Page 125 of The King's Man
My pulse responded to the dance. My body to her body.
It wasn’t until the cheering, singing males surged forward as if to overwhelm the dancers that I snapped out of my reverie.
At first I tensed—did the men mean them harm?—but it was soon clear this was all a part of the dance as well. The women who’d ringed the fire linked arms and kept the men from touching their sisters.
I had no idea what game they played, but found myself searching for that woman again—dear God, what was wrong with me? I had to cut loose—
Suddenly, the drums crescendoed, then everything stopped. Including my breath.
The woman,thatwoman, finished the circle she’d turned and stopped, the fabric of her gown swaying, fluttering, muchslower to halt, hugging her curves for a few, delicious glimpses before it billowed around her legs.
She blinked.
Her head was turned almost to profile from me as she stared at Yilan who stood apparently frozen, staring, as the women who’d circled them and kept the men at bay, suddenly parted, allowing only individuals through. And one of them, that fucking talking uniform of a General, threw himself at Yilan’s feet.
But I couldn’t take my eyes from Yilan’s companion. Her guard. Whose expression was now uncertain, confused.
As male after male was loosed to run to one of the females who’d weaved in the circles, she stood alone.
Her forehead lined so that for a moment, I assumed she was hurt.
Yet, when she turned, it wasn’t to scan the men nearby, to see if one came for her.
No.
Her head snapped straight in my direction, her eyes dark and glinting like blades.
Even though I knew she’d never see me over this distance and in the dark when there was no light nearby, instinctively, I dropped below the cover of the shrubs I’d been crouching behind.
Peering through the tiny gaps between leaves, I saw her brows pinch and consternation on her face. And something deep in my chest pinched to laugh.
But as I drank in the sight of her, and my body made promises my mind had no intention of keeping, the night was pierced by a scream of such desperate terror, my blood came alive with adrenaline.
I leaped to my feet, every warrior’s instinct on high alert, about to lose the obscurity of my wings and dive into the deadly fray when all hell broke loose.
Diadre sucked in a breath and blinked rapidly, jerking back, her eyes coming into focus as she broke the connection and focused on me.
“You were there that night?” she breathed.
I nodded. “I told myself I’d been drawn into the music and the… attraction in the air. But obviously… obviously a part of me recognized you, even then.”
She stared up at me, shocked. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
I snorted. “I didn’t see you again until the day we sat at Melek’s round table and my very presence seemed to raise your hackles like a cat with its fur petted the wrong way. By then… well, we both had other things on our minds, didn’t we?”
She dropped her head, but she’d reached for me, gripped my arms, was blinking and frowning as if rearranging thoughts in her head. “I thought… I thought you wereonlyattracted to me because of the bond. I thought you fought it—”
“I told you, I fought for your sake. Forours.The curse is real, Dee. I wouldn’t put you through that—”
“That’s not what I meant,” she breathed.
I frowned down at her. “Then what?”
Her brow furrowed and she searched my eyes like she wasn’t quite sure what she was searching for. “I don’t know,” she admitted a moment later. “I was certain that you’d come to this with contempt for me. That you have been making the most of it—I know you mean your words, Jann. I don’t doubt your loyalty. Butwhy…I doubtwhyyou’re loyal. I thought… I thought you were fighting the attraction that was only physical—”
“Do you fight your attraction to me?” I growled.
“I did at the beginning, yes.”
