“Your father said those exact words to me once.” His gaze remained on me. “I’ll tell you as I told him. There’s too much painful history between our kinds to be forgiven, too much bloodshed.”
“We won’t know until we try.” I raised my chin as a sudden defiant urge crashed over me. I wasn’t the bravest when it came to confrontations or battles of wit. But on this, the chance at making peace between us, I strengthened my resolve.
Onyx breathed out. A tired, defeated sound. “Your optimism, while admirable, is foolish. Demons and humans willnever live together in harmony. No amount of wishful thinking will change that.”
“Well, not with that attitude it won’t,” I mumbled.
When his eyes returned to me, that earlier amusement shone in them. “You’re awfully feisty, aren’t you?”
“Only when it’s deserved,” I shot back without missing a beat. “And from where I’m standing, er, sitting, you deserve it.”
His brow arched. “Is that so?”
“Yep. You’re being stubborn.”
“I’mbeing stubborn?” Onyx grabbed my jaw in a gentle hold and leaned in closer. So close I felt his breath tickle my lips. “I call it being logical. We’re too different.”
Fire flickered to life in my core, the flame small but rising. Nervous energy coursed through me, but so did a strange sense of… comfort. It was something I felt around each of my men, tipping the scales even more toward him being one of them.
“There your heart goes again,” he softly murmured. “Whipping and thrumming like a hummingbird’s tiny wings.”
Raindrops tapped against the glass, no longer a torrential downpour, and the rumbles of thunder were more distant, less boisterous. The same couldn’t be said for my heart. The beats were fast and heavy enough to beat out of my damn chest.
“I…” The urge to kiss him slammed into me. My gaze lowered to his lips, and I swallowed hard. “I need to walk around for a sec. My butt’s numb.”
Onyx released a deep chuckle, and his hand fell from my jaw. “Be my guest.”
I scurried off the bench and walked over to the stream. With my back to him, I took several deep breaths and tried to shake off the restlessness that begged me to jump Onyx’s bones right there in the freaking greenhouse. My fear of being with him aside, it felt wrong to do anything without talking to my men first. Lake knew already, but the others didn’t.
The crystal clear water of the stream flowed past trees and shrubs of all types. On the other side of the stone path stood patches of colorful flowers and tropical plants.
“I suggest refraining from touching some of the flowers,” Onyx said from his spot on the bench. “They bite.”
I flipped around to him. “They… what?”
His lips twitched. “Human meat is their favorite delicacy.”
“I’m not on the menu, sorry.”
He chuckled, the rumble low and sexy, and rose from the bench. My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth as he joined me near the stream. His presence was so palpable that my skin tingled. Long black hair fell to the middle of his back, the strands shining like a raven’s feathers.
Fuck, I wanted to bury my fingers in those strands and see if they were as soft as they looked.
No, Evan, bad Evan.There would benotouching of the demon lord. I clasped my hands in front of me to reinforce that thought.
“You asked earlier why I brought you here.” The middle of his brow creased. “Coming here has always brought me peace, even in moments when it felt like my world was shattering into a thousand pieces. I hoped it’d do the same for you. You’ve had a rough few days.”
The desolation in his tone seeped into my chest. I saw beyond his fierce reputation. Saw the lonely male who’d been so hurt by life that he’d sought solace among flowers.
“Thank you,” I said, throat tightening. “It really is peaceful. Everything’s so vibrant.”
“You sound surprised.”
“Guess I am. A little bit.” I extended a hand toward a low hanging tree branch and touched one of the green leaves. It had a rubbery texture. “The rest of your castle is so… um.”
“Derelict and rundown?”
“No,” I told him, gently bumping his arm. “Haunted and kind of creepy, maybe, but not rundown.”
