Page 190 of Of Blood and Banes
“Why did you look at me, then?” I blurt in a half-hearted demand.
“What do you mean, kitten? Do you prefer I look away when you walk into the same room as me?”
“Stopcalling me that.”
He snorts. “Why?”
“Because…” I swallow. Remembering my name on his lips two nights ago. How soft and tender it sounded, unlike anything I’d ever heard. It ruptured something in me—something I’m failing miserably at trying to stuff down. “Because I don’t like it.”
He smirks and walks toward the door. “Have you ever considered it’sexactlywhy I call you that?”
Doubt sneaks into the back of my mind. Perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps our last night together was only a figment of my imagination—an over-exaggeration of what really happened. It was always just sex with us…
I seriously need to stop before I get ahead of myself. Before I do something even more stupid than sleeping with him. Before I fall. And not just into his sheets.
Butfall.
“Oh…one last thing before we bid our farewells.” He pulls a dagger out of his rucksack—mydagger—and places it in my hand. He wraps my fingers around the hilt and lifts my hand to position the tip of the blade right above his heart.
He whispers with a tone that aggravates me more than it does settle me, “I still need you alive, so next time you’re in an unforgiving scenario, this is the best angle. Three inches deep is all you need.”
I rip my hand away and out of his grasp, never taking my eyes off him as I chuck the dagger a few feet away from us. “Why are you acting like nothing happened between us?”
“Because nothing did happen. And it won’t happen again,” he responds coolly, patting my shoulder before taking a step toward the door.
“That’s bullshit, and you know it!” I snatch his bicep as he attempts to move past me.
He has the decency of not plowing through my grip and continuing on his way, his brows lowering down over his eyes as he locks into a rigid stance.
I tilt my head, searching his eyes for the man I saw that night. “Please…let me in.”
“There’s nothing I have to let you into.”
“I don’t believe you!”
He flicks his head to me. “There isnothing, Katerina?—”
“You’re lying!” My voice comes out angrier than I intend. Him using my full name is proof enough. “I saw it. I saw you?—”
“You saw nothing.” He pulls out of my grasp and continues his way to the door.
“That’s why you’re acting this way?” I laugh shakily at his back. “Because you’re scared?”
“I am notscared!” He whips around to face me, his eyes burning in fury. “I amnotscared, kitten. You seem to think I’m someone who needs to be saved, someone hiding some better version of himself from you. But there is none.” He slams a fist into his chest. “This is me!”
I slap his fist away from his chest. “I refuse to believe that!”
He looms over me, his voice slipping into a whisper as he grinds the words through clenched teeth, “And why? Because I’m not good enough for you?”
“That’s not?—”
“Because you can’tpossiblystomach the fact you’re wrong about me?”
“No—”
“Because you have thissickperversion of helping people?” he roars. “I don’t fucking want your help!”
I glare at him, not flinching underneath his hateful attitude as I warn, “You’re being an asshole?—”
