Page 18 of Caged By Dance and Desire

That was an act not even a bonded would recover from. Not fully. I wanted her heart, not just her body, but she flinched when I touched her. Barely perceptible, but present. A tensing around her eyes and mouth before she controlled her expression, the subtle stiffening of muscles. It was more than a lover’s nervousness with a new partner. Not the trauma of past assault, I didn’t taste that in her mind, but abuse of some kind, physical and emotional.

I hoped she'd allow me her bed soon, but for now my little human required gentle courting. It was to be expected. I'd come into her life like a maelstrom, and with less path of escape.

I'd given her no option but to accept me. With reserve, she'd acquiesced, bending her graceful neck with a submissiveness that softened the edge of my growing hunger.

Until I’d realized it was false submissiveness.

That reserve was still due to her thinking she was going to wait me out. I’d thought I'd kindly disabused her of that delusion. Evidently not.

Anah fell asleep in my arms the remainder of the ride to our townhome, her breaths deep, her body pliant. I buried my nose in her neck and inhaled, which was a mistake, sweat blooming at my temples and along my spine.

It was getting worse. She thought I was being cruel, to threaten her if she left me. It wasn't meant as a threat, merely a statement of fact.

I didn't trust my control if she made the attempt. No male could be trusted during the first awful days and weeks when desire unraveled sanity and deepened into rut, an instinctive, savage possessiveness that brought forth our most animalistic natures.

Fae knew how to handle us during this time. How to escape us without bloodshed when the signs first appeared. It could be done. But my Anah's window was rapidly closing, and I wasn't honorable enough to teach her to evade me.

Constin opened the coach door and stuck his head in, glimpsing my dozing bonded. His expression softened.

“Oh.So sweet—” he shut his mouth, inhaling. “Damn.” His gaze flew to mine, his wariness instant. My scent must have changed again. “It's happening quick.”

He sounded as helpless as I felt. “Have you ever known a male to spiral in a matter of days rather than weeks?” I said.

“No. But you're a Sahakian-Casakraine.”

My bloodline and our curse to bond frequently, quickly, and more savagely than the norm.

“What did you do, Andreien? She smells frightened.”

I balanced Anah in my arms and stepped out of the carriage. A twelve foot high stone wall surrounded the property, accessible from the guarded front gates and a smaller back exit.

“She tried to lecture me about how we have to prepare ourselves for a civilized break up!” I’d barely kept my temper from snapping. “I. . .released a trickle of my power.”

I refused to feel guilty, damn her twice.

He glanced at me, gray eyes bemused. “Calm down, luudthen. I thought you explained the ha, very amusing, no, part of that to her?”

“I thought I had too. She must have been humoring me.” I thought back to the look on her face, the tension in her body when she'd exited the rehearsal building earlier. “Something during rehearsal upset her. She won't tell me what.” I'd find out. “Did Mathen report?”

I'd ask him. Forget this stubborn female.

“He said the rehearsal was uneventful.”

“He missed something then.”

The front door opened and we stepped inside, Anah still deeply asleep. She was exhausted, and part of that was probably a lack of food.

A frothy kind of rage surged up my throat again, and my arms tightened around her.

“She didn't even eat this morning. Or have lunch. And she has the temerity to look at me with hurt eyes when I rightfully take her to task.” Indignation cut through the anger.

Con followed on my heels as I walked to the wing with my suite of personal rooms.

“You provided food,” he said. “Why didn't she eat anything? She's not trying to make weight, is she?”

That hadn't occurred to me. “I don't think so. I would understand if she was, so why hide it from me?”

“Ack. You know she could get in trouble for restricting calories below the official macro guidelines.”

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