“That’s not a real offer.”
“You’ll never know,” he says in a low, teasing voice.
“Hector...”
“Sol…”
He brings his other hand to the curve of my cheek, to the scar. Lightly, he traces the mark, his touch gentle against my skin.
“Would you have?” My question is too vulnerable. It shows too much. My desires. My wants.
When he smiles, I frown and turn my face from his. He’s laughing at me. He has no intention of bedding me.
“You find great amusement in my suffering,” I say in that same weak voice.
“Do I make you suffer, Sol?”
“Even if you did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
He catches my cheek and turns my face back toward him. “You make me suffer. Every damn night.”
“You suffer?”
“Yes.” Rawhunger burns in his eyes. “I want you, Sol, but I am a selfish man. I cannot stand the thought of having you, then losing you.”
Needing him to understand me, I bring his hand to my chest, allowing him to feel the throbbing against our joined fingers. “I am a Kyanite healer who needs to renew herself. That’s a truth neither one of us can deny.”
“I can accept that.” Pain borders his tone as he continues. “I cannot accept you never returning to me.”
“I don’t belong here.” The truth rips my heart apart. “You know it. I know it.”
“No.” He shakes his head. “I don’t know it. You heard the Seer. You are part Bloodstone.”
“I am Kyanite,” the words snap out of me. My frustration snaps out with it.
“Hades!” He exhales and pulls away enough to create separation between my body and his. “Why can you not admit what you are? Just admit it, Sol. You cast Bloodstone magic. You are one of us. You belong here with us. With me. You belong beneath me.” Before I utter a response, he rotates us, pressing my back against the bed and straddling me. “I belong inside you.”
Yes!
“Then do it. Bed me.”Please.
“Promise me you’ll stay here with me,” he says, his words desperate. “You will not try to run.”
My pulse thrashes in my ears. “I cannot promise you a lie.”
He stares at me, the hurt in his eyes shredding through me. “Why must you be so stubborn?”
I cannot bear to be a part of the destruction that is sure to come. But I also do not want to imagine a future without this man.
“I’m sorry. But I don’t want to lie to you about this.” The truth echoes in the air, reverberating and weighing heavily on my heart.
“Then, you’ll leave me.” His words pierce the space between us. The one I created when I didn’t tell him what he needed to hear.
“Hector,” I whisper into that void. “I still need you to hold me.Please.”
A muscle twitches in his jaw as he nods and pulls me back against him and tucks the blanket around us.
The silence pulses between us, its weight heavier than every word we have ever spoken. Still, I’m unwilling to push him away and lose the heat he gives me.
