“Okay.” I opened the book and pretended to read. “Thank you for sharing.”
“Arm’s reach, Sera.”
Slowly, I looked up at him. “Seriously?”
“Does it look like I’m joking?”
“Even with the lock on the balcony door? It worked just fine last night.”
“I’m sure, given enough time, you will have figured out how to pick that lock.”
“I’msure that if I wanted to pick that lock, I would’ve already done so,” I snapped. “I’m not going to try to escape, Nyktos. What would be the point now?”
His features showed nothing, but his words…they said a lot. “You promised me you wouldn’t go after Kolis again. I want to believe that, but what I want cannot be more important than what I know. If presented with an opportunity, you will still take it. Even now. I’m not going to let that fragile trust be broken so quickly.”
My heart lurched as I stared up at him. A messy knot of emotion worked its way out from that crack. Words bubbled up. “I don’t want to.”
“I know.” His eyes lightened to a softer shade of gray, even as his chest rose with a deep breath. “Come to bed, Sera.”
I wasn’t even sure why I was fighting him on this. Ilikedsleeping in his bed. With him. Even when he irritated me.
That should concern me.
And it did, but all I could do was add that to the absurdly long list of things that worried me.
Rising, I went into the bathing chamber first to prepare for bed. When I cleaned my teeth and spat paste into the basin, traces of pink swirled through the foam. My gums had bled a little. My stomach tumbled as I quickly wiped at my mouth and then left the bathing chamber, following Nyktos through the dark, narrow passageway. I stopped near the bed, my mind traveling to the deal I’d offered him before Attes arrived. Gods, I’d forgotten about that.
Nyktos brushed past me. “At least you don’t have breeches and boots that need to be taken off tonight,” he said.
“I think you would prefer that once you see what’s under the robe.” Inexplicably nervous, I reached for the sash.
He turned to me, the light of the sconces glancing off the slope of his cheekbones. “Please tell me you’re not nude under there.”
Well, I supposed that indicated he had no intention of making that deal with me. “Are you worried you’ll be unable to control your body’s reaction again?”
“I live in constant fear of that,” he murmured, his gaze locking on me.
A tiny part of me actually believed that. “I’m not nude. Not really.”
“Not really?”
I undid the robe, letting it slip down my arms. Nyktos was now the one to go utterly still at the sight of the thin, nearly transparent nightgown.
His lips parted, revealing a hint of fangs. “That’s what you normally wear to bed?” he asked roughly.
“Believe it or not, this is the most demure of the nightgowns Aios brought me.” My cheeks warmed as he watched me drape the robe over the foot of the bed.
“Good Fates,” he muttered, stiff for a moment, and then he came toward me, each step slow and measured. A sweet thrill of anticipation darted through me as I tipped my head back to look up at him.
Only a thin slit of glowing silver was visible behind his thick lashes as he slipped his fingers under the satiny strap. The backsof his cool knuckles dragged along my skin as he drew the strap up my arm. He lingered for several moments, barely touching me, but I felt the featherlight press of his skin in every part of my body. He slipped his fingers out from under the strap. “May I?”
I didn’t know at first what he was asking permission for, but I realized he was once more staring at my braid lying over my shoulder. “You…you can.”
Nyktos moved his hand then. He didn’t pick up the braid or tug on it. Just below my shoulder, he curled his forefinger and thumb around the braid. I held still as he drew his fingertip down its length, grazing the curve of my breast. I shivered.
“Did I tell you”—he continued running his thumb over the braid—“that your hair reminds me of spun moonlight?”
“Yes.”