Page 82 of A Promise so Bold and Broken

When the climax boomed through the room, she spun—faster and faster—ignoring the beads of sweat forming at her temples and how her cheeks began aching from laughing.

It didn’t even make her nauseated, so she pushed her body to whirl faster, a delighted squeal leaving her when her feet obeyed.

As the song faded, she slowed her movements until she halted in sync with the music.

The sense of happiness filled her entirely, as if stopping had bottled it all up inside her.

Lessia opened her eyes and joined in the clapping from the Fae around her, then moved to lean her back against the wall to catch her breath as the music shifted into a slow song and the Fae around her pulled each other close.

She shook her head when a blond Fae eyed her questioningly, throwing him an apologetic smile as she gestured toward the wall and mouthed, “Maybe later.”

She didn’t want to dance with anyone else.

Not right now.

Doing it by herself felt… freeing somehow.

As if she could do this.

Not just the dance but… life.

A prickling sensation whispered over her face when she drew a happy breath, and as she lifted her eyes, Merrick’s dark ones collided with hers, knocking the breath right back out of her again with their intensity.

A frown pulled at her features.

There was something different about him.

She continued meeting the unsettling darkness that was his eyes as she tried to understand what it was.

Softness.

It was softness, she decided.

While his face would always be sharp, with that strong jaw and high cheekbones, that boyishness she’d seen when he’d been sleeping after she helped clean his wounds or when he played with her in the water peeked through.

He was beautiful.

She’d always known he was.

He was Fae, after all.

But tonight?

He was every bit the strong Fae warrior she’d heard of.

But he was also a male.

A friend.

He was Merrick.

A fire kindled within her the longer he held her gaze captive, those starlike flecks in his eyes sparkling from across the room.

It was as if they were talking to her…

But she couldn’t hear what they were saying.

At the same time she took a step toward him to ask—to understand—Merrick jumped down from the chair he’d sat upon, their movements so synchronized a shocked laugh bubbled up within her.

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