Текст книги "Desire in His Blood"

Автор книги: Zoey Draven

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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 24 страниц)

Ludayn’s smile was small. “Me too.”

She placed her hand on my shoulder, squeezing.

Then she took a deep breath, going to my wardrobe, shuffling around for something in one of the drawers. She changed the subject and asked, “Would you like to wear this band in your hair tomorrow?”

She held up a wreath of shimmering silver and intricately carved flowers.

“We can leave your hair down—which you should because it’s so lovely,” Ludayn murmured, looking at the black strands with longing. Like she jealous of my hair when I’d always been jealous of my sisters’. “It’s always tied up.”

“I’m working out on the terrace with Kalia in the morning, so it’s better if it stays up,” I informed her, even though the band was pretty.

Ludayn sighed. “Very well.”

Not wanting to see the disappointment on her face, I compromised with, “Maybe for the ball. If Azur lets me attend.”

She grinned. “Perfect.”

When she said good night a short while later, stoking the fire in my hearth and turning down my bed, I went out to the balcony, my eyes searching the skies for any sign of a maddening Kylorr male with embers for eyes. I didn’t see him.

The restlessness was building again. It was like my body was producing too much blood and it needed to be fed from to manage it. My skin felt tight. Aching.

“Enough of this,” I whispered fiercely, determination shooting through me. I was dressed for bed, in a thin shift dress, but I wouldn’t let that deter me.

Spinning toward the door before I lost my nerve, I ventured out into the darkened keep.

Then I went out in search of my husband, wanting answers.

Chapter 23

Azur

I scented her before she ever appeared at my office door. A delicious, tantalizing, heady scent that made my head swirl and my fangs elongate immediately.

Fuck. She was near. So fucking close.

I was hungry. I could go long stretches without feeding on blood. Food had done a decent job at tamping down the worst of the hunger, especially if a blood giver hadn’t been available. Food had kept me strong enough to fly.

Then I’d discovered my kyrana.

Food tasted like ash in my mouth now. It could no longer nourish me the way her blood did. I felt weak and drained. The power of my wings now felt depleted.

A part of me despised her for it.

Logically, I knew that I could feed from another. Yesterday, I’d choked down a cup full of blood from our reserves and nearly gagged. Reserves had never been particularly pleasant, but now I was physically unable to keep it down.

All because of my damn wife.

I was weakened now. Forever dependent on her, which posed its own stretch of problems. Keeping her, staying married to her…that had never been my intention.

Now I didn’t think I’d be able to let her go.

Gemma must’ve seen the light coming from the glowing orb hovering in the center of the room. She nudged open the door, endlessly curious and poking her head into places it didn’t belong, but then her lips pressed together when she saw me.

I was sitting at the stretch of my gleaming desk. Parchment covered it. Plans for the harvest. Maazin’s reports on the yields from my brother’s territories. On my Halo screen, bids from colonies and planets throughout the Quadrants for lore. Purchase contracts that needed to be reviewed and signed.

But right then, all I could think about was Gemma, who had stepped into my office and crossed the long distance to my desk.

My body tightened. My cock steeled in my pants, biting into the metal clasps. Underneath her dress, I could see the outline of her breasts and her taut nipples, which I now knew she liked pinched and tugged. She’d gone wild when I’d touched her there, and my venom dripped as want flooded me. Not even to feed. But to suckle on those hardened peaks and hear her moans fill my office.

There’s nothing stopping you, I thought.

Gemma was angry with me. I could see it in her face, though she tried to conceal it with a cold expression. I nearly laughed because I saw right through it. I would have too, if that expression didn’t make my cock throb and pulse.

“Where have you been?” she asked, glaring. No—demanded.

Her tone immediately made my hackles rise. Images of punishing her for that mouth flooded into my mind. I would make her kneel at my feet. Shove my cock between her lips to keep that mouth stuffed and full so she couldn’t sass me.

“Go to bed, wife,” I growled, scowling down at my papers. My skin was buzzing. Excitement and expectation built within me. Arguing was practically foreplay for us, and my body knew it. She had me trained.

I wondered how much longer I could hold out before pushing her down to her hands and knees and feeding my cock into her slick cunt. Before fucking all of my aggression and frustration and need into her until I was limp and sated. It was all I dreamed about. That and feeding on her delicious, soul-changing blood.

I nearly groaned.

Her glare was making me even harder, until I felt warm pre-come drip from my cock head.

