He cursed, a long drawn-out thing.
I knew he wouldn’t hurt me, so I placed my hands on his chest in an effort to calm him. If I trulywashiskyrana, his blood mate, he never would. Not that I believed he would regardless.
“Why weren’t you at RaanaDyaantonight?” came his next pointed question when I didn’t reply. “I went there to see you, but I couldn’t sense you there at all.”
Sense me?
One of us had to tell the truth, or else we would end up a big tangled jumble of half-truths and unspoken wants.
“Lesana…asked me to leave thedyaan,” I confessed.
He stiffened. He was crouching, his face so close that if I blinked he would feel my eyelashes brush his jaw.
“When?”
I swallowed, turning my face. “Last night. Before I came to see you.”
“So she did this?” he asked, his voice deceptively quiet and soft. The backs of his fingers brushed the bruise on my cheek.
I caught his wide wrist in my palm. In an effort to distract him, I brushed my lips over his thumb.
His smile was feral, those eyes pinned to my lips. “I will ruin her.”
My chest squeezed. “No.”
His eyes narrowed dangerously. “No?”
“You can’t,” I protested. “There are so many who work there, Kythel, who rely on the pay. Please don’t. It’s not a big deal.”
Kythel’s nostrils flared. His wings vibrated around us, rippling.
“She was upset that she saw you with me? In the alleyway?” he wanted to know.
“Yes,” I answered. It was obvious.
“I’ll speak with her,” he said, his tone entirely too bloodthirsty.
“No,” I said, steeling my voice. I could still see the coldness in Lesana’s gaze. It had been chilling. I’d never been afraid of her until that moment in her office. It wasn’t the slap that had shaken me—it was the look in her eyes when she threatened me. “I don’t need your help. I’ll be fine.”
“I cost you your work,” Kythel said. “I will make it right. Even if I’ll grind my fangs into dust looking at her, knowing that she struck you. But I can play nice,sasiral. You know who my brothers are, yes? You know the kind of self-discipline it takes, dealing with them?”
My lips couldn’t help but quirk. All the same, I said, “Don’t interfere. Please. I know it’s hard for you, but…let me handle this, all right?”
“How many credits a night did you make at RaanaDyaan?”
My eyes narrowed, exasperation rising. “Enough.”
“You’ll have me guess?” he asked, tilting his head to the side. Leaning forward, he pressed his lips against mine, and I hated the way my body seemed to melt at that small kiss. “I’ll pay whatever I cost you.”
Thatmade me stiffen, even if it made me a hypocrite. I’d been prepared to be his blood giver for credits after I’d lost my only source of income. Only, Kythel had bypassed everything and given me what I’d truly wanted.
“No, I don’t want your money,” I said, my tone stern. “You’re already giving me my father. That was all I wanted. That was all we agreed on. Nothing else matters to me but him.”
Plus, knowing he was paying for my father’s way back to Krynn—and this Setlan’s journey too, whoever he was to House Kaalium—made me feel uncomfortable accepting credits from him on top of that. It made me feel like a…like a kept mistress. Especially considering the inevitability of our blood-giver relationship and where it would lead. Akyranabond was proving to be surprisingly…erotic.
And we both knew it.
“Lesana told you to deny my original offer, didn’t she?” Kythel asked. “That first night, when I wanted you as my blood giver.”
