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I double-blinked at him, surprised. Okay. Not what I’d expected. But sure, I could roll. Bonus: I didn’t need to think too hard about my reply.
Tucking my feet behind my backside, I told him, “One Sunday morning after church, there was a potluck luncheon. I helped my mom make her special black bean and sour cream tamales. What we didn’t know at the time was that I’d mistaken the measurement of salt. By a lot.”
A smile bloomed as I remembered the rest. “Everyone but my dad threw their tamale away. He choked his down and went back for seconds as if he’d never tasted anything better.” Familiar grief slashed at me, but it lacked the same sting. “He’s been gone for years, but I still miss him.”
“You loved him,” Callen stated.
“I did, and I do with all my heart.” I barely stopped myself from reaching for my husband. Hmm. Him and not my coin ring, now that the precious treasure was back in my possession?
“Your turn,” he prompted.
Right. “The man who brought you up.” Since he’d lost both of his parents on the same night, his mother to death and his father to the curse of the wolf. “Did you love him?”
“I respected him. How could I not? He became king in my father’s stead. He was a good man who raised me as an equal.”
“Yet you later challenged and killed him, becoming king yourself.”
“No. He died in battle, killed by Tavish. A tournamenttook place, and I won. I was twenty-three at the time.” Callen got more comfortable, stretching his muscular arms over the back of the settee. “Have you ever fallen in love?”
Well now. Time to get personal, it seemed. “Yes.”
He swirled the ice in his glass. “That’s all I get? Shall I keep my answers as succinct?”
Guess I was doing this. Making my declaration. “I fell in love…then the guy locked me up.”
His spine straightened as realization dawned. “You love me?”
“Maybe loved, past tense,” I grumbled. Probably not, but let him make of that what he would.
When his pupils spilled over his irises, I had to cut off a moan. Sexy man!
With slow, measured movements, he set his glass on the floor. His gaze held mine captive. “I want you,” he stated bluntly. “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”
My jaw dropped. Um…Can’t process.I didn’t know what to say, my thoughts fragmenting before they had a chance to fully form, replaced by two words.Want you.
WANT YOU.
Nothing could stop the tide of longing that swept through me. “Do you believe me? Will you forsake Sorcha?—”
“Isobel,” he corrected with a growl.
Nope. Not gonna support the lie. “Will you forsake fake Isobel to be with me?”
“And if I do?”
“That isn’t an answer,” I said, exasperated.
The muscle under his eye started jumping again, keeping time with my erratic pulse. “If she were who you say she is, she’s also Mirren’s mother.”
“And you feel you must protect her.” A statement not a question, leaving me both despondent and sympathetic. “You still love her.”
He nodded. “I cared for her, but my affections never went deeper.” The cords in his neck pulled tight. “I let her die once. I couldn’t allow such a travesty to taint Mirren’s life a second time.”
Yes, I despised Sorcha for all she’d done to me, Callen and his people. But. I did like that this amazing male shielded his daughter. It made me fall in love with him all over again.
“None of it matters anyway,” he snarled. “Admitting you are soul switched is a death sentence for you both. Word of the possibility is out now. There’s no hiding it and sparing you from an inquiry.”
“You are king. Change the law.”