I’d watched the video again. Of Aina’s murder. A sick reminder to keep me away from Gemma. It was twisted, really. I was fucked in the head to use it as an excuse to keep my distance from my wife.

Because that was what I’d done. Ever since I’d lost control on the terrace with her, I couldn’t stop thinking about the wonder and delight on her face as I’d flown her over the Silver Sea. Something had aligned in my chest in that moment, or perhaps slotted into place, and it terrified me. More so than the fact that Gemma Hara was my blood mate. I could deal with that. The other thing? The thing that felt strangely like affection and warmth and gentleness? I couldn’t do that to my family. I simply couldn’t.

Feeding from and fucking a Hara was one thing. Falling in love with one and getting her heavy with my heir—a child that would share the blood of Rye Hara—was unfathomable. I refused to let it happen.

But I feared that the longer I continued to feed from her, the more ingrained she would become in my life. She was already my damn wife. What more would the Haras take from me?

Gemma had come around the desk to glare down at me. Her hair was down, a waterfall of black silk which brushed over her nipples. There was a scent on her I couldn’t place but one that made my neck prickle, irritation rising.

“Why have you been avoiding me?” she asked. Demanded. Again.

I rose from my chair in a swift movement that forced her to stumble back. Instead, I caught her wrist to keep her close.

“Why do you care, wife?” I purred, watching her eyes widen at my sudden nearness, a thread of uncertainty lacing in her eyes. Good.

Then her spine stiffened, and I was fascinated to watch determination rise in its place.

“Have you been feeding from someone else?” she wanted to know.

I flashed her a grin I didn’t feel, and her eyes trailed to my lips, to my sharp fangs glinting in the floating orb’s light. Her breath shallowed.

“Perhaps,” I murmured, releasing her wrist.

She gaped at me. Unless I was mistaken, I swore hurt flashed over her features. “Who?”

“If I didn’t know any better,” I began, pressing her back into the desk until she was forced to bend, “I’d say you were jealous, Gemma Hara. Can it be that you’ve grown addicted to my feedings? Just like the little bite slut I knew you’d be?”

She leveled me a look that told me she knew exactly what I was doing.

“Maybe I am,” she said, surprising me. In all her pride, I’d never expected her to admit to it. “Maybe I’m both.”

Heat burned in my blood, rushing straight to my cock.

Between us, she rubbed her wrist where I’d grabbed her. My eyes caught on something that made me still.

Snatching her wrist, I saw her eyes widen in alarm as my gaze landed on an obvious bite mark. Healing but present.

Most importantly, it was one I hadn’t given her.

A Kylorr had fed from my fucking blood mate.

Rage unlike I’d ever felt unleashed inside me. Raazos, I narrowly avoided going completely berserk, right there in my office with my wife pressed against my body.

“Who fed from you?”

I didn’t recognize my own voice, and Gemma shrank back, though only for a moment.

“Who fucking fed from you?” I roared. I seethed, “Because I will tear them apart for daring to taste your blood! Until there is nothing left of them!”

She was silent, staring back at me with a stiffened upper lip.

“Tell me who. Now!”

“It wasn’t you,” she finally bit back, right in my face. “If I didn’t know any better, husband, I’d say you were jealous.”

I froze with the fury as my words were thrown back into my face. For her daring to taunt me like this. In this state. And fucking hell, I was jealous. Never before had I felt anything like this. Not for past lovers. This was unparalleled.

The ties to a kyrana were extremely dangerous, and I was only now realizing it. I’d give any mated Kylorr a wide berth from now on. It was only wise.

“You play a very dangerous game, wife,” I said. “I can play it too. Right now, you better fight me.”

Her brows furrowed at my words.

I snatched her dress clean from her body, shredding the material like it was mere parchment. She blinked, her lips parted, unable to comprehend that she was now naked against me. That was when I saw it. The first flicker of wariness. The first flicker of understanding, perhaps.

“Because I will fucking feast on you until I drain you dry,” I growled, pushing her roughly back onto the surface of my desk.

Her legs kicked out in surprise, but I caught her ankles in a punishing grip, spreading them wide. A whimper escaped her throat as she thrashed, sending papers scattering to the floor around my desk. I’d toyed with her cunt on the terrace, feeling her slick and hot and needy, but I’d never seen it. Parted, puffy lips, with black, silky curls. I’d never scented her this close either.

It made my mouth water and my venom drip.

