Page 43 of Mountain Trial

She nodded, already knowing what he wanted to talk about.

“Jacques hit you.” It was a statement, not a question.

“It was a long time ago. I was young, and Jacques was … controlling. One day he snapped.”

Luc’s hands clenched into fists.

“I wanted to kill him today,” he said. “When he said that.”

“I’m not sure I dealt well with it tonight. I wasn’t expecting an apology, and I’m not sure I’m ready to accept it.” She laughed softly. “Though maybe I should. It was a long time ago, and he made me stronger.”

“God, Kat, I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“It’s in the past.”

She leaned against his shoulder. “Do you want to know my full name?” she asked, attempting to change the topic.

“You know I do,” he said, though his tone of voice told her he knew exactly what she was doing.

“I’ll tell you, but you have to promise me never to use it. I don’t even let my parents use it.”

“Now you’ve caught my attention. Katelyn? Katalina?”

She pulled her head up to look into his deep blue eyes. “It’s almost tempting to let you keep going. But you’ll never guess it.”

“Tell me, then. I want to know everything about you, Kat,” he said earnestly.

“Hekate.”

His mouth dropped open. “Hekate?”

“My dad loved Greek mythology. She was the Greek goddess of magic and witchcraft.”

“Wow …”

“Yeah. I guess my mom wasn’t in the mood to argue with him after spending twenty hours in labor―but at least she made sure people always called me Kat.”

Luc laughed. “I don’t know. I kind of like Hekate.”

“Don’t even think about using it,” she growled.

He raised his hands in mock surrender. “Okay. I’ll save it for special occasions.”

“My turn to ask you something now,” she said, hating the way her voice sounded so hesitant.

“You can ask me anything, Kat.”

“The other day, when we talked about … sex … there are things we didn’t speak about.”

He nodded encouragingly.

“If I wanted to …” she stopped and licked her lips. Luc reached over and took her hand in his.

“If you wanted to what, Kat?”

“If I wanted to give you a blow job,” she said, speaking very quickly now. “Would that feel good?”

He laughed. “Wow. I was worried there for a second. Hell, yes, it would feel good. You’re making me hope this isn’t just a theoretical question.”