Chapter 11: Terms Broken

I should have let him freeze on the stones.

Instead I stood over Torin in the dark and heard myself say, "Get up."

He rose slowly.

The moon showed every line of his face, and none of it was pride.

"You think you can have my choice back," I said. "You think it's a coat you dropped."

"No."

"Then what do you want?"

"Whatever you'll give me."

"That's a lie. You want your wolf quiet."

"I want that," he said. "I want that so badly I can't think. And I want you. I can't tell you where one stops, Isla. I'm not going to pretend I can."

It was the first honest thing a man had said to me in a week.

It made me so angry that my hands shook.

"Walk," I said, and turned toward the cabin.

He followed me up the new porch steps, past the hammer he'd left on the rail.

Bettina had been sleeping at the bakery since the third night.

The stove had burned down to orange.

I shut the door behind us, and stood in my mother's kitchen with my back against it.

"I'm going to prove something," I said.

"Prove what?"

"That you can't have it. Not by touching me, not by asking. If I let you in this room tonight, it doesn't give you back one thing."

"I know."

"Then say it."

"You can take everything from me tonight," Torin said, "and I'll still owe you."

I looked at his mouth.

I thought about my fingers on his wrist, and his whole body going slack.

"Touch me," I said.

He did not move.

"Rule two," he said hoarsely. "You said not unless you ask."

"I'm asking."

His hands came up and framed my face, very gently.

"Not like that," I said, and took him by the shirt and kissed him.

It was nothing like the first kiss.

It was hard and furious, and he made a low sound into my mouth and backed me against the door.

His hands pushed into my hair.

His whole body was shaking, and so was mine.

I tore at his buttons, and he let me, and when his shirt came open I put my palm flat over his heart and felt it hammering.

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