“Who fed from you?” I growled, letting my grip slip from her ankles, needing to feel her fight me. I wanted her to make me bleed because it would be the only way to get my rage under control. “Maazin? Ludayn? Inasa, who you have wrapped around your finger at your meals? Was it him? Because I will fucking end him.”

Her bare foot kicked out and caught the bottom of my jaw. She froze, her cheeks flushed, her breath heaving.

I gripped her ankles again, feeling my jaw throb pleasantly, feeling a bit of control return. I spread her legs wide, even as she tensed and squirmed. She was spread uncomfortably wide, judging by the panic on her face as I exposed the pink slit of her cunt, rushing with blood.

As retaliation, I lowered my head. Her hips moved beneath my strength, desperate to get away—though I caught the gleam of excitement in her eyes. She seemed to hold her breath as my lips nearly grazed over her budded clit.

Then I lowered my head to her inner thigh, sinking back in my chair, as I found the place I wanted to feed from her.

I sank my fangs deep, more roughly than I might have otherwise. Gemma didn’t seem to mind. She couldn’t stop the moan of relief that fell from her throat or the way she stopped struggling in my hold. Her hair was spread out among my remaining papers before cascading over the end of the desk, her hands roaming desperately to hold on to something.

At the first hit of her blood, the sensation was like sinking into a hot pool of water when I’d been freezing before. Sinfully right. Luscious. She tasted so fucking good, like in my dreams, the heat of her blood flowing thick over my tongue like a wine. My hips rocked in my chair, desperately needing friction as the tight pleasure spiraled in my groin, spearing straight through me.

I groaned, the sound muffled against her inner thigh. Her skin was hot there. Blazing hot. I drank deeply. Greedy. I felt her come, the orgasm making her thrash as she cried out, as her hands unconsciously flew to her breasts, tugging and pinching her nipples which only made me crazed.

I retracted my fangs, lowering my head to her other thigh. I’d drink from her here too.

“That’s my good little bite slut. Come for me,” I purred. She gasped, her back arching, eyes flying open in disbelief and pleasure when I trailed my fingers over her cunt. I chuckled, the sound humorless and dark, as I taunted, “You love this. You fucking love this. You’re so wet, wife. Wet and slick and needy and hot for me. You came looking for me because you needed your relief, didn’t you? You were craving my bite, my fangs because now you know I’m the only one who can make you feel like this.”

“And w-why is that?” she had the audacity to ask, still in the throes of her long orgasm. “Why is it only you?”

I shoved a finger into her cunt, forcing a chuffed groan from her plump lips, even as her hips bucked against me. She was hot. Like a furnace. And so slick that I slid another finger into her easily, stretching her. Feeling her inner walls clasp and pulse around my fingers, her greedy little cunt trying to draw me deeper.

I didn’t answer her. Instead, I thrust my fingers into her in a steady, pumping rhythm as I lowered my head to her opposite inner thigh. I bit. Hard. It made her whimper—her cunt tightening around my fingers, squeezing them—and I was pleased. I wanted her to feel me in the morning. Every brush of her thighs against one another, she’d feel me, that delicious ache that would probably keep her on edge all day long.

I drank and drank and drank. Gorging myself as if I’d been starved for her, which I had been. Already, my strength was returning. I thrust my fingers into her harder, curling them in a way I knew human females liked, and she keened as she came again, bucking and thrashing hard.

When I had my fill, when my seal at the base of my cock was throbbing and I was a stroke away from coming, I finally let her thighs go. I retracted my fangs and stood up from my chair, shoving my pants down, nearly ripping the material in my haste.

Gemma was lying back, thighs still spread wide, though they were limply hanging over the edge of my desk. Her cheeks were flushed, her gaze half-lidded, her cunt dripping onto my purchase contracts.

I groaned at the mere sight of her. Her eyes went wide when she saw my cock for the first time, her legs automatically closing, as if she hadn’t realized how big I was and was trying to protect herself.

“No. Open them wide,” I rumbled down to her. Fuck, it was hard to think with this pressure building in my knot. “I’m going to come all over your needy cunt, and you better not wash it away until morning.”

Hesitantly, she opened her thighs back up, my bite marks gleaming on her pale flesh. There was an uncertain but curious gleam in her eyes, one that nearly made me pause. I’d never considered it before, but I wondered if my wife had ever been with a male.

And why did I feel jealousy rising for faceless human men if she had been with others?

I gripped my cock, running my fist up and down the thick length of my shaft with the taste of her blood on my tongue. I hissed out a breath, feeling her gaze on it. My seal spasmed, beginning to pulse. Heat was rising. Rising. Hurtling up the length of my cock.

