Page 166 of Mama Si's Paradise

He didn’t sound desperate. He didn’t sound sad. It was something in between—and it was a statement, a truth he’d never even try to deny to himself or me, and maybe that’s why it fuckinghurtme.

Grey turned to the side to face me, and before I knew it, I was facing him, too. How strange—right now I wasn’t afraid of him like usual, not in the least. All I was left with was this burning curiosity about him.

God, he looked so much like Hansil Knight, but so much like Grey, too. My fingers were itching to touch his cheek. I wanted to seeallof that raw emotion reflecting in his eyes that I suddenly forgot about everything else.Everyoneelse—the whole Seven Isles.

“You killed your father,” I found myself saying, and I had no idea why it mattered. His father had challenged him, Genevieve had told me that. But the brides said that when the Evernights dueled, their dragons fought, not them. I guessed I was curious to know why he and his father had fought one-on-one anyway, how the whole thing had happened.

Grey didn’t hesitate. “I did.”

There was no remorse in his voice, but no pride or sense of triumph, either. It was just another statement.

“Why?” I asked before I could help myself, my eyes hungry to analyze every inch of his face still. It was like I was seeing him for the first time tonight, and I couldn’t get enough of the lines of his face, the color of his eyes, the shape of his lips.

“Because he was a monster,” Grey whispered, with more emotion than I’d ever heard him speak.

And I wondered, what would someone like Grey, a monster himself, considermonstrous?

Again, no pride in his eyes. He didn’t consider killing his father a victory. Rather, it was a necessity.

I didn’t even feel myself moving, only saw it when my hand rose to his face and the tips of my fingers touched his cheek.

Grey’s eyes closed instantly, and he didn’t move a single inch, becoming still as a statue. I wished I could walk into Emerald’s Storyteller and see everything that went on inside his head. Or that I had magic, to touch those lips as I was doing now, tracing the shape of them with my fingertips, and order them to reveal exactly what he was thinking when he looked at me like he did.

His hand came up and closed lightly around my knuckles, and he held mine there and slowly kissed my fingertips.

Heat rushed throughout me to feel his lips, so soft, kissing my skin. His eyes opened and I could have sworn we were on a different planet suddenly, one where the castle, the curse, Ennaris, and people didn’t exist.

“I’ve wanted to talk to you for so long,” Grey said, tightening the knot in my stomach. The sound of him, so low and so intense, made my knees shake slightly.

We were closer now. I think he moved and I didn’t evenrealize it, but we were closer. I saw him with such clarity, and I wanted to keep touching his face until I collapsed.

Such a strong urge that it scared me.

“Tell me what to do,” Grey then said. His lips moved against my fingertips, then he kissed them again.

“What?” I breathed, unsure I even understood English anymore.

“Tell me what to do to make you less afraid of me,” he said. “I can hear your heart beating.”

Well, fuck.

My heartwasbeating like mad, except this time, as mortified as it made me, it wasn’t with fear.

It was with excitement. It was with arousal.

Grey turned me on like a fucking Christmas tree, and I wanted to replace my fingertips with my lips more than I wanted to breathe right now.

Thatwas more dangerous than the curse of Syra itself. Whatever spell he’d put on me, I needed to break it. I needed to get the hell out of herenowbefore I did something stupid.

“Fall,” Grey said, and I stepped back, pulling my hand away from his.

This wasinsane.How had I forgotten whom I was talking to?! It was Grey! There was a reason why everyone was afraid of him—it wasGrey.

“I’m tired. I want to go to bed.” Or at least Ishould have.I should have wanted to get as far away from him as possible until I got my shit together again.

Grey smiled. I’d never seen him smile, not all the way, but it was a bitter one this time—like he knew. Like he was sure that I wanted to run from him. Like he was sure I thought him vile.

“Of course,” Grey said and stepped back, hands behind him, and I don’t know why I was a hundred percent sure that he’d never eventryto talk to me again.

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