Page 65 of Unbound By Shadows
“I imagine nymphs would have more discretion,” he said coldly. “Where did you get that dress?”
She gaped at him. “Hollen packed it for me. But hold on, are you slut-shaming me right now? Seriously?”
“I don’t know what that means, but it’s obvious that you enjoyed having many, many dance partners tonight.”
She pressed her lips together. “I like dancing, okay? And men who don’t go out of their way to avoid me.”
“Enjoy talk of crop diseases and hay mowing, do you?”
Selene scowled up at him. “If you wanted a dance, all you had to do was ask.”
“I do not dance!” he thundered.
He instantly regretted his tone when she shrank back on the bench. After they regarded each other in silence, she said, “Why are you so angry with me?”
He shrugged.
“This is about more than me dancing,” she said.
He shrugged again.
“Is this about what Brunie and Eldridge told me? Whatever happened in your past, I don’t care,” she said. “To be honest, I’m in awe of how you came through it.”
He touched a cluster of green berries sprouting from a bush. “I don’t need your pity.”
“It’s not pity.”
“Now that you know what happened I don’t want to ever talk about it again. Do you understand?” he said.
"I understand. But I want to say that I think you're very brave. And resilient. That's all."
He frowned. Her words were gratifying, but he was unsure of how to respond. He was also tired of thinking, talking, obsessing about his past. If she were agreeable to letting it go, he would be as well. To change the subject, he asked the question that had been plaguing him all day.
“Last night, in the kitchen… why did you do it?”
“What?”
He scowled, reluctant to actually say the wordkiss. It seemed too subdued, too chaste for what they had shared. “What do you think?”
She returned the same ambiguous shrug he had given her a moment before.
His shoulders tightened. Why was she being so difficult? He took a step closer and dropped his voice, hoping to intimidate her into being truthful. “If you are playing a game, take care. Do not mistake me for one of your human men or even an Aurelian. You don’tunderstand the drives you invoke when tempting a demon. Now tell me why you did it.”
She twirled a lock of hair around her finger. “I did it because I… I’ve wondered for so long what it would be like to kiss you. So when the opportunity came—”
“You’ve thought about kissing me? Before last night?”
“Yes.”
Pleasure rushed through him. Wondered for so long, she had said.How long? And how detailed had those wonderings been?But the feeling was short-lived. “Last night was a mistake. My control slipped, and I… ” He glanced at the skin of her collarbone and chest, surprised there were no bruises there. “I did things I regret.”
A look he couldn't recognize passed across her face. “I don’t have any regrets,” she said. “Maybe that it ended too soon.” Her cheeks flushed.
Maddening human!Sam scanned her face suspiciously, looking for any signs of jest or duplicity, yet she seemed sincere.
He began to pace in front of her. She made him feel so off-balance, so uncertain of everything he knew to be true. Combat against an enemy he understood. He was gifted at doling out punishment. Masterful at upholding justice. But interpreting females? He had never felt so adrift. All of his conflicted feelings bubbled up into one emotion that he was very familiar with—anger.
“How can you say it ended too soon when you told me to stop?” he seethed, pointing an accusatory finger.
