Page 24 of Bound By Dance and Desire

I shook my head. “No. Not at all. I don't want to be known for anything other than my dance. Certainly not as the. . .situationship of a local Lord.”

“Situationship?” He spoke softly. So much threat in so quiet, restrained, a voice. “I’m annoyed, darling. I am. . .trying to remember that youknow no better. You don't mean to insult me.”

I grabbed the pepper and a knife, slicing to give my shaking hands something to do. He watched for a moment then took the knife away.

I swallowed, wetting my dry bottom lip. Andrei moved, pouring a glass of water and handing it to me. After draining the glass, I eyed the wine, though I normally didn't drink. He obliged, and in the back of my mind I noted that the small caregiving tasks seemed to soothe the edge of his anger.

“Are there other human soulbound among your caste?” I asked after half draining the wineglass too. Definitely an acquired taste. Recalling I hadn'thadwineglasses an hour ago.

“There are always a few, but rarely more than that for. . .reasons.”

Not touching that one.

Watching his careful lack of expression, the careful lack of inflection in his tone and coupling it with the strange internal awareness I'd had of him since we met, I realized he was lying to me. No, not lying. Fae couldn't outright lie.

But they could omit like a— “There's something else you're not telling me.”

Andrei laughed sharply. “There’s a palace full of things I’m not telling you.”

I wondered if the word palace was a deliberate choice.

By silent agreement, we set the subject of what we were aside and began to prep dinner, falling into a companionable domestic rhythm as if we'd been doing this for years. It eased some of my concerns. No pampered or overly powerful Lord was comfortable in a kitchen making his own food, scrubbing out pots, moving his body around another in the graceful dance required in a small space.

As we served dinner and sat down to eat, I relaxed.

This didn't feel like it was going to be a disaster. At least not tonight.

“Ido appreciate this, Andrei,” I said when we were done eating. He ate almost as viciously as I did. Which made sense. I was an elite athlete, he was a warrior. Food was part of our job. “You didn't have to?—”

The Cassanian Lord placed a fingertip on my lips. “Don't anger me by telling me what I don't have to do.” He paused. “Your father was a good man?”

“Heisa good man.”

“He provides for your mother? For his young?”

“Of course.” I dampened the heat in my tone because Andrei was trying to make a point, not be insulting.

“Then why do you assume I wouldn't do the same for mine?”

“I don't assume. . .” I stopped, because of course he was right.

He'd just told me we were soulbound and more or less indicated this was a lifetime commitment he wasn't, grudgingly, going to fight. Which meant he now had responsibilities to me, in theory. We hadn't hashed out said theory, and I wouldn't make assumptions. I didn't know enough.

I wasn't exactly raised to be a proverbial independent woman but during the last several years I'd gotten used to being alone, to feeling unprotected. Which was better than the string of terrible relationships I’d attempted before I threw in the towel.

His eyes widened slightly. “Why do you cry, little mortal?”

“I'm not crying,” I lied. My eyes were a little wet. So? I was stressed. “I'm a grown woman.”

“And?” He flicked his fingers, his wariness fading. “My sister is almost three hundred, and she cries at least once a week. Though her tears generally signify someone is about to die or at least experience great pain.”

I jerked my head up, staring at him.

Andrei ran his tongue over his teeth, eyeing me as if he realized he should have kept that revelation to himself for now.

“She's the more vicious of the two of us. She does come by it honestly, however. We Fae don't have the same. . .idiosyncrasies. . .humans do when it comes to gender,but there are issues unique to females that they must deal with. As she tells me, vocally, on a regular basis.”

There was something I didn't quite understand. “If there aren't gender-based norms in your society similar to human gender roles,why do you talk about providing for me?”

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