Page 156 of The Sinner's Bargain

But I did my best to take small bites and not moan too loudly. After the fourth forkful, I finally felt human enough to speak.

“When did you do all this?” I asked.

He swallowed his own forkful before answering around a smirk, “While you were ripping my pants open.”

Heat warmed beneath my cheeks, but I chuckled. “If you’re not careful, you’ll never beat this at the real wedding,” I teased.

Eyes warmed by firelight, Thoran met my smile with his. “We’ll see.”

We ate in silence broken occasionally by the clink of silverware on ceramic.

Thoran rose once we were both finished and pulled me to my feet.

“Dance with me,” he murmured into my ear, and I didn’t point out there was no music. Any excuse to be in his arms was good enough for me.

We swayed, but barely. My arms were around his neck. His at my waist. And we kissed. Slow, wandering pecks across each other’s faces, lips, neck. Anywhere we could reach. There was nothing sexual about it, yet it felt infinitely more intimate than anything we’d done so far.

“Naya?” His lips traced the line of my jaw.

“Hm?”

“I want to ask you something.”

I drew my head back to peer up at him. “Yeah?”

His fingers smoothed my cheek. “Why do you love windows so much?”

I blinked. No one had ever asked me that. Granted, no one had ever noticed or cared. I almost didn’t have an answer that didn’t sound ridiculous.

“I’ve lived my whole life looking through them,” I murmured, not sure how else to explain it. “Bedroom window. Car windows. Hotel windows. They always held all the things I wished I could get closer to. My bedroom had a bench built into the window and I’d sit there for hours and watch the world outside.”

His jaw hardened to match the tension I could feel rippling along his arms. “Do you have parents, sweetheart?”

I nodded but said nothing else.

“And siblings?”

Again, I nodded.

It was too late to hide from him. He knew my name. He could easily look me up. But I still couldn’t bring myself to tell him about the life I was terrified of going back to.

“A brother? Sister?”

“Brother,” I whispered.

“Do you miss them?”

I hesitated because I didn’t miss my parents. I didn’t miss Mother with her cruelty or Father with his abandonment. They had both sold me to Jarrett. They had allowed him to tear me apart for years. To torture me as badly as they had.

“I miss my brother,” I murmured instead.

I hadn’t realized I was staring at the hollow of his throat until he caught my chin and tilted my gaze to his. “Call him.”

The thought of calling Malcolm sent electric currents of excitement zapping through me, but what if Mother picked up? What if she found out where I was and told Jarrett? Malcolm had made me swear never to contact him. I’d already broken so many of the rules, and while I knew I didn’t have much longer before it all came crashing down around me, I wanted every second I was allowed.

“I’m okay,” I murmured.

“Naya,” he whispered, not exactly with disappointment, but a sadness that only made me feel hollow at the core of my soul.

---