Page 49 of Dark & Dreadful Brutes

A few moments passed. Her body was growing boneless beneath my hands, the knots in her muscles fading beneath my touch. “I regret losing my temper,” I finally said. “Your actions felt like a betrayal, and I don’t do well with betrayal.”

“I don’t think anyone does well with betrayal.” She paused before adding, “I shouldn’t have kissed that guy. I only did it to hurt you.”

“You did far more than kiss him,” I growled back.

She was silent for a moment before she finally admitted, “I may have exaggerated.”

My hands stilled.

“There was no groping. Or climaxing. And I didn’t promise to spend the night with him,” she finally said. “Though he did ask. I guess I didn’t really say no, but I wasn’t planning on actually going through with it. I just couldn’t turn him down with people around.”

I forced my body not to quake with renewed fury.

“Ravv?” she peeked over her shoulder at me, and the flash of those gorgeous amber eyes calmed me just slightly.

I gritted my teeth. “Give me a minute.”

She turned her head back to the mattress.

When I’d regained control, I slowly began to massage her shoulders again.

Her groans returned, making my cock swell thickly.

“You still kissed him,” I finally said. “It wasn’t your first?” I assumed if she had been messing around with Jern, they would’ve done that too, but humans didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.

“It was.” Her response was quiet. “You hurt me. Not physically—never physically—but when you lied to me, that hurt. I spent so damn long in that cellar, with no one but Jern and Gora. And then you saved me and protected me. I guess I just wanted you to be a better man than you are, and that’s my fault, not yours.”

The words were a blow to my chest, and to my damn pride.

I’d never tried to be a good man, but I’d spent my life trying to keep everyone around me alive. I’d given everything for my kingdom, yet I hadn’t given the truth to my mate.

“I’m sorry.” My voice was lower than it had ever been, and rougher with emotion, too. “I’m sorry, Lae. You were looking at me like I was a damn hero, and I didn’t want that look to change. I was selfish—and you deserve more.”

“Yeah, I do.” Her words were quiet.

I continued rubbing her shoulders, working years and years of knots out of those muscles.

“You should probably go,” she whispered.

“No.” I dug my thumbs in deeper, and she groaned again.

When she turned to look at me once more, there was confusion in her eyes. “You just said I deserve better. That implies you’re going to leave me so I can find better.”

“I said you deserve better, implying that I’m going to be better. I’m not leaving you to damn Toveo; he can’t take better care of you than me. No one can.”

She groaned again as I worked one of the more resilient knots in her shoulders, and those pretty eyes closed. “I am not committing to you.”

“You don’t need to. My palm and your arm both glow with the statement that we belong to each other.”

“You’re insane.”

“I never claimed not to be.”

She heaved a sigh. “Fine. We’re setting rules, though. I’m not here for a repeat of the bathing pool incident. If you ever dump me in a pool again, we’re done.”

“And if you ever come home smelling like another man again, I’ll chain you to my damn bed for an entire week, and drag you to the edge of climax on my tongue again, again, and again without letting you find release. Understood?”

“Veil, this is not progress,” she muttered, dropping her head to the pillow. “I changed my mind.”

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