“Yes, Sir.”
Amara sat at the kitchen bar, finishing her coffee when I walked inside. “What are you thinking about?”
Her blue gaze shifted toward mine. “About tonight. I’m dreading being taunted all night by him.”
Stopping in front of her, I placed a palm on either side of her hip and leaned close. “Maybe we can take a long bath tonight, drink some wine and that’ll block him out.”
“It’s worth a shot, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
The oven timer went off, but I stopped Amara from walking over and pulled out the casserole myself. “Do you think Roan is going to protect me if it comes down to it? Because it looked like he wanted to kill me earlier.”
I slid the pan onto the island beside her. “He’ll do whatever Chandler asks him to do.”
“Not if we’re in the midst of a fight,” she whispered. “What if he tries to hurt me?”
I glared at her. “I will be with you during the fight, and no one is going to touch you.”
“Promise?”
I leaned forward, over the casserole and whispered, “I promise.”
Amara leaned in and kissed me softly. “Are you afraid of me?”
“What?” I asked. “Why would you ask me that?”
Amara pulled a fork from the drawer on the island and dipped it into the corner of the casserole. “There was something in your eyes earlier that looked like fear.”
My mind flickered back to the first time we met on the bridge. She looked so innocent, so pure. The fear in her eyes when she saw me looking into her window. “Why would I be afraid of you?”
“Because we don’t know what I’m capable of, and look what I came from. Evian is looking more and more like a monster. What if I’m a monster?” she whispered.
Palming the back of her neck, I tilted her head upward, and her bottom lip trembled. “You,Amara, are not a monster. You’re kindhearted and strong. You don’t let anyone, Evian, whoever, tell you that. If he tries to convince you that you are, block him out. He doesn’t know you. I do. All he knows is what he’s been taught. You weren’t taught that. This is you. Not some kind of monster that he is going to put in your head,” I said, tapping her temple. “You hang onto your heart, and you’ll be fine.”
She smiled softly, a tear racing down her cheek, and she rested her forehead against mine. “I—I think I love you, Dorran.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Amara
His silence turned my skin warm with embarrassment. I began to grow dizzy, and my stomach turned in circles.
What if he didn’t love me?
Why hadn’t I waited for him to say it first?
What came over me?
We were mates, but that didn't mean we were instantly in love, did it? Was it a stupid thing to say? I never thought saying how you felt was a bad thing to do, until now.
The shock on his face, and the way his eyes seemed to look so deeply into mine, it was too much. I slid from the kitchen island and made a beeline for the hallway. I heard his heavy footsteps when I made it halfway down the hall.
Dorran gripped my upper arm, halted me in the doorway to our room, and loomed over me. “Amara,” he whispered a slight chuckle on his lips. “Little Mouse—,”
“I want to be alone,” I said, fighting the growing lump of dread in my throat.
Dorran lifted my chin with his finger. “Why are there tears in your eyes?”