Page 25 of All the Pain of Promises
“Don’t be so dramatic.” She waved off his anger with an air of flippancy. “It’s not as though it matters. Everyone knows Lord Florian prefers males over females. He just so happens to possess a love for music as well.”
“I hear he prefers the company of both,” Solarius grumbled, folding his arms over his chest.
Narissa shrugged, ignoring his complaint, and turned to leave.
“Where are you going?” There was something in Solarius’s voice that gave her pause, like an underlying twinge of worry.
Impossible.
He stopped worrying about her the moment he walked away from her and never looked back.
Narissa tossed a glance at him from over her shoulder, lifting it in feigned disinterest. “Well, you’ve made it quite clear that you would prefer to be anywhere else than with me, so I figured I would leave you to it.”
She turned from him then, heading for the door of the music room, when Solarius’s hand snared her wrist. He hauled her backward so quickly, she almost stumbled into him. Her back smacked into the solid wall of his chest and though his grip remained loose, she knew he had no intention of letting her walk away so easily.
Solarius hooked a finger around one of her golden locks, sweeping it back from her neck so the warmth of his breath tickled her ear.
“You didn’t answer my question,” he murmured, his fingers idly stroking the inside of her wrist.
She turned her head to face him, crushing the flutter of butterflies swarming in her belly, when she realized their lips were a stolen kiss apart. They were so close, their noses almost touched. If she wanted, she could rise onto her toes and trace the line of his lips with her tongue, committing the fullness of them to her memory. She imagined he tasted of warm spiced whiskey, of sleepless nights and silky tangled sheets, of frozen moonlight and desire.
His free hand moved to her waist, and he wrapped an arm around her, keeping her pressed close against him.
Their breaths mingled—hers slightly gasping and uneven, his calm and steady.
Her gaze flicked to the melted silver of his eyes and his pupils expanded, heated by an emotion she recognized all too well. She blinked, focusing on his mouth instead, his next words lingering in the space between their lips.
“Where are you going?” he repeated quietly.
Narissa’s knees trembled, and she locked her spine, refusing to sway. She would not give into his charms. Shecouldnot.
She lifted her chin, and his eyes dipped to her mouth. “Somewhere far away from you.”
Solarius grinned.
His hands slid from her waist to her hips, gripping her. Tilting his head to the side, his silver hair with blackened tips fell over half of his face. In the low, otherworldly light of the music room, she could almost give into the temptation of being a truly married couple, of pretending there was no past between them, of imagining a future of happily ever afters. The light bounced off his handsome face, dousing him in a glow that almost weakened her, one that almost knocked down all her carefully crafted defenses.
“What if I wanted to go with you?” he asked, so earnestly she nearly fell for his scheme.
Nearly believed him.
“Then I would say too bad.” Narissa twisted out of his arms, breaking the spell he held over her. “You do not get to pick and choose when you want my time or affection. I spent most of the day alone already and you cared not how I passed my hours. Therefore, it would stand to reason that where I go now and what I do next is none of your concern.”
She dropped into a curtsy, refusing to acknowledge the questions harbored in his hardened gaze. “If you would excuse me, my lord. There is somewhere else I would rather be.”
Narissa left him then, knowing Solarius watched her as she walked away, and though it twisted a blade through that soul-deep ache in her heart, she refused to look back.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Damn it.
Solarius watched Narissa walk away from him again, her hips swaying in measured time to the beating of his heart.
Anger simmered through his veins. He was supposed to be charming and irresistible. He should have swept her into his arms, whispered sweet nothings into her ear, then kissed her until she could no longer recall her own name. But he’d screwed it up already. His plan to woo his wife, to somehow make her fall in love with him, had backfired in record time. All he’d accomplished was pissing her off once again.
In retrospect, he probably should have started their conversation with an apology for his tardiness instead of questioning her loyalty. But alas, he’d been burned by her before, so he couldn’t help it if his guard was up.
It wasn’t much of an excuse. In fact, it was rather pathetic.
