Page 76 of Lost in the Dark

“Anna.” Her name was a caress.

Her cheeks heated.

“I…” She risked a glance at him. “Please tell me how I’m bound to this house. How you are—”

“Do not ask questions you do not want answered, Anna.”

“But I do want them answered.” She took hold of his shirt, gripped the folds of black fabric, and gave a desperate tug. “Please, Enulf. Tell me why Lord Rathbytten would approve of our coupling, were you interested. Or at least have mercy and tell me why I’m kept so hungry.”

He looked away, but did not remove her hands. “In this house, we eat what we hunt.”

“But it is my duty to keep house while the lord hunts…” Heat kissed the back of her eyes. She wanted to wipe them clear, yet couldn’t peel her fingers from Enulf’s arm. “Am I worth so little?”

“Not to—” His mouth tightened. “Dammit, Anna. We’re only worth what the Lord of Rathbytten makes us—and we’re all tied to this house. Haven’t you seen I get the least amount of meat? Barely enough to survive.”

Her brows lifted. “I’ve seen that I get none.”

He gently gripped her wrists. “Oh, lady, you don’t understand.”

“Understand what?” She tipped her chin to glare up at him, so close their noses nearly brushed.

“We can only be what he makes us,” he said.

A mess of emotion glinted in his gray eyes—sadness and resignation and something else. Something that spoke of shadows and…hunger? He hadn’t released her wrists, and his fingers were flexing against her pulse.

Does he hunger for me?

Her breath caught in her throat.

“I thought…” She couldn’t let go of his shirt, couldn’t look away. She shouldn’t give voice to her sinful thoughts, and yet she couldn't stop herself from saying: “I thought you did not want me?”

He gave a bitter huff. “You were wrong.”

“Then why did you leave?” she whispered the question. “Why didn’t you—”

“Because there’s no reason you should wantme,” he growled. “I am the lesser brother, broken and bound to this place and the lord who owns it. I am smaller. Weaker. I should have died as a child but my body wasn’t worth the harvest. Why would you want to serve such a thing?”

Damn his lordship to the spreading dark for making Enulf feel this way.

She released his shirt and gently cupped his face, marveling at how large his face was, how powerful his jaw seemed as it flexed beneath her touch. “You are not a thing, and I know my mind.”

“You cannot mean it.” His eyes begged otherwise.

“I can.” She offered a shy smile. “Even if I’m not sure what that entails.”

“Then I shall show you.” His words ended in a throaty growl that did delicious things to her insides. Hands tight on her waist, he picked her up and put her on the sideboard—the one she’d just cleaned.

She landed with a gasp, the polished wood slapping her rear.

He braced his arms on either side of her.

“You smelldelicious.” That bright hunger glinted in his gaze, turning his gray eyes dark with shards of blue. For a moment, she knew what a hare felt like, moments before it became a wolf’s dinner.

Her heart tripped.

The person standing before her was Enulf, her friend. Also, a stranger. A man so large and twisted he often felt more like a creature. Huge and fierce and unknown. He was kinder than the lord of the manor and his cook, but still a part of the darkness that shrouded the entire estate.

“You sure?” he asked.

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