Khiva trilled again. “My little protector,” he murmured, his voice warm.
Eve flushed, giving him a small smile, and reached up to touch his cheek. “I just want to help you, Khiva.”
His expression sobered, but he didn’t say anything in response.
She sighed. Eve couldn’t help but feel slightly frustrated by it. She figured she might as well try to broach the subject again. “Khiva, I’ve told you about my inheritance. You know how little use I have for it. I could pay for a passage visa off Everton for you, for the others. I could help you find your mother and brother. Not to mention that we could go to the United Worlds about Madame Allegria. I’ve been looking for my father’s contact there and I think I found—”
“Veki,I’ve told you before,” he simply said, his tone neither anger or soft. It was simply stern and it didn’t allow for arguments.
Eve didn’t care. Pushing up on her elbow so she could see him better, she asked, “But why? It would be such a simple solution to…toeverything. Can’t you see that?”
“You do not understand,” he said, never looking away from her.
“Soexplainit to me,” she pleaded. “Because you’re right, I don’t.”
He exhaled a sharp, quick breath through his nostrils. And for a moment, she thought he wouldn’t, that it would simply be the end of the failed conversation.
But then he said, “My line, my family, was one of the wealthiest families on Kerivu. I was raised never knowing the harsh realities that I could have had in another life, had I been born to another mother. I was called the Prince of Firestones once I took over my line’s legacy. From that moment, I was treated like one. I never wanted for anything. And even then, I knew that I wanted to give my line, my young, my mate, the same. It is a source of pride for Keriv’i males, to be the provider, just as my father was to us.”
“Khiva…” she whispered, shaking her head.
He pressed two of his fingers to her lips. “To be the Prince of Firestones and then fall to the position of whore…” Eve’s throat burned, hearing that word from his lips. “It was not an easy transition, as you can imagine, but it was a necessary one. When you become a whore, you learn very quickly that pride is perhaps the last thing you have to hold onto. That is why I cannot accept.”
Eve felt like she was on the verge of tears, but she held them back, swallowing hard. Though she felt his words jab at her chest, she also felt a small ball of anger.
“Last night,” she said softly, “when you said you wanted to have children with me, a family…what was that then? You make me hope for these things when you do not want to help your situation.”
“You should not listen to males when they are on the verge of orgasm, Evelyn,” he murmured, rubbing his fingers over his closed eyes. She sucked in a breath, his flippant words cut her more than the knowledge of his clients ever had.
Eve shook her head, confusion making her thoughts fuzzy. Had she really seen more than what was there, just as Genni had warned her about all those weeks ago?
She didn’t doubt her feelings for him. She’d been falling in love with him from the very beginning.Head over heels, as the Old Earth expression went.
No, however, she began to doubt how deeply his ran for her.
“How did you see this playing out?” she asked softly, not quite able to meet his eyes. “Eventually, I mean.”
“You mean us?” he asked.
Eve nodded, sitting up in bed, tucking the sheet around her naked body. She felt like her whole reality had shifted somehow and she suddenly felt very, very vulnerable. “Yes. Our future.”
“I thought eventually you would stop coming to see me. It would have been gradual, but obvious,” he said softly. “I thought that you would meet a male, who could give you the things you wanted, what you needed. That I would just fall into your memory as the Krave you used to visit, whose company I like to think you enjoyed. From the very first moment I saw you, I knew you would not be a regular client of mine.”
“Why are you saying these things, Khiva?” she asked, shaking her head, staring across her room at the fireplace. “Why are you…compartmentalizing our time, making it seem less than what it was?”
“Because I have to,” was the only thing he said in response, in a voice so soft she almost didn’t hear him properly.
“What doesthatmean?” she cried out, frustrated, sad, angry. Nothing made sense anymore.
He didn’t answer her.
Eve bit her lip and a tear ran down her cheek before she dashed it away quickly. “I have to go to the washroom,” she murmured and quickly exited the bed.
As she grabbed the robe slung over her chaise, she realized how sore she was, evidence of their amazing night together. Only the morning after was going so terribly. And she didn’t even knowwhyit had taken a turn.
In the washroom, she stood beside the shower tube, taking deep breaths. In privacy, she allowed herself to cry, though she muffled any noise, as stark realization hit her in the gut.
He’d never seen a future with her.
