Page 65 of An Empress of Earth & Darkness

“I know.” He closed in again, and she could feel the heat between them already. The thick, warm, magnetic heat. “But I wanted to let you know I respect you more than that.”

Her heart banged in her chest.

She shut it down.

Why was that little shit doing that?

He spoke again. “I just wanted to let you know that I am sorry for that.”

“You don’t need to say you’re sorry for having sex with me—unless you are.” She looked at the door Emara had disappeared behind, wishing she could do the same right now.

She wanted to hide from this conversation. Maybe Torin’s reaction wouldn’t be as bad as Artem said.

“Of course I am not sorry—”

Breighly snapped her head back towards him. “Then let’s leave it there.”

Artem pressed a shoulder to the wall. “You don’t have to cut me off.”

“And you don’t have to give me a limp-ass apology because you feel guilty that I get looked at differently for having sex because I am a woman.”

Emara hadn’t really cared about the two of them giving in to temptation, but if someone else had found her in that compromising position, everything could have been different.

“Men get away with giving into their desires all the time, but if a woman does it, she is unprofessional. Not fit for the role. A whore.”

“I—”

“Don’t even try to defend that,” Breighly snapped, feeling the hunger in her belly turn into fire.

He uncrossed his arms. “If you would let me speak for one second, you would understand that I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

A little laugh huffed out from the most broken part of her. “So now you want to empathise with me? You feel guilty because I was caught with you like I am some kind of victim. Like I didn’t choose that for myself. You didn’t put me in that position, Artem. I put myself there. I allowed myself to be under you to distract myself from how numb I feel.”

The words were out her mouth like vomit, and there was no way that she could take them back. She bit back a flinch.

Hurt darkened Artem’s eyes, and it was the first time she had seen a vulnerable reaction loiter over his face. He had always been the joker, the jester, and now he was a warrior, standing in front of her with hurt turning into rage in his eyes.

“I am a distraction?” He let out a callous laugh.

She hadn’t meant it like that. She knew she had crossed the line the minute her stupid mouth had spilled her guts, but it was too late to put her unkind words back inside the terrible box in her mind.

“I am just a distraction to you?” he repeated when she said nothing.

This was what always happened when Breighly felt insecure; she would push people out. Maybe she hadn’t realised how insecure she felt standing next to the warriors of Thorin, but she had a lot to live up to. She wasn’t a hunter, she was a wolf; Aerrick Stryker had made that very clear in his examination of her.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” she tried to claw back her words.

“You did.” Artem’s chin rose and his full lips parted. “And that’s okay. I get that you are a woman in control of your own destiny, a wolf who is fiercer than any warrior I have come across a guard who is the first of her kind. I understand that you have a lot at stake and this is your chance to prove how worthy you are, not just for yourself but for all women. But you need to understand that I am not trying to change any of that for you.”

She had no answer.

She always had an answer. His calming energy was incredible to balance out her rage, and she wondered if that was a little hunter tactic to get her back on side. After all, it was part of their training.

Artem’s lips parted. “I get it. You are emotionally unavailable. You don’t want a relationship.”

“Relationship?” Breighly snorted as her eyes widened. “This is not a relationship, by the Gods.”

“You know what I mean.” Artem’s voice was a little deeper than before, darker. The warrior in his eyes killed out the witticism and let the danger shine through.

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