The air in the kitchen seemed to thicken. I couldn't see his face from this angle, but I could feel his presence moving closer, his heat radiating off him in waves. After a long, agonizing pause, he spoke. His voice had dropped an octave, turning into something dark, velvet-edged, and almost seductive.
"Do you want to be?"
The way he said it sent a violent surge of tingles rushing through me, a shiver racing up my spine that had nothing to do with the mountain cold. For a split second, a traitorous part of me—some deep, hidden instinct—almost wanted to say yes. To belong to someone who didn't keep me in the dark.
I forced myself to look up, meeting those bottomless eyes. "No," I whispered, my voice barely audible.
His expression didn't change, but a flicker of something passed through