When I came, I placed my palm on her thigh to steady myself, tossing my head back, grunting out my pleasure, my hips moving erratically. Imagining I was fucking her tight cunt, releasing my seed inside her, which I knew I couldn’t do. Not unless she was taking marroswood.

I groaned, tilting my head back down to watch the streams of my silver seed coat her cunt. One lash shot right over her swollen clit, making her bite her bottom lip and twitch, as more followed. Making a mess. Dripping down to my desk. Spreading over her smooth belly.

When I was finished, I felt better. Clarity returned. My clothes were already tight from my growing strength, and I thought there was no way I’d be able to fit my pants back over my hips. The gnawing, aching hunger was satisfied, and I blew out my first breath of relief in five fucking days.

Gemma was staring up at me, her chest still heaving, her nipples pebbled and tight.

My eyes caught on her wrist again and my ire returned, though I didn’t feel the intensity of the rage as I had before. I felt in control again. I could trigger a rage if I wanted to, but I no longer felt like I was spiraling.

“Who fed from you?” I asked for the final time, ignoring the fact that she was covered in my come as I leaned over her. My cock pressed to her bare belly, making her gasp, as I wound my hand around the front of her throat, keeping her still so she wouldn’t try to flee. “Don’t lie to me, wife.”

Chapter 24

Gemma

I was satisfied. I felt warm and sated, like a sleepy, smug cat. I nearly arched off the desk in contentment, not at all fearing the warning in my husband’s voice.

It was inconvenient, I decided, to be attracted to my husband. Unfortunately, I was. Terribly.

Every part of my body felt scorched by him. I didn’t know if I’d ever be the same.

He’d been blazing hot like a forge just now, I thought, nearly shivering just remembering his intensity.

I felt calm. As if the two orgasms had helped rewire the anxious part of my brain.

“I won’t lie,” I informed him. “I just won’t tell you.”

Azur stilled, looming above me. His hand flexed at my throat, but I was beginning to realize that my husband was all bark and no bite, as the Old Earth saying went.

Well, he has a lot of bite, I thought. A bite that I craved, needed, like food and water and air. Food and water and air and Azur’s fangs.

“Gemma,” he warned, his tone low, filling my senses with his glare and his heat and the scent of his skin. “Do not stoke my ire right now.”

Azur was stubborn. He wouldn’t let it go, I knew that already. But I’d promised Ludayn I wouldn’t tell, and I would keep my promise.

He would have to be satisfied with the answer I gave him. Though I had the gnawing sensation that he might’ve already known who it’d been. There were just a few Kylorr in the keep who I saw and spoke to every day. Even fewer who I trusted to ask for help.

“It’s not important who it was. I just wanted to know how it felt,” I told him, a little embarrassed to admit this to him. More embarrassed than lying spread out on his desk with his seed—which was silver—covering my lower half. “How it felt with someone else. If I would feel…”

Azur rumbled. His hand left my throat, and he rose, my skin rapidly cooling in his wake. I closed my legs quickly, feeling the squelch of his come, which made my cheeks burn and my clit throb. I sat up quickly, the papers beneath me wet, and I hoped we hadn’t ruined anything important.

Azur glared but he didn’t speak. His enormous curved cock was still half-hard, hanging out of his black pants. My fingers nearly curled at the sight of it. Long and impossibly thick, he would stuff me full. Not to mention the strange, curious swelling at the very base, a bulbous bulge that I didn’t know would even fit inside me.

And because I was feeling level-headed and satisfied—even a little loopy, pleased as hell that the agitating buzzing beneath my skin was gone—I tentatively reached out to touch his chest. Wondering what he would do.

His pupils only slitted tighter, but he didn’t move away.

“And what were your findings, wife?” he rumbled, his voice dark and husky. He reached forward to slide his hand into my hair, pulling gently so I met his gaze. “From your little experiment?”

I curled my fingers into his shirt. He wasn’t wearing a hard, structured vest tonight. The material was soft beneath my fingertips. “That it felt like nothing at all. Nothing like this.”

“And it never will,” he hissed softly. “If you ever allow anyone to feed from you again, I will retaliate against them. Consider this your first and only warning.”

Jealous, indeed, I thought with parted lips, realizing why Ludayn’s hesitation and fear had been so pronounced when I’d asked her.

“Your blood is mine, Gemma,” he growled. “I will not share it. I will not let anyone feed from my wife. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I whispered. Feeling a spark of pleasure which mingled strangely with annoyance. “But who have you been feeding from?”

