“I thought you weren’t scared of me.” His lips were quirked in a deprecatingsmile.
Was it that obvious? “You confuseme.”
“And here I thought I was an openbook.”
If he was an open book, then I was the queen of Elysium, and there was no royalty in my world. “Did you ever have another ambition than taking over after youruncle?”
His dark brows slanted. For a long minute, he said nothing, then, “No.” The stretch of silence told me hehadwanted somethingelse.
“What would you have ratherdone?”
“I just told you.Nothing.”
“You hesitated.” I walked back toward him. “And now you’re gettingmad.”
A grunt scraped up his throat. “This isn’t me getting mad, Feather. You haven’t seen me mad. You don’t want to see memad.”
His silken robe fell open, revealing that hard, hairy torso of his. I hadn’t seen Asher’s chest but I’d seen his arms—golden and hairless—and imagined his chest would be bare and sculpted. Why was I envisioning Asher’s pecs? I wanted to marry him for his status, not his body, even though his—as opposed to Jarod’s—was undoubtedlybeautiful.
“See something you like?” Jarod’s voice sounded an octavedeeper.
Everything about this sinner was so very dark, as though he’d been steeped in tar at birth and that tar had colored his hair, eyes, and soul. If he’d had wings, they, too, would’ve surely been pitch-black.
“Interesting,” hesaid.
“Whatis?”
“Yoursilence.”
“Why is my silenceinteresting?”
“Because I asked you a question, which you seem unable toanswer.”
“I’m notunableto answer. I simply choose notto.”
He cocked his head to the side. “And why is that? My body clearly appeals to you. You can’t keep your eyes off ofit.”
A blush stung my cheeks. “I’ve just never seen anyone as hairy as youbefore.”
His eyes sparked with amusement. “As hairy? You do realize I’m a man, right? Most men have hair on their body. Some even have hair on their backs, which, thankfully, isn’t mycase.”
A sultry, smoky fragrance lifted from his skin, reminding me of the incense one of my sinners burned while she conducted seances, pretending to speak to the dead to rob her gullible customers of their hard-earnedsalaries.
I swallowed. “Can we go back to discussing something you could do to help me win mybet?”
He pressed off the door frame and gestured to his bedroom that seemed darker than when I’d stepped out. “After you,Feather.”
As I squeezed past him, his chest hair whispered against my shoulder, raising goose bumps. I rubbed my exposed skin, trying to friction away my body’s reaction to his before he could jump to the conclusion it had been brought on byattraction.
Because I wasn’t attracted tohim.
Not in theleast.
I was attracted to people pure of soul and heart—not people who were cloaked in darkness inside andout.
Chapter 16
Itooka seat on the edge of the cowhide recliner propped next to his bookshelves. Like in his study, only old, leather-bound books with gold embossing on the spines graced hisshelves.
