Page 43 of Forbidden Fate

I’m going to get you out of here.

Robin goes still beside me, her body no longer relaxed against mine.

“Okay,” she says, but she doesn’t sound convinced.

I turn my head toward her. “You don’t believe me.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

She exhales. “You expect me to just…what? Take your word for it?”

“I expect you to question it,” I say. “I would. You should know I’m not in the habit of sleeping with my prisoners and then doing whatever they want.”

“I never asked you to help me escape,” she says.

I huff out a quiet breath. “No. You didn’t.”

“So don’t act like I manipulated you into this.”

“I didn’t say that,” I reply. “But let’s not pretend it wasn’t your end goal.”

She tilts her head. “Of course it was my end goal, but I didn’t expect you to fold after one quick roll in the hay.”

I let out a low chuckle despite myself.

“Guess I’m better than I thought,” she adds.

I shake my head slightly, lift a hand to her face, trace my finger down the curve of her cheek. Her skin is warm. Soft.

She leans into it, but just a fraction.

“We both know this wasn’t a simple roll in the hay,” I say quietly. “This was something else.”

She blinks once.

Twice.

“Don’t,” she says softly.

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t make it into something it’s not.”

I hold her gaze. “Doesn’t it feel like something, though?”

I don’t push. I don’t need to. I can see the answer in her eyes before she says it.

“Yes,” she admits. “It does.”

Something in my chest loosens.

I let my hand fall back to the cot, forcing myself to stay grounded, to not let that moment pull me too far into something I can’t afford.

“How?” she asks. “How are you actually going to do this?”

“I’ve been here for years,” I say. “Long enough to know every inch of this place.”