Azur grunted. His hand left my hair and settled over mine where it was burrowed in his shirt. He tugged it away. Even still, he didn’t drop it. He clasped my hand in his.

“No one.”

I blinked. All the fight leaving me. “You’re lying.”

Though I knew he wasn’t.

He shot me an irritated glare. “I told you before. Kylorr can survive on food alone. Blood is a luxury that some cannot even afford.”

That…softened me. Here I’d thought he’d been drinking from others, giving that sublime pleasure to faceless beings, and I could finally admit that it had cut me up more deeply than I wanted to admit.

Only in my relief could I admit it.

“Oh,” I whispered, brows furrowing. “Then why haven’t you come to me? Isn’t that the whole point of this marriage?”

He looked away from me, making me regret the words. Dropping my hand, he finally stepped away, and I watched as he attempted to tuck his cock back into his pants, which were suddenly very, very tight on his massive thighs.

“Raazos,” he cursed softly, gritting his teeth when he finally got the waist band clasped again. I flushed when I saw his fingers were glimmering in the light from my arousal.

It made me remember that I was entirely naked, perched on the edge of his desk, and I saw the tattered remains of my dress—another he’d ruined—lying innocently on the floor at his feet.

He scooped it up.

“Azur?”

“Have you ever been with a male before?”

The question was so unexpected that it caught me off guard. As I blinked at him, he unraveled my dress. He had ripped it straight down the middle, and I took it from him wordlessly, slipping my arms through the thin straps. It was like a robe now and I clutched the middle, holding the edges together to cover my nakedness.

Not that it mattered. I was sticky with his come. I could feel it, slippery and still warm between my legs.

“You…you mean sex?” I asked.

“Yes,” he grunted, waving his hand impatiently.

I nibbled on my lip. And I hated that the instinct to lie pressed hard on my tongue. An old instinct instilled in my society in the Collis, on all the New Earth colonies. That a woman should be pure and untouched until she got married. A virgin.

And I hated that I was tempted to lie at all. I’d done nothing wrong.

So I told him the truth, wondering how he would react.

“Yes,” I answered though the mere memory of it filled me with discomfort, dashing the calm that had settled in my bones. “A long time ago.”

His eyes narrowed. “How long?”

Hugging my arms around me, I told him, “About five years ago.”

He stilled. “That long?”

His tone made me study him, my gaze flitting between his.

“Please tell me that it wasn’t just once,” he murmured.

“I…” I trailed off, feeling like my world was tilting. He…wanted me to be more experienced? “Yes, it was—”

He cursed, running a hand over his curved horn. “Human? A male?”

“Yes,” I whispered, trying to understand what was happening. “You’re not upset?”

He scowled. “About what?”

“That I…that I’ve been with another man when I was unmarried.”

Azur froze. His nostrils flared. But there was something else that entered his expression. An expression that resembled sympathy. Or perhaps even pity.

“I’m upset about the fact that when we do fuck, Gemma, I’ll likely tear you in two,” he growled. “Because in case you haven’t noticed, wife, a human man is not built like a Kylorr.”

My breath went shallow. He’d said when. Not if. I’d known sex was a possibility. A pretty good one, judging from the escalation of his feedings.

He was upset that he would hurt me.

That was where his ire was stemming from.

“Don’t you want to?” I couldn’t help but ask, unable to keep myself from poking at him even though my brain told me to keep my mouth closed. “I thought you wanted to hurt me.”

Azur was in my face in the blink of an eye. I gasped but it was caught in his mouth as his lips crashed into mine. My mind went pleasantly blank, and I felt the sharp glide of his fangs as he kissed me almost angrily. It was a mean, hard, punishing kiss…

Until it wasn’t.

Moments ticked by but they felt like an eternity I never wanted to leave. His kiss gentled as I clung to his tunic, my dress slipping open again. His arm wrapped around my hips, tugging me more fully into his hardened, massive body as he stepped between my thighs. I learned how to move my mouth against his so his fangs wouldn’t snag on my bottom lip. I relaxed in his arms, feeling the back of my neck tingle pleasantly as his other hand raked through my hair, his dull claws scraping against my scalp.

A deep groan left his throat. His cock felt like a thick, hot rod, resting just above my sex against my lower belly. Heat bloomed, my clit beginning to warm and pulse.

Azur broke the kiss first, lowering his head so that it hung in front of me, his horns nearly scraping my cheeks before I leaned back.

