“Why am I here?” she asked next. “Why did you bring me here?”
I didn’t want to scare her, but also…things would be very, very different from how they’d been before.
“In an effort to be entirely honest with you,” I began, “I’ll tell you this, even though it’s against my better judgment: I intend to keep you as mine.”
Her lips parted. And then she laughed, the sound hollow with a tinge of disbelief. Or perhaps bitterness. It sounded nothing likethe woman I’d come to know. It echoed around the washroom, and for a moment, I lamented that it might be too late. That I’d done too much damage; that she did, in fact, love Luc Denoren and I stood no chance. That she didn’t want me anymore.
But then a little bit of my arrogance reared its ugly head and I thought,I’m Kaldur of House Kaalium, afuckingHigh Lord.
Who would reject aKyzaire?
She just might,I couldn’t help but fear. Erina was different from all the rest, I was discovering. Wrongfully assuming she was like the females I’d grown up around was what had gotten me into this mess to begin with. Well, that and my own foolish pride.
“Wow, am I lucky or what?” she asked, her laugh fading. “Guess Ididsnag a son of the Kaalium. Guess I did manipulate my way into his keep and into his bed so I could better my position in life.”
The wordswereugly when they were thrown back into my face.
But what hurt me more was the vulnerability in Erina’s voice. Any other female and the words might feel caustic and cutting. When she said them? They made me want to comfort her, to pull her into my arms because they were laced with so muchhurt.
“Forgive me, but I don’t believe you,Kyzaire,” she said simply, blinking away some of the sudden glassiness in her gaze.
“I intend to make you mine, Erina,” I said again, still not quite having it in me to voice her full name. The name she shared withhim. “You’ll never want for anything again.”
“Only love and happiness and true contentment,” she said, her tone hollow.
“I went to Laras,” I growled. “I saw where you were staying. I saw where you were working.”
Her lips parted. “You were there?”
“I told you—I’ve been searching for you for weeks. I saw how you lived. So why reject what I can offer you so easily? You wouldhave a grand keep for a home, some of the best food in the entire universe, and more credits than you know what to do with.”
“But don’t you see?” she asked. “None of that matters! It always seems to, to you nobles. But for someone like me, I could be happy with a whole lot less. I have been before. At least in Laras, I wasn’t paid for.”
I dug my heels in, hiding my flinch from the words. “I want you back here. In the keep, in my bed.” She nearly gasped. “I want you at my side.”
“Because I’m yourkyrana?” she wondered. The way the word twisted from her lips made it clear she didn’t believe me.
“Why would I lie about something so serious?” I asked, feeling an edge of my temper sharpen. I’d gone through absolute hell after she’d left. Did she think I’d faked that?
“Why?” she repeated, disbelief in her eyes. “Because you did everything you could to deny me when I washere, right beside you and wanting to be there. You made it clear that you would never love me. That my only place here was in your bed, but that you would never marry me. Because you thought I was angling to beKylairaof your territory.”
“I know that’s not true now,” I growled.
“Nowbeing the operative word. And I don’t understand it, this sudden change of heart. I don’t trust it. But the damage is done,” she said, that hollowness entering her voice again…and I couldn’t stand it. “Let me make myself clear: I came here tonight so that you wouldn’t raze Syndras’s home to rubble. I don’t intend to stay. And you can’t make me.”
“Name your price,” I rasped as I moved my way toward her in the pool. Her gaze flicked over me, over my naked chest, before they returned to my eyes. Perhaps she still desired me, even though she clearly couldn’t stand me.
I tipped her chin up with two fingers. Just being close to Erina, touching her skin, inhaling her scent, knowing she waswithin arm’s reach, in my keep…it soothed me. Like a warm bed after an agonizing day.
“I cannot force you to stay. But it is within my power to give you whatever you want so that you choose to,” I said.
Her lips parted. “You’re mad if you think I’d everchoosethat.”
“I looked into Luc Denoren more in Laras. I discovered he had a failed business,” I said, watching closely to see how she would respond. Her eyes widened. “Would you stay if I gave him back everything he lost? And Syndras? You care for her. Wouldn’t you want her to be better taken care of? A House full of keepers so she wouldn’t struggle so much?”
“You’re bribing me to stay?”
“You won’t take credits yourself,” I rasped. “But you might stay if I gave them to those you love.”
