He soundedwaytoo casual to actuallybecasual.
Did that mean he wanted to tell them? That hedidn’twant to tell them?
Honesty, Iris reminded herself.Be honest and straightforward. Don’t lie, and don’t try to read his mind.
The problem was that he was asking her what she wanted, and it had been a while since she’d left herself consider that.
He was studying her, waiting for an answer. She felt herself flush under his attention, like her gaze was warming her body and making her skin heat up wherever he looked.
And even in a few places where hewasn’tlooking. Keith was a gentleman who was keeping most of his attention confined to her face, but Iris couldn’t say the heat radiating through her was quite that decorous.
She felt the almost irresistible urge to squirm away, turn her head, and retreat into icy formality. Hadn’t she learned that playing with fire just got you burned?
But somehow the old Iris reasserted herself, like she was being possessed by her own ghost. Shewanted. She didn’t know what she wanted to do about telling people about the mate bond, but she knew what she wanted todoabout the mate bond. Her blood knew, even if her mind didn’t.
She raised her chin and met Keith’s eyes with her own.
Even now, after the mate recognition magic had done its thing, there was something powerful about looking straight at him like this.
Mate, her unicorn said.
I know,Iris said.
No, I meant it as a verb. Tear his clothes off. Be the mare to his stallion.
Oh my God, please never say that again.
Verb?it said innocently.
Amazingly, even her horny unicorn—ohGod—couldn’t cool her down right now.
“Iris.”
Keith said her name with such care, like he was handling a flower and trying not to bruise the delicate petals.
Her mouth was suddenly too dry for her to say anything back. Instead, acting on instinct, she reached for his hand.
There were fine golden hairs dusted across the back of it. He had wide palms and long fingers, and his calluses were in different places from hers. Different work, different lives.
He smoothed his thumb across her knuckles and raised her hand to his mouth.
Iris felt the warmth of his breath, and she closed her eyes. It was all too heady for her to process.
Then there was the soft brush of his lips against her fingers.
Iris wanted to pull him close until there was no gap between their bodies. No, she wanted him even closer than that—wanted himinsideher, and—
And she couldn’t. She absolutely, positively could not do this, no matter how much she wanted to. Either he was going to reject her, in which case she shouldn’t set herself up to get her heart torn intoeven tinierpieces, or he would—terrifyingly, impossibly—notreject her, he wouldkeep looking at her like that, and in that case, they had to do this right. She couldn’t afford to get this wrong, not when it was so important. And no matter how she used to push back against them, the old ways were still the only guidelines she had.
The Council’s methods had brought Keith to her, so she had to believe that they were what would let her keep him. If anything could.
“I can’t,” she said weakly.
Keith let go at once. “I’m sorry. I thought—”
“No, you thought right. Trust me, I’m not scandalized by you kissing my hand, I want—everything.”
I want all of you.
