Page 151 of A Tribute of Fire

Which was where the annoyance came in.

“I am jealous of him, you know,” he said.

“Why?”

“He gets to be with you as often as he would like. He can fly in and see you and touch you and be near you and I would give anything to have that.”

I kissed his forehead. His words were so sweet, so romantic. “Now I know that I’m dreaming.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because you aren’t vulnerable like this with me when we’re awake. I wish that you would be.” I kissed his face in between my words, still running my fingers along his scalp.

He released my waist and reached up for my wrists, pulling them away from his head. He put them on top of my legs and then reached up to frame my face with his hands. “Lia, don’t you know how I feel about you?”

CHAPTER FIFTY

My breath stilled in my lungs. “No.”

He kissed me and I went pliant against him, reaching out to grab his tunic so that I would have something to hold on to. We kissed until we were both having difficulty breathing. I felt his heart galloping under my hand.

Jason pulled back and rubbed his nose against mine, such a familiar and sweet gesture that I was melting all over again.

“I pledge to you my whole heart. My entire soul. Every part of my being already belongs to you. Ask for anything and it is yours.”

It was simultaneously the most wonderful and the worst thing I’d ever heard.

Wonderful, because it was everything I’d ever wanted from him.

Terrible, because I knew he didn’t mean it.

This wasn’t real. He wasn’t here. I was only imagining his words.

He didn’t speak actual words of love.

And if we had been awake and he’d said it, I wouldn’t have believed him then, either. He wasn’t the sort of man who could be faithful to just one woman.

It was what I wanted him to say, but it was not how the real Jason actually felt.

“We were made for each other,” he said. “Can’t you feel it? The goddess herself blesses us.”

Imaginary Jason had taken it one step too far. “No. She doesn’t. She has made me promise to stay away from you. And with good reason. You would break my heart, shatter my soul, if I allowed myself to return the feelings you claim to have.”

He drew back, his hands falling away from me, even though our legs were still intertwined. “Do you really believe that?”

“Of course I do. I sealed my vow to her with my blood and fire.” He was missing the point, though. “But even if I hadn’t made an oath, I could never be with a man like you.”

While I thought he might be offended, instead his handsome face broke into a smile. “A man like me? Why not?” He sounded both delighted and confused.

I imagined not many women refused him the way that I just had. Especially not after he’d made that sort of emotional confession. “Because you’re a philanderer.”

His eyes danced. “What makes you say that?”

“You do. With your own words.”

He shrugged one shoulder, as if it were unimportant. “The past doesn’t matter. Only here and now. And there hasn’t been any other woman for me since I first laid eyes on you.”

Oh, how I wanted to believe him. How I wanted to push him back against his bed and kiss him until the entire world faded away.

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