Page 53 of Trust In Love (Love Mark 2)

“Never fear, princess,” I said softly, not bothering to explain why I’d been thrown into the dungeon, merely adding, “I’m not dangerous. I would never harm you.”

But even as I said the words, a great sadness blanketed me.

I would never harm her, no. But all these lies would bring her excessive pain, anyway.

“Of course, you wouldn’t. Farrow…” She reached for my arm, but I shied my horse away from hers.

Closing my eyes, I bowed my head, not sure how to wade through all the guilt. Lying to her felt wrong. But honestly, would it have been any better if I’d been brutal and direct, letting her know my intentions from the beginning?

She would’ve been afraid the entire time and she would’ve tried to escape, so I would’ve been forced to restrain her with ropes and chains. I would’ve had to get rough.

This way had been much more humane. She felt no fear, experienced no confining discomforts, and could move around generously with the full disillusion of freedom. I mean, she was free now, but before—when I’d still thought to kidnap her—this way had been the most merciful route.

And yet I still felt sick to my stomach for putting her through any of it.

All she seemed to glean from my emotions, however, was the sadness.

“I’m so sorry, Farrow,” she said. “I can’t believe you ever had to go through such torment. Is that when you received all the scars on your—”

I lifted a hand to pause her. “It’s fine. Think nothing of it.” All the while, my guilt lingered. But I must’ve become adept at masking that because she said nothing else.

It had taken me a few days to figure out how to obstruct most of my feelings from her magical tattoo. I realized if I thought about just one emotion and concentrated on that, it shrouded most—if not all—of the others.

A nifty talent to have when deceiving your one true love.

Not that she was mine, mind you, but she certainly believed it, and she did have a knack for knowing what I was feeling, so I kept up the blockade.

“Did I ever tell you about the time I dared Indigo to ride a pig at the market?” Nicolette started in, changing the subject as she always did when one of us got too uncomfortable.

“You did not.” I narrowed my eyes as she brought up the bodyguard yet again.

He made an appearance in a lot of her stories. I didn’t want to admit why that irritated me so much, but she made it obvious she was quite attached to her Indy. The only thing that seemed to soothe my irritation throughout so many Indigo stories was the fact that she flirted with me at every opportunity.

Even though most of our days—er, nights—were spent in the dark on horseback, where I couldn’t even see her, she managed to brush against me, and smile at me, and touch my bare flesh whenever she could. She called me handsome and perfect, complimenting everything I did as if merely setting up a camp was the most brilliant task a man could accomplish. And sadly, I was letting her courtship get to me.

My skin began to crave every brush of her fingers, growing tense and eager, always anticipating that next sweep of contact whenever she was near. And when she talked, I couldn’t stop myself from slipping in droll little comments to her stories, hoping to make her bubble forth with that musical laughter of hers.

She was beguiling me, and I couldn’t escape it. She was the only human I’d seen or talked to in days, so it was the only thing I was exposed to. That was probably why her wooing was working so effectively. But I kind of hoped we never saw another living soul for the remainder of our lives.

I was becoming that addicted.

So when we crested a dune and I saw the outline of trees emerge in the distant horizon, something very close to panic and dread clutched my throat. The terrain had been changing constantly throughout the night, going from nothing but pure sand to small, dried cacti and mounds of boulders and rocks, slowly gaining more and more vegetation to dodge as we progressed. Yet it still surprised me to see the trees ahead with sunrise beginning to break over them.

Everything was going to change now, and I wasn’t ready for this time with just us to be over.

“What’s wrong?” Nicolette asked from Caramel.

Shit. I’d forgotten to block my emotions.

It was on the tip of my tongue to say, “nothing,” but when I glanced over and caught a glimpse of her face in the sunrise, I knew nothing wouldn’t suffice, not for her. She had that determined look that told me she needed an answer with substance, or she was going to pick until she got one.

Since there was no way to hide the inevitable, I splayed out a hand, motioning toward the changing landscape. “We approach Far Shore, my lady. Up ahead, there lies Dimway Forest.”

With a gasp, she whipped her attention forward and squinted until her eyes widened.

“That’s Far Shore?” Her face crinkled with uncertainty before she turned my way. “I just realized this is the farthest I’ve ever been from home.”

I nodded, because I knew.

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