Page 46 of Offering Herself to Darkness

Which was exactly what Nora intended to do.

29

XAREX

Xarex knew who it was when she knocked on his door, but he told himself he shouldn’t let her in. It was better to make a clean break—to let the link between them gradually fade. To?—

“Xarex? I know you’re in there!” he heard Nora calling. “You need to let me in and tell me what this weird barrier thing is you put in my mind!”

He felt a flash of surprised guilt—she was able to feel the metal barrier? Followed by a moment of clarity—clearly he wasn’t going to be able to avoid this confrontation.

Walking to the front of his suit, he tapped the door controls and the silver door panel slid to the side. Nora was standing just outside the door. She was wearing a long garment—either a coat or a robe—belted around her waist, and an exasperated expression.

“Come in.” Xarex stepped to the side to allow her entry.

She stepped into his suite and went to stand by the overstuffed couch where he’d held her and let her cry the other night.

“Come on—sit. We need to talk,” she said, nodding at the couch.

Warily, Xarex came to sit beside her.

“Yes? What would you like to talk about?” he asked, though he thought he already knew.

“First of all, this barrier or wall you put up between us.” She frowned up at him. “Apparently since we had sex yesterday and you knotted me when we did, that means we’re ‘Bonded.’ Is that right?”

“True.” Xarex nodded. He had decided that saying as little as possible and keeping his face and his words calm and measured would probably be the best strategy here.

“Okay, and from what I understand, Bonded mates, which is what we are now, are supposed to be able to hear each others’ thoughts.”

“Also true.” He nodded again.

“But I can’t hear your thoughts because of this barrier between us. Did you put it there?” she asked.

Xarex shifted on the couch.

“Yes,” he admitted. “I did. As to why I did it, it was because I felt that maybe we should go our separate ways.” It was difficult to force the words out, but he had to say them.

“Why?” Nora leaned forward, looking at him with hurt eyes. “I know we signed a contract that said we’d split after Anna was cured—which she is, thank God—but I thought maybe…maybe there was something else between us. I thought you might want to stay together.” She shook her head. “But maybe I was wrong. Maybe now that you’ve had me, you don’t want me anymore.”

Xarex couldn’t keep the calm expression on his face any longer.

“Is that what you think of me?” he demanded. “You think I’d discard you as soon as I got what I wanted sexually?”

“A lot of human guys would do that,” she said candidly. “A lot of them just want sex with no emotional commitments.”

“That’s not how I feel at all,” Xarex told her. “I would never leave you after you gave yourself to me. That isn’t why we need to ‘break up’ as you humans say.”

“I don’t understand…” She twisted her fingers together in her lap. “Is it…is it because of Anna? Because you don’t want to raise someone else’s child?” she asked quietly. “If that’s it, then fine. Anna and I are a package deal—I won’t leave her to be with a man—not even one I’ve really started to…to care about,” she ended, lifting her chin defiantly.

Xarex felt like his heart was being put through a meat grinder.

“Do you really think so little of me?” he asked hoarsely. “That I would want to leave you because you have a young one? I like Anna. When she put her little arms around my neck and asked me to be her ‘Daddy’ I felt emotions I didn’t even know I was capable of.”

Nora shook her head.

“Then I don’t understand. Why do you want to break up when we’re already Bonded?”

Xarex saw there was no other way—he was going to have to tell her the truth.

---