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“I saw the way you looked at him when he first arrived… it was how you used to look at me.”

“No, no that’s not it at all. The only reason I have changed is because it’s difficult to be around you with the way things are between us.” It wasn’t because of any memories of him.

She refused to believe the image of Hel’s naked ass was a memory, no matter how good he looked. At the uncertainty on his face, Layala rubbed her forehead and threw herself back on the bed. Then she reached down, tugged off her boots and tossed them on the floor.

Thane sat down at the end of her bed but kept a careful distance.

This being afraid to touch each other was getting old. This wall between them seemed to only be growing thicker and taller. To chip away at it, Layala moved closer and pressed her palm against the side of his beautiful face. He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch. “I’ll try to remember, for you. So we can be together. I just wish it didn’t have to be this way because it doesn’t.”

“Laya, I love you, but I’m confused right now about you and me. There is a whole other person inside you waiting to come out.”

“It doesn’t have to ruin what we have now,” Layala whispered. “You promised you’d love me in every life and in any realm… has that changed?”

“I will always love you.” His chest rose sharply. “But I’m afraid you may not, and I’m trying to prepare myself for that possibility.”

Hadn’t she shown him over and over that she loved him? She’d risked her life on countless occasions, and gave him everything,her heart, her body. She’d give him eternity as mates if he’d allow it.

“It’s you that I want. It’s always been you.” She leaned in to kiss him and he pulled back. It would be a lie to say the rejection didn’t sting. His eyes dropped to the lily mark on her shoulder and his silence, his action said more than words. “You don’t want me anymore?”

He twirled a piece of her hair around his finger but wouldn’t look at her in the face. “It’s not that I don’t want you. You know I want you, Laya.”

Layala pushed his hand away and stood up. “If you still want me, then prove it. You pinned me to the wall in the alley then left me even more confused than before.”

She stepped between his thighs. There was hunger in his eyes again. He drunk her in, and his tongue swiped across his lower lip. Then his hands slid around her waist, his fingers pressed into her flesh.

“You’re pure temptation, Laya, and determined to ruin my vow,” he admitted and tugged her onto his lap. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have left things that way.”

She straddled her thighs around his waist and wrapped her arms around his neck, leveling her breasts in perfect reach of his mouth. He leaned forward, kissing the tops of her half-exposed breasts. Layala gripped him harder and threaded her fingers into his long hair.

His lips worked up her collarbone, her neck, until they reached her ear. “Maker above, Laya. Your body is perfection. You are perfection.” His mouth moved back down until he wrapped an arm around her back and flipped her over onto the bed and he kissed below her navel. Goosebumps spread over her skin. “You want to feel the pleasure deep inside?”

“It’s you I want. Not just the feeling.” She lay back as he climbed over her and arched into him. His mouth trailed down her belly and his fingers played with the waist of her pants, where he continued his kiss.

“Only do this if you won’t leave me broken, Thane. Promise me right now to be with me every night. That pushing me away is over.”

“Laya,” he breathed and lifted his chin. He stood upright and blinked as if coming to his senses. “No sex but,” he smiled deviously, “I can delight you in other ways.”

This was about so much more than pleasure and intimacy. Their entire relationship was about love and giving in because of that love, not lust or just wanting to feel something. She frowned and pressed her barefoot against his chest. “Promise me it all or you get nothing. Not even the satisfaction of watching me finish.”

The expression on his face was like he was torturing himself as he took a step away. “If that’s your requirement, then I’ll hold true to my word about waiting for your sake.”

She knew it was noble, virtuous even, but she wished he was more of a scoundrel at that moment. “Fine. Goodnight then.”

With the back of his sleeve, he wiped sweat from his brow and cursed under his breath. “Goodnight, Laya.”

Chapter16

LAYALA

Light tapping footsteps hurried down a dark corridor. Dim glowing orbs hung along the center every few feet above her head. She made a quick turn and shoved through a door with etchings of the moon phases and stars surrounding it. A young blond man with waves past his shoulders and wearing round gold glasses looked up from the papers on the desk before him.

He stood upon seeing her and dipped his head. “Valeen,” he said in reverence. “You appear troubled.”

She closed the distance between them, lifted her right arm and tapped her fingers against her new mark. “What is this? We had two intruders at the border. When I tried to stab one of them in the heart, I couldn’t. And this same mark appeared on his chest beneath my blade.”

The man’s blue eyes lifted and the bump in his throat bobbed. With furrowed brows he raised a hand toward her arm. “May I?”

“Yes.”