Page 105 of Dare

What are we? Is there more?

Dangerously, I shook my head. “Be careful what you ask for.”

“If you’re trying to intimidate me, you picked the wrong woman.”

“Indeed. I believe that’s how our relationship began.”

“Does that mean I won’t get an answer?”

“Impertinent, vexing questions,” I gritted, detesting what I was about to say. “Do you want me to desire you? Or do you want to be desired by anyone?”

Flare grimaced. “That’s a mean question.”

“I’m a mean person.”

“Not to me.”

In other words, she would not let that happen. In other words, neither would I.

This resilient female would not allow anyone to treat her abysmally. Moreover, I would rather slit my throat before reverting to my malignant self where she was concerned. Everyone else was expendable, but this woman …

This woman. My exception to every vicious rule.

“I’ll amend,” I conceded. “It’s a pertinent question. We’re stranded.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” she demanded.

Exasperation and vulnerability twisted her features. Seasons flay me, but I loathed the sight of her trembling mouth. I despised myself more for causing it.

Regardless, I pried the facts from my throat. “Your options are limited here. I’m going to question whether it’s my desire you seek, or if I’m merely a substitute.”

She glowered. “Because it would be so easy for me to do that to somebody. Is that it?”

“I did not say that. I know you wouldn’t use a person.”

“Then you should also know I don’t want just anybody!” Flare argued, punctuating the words by slamming her palms against my chest. “If that were true, and if I didn’t have any dignity, I would have fucked the hilt of your knife while you had me chained.”

I jerked her into me. “Are you saying I was the only one impacted by hate-fueled attraction back then?”

“Oh, I felt that. I just wasn’t about to surrender to it. But we’ve changed.”

“Yes. The lightning rain forced us into closer proximity, and the contact segued to lust and a round of hate-fucking. Then I broke down in the ruins, and my panic inspired your pity, which incited more lust and even more chaos.”

“You stubborn man! Always overanalyzing!” She fisted our hands together and pressed them to my heart. “This isn’t something you can define, categorize, and store on a shelf.”

Rain struck the canopy. That turbulent hand seared into my flesh, the contact ambushing me. Another inch, and her touch would sink into the black hole of my chest.

Before she could do increasing damage, I released her digits. “We’re marooned. You have no other options for a lover.”

“That goes for you as well,” she pointed out.

I would not answer that. To do so would amount to my downfall. To be honest with myself would produce a terrifying possibility. Had I been occupying my throne, swarmed by a kingdom’s worth of courtiers, there would still be no other options but her.

“Flare,” I gusted out. “You don’t want me. Not in that way.” With effort, I finished, “And I cannot want you.”

She flinched as if I’d jabbed her with a needle. “Because you think I’m a so-called ‘lowly fool.’”

“Don’t say that. My hate came from fear, because I was a coward. Now my resistance is for a different reason.”

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