Dread is like ice through my veins. I don’t know Kaian as well as I know Camilla, but I know him well enough to know that this one question is going to be a question I don’t want to answer. Still, I ask, “And what might that question be?”
“How is it you ended up spending the night with your prisoner?”
I glare at him and shake my head. “Next question.”
He gives me his most smug smile and retorts, “I’ve got all damn day.”
We stare at each other, obviously at an impasse, because he may have all day, but I definitely do not. So, after a few more seconds of our stare down, I give up. “I don’t freaking know, man.”
Kaian gives me an incredulous look and cocks his head at me. “What do you mean ‘you don’t know?’”
My hands fist at my sides, and my teeth grit together as a frustrated noise bursts from deep within my chest. Kaian continues to watch me, obviously incredibly entertained by the unexplainable battle I’m having with myself. “Were you coerced?”
I frown, shaking my head. “What? No.”
“Seduced?”
Again, I frown and shake my head. “No.”
Kaian watches me thoughtfully and then says, “Bribed? Tricked? Extorted? Lead down the path to love and lust by a criminal mastermind?”
A laugh escapes, some tension in my shoulders ebbing as I reply, “No. What are you doing?”
Kaian shrugs and replies, “Just trying to help you out here.”
I close the distance between us, my hands coming up and gripping the bars as I lean heavily against them. He gives me a somewhat sympathetic look, and I drawl, “It’s difficult to explain.”
“Try.”
I don’t want to. But he’s still watching me expectantly, so after a brief pause, I whisper, “It’s like a magnetic pull.”
Slowly, Kaian’s eyebrows raise, his lips twitching as he does his very best not to laugh at me. Somehow, he manages to control himself as he says, “Magnets, huh?”
I groan, my hands releasing the bars and immediately gripping my hair as I explain, “You don’t have to point out how damn crazy it sounds. I’m fully aware.”
“Then by all means,” he deadpans, “elaborate.”
My hands move back to the bars, and I press my face between them, and I’m sure I must be staring at Kaian like a completely insane person as I whisper, “It’s like she put some wild spell on me, and I’m incapable of being away from her.”
Kaian gives up any semblance of not being amused, throws his head back, and laughs loudly. I continue to stand there with my face pressed against the bars, allowing him to have his moment of great amusement as I mutter, “Yeah, laugh it up, buddy. I’m glad I could be such entertainment for you in my time of need.”
Kaian sobers almost immediately, turning his now-serious expression on me as he replies, “Well, I think that making up some sort of magic, mumbo jumbo excuse for what is most likely your first instalove experience is kind of ludicrous.”
“I didn’t say I love her.”
Kaian tosses his head back and forth a bit and then shrugs. “Close enough.”
“And it isn’t magic mumbo-jumbo nonsense.”
Kaian rolls his eyes, his arms crossing over his chest. “I’m well aware of your beliefs on paranormal activity, but using that nonsense as an explanation as to why you want to screw her is pretty stupid.”
I squint at him, wanting to shove my paranormal existence down his throat, but also knowing it is entirely fruitless. No matter how I explain it or how many times I attempt to show him my truth, he will never see it for his own reality. So, I ignore the first part of his statement and instead address the latter part. “Would you stop calling me frigging stupid?”
He makes a face that indicates he thinks I am incredibly stupid. And given the fact that he’s one of those pragmatists who, even with stone-cold evidence in front of his own eyes, would still discredit the paranormal, I know arguing with him is pointless. “I don’t want to screw her.”
Now, he snorts. “You can tell all the tales you want to, but I’m definitely not buying that one.”
“If it was just that, don’t you think I’d be able to deal with it like a normal frigging man?”
