But instead of moving away she opened her mouth. “Why can’t you trust me?”
“Demons don’t trust,” he replied, his voice low.
She paused. “Did you trust Alina?”
He looked away from her.
“Did you love her?”
Ciar hissed at the question. “You have no right.”
She didn’t. Mikayla knew it wasn’t any of her business. But the knowledge did nothing to ease the ache in her heart. Had he loved Alina? Had he held the other woman in an embrace as passionate and wild as the one he’d shared with her?
“I don’t,” she agreed. “But I’m asking anyway.”
Ciar pushed himself from his seat. “You dare too much.”
“I have to know.”
He narrowed his eyes, pacing toward her. “Tell me why.”
Mikayla opened her mouth to respond but had no answer for him.
Ciar laughed bitterly at her silence and turned away from her. “It’s always games and tricks with you,” he snapped. “Find another man to torment, Mikayla, and leave me alone.”
He tried to stride past her but she caught his arm before he could leave.
“I can’t find someone else.”
A muscle throbbed in his temple as he turned back to her. “Why?”
“Because I can’t get you out of my thoughts.” She hated how the confession made her vulnerable but he deserved at least this much from her. “Not since that first night in the bar.”
He froze at her words. After a moment of hesitation, he stepped back to her. Mikayla gasped as he pulled her body tightly to his, books raining to the floor around them.
“I should forget you,” he murmured. “My life would be much easier.”
“Yes,” she agreed, her heart hammering in her chest. “But not necessarily as exciting.”
He smiled slightly. “I can do without the spells.”
She drew back, looking up into his silver gaze.
“How can I be so very mad at you,” he whispered, cupping her cheek, “and still want you this badly?”
“If I had a nickel,” she joked.
Using his shoulders for support, she rose to her tiptoes and dragged her lips across his.
He groaned under her touch. Mikayla smiled as his hands gripped her waist. Alina might wax poetically about the past but right now he wasn’t with his former fiancée. He was with her.
Choose me, she thought as his lips crushed down on hers.
If only he would.
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him closer.
Ciar waltzed her backward until her back hit the hard brick wall. He trailed his lips over hers as his hands explored her body.
Mikayla’s fingers raked down his chest, pulling at the shirt that hid his skin from hers. She wanted what she’d had last night. His closeness, his heat, his ability to give her mind-blowing pleasure.
“What are you doing to me?” he demanded in a harsh whisper against her lips.
“Nothing,” she murmured, trying to get closer.
“No,” he said, stopping her. “The last time I felt this way—” His words cut off abruptly.
She froze in his arms as if cold water had been poured over her head. “You were with Alina,” she finished for him.
He met her gaze straight on, not hiding the truth from her.
Mikayla shrugged out of his grip, hurt more than she wanted to admit. Was what he felt for her just a poor imitation of what he’d once had with someone else?
“She told me about her past,” Mikayla said, not meeting his gaze.
“Her past?” Ciar replied sharply.
“And yours.”
“What did she say?” he demanded.
Mikayla swallowed hard. “That she left you for your brother.”
Ciar laughed bitterly. “Alina never could keep her thoughts to herself.”
“I can’t understand why she would make such a choice.”
He raised a mocking eyebrow. “Teivel was the heir. Surely she told you that.”
“But it doesn’t make sense,” she replied. “Had I been in her place, I never would have let you go.”
Surprise flashed across his face. “Not even for power?”
“Why would it matter?”
He smiled at her words but there was no pleasure in his eyes. “Ah, Mikayla. If only I’d met you in a different time.”
The hollow smile hurt her heart but his words gave her hope. His hostilities were lessening a little, if only temporarily. It might be her only chance to say what had been weighing on her mind. Taking a breath, Mikayla chose her words carefully. “Alina told me what happened to your brother,” she said. “I’m sorry, Ciar.” He made no immediate reply but Mikayla saw how his shoulders stiffened.