Given the tone of their conversation, she could understand his sudden surprise. Rhyode watched her from where he stood, as shadow in the morning light.
‘I should not have kissed you,’ he admitted.
‘Yes, but you did,’ Zhira wasn’t going to let him avoid the subject any longer. She was on her knees, then her feet. Staring at the man. At first she thought he was going to look away, to walk away from the confrontation but he held her gaze.
‘Because I’ve wanted to kiss you, for a while,’ he admitted, ‘for a long time.’
‘Why?’ She swallowed the lump in the back of her throat, but it felt like a stone that was lodged. Zhira lifted a hand, rubbing her knuckles against her chest. Why had he wanted to kiss her? ‘And why…why do I get the impression that you won’t do it again.’
‘Because I won’t
