He tears his eyes from me and back toward the pond. “Figuring out what to do with you.”
“Oh.”
We’re both quiet again, and for the first time since my arrival, it’s not uncomfortable this time. I contemplate what I should say and, in the end, opt for honesty. “I don’t want to be locked up anymore, but I don’t want to go back to my life either.”
I feel a semblance of relief from admitting that fact out loud, but at the same time, I panic.
“What about your fiancé?” There’s a note of anger in his voice, but he manages to keep it in check.
I bring up my knees and wrap my arms around them, pulling my legs into my chest to try to conserve some of my body heat. “I care for Alistair, but I never loved him like one should when they’re going to marry. He just represented a little more freedom. But it still wouldn’t be enough to really make me happy, and that’s not fair to him.”
I wait to see how Kol takes my admission, given that he believes I never loved him. Will he think I’m just a conniving man-eater to all men?
But he doesn’t get angry or take any shots at me for skipping town when we were supposed to be married. To my shock, he says, “You can stay here if you want.” He turns away from the pond and meets my gaze. “Not locked in the tower. You can stay in one of the other rooms in my wing until you figure out what you want to do.”
I squash the hope that wants to sprout with the possibility of this being real for fear that he’ll tear it all away just to be cruel. “Really?”
He nods. “I shouldn’t have done what I did.”
My arms drop from around my legs, and my shoulders sag. “I shouldn’t have left you without an explanation. I’m sorry.”
His eyes flicker with an emotion I can’t decipher, then he stands. I wait for him to leave, to give me his back once more, but he holds out his hand. I slide my palm into his big hand and shiver once I’m on my feet.
Kol’s eyebrows furrow. “Here.”
Before I can decline, he pulls his long-sleeve Henley over his head, revealing his bare chest. My eyes widen. I’ve never seen a man’s naked chest in person, and Kol’s is perfection. I want to run my palms over the planes of his hard muscles. Looking at him shirtless with the moon casting down on him makes him look virile and strong and lethal.
His lion tattoo is fully visible. I saw most of it when he wore a T-shirt and pulled it up to show me once, but I’ve never seen it all. The way the lion’s mouth is open in a roar over his shoulder and the body twists around his arm down to his elbow.
I avert my gaze as he holds out his shirt to me. “Put this on.”
“You don’t have to do that.” My limbs shake with a shiver.
“Rapsody.” He steps into me, the heat of his body warming me before he pulls the shirt over my head.
The hem falls to my knees, and I feel his body heat as I slide my hands through the arms. His scent, the one I remember so well from our time together, surrounds me. It always reminded me of what I imagined a winter forest might smell like—pine and snow and crisp air.
“Thank you.” I look at him, and our gazes lock and hold.
The air between us blends, and the small amount of space crackles with energy, just like the first time we met. His gaze dips to my lips, and he huffs. My tongue slides out, licking my lips. Just when I can’t take the tension any longer, and my patience is about to snap, Kol clears his throat and steps back.
“Time for bed,” he says.
I follow him to the house, and when I lie down to go back to sleep, for the first time since I arrived, real true hope springs to life inside me.
Chapter
Ten
KOL
Istill can’t figure out why Rapsody didn’t run last night. It doesn’t make any sense. She could have left, and I wouldn’t have known until morning. She would have gotten so far ahead of me, it might have taken another four years to find her.
But she came to sit by me. Why, after everything I’ve done to her?
My mind is a jumbled mess, assuming she’s got some bigger scheme on the horizon. I don’t see how it could be. What would be the point? What would she have to gain?
Which leaves me thinking that maybe she’s telling the truth and doesn’t want to return home to her mother and the prick.