He was honestly upset, and when he looked at the scrape again, he scowled even harder. “Let’s get you home so you can clean up and put something on that. It looks like it hurts like hell.”
He was so concerned about a little bit of road rash that I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he drove back towards his compound. He kept up a steady grumbling, glancing at me like I might expire if he kept his eyes off me for more than a few seconds.
Was I suddenly glad I got caught? No, of course not. Not glad. But I knew I wasn’t getting away. There was never a chance of that. I had to try for my own pride, so I didn’t have to admit… What?
That a few passionate encounters had me completely under Gavril’s spell?
In order to prove that wasn’t the case, I glared at him the next time his eyes cut over to me. He lapsed into stony silence for the next minute or two it took to roll through the gates and up to the front of the house.
There were a few guards standing near the door, and they didn’t look happy with me. Gavril snapped at them to get back to their posts and put his arm around me as he herded me through the front door and away from their censure.
If I had killed that poor guy who had the bad luck to be the one I asked to go on a walk, would they have mutinied? Gavril seemed to think he needed to keep me safe from everyone and everything, and his arm remained locked around me until he all but shoved me into the library.
Ah, my safe place. Until I noticed that Gavril was still scowling, this time aimed firmly at me. “Have a seat,” he demanded, pointing to a dark blue velvet armchair. Actually, one of my favorites, nestled near the big marble fireplace.
I glanced around and moved toward one of the oversized leather chairs instead. A big hand wrapped around my arm and pulled me back. “Really,” he said. “It’s not worth it.”
“Maybe it is to me,” I said, but sat in the damn velvet chair, sick to death of having no choices left.
As soon as I sat, he paced for a moment, then pulled up a chair and sat across from me, waiting until I looked up from fiddling with my cuticles.
“You stabbed my guard,” he said needlessly, no longer laughing at how ludicrous it was.
Maybe he wouldn’t think it was so ludicrous if I had killed the guy. I let my eyes settle on his chest, where his heart should be, and imagined the decorative iron fireplace poker sticking out of it. I didn’t bother answering him because it wasn’t a question.
He sighed. “That wasn’t like you.”
It was my turn to laugh, but there was no humor in the hollow sound. “Yeah? So? Being myself never did me any favors.”
“I disagree. I think you’re amazing.”
My jaw dropped, but he only kept looking at me with eyes as deep as an endless forest. Just about the prettiest shade of green I ever saw. “What?” I was certain I had lapsed into an alternate reality for a moment.
“So what if you aren’t ruthless?” he asked with a shrug. “So what if you aren’t strong?”
“Okay, I get it. You don’t have to rub it in.”
I touched the scrape on my shoulder, and he stormed off, leaving me wondering what the hell was going on. Maybe I hit my head and didn’t realize it at the time. Gavril returned a moment later with a first aid kit and shoved my sleeve up. He tore open a couple of alcohol pads with his teeth and pressed them against the scrape. I hissed at the sudden pain and then clamped my lips together.
“See, you can be tough,” he said, pulling the pads away and dabbing ointment on the scrape. “The guard who neededstitches because of you certainly doesn’t think you’re a pushover now.”
“Big deal,” I sighed as he pasted a big bandage over my shoulder.
He sat back down across from me. “Stop blaming your so-called shortcomings for what happened to you. There was nothing you could have done to prevent it. One, you were deceived, and two, those men were twice your size. The only way you could have gotten out of being kidnapped was if you had a weapon.” He paused, giving me a hard look. “And knew how to use it.”
“Fine. I get it. I’m only partly useless.”
All I wanted was to hide in my room and try to bury my head in a book. His gentle touch while fixing up my shoulder had weakened me again. As he silently worked, I started leaning toward him. If he hadn’t finished up quickly and sat back down out of reach, there was no telling what I would have done.
“Enough of that,” he said, harsh but still somehow kindly. “Ideally, you should have killed my guard. I’m glad you didn’t, but if it had been a different situation where it was someone I wouldn’t mind being dead, you’d need to know where to stab. Really, shooting is more efficient and gets the job done more often.”
I stared at him for a long moment, his green eyes bright. He finally let himself smile. “What you need are lessons. How about it?”
“You’re going to teach me how to stab someone?” I asked, reaching to feel for a lump on my head. There was no way I wasn’t concussed. “And shoot?”
“Valuable skills you should already know,” he said. “Consider it as me righting a wrong.”
I would have huffed at that little dig against my family. Masha had been trying to get me to go to the firing range with her since we were kids. I kept staring at Gavril as I rubbed my head, but there was no pain and no lumps.
