Valen’s full lips part. He searches me rapidly, then the room. That won’t do. I need him to focus on me, or he’ll start to sense my illusion. My smile grows. “Surprised to see me, Valen?”
His focus snaps to me. Slowly, he straightens, his grace returning in full force. He’s so lithe, so elegant. My eyes hungrily devour the movement and Valen’s brows slide up in response. His cool voice sends a little ripple of excitement down my spine. “Yes. I am.”
He steps towards me in the same rolling snake way he did when he showed up at Peripeteia. It feels like a lifetime ago, but in reality, it hasn’t been a full week. He stops before his father’s desk, the book tapping down on the surface.
I fight temptation for a whole eight agonizing seconds before my eyes flick down to the title. If this were a life and death situation, I’d be very, very dead. But I can’t help it. My brain quickly translates the ancient runes.Oracle of Sora’s Hymn. Yes, that one would live in his father’s private library, not along the office bookshelves. It’s worth quite a fortune, with the remaining four copies left in all the world hidden away by other wealthy collectors.
My gaze flicks back to his. His eyes are dancing like he knew I couldn’t resist looking. A small smile quirks his lips. Adrenaline, excitement, heat all spark within me. He’s too close; the desk is not nearly enough of a buffer. And yet, I must keep him distracted. It gives me permission to let the chains of the wild beast within me go lax for this single moment.
I nod towards the tome of divination. “Trying to prophesize something?”
“Yes. If and when you’d take me up on my offer to return.” His hand slides off the well-preserved cover. It’s an active battlenot to snatch it. His smile turns playful. “I’m quite surprised to find you breaking and entering after pickpocketing me. Are you trying to impress me with your new array of criminal skills?”
A pang of guilt tries to dampen my confidence, but I bury it deep down. I sink deeper into the comfortable desk chair with a hum, my head tilting. “And yet you let me slip my fingers so easily into your jacket. It’s like you wanted me to take it. Besides, you got me all nostalgic. How could I not visit?”
His eyes trail me in a slow, hot movement that nearly burns me and he leans his hip against the desk. “Is that so? What could you possibly be remembering to risk coming here?”
The intensity within his gaze catches my breath. I feel myself being sucked in, the strength of it physically drawing me forward. My elbows rest on the desk, fingers entwining for my chin to rest on. “There were some great memories.”
“Is that why you’re here? To…” his sinful smile tightens my thighs, “stimulate some memories?”
My smile widens. “I do like a good stimulating.”
That finally does it. Valen huffs a laugh, the sound so sensual that I shiver. His gaze roves me, the desire within unmistakable. “Regardless of how much I’ve enjoyed this reunion, I can’t help but notice that you haven’t answered any of my questions. Tell me. Why are you here?”
My teeth slide over my bottom lip. “Didn’t we already establish that?”
He purrs low, his eyes darkening with hunger. “If I truly believed that, I’d have you over this desk in a heartbeat.”
My brows waggle. “With a spanking? I was so naughty stealing the hair and now breaking and entering.”
“You always did have a particular fondness for being debauched in here.”
His eyes slide along the room and a bolt of anxiety threatens to throw off my casual pitch. “Yes, well, let’s not look too closelyat the root of that particular predilection or we’ll be stuck talking about it all night.” My heart hammers. He’s starting to look behind him, where the couch is. It was my favorite place to be debauched, but it also happens to be four feet closer than usual.
“Valen,” I say his name too harshly. I need to smooth my voice to seductive calm, but it’s becoming difficult with my racing thoughts. I need a topic that will distract him, and nothing is coming to mind. “I did… come here for something else.”
“Hm?” He’s sounding distracted, his eyes on the couch. “Do tell.”
“I…” Panic surges. “I…” My heart is going too fast. I swallow, hands sweaty. Does he know? “Would…” I need to ask him something that will snap his focus back to me. Something that will cause him to ignore or forget any strangeness he might notice with the wall.
There’s only one thing I can think of, and only the threat of discovery could force it from my lips. “Would you have come… if I’d asked?”
It works. Valen turns back to me. His brows furrow. My heart pounds, my chest tight. He cocks his head. “Come…?”
“When I ran away.” I can barely hear, barely breathe. “You said I never asked.”
His lips part, his body going still. There’s a flicker of emotion in his eyes that I can’t quite place. Then slowly, quietly, he says one word, “Yes.”
My world stops. All that’s left is me and Valen and the six feet of distance between us. The question comes out in a terrified breath. “Why?”
The emotion flickers again and this time I identify it. Grief. “I think you know why.”
My inhale shivers. This was a mistake. I can’t hear that. It makes too manywhat-ifssurge in my mind. Like a murder ofcrows, they caw at me, circling and weighing down the trees of my mind.
We’re in the park again, Valen’s low, soft, and slightly raw admission of how he deeply loves me, and how I threw it out at the first stumble.
But it wasn’t a stumble. I was betrayed. Or was I?
