Soulbound
Page 41

“Meant for each other,” he supplied, low and dry.
“Yes, that.” She raised her chin and pinned him with a quelling look. “Attraction is not so precious. It happens all the time.”
Again his gaze roamed her face. It felt like a caress. His wide mouth went soft. He stared at hers for only a moment before meeting her eyes. “Not to me. Not until you.”
The intensity of his statement – the way he looked at her, as if willing her to understand how it could be between them – made her dizzy, unable to breathe. She spun away from him, her skirts swishing. “I cannot believe that.” Idly, she ran a finger over a battered dressing table, leaving a dark trail as dust clung to her skin. “I’m certain you’ve had many women.”
Cold amusement lit his voice. “I was a Templar Knight, dove. I took a vow of celibacy when I was naught but eighteen years, and before that, I was a squire, and before that a paige. Always in training to be Templar.”
Her breath stuttered. And she could not help but look at him. “Surely at some point, you must have felt —”
He shook his head. “Better not to allow yourself to let those feelings in, when there is no chance of releasing them. I channeled it into aggression, used it in battle. I’ve never known the pleasures of a woman. Never allowed sin to rule me.”
“Oh…” Heat, swift and sure, rushed through her limbs. A virgin. He was a virgin. Oh, my silver stars. He’d confessed without shame but the look in his eyes, the hot need that darkened his eyes, told their own story. Seven-hundred-odd years this man had gone without release. He was through with waiting. Should Eliza offer, he’d take her without pause.
She tried again, for she could not fathom this man, so very strong and virile, not leaving a swath of broken hearts in his wake. “But afterwards, when you lived as the king of the GIM?”
His smile turned bitter. “Dear old Mab was quite creative with her curse. She unmanned me while making me irresistible to others.”
The cruelty of it lanced through Eliza’s middle. But she did not want to pity Adam. It seemed an even worse insult. “You once told me that you’d fallen in love with a girl at a May Day fair.” It felt like ages ago, when she’d been his captive, and he’d taunted her with that tale. But she remembered every word he’d spoken to her.
“I lied.” He did not appear sorry for doing so. In truth, there was a slight smile upon his lips. She needed to stop looking at his mouth.
“And I’m supposed to believe you now?” she said with more irritation than she felt.
His head canted as he peered at her. “Confessing one’s virginal state is hardly something a man would do unless it were true.” She merely returned his look. And his wry smile grew. “I was trying to rile you up then. To get you to acknowledge me.”
“And you aren’t now?”
“No. You’re acknowledging me quite well at the moment, dove.”
Her cheeks heated.
A soft, dark chuckle rumbled in his chest. “I was told,” he went on, “that when I found the other half of my soul, I’d feel again. In all ways.” Adam pushed off from the wall he’d been leaning against and took a step closer to her, careful, however, to hold her gaze, as though he did not want to frighten her off. “And I do.”
Her mouth went dry.
“I’ve nothing to lose now, lass. So when I say that my want of you was one of the reasons I knew I’d found you” – slowly he reached out – “you can believe it.”
The warm, rough tips of his fingers grazed her cheek. Eliza jerked back, stumbling on her skirts as she edged away from him.
“Perhaps my attraction toward you is merely Mab’s magic, making you irresistible to all beings.”
“You find me irresistible?” His husky, laughing question had her shooting a glare over her shoulder.
With his smiling mouth and eyes brightened with glee, irresistible was definitely the word for him. Damn all.
“Just so you know,” he said, “I find you quite fetching as well.”
“Isn’t that the point?” She tossed up a hand in irritation. “I cannot know if this attraction is because of Mab’s curse upon you. And you cannot know if what you feel is out of some strange, misplaced gratitude or if it is simply another one of Mab’s tricks. Nothing feels real.”
His smile faded, but he did not appear offended. No, he was calm and rational as always. “I’ve lost my powers.”
A huff broke from her lips. “What has that got to do with anything?”
“I no longer possess an unnatural ability to attract others. So what you do or do not feel for me has nothing to do with Mab.”
Eliza edged back. “I’ve noted a good number of ladies, and a few gentlemen, gravitating towards you.” She gave a pointed glance towards the door. “Even now.”
He took one small step closer. “I never said I was without natural charm. Perhaps they merely want me for me.”
She harrumphed. “You’ve an answer for everything, don’t you?”
“A man learns a thing or two during seven hundred and twenty-nine years of life.” His eyes flashed with a hint of his former GIM glow. “Or he ought to.”
“Either you are not listening to me or are deliberately misunderstanding.”
“Educate me then, love.”
His easy capitulation annoyed her. She wanted a fight. Perhaps that way, he’d stop looking at her as though she were an especially tasty treat.