“Yes, I have this perfume I wear. It is supposed to make me smell lovely for the opposite sex. Maybe that is what has influenced your cravings.”
“I doubt that a smell has triggered such a reaction,” he said.
She ran her gaze over him and landed on his lips.
And how much she had enjoyed that kiss of his. For a cyborg without emotions, he was certainly good at kissing. “Perhaps it’s because we were kissing.”
“I kissed you because of the Craving.”
“I don’t have the Craving. So why do I desire you?”
“You could just like me.”
“Well, that is true. I do like you,” Bianca said, and she could not help smiling. “I would think it would be more of a mutual thing.”
“Do you not find me attractive?”
She ran her gaze over him again. “I find you attractive.”
“Then what has you so confused?”
“The fact that you could be craving a marriage.”
“That is not how that works. A mating is required of both parties to want it. You obviously have your own commitments.”
She sighed. That she most certainly did.
“The girls,” she said. “I have to maintain my position for the girls.”
“The girls? You have children?”
“Not my children. The Emperor’s daughters. The Imperial Princesses.” She brushed a hair out of her face that had fallen down. “I have maintained my position in the royal hierarchy to care for the children.”
“Why?”
“I promised their mother. I told her I would always make sure I looked after them if something ever happened to her.”
“After her death, you started caring for them?”
“Yes. I could not let their father be in charge of their upbringing. I was afraid that man would destroy the beauty in their hearts that I’d always seen from their childhood.”
“The Emperor is cruel?”
“He can be a monster.”
He nodded and took a seat next to her on the stones. “Your face yesterday.”
Her shoulders lowered. “Yes. He struck me last night before we left. He was being demanded, and I did not have time for it, nor did I want to deal with him. We were preparing for the trip here, and I had things I needed to do. Besides, it was almost time to hear from you. I did not want to miss your communication,” she said and leaned into him.
He leaned back. “You should not have to worry about being hurt because you choose to speak to someone.”
“I should not have to worry about being hurt by my intimate partner at all.”
“No. You should not.”
Silence spread between them for a few moments. It felt like a lifetime. The words were so true, and she knew that.
Harbin broke down the truth to the simplest form.
