Page 115 of Rogue Elves of Ardani

Crow set her lantern down on a table by the bed. She crossed her arms. “If you’re going to yell at me, I’ll save you some time—”

“I wasn’t planning on yelling at you.”

She looked like she didn’t believe him. “Finally going to try to kill me, then?” she asked dryly.

He briefly wondered if he should apologize for all the times he’d threatened her. Maybe he’d upset her. Maybe he’d actually frightened her.

But then he decided that if he had, she’d mostly deserved it.

“No.” He put a hand on her sternum and slowly pushed her backward into the room. “Though I think everyone would agree that I’d be within my rights if I did.”

She took a step back, giving him a withering look. “Is that what you think?” she drawled.

“Yes, Crow.”

“So you’ve conveniently forgotten howyoustarted all this by lying to me? We could have had a great partnership, otherwise. I took a big risk by helping you out of that prison, and I was fighting the binding the whole time. I knew Patros wanted Toreg, not you.”

“Howdidyou do that?” Vaara asked, interrupting what had no doubt been about to become a longer diatribe.

“I told you: you’d be surprised what the binding permits,” she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “It wasn’t easy. But over time, if you put in significant effort, you become more resistant to the pull of the binding. It gets easier to lie to yourself. You can trick yourself into believing you’re being fair to your binder, as long as you don’t stray too far.”

He pushed her back another step. “I wish I’d figured out how to do that.”

“Of course you do. Then you would have found a way to run off without helping me, like you wanted to. Even after you promised me you would.”

Vaara smiled. She was trying so hard to make him feel guilty. It was working, a little bit.

He thought back to the time just after they’d left the prison. He’d been in shock, disbelieving. Afraid and angry, like a wounded animal. Maybe he’d been a little like that dog that had tried to bite Crow when she’d gone to help it.

“I probably would have, yes,” he said. “Because you’d put a godsdamned soulbinder on me.”

She inched back another step, and her back hit the wall. Vaara stepped close to her before she could escape. Her breath hitched. His gaze caught on her lips as they parted slightly.

“Did you expect me not to hate you for it?” he said. His hands went to her waist, holding her in place as he squared his hips against hers. She sucked in a breath, arching slightly in response.

“Of course I expected you to hate me.”

“Good. Because I do.”

“Then it’s a good thing I have no further need of you. You can leave now. Go back to Kuda Varai.”

“You forgot to say ‘if it pleases you’.”

“Fuck off back to your stupid dark forest that you love so much,if it pleases you.”

He slid his hands down until they were on her backside, then squeezed, pulling her against him so she could feel the hard outline of his cock pressing against her.

“You are really irritating,” he said.

A smile pulled at her lips. Her eyes sparkled a little when she looked at him, in a way that might almost have persuaded him to believe that she actuallylikedlooking at him. “And yet here you are, desperately wanting to kiss me and agonizing about whether now is the right time to do it.”

He looked down. She’d put her hand over his, and he’d hardly noticed. He recalled that there had been a time when the mere thought of her touch had made him recoil. He looked up at her, raising an eyebrow.

She shrugged, sheepish. “Sorry. You’re a loud thinker. It is, by the way. The right time, I mean. To kiss me. If it pleases you.”

He leaned closer. “Reallyirritating,” he murmured against her lips. He covered her mouth with his before she could give a smart response.

He was hungry for her in a way that he’d never been before. The craving ran bone-deep. He wanted all of her. He wasn’t going to stop at a kiss.

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