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“Actually, I wear contacts.”

He chuckled and I turned to smile up at him.

I was beginning to like the sound of it.

“You know what I mean,” he said, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

“Mmm,” I agreed, watching him watch me.

His jaw tightened, and I watched his cheek flex.

“What?”

Ashe’s eyes were dark as he thought, a stark contrast to the playful expression he had worn only moments ago. He didn’t answer me straight away, instead busied his hands by wrapping my fresh tattoo in cling wrap and fastening it with some tape.

There was a conflict on his face, and I could already predict what was going through his mind.

“You want me to leave?” I arched an eyebrow.

He scoffed, sounding a little amused. “You should never have come.”

I returned his scoff with a louder scoff, leaning back to look at him and folding my arms across myself.

“You’re afraid,” I smirked.

“Yes,” he nodded, mimicking my stance by leaning backwards and folding his arms.

My eyebrows shot up at his confession and he rolled his eyes.

“No, Zar. It’s not about your fucking brothers and their cronies.”

“Then what?”

What could this man possibly be afraid of?

If the stories were true about him, then I’d be the first to assume he wasn’t afraid of anything. His chest rose as he took a deep breath and let it out with a huff.

“You wouldn’t get it,” he shook his head, busying himself again with tidying his area.

I rolled my eyes, snatching my pants from where they hung on the back of his chair and shoving my legs into them as quickly as I could without tumbling over. I made quick work with the button and threw my bag over my shoulder before I headed for the door.

Ashe didn’t move.

He just watched me from where he was.

“I’m not a fucking moron, Ashe,” I snapped with my hand on the serpentine handle of the door. “All my life I’ve been told over and over again that I wouldn’t understand.‘Don’t worry, Zar’. ‘You wouldn’t get it, Zar’.” I mimicked the voice of my mother, my brothers, my friends. “I’m not just some dumb, blonde, heiress that doesn’t understand anything other than shopping.”

“Zarina—”

“I know more than you think I do. I know more than everyone thinks I do. But I’ll be fucked before I stand here and let yet another person treat me like an idiot.”

The door slammed behind me as I stepped out onto the street. I didn’t even chance a look over my shoulder to see if Ashe had followed me, or if he had reacted at all.

The sun had all but disappeared now, and the city was cold. I wiped away the stray few frustrated tears that had escaped before pulling my jacket in closer around my torso.

I clenched my jaw and willed myself not to break down into a full sob. But the heat from the anger was building in my chest, and I shook out my hands to rid my body of at least a little of the red, hot energy that bubbled inside me.

My mind spun with a highlight reel of all the off-handed remarks from people who were supposed to love me, playing on repeat in my mind with no pause or stop button. Every eye roll that people thought I didn’t see. Every condescending smile at an innocent question. Every bark of laughter in my face at a misplaced comment.