I blushed and turned in his arms. “I’m going to tell them about us.”
“Don’t.” A panicked moan escaped from between his lips before he kissed me again. “Please, not yet… I haven’t told anyone either, and I think it’s best we keep them in the dark a bit longer.”
“Alex!” I cupped his chin with my hands. “Why are you always so afraid?”
“You know why,” he whispered across my lips.
“I understand why…” My cheeks reddened. “Why there needs to be other women… I do, I told you I do!”
“But they won’t,” he said sadly.
“If we mate then—”
He captured my mouth in a searing kiss. “I will marry you. I swear it. Just give me more time…”
That was always his argument. Time. Time to come to grips with being with one woman for the rest of his existence. For a siren, a death sentence.
But he said for me, for love, he would do it. We hoped that my elf blood and his siren blood would mix — the mating process would make us whole.
Though we knew everyone around us would shun us.
Sirens, though powerful, were not respected.
They were takers.
But I loved him with everything I had.
And willingly gave him my heart before he ever asked.
I nodded. “
Okay, Alex. I love you.”
“I love you too.” He said the words, but his eyes were sad.
Hollow.
And I knew in my heart that the minute I walked away, he would be seeking out another woman to give him pleasure.
He refused to use me that way.
At least so he said.
He wanted to marry me first.
Do the right thing.
And yet I knew that every single day he was in the arms of another — the last time he came to me without sex — he’d almost hurt me, then run off.
I couldn’t blame him for what he was — how could I? He had no control over it, and I knew the shame he carried with him on a daily basis.
“Let me,” I begged, reaching for his perfect face, my fingers heating at the feel of his smooth skin. “Please.”
“No.” His eyes dilated. “No. I can’t… Hope, I can’t… tarnish you, not this way. I can’t. Don’t you understand? How I could hurt you?” As he spoke, the room began to heat to a painful degree. Sweat slid between my breasts, hitting my suddenly too-tight corset. “I’m not… good.”
“But you are!” I argued. “I know you!”
“You think you know me.” He said it so callously as he pulled out of my arms and walked over to the window. “You’re enamored of me — most elves would be.”