Page 39 of An Empress of Fire & Steel

The scar in between his brows closed in. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, let’s see, maybe we could start with the whole flinging me over your shoulder thing?”

He stifled a laugh that didn’t reach his eyes. “That’s not what I mean. Why are you surprised I offered to take you home?”

Emara’s lips parted as she hesitated. “I just thought that, given this being your last night of freedom, you would have wanted to enjoy the company of someone or be with the clan.”

“I am enjoying myself now.”

“You know what I mean.” She rolled her eyes, feeling the embarrassment rise on her cheeks.

He let his hip lean against the side of her doorway and his toned arms crossed over his chest. “You mean you expected me to be out fucking anything that caught my eye?”

His profanity stopped her breathing, but yes, she had meant that. “That’s not exactly how I would put it.”

“But that’s what you meant,” he said quickly as a dark cloud rolled over his eyes.

She rolled her lips, wondering if she had crossed the line.

“Emara.” Her name on his lips snapped her head towards him. “I am going to make this very clear…I don’t know what you have heard of me.” He dipped his head closer to where she stood, rigid. “The majority of it might be true. I have a reputation as a single man in Huntswood. But”—he paused, his eyes seaming smaller than before—“that doesn’t define me. I am a young man with a duty that could wipe my life away in a second, and if that doesn’t, I am to be in a loveless, forced marriage.” He paused again, and Emara swore she could hear both of their hearts beating. Fast. “So you are absolutely right, I would have been out there tonight doing whatever I wanted, because when I wake up from my next sleep, I am not promised to see the sunset that night.”

Her heart stopped, and guilt ate at her stomach. “I am sorry, I shouldn’t have made a comment—”

“It’s not your fault,” he cut in. “That is the life I have lived for a long time, but it’s not what I want to do any longer.” Her heart quickened as she wondered what he meant by that. “I haven’t wanted any of that nonsense for some time.” He looked towards the ground. “I have been selfish and reckless and downright disrespectful at times, that I know.” Dark emotion sparked in his eyes. “I have gone days where I have regretted every night of fun I ever had, every woman I led on. I have gone months in darkness, not ever seeing a way out of the toxic cycle I created for myself.” He swallowed and lowered his voice. “But that’s not who I want to be anymore, not when I look at you.”

She fought hard to keep her face from revealing how hard her heart was pounding. “I have a feeling that you will be whoever you want to be, you just need to find your own way of doing it.”

“You’re right about that.” Torin let out a small but genuine laugh. “I will always be myself and I will not apologise for that. I will not apologise for who I have been in the past either.” He lifted his chin but kept his ocean blue eyes fixed on her face.

Emara knew that the meaning of his words went deeper than what he showed on the surface.

“I wouldn’t expect you to,” she whispered, unable to detach herself from his piercing gaze.

He paused for a moment as he looked over at her. “For the record, I asked to take you home tonight because I wanted to. I wanted to be the one to walk you to your door.” His thick brows moved down and a vulnerable expression passed over his face. “I didn’t want to spend my night with anyone else, even if that meant just walking you here.” He let time breathe, allowing every word to echo through her ears. “And when you walked into La Luna tonight, you almost killed me wearing that little dress, by the way.” He bit down on his lip and she pictured him doing it to hers. “But when I saw those vampires checking you out, looking you over like they wanted to taste you”—his chest started to rise and fall sharper than before—“I felt murderous. And you need to know that I am not sorry for that.”

“I didn’t intend on making you feel like that,” she choked out. “Murderous, that is.”

“Oh, angel, I know.” Finally, a Torin-like smile appeared, and he removed his weight from the wall. “None of this is on you. It’s me. I am just used to getting what I want, and you…” He laughed, his wickedly full lips revealing his perfectly white teeth. “You don’t make it easy.”

She swallowed, staring up into his gaze. “Is that what you would want? For me to make it easy?”

Because that was never going to happen.

His mouth shut before opening again. “I want you to be you, always. Because whatever you are doing…” He trailed off and looked away from her for a moment before meeting her gaze again. “It’s driving me fucking wild.” His eyes glittered with an untamed intensity. “And you know how I love wild.”

Emara’s heart stopped beating entirely. “I have a feeling I might not be wild enough for you,” she admitted. Something she had thought about many times, even though she shouldn’t have.

Damn it, she shouldn’t have said that.

“Emara,” the rasp of his voice almost sounded like a plea, “you are enough. You will always be enough. Don’t you dare ever think that you aren’t.”

“And how do you know that for certain?” The depth of what she had asked was so much more than just a question, and the air around them charged, fuelling the intensity.

“Because I have always known what I wanted, what I wanted to feel when I looked at someone.” He moved closer to her, his face only an inch from hers now. “And when I know what I want, I will do everything I can to make sure I get it.”

Flushed, she looked over his stunning face as a tingle ran down her spine. “And what would that be?”

Slowly, he glided a hand over her collar bone and curled his fingers behind her neck, his features sincere on his striking face, and she was pretty sure she stopped breathing all together.

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