Page 71 of Thief of Hearts

As I drifted off to sleep, the irony was not lost on me that the main obstacle in my path to victory was the man who had stayed up all night watching over me.

Chapter Twenty-Two

That evening, the healers cleared me to return to my room. I found myself repeatedly touching the skin on my left arm. It had faded to a normal color but it was so smooth. Like brushing a baby’s cheek.

I found myself wondering what Zain, who had told me he loved my soft skin, would think.

When I got to the room, the only one waiting for me was Dagger. He thumped his misshapen tail, his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

“Did you miss me?” I asked him.

He made a whining noise and then turned in a happy circle. It was the most movement I’d ever seen him make. Would he be interested in playing?

I grabbed a linen and shook it at him. “Do you want to grab this?” The dogs back home loved this game. I held it above his head and he tried to bite at it, getting closer to me and to the linen with each pass.

Zain entered the room, closing the door behind him, and before I could even react, he grabbed Dagger and said, “No bite! Sorry, he’s still a puppy and gets a little rambunctious sometimes. I’m trying to train him. No bite.”

He set Dagger down on my cot and the dog immediately passed out. “He sleeps a lot,” I said.

“He’s growing.”

“It doesn’t seem like it.”

“Because it happens slowly, one day at a time,” he said with a smile. “Like it did for you and me. Although out of the two of us, I think you did the far better job of growing up.”

This man could take anything and use it to flirt.

There was a rustling, flapping noise. A white bird landed on the windowsill. Zain crossed the room and removed a piece of parchment from the bird’s leg. The bird flew off and he unrolled the small scroll.

“What does it say?” I asked.

“Someone offering me a job. I don’t know if I want to do it.” He put the scroll into a pocket. “Now I have a question for you. Are you healed?”

“Completely.”

“Good.”

He backed me into the door and I allowed him to do it. Every nerve ending in my body lit up with excitement.

Finally.

“No mortal wounds this time,” I said softly. He didn’t respond. He put his hands on either side of my head, capturing me in place. His body was close enough that I could feel the warmth emanating from him, but we weren’t touching.

Not yet.

My lips tingled with anticipation, my breathing turned shallow. He was only looking at me and I had already been pushed to the edge.

“Are you using your powers of seduction on me now?” I managed to ask.

A slow, lazy grin settled on his face. “Why? Are you feeling seduced?”

I didn’t answer.

“My illora, I’ll tell you a secret. I have no power of seduction. I mean, obviously, I have the ability to seduce but a god didn’t give that to me.”

Oh. This was all him.

There was a tiny, nagging voice in the back of my mind trying to remind me of something, but I brushed it off.