Silence dropped between us as we caught our breaths. My lips felt swollen, my eyes half-lidded from the gentle sensation and memory of his kiss.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

Azur finally tilted his head up to regard me.

“I did want to hurt you,” he informed me, and I swallowed at the gruff turmoil in his voice.

“But not now?”

I held my breath as he shook his head.

“No, not now.”

“And you won’t tell me why?” He stiffened against me, but I pressed forward. “You won’t tell me why you wanted to hurt me? A daughter of House Hara?”

Azur studied me, his slitted pupils darting back and forth, before he lowered them down my neck to my exposed breasts to the mess he’d made below them. I felt that gaze like a caress, hot and firm.

“No,” he said.

He was retreating already, closing himself off once again. Dread pooled low, but it was what I’d expected.

I thought that maybe I should leave. It was clear he wanted me to, waiting until I hopped off his desk and hightailed it out his office door so he could work in peace once more, late into night.

Instead, I found myself saying, “The man I had sex with was named Petyr. He came to work in my father’s mines one summer, looking for work as he was traveling between the Quadrants.”

A sound that resembled a growl rose from Azur’s throat, but he pinned me with a cool, assessing look.

I raised my chin to meet his eyes. “I had just turned twenty-five. So incredibly young and yet in the Collis, my purpose was over. Women are expected to be married at twenty. Every year that passes after twenty, people begin to look at you with a little more distaste. And if you aren’t married by twenty-five…you never will be. I was a disappointment to my family.”

Even saying it sparked familiar bitterness I’d thought I had long forgotten.

“Overnight, I lost all my value in my terrible, terrible society. And it hit me hard. Really hard. I was angry. I was restless. So I went to the mines and I picked the first human man that I saw. I took him to my bed. Afterward, I never saw him again. He stole a few trinkets from my room, and he was off the planet by the time I realized it.”

A wry smile lifted my lips.

“The whole experience was lackluster to say the least. But I don’t regret it. It made me feel better in that moment. But it made me realize how meaningless the act truly was. How foolish I’d been to believe that if I remained untouched before marriage, then I would get everything I’d ever wanted. That idea had been so ingrained in us. Since childhood. And it makes me sick to think about it now.”

Azur was watching me carefully. Only listening, though I had no idea what he was thinking.

“Shortly after, my mother died,” I said, looking down to the floor, my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth. “Then I found out about the debts and I poured my disappointment and shame and grief into something else entirely. And it was easy to forget.”

“How did she die?” Azur asked me.

There was a stone lodged in my belly. A heavy weight that would never quite disappear.

Instead of answering, I shook my head. Because the truth was too terrible to say out loud. Truthfully, I’d never spoken it out loud. Not once. Not ever.

My eyes went to the Halo screen, which was still flickering on the edge of his desk. Longing went through me like a spear straight to my chest. I’d nearly forgotten it.

“Would you let me call my family?” I asked quietly, meeting his eyes. “On the Halo? Just to see them? I’d like to see my sisters’ faces. My friend, Fran. My father.”

Azur reared back. I’d managed to shock him. He hadn’t expected me to ask that, and I watched, with a lump in my throat, as he scowled. All trace of his former expression, however gentle, was gone.

“No.”

“But I—”

“I said no,” he growled. “If you think you can manipulate me and make me feel anything for you just so you can try to get your way, you should know better. You should know that that will not work with me.”

I gaped. “That’s not what I was trying to do.”

“Weren’t you?” he rasped, stalking toward me. “Giving me your sad story about your fucked-up race, trying to make me sympathize with you when you told me your mother died and how hard you worked to save your family from all the debts. I see right through it, Gemma Hara.”

Where was his anger coming from?

That sudden anger made my mouth go dry. He thought I was using my mother’s death to try to get something out of him?

I was asking to call my family. Not to leave Krynn. I’d thought…I’d thought we’d been making progress. Seeing eye to eye. I’d thought that we could at least be civil with one another if we were to be married for the rest of our natural lives, dammit, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

I was trying to make this work with him.

But he fought me at every turn, and I was getting incredibly demoralized by it.

“You’ll never see me as anything else,” I breathed, a surprising sensation of pain at the realization stabbing at my chest. “You’ll always see me as this conniving person trying to take something from you. You’ll always look for the worst in me, won’t you?”

Azur’s glare seemed to falter, but then it doubled in its intensity, as if he was steeling his mind.

“Hara blood is Hara blood, after all,” he said.