Page 27 of Damned and Broken Gods
Another time?
She smiled coquettishly at him. “Of course. I’ll be here when you return. Looking forward to our meeting.” She lightly stroked his bicep, and something in me snapped.
“I’m afraid Araz will be much too busy to attend any meetings with you.”
The drohi female’s eyes flinched, narrowing in that way that told me that she was pissed. I arched a brow, daring her to challenge me before looking to Araz with the same challenge.
He blinked slowly then pulled away from the drohi’s touch. “Leela is right. I’m afraid I’ll be too busy.”
The twisted knot that had formed in my chest eased as he walked toward me. He leaned in slightly as he passed.
“I love the color of jealousy on you.”
Urgh. I followed him into the corridor. “I wasn’t jealous.”
“Yes, you were,” both Vick and Araz said at the same time.
Araz shot him a quelling glance.
Vick covered his mouth. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “See you guys back at barracks.”
He bolted, leaving me to walk alongside Araz, back through the starlit room and into the maze-like corridors of the complex.
“I wasn’t jealous.”
He sighed. “Let’s not sully our bond with lies, Leela. You were jealous, and I liked it.”
“Why?”
“I’m obviously extremely twisted.”
“No, but we decided we weren’t going to?—”
“Act on our bond. Yes. We did. I did. But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel things.”
“Did you sleep with her…Valina?”
“Many times.”
He might as well have stabbed me in the gut. “I feel sick. This is ridiculous.” I made to storm off, but he grabbed my elbow and pulled me back toward him.
“I have not lain with her since we were bonded.”
Okay…that was better, I guess. I lifted my chin, effecting a nonchalant air. “You could have. I mean, you don’t owe me anything, so why not?”
He pulled me into the heat of his body, and his cranberry scent left me dizzy with longing. I tipped my chin up, steeling myself for whatever he had to say, but the look of raw need on his face stole my breath.
“Make no mistake, Leela, I may not wish to act on what simmers between us, but I have no desire to act against it either.” He released me. “To hurt you would be to hurt myself.”
“But all the times you were awful to me before…” I saw the truth of it in his eyes, the pain that he’d hidden. This must be awful for him too. To be torn in such a way. His goal, his life, his future weighed against the desire and longing a mandatory bond evoked.
I reached up and lightly grazed his jaw with my fingertips. His eyelids fluttered closed for a moment, and he breathed through his nose.
“Your compassion makes it harder,” he said.
I dropped my hand. “You’re right. We need a decent boundary. One that allows us to work together. To be close and yet to keep an emotional distance. We’re going to be friends. Proper friends.”
He arched a brow, the corner of his mouth quirking. “We are?”
