Page 31 of Bladed Kiss

My back straightens when I see Denve.

I am tempted, only for a second, to get closer to Denve. But I banish the temptation from my mind quickly enough.

Four.

I watch as Denve and his friends take a seat at a table outside the tavern.

He hands a bundle of notes to the tavern owner, and his friends cheer and throw their hands into the air.

I wonder how many of them actually like him, or are just friends with him for the money?

The thought makes me sad for him, and I realize that, even from this distance, I am attracted to him.

He has a bright, wide, generous smile, and he isn’t dressed the way he was dressed at the ball.

Instead, he wears a simple shirt that is untucked and a pair of trousers, and he seems genuinely comfortable in his skin.

Unlike how he was at the ball.

Until you started talking with him, of course.

He was attracted to me as well. Now as I watch him, I find it difficult to reconcile the version I have created in my mind of Denve Thuvrol with the dark elf I am attracted to.

It is disappointing and shocking, and ithurts,because I have spent years planning this.

I have spent years building this image of who the Thuvrol’s are, using what I had learned from who Ocuri was.

But now I am coming to see that Denve is not what I expected at all.

Four.

Denve seems quite harmless and is friendlier than his appearance would have anyone believe.

He is funny and charming and is clearly as generous with his money as his smile.

The soft spot between my legs pulses with heat as I remember Denve’s lips on mine and his hands on my body.

He’s a good kisser too.

I remain on the rooftop, watching as Denve orders drinks and food not only for his table, but for the tables around him.

Eventually, all the tables are pushed together. Denve becomes the center of attention as he tells a tale that must be side splittingly funny, because the people outside the tavern roar with laughter.

How could two brothers be so different?

The question gnaws at me, has been gnawing at me since I met Denve at the ball. Ocuri always showed me exactly who he was.

Cold and conniving and incapable of loving me properly, even when we were together privately.

He was always scheming to get more of everything. More power, more money, more, more, more.

Denve as he is sits in stark, harsh contrast to his brother. He seems quite content with not being more powerful.

It has been four days since I met Denve.

It’s a shame that I have to kill him.

Because despite my wonder at Denve and Ocuri’s differences, the thought of Ocuri Thuvrol has hardened the part of my heart that will never recover from what he did to me.

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