Page 54 of Cryptic Dreams
“Yeah well, I can still hope, can’t I? Maybe if I’m lucky you’ll be cashing it in sooner than you think.”
“Pardon?”
I blow out a breath and close my eyes. “What did you need, Wraith? I was studying and if you just called me down here to insult me, then I’d really like to get back up stairs.”
“Insult you? What in the bloody hell are you talking about?”
“Like you don’t know,” I say with a huff.
“I don’t.”
“Sure.”
He scowls back. “I understand none of this.”
Tonight’s swoon level? Zero. Maybe even a negative thirty.
“I don’t have time for this. I need to study and I can’t do that while trying to figure out how you can be so hot and cold with me all the time. Maybe we should just go back to being two ships in the night. I won’t destroy your eyesight with mynot enough clothesand you can spare me anymore thoughtful comments or actions that make me think—“
“Bloody sit, Zephyr,” Wraith barks as I start to get up. “If you’d just sit your arse down for five bloody minutes and let me say what it is I need to say, perhaps we could spare each of us another headache or unnecessary agitation.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do!” I snap because I can’t seem to help myself. “I’m trying to spare youhaving to look at me without enough clothes on. I’m trying tospare youfrom having to be nice to me when obviously it’s harder than you thought. I’m trying tospare youthis conversation so you can get on with your evening and go find whoever you need to warm your bed tonight!”
“Enough!” he barks again. “In order! I clearly worded things wrong because I only meant that I can see your bloody lovely nipples through that wretched tank top, therefore you did not have enough clothes on to be sitting in front of me and Excalibur that way. Secondly, I do not have to try to be nice to you, I don't have to try to be thoughtful or anything else because you make me want to be those things. You naturally bring them out of me in a rare show of my less prickish behavior because you consume my thoughts.” I inhale sharply as he continues. “And lastly, I have never, nor will ever, find anyone to warm my bed because I’m daft enough to believe that bed will beoursone day, given that I can stop yelling and prove to you I am the mate you deserve me to be!”
Now I’m crying.
Yep.
I went from angry and looking for a fight to crying big stupid tears in a matter of seconds, and Wraith isn’t slowing down at all.
“And another thing,” he snaps. “I am so bloody tired of your wildly incorrect thoughts that practically scream at me all hours of the day and night!” He spins from the counter and yanks about three feet of paper towel off the roll then slowly rounds the counter and stops next to me. “I do believe this will be the only time I ever say this to you, but you are wrong, Zephyr.”
Wraith’s tone, his body language, all of it is suddenly so soft, so caring and sweet, I can’t help but cry harder. “A-a-about wh-what?”
He gives me a beautiful smile as he gently dabs my tears. “Everything as it pertains to you and I.”
“But-but, I—”
“I did not intend to share this with you yet, and most definitely not in this way, especially since I wanted things to be a little more organic but I’m afraid you’ve forced my hand, love.”
Miraculously, I don’t look away as he looks me right in the eye.
“I have fought our bond from the first moment I saw you, but not because I don’t want you, not because I believe you to be unworthy of me.” Wraith sets down the paper towel and cups my cheeks, keeping our eyes locked. “On the contrary, my love. It isIwho is so incredibly unworthy of you that I thought denying our bond would be the best for both of us. It had nothing to do with you because the Gods of Old did indeed give me the most perfect mate, my equal in all ways, a mate I never could have dreamt up for myself if I was so inclined to do so.” He swallows hard and smooths his thumbs under my eyes. “There are many reasons why I tried to deny you, Zephyr, but not one of them was because I believed you to be unworthy, because I didn’t want you, because I didn’t… didn’t already love you.” Wraith grins as I start sobbing uncontrollably. “And while I intend to share some, if not all of those reasons with you this night, I need you to knock this shite off immediately because listening to the way you so incorrectly view yourself and our relationship has been driving me bloody mad.”
I snort and roll my eyes even though I’m smiling like an idiot. “Short drive.”
The smile that splits Wraith’s handsome face at my quip is blinding. “That it is, my love, a short drive indeed. Now that the air is cleared, may I please get back to what I called you down here for?”
My chest deflates a little.
I thought he was going to kiss me. I washopinghe was going to kiss me. I mean, that’s pretty standard right? Profess your love for someone and seal it with a kiss? I would have settled for just a little one even. No tongue, maybe even a slightly less than chaste peck would suffice.
Damn romance novels.
Wraith growls as he reluctantly drops his hands and backs up. “You are making things very difficult, love.”
I just frown. “Can you hear all of my thoughts?”
