Page 72 of Bound
Strong hands pull at mine. “Hey now, you couldn’t know.” I peer up as Nisha crouches in front of me. “He isn’t exactly forthcoming with what bothers him.”
“But—”
“No. Gage is grown, Amoret. He knows what he is doing. Fucker is too smart not to.” She scours my expression. “I saw his flames lift you earlier. How they held you. That wasn’t angry. That was … It was like something from a romance movie.”
“But you also saw his face when he snapped out of it,” I argue. “Maybe his fire wanted me, his magick. But he didn’t.”
“Did you ask him that?”
My lips mottle. “No.”
“Then how do you know, Amoret?” I blink, and her smile is kind. “I told you. Gage is hard to read. And with baggage like the kind he carries, maybe you have to be more direct to get an honest answer. You won’t know until you try.”
“What won’t we know until we try?” Lilah slips into the room, her dark hair pulled up in a jaunty ponytail and her blue eyes luminous.
I blush.
“Amoret has the hots for Gage,” Nisha says without preamble.
My head whips over and I stare at her in horror. “Nisha!”
She snorts. “What? Lilah knows what it’s like to deal with one of these hard-headed males too.”
Lilah gives a grave nod, her expression distant. “True.”
Nisha spreads her hands in aviolagesture, and I drop my face back into my palms.
Gods.
Women outside the Sith are not like the Fae, that’s for sure.
I pull away from my hands, eyes scouring the floor past them. But maybe that is what Gage wants.
Looking up, I watch as Nisha and Lilah speak in low tones. Lilah holds up her phone with a grimace, and Nisha makes a face too.
I rise to my feet and walk past them to the open door of the grand chambers Tanner and Nisha share. The hall is long and Wena, Vish, and Ivo are near the end. None of them look up as I close the door. But when I turn around, I have the vampire and the shifter’s full attention.
“I know you don’t like me,” I say to Lilah. “And I don’t blame you. But I will do everything in my power to get Ruin acquitted before the Council.”
Lilah shifts to face me, her expression weary. “Why?”
“Because I understand why he did it. I understand love.”
Her cheeks flush. “That isn’t—”
“He loves you and you love him,” I cut in. “I can see it. Probably everyone else can too.” She clamps her lips closed but doesn’t argue further. We stand in silence, weighing each other.
Her nod is clipped. “Fine. So what do you want for your help?” she says, tone cool.
“I will do everything I can to help Ruin. Regardless of it you assist me or not.” Her eyes narrow. “Because it’s the right thing to do.”
Nisha’s head whips between us, her expression empty.
“All I ask now, not as a bargain or as payment, but as a potential friend …” I steel my resolve and hold my chin high. “Tell me how to get Gage to see me as a woman. Not as a Fae lady. But a woman.”
Her eyes widen and she peers at Nisha, who crosses her arms with a smug smile. Lilah idly tucks a nonexistent hair behind her ears. “Um …” She licks her lips.
“I know it won’t be easy,” I say fast. “But before we leave, I want him. Anyway I can have him. If anyone will be the one to take my innocence, I want it to be him.”
