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I slid down his body until my feet found the floor, and I tugged his shirt while backing toward the bed.

“Wait!” He sounded panicked.

“For what?” I kept going.

He growled. “Sol, please, I’m trying to do the right thing.”

I frowned. “And what is that, exactly?”

“I’m trying to take it slow. I don’t want to rush you. It’s a big step.”

I was lost.

“You’re a maiden. I?—”

Then it all made sense, and I couldn’t hold in my laugh.

Nyx’s eyes flew to mine, and they narrowed.

I pressed my lips together to rein in my amusement,

“Sol?” His tone was a warning.

“I’m sorry. I just don’t know where you got the idea that I’m”—I rolled my eyes at his phrase—“a maiden.”

His scowl cut a deep line in his brow. “Y-you…I…” He stepped away, and I hated the space. Turning his back on me, he paced. “Everything about you, Sol!” He rounded on me, counting off his fingers with each point he made. “The religion you were raised in. The way you were scandalized when I saw you in night clothes. The way you were scandalized by me being shirtless, for that matter. You called the capital a den of sin. By the Goddess, you dressed like your body was a fortress you had to protect at all costs! And you told me you weren’t permitted to socialize with the fae in your village. What else was I to think?”

I was speechless, but I could see how it had all added up in his mind. “You could have asked,” I said quietly.

He tipped his head to the ceiling as if asking the stars for guidance.

This was not going well. What if he didn’t want me now because I’d been with another fae?

After a long moment, he straightened and turned to me, chest heaving, hands balled into fists. “So, you’ve been with other fae before?” he asked with no inflection I could read.

“One,” I corrected.

He crossed the space. “Did you love him?” That note of jealousy I’d enjoyed before had returned.

I shook my head.

He moved closer. “Was he good to you?”

I nodded.

“I don’t know if that makes it better or worse.” He closed in, towering over me.

“He didn’t matter. He was just an escape from that life.”

“Were you together when I…”

He didn’t need to finish. I knew what he meant—when he took me away. “No.”

He released a breath.

“Does it change things?” I asked, afraid of his answer. What if I’d ruined everything?

“Yes, it changes things.”