which part?”
His brows knitted, and it took a long minute before he said, “After going over all my interactions with you today, I find there are none I feel the need to apologize for.”
She scoffed. “Why were you upset about the dance studio?”
“Why was I upset that you went to learn something that involved a male—whom I cannot stand—touching you? You need clarification about that?”
“No, I need clarification on what I should have done differently since I cannot ask you for these things.”
“I’m the only one you should be asking for anything you need.”
“Then in that case, I need clarification on how I am to do that when you are never around.”
They stared at each other, back in this place they so often found themselves. An impasse of wills and stubbornness. A place of push and pull and a struggle for dominance that each of them was trying to pretend didn’t exist.
“Maybe we should stop pretending,” she blurted.
His head tipped to the side. “And what are we pretending, wife?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Perhaps that this is ever going to work? You should stop pretending I was the right choice for this, and I should stop pretending I can be what you need.”
“You know very little of what I need,” he said in the same voice that had rumbled from him after the kiss.
“I’m not disagreeing with you.”
