Page 24 of Wingless Crow: Part 1

This man or thirteen complete strangers—that was my choice.

He still appeared to be sulking at my considering refusing him. “Just say a word, and I’ll personally escort you to the council meeting room, where they all sit in their tall chairs in a circle, and you’ll have to disrobe in the center for them to ogle you, measure, and judge.”

He believed he was doing me a favor by volunteering to take over this particular duty of the Council for me.

Would I be wrong to reject his offer?

Voron was very much a stranger to me, just like the Council members were. Probably even worse, since I had plenty of personal reasons to despise him from stealing my past to refusing to set me free. But they said, “better the devil you know.” Devil or not, I knew Voron better than the thirteen councilors I’d never met.

Maybe I could go through with it, after all? What if I looked at it as a visit to a doctor? I didn’t remember who my doctor was, their name, or whether I even had one, but I knew that visits to a doctor’s office were generally conducted in a detached, professional manner, with no emotions involved, which allowed for the patient to keep their dignity intact.

“Can you promise to be respectful?” I asked.

He adjusted a ruffled cuff on his black shirt. “I prefer not to make any promises at all. But if you insist…” He paused, looking straight at me. “I promise to do my best at refraining from touching you during today’s inspection and try not to make any comments that I deem inappropriate.”

A puff of warm air came from nowhere, just like it did yesterday when Voron promised Trez to present me to the king. It circled both of us in a shimmering twister, billowing my robe around my legs and ruffling Voron’s bi-colored tresses.

“There you go.” He twirled his hand in the air, following the shimmer. “You have my promise. And the magic is here to seal it.”

I was new to this world, but even I could tell his promise had no weight, either sealed by magic or not. Too much of it sounded subjective and arbitrary.

Pursing my lips, I gave him a wary look. “What exactly is ‘your best?’ And what is your definition of ‘inappropriate?’”

“Aaah.” Satisfaction spread on his face, as if my catching him giving useless promises had been his goal all along. “Well done, dear Sparrow. Don’t be assured by the shimmer of magic. Pay close attention to the words.”

His praise shouldn’t make me feel as good as it did. Pleasing him was not my goal. But pride glowed inside me when I caught a spark of genuine respect in his eyes.

“Well.” I glanced aside. “How am I supposed to trust anything you say if you wiggle your way out of even giving me a simple promise?”

“You can’t,” he agreed, with amusement sprinkling his voice. “I’m telling you I won’t touch you during the inspection and will keep my remarks to myself, but it’s up to you to either believe me or not. The risk is yours.”

I jerked my chin up in response to his challenge. The fightwashappening between us, after all. Only the altercation wasn’t physical.

Voron clearly enjoyed the game he was playing. Fine. I could play it, too. He wished to test me? I could do a test of my own.

“Or…” I stepped away from the door and strolled over to him. “You could prove to me that you can be trusted.”

He tilted his head, looking very much intrigued.

“It’s a test,” I explained. “I’ll let you ‘inspect’ me. And in return, you will show me how much I can trust you from then on.”

“A test—” He stopped abruptly, his words clipped off by his sharp intake of air as I shed my robe.

In one quick, determined movement, I yanked it off my shoulders and let it fall to the floor. If I couldn’t avoid this, it was best to do it fast and be over with.

“Go ahead. Look.” I spread my arms out and lifted my head, staring at the top of a bookshelf.

Voron went so still, I couldn’t even hear his breathing. After a few moments of complete silence, I ventured a look at him to make sure he was still there.

He stood in front of me, his gaze slowly traveling down my body. I had no memories of my relationships with men or even if I had any. I didn’t know if a man had ever seen me naked. But if someone had before, did it make my skin tingle the way it did when Voron was looking at me?

Shaded by his long, jet-black eyelashes, his silver eyes appeared darker as his pupils dilated. His hands remained at his sides, far away from me. But he didn’t need to touch me. He caressed me with his eyes. Not a single dip or curve of my body escaped his attention. There was curiosity in his gaze, appreciation, and…desire. It glowed softly, heating up the cool gray of his irises.

Awareness rushed down my body, pebbling the skin on my arms with goosebumps. This was far from the “detached and professional” that I’d intended for it to be.

I crossed my arms over my stomach. He didn’t ask me to remove them. I wondered if he’d object to my covering the most intimate places of my body with my hands, but a part of me—an obviously deeply disturbed part—didn’t want to hide from his attention. Light excitement skittered along my skin with waves of tingly pleasure, and I wasn’t in a hurry to end it yet.

Instead of telling me to turn around for a full inspection, he slowly circled me.

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