With a bitter laugh, Dain stepped towards me and started disentangling my hair from the rose while I trembled and tried to hold myself still. "The life of a stranger in the woods wasn't worth the trouble. I'm still trying to decide if the life of my soulmate is." He fell silent; when I didn't say anything, he leaned close enough that I felt his breath against my face. "Your turn."

The heat of his body radiated out against me, and despite his vitriol and volatility, the movement of his hands while he disentangled me from inside the rose was gentle, the way someone might help a friend with their hair caught on something she couldn't reach. I felt like I was on some sort of horrible white-water rafting trip, getting spun and flung in every direction.

"You saved my life, which means you care whether I live or die, even if it's only for selfish reasons," I said, and felt the movement of his hands slow. "As far as I can tell, your mother's only interest in me is what I might do to you. I haven't figured out what you want from me, but I suspect it's not a knife in the back."

"And a knife in the back troubles you?" he said, sounding like he didn't believe it.

"I've never killed anything," I said quietly, not really sure why I was telling him things. The man was going to leave the skulls of four people in my bedroom to punish me for being angry and glib. "Not even bugs. I scoop them up with a cup and paper and put them back outside." I paused, then wrinkled my nose. "Wait, no, not true. I kill mosquitoes. But they started it by biting me, so that's different."

"So I'm safe as long as I don't bite you, is it?" Dain practically purred the words into my ear, with that same dark amusement. "I've been told it's very pleasurable."

My body reacted to that instantly, my pulse jumping up and heat plunging down my spine to lodge between my legs. Well, fucking hell. There went any hope of maintaining the mental barrier against wanting to get shoved against the wall for a little passionate hate sex. I should maybe have read fewer dark romances about wicked fae kidnapping and seducing human women, but who would have ever thought I'd be in one? Too late now, I guessed.

"Your teeth look rather too pointy for that, so thanks but no thanks," I said, working very hard to keep my voice dry and not melty.