“You said you would be honest,” she reminded him.
“I did not know how a mate would fit into my life,” he said.
“Fit intoyourlife? What about the other way around?” she demanded, crossing her arms across her chest.
He gave her a smile. “Consider me chastised,luxiva.” She frowned but some of the tension left her shoulders. “But you must understand that as an Ambassador, my duties are extensive. It is rare to have more than a span to myself. And what time I do have…”
“Go on,” she challenged, her brow quirking.
“I spent it training in the fighting pits or in the company of a female.”
Her lips pressed together and she looked away. Her little fists curled and the sight made him equally frustrated and elated.
“I told you, there is no reason to be jealous,luxiva,” he said quietly.
She cut him an unreadable look. “I’m not.”
“We are being honest here,” he reminded her.
“Not me.You.”
“Ah, so you admit that was a lie?”
She sucked in air and the expression she gave him made him want to grin in triumph.
Wisely, he didn’t. Something told him that if he did, she would take his dagger to him in the middle of the night as he slept.
The thought made him pause. Wherehadthis little hellion come from? She’d been so frightened of him, so mistrustful of his intentions when he’d first come upon her, so much so that she’d barely looked at him. While some of that female still remained, she was considerably more outspoken.
That knowledge gladdened him. Perhaps she was becoming more comfortable with him. Like she said earlier, perhaps she was trying not to be so guarded and cold to him.
“Now that we’re on the topic of females,” she began and Cruxan swore his heart stopped in his chest due to dread, “let’s take a moment here.”
Vrax.
His unease must’ve showed because she tilted her head to the side. She was so certain she’d catch him in a lie that Cruxan was all the more inclined to be brutally honest.
“How many females have you been with?”
“How many males have you been with?” he countered, just to see how she’d react.
Her lips pressed and she reminded him, just as he knew she would, “I’m asking the questions here.”
“At least until it ismyturn,” he said.
She blinked. “That wasn’t part of the deal.”
“It is only fair,luxiva,” he said, a small smirk appearing on his features. “You wanted to know if I was being honest with you. I wish to know the same of my mate.”
“Don’t hold your breath,” she said, tapping her fingers idly on her bare knees. “Now answer the question.”
Cruxan decided he liked her a little bossy. In fact, it made his cock throb because he imagined her doing the same between the furs.
“I do not know how many females I have been with,” he answered truthfully.
She sucked in a breath, staring at him. “That many?”
Cruxan gaze dropped to the flames before flickering up to meet her gaze. He asked her the same question he had before, “Does that concern you?”
