“I shall not answer your questions, Nina, nor do I think you expect me to.”
She turned more fully toward him. “No. I do not. However, nor will I allow you to kiss me. We are friends and that is what we will remain.”
If she had plunged a knife into his heart, it wouldn’t have hurt worse than it did now.
When had he developed an emotional attachment to Nina.
Six days! They’d known each other six days, but that didn’t seem to matter.
He certainly couldn’t be in love with Nina, could he?
Impossible!
It was simply an affection, that was all. She was beautiful, desirable, fascinating, and he was a man. That was all.
Love?
Impossible!
“I have a question for you,” Orion said after a bit of silence.
“I have not kissed anyone, nor have I had a lover,” she said before he could ask her anything. “I have no difficulty answering such a question, unlike you.”
Oh, she knew that it was highly improper for her to ask how many women he had kissed or the number of lovers, but she did that for herself.
She nearly let him kiss her, which would have been disastrous. Further, she was already infatuated with Orion. Knowing that he’d probably kissed dozens of ladies before her, and who knew how many lovers he’d had, made it easier for her heart to pull away. It was a reminder that she was not special. She may be new, unique, different from those he had met previously, but once he kissed her, he would eventually lose interest and likely forget all about her once he left Nightshade Manor.
Therefore, knowing this, Nina was now able to protect herself, and remain his friend, and only his friend.
“That was not my question,” he ground out.
“What is it then?” She finished her peach, but some of the fruit remained on the pit, which she tossed near the trees. As soon as she wasn’t looking, Nina was certain that a squirrel would retrieve it and take it to be enjoyed.
“How often have you spied on my family?”
Her face heated. It was not something she should have done but she could not help herself. “Since I was around fourteen, so not so long ago,” she tried to make light of her intrusion.
“Ten years is a long time,” he argued.
“I suppose it is,” Nina ended with a sigh.
“What prompted you to start spying then?”
“Nobody had been to Nightshade Manor in years, or so it seemed, and then Lady St. Alban arrived with her daughters, Thalia and Gretchen. Maude told me they were there because Thalia was coming into her powers. So, I hid and watched.”
“Did Maude know you did this?”
“No.”
“Cassian?”
Nina rolled her eyes. “My brother was at school. I rarely saw him. Neither he nor Maude would have approved so I had to sneak away.”
Those were some of the lonelier years.
“For seven years there was always someone living at Nightshade Manor. Sometimes the females from all three families were there at the same time and I would hide and watch as the younger ones played, and the older ones practiced magic.”
She should be ashamed for doing so, but she was not.
