“Someone hurt you. I want to know who.”
Her heart fluttered with nerves, with memory.
“Why do you think someone hurt me?” she asked quietly.
Cruxan looked at her. That was what she’d seen in his gaze upon waking. A dark understanding. A darkknowing.
Please don’t take advantage, she’d whispered, pleaded to him last night. Had he put together the pieces? Her strangeness around him? Her hesitation and, at times, her fear?
Her lips pressed together, panic rising in her veins, though she knew how to stop it. She took a deep inhale, held it, slowing down her racing heart.
They would be traveling together for some time. Yesterday had been cut short. Judging by the weather, it would add more time onto their journey, unless they caught a break. She didn’t want to be this way for that long. She didn’t want to be that frightened girl she’d been before.
She let out her held breath.
“Can I ask two things of you?” she ventured, looking at him. They were only an arm’s length distance away and she could see the tension in his face, could feel it radiating off him.
“What are they?” he questioned.
“The first is…please don’t ask me that question again.”
His gaze narrowed and he bit out something in Luxirian, before saying, “I am yourmate. Do not ask that of me.”
He said it so easily, without hesitation.
“I want to know everything,” he continued, stepping closer. A strange energy was pouring off him. “Ineedto.”
Crystal looked past his shoulder, finding his gaze too intense. She inhaled a sharp breath when his hand cupped her jaw, gently, making her look back into those deep blue eyes.
“I want to know why you do that,” he murmured, his tone almost anguished. “I want to know why you look away from me when you feel vulnerable.”
Her gaze slid, as if proving his words right, before she caught herself. She forced herself to look back into his eyes.
“Just because you believe I am your mate,” Crystal said softly, “it doesn’t mean you have the right to demand to know everything about me.”
She could see the argument in his gaze, his jaw clenched in protest.
Still, she amended, “How about if I want for you to know, I will tell you in my own time?”
His jaw didn’t unclench, but he did ask, “What is your second request, female?”
She blew out a breath but said simply, “I want to start over.”
He looked perplexed at that. “Start over?” he repeated slowly.
“We’ll be with each other for a little while. Traveling together, I mean,” she amended quickly. “It doesn’t need to be so tense between us. I realize that. I’m…I’m not usually so guarded.”
Cruxan thought over her words. Then he ran a sweeping hand over his left horn, which curled around his head.
“I have two requests of my own,” was not what she expected him to say in response.
It was only fair, she supposed.
“What are they?” she asked, her tone tinged with hesitation.
“First, you must believe that every action I take, every decision when it comes to you, is for your benefit, for your safety and comfort,” he rumbled.
Surprise made her lips part.
