His accusatory tone brought up all of her defenses. “Excuse me?”

He raked her with a suspicious glare. “I’m trying to understand what I saw just now. I’ve heard every rumor from you’re Darling’s kitchen slave, his military prisoner, his political hostage, to the most ludicrous of all that says you’re his mistress. What exactly are you to my brother?”

That was a difficult question to answer. While she had no doubt that Darling loved her, she wasn’t sure what that meant exactly.

Yes, he’d proposed to her, but since they’d gotten back together, he hadn’t breathed a single word about marrying her again. Nor had he asked her about her missing engagement ring that the slaver had taken from her. There was no talk about having a future together—not the way they used to talk about it for hours on end.

When they were alone now, all she could focus on was the shadow of mistrust that would darken his eyes. That unguarded look of painful torment.

But most of all, Darling’s words haunted her.

“When it’s just the two of us and we’re alone, I can forget what happened, and I’m better. Then just as I think I’m all right, it all comes barreling back and kicks me in the crotch. I can still hear you laughing out in the hallway when I needed you most. And honestly, it hurts all over again. I feel betrayed. I know you didn’t do it on purpose, but my feelings don’t have ears and they don’t listen to my head.”

Which meant she had no idea where she currently stood with Darling. Honestly, she was too scared to ask lest she find out just how little he trusted her.

So she settled on the simplest truth. “I’m the woman who loves him.”

Drake’s expression said she was completely insane. “You know he’s gay, right?”

“He’s not gay.”

He laughed until he realized she was deadly serious. “Since when?”

“Always.”

Drake scoffed. “You don’t know my brother very well, then.”

She had to bite back her own laughter. “Trust me. I know him better than most, and I definitely know him better than you do. Darling only claimed to be gay to save your mother’s life.”

“Bull. Shit.”

“No. Truth,” she said, duplicating his sharp staccato. “You can ask Maris if you don’t believe me. He’s the one who helped Darling pull the ruse off all these years.”

For a moment, she thought Drake might vomit as he finally accepted the truth. He looked positively green with sickness as he stepped away.

“Are you okay?”

He shook his head before he pinned her with a brutally cold stare. “Are you sure? Positive?”

“Absolutely. No doubt in my mind. He and I have been sleeping together for over three years now.”

Once again, he shook his head as if he couldn’t grasp the possibility that Darling had lied to him. Rage blazed deep in his blue eyes. Never had he looked more like Darling than he did right now. “I should go in there, and beat the utter shit out of him.”