“I imagined you doing cross-fighting. Something deadly, high impact. You used to like that.”
Ria stilled, her arms dropping to her sides. “I’m not her.”
Idiot. “Right. I’m sorry.”
She started the moves again, this time with a little less grace.
He stepped out onto the mats. Damn, he wanted to make it right. “I figured the Guild would prefer cross-fighting.” The mixed style of fighting used elements taken from all the galaxy’s different methods of hand-to-hand fighting.
“They teach us. I can show you if you’d like.” Her smile was sharp. “One kick and I could break your neck.”
Right. “I’ll take your word on it.”
She moved her hands, her body bending like a slim tree in the wind. “Taiji isn’t so much about killing, it’s about settling the mind, balancing your energies.”
“Sounds very old Earth.”
“It has its origins there, although they’re murky now. We don’t know exactly where it came from.”
“So, you’re feeling the need to balance your energies?”
She looked over her shoulder. “Yeah. Being hunted, stealing things, and dealing with you, it’s left me a little…out of balance.”
He stepped toward her. “I came here to apologize. I didn’t kiss you because you remind me of Vik. I just…wanted to kisssenseless the hot woman who I’d just enjoyed a brilliant hunt with.”
Ria stopped and stared at him. “Jesus, Phoenix, you have no pretty words do you?”
He shrugged. “I’m just a simple pilot.”
She huffed out a breath. “There’s nothing simple about you. And for some crazy reason, it works for me.”
He smiled. “I rub off on everyone after a while.”
She gave a choking laugh, then the humor bled from her eyes. “I’m not just angry at you. I’m angry at myself because there’s something I haven’t told you.”
His muscles tensed.Damn. Now what?“Okay.”
“I dream about you.”
He blinked.What?
“I mean—” she clenched her hands together “—your face is in my dreams. It started a few months ago. That’s why I came to you. Not just to help me steal the derringer.”
Zayn’s entire body tensed. Vik. It had to be.
This woman was Vik.
Ria hated confessing to him.Not because she’d lied, but because he would just continue to believe she was someone else.
She saw it all over his face. The bright spark of hope.
Her heart contracted, hard as a stone. Someone else wanting her to be something she wasn’t. The assassins wanted her to be a killer, and Zayn wanted her to be Viktoria.
Why did no one just want her for her?
“There’s some explanation for this, Ria.” His words were slow and steady. Like he was worried he’d make her skittish.
She’d told him because it was the right thing to do and because maybe it would stop this inexorable drag she felt toward